Wampire is a five-piece whose music doesn’t seem fixed to a particular musical period, especially the current era. If anything, the band’s gently swirling, swaying melodies are buoyed almost imperceptibly by a distinct if informal structure that keeps the music from wandering completely where it will. It’s almost like psychedelic…
FEAR @ ” target=”_blank”>MARQUIS THEATER | 6/4/13 With his characteristic enigmatic smile, Lee Ving looked up at the crowd after making sure his guitar was ready to go and said, “This is a classic sing-along,” before he and the band went into “I Love Livin’ in the City.” With that,…
Cash Money Records, the label founded by Bryan “Baby/Birdman” Williams in 1991, rose to prominence in the hip-hop scene with its signing of the Hot Boys, consisting of B.G., Young Turk, Lil’ Wayne and Juvenile. Since then, the group has become one of rap’s premier labels, having piggybacked Lil Wayne’s…
Music is life — or at least it is for us. When we’re not writing about it, we’re thinking about it, talking about it or listening to it. These are the things that were in heavy rotation for us this week. What are you listening to? What should we be…
Stylistically, rap has exploded, and the pieces fall everywhere from the mind-bogglingly complex to the unbelievably simple, from the brazenly dissident to the unapologetically mainstream. Rappers’ influences seem to come from everywhere, but the stylistic differences between an Aesop Rock and a 2 Chainz are so stark, they got us…
DADA LIFE @ 2013 WESTWORD MUSIC SHOWCASE | SAT, 6/22 The craze surrounding Dada Life is well deserved. The act knows how to throw the wildest party in the EDM game. Banana suits, inflatable champagne bottles, champagne showers and stage diving are just some of craziness that comes with this…
ALICE COOPER / MARILYN MANSON @ RED ROCKS | 6/3/13 The moment everyone was waiting for and had to guess was coming came at the very end of the show, when Alice Cooper came back on stage for his encore. As the familiar strains of “I’m Eighteen” drew cheers from…
THE EAGLES @ PEPSI CENTER | SAT, 10/5/13 The Eagles, who just released the three-disc documentary History of the Eagles, hits the Pepsi Center on Saturday, October 5. The band will be performing classics spanning their entire career, as well as tunes from the bandmembers’ solo catalogues. Tickets, which start…
THE XX @ FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 6/3/13 Clad in black and appearing every bit as mysterious and guarded as their music implies, the xx stepped on stage, strapped on its gear and began playing “Try” from its sophomore album, Coexist. The siren-like drone from Jamie Smith’s synthesizer set the tone…
ALICE COOPER & MARILYN MANSON @ RED ROCKS | MON, 6/3/13 Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson at Red Rocks. Sweet Jesus! How this totally obvious and sure-to-be-awesome pairing has not happened before now is anybody’s guess. The music world’s O.G. shock rocker and his direct artistic descendent are slated to…
TAYLOR SWIFT @ PEPSI CENTER | 6/2/13 Taylor Swift knows what people say about her. She’s heard it all — the rumors, the criticism, the constant derision. She knows, as she acknowledged a few times during her performance at the Pepsi Center last night, but she doesn’t care. Why should…
GETO BOYS @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | SAT, 6/22/13 When it comes to the history of hip-hop in the Dirty South, it begins with Geto Boys and their self-titled, Rick Rubin-produced debut. The group had existed, though with a different cast, since ’86, but it wasn’t until the turn of…
So the Westword Music Showcase is less than a month away, and we’re all the way hyped about this year’s lineup. You can get a sneak peek of what we have in store for you tonight at our pre-party at Stoney’s Bar & Grill featuring SHEL, Go Star, Foxfield Four,…
TRIBUTE TO CHET BAKER @ DAZZLE | WED, 6/5 Last month marked the 25th anniversary of legendary trumpeter Chet Baker’s death after falling out of a hotel room window in Amsterdam. So in honor of Baker’s life, local trumpeter Justin Peterson is presenting a new concert series, “I Miss You,…
It took decades, but Joan Baez has finally overcome her stage fright. The legendary folk singer and activist, who initially found fame during the folk renaissance of the 1960s, partnering with Bob Dylan on stage and fighting for a wide range of causes into the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, says…
THE POSTAL SERVICE @ RED ROCKS | 5/30 “We had to cancel last night because I lost my voice, but I’ve got it back, kinda sorta,” Ben Gibbard told a packed house last night at Red Rocks, referring to scrapping the previous night’s gig in Salt Lake City. “And by…
ALABAMA SHAKES @ RED ROCKS | SUN, 6/2/13 Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes has a powerful and mesmerizing voice and she sings with an impassioned believability that sounds like she has experienced a fuller life than her young years could hope to contain. Her earthy vocals and the band’s solid,…
BASSNECTAR @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | FRI & SAT 5/31-6/1 “When I first got going,” recalls Lorin Ashton, “I was into fuckin’ brutal, satanic death metal.” Even with all of his hair, it’s hard to imagine that Ashton, better known as Bassnectar, was once enthralled with extreme metal. After all,…
Clear your calendar on Saturday, August 17. Whatever you’ve got going that day, cancel it. You don’t want to miss this show; I’m telling you. The one-man soul revival known as Charles Bradley is coming to Denver, and he’s going to play an intimate set at the Larimer Lounge. Be…
Let’s be real: Most songwriting amounts to a bunch of vague amateur poetry with pretensions of profundity. In the midst of all the babble, though, periodically a lyricist will emerge who has the courage to write about things that are real, raw and personal. That kind of truly honest songwriting…
Since first opening its doors in 2008, Beta Nightclub has been at the top of numerous “best of” lists, and it currently holds the top spot for clubs in North America. In commemoration of the club’s fifth anniversary, being celebrated this week, we caught up with the folks behind Beta…
John Digweed is a twenty-year veteran of the international DJ scene. As such, his story is punctuated by numerous high points. Among them: pioneering the art of the mix album with longtime DJ partner Sasha on Renaissance: The Mix Collection; refining it with the classic Northern Exposure chill-out trilogy; and…
