Concerts

Dave Bartz and I are best friends. We grew up in the same ‘hood, went to the same high school (Bartz a few years behind me), share the same values. In the mid-’90s, we even played together in a band. We spent six months in a drafty Eastlake garage —…

Santi White, who goes by Santogold, is red, white and blue through and through, having come of age in Philadelphia before relocating to Brooklyn — but much of her work bristles with foreign-sounding intrigue. “Shove It,” from her self-titled 2008 debut, is built upon reggae and dub influences, while “Creator”…

James and its luminous folk pop certainly fits in sonically with the rich tradition of great rock music from Manchester. Although the outfit was initially lumped in with the whole Brit-pop movement of the 1990s, this act’s roots go back to the early ’80s, when guitar rock of surprising immediacy…

After opening Slim 7 nearly two years ago, Bill Ward is hoping to move his now-closed club from Larimer Square to Cherry Creek. At the end of August, Ward packed up Slim 7, which was tucked into a small space off an alley, to make way for what will become…

Dr. Dog has been compared to hipster faves like Pavement and Guided by Voices (which does no justice to the Dog’s genuinely adorable ’70s AM soul), but the late Rick Danko himself would’ve loved Philadelphia’s current indie darlings: lo-fi keyboards, bass and thick drums make a bed for sentimental, earnest…

It’s difficult to think of a Red Rocks headliner that’s simultaneously as unlikely and as appropriate as Sigur Rós. The quartet uses even less of the standard rock lexicon than does fellow Icelander Björk, who headlined at the venue last year — and while the band’s been around since 1994,…

Many punk-rock purveyors of musical mayhem spout lyrics that make them sound like a bunch of idiots who are only in it to get drunk and maybe score with some equally soused groupies. There’s nothing dangerous about a buffoon that advertises his or her own stupidity in song. Primasonic (due…

Common, N.E.R.D. and Chester French Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Fillmore Auditorium Better Than: Most hip-hop/soul shows you’ll see this year. The Roots included. At about 7:30pm, with the Fillmore not even half full, retro pop/rock/soul act Chester French took the stage. The band, who recently inked to Pharrell Williams Star…

Obi Best Capades Social Science 02:00-02:45 of “Nothing Can Come Between Us”: When I first saw this cover and name, I was really, really hoping that it was going to be a sort of Star Wars meets Feist sort of thing. Unfortunately, it’s just a Feist meets Feist kind of…

When Fight Like Hell called it a day this past spring, Denver lost one of its finest and most vital hardcore bands. After the band broke up, the members moved forward, with Memphis going on to play drums in Death Before Dishonor, Jake joining Know the Score, and Matt playing…

Photo: Kat We know, Chuck. We’re a little stunned, too. Not even remotely sure how this happened, as Git Some is one of the last bands you’d expect to be mentioned in the same breath as the off-the-rack, ready-made, vapid, culture-vulture emporium known as Hot Topic. But, yeah, you read…

Looking for new ways to make those that love you cringe in public? Look no further. A group of local punks calling themselves the Asbestos Tampons evidently just received a fresh shipment of stickers that they’re just dying to lay on you. While we don’t know how eyebrow raising the…

Looks like Michael Roberts wasn’t the only one impressed with the Pirate Signal’s furiously energetic performance at the Fox last month opening for 3OH!3. Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte must’ve been pretty wowed, too, as the pair just tapped Yonnas Abraham and DJ Awhat to reprise that role alongside the…

So I’m a third of the way through my first listen of Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s new record Animal! — well, the first of their two simultaneous releases, I should say, the other being Not Animals — and good grief, man, they did it. Transcended my expectations,…

Photo: Tom Murphy Git Some The Frantix, Git Some, the Omens and the Purple Fluid Saturday, September 20, 2008 Wax Trax Better Than: Most so-called “punk rock” shows. Wax Trax, long a stalwart of underground music in Denver, celebrated its 30th year anniversary this past Saturday with a full day…

LOCALS ONLY DJ Vajra isn’t just one of the best turntablists in Colorado — he’s one of the best in the nation. Vajra was recently tapped to do a showcase at this year’s DMC World Finals at London’s indigO2 on Saturday, September 27. And even though Vajra himself is a…

Slide show John Digweed September 18, 2008 Beta Better than: The sounds his old partner Sasha is spinning these days. I’ve seen John Digweed at raves, I’ve seen him at clubs and I’ve spun his discs until I could hear them in my head. He rarely disappoints and tonight was…

Giving DeVotchKa an unfavorable review is a rarity on par with seeing Haley’s Comet. Chris Barton from the LA Times, however, is clearly impervious to the band’s charms. In his critique of the act’s show a few nights ago at the El Rey in Los Angeles, he gave the band…

Just stumbled across this little gem and thought we’d share: Presumably in an effort to help youngsters to stave off dreaded STDs and unwanted pregnancies, Trojan Brand Condoms enlisted a number of Warped tour acts to film 30-second public service announcements for them earlier this summer. The lady killers of…

Oh, man, please don’t compare us to Jack Johnson,” Shwayze, one half of the group that bears his name, implores from his London hotel room. “People hear acoustic guitar, and for some reason the only person in the world they think of is Jack Johnson. He’s not the only fool…

I caught the poker bug on a trip to Vegas a few years back. And when I got back to Denver, I played a ton of Texas Hold ‘Em games on my laptop, watched eleven-time World Series of Poker winner Phil Hellmuth on ESPN, and even checked out a few…