Alice 105.9 launches new locals show

Make room on Sunday nights for another local music show — well, kinda. While Sam Hill’s Sunday School isn’t entirely local, this past Sunday night at 10 p.m., the show’s namesake did play tracks from Jason Vigil and Vonnegut — alongside cuts from Colbie Caillat, 3 Doors Down, OAR, Nirvana…

This Just In 10/2-10/8

Oasis rolls into the Broomfield Event Center December 8. It’s been three years since Oasis toured the States, and they’ll be hitting the Broomfield Event Center December 8 as part of the band’s Dig Out Your Soul (due in stores October 8) world tour. Neil Diamond just added a third…

Live Review: Sigur Rós at Red Rocks

Photo: Scott Smith Sigur Rós Saturday, September 27, 2008 Red Rocks If anyone nodded off during the first part of Sigur Rós’s set at Red Rocks this past Saturday night, I think they can safely be forgiven. The somnial sounds being churned out by the precious Icelandic quartet were lulling…

Sharon Rawles, RIP

Update: Just received word that the memorial service for Sharon Rawles will take place at 11 a.m. this Friday, October 3, at Bullock Mortuary (1375 E. Hampden Avenue). ———-Original Post———- Sharon Rawles, who had recently fallen gravely ill and was placed in hospice last week, passed away late yesterday afternoon…

3OH!3 in Entertainment Weekly

This just in… 3OH!3 has officially reached ubiquity, as evidenced by its appearance in the October 3 edition of Entertainment Weekly (the one with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the cover re-creating the controversial New Yorker illustration). As if there was any doubt, Boulder’s most unlikely superstars clearly continue…

Live Review: James at the Ogden

Photo: Tom Murphy James Monday, September 29th, 2008 The Ogden, Denver Better Than: A lot of the atmospheric pop rock that has come since. Emerging from an impressive field of expressive guitar bands in Manchester, England, James made a name for itself with a larger body of work than many…

Live Review: The New Year, Houses, Fell at Larimer Lounge

Photo: Allison Smith The New Year, Houses, Fell Monday, September 29, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better than: Most bands playing today. Playing together since before who knows when, the Brothers Kadane (Matt & Bubba) have made music that is both intelligent and intensely moving. Whether it was in mid-‘90s slow-core band…

Live Review: Summit Jazz Weekend at Four Points Sheraton

Summit Jazz Weekend Friday, September 22 – Sunday, September. 24 Four Points Sheraton Hotel Better than: Crashing a smooth jazz party. Walking into the ballroom at the Four Points Sheraton on the first night of this year’s Summit Jazz Foundation festival, I felt a bit like an interloper at some…

Live Review: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at Ogden Theatre

Photo: Jon Solomon Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Friday, September 26, 2008 Ogden Theatre Better than: Anything that has ever come out of Australia. Nick Cave handily disproved the notion that rock and roll is a young man’s game this past Friday night at the Ogden Theatre. Taking the…

Rearview: The Week in Review (9/20/08-9/26/08)

‘It’ll be worth the wait, baby. I promise.” Here’s a handy wrap-up of all the great content you might have overlooked this week on Backbeat Online while you were consumed with wailing and gnashing your teeth over the tragic news that Britney Spears new single would be delayed…..

Breathe Carolina checks in on Billboard charts

Looks like big ups are due Breathe Carolina, whose debut disc, It’s Classy, Not Classic, released in mid-September on the Rise Records imprint, claimed the sixth spot on Billboard’s Heat Seeker chart and #186 on the magazine’s Top 200 chart. Not a bad first outing for a band that many…

Friday Rap-Up: Scribble Jam, Run-DMC, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z

LOCALS ONLY Scribble Jam is an annual hip-hop festival hosted in Cincinnati, Ohio. So why are so many Colorado hip-hop artists excited about it? Well, on October 1 at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, a Scribble Jam preliminary event is being held to determine the best rapper and best producer…

A benefit for Ralph DaFermo

Ralph DaFermo. This weekend, the Mercury Café is staging a benefit for pianist Ralph DaFermo. Allow the Mercury’s Marilyn Megenity to tell you a little bit about him: “In 1977, I walked into my nightclub restaurant for the night shift, and a piano player I hadn’t seen before was playing…

Scratch and Dent Sale: My WOIC.

I just heard that flossing your teeth reduces your risk of heart disease. Think about that. Holy shit. FLOSSING YOUR TEETH REDUCES YOUR RISK OF HEART DISEASE. When did this happen? It kind of sounded like a joke to me… but I looked it up. It’s true. I’m not writing…

Update: Sharon Rawles placed in hospice

Photo: David Barber Update: Sharon Rawles has passed away. Click here for details of her memorial service or to share your thoughts on Sharon’s defacto memorial page, where we’ve centralized all the comments. ———-Original Post———- Man, this has been an absolutely brutal year for the local music community. Just received…

Q&A with Santogold

Santi White and/or Santogold. As artists’ careers get hotter, they become much tougher to pin down. Example? Santi White of Santogold, who headlines the Wednesday, October 1 MySpace Music event at the Gothic Theatre co-starring Mates of State, Low Vs. Diamond and Trouble Andrew (click here to learn more). Several…

Mini Reviews

Brian Wilson, That Lucky Old Sun (EMI Records). Ever since Brian Wilson terminated his self-imposed hermitage and started performing again, the residual effects have shown. Here Wilson confronts his arrested development by creating an optimistic love letter to California filled with newfound confidence, beautiful harmonies and the same innocent, boyish…

Scratching the Surface

If you hate trance, you can place a fair amount of the blame on BT (Brian Transeau to his parents, wife and friends). The superstar producer helped push the form to its lushest, most symphonic and bombastic heights, and his tracks are among the most recognizable and iconic in the…

Good things happen to Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds

Nick Cave may be one of the more disciplined songwriters in the business (he usually spends six days a week working in his office), but he’s been especially prolific over the past four years, finding time to pen the remarkable two-disc Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus set, score two films with…

Year after year, Unleashed unsheaths steady Swedish metal

Unleashed bassist/vocalist Johnny Hedlund is a cheerful, friendly guy who happens to play in one of the most ferocious and consistently powerful death-metal bands ever to emerge from Sweden. Since 1991, the act has released nine studio albums full of pummeling drums, grinding guitar riffs and lyrics that excoriate Christianity…

Ponytail: Baltimore’s happy accident

Ponytail didn’t come together like most bands. The original five members were randomly chosen by poet Jeremy Sigler to collaborate on music. Since that time, the act has become one of the stars of the burgeoning new American indie underground, spiritual kin to sublimely noisy, neo-tribal acts like High Places,…