Music

After listening to a cumulative 41 hours of 97.3 KBCO’s online streaming Christmas music over the past few days, I found myself grappling with a very important question: Where was “A Hazy Shade of Winter” by the Bangles? Well, that’s not a Christmas song, you may counter. But you’d be…

Over the past decade, year-end critic’s lists have multiplied faster than the worry lines on Ben Bernanke’s brow. By now, both the Internet and the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble are brimming with head-spinning, eye-glazing permutations of praise. If you want to parse the ranking of those records in…

Earlier this year, I marveled at how my entire iPod playlist was devoted exclusively to the music made here. That was back in February, and considering that we were only two months into the new year, that might’ve seemed like a moment of breathless hyperbole. At the time, the ink…

Music critics are completely full of crap. Or they’re insightful, intuitive and completely reliable. It all depends on your perspective and individual sensibilities, I guess. A while back, I pointed this out to my friend Ian, a local engineer who makes records for a living, encouraging him not to take…

Sleeper Horse and Kingdom of Magic Saturday, December 22 hi-dive Better than: Staying home to get all that gift wrapping done. Saturday night was like the return of Denver’s lost sons. Former Denver residents Jonathan Byerley and Gann Matthews graced the Lion’s Lair stage, along with Blue Light. Meanwhile, in…

Slide Show Achille Lauro Benefit Show with Hello Kavita, Vitamins and Achille Lauro December 21, 2007 The hi-dive Better than: A voyage on the real Achille Lauro It took a benefit show for one of Denver’s most intriguing acts to break my mid-winter lethargy. I haven’t made it to many…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Many St. Louis musicians hightail it out of the city as soon as they…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Christian Jacobs lives in a world of boldfaced, DayGlo images, a realm in which…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Margaret Cho has had her own TV show, a couple of best-selling books, a…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Looks like Dave Navarro is going to be all about instant gratification next year…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Arizona native Jordin Sparks has the distinction of being the youngest American Idol winner…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. San Francisco’s world-renowned Kronos Quartet has charted an impressive course around the globe, commissioning…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Former Saturday Night Live cast member, screenwriter, New York Times best-­selling author and St…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Unlike, possibly, 90 percent of his neighbors, turntable wunderkind Isaac DeLima did not, in…

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Remember how everyone thought Snoop Dogg wearing golf gear in 2004’s Starsky & Hutch…

Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Enjoy this interview with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, where he recounts playing ambiguously pro-drug songs at a rehab center and getting into a pissing match with his label head…

I’ve officially been on vacation since five o’clock on Friday, and, man, all I can say right now is damn it feels good to be a gangsta. I’m doing absolutely nothing, like it’s my job, and I’m digging every minute. Been a hell of a weekend so far, from playing…

Locals Only There’s a lot of rappers in Denver, but there’s only a handful who can really shine on the microphone. Check out this video, “The Crown” from up-and-coming group Infinite Mindz with a verse from SP Double and O.N.E. singing the hook. Don’t sleep!!!…

In compiling this slide show of 2007 concerts that were not to be missed this year, I realized the list is severely lacking. This year I saw Sunset Rubdown at hi-dive and it changed my life. I watched Elvis Perkins transform his recorded acoustic balladry into a jaw-dropping live performance…

Update: Click here and here for live blog coverage of the entire event. As reported in this space last month, AEG Live, led by Chuck Morris, who heads up the company’s Rocky Mountain division, announced plans to produce a multi-day, inner city concert series next summer. On Tuesday, the concert…