Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver asks a Colorado band or musician four questions and then draws their conversation. Sometimes he does other stuff. We call the resulting comic “4 Questions: Comic Strip Interview” either way, for some reason. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and…
The wedding invitations are coming in fast now, and although we typically don’t enjoy sitting in a church and staring at comb-overs, there are two things provided at weddings we can all agree on: food and alcohol. I can live like the lord of the event center, alternating between sips…
The jazz program at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music is about to get a lot more competitive. Officials from the school’s jazz studies and commercial music departments announced this week that Grammy-nominated jazz trombonist, composer and arranger Steve Wiest will join DU’s faculty this fall as an…
TaunTaun is a band of unusual provenance. Its members are all luminaries of the Denver music scene, but their other bands don’t sound much like each other, and they sound even less like TaunTaun. It was the musicians’ shared teenage love for ’80s metal that initially informed the group’s music,…
NORAD Dance Bar, which grew to become a fixture in the underground electronic-music community over the past two years, is closing at the end of May. The building that houses the club is coming under new ownership, and NORAD doesn’t figure into the new owner’s plans. The displacement will have…
Between 2006 and 2011, jazz guitarist Matt Fuller endured the loss of his grandfather, his father, his grandmother and his mother. During that period, Fuller wrote a number of songs that helped him through the healing process. Those songs appear on his debut album, Waiting for Violet, which he will…
The 20th annual Westword Music Showcase is less than two months away. This year’s installment will be on June 21. It’s the day Denver music goes on vacation to the Golden Triangle, and I can go from watching a rapper to watching a punk band to watching a band with…
Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild will play one more time to determine who moves to the next round of the playoffs. In honor of the occasion, I got into an Internet debate with our favorite Minnesotan, Drew Ailes, that is somewhat about our state’s respective music scenes and…
Update, 5/1: Since this story went to press, some of the promotional entities involved have come up with a new arrangement. Please see the bottom of the story for details Preston Douglas opened NORAD Dance Bar two years ago with the intention of uniting an underground dance-music scene that had…
For now, the story of Planet Bluegrass is about the floods and the devastation they brought to towns like Lyons. The storied venue sits nestled in the canyon, no small part of its appeal being that it does not have proximity to natural beauty so much as it is actually…
Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop doing it wrong. Send your problems to her –…
Boulder-based Immersive Studios has an impressive resume. Its owners, Steve Vidaic and Mike Yach, are both Grammy Award-winning producers. Vidaic is a musician himself, at one time touring with the Motet and now playing as a solo act. Immersive has some of the best recording equipment in the area. They…
Arctic Monkeys, touring in support of their latest effort, AM, will headline Red Rocks for the first time on Thursday, September 4. General-admission and reserved tickets ($39.95-$46.50) go on sale on Friday, May 2, at 10 a.m. Waka Flock Flame returns to the area with a stop at the Gothic…
Planning a music festival in Fort Collins has to be a miserably difficult task. Outside of the concerts that Colorado State University books, only one venue, the Aggie Theatre, hosts larger national acts with any kind of regularity. Add in Avogadro’s Number and Hodi’s Half-Note, bars with the capacity of…
It is a strange sight to see Bun B step through the curtain at the Marquis Theater. He is the prime mover of Texas — or maybe even all Southern — hip-hop, on a short list of the most respected MCs still working, and a leader in his city. And…
Denver Noise Fest is now one of the biggest of its kind in the country. And it isn’t just harsh noise. The lineup did not just feature circuit-bending academics. The Festival was a celebration of a love for weird noises, by a wide-ranging group of generous artists…
There’s plenty going on in the friendly confines of Denver this week, but if you’re looking for a field trip, we advise going to see Warpaint at Belly Up Aspen or Gogol Bordello in Boulder. Of course, you could also just see the latter at the Ogden later this week…
Last month, we brought you the news that Swallow Hill Music would be booking this year’s summer concert series at the Arvada Center. That partnership becomes much clearer this morning with the full lineup announcement — in addition to previously announced artists including Judy Collins and Don McLean, the Center…
Wayne Shorter, who headlines the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival on Friday, April 25, doesn’t have typical days. The 80-year-old saxophone legend, who was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, says it’s all an adventure. The day we speak with him, Shorter tells us he is…
Last year, Sherwood Webber of Skinless put together a festival with a meticulous curatorial eye for aggressive music and no patience for gimmickry of any kind. The result was Denver Black Sky, which we named the best metal fest last month. The Fest returns this August with two days of…
It has been rough and rocky traveling for cannabis cowboys for most of the 40 years since “Me and Paul,” the hounded-by-the-Man classic in which Willie Nelson tipped off like-minded longhairs to the presence of narcs in Laredo. “If you’re staying in a motel there,” he warned dryly, “don’t leave…
For Justin Bua, painting is about documenting moments in time that reflect an era. Hailing from New York, Bua’s work has examined the urban themes of hip-hop, jazz, break dancing, and the countless threads that continue to sew the fabric of the entire culture. Since the early ’90s, Bua has…
