Brace yourselves for yet another batch of pristinely crafted, radio-friendly pop served up from Ft. Collins. From the sounds of it, Roe — who’s previewing new songs from its forthcoming full-length, Letters and Light, every week until the record drops on November 13 — is inline to be the next…
Photo borrowed from djcoffman.com Last night after appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Flobots’ guitarist Andy Guerrero apparently gave Conan the shirt right off his back…
David Byrne Sunday, October 12th, 2008 Temple Buell Theater, Denver Better Than: Byrne has been in several years. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the 1981 collaborative album between David Byrne and Brian Eno, should be required listening for anyone attempting to incorporate non-Western music and samples into their…
Photo: Aaron Thackeray Unearth, Protest the Hero, Acacia Strain, Whitechapel, Gwen Stacy Friday, October 10, 2008 Gothic Theatre Better than: Taking in a metal show within the cramped, uncomfortable confines of a dive bar. Early on in the Acacia Strain’s Friday night set, frontman Vincent Bennett staked out the parameters…
Deerhoof, Experimental Dental School, Coconut Saturday, October 11, 2008 Bluebird Theater Better Than: The freezing-ass rain outside. I realize that it can be somewhat fallacious to liken bands to one another simply because they happen to share a bill, but the three bands at the Bluebird Saturday night — San…
The Captain and the Red Hot Flames circa 1986. Once upon a time, indefatigable self-promoter David Booker fronted The Captain and the Red Hot Flames, one of the most popular Colorado acts of the ’80s — and he’s about to go back to the future. The group, also featuring saxophonist…
Senator McCain, that song is not about you Here’s a round-up of all the great content you missed this week on Backbeat Online while you were busy following the saga of yet another band — the Foo Fighters — getting pissed about the McCain campaign using one of their songs…
This week, we present “Byrne After Reading,” our new advice column by musician/artist (and former Talking Heads frontman) David Byrne. Dear David: I am a singer who used to be in a popular and highly influential ’80s band until we broke up because we all hated each other. Since then,…
In the October 9 issue, we ran excerpts of Tom Murphy’s recent interview with Tim Gane from Stereolab. The following is the transcript from their entire conversation…
The best rapper ever? Vibe readers think so. LOCALS ONLY Metropolitan State College of Denver’s radio station, MetRadio, has been around over a decade, and according to Colorado emcee D.O. it has barely featured any hip-hop. He’s looking to change that, by launching a hip-hop show called “Black Hollywood.” (The…
Deerhoof is weird. When the Bay Area experimental indie-pop outfit opened for Radiohead in Berkeley two years ago, Thom Yorke thanked them during his band’s set with a caveat that included pointing to his oddly-shaped head and making the twirling motion that connotes “crazy.” Yorke’s got a point: For a…
Josephine and the Mousepeople BDRMPPL and Pictureplane w/Josephine and the Mousepeople, Gangi and Rainbow Arabia Thursday, October 9th, 2008 Rhinoceropolis, Globeville Better Than: A show where everyone’s from the same demographic. Pictureplane seems to bring in people from a broad spectrum of society in a way that few other musical…
See the slide show at westword.com/slideshow. Nick Warren October 10, 2008 Beta Better than: A Thursday night without go-go dancers It’s strange that I’ve never seen Nick Warren before. I’ve owned his discs for close to a decade and I’ve written about him. He’s played in places I was, but…
Not to be outdone or outshone by those Animo cats, P-Nuckle has posted a brand new video of its own for the song “A Place Called Home.” The video, which appears to have been filmed entirely on location at [insert name of non-descript, north suburban trailer park here], looks like…
Most of us have either played and/or been invited to one of those songwriter shows. You see them all the time. You know the ones… three or four songwriters pick a venue, invite their friends and fans and voila: a heartwarming show ensues. Lives are changed. Tears are shed. Etc…
Here’s something that’s never made any sense to me. Live albums. I always feel like it would have been great to be there, but the recording only captures one dimension of the experience. And because all the rest of the experience is missing, the recording magnifies any weaknesses in the…
In case you’ve been wondering where we’ve been most of the morning, we’re happy to inform you that we just returned from the ophthalmologist, where, after much consternation and effort, he successfully removed the mechanical pencils we had jammed in our eyeballs after screening Animo’s video for “Left Out,” which…
A Place to Bury Strangers Wednesday, October 8 Larimer Lounge Better Than: Sitting at home crying because My Bloody Valentine won’t come to Denver. After last night’s show, it wasn’t so much that my ears hurt or were ringing; it was more like my head was encased in a sine…
I think a certain kind of person settles down to raise a family in the Northwest, and that breeds a certain kind of kid,” says Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold. “I definitely feel like a product of my environment in that way, and really can’t imagine dying anywhere else. I…
Mario Zoots and Kristy Fenton, the duo behind Modern Witch, are better known in the world of visual art. Just the same, on their first musical project, the two have successfully translated their artistic talent from one medium to another. In the live setting, the group seems equal parts performance…
Although the moniker slapped on “You’re Fired!,” the lead track from Calvin Locklear’s new EP, can’t help but conjure Trumpian expectations, the ditty itself is an improbably buoyant affair, replete with jangly guitars and chooglin’ percussion that build up plenty of pop pleasure. The cuts that follow aren’t quite up…
Requiem in Black isn’t breaking new ground with this release, but it’s an artistic breakthrough for the band. A lot of the more recent goth and dark electronic music is completely lacking in anything human, but rather than plunge into the EBM morass, Requiem draws on more vital, older influences,…
