Denver Music Blog

Axl Rose is displeased that people are actually hearing the long-fabled Chinese Democracy

Here's a handy list of all the great content you might have missed this week while you were avidly following the story of the blogger who was arrested for leaking tracks from the Guns 'N Roses Chinese Democracy album and scouring your own blog for tracks that might send you to the big house...

The Roches.

Earlier this week, my ex-wife and I were chatting about music, and she asked me who sang a particular song. All she could remember were the first few words: “We are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy.”

“Oh, that’s the Roches,” I said. “From the self-titled album.” She had heard something that reminded her of that song, which I used to play a lot when we were married, on a scratchy, old, vinyl copy.

“I’d love to hear that,” she said, so I went out and acquired a digital copy to share with her. I’ve been wanting to replace my vinyl with digital anyway (I know, I know. Don’t start with me), so it was a good excuse.

Nyke Nitti gets in where he fits in.

LOCALS ONLY

Nyke Nitti (formerly Nyke Loc) has been putting in work in the local scene for over a decade. His biggest project came around 2000, with the release of Mob Life on his Str8 Check’n imprint. The album scored a solid distribution deal to more than 25 states and garnered attention from The Source and Murder Dog magazines. Based off the attention, Nyke was steadily selling CDs and was able tour and stay on the road. But then everything fell through.

“Our distribution company filed bankruptcy,” Nyke says. “We never received a check from the distribution company, there was little stock left of the album, and with really no budget to regroup, the album kind of fizzled out. It was a great album, but with any album with no promotion, that ass is gone. Then a few of my business partners got caught up in some illegal activities which landed them in jail for an extended stay. This left just me and my little brother Moheat, who was growing and getting better at producing. My producer Zaboo was locked up, along with a couple of my guys, which then put all the weight on me. I had to put together my own studio from scratch!”

Because of Nyke’s hustle, he was able to release a compilation, Mobb Muzik, featuring Julox, Innerstate Ike, Dai Dai, Dragon E, and other local artists, and an album called The Laundrymat. While Nyke was trying to secure another distribution deal, he and his brother began recording even more tracks and the result is his latest album, The Formula.

Music ruled Denver this week, from Saturday's Rock the Bells show to Thursday night at Invesco. Here are some of our favorite performances -- also known as the ones we managed to get into.

Alright, alright, admitedly, the headline of this post is a little misleading. By no means am I a political analyst, nor am I even going to pretend to be. I have my own thoughts on Barack Obama's speech, but I'm gonna go ahead and leave the analytical dissection to far more qualified talking heads like my man Keith Olbermann. I do know music, though, and I must say, the selection of tunes tonight at Invesco was rather curious. Obama made his historic entrance to "City of Blinding Lights" by U2 and exited to Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America," a track favored by George Bush during his re-election campaign. Coincidence? Uh-huh. Right. Did you see how well the rest of that thing was scripted? Not sure what prompted the Obama camp to choose the former number (it's not one of U2's most shining moments), but with the latter, I can only surmise that it was a subtle attempt to endear Obama to swing voters in the red states. Or no? -- Dave Herrera

Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah. No, seriously, do it!

Nada Surf, Cold War Kids, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Silversun Pickups
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 Manifest Hope Art Gallery
Better than: Hanging out in the industrial stretches of north Denver when the DNC is not in town.

By 6 p.m., the evening was quickly becoming frustrating, aggravating and enervating.
As the sound check rang from the improvised stage off of Walnut and 30th streets Wednesday, Aug. 27, the growing crowd assembled for the Manifest Hope Art Gallery concert started grumbling.

The show was already 20 minutes late, and though the stage was within sight, the gatekeepers held the burgeoning audience at bay. “This is just disorganized,” one young girl noted as the steady chorus of “Check, check, check” came from the restricted area for what seemed like the fiftieth time.

Moby's been in town all week, in case you haven't noticed (we haven't really paid any attention, to tell you the truth). Evidently, he's been drinking coffee at the Brown Palace, which he thinks sounds like some sort of Berlin club for shit fetishists, and when he's not doing that, he's been playing other people's records and making outrageous claims, like comparing Denver in August to Cancun in March, for instance. We learned this all from the week-long DNC blog he's been scribbling for Blender. Turns out, dude is actually slightly amusing. Corny at times, but amusing. -- Dave Herrera

Yonder Mountain String band has scored, hands down, the coolest gig of the entire DNC and perhaps its career. Tonight the Nederland-based act will be performing at Invesco prior to Barack Obama's acceptance speech, alongside Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and will.i.am. Don't know how the band managed to make it on that bill, but holy crap, man! Nice work. -- Dave Herrera

This photo just popped into my e-mail box from my dude Chris Gray at our sister paper in Houston. Matt Sonzala, the man behind the Houston So Real blog, snapped this pic of Bun B from UGK straight flossin' at Pepsi Center and sent it to Chris this afternoon. Now if you read my column this week, you know that I have about as much use for seeing celebs as tits on a bull, but I thought this one might be worth sharing. Dig. -- Dave Herrera

The Rock the Vote Denver 2008 show slated to take place this Friday afternoon at Sculpture Park has reportedly been moved to the Denver skate park. No word on why the show has been relocated, but were tipped off to the switch from one of the bands on the local-centric, post-DNC bill, which is free and open to the public. We'll keep you posted if we hear anything different. In the meantime, check out the full schedule after the jump. -- Dave Herrera

I didn't Google-map the location of the MySpace-sponsored Nelly show on Monday night. I had a general idea of where I was going, but no actual concrete directions, which made it difficult, since finding this venue -- the sprawling Mile High Station -- is pretty much impossible. I drove around for about 20 minutes, snaking below the Colfax viaduct, and finally arrived the somehow classy/sketchy club. Once I arrived, there was a line out the door and through the parking lot. But there was something different about this crowd, something that wreaked of old money. Or was it old fashion?