DC and Hooks (Dylan Mamid and Zach Rapp-Rovan), the duo known as Zed’s Dead, first became friends because DC needed someone to paint a wall in his garage. “He had a garage that people would hang out in and listen to music, and he wanted his wall painted,” says Rapp-Rovan…
Denver’s annual Pride events have grown bigger and more prominent in the city each year — but two DJs and event organizers see a glaring misstep in the celebration’s focus. “I feel that a lot of our community has forgotten our history, our struggle and the lives that have been…
The opening moments of Surfer Blood’s 1000 Palms sounds nothing like the work of the fresh-faced Florida boys who brought fuzz to surf-pop back in 2010. “Time waits for no one” singer JP Pitts bellows over a menacing, building drum cadence. A minute in, however, the drums break and a…
While living in an old mill in Nyack, New York, the skilled jazz drummer Brian Blade, who’s been part of the Wayne Shorter Quartet for the last fifteen years and fronted his Fellowship Band for the past close to two decades, started an audio diary of sorts on a four-track…
For more than a century, every generation of American women has had their Latin lover, their tanned man that provoked swooning and screaming and spontaneous chonis melting. Flappers had Rudolph Valentino; the Mad Men generation threw woo at Ricardo Montalbán. Ladies of the 1980s went crazy over Julio Iglesias, while…
For its first Denver show since 2004, veteran indie-pop group Belle & Sebastian will collaborate with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for an expanded presentation of its signature storytelling style. It’s a songwriting method with creative roots in the years that bandleader Stuart Murdoch spent more or less bedridden due to…
DeVotchKa’s Tom Hagerman has been working with the Colorado Symphony, helping the group with writing the orchestrations for the music of various bands, since his own group’s first show with them in February, 2012. DeVotchKa’s lush orchestration and arrangements make them an ideal band for a symphony to collaborate with, and…
Guitarist David Torn has scored a number of films, including Traffic, The Order and Lars and the Real Girl, and has played on dozens of film scores, so it’s not surprising that much of the material on only sky, his brand-new solo album on ECM, has a cinematic quality. Torn…
The video for “Making Breakfast” — Twin Peaks’ infectious, sarcastic mid-tempo Ween-meets-Pavement love song — is one of the most uplifting things the Internet has been blessed with in recent memory. Just try not smiling as young Clay Frankel sings lines like “I’m the one who loves you / don’t…
William Elliott Whitmore, due May 15 at the Bluebird Theatre, is always finding ways to impart lessons that have been passed down to him. Many years ago, at a show at the Larimer Lounge, before he played “Lift My Jug,” he told the audience that a homeless man named Hub…
When Psychocandy came out in November 1985, it established the Jesus and Mary Chain as an important band of the era, with a sound that harked back to the raw quality of early rock and roll as well as the tunefulness of ’60s pop. The album also put the band…
John Moreland has a hard time telling lies. When you’re at one of the songwriter’s shows, what you see is what you get, and what he says is what he means. In his unabashed approach to writing, Moreland is steadfast in his commitment to the truth, regardless of whether or…
The Sixth Annual Denver Noise Fest kicks off Friday night May 1st at Rhinoceropolis at 8 p.m. Over the course of two nights and Saturday mid-day, DNF will host some of the most interesting and innovative artists in the broad spectrum of the noise genre. Each night, guest DJs will…
The Raven and The Writing Desk is the same band Denver has known for the past four years in name only. Spouses Scott Conroy and Julia Libassi are still the band leaders, and they are still clinging to the literary name of Raven and The Writing Desk. But beyond that,…
In 2002, a group of then bandmates and I drove all the way from Grand Junction to Boulder to witness Pinhead Circus’ “last” show. It was an emotional moment for us, as the band, fronted by the larger than life personality Scooter James, was a huge inspiration to us musically,…
On April 21, the Denver-based electronic-music producer Michal Menert will release his third album, Space Jazz, on the label he recently founded, Super Best Records. The fifteen-track effort will be available as a free download via michalmenert.com. Menert, whose work has been mostly inspired by soul and funk music, has…
One of the finest and most well-respected ambient music projects going, A Winged Victory For the Sullen is performing tonight for the first time in Colorado at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts. Formed in 2011, AWVFTS is a duo comprising Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran, along with supporting musicians…
Delicate-voiced Minnesota singer-songwiter Luke Redfield, somewhat of a nomad, has spent a lot of time in Boulder and Denver over the years. January found him headlining Shine and the Walnut Room, with his sometime-backup singer Patrycja Humienik, a University of Colorado graduate who lives in Denver, opening both shows as…
Unlike many acoustic-guitar-playing solo acts today, Joe Pug was not previously part of an established band; in fact, he’s never played in a band, period. So when his debut EP, 2009’s Nation of Heat, sold 20,000 copies, it was not because of an already established fan base, but because of…
Melbourne Australia’s Smith Street Band, due tonight at the Summit Music Hall, is a passionate and earnest group, whose world travels and experiences have offered its members unique perspective on politics, passion and self-evaluation. Their latest, Throw Me In The River, is an account of these experiences and emotions. The…
Master jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith (who’s due tonight, March 30 and Tuesday, March 31 at Dazzle) and says the Hammond B-3 is a part of him, that it’s an extension of himself. He’s been eating and breathing the organ for the last five decades since starting to play it…
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, who have built a reputation on being supportive and collaborative with Denver’s contemporary musicians, have further solidified this reputation with the announcement of their newest program, “Turn Over the Keys.” The program, which will take place on May 28th at Boettcher Concert Hall, will feature Denver…
