Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver asks a Colorado band or musician four questions and then draws their conversation. We call the resulting comic “4 Questions: Comic Strip Interview” because we have no use for obscurity. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it…
Easter is upon us. The holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of the Christian messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Pontius Pilate washed his hands, the Roman emperor Tiberius probably heard nothing about the incident from a far-off province of the empire. To Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Josephus he was not…
A year ago, local music icon and ColfaxAvenue.com webmaster Jonny Barber released the first volume of his Colfax-themed compilation that included acts like Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Five Iron Frenzy and Andy Palmer. Now Barber is set to release the second installment of the Colfax Compilation on Tuesday, April 22,…
The Knife (due Monday, April 21, at The Fillmore Auditorium) from Stockholm, Sweden, is an experimental synth pop duo comprised of Karin Dreijer Andersson and her brother Olof Dreijer. Since the project’s founding in 1999, it has explored unusual rhythmic ideas. Its 2003 album Deep Cuts garnered the group an…
Clyfford Still was one of the 20th century’s most innovative artists. That doesn’t mean the artist didn’t have a love for music. Still’s fondness for blues, jazz, classical music and more is part of the inspiration behind the live performance series set to hit his eponymous Denver museum this summer…
Riot Fest expanded its reach to Colorado last year, bringing The Replacements, Guided By Voices, FLAG and many more to May Farms. The Chicago-based festival, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, will return to Denver this fall with the help of local concert promotion company Soda Jerk Presents. Riot Fest…
No other musical genre (aside from reggae) has a stronger connection to the cannabis lifestyle than heavy metal, hence the term ‘stoner metal.’ But of course, this term describes a subgenre that can encompass different types of metal music and mean different things to different folks; whether you’re into that…
As one half of the propulsive rock band In the Whale, Nate Valdez spends his nights moving crowds in darkened bars. But by day, he works as a mortician, preparing bodies for funerals. It’s an occupation once held by his grandfather. Read the rest of his story in this week’s…
OFF! (due Saturday, April 19, at The Marquis Theatre) is a bit of a hardcore supergroup, founded by Keith Morris formerly of Black Flag and Circle Jerks and Dimitri Coats who was best known as a member of heavy rock band Burning Brides. The two became friends not long after…
Nate Valdez is good with fingers. Take, for example, his care when removing jewelry from them. First he coats a finger with wax. Then he ties a string around its base and wiggles it up slowly behind the ring it’s wearing until the ring slinks off the tip at the…
The world continues to burn, propelling artists such as Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and La Bouche to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, some of the most brilliant artists sit silently in obscurity. Sometimes people discover them years later and bring them to light through covers, or a hip-hop artist…
Over the weekend, the Summit Music Conference and Showcase took over Casselman’s for a day. A panel consisting of people with ties to Sirius/XM Radio, Warner Music, Atlantic Records and more discussed ways artists in Denver can help the hip-hop scene ascend to new heights. There are those in Denver…
The members of Steele and Colfax are indebted to one of Denver’s most unique stretches of road. Indeed, it only takes looking at the title of the quartet to get a sense of their local roots. The place where the band played their first rehearsals is right there in the…
Colorado has been under the microscope of international media since legalizing recreational marijuana. With that recognition comes the influx of tourism; people flocking to the mile high state to try out some of the tastiest ganja the world has ever seen. But, it also means our celebration on April 20…
Governor John Hickenlooper has been insisting that Denver has more music venues than Austin since he was mayor of Denver. It’s an interesting claim. But is it true? The two cities aren’t bad for comparison’s sake. The population of the city of Denver is a little over 634,000 people, with…
Everyone loves “Doll Parts.” At least that’s the song the comes up any time I speak about Hole to a non-Hole fan. I’m not complaining. “Doll Parts” is arguably a better point of reference for the band than the other common conversation piece regarding Hole, which is the comment that…
STS9 returns to Red Rocks for a two-night stand on Friday, September 5 and Saturday, September 6 and general admission tickets ($39.75/$45) go on sale on Friday, April 18 at 10 a.m.. A limited number of two-day passes ($50) go on sale on Wednesday, April 16 at 10 a.m. through…
Coachella’s first weekend was amazing this year! Except when it wasn’t. Here are the parts of the festival that rubbed us the wrong way. Saturday Night dust storm (above) Conditions may not have been as bad as they were during last year’s Red Hot Chili Peppers set, but Saturday night’s…
Paul Westerberg wasn’t exactly thrilled to be in the Southern California desert last night. “Headed out to San Francisco, definitely not L.A.,” he once sang. During his latest reunion show with The Replacements – at Coachella – he often mocked the audience, whom he quickly deemed insufficiently familiar with the…
There are some great shows this week. That new Phantogram record is excellent, and Shakey Graves is the Real Deal by most any definition. But let’s not kid ourselves. The main event this week is Sunday. Why Sunday? I can’t figure it out. Easter, I think. Must be Easter. A…
Most music festivals don’t have a specific conceptual guiding principal behind them. But for Communikey 2014, the phrase “Take Time,” which was featured in the well-designed schedule and map. As they explained it, the demands of the modern world have created a climate of artificial boredom, overtaxed reserves of emotional…
Hidden down in a convention hall of a nondescript hotel off the highway north of Denver was a record lover’s paradise this weekend: the Denver Record Collectors Spring Expo. At the convention hall all day Sunday were dozens of vendors, each selling thousands of records, CDs and more. This wasn’t…
