Concerts

MASTODON at OGDEN THEATRE | 11/9/11The Dillinger Escape Plan stole the show a bit last night. The band started off with a driving drum beat introduction that shook sternums. After leaping on stage, lead singer Greg Puciato screamed into the mike, “Let’s cut the fucking bullshit,” and he and his…

Zome’s work with the Diamond Boiz is typically marked by hard rhymes and heavy beats. On his latest solo effort, Z-Funk Era, the MC showcases a completely different side of his production and rap prowess. The rhythmic vocal structures found in his carefully crafted samples bolster his rapid rapping style…

The Mile High Sound Movement is a collective of artists, ranging from MCs and producers to photographers and artists. Zack Karuzas, both a rising local MC and co-founder of Mile High Sound Movement, spared his lunch hour to talk with us about “Warm Beats for Cold Streets,” a project started…

Have you heard? Rockstar Aaron is a horrible DJ. So horrible, even, he made a song about it. Produced by Daniel Hyatt, Aaron’s debut single “Horrible DJ,” released yesterday, is meant to be tongue-in-cheek but also to start a conversation among those who might not know the brightly colored DJ…

During his three decades as a promoter, Barry Fey brought in legendary acts like the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and U2. In his new book, Backstage Past, released yesterday on Lone Wolfe Press, Fey chronicles behind-the-scenes stories, some of which have never been made…

Legendary straight-edge hardcore band Youth of Today has postponed its Denver show slated for this Thursday at the Summit Music Hall, but organizers say a make-up gig is in the works. We can’t confirm any details yet, more than Youth of Today (who had D.Y.S. listed as a special guest)…

“Get your affairs in order. You have a couple months.” Those are words you never want to hear, especially when you’re barely in the prime of your life, just 37 years young. That’s the kind of talk that takes your legs out from under you right where you stand. Faced…

Hear that? That’s the comforting sound of pure, undistilled, unbridled jubilance emitting from kids everywhere across the vast expanses of the frozen Front Range this morning. The reason for their glee? Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! is back in town at 1STBANK Center tonight, almost exactly a year after the last…

Lucinda Williams learned an important lesson from her poet father, Miller Williams: Never censor yourself. And indeed, since her 1978 debut, Ramblin’ on My Mind, the 58-year-old singer-songwriter has never held back in her lyrics, shooting straight from the hip with her brutally honest songs. “Otherwise, what’s the point?” she…

Though straight-edge is a movement often attributed to Minor Threat, that band never embraced the term as codified in the lifestyles and ideologies of groups that followed in its wake. One that truly took the message to another level of stridency was Youth of Today, whose members were not only…

There is no one box to check for Lykke Li: Part pop star, part soul singer and partially just her own weird and appealing self, the Swedish performer can place her voice into any fold and command the instruments around it. Only two full albums into a relatively newborn career,…

Madlib, the reclusive, innovative and shape-shifting mastermind from California, is coming to Denver, and to hear hip-hop heads tell it, he’s the greatest thing since ice cream. Considered by many to be a purveyor of the progressive sound of the future, Madlib combines beats and words with sounds unlike anything…

Nothing about this Syracuse-based band is particularly riotous; in fact, it uses classical instrumentation in its songwriting. What’s more, those instruments never seem like a fashionable affectation. When you hear Ra Ra Riot’s winsome, gently affecting pop songs, you get the feeling that everyone in the band was in on…

In the slew of also-ran movies released during the cinematic abyss of February this year, you might have missed Drive Angry, a nu-metal and semen-drenched muscle-car flick starring Nic Cage as a leather-jacket-clad badass named John Milton who (wait for it) escapes from Hell to save his granddaughter from some…

“Love Scene” is the first of the three songs on this release, and it establishes a mood like the alternative soundtrack to an early Michael Mann film. The slow gyre of volume in the song gives it a disorienting feeling, like being in some labyrinthine American version of an underground…

A lot of the songs that make up the sixteen-track Social Awkwardness feel like they could have been written and recorded by a nerdy, socially awkward high-school kid circa 1987, in a basement lined with Joy Division, Legendary Pink Dots and Devo posters. Thing is, though, Ian Fellerman, the mastermind…

There’s one thing you can count on when a recession hits: Folk music will rise, especially in the former Wild West. The allure of dusty guitars and songs begging to be sung with battered voices will always be a strong draw. For songwriters, the challenge is setting yourself apart from…