Here’s the plot synopsis for The Marcus Church Story: Marcus Church really likes Guided by Voices. The similarities encompass Church’s singing style, voice, lo-fi production style and, to some degree, his songwriting. Unfortunately, Church seems fixated on the mellower, more accessible side of the GBV oeuvre. That’s fine and dandy,…
To get an idea of how versatile Adam Stern is as a guitarist, check out “Alchemical Rooms,” the first cut on Twang Shui: Opening with volume swells and a Bill Frisell-esque tone, Stern does some mean country picking à la Danny Gatton, then flips his pickup selector to rhythm and…
The latest release by this extremely prolific singer-songwriter from Bailey, Colorado, isn’t universes removed from his previous material. Smiley’s finds Porter speaking about life near Colfax in Capitol Hill as a poor, creative person trying to survive with his soul and creativity intact. Standout track “Wait for Another” is so…
The latest from electrified proto-folkie Dan Allen is a throwback to local recordings that were commonplace during the bad old days, before technology improved to the degree that an album made in a bedroom could sound almost as good as one cut in a studio. The production on Here is…
One of the many highlights of the sixth annual Rize urban art and music festival on Saturday, April 25, at the Paladium (1400 West 62nd Avenue), is a live laptop remix set of whiplash future breaks by Überzone. This California native, known as Timothy Wiles to his mother and Q…
Ahimsa. Evidently, it’s a “Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm.” It’s also the way that one Mr. John Baxter used to end all of his written exchanges. In the past few days, that word and Mr. Baxter have mysteriously reappeared, both here and on various other local blogs –…
Today at 4 p.m. Rowboat (a project of Sam McNitt of Blue Million Miles) will be appearing live on KVDU Internet radio. He’s going to guest DJ for an hour, then play live for an hour at 5 p.m. If you’re like me and still haven’t caught this bleak and…
The 2009 Westword Music Showcase ballot has been formulated and will be included in this week’s paper, which will beginning hitting stands in a few hours. Online voting will also begin later this week. In the meantime, though, as faithful readers of the Backbeat blog, we’re giving you the drop…
There was a ton of action with concert announcements this week, especially some great shows at Red Rocks including Ween (Sunday, September 6), Wilco (Friday, July 3), the Killers (Wednesday, September 9), Lyle Lovett (Sunday, July 26) and Slightly Stoopid (Wednesday, July 15). Fiddler’s Green roped in a pair of…
Last month, we mentioned that both ManeLine and UmConcious made it onto URB Magazine’s Next 1000 list and were featured on the list’s main page for a week. ManeLine received the most votes, giving the act top billing for that week. We just received word that two more Colorado hip-hop artists…
When compiling our 2008 year end lists last year, we clumsily overlooked and left ReCollect, the ReMINDers’ stellar debut, off our list. Our bad. Really. The album is an excellent collection of head-nodding organic hip-hop reminiscent of the Fugees circa 1996. We’ve just learned that the duo, comprised of Big Samir…
Just finished screening Fear Before’s new video for “Fear Before Doesn’t Listen to People Who Don’t Like Them.” If you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander above. Directed by Bryan Schlam, the highly stylized clip recalls a number of similar boiler-plate alt rock performance videos from the early ‘to…
The Food Chain is an amalgamation of Colorado hip-hop artists who have united under one moniker to make some high quality hip-hop music. Over the last six months or so, the crew has leaked a collection of tracks showcasing their skills as rappers and producers. Now they have compiled all of…
Ween, who brought a ton of shenanigans to town during its two-night run at Fillmore last July, will return these parts again Sunday, September 6 when the band plays Red Rocks. Tickets, which are $44.95, go on sale Saturday, April 25 at 10 a.m. If you can’t wait that long…
So the music business is allegedly in dire straits right now, having endured the sharpest decline in CD sales ever this past year. Yet if you’re paying attention you can’t help but notice that act after act from Denver is being snatched up by various labels at stupefying rate, that,…
Peña, Cougar Legs and Eyes Caught FireSaturday, April 18, 2009The Rocket Room, Colorado SpringsBetter Than: Missing such a beautiful show due to Colorado’s Jeckyl and Hyde weather. Dave Kurtz and Joshua Trinidad opened the show as Cougar Legs, with the former performing arhythmic jazz percussion in masterful time with the…
Iuengliss, BDRMPPL and Josephine and the MousepeopleFriday, April 17, 2009hi-dive, DenverBetter Than: The mixture of snow, slush and thunder that barraged the city all day. In spite of one of the most schizophrenic patches of weather in recent memory, the show went on at the hi-dive and came as a…
Sizzling hot off the wire: Just received word that Green Day will be bringing its 21st Century Breakdown tour to Denver on Saturday, August 15. The tour kicks off on Friday, July 3, in Seattle, and will mark the act’s first roadwork in more than three years. And it’s been…
The second annual Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts, one of the nation’s biggest electronic music festivals, kicks off properly tonight. In addition to a strong lineup of national and international talent — Thomas Fehlmann, Gudrun Gut, KiloWatts, Christopher Willits, for example — it also features an all-star cast of the…
Denver Nuggets DJ and 107.1 FM mixmaster, DJ Bedz, pulled some strings with his colleagues at Def Jam Records to get an NBA Playoff anthem from artist Ace Hood for the Nuggets’ playoff run. The track is called “Overtime” and features T-Pain and Akon. While it’s already a radio hit…
Tonight’s Pennywise and Pepper show at the Fillmore Auditorium, which was part of Jagermeister’s Music Tour, has been postponed due to severe weather conditions west of Denver. The bands plan to reschedule the show and Live Nation will announce a new date as soon as the show is confirmed…
Looks like 3OH!3’s debut single, “Don’t Trust Me,” can now officially be considered a smash, having purportedly sold one million digital copies. For those of you who’ve recently unthawed after being cryogenically frozen for the past decade or so, that is the modern-day equivalent of selling a million CD singles…
