The Denver Botanic Gardens has just announced its 2014 lineup, and it is hefty. Starting June 24 with March Cohn and Mavis Staples and concluding on September 6 with St. Vincent, the Garden’s two locations (on York Street and in Chatfield) will also host Joan Baez, Barenaked Ladies, B.B. King…
Colorado Governor John Hicknlooper has long been invested in the culture of the state. As Denver’s Mayor, Hickenlooper was a common sight at things like art gallery openings and concerts, and his roots in the community include co-founding Wynkoop Brewing Company in LoDo. He has spent the past three and…
I love electronic music. I love the sound, the artists, the parties, the people, the scene — in fact, I’m into pretty much everything about this particular genre of music. But there’s one thing about electronica that I’m really, really not into. At all. It’s the term “EDM.” I hate…
So news is spreading quickly about this year’s Mad Decent Block Party, a fledgling festival tour heretofore specializing in the kinds of hip-hop and dance acts whose members were likely to be wearing floral print hats. It was mostly found in large clubs with outdoor spaces, that sort of thing…
Some of SnowBall’s best artists weren’t even on stage. Among the young and the variably sober in the crowd on Saturday was a small group of artists, busily painting murals. They were situated between the two main stages, putting the eight-by-twelve feet wooden canvases at maximum visibility. The goal was…
The shoe is black and has a four-inch heel. It entered Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom on Friday for the SnowBall After Party as a piece of clothing. Late in the night, it became a weapon. And soon, it will return to Cervantes’ covered in paint, thanks to Nerf gun artist and…
This isn’t the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The list of upcoming artists beaming on a nearby screen includes artists like Nothing But Saxes, billed as “a smooth jazz experience.” The menu includes items that feel more a propos to a Chili’s than a rock venue. You can nibble…
At music festivals, weird kind of comes with the territory. But there’s something a little extra wacky about EDM festivals. When I walked through the gates at Snowball 2014, the first thing I saw was a woman wearing Moon Boots with glow sticks stuffed in them. “Pretty rad,” I thought,…
Hoo, boy, it’s SnowBall weekend, here in Denver for the first time in the festival’s young history. The dance-heavy lineup features reliable names like Pretty Lights and Griz as well as some curveballs, like Earl Sweatshirt and Warpaint. There’s more: In the Whale will spend two nights celebrating its new…
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival announced its lineup earlier this week, but there was some controversy about the truncated roster for the July 14 show at Red Rocks. Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, Asking Alexandria, Trivium and Body Count (Ice-T’s metal band) were announced for Denver, but those are the only bands…
Colorado’s musical legacy is about to find some permanence. Officials from the Colorado Music Hall of Fame and the Denver-based Blue Goose design firm have unveiled final plans for the permanent exhibition space set to open at Red Rocks Amphitheater later this year. Based at the current Trading Post gift…
Michal Menert’s path of success is a winding road of glorious sunrises and fraught sunsets. His third solo album, Elements, is set for official release on April 12, with a kick-off party in Detroit, Michigan, at the Shelter. Menert, as well as Denver’s Mikey Thunder and Mux Mool and Chris…
The members of Residual Kid (due Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5, at the Hi-Dive) from Austin, Texas are all fifteen-years-old or younger. Despite their youth, it is impossible to ignore their sheer power of the songs — they’re something more than you’d expect out of three guys who…
Global Dance Festival, the recipient of “Best Dance Party of the Summer” in our Best Of Denver issue, has just announced the first acts that will be playing the event. Phase one of any lineup announcement is always the appetizer, and what better way to tease than by announcing some…
Gary Numan (due Friday, April 4, at The Gothic Theatre) is most widely remembered for his 1980 hit song “Cars.” That song was merely the most popular in an influential career that had a direct impact on artists as diverse as Prince, Beck, Lady Gaga and, of course, Nine Inch…
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 –…
There are albums you love and albums that alter the way you listen to music. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead’s 2002 masterpiece, Source Tags & Codes, fits squarely in the latter category. Damn near everyone loved this thing; Source Tags was like a long-lost Led…
Sports Authority Field at Mile High is often filled with fans who provide unfaltering support for their home team, who come out in droves and weather malicious snowstorms, biting wind and blinding sun to be a part of something special. With the silhouette of the Rocky Mountains to the west…
Intentionally recorded in super-lo-fi mode, Already Dead’s I Want to See You Rot delivers the kind of sound that will never be fully appropriated by the mainstream. Though musically different from early black-metal efforts such as Mayhem’s Deathcrush EP, Already Dead’s project rivals that one in its rawness. On “Joke,”…
As guitarist and pedal-steel player for 4H Royalty, Jamie Mitchell undoubtedly knows his way around the alt-country. That fact is also in evidence early on his seven-song disc Love Songs of the Profane, which kicks off with “Hotel Room” and is similar to A.M.-era Wilco. Mitchell injects twangy guitar into…
The four tracks on the Friends From the Bar EP actually do sound like an attempt to capture a meeting at a bar somewhere — in Berlin, maybe. If there is an overarching style here, it seems to be one that synthesizes house, ambient and downtempo. Kaster Cordalis’s “Soul Romance”…
The weed-laced sagacity of Whygee’s delivery and Gypdahip’s crisp, deep-crate samples are a natural pairing. Don’t wander into their joint release, called Please Forgive Us, looking for Top 40. As WhyGyp, the duo juggles a sound that’s both progressive and classic: golden-era schooling by A Tribe Called Quest and De…
