Les Claypool of Primus on the Benefits of Folk Music

Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde will be signing copies of Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine, an oral history of the band, at Tattered Cover on Thursday, September 18, at 7 p.m.. Primus is also slated to perform at Riot Fest on Friday, September 19. Formed in 1984 in the San…

Why Did SoundCloud Suspend ThisSongIsSick.com’s Account?

Earlier this week, the popular Boulder based electronic and hip-hop music blog, ThisSongIsSick.com announced that Soundcloud, the audio distribution platform has temporarily suspended their account, which blog creator Nick Guarino said gets approximately 1.5 million listeners every 24 hours…

What Swallow Hill Music Is Looking For in its New CEO

Earlier this month. Swallow Hill Music announced that CEO and Executive Director Tom Scharf was resigning after seven years of running the Denver-based nonprofit organization that runs music education programs and organizes many concerts in the area. Scharf last day is September 30, and the organization is hoping to have…

Itchy-O Plots World Domination With Jello Biafra

It is impossible to ignore Itchy-O. At full capacity, the band comprises 32 members, all dressed in matching costumes, all masked, delivering truly alien vocals and playing marching-band instruments along with guitars, basses, taiko drums and electronics attached to portable amplifiers. There is also a Chinese lion named Larry. “I…

Allout Helter on the Value of Riot Fest to the Local Scene

Allout Helter began in 2008 as a melodic hardcore band with some metal chops. In 2010, the group put an ad on Craigslist for a lead vocalist and attracted the attention of Ross Hostage. Hostage had spent the previous decade playing in Action Friend and Suburban Hostage. He brought a…

The Gondola Sessions Will Make You Long for Winter in Colorado

Filming live music outdoors can present all kinds of problems, from moving clouds obstructing your light to changes in the wind messing with your sound. But if it all works out, you have the opportunity to give the music a remarkable backdrop. With The Gondola Sessions, filmmaker John Austin set…

Eleven Famous Musicians Who Recently Moved to Colorado

With the legalization of cannabis for recreational use starting January 1, 2014, Colorado has become a destination for touring bands. However, a steady stream of artists have been moving to the state for years. Some seem to use it purely as a base of operations, but some have engaged with…

Miss America by Wheary and Syntax Physic Opera Are a Perfect Match

The best new band in town at the best new bar in town. That’s a bold statement, but it’s that statement that lingered as Miss America by Wheary, a new project featuring Joseph Pope III, Julie Davis, Nathaniel Rateliff, James Han and Patrick Meese finished its set at Syntax Physic…

Rufus Baxter Is Very Cool

[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80’s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book YOUTH IS WASTED. Rufus Baxter: Part Ten Rufus Baxter:…

Rubedo Is the Voice of the Music Culture of Today

You might hear Rubedo anywhere. In its four and a half years of existence, the Denver trio has played at bars in San Diego and rallies in Civic Center Park. It has played a dance music festival in the shadow of an NFL stadium and an art festival on the…

Meet Denver Supergroup Miss America by Wheary

For Joseph Pope III, who’s played in a number of local acts like Born in the Flood, the Wheel, Fairchildren and is now the front man of Miss America by Wheary, songwriting is like falling in love. “It’s like you’re in this honeymoon period, and you’re just so infatuated and…

Everything Outkast Is Cooler Than

Outkast, now just a handful of shows away from what looks a lot like the end of its performing career, has made something of an art form out of cleverly describing its own level of “cool.” Though the Atlanta duo is far from the first rap group to do so,…

The Drake Vs. Lil Wayne Show Is Spectacular

First of all, whoever decided to present Drake and Lil Wayne in a staged performance competition was fucking brilliant. Taking two radio hip hop stars and giving them equal stage time by weaving their sets together meant the energy during a two-hour set last night at Red Rocks never dissipated;…