When you’re in a band, starting at the bottom and perhaps still learning your trade, few things are more rewarding than gaining the respect of your peers. If one of those peers happens to run a record label and wants to sign you, then all the better. That’s pretty much,…
Denver’s Braden Smith, aka Ancient Mith, put together a project called YAWL in late 2014 with German producer Dot. The duo’s debut album, A Pile to Keep, A Pile to Burn comes out on May 5 on Anette Records, the imprint that issued Smith’s previous full-length, 2013’s synth-infused And the…
Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…
It’s hard to remember how I felt about death before the Internet. Well, maybe how I — we, collectively — processed death prior to social media. Social media gives us a space to prove our love; it is a place to instantly create memorials and collages for those we have…
It’s easy to be a man in rock and roll. The music world has always been more effortlessly navigated by men (straight-presenting, white men, mostly), but Prince never took that easy route. Throughout his storied career, the singer, songwriter, musician and producer took every opportunity to collaborate, mentor and work…
At this writing, news about the death of Prince Rogers Nelson is still being digested by stunned, shattered fans across the globe — including this one. But while I cherish the memory of the one time I caught His Purpleness live (in 1997, at Fiddler’s Green), the memory that sticks with me most…
There was a time when Mikey Smith would show up with his keyboard to the Meadowlark’s Monday-night jazz jam not knowing if he’d have a drummer to play with. Now there are nights when nine or ten different drummers show up, each hoping they’ll have a chance to play more…
Band reunions and reincarnations can get downright weird. We’ve only got ourselves to blame. Really, this shit is nobody’s fault but our own. The most hardcore of the hardcore music fans are like an even more twisted Dr. Frankenstein, because we won’t accept death. We’re just not having it, and…
Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…
What is Denver hip-hop? What does it sound like and what does it stand for? There is a lot of discussion surrounding these questions, trying to pin labels on the Colorado hip-hop community. While definitive answers are in short supply, talent is not. As an introduction, here are nine hip-hop…
We are pleased to debut the release of the new video for the song “Desert Minded” by Fort Collins-based rock band Slow Caves. The song will be issued on the band’s upcoming EP of the same name on the Grouphug imprint. Slow Caves, nominated for a 2016 Westword Music Award,…
In 1967, when producer Tony Visconti first met a young David Bowie, in the office of David Platz, head of London-based publishing company Essex Music, the first thing Visconti did was stare into Bowie’s eyes, which appeared to be two different colors. “I didn’t know which one to look at,”…
Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…
“I want everything to be a little more laid-back,” says Neil Michael Hagerty, singer/guitarist with the Howling Hex. It’s a sunny April day in Colorado, and, tall and lean, he’s sporting a pastel tank top; his long brown hair is touched with gray at the sideburns. His drummer, Eric Van…
Dead & Company are returning to Colorado this summer with a special performance at Folsom Field in Boulder, but any time is ripe for fans of the Grateful Dead to eat up the band’s music and history. To answer that call is Buzz Poole’s examination of the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead. …
Cindy Cervantes, aka Bgirl Emerge, remembers what it used to feel like to participate in breakdancing battles as a woman. Throughout the 2000s, Cervantes would show up to events around Denver where “it was like one B-girl to sixty B-boys,” she says. “So there’s a lot of expectation on you…
When Banned In DC was first published in 1988, it was one of the very few tomes to thoroughly document the world of hardcore punk. It was certainly the first to provide a true snapshot of a time in America’s capital when youth culture and a vibrant underground music had…
Over the course of her career, Mile High City entertainer Lannie Garrett has worn many (flamboyant) hats. In this week’s Westword, we profile the beloved Denver chanteuse before her induction to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame on April 16. Here is a photo gallery of Garrett’s looks and costumes across…
This past week, I visited Nashville and had the pleasure — the pure pleasure — of seeing Loretta Lynn perform live on the Grand Ol’ Opry. As I listened to her still-vibrant voice deliver “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and songs from her fine new album, Full Circle, I marveled anew at…
Over the years, Denver has birthed more than its fair share of DIY labels, including Local Anesthetic Records, Gift Records, Soda Jerk, Suburban Home, Relapse, Best Friends Records, Long Spoon and Elephant 6, which have proven to be important locally and beyond. More recently, Sailor Records, Black Box Tapes, Heart in Box,…
On April 16, singer Lannie Garrett will be inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and the festivities will take place in the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. Garrett will perform songs with her band in tribute to pioneers of twentieth-century music from Colorado,…
Like many significant bands, X never garnered the commercial success that should be commensurate with its influence. X’s mixture of poetry, folk and punk resonated with Americana and rockabilly while not fitting snugly in any sub-genre of music. In that way, X was alternative rock before that became an umbrella…
