The ad that ran in Westword in advance of the Thursday, September 9, 2004, Beastie Boys show at Red Rocks with Talib Kweli.

By all accounts, the Beastie Boys performed in the Denver metro area ten times over the course of two decades, beginning with the act's first show at the Mammoth Events Center on Friday, February 13, 1987, and culminating with its Rock the Vote double bill at the Fillmore with Tenacious D on Monday, November 3. Last night, we braved the scary, cobweb-infested confines of our archives, inhaling a mountain of dust, and found some of the ads that ran in this fishwrap in advance of some of these shows. Page down to have a look.

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In this week's print edition, you'll notice the conspicuous absence of 4 Questions, the always entertaining and brilliantly illustrated comic strip from Backbeat's resident genius (no, seriously, we hear he's a card-carrying member of Mensa -- or maybe he knows somebody who is, we can never remember) Noah Van Sciver. While Noah graciously sat this week out to make room for our annual Best of Denver picks, there's no way in hell we were going to deprive you of his dependable irreverence. That said, page down for a very special web-only edition of 4 Questions in living color!

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Over the last six years Paper Bird (due tonight at the Fox Theatre in Boulder and tomorrow night at the Aggie Theater in Fort Collins) has become a Denver favorite for all ages and backgrounds. Since dropping its debut album, Anything Nameless and Joymaking, in 2007, the bandmembers have been on a ride that has taken them from busking on the streets of Breckenridge to performing at Red Rocks. In 2009 they were featured on NPR's All Things Considered and have since toured the country several times, opening up for acts like Neko Case and DeVotchKa.

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The Fray breaks down Scars & Stories, its third full-length release, produced by Brendan O'Brien. We caught up with the Fray's chief songwriters, Isaac Slade and co-founder Joe King, and the two gave us the full story behind the songs on the new record, from how a YouTube clip of a fire dancer inspired the pair to pen "Turn Me On" to how King wrote "The Wind" straight off of returning from his divorce proceedings to how "Be Still" came to Slade one morning after taking a sleepless, late-night phone call from his little brother. If you came here looking for the story behind the songs, you've come to the right place.

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As with every year, the Mile High City had absolutely no shortage of compelling releases from across a wide variety of genres. There were so many, in fact, that, also like past years, we just didn't have the room to fit all of them into the paper this week (a good problem to have, mind you). Thankfully, no such space restrictions exist on the blog. With that in mind, we present you with this year's Moovers & Shakers round-up in its entirety. Page down to see which local releases flipped our wigs this year.

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Here are the winners of the 2011 Denver #WebAwards in the category we're loosely dubbing "music," which means Backbeat scribes report on the happenings in these areas, right here on Backbeat. These are the winners only; for a complete list of finalists go here: "Here are your 2011 Denver #WebAwards finalists." View the complete list of 2011 #WebAwards winners.

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Carbondale-based non-profit Feed Them with Music has a business model that they hope will bring small musical acts more exposure and bigger audiences, while simultaneously feeding the Third World. It works like this: Paul Frantzich and Ashley Mosher, the duo who run the organization, manage and promote the show. The artist only has to arrive and perform.

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Look how far they've come.

Billboard magazine published its first music chart ever on January 4, 1936 -- 75 years ago today. It was called The Hit Parade, and it was one of the first music charts of any kind. The first number-one in Billboard history? Joe Venuti, father of the jazz violin, performing "Stop, Look and Listen." The equivalent today is the Hot 100 chart, where Bruno Mars holds the top spot with "Grenade." Jazz violin to teen-crush crooning: Hooray for progress?

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As we compiled our annual Moovers and Shakers issue this year -- a rundown of our favorite local releases from the past year -- we found, once again, that there were simply more albums that we dug than we had space to devote to in the paper. Thankfully, no such limitations exist on the web. Click through for two dozen more picks from the past year that didn't appear in print.

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