Aimee Mann at Chautaqua Auditorium on Wednesday. Photo by Mark T. Osler.
Marc Cohn decided to address the issue of his shooting in Denver — which happened three years ago during attempted carjacking, and after a show at Denver Botanic Gardens — several times during his show at the Botanic Gardens Friday night, starting with saying how safe he felt to be back in Denver, then giving an explanation with a reference to “The World According to Garp.”
Cohn talked about how in the movie, Robin Williams [...]

Nashville Pussy whirled into the Larimer Lounge on Friday night to kick off a two-show stint. Photos and video by John Moore.
It seems like Nashville Pussy’s on a perpetual tour, criss-crossing North America with a mission to spread its version of southern-fried psychobilly as far as it can from their Atlanta base. Or maybe it’s just ’cause the band loves playing it.
Either way, it’s all good — based on its show at Larimer Lounge Friday night — the first of two shows it played last [...]

Cowboy Junkies lead singer Margo Timmins smiles as she greets the crowd at Sunday’s Denver Botanic Gardens show. Photos by Candace Horgan.
Two decades have passed since Canada’s Cowboy Junkies sauntered onto the charts with a seductive version of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” with beckoning bass lines and Margo Timmins’ sultry voice. On Sunday beneath a cloudless sky, Timmins stood on the Denver’s Botanic Gardens stage in a black dress and high heels and remarked on how much had changed since the band arrived on [...]

Live review: Charlie Hunter Trio @ the Boulder Theater

“Rise… for the cameras!” Flobots at the Gothic Theatre for their “Rise” video shoot on July 6. Photos by Brian Carney.
Denver activist hip-hop group Flobots has been blowing up lately on national TV, radio and download charts, so it’s no surprise they returned to one of their favorite venues — Englewood’s Gothic Theatre — on July 6 to shoot the video for “Rise,” the second single from their recently re-released album “Fight with Tools.”
The video was intended to “spotlight our longtime supporters and friends who [...]

Photos by Mark T. Osler.
By some yardsticks of “what constitutes alternative music” (say, highly structured blonde hair, a propensity to stand up in the middle of an opera and scream, “He said, ‘Shut up!’”), Aimee Mann was at her most “alternative” in 1985.
In retrospect, that was Mann’s mainstream phase, being the year in which she sang her only Top Ten hit, “Voices Carry,” fronting early MTV darlings ‘Til Tuesday.
Since conventional musical yardsticks are broken, Mann has met the industry standard for “alternative” throughout much [...]

Can you spot Greg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, in the mayhem? Photos by Sarah Cass.
To encase oneself in the hard shell of a public persona while still maintaining the soft human inside is a feat I admire in an entertainer. In a music industry diluted with million-selling underage sexpot drama queens, hook-addicted rappers, and adult contemporary faux rock n’ rollers, Gregg Gillis, also known as Girl Talk, is a humble rarity, a music-maker of unique proportions.
On stage, he’s a self–proclaimed “not-DJ” known for getting so [...]

Photos by Jason K. Powers.
“Am I always angry? No. Am I always full of hope? No. But even if my lyrics are dark as sh*t, there’s always something uplifting about the music. I try to rise above my issues,” said Richard Patrick of Filter, describing the band’s latest release, “Anthems for the Damned.”
It’s an honest quote and a fairly accurate distillation of the band’s new album. In fact, “Anthems for the Damned” holds its own as a solid record, and you’d be hard pressed to [...]

New lead singer Arnel Pineda (right) made Journey fans proud at Fiddler’s Green on Wednesday. Photos by Erick Lopez.
Arnel Pineda had some big shoes to fill Wednesday. And by the end of his second-ever American concert as the new crooner for Journey, most of the 18,000 crammed into Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre had forgotten Steve Perry.
With perfect pitch, power and amazing resonance, Pineda floored a crowd that probably arrived ready to pine for Perry. A few months ago Pineda was a somewhat popular performer in Manila, [...]

Sic Alps (hunched over in the hoodies) hewed closer to traditional song lengths and structures at their GlobGlobGlob show on July 7. Photo from SicAlps.com.
Considering that they share a building, Rhinoceropolis and GlobGlobGlob are in a familial situation. If it’s a familial situation they’re in, one might say that they’re twin sisters. Rhinoceropolis is the messy, unpredictable sister with tangled hair — the one that sneaks out of her window on most mild summer evenings to cause mischief with her friends. Glob is more reserved, [...]