Photo: Sarah Cass Hot IQs have announced a new date and a revised bill commemorating the release of its forthcoming Rococo Records 7-inch. The act, which was originally slated to issue its new record on Friday, November 7 at the Bluebird, will now drop the needle on Friday, December 19,…
Illustration: Unique Ink After sixteen attempts, Centro-Matic filmed its new video for “Rat Patrol and DJs” in one continuous shot with no edits. While that in itself is beyond noteworthy and impressive, it was equally as rad to spy one of the members sporting a Magic Cyclops shirt in the…
Gonna go out on a limb here and posit that today is perhaps one of the coolest days of Heather Browne’s life. This morning, Browne and her excellent Colorado Springs-based blog, I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, was name dropped by Nick Hornby as part of his Living with Music…
Saúl Hernández and his fellow Jaguares. Jaguares are among the most popular bands in Mexico, as well as the standard-bearer in this country of the rock en español movement. But the band’s frontman, singer-songwriter Saúl Hernández, would prefer to be seen as one of the people rather than their leader…
The Killers invade Magness Arena on January 17. The big news in this slow week of concert announcements is the Killers January 17 show at DU’s Magness Arena. Good news for fans of the Gibbons brothers: some amazing seats for ZZ Top’s sold out Halloween show at the Paramount have…
Ray LaMontagne Macky Auditorium Monday, October 27, 2008 Better than: than the last time I saw him. A lot better. Nearly four years ago I saw Ray LaMontagne for the first time at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. His impressive debut, Trouble, had been gaining a lot of traction and…
Diplo, Abe Vigoda, Telepathe and Boy 8-Bit Monday, October 27, 2008 Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom Better Than: You’d expect for a Monday night show. Things were pretty grim when I first got to Cervantes’, but as the night wore on, a sizable crowd eventually showed up. For the first hour and…
Rudy Ray Moore. When word broke this past week about the death of Rudy Ray Moore at age 81, far too many people probably responded with the question, “Rudy who?” if they reacted at all. But for fans of ribald comedy, as well as anyone interested in the roots of…
Wovenhand Saturday, October 25, 2008 Mercury Café Better than: Most shows I’ve seen in the last decade. After Wovenhand’s show, there was a guy sitting on a chair near the stage. His head was in his hands and when a girl asked if him he was all right, he looked…
Enjoy a free Dr. Pepper, thanks to Guns ‘N’ Roses finally getting their shit together Here’s a guide to all the excellent content you might have overlooked on Backbeat Online this week, while you were busy dealing with the dual shocks of hearing that not only would the eternally delayed…
This is a big weekend for CD release parties. First up tonight at the Oriental, ManeLine will unveil its latest effort, & Sew Its Seams, in the company of its compadres, 3 the Hardway, 9th Street Choir, Infinite Mindz, FOE, Kano, Venus Cruz and Dizy Pixl. And then tomorrow night…
Mike Neff makes a stranger smile In a town like Denver, you should never underestimate the power of serendipity. On more than one occasion, I’ve been out wandering the city, on my way to something or other and have ended up stumbling on a remarkable musical experience…
Common’s new album drops in December — and he’s already talking about the next one. LOCALS ONLY Hip-hop group On Point, which now consists of Flawless and Fo-Chief, formed back in 2004, but it really didn’t get noticed locally until when they released their album, D-Town Extravaganza, last year. Although…
Wendi Wikstrand, aka Grandma Dynamite Earlier this morning, I was sitting in a folding chair inside the Reflection Pavilion at Crown Hill Cemetery, waiting for the memorial service to begin for my friend Wendi Wikstrand, who passed away on Sunday, when I heard a guy seated behind me say, “Ok,…
See the slide show here. Sasha October 23, 2008 Beta Better than: His most recent mix disc, Involver 2, led me to think it might be Sasha was an early favorite of mine, but over the years my tastes have changed. I’ve come to prefer more primal, groove-oriented and generally…
Kings of Leon Thursday, October 23, 2008 Fillmore Auditorium Photos by Chad Fahnestock Better than: Fiery sex. Well, almost. Kings of Leon had already plowed through seven songs before frontman Caleb Followill told the few thousand fans packed in the Fillmore that the dry air was really getting to him…
Break out your aero-dynamic panties, ladies. The Obama campaign just announced that singer-songwriter Ben Harper will play “a few songs” at a rally in Civic Center Park on Saturday, to encourage people to vote for Barack Obama. Opening odds that someone shouts out “Burn One Down” at a highly inappropriate…
It came in so fast that I barely remember it,” says Murray Lightburn, recounting the origins of the title track from his band’s newest album, Missiles. “I remember I was downstairs in the studio cleaning up, and suddenly I heard this tune.” As he continues, Lightburn — frontman and auteur…
I vaguely recall watching the first Real World episode, which was filmed in New York. That was in 1992, and the characters, well, it’s all pretty foggy now, but I do remember that they lived in a sweet loft, which probably ran $20,000 a month back then. In almost every…
Has the Denver music scene peaked, or are we in a temporary lull? I’ve been wrestling with this question for several weeks. Because while I’ve been to some decent shows over the past month, that’s just it: They were merely decent, not life-changing, as so many shows have seemed over…
Formed in early 2005, My Sister Outlaw began life as the Sirens but played only one show under that name before switching to its current moniker after former Catatonic Lydia drummer Sophia Throop came on board. The group is one of the few all-female bands in Denver. But rather than…
Crystal Antlers, EP (Touch and Go). These Long Beachers locate the art in hardcore. Their music is as wild and thrashy as anything that’s ever come out of a garage, but tracks such as “Until the Sun Dies (Part 2)” and “Vexation” feel epic, unbound, with melodramatic organ and screeching…
