Reed Mathis talks about improvisation like it’s a mystical religion. The current bassist for the San Francisco-based quintet Tea Leaf Green and former frontman of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey sees a great deal of power in making music on the spot, and that passion will likely be front and…
Producing music since high school, Eliot Lipp found his own voice in hip-hop beats and instrumentals. One of the most recent additions to the Pretty Lights Music roster, Lipp has been notably prolific in cranking out new tracks and mixes. In advance of his three-night Colorado run, which kicks off…
Great art does not always move units. Case in point: The Stooges’ 1973 album, Raw Power, was a complete flop commercially. But, as with the story about the Velvet Underground, it seems that everyone who did buy it must have been inspired to start a band, because forty years after…
Another week, another fresh batch of local hip-hop. We’ve got new joints from the Southern-flavored but fully local Hustle Man, as well as a new cut from Whygee that name-checks one of East High School’s most famous former students, plus a nighttime call to action from Drop Switch and a…
So the album that everybody’s talking about this week (and for good reason) is mbv, the record that fans have been eagerly awaiting for at least two decades, since the release of Loveless, My Bloody Valentine’s 1991 masterpiece. To give you an idea of just how eagerly awaited this follow-up…
Pallbearer has been making waves with its psychedelic doom metal. Rather than relying on excessively repetitive riffs, however, the quartet employs actual melodies into its music, as well as simple yet intricate dynamics and rhythms that give the songs more actual sonic heft than grinding away at a single chord…
You Me And Apollo from Fort Collins started out as the solo project of Brent Cowles when he was seventeen. Over the course of the last handful of years, Cowles has turned what was essentially a bedroom recording project into a full-fledged band. In 2011, Cowles released Cards With Cheats…
Hot Water Music came together in Gainesville, Florida when four friends moved there in 1993. Fueled by youthful exuberance and inspired in part by the music that surrounding the skateboarding culture of the time, Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard, Jason Black and George Rebelo created a band that had that punk…
Machine Gun Kelly (named after the infamous early 20th Century gangster) is well-known for his rapid-fire delivery, rabid fan base, “Wild Boy” persona and crazy antics (during a performance for a Microsoft Store, he was stomping across tables, destroying several computers before getting shut down by the very company that…
Six years ago, Ana Sia was hustling around a kitchen preparing delicious recipes for a living; cooking up grimy bass music was merely a hobby. After being flown out for her first gig, though, she decided it was time to focus her full energy and attention on her music. Playing…
If you were living in Denver thirty-four years ago this week, the Rainbow Music Hall would’ve been the talk of the town. After a grand opening gala featuring Jerry Jeff Walker, who performed three sets on two back-to-back nights at the venue, suddenly, the humble movie theater multiplex at the…
For nearly three years now, Ellie Goulding has been steadily taking over the airwaves. Whether it’s vocal features on the hottest new EDM tracks, dominating on her own with singles from one of her two platinum albums or appearing on remixed tracks from the world’s biggest producers, the pop starlet…
Kristi Stice used to belt it out when she fronted the Fort Collins-based band Eve’s Drop, but after getting a jazz vocal degree at the University of Northern Florida, her approach to singing changed. Her vocals on her debut album, Under the Willow, are much more kindred to Jolie Holland…
One of the first true superstar DJs, Paul Oakenfold has done more to popularize electronic dance music in the United States and in his native Britain than any constituent of the current EDM explosion. Long before Skrillex and Deadmau5 brought styles like dubstep and electro into the mainstream consciousness, Oakenfold…
Rooke5 (aka Luke Whitrock) grew up in Loveland and Greeley, but he moved to El Paso, Texas, in the middle of high school. Though he has a self-described “southern twinge” to his personality and cites Kanye West as an influence (who isn’t influenced by the omnipotent Yeezy), lyrically, he is…
The Colorado hip-hop scene is starting off strong in the new year. Here we are less than a month in, and already we’ve been treated to a number of choice cuts. This week, we’ve got a fresh batch of local hip-hop, including a new track from Mr. Midas, featuring L.A.M.A…
Like a gnarled old cottonwood that you remember as a kid that now is all shaggy and stately, Pinback has aged well. From early efforts like 2001’s Blue Screen Life — an understated masterpiece that fell somewhere between early Police and stonerfied math rock — on through the albums that…
The Walkmen were one of the most successful bands that came out of the so-called post-punk revival of the turn of the century. With catchy melodies more bright than the dark and brooding variety favored by many of its contemporaries, this New York-based act also endured changes in tastes a…
A-Co Recordz founder Albeez 4 Sheez has been in the scene for over a decade. The Aurora resident has a mysterious persona and doesn’t stick to the typical gangster rap style of many of his contemporaries. His style is wild, fast paced and witty, drawing fans of all different types…
Steering clear of strict categorization, the tenured musicians in Railroad Earth have managed to merge multiple genres with bluesy riffs, acoustic instrumentation and a mesmerizing live show. We caught up with mandolinist John Skehan while the group was laying down tracks in a private home studio on the western edge…
DJs are the new rock stars? Maybe. (Although chefs are already the new rock stars.) Still, the big name DJs do seem to be living pretty large, what with the constant travel to exotic locations, goofily-clad fans, eager women, drugs and parties. Just swap MacBooks for guitars and it doesn’t…
Early in his career, pianist Uri Caine got to play with jazz legends like Philly Joe Jones and Hank Mobley. While Caine is a deft improviser and can play the hell out of bop, he’s incredibly multi-faceted and also quite equally at home playing avant-garde, classical (Caine’s released a number…
