Neil Halstead was one of the guitarists and singers in pioneering shoegaze and ambient band Slowdive in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Taking guitar sounds and often blurring the sonic signature with synths through creative use of delay pedals and loops, Slowdive was more of a dream-pop band through…
Dinosaur Jr was the product of three guys from Massachusetts who had played in the hardcore bands Deep Wound and All White Jury. But when J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph got together, the music they produced sounded like it had all but shed that background in favor of melody,…
Sic Alps is the long-running project of Mike Donovan and whatever group of people become part of the band at any given time. It would be a bit of a reduction to call his songwriting “garage rock.” This is more than just people with a lot of energy playing stripped…
Lords of Fuzz thundered into being from a tough time in Oscar Ross’ life. He’d recently gotten divorced and moved to Denver from Texas and decided to pursue music as an outlet. After numerous line-up changes, and three albums, Lords of Fuzz are releasing their most fully-realized record to date,…
It’s been a big year for Guy Gerber. The Israeli native, who recently relocated to L.A., has created a Fabric album that’s been garnering a lot of attention for all the best reasons; he’s also been collaborating with P.Diddy on a project and just released a new track, “Steady,” on…
No one knows how to push buttons quite like Peaches. Whether she’s writing and directing her own autobiographical musical or organizing a Free Pussy Riot campaign, this electro-punk (aka Merrill Nisker) is always a few steps ahead of even the most radical of sex-positive visionaries. In advance of her DJ…
One of the more exciting pianists in jazz today, Vijay Iyer has won a slew of awards over the past few years, including five different nods in the DownBeat International Critics’ Poll. Awards notwithstanding, if you need proof of what amazing chops this Grammy-nominated composer-pianist has, look no further than…
Laetitia Sadier was the charismatic singer of the influential and experimental Stereolab, a band she started with guitarist Tim Gane after a short stint in the political post-punk band McCarthy in the late ’80s. Combining krautrock drones and hypnotic rhythms with a lounge-jazz sensibility and a willingness to make the…
Three decades into her career, Aimee Mann remains as consistently fresh and challenging a singer/songwriter as in her days fronting the mid ’80s new wave band, ‘Til Tuesday. Since then, Mann has had a strong solo career, delivering one of the greatest film soundtracks in recent memory with P.T. Anderson’s…
Poor Moon is a side project of Christian Wargo of Fleet Foxes fame, who before joining that outfit toured with both Danielson Famile and Pedro the Lion. Through his time playing guitar in David Bazan’s band, Wargo became friends with the guys from Fleet Foxes and ultimately ended up joining…
Beach House became a bit of an underground sensation with the release of its self-titled, debut album in 2006, followed by 2008’s warmly enchanting Devotion. Lead singer Victoria Legrand’s rich, deep, yet feminine voice and Alex Scally’s delicate melodic sense on guitar creates a disarming sense of intimacy that soothes…
Garbage was one of the most popular and arguably one of the best bands out of the second wave of early ’90s alt rock. Benefitting from the production skills of drummer and renowned producer Butch Vig (Nevermind) and Steve Marker, Garbage was able to put out a body of work…
The music industry sucks, and the Epilogues know it. They’re no strangers to being let down by the business. Over the course of the band’s nearly six year existence, its members have gone through the label dance enough to know what a downer it is. Waiting in limbo, the band…
In our series of coveted Colorado music-industry jobs, so far we’ve covered a range of jobs, from being a guitar tech and handling publicity to being tasked with overseeing digital music delivery from a vast electronic music catatlog to band management. Today, we bring you five more coveted gigs. Keep…
About two decades ago, I heard Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, and it floored me. It’s the best selling jazz album of all time, and if there’s one album that truly started an obsession with jazz, it was that one. As a kid, I’d gotten to see cats like…
Hip-hop and it still don’t stop. This afternoon at 1 p.m., the inaugural Hip-Hop Legacy Literacy Conference kicks off with a screening of Ice-T’s Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap documentary in the St. Cajetan’s building on Auraria, and, tomorrow, the Sankofa Lecture Series welcomes its fall keynote speaker,…
Tomorrow night, the Twins of Evil Tour pulls into Colorado for a show at 1STBANK Center featuring co-headliners Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson, two of the more diabolical, intelligent and entertaining figures in mainstream music. Tom Murphy, our resident interviewer extraordinaire, recently spoke with both Zombie and Manson and had…
By B. Caplan Unless Genghis Khan comes back to life in the next 48 hours, the most badass dude in Denver this weekend is going to be Cody ChesnuTT. No bones about it. That’s Mr. ChesnuTT in the picture above. And he’s cooler than you. Sorry. He wears an army…
Chris Brokaw has had a career in underground music that sounds like it can’t possibly be true: He went to Oberlin College in the ’80s, where he met Sooyoung Park, Liz Phair, John McEntire and Stephen Immerwahr. After graduation he played drums briefly with GG Allin, and from there he…
Formed in 1996, Nightwish gained instant popularity in its native Finland with the 1997 release of its first album, Angels Fall First. Eventually, Nightwish achieved international success with album sales in excess of over eight million worldwide, yet the group has struggled to achieve popularity and recognition here in the…
Marilyn Manson, even more than one of his inspirations, Alice Cooper, has become a lightning rod of controversy for his provocative lyrics and visual style. The guy had an album called Antichrist Superstar, after all, and he’s been fairly open about his drug use, what more conservative members of society…
Rob Zombie originally came to prominence with his first band, White Zombie. With a penchant for campy horror imagery and music that was the perfect mutant blend of an industrial aesthetic with trashy metal and punk, White Zombie was one in a handful of bands that crossed the alternative-rock world…
