Music

Fort Collins DJ Derek Smith, aka Pretty Lights, has quietly built himself into one of the most potent DJ acts this side of the Rocky Mountains, and he has done it mostly via word of mouth and by offering all his music as free downloads from his website...

Plenty of musicians say the live show is where their music really comes alive and songs can take on a new life, evolving into something different — and often better — than the versions fans are accustomed to hearing on a record...

About three weeks ago, the dutiful webmaster running moe.’s homepage linked to a piece lauding the band’s long-tenured moe.down festival, held in upstate New York, as one of the world’s best music festivals, putting the low-key and locally beloved event alongside ...

Jesse Elliott — lead singer of the band These United States — has been coming out to the same little cottage in the woods of Michigan, a handful of yards from the shore of Lake Michigan, every year since his birth, so a number of experiences there have helped give ...

It’s a magical moment when life syncs up with the radio. The right song comes on unexpectedly, and the world gets quiet. I had such an experience around this time last year on a road trip back from Toronto with friends. We’d driven all night, clinging to the last ...

Pro Musica Colorado, the professional chamber orchestra directed by Cynthia Katsarelis, has told us “Stories” and taken us on “Journeys” in their past seasons. But there is no theme for 2014–15. “Sometimes in classical music, when you’re putting together beautiful ...

In November 2010, Otis Taylor, Boulder’s grizzled guitar-wielding and banjo-slinging statesman of the blues, found himself with some rare time off between bouts of playing his signature trance blues in Europe. The 11-time Blues Music Awards nominee decided to bring ...

There are a lot of things to do on July 4, but with multiple parts of the state literally on fire, it might be hard to come by those oft-cherished fireworks. Here are some of the best things to do this Independence Day — fireworks not guaranteed. Ralphie’s ...

At first glance, the Of Montreal/Janelle Monae tour seems to be somewhat of a odd pairing — the artsy Monae seems an unlikely counterpoint to indie glam-pop eccentrics Of Montreal — but they have more in common than first meets the eye...

Mike Scott has been heading up The Waterboys for three decades now, with plenty of the usual rock band personnel turnover to be expected of an enterprise this well-tenured, but his latest songwriting collaborator won’t be joining him on the road on his current tour. ...

Buddy Guy’s new release, Rhythm & Blues, is a rarity in an era when EPs and singles are becoming popular formats to release new music. It’s a double album, 22 all-new tracks deep...

The set was kind of funny at first. There were two drum sets next to each other, eight guitars on a rack in the back, a keyboard, and a few more guitars sprinkled on the stage for good measure. It almost looked like the front window at a music store...