Music
It’s a family affair
One thing lacking in the world of hip-hop is the promotion of family. Hip-hop doesn’t endorse the traditional husband-wife-child model taking on the world as a unit. Sure, we get hip-hop condemning the ills of society and government, along with hip-hop that promotes ...
Reunited, and it feels so good
Kerry King, guitarist for iconic thrash metal band Slayer, has had a gloried career, from angry speed-metal outsider to controversy-provoking media target to grizzled guitar hero. Slayer formed in 1982, when King met Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman at an audition for ...
The composition of carbon
The reason why Ryan Fechter, the bassist for Denver/ Boulder-based indie-rock band Carbon Choir, makes music is a unique one...
One last show
Dave Matthews’ recent announcement that his hugely popular group would take all of 2011 off probably seemed like an ominous sign to some of his fans. But Matthews says the fact that he and his bandmates — drummer Carter Beauford, violin player Boyd Tinsley and ...
Light it up
Not that we’d know anything about this, but sometimes the hardest part of getting a piece of work done is just starting it, getting the wheels turning, finding a way in while being stared at by a blank page waiting for a lead sentence, or that first brushstroke, or ...
Blast your ears off
BoomBox began as the meeting of two new souls in Muscle Shoals, the famous town in Alabama where Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and others recorded albums. Producer Russ Randolph met singer/guitarist Zion Godchaux during a 2004 recording session for ...
A sound legacy
For the 40 years AEG Live Rocky Mountains President and CEO Chuck Morris has worked the Colorado music scene, he has had a crucial hand in implementing nearly every fixture of that scene we now take for granted. Tulagi back in the day? Red Rocks? The Fillmore? Thank...
Strays & runaways
The metamorphosis of folk trio The Waifs, who play at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons this weekend, is equal parts gritty survival story and enchanting fairy tale. Beginning in 1992, sisters Vikki and Donna Simpson, selftaught guitarists, began traipsing...
Pretty Lights shine at Red Rocks
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...
Homeward bound for Pretty Lights
It might be a shame that Pretty Lights hasn’t enjoyed the same self-congratulatory media coverage given to fellow Colorado acts (cough, 3Oh!3, ahem) with a vapid “Look, they’re from Colorado!” type of praise. It would only be a shame if producer Derek Smith ever ...
