Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. The series kicks off today with a look back at the Beatles’ legendary trip to the Mile High City in August 1964, and the pandemonium it created. The…
Many of previous weeks’ big-performing albums have rebounded on the Billboard 200 chart, thanks to a Mother’s Day sales surge. Adele’s 21 is the best example of this boost, as the album shoots up from number four to number two this week. It’s still not enough to reclaim the top…
Mickey Hart (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) was one of the Grateful Dead’s two drummers; along with Bill Kreutzmann, Hart helped weave the unique polyrhythms of the legendary band. Whether as a solo artist, with the Dead or as an activist, Hart always puts his heart and his…
By the spring of 1971, the heroes of the ’60s were dropping like flies. The Beatles had broken up, Angela Davis and Timothy Leary were on the run, and everyone in California was becoming a born-again Christian. The previous autumn, Jimi Hendrix asphyxiated on half-digested sleeping pills and red wine,…
When he came storming onto the scene, Jimi Hendrix made weepy children out of the world’s best guitar players, bringing a primal sexuality and grace to his playing that only a true master of the craft could muster. Guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend had spent nearly…
Leftover Salmon (due this Sunday in the middle of 7th and 8th street on Santa Fe between 1 and 6 p.m) has graced the the bluegrass scene with their talents for 22 years and counting. With the passing of Mark Vann, the band hasn’t produced an album in eight years…
School Knights (due tonight at the hi-dive with Force Publique and Mombi) started two years ago in the wake of the dissolution of experimental guitar pop band Weed Diamond. Michael Stein started the project in the waning days of that group as a two piece with Zack Roif. Though the…
Baroness (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) is a band from Savannah, Georgia, known for making a true alloy of psychedelic metal, the precision of prog, and punk attitude. In that way, they’re musical kin to bands like Kylesa and Mastodon. With the release of its debut full-length, 2007’s…
Carrie Underwood debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart this week with her fourth album, Blown Away, selling 267,000 copies. Underwood’s latest trails only Madonna’s MDNA, which sold 358,000, as the biggest-selling debut of 2012. Another noteworthy feat for Underwood this week: She follows in the footsteps…
It’s not easy throwing parties, promoting them, getting people out and then getting them to come back, but LuLu Clair takes it on headstrong. With a slew of shows already under her belt this year, Clair and her Souls in Action Entertainment crew have partnered with ThisSongIsSick to present this…
“One of my favorite things to do is look at the line of the people going into the show. It’s totally diverse. And even back in the day, in the early days, I didn’t want to play just for punk rockers. I felt that we had something more to offer. Maybe we didn’t have quite the global message that the Clash had, but the Clash wanted to reach the world. And that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to just play…that would be as narrow-minded as the people who said that punks suck.”
Flashbulb Fires (due this Saturday, May 12, at the hi-dive, with Princess Music and Shirley) has endured some changes and been rather active in the past year. Now a trio — the act parted ways with its bassist last summer and opted not to replace him — the act split…
The Brian Jonestown Massacre (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater) has been through a lot of ups and downs since 1990. But singer and primary songwriter Anton Newcombe has steered the band through the release of more great albums per decade than most bands have across their entire career. For…
James Morrison (due tomorrow night at the Fox Theatre) first started performing at open mike nights in England before he hit it big as a singer-songwriter with a crossover appeal between pop, rock and R&B music. Two of his songs, “Broken Strings” and a cover of “Man In The Mirror,”…
It’s a bit ironic that Shooter Jennings (due at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill on Friday, May 4), the son of country singers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, would make what he calls his “most country record to date” in New York. But that’s essentially what happened…
It’s like Rihanna has to prove something. We know she can do serious, and sexy, and frightening, and strong, and addicted. But now, in one of her less controversial music videos post-Chris Brown, she really wants to remind us that she can dance. And Rihanna can dance if she wants…
In 1992, drummer Patty Schemel joined the now-legendary Hole, a band that was just positioning itself for mainstream success. Less than two years later, bassist Kristen Pfaff had died of an accidental overdose, Kurt Cobain had committed suicide, and Hole had released its platinum-selling Live Through This. On a world…
Music sales were slow last week. Jack White’s debut solo album, Blunderbuss took the top spot with 138,000 copies sold — that’s less than half of what Madonna ‘s new one, MDNA , shifted its first week on the chart this time last month: 359,000 (although sales subsequently plummeted the…
To be a member of the newly changed lineup of Portugal. The Man (due tonight at the Ogden Theatre) is to be spontaneous, aggressively creative and relatively okay with placing a full stop in the middle of your band name. It also means maintaining a breakneck speed of records (one…
Christofer Drew is covered in tattoos. But that’s just the most visible way the freshly minted 21-year-old expresses himself. Since quitting high school to pursue Never Shout Never (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater), the intimate singer has kept personal life as open as his skin, changing his influences and…
See Also: • Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” video plays into stereotypes and fails to entertain • Nicki Minaj’s “Stupid Hoe” video takes aim at Gaga and other fellow pop stars • Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, is a Minaj-à-trois of pop, dance and hip-hop After months of waiting, Nicki…
I Break Horses (due tonight with M83 at the Ogden Theatre) started out as the bedroom project of Maria Lindén. Chances are, if she hadn’t been in contact with Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins and Bella Union fame (the label that also released a few albums by the Czars from…
