Mile High Makeout: My head is spinning

Photo: Lucia De Giovanni Last night, I had the honor and privilege of guest deejaying at Matt Fecher’s New Music Mondays at the Larimer Lounge, playing music from my collection next to the incandescent DJ Ginger and firestarter DJ Hot to Death. Ginger played a couple of body-rocking sets, including some…

The new, improved Aubrey Collins

Photo: Madeline Cothren From the looks of her stunning new photos, and from the sounds of her most recent tracks (most notably “I Was Your Baby”), Aubrey Collins has successfully reinvented herself again. Well, perhaps “reinvented” isn’t the right word. “Matured” is probably a better way to put it.  More…

The Fluid to play two East Coast dates with Overcasters

Photo: Jon Solomon What was it Michael Corleone said in The Godfather? “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”? That quote could certainly apply to the Fluid. The act, which had initially just intended to get back together for a few shows leading up to Sub…

Hello Kavita checks in from the studio

Photo: Sarah Cass The exceptional gentlemen pictured above, otherwise known collectively as Hello Kavita, are currently holed up in the studio recording a brand-new album with Ian Hlatky, who’s previously overseen recordings by the Last Seen, Born in the Flood and the Swayback, among others. The band recently offered a…

Apples in Stereo energize Pepsi’s new ad campaign

Photo: Joshua Kessler So, have you caught Pepsi’s latest commercial? Notice anything remarkable about it? Besides, of course, the inexplicable, reworked-for-what-seems-like-the-umpteenth-time, futuristic-looking logo? You know that gorgeous, sun-kissed, audible goodness you hear playing in the background? Uh-huh, that’s the Apples in Stereo. Pretty keen, eh? We caught the commercial over…

Mezcal cabaret license hearing tonight

Mezcal (3230 East Colfax Avenue) restaurant celebrated its fifth anniversary a few weeks ago and brought in a mariachi band as part of the festivities. Owner Jesse Morreale has been bringing live entertainment to the club for the past few years, mainly on special occasions, as the city allows him…

Ideal Fathers seek ideal drummer

The Ideal Fathers have a fresh, danceable, well-crafted take on post-punk. They have a freshly recorded, yet-to-released EP that’s damn good. What they don’t have is a drummer, and that’s holding them back from capitalizing on those first two things, which is a shame. Their longtime drummer recently succumbed to…

Mile High Makeout: Fresh start

Yes, I know a lot of people like to use a new year as an opportunity to get a fresh start. It might just mean that you clean the stains out of your toilet bowl finally, or you put clean sheets on your bed, or you floss. Some people even make New Year’s resolutions. Usually, these are pledges related to self-improvement – weight loss, fitness, smoking cessation, nose picking, public flatulation and angry driving are all common targets.

Girl Talk shows us how it’s done

Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) gets a fair amount of love here at Westword for his ace mashup skills and incendiary live performances, and with good reason: the man is an artist at what he does. And if you’ve ever wondered exactly how he does what he does, today is…

Top 10 Country Albums of 2008

Photo by Michael Alan GoldbergOver the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM. Two young blondes with toothy smiles and hard-core work ethics, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, helped…

The Worst Lyrics of 2008

And now it’s time for the”I love you like a fat kid loves cake” memorial Worst Lyrics of 2008, March Madness-style tournament, this year a terrifying melange of appalling oral-sex requests, bargain-bin philosophies, grammatical atrocities, and cringe-inducing pillow talk. To elevate the drama, I provided a trusted colleague with the…

Hitsville, by the numbers

You don’t need a half-wit music critic to tell you it’s been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished by a Midwestern…

Rap-Up: Top 5 2008 Colorado Hip-Hop YouTube videos

Along with having a MySpace page, some photos and MP3s, it’s become a necessity for Colorado hip-hop artists to have a YouTube account and a camcorder nearby.Many artists are now taking the responsibility of recording their own videos and events in order to promote their latest projects, as well as…

Resolutions for 2009

It wouldn’t be New Year’s without a slew of ill-considered, soon-to-be-abandoned resolutions, would it? In the spirit of new beginnings, shedding bad habits and picking up a few new good ones, I offer you all this hastily constructed, poorly thought through and largely specious list of my musical resolutions for…

Top Ten Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

Over the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM. A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how…

Mile Hi-Fidelity playlist – 12.30.08

After taking a week off to celebrate buying/receiving stuff for/from our loved ones, Andy Thomas and I returned to the airwaves last night (a day early in honor of drinking our faces off during Night of the Rookie Livers this evening) and played a bunch of great stuff — as…

Mile High Makeout: The eve of destruction

If you’ve been hibernating, you haven’t heard about what happened outside of Vinyl last weekend. The one and only E-40 — one of my favorite rappers — played a set, after which five people were shot on Broadway. It is always sad and disturbing when violence erupts in the music…

The best Christmas gift. Ever!

All right, so you know how this time of year everybody asks you if you’ve received anything cool for Christmas? Generally, I’m all, like, you know, socks, shirts, gift certificates, yada, yada — and that’s usually the extent of the conversation. Not that I’m ungrateful — it’s just, how much…

Going with the, um, Flo?

Poor sketchy man outside the Gothic Theatre last night, yours was a complication born of marquee ineptitude. For you see, the Gothic lists several shows at a time there, a column of upcoming shows on the left, and a column as well on the right. Last night, the top line…

Top Ten Latin Music Albums of 2008

Over the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM.Americans who still think of Latin music as mariachi bands and gyrating Ricky Martins and Shakiras might want to lend a…

Mile High Makeout: Shadowy man on a shadowy planet

(photo: Jeff Klapperich)While I was out last weekend, an unassuming gentleman approached me and asked if I had room in my pocket for a CD. We’d met before, but I didn’t remember that in the moment. I hate when I forget names and faces. Fortunately, Donny Rose was forgiving and…