It’s that time again, and somehow it sort of snuck up on us this year: Time to whip out the sunscreen, bring beer money and ear plugs and head over to Civic Center park for the 39th annual Capitol Hill People’s Fair. From the looks of the lineup (posted after…
There’s nothing like experiencing the sweat, thump and catharsis of a great show. Trouble is, you live in Denver, the land of embarrassing riches when it comes to music, the land of too many shows and too little time. So which ones are worth checking out? Glad you asked. After…
While we usually get word of mega shows months in advance, that’s not the case with Paul McCartney, who just added a July 15 stop at the Pepsi Center to his upcoming 2010 Tour. McCartney, who made his Colorado debut with the Beatles at Red Rocks in 1964, last played…
Great news for those who got their groove on this past weekend at the Denver Day of Rock and are now jonesin’ to hear more music downtown, particularly with the absence of the annual summer concert series at the Denver Pavilions. The Skyline Park Free Summer concert series, which just…
Speaking of getting back after it: If you haven’t heard yet, DJ Nutmeg — crowned Best DJ by us in 2004, who picked up stakes and moved to Hawaii the following year — is back in town, and duder has wasted no time getting back into the, uh, mix. Tonight…
They’re back. After being a face on a milk carton for the better part of the past year and a half, the Rose Hill Drive boys are getting ready to fire up the old muscle car. And holy cow, get this: During the time off, frontman Jacob Sproul, a wicked…
For whatever reason, Cincinnati-based, über-Christian metalcore band Corpus Christi has chosen Denver as the place to shoot their next video. The scream-for-Jesus quintet will be here from June 6 through 11, filming a video for “Monuments,” the lead track off of its upcoming sophomore full-length, A Feast for Crows. And…
The Westword Music Knowcase, that all-music pub quiz we conned Geeks Who Drink into creating so we could kick some asses, is shaping up awesomely — for us. We’ve got word that some of the best music minds in Denver are coming to play. Too bad for the rest of…
Props to Petals of Spain, who earned a slot to perform at the year’s Westword Music Showcase by turning in a stellar performance last night during our Showcase pre-party at La Rumba, besting fellow Readers Choice contenders, Kosmos, Be the Ant and Saints. While each of those acts played admirable…
Shea Boynton’s love of music is all over the map. But as he’ll tell you, that kind of wanderlust is just in his genes. “My grandfather was a touring jazz musician for years,” says Boynton, leader of the upbeat, hard-to-peg Denver outfit the Gromet. “He was a saxophonist. He played…
When Vicky Wagner took over the defunct Trail Dust Steak House at 7101 South Clinton Street in Centennial, she knew that she didn’t want to open another steak joint. “When Trail Dust first started it was a unique concept,” she says, “but it just ran its course.” After a thirty-year…
The Getdown! didn’t channel the ghost of James Brown so much as the would-be love child of frayed garage-rock psychopaths the Sonics and the arch post-punk of the Blackouts. But while superficially this band’s music could be lumped in with garage rock, it goes further into droning atmospheres with its…
For a rootsy duo, the Black Keys have proved themselves far more open to experimentation and collaboration than the tradition would dictate. From opening for Radiohead to being covered by Kelly Clarkson to working with a variety of MCs on the hip-hop project Blakroc, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick…
Seattle based singer-songwriter Damien Jurado is reluctantly moving into the digital realm after a storied love affair with the analog world. Jurado, who once ran a cassette-only label during the ’90s called Casa Recordings that brought him to the attention of Sub Pop, recently released a track a day from…
The Flock of Seagulls hair, the David Bowie androgyny, the Depeche Mode synths — you’ve heard (and seen) it all before. But there’s still something compelling and genuine about the flashy and fashionable throwback electro-pop of La Roux. Where highly sexualized fetish imagery is central to the music of modern…
A journalist once made a prediction about Rooftop Vigilantes: “In a few years, they’ll make big waves, sign to a major label and then precipitously decline.” Looks like he might have been at least partially correct. The Lawrence, Kansas-based act’s latest album, Carrot Atlas, features enough hipster posturing and catchy…
Chris McGarry was born on the Mississippi, raised on hymns and ballads and is currently living in the Internet age on Capitol Hill — that much we know. And sure enough, his debut full-length reflects this: It’s rootsy, full of banjo and lap steel and twang, but there’s also some…
Songs in Alphabetical Order is a bit of a departure for Will Baumgartner, former Action Figure 8 frontman and new-wave affiliate. Beginning with a bossa nova rhythm and an Americana-meets-early-R.E.M.-jangle-rock sound, Baumgartner steers clear of the funk and jazz of his earlier endeavors on this short EP, instead favoring a…
It takes a lot of balls to put the word “hearts” in your band name — especially in these post-emo days, when wearing your emotions on your sleeve makes songwriters walking, whining targets for derision. But Randall Buckland has never had a problem wearing that particular muscle on his sleeve;…
Otis Taylor calls his music “trance blues,” and that sounds about right. On his new record, Clovis People Vol. 3 (there is no volume one or two, by the way), Taylor sounds a lot like the next link in a chain that started with John Lee Hooker, who employed similar…
Much like Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Natural Selection songwriter Samuel Glover works with professional musicians to craft pristine funk grooves that sparkle with musicianship. The catch? He and his bandmembers all live in different states. In time for a somewhat rare live show, where Natural Selection will release its…
For over five years, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire has been cultivating a sound that combines the darkness and brutality of grindcore and death metal, resulting in a seething cauldron of outrage and tortured despair. Amid the often atonal clangor and pummeling rhythms, vocalist Ethan McCarthy’s feral…
