In this week’s issue, the Rough Mixes entry focusing on Eolian, the progressive-rock project led by Ian O’Dougherty (Uphollow, Ian Cooke, TaunTaun) and featuring occasional Backbeat contributor Sean Merrell (tintin, Ian Cooke, A Shoreline Dream) and Adam Edwards (A Shoreline Dream), barely scratched the surface of our recent conversation with…
Ryan Hyde doesn’t come off as nervous, worried or scared. In contrast to his chosen stage name, Anxious, the MC actually seems pretty confident. So much so, in fact, that he says he will battle anybody, anytime — and win. So far, he has the record to prove it. He’s…
Greg Laswell doesn’t have instant name recognition quite yet, but if you watch certain popular television shows like Grey’s Anatomy, True Blood, Friday Night Lights and Dollhouse, you’ve probably heard his music. Laswell came up in the independent music scene in San Diego and Los Angeles and played in the…
As co-creator of the children’s television show Yo Gabba Gabba!, Christian Jacobs has a simple agenda: Create entertainment that engages both parents and their kids through really awesome music. The show, which brings people-sized puppets together with dozens of guests, including Leslie Hall, MGMT, and of Montreal, blends together creativity…
Lil Wayne sold a million copies of Tha Carter III in one week back in June of 2008. It’s a nearly impossible benchmark in an era of dwindling album sales. And the day Lil Wayne was released from prison, Taylor Swift matched his feat. Actually, she surpassed it. Tha Carter…
In recent years, with bands ransacking the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s for musical ideas and sounds, it’s becoming increasingly easy to dismiss many musicians as being little more than throwbacks mimicking their artistic ancestors. But some of those songwriters aren’t just inspired by older music; they explore the possibilities inherent…
Many people in Denver may not know Nathan Reid by name. Just the same, over the course of his career, which spans three decades, he’s had the chance to work with a host of prominent acts, from Ghostface to Damien and Stephen Marley. Currently operating out of Mercury Sauce, his…
While they were still living in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor first played in a band together called Little Red Rocket before moving on to Athens, Georgia, where they formed another outfit called Azure Ray, and then eventually settling for a time in Omaha, Nebraska…
Vince Herman is going to be insanely busy this weekend, between playing with Great American Taxi alongside Drew Emmitt Band in support of troubadour Todd Snider at the Gothic tonight, and then doubling it up tomorrow night by playing as both the opening act with Taxi and the headliner with…
Remember Furbies? The Thermals do, and as the band crosses the country on tour for its latest album, Personal Life, they’ve developed a penchant for the fuzzy talking beings with batteries that never die. Using Twitter as a conduit to their fans — and request Furbies (and weed) — the…
For nearly thirty years, Mickey Melchiondo’s been making music under a moniker. As Dean Ween, one of the eponymous creative forces behind Ween, Melchiondo’s carved out an ambitious musical niche since founding the band with Aaron Freeman – aka Gene Ween – in the 1980s. In advance of Ween’s Halloween…
BrikAbrak, the vinyl-slinging, Al Green- and Old Dirty Bastard-mixing DJ, can most often be found rocking a party to high heaven or backing up one of Denver’s premier MCs on any given night. On the daily, though, you can find him at 3237 East Colfax Avenue, watching dough rise and…
Considered one of the “big four” of the thrash metal era, Anthrax (see our preview here) put New York on the map with its inventive take on infusing metal with a punk rock spirit. When singer Joey Belladonna joined in time to record 1985’s Spreading the Disease, that band had…
Last year, PS I Love You, from the university town of Kingston, Ontario, made some waves beyond its immediate environs with the release of a split 7-inch with Diamond Rings. The energy and spiky sound of the duo’s songs are at times reminiscent of Hüsker Dü and Pavement. Singer and…
Chrissie Hynde is not one to romanticize the past, but she’s done plenty that almost anyone else who has done even a tenth as much would be right to feel proud about. In the mid-’70s, Hynde moved from her home town of Akron, Ohio, to London, England, and landed in…
This past Saturday night at Beta, during Red Bull’s Thre3Style competition, celebrity judges ?uestlove and Jazzy Jeff closed the night out with a live drum and DJ peformance. Before the competition kicked off and before ?uestlove and Jazzy Jeff set the place on fire with their impressive finale, the pair…
PHISH – NIGHT TWO 10.11.10 | 1STBANK Center Settling in for night two of three at the 1STBANK Center, the crowd and the members of the band seemed to be making themselves at home. Anastasio flashed a smile before sending the opening chords of “Runaway Jim” bouncing around the arena…
PHISH – NIGHT ONE 10.10.10 | 1STBANK Center One night after the Fourmile Canyon Benefit warmed up the 1STBANK Center, Phish turned the arena into a steam bath. The band took the stage just after eight, and aside from two suites that were going unused, the 6,500 seat arena was…
FOURMILE CANYON REVIVAL BENEFIT Yonder Mountain String Band • Big Head Todd and the Monsters The String Cheese Incident • Leftover Salmon • members of Phish 10.09.10 | 1STBANK CENTER The Fourmile Canyon Revival Benefit started its quick life as a small, Thursday night production at the Boulder Theater and…
This Saturday night at 1STBANK Center, four of Colorado’s biggest bands — Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and the String Cheese Incident — take the stage, along with members of Phish, to raise money for victims of the Fourmile Canyon fire last month…
Lenny Lenn has an opinion, and he’s not afraid to express it. He frequently makes big, bold statements about seemingly everything. One moment he’s speaking in a quiet, humble tone about his technical training in post-production, for instance, and the next he’s comparing himself to Andre 3000 with no shame…
These days, the legendary folk-rock band Fairport Convention isn’t as widely known as it once was, and yet Richard Thompson, the band’s most storied guitarist, is often cited as an influence by a wide range of musicians and frequently included on the short list of the most talented living guitar…
