Denver Blog

All right, so we've reached the end of another work week in the Mile High City. While we can no longer brag about having the best selling band in the country, from what we can tell, Denver music is still on the minds and in the ears of at least a few prominent folks in what's left of the industry. The highlights of the week: AP Magazine listed 3OH!3 as one of the one hundred bands you need to know in 2009, Jessica Sonner landed a song on an episode of HBO's Big Love, which is slated to air this Sunday night, we learned that Leftover Salmon's Bill McKay will not be charged in the potential criminal case he was facing in Eagle County and Jim McTurnan is working with Jason Martin from Starflyer 59 on the former's upcoming solo album. What else... oh, we offered you an exclusive sneak peek of the new Still City album, revealed the line-up for the Mile Hi-Fidelity day party at SXSW, and a whole bunch more. After the jump, as we always do at this time, we've posted a handy link guide so you can reflect on the week or catch up on anything you might have missed. Have a great weekend. See y'all on Monday!

The biggest news of the week in Denver music was obviously the Fray being the biggest selling band in the country. But aside from that, there was a ton of other news, like word of SleeperHorse parting ways, Gregory Alan Isakov touring with Brandi Carlile, Single File being featured on Spin.com, the Knew landing a track on Breaking Bad, Pictureplane linking up with Lovepump United and touring with HEALTH, Fort Collins launching their own local music festival, Young Coyotes releasing a pair of EPs, DJ Bedz and Quote holding things down at the NBA All-Star game down in Phoenix and a whole bunch more. After the jump we've posted a handy link guide so you can reflect on the week or catch up on anything you might have missed. Happy Valentine's day. In the immortal words of Kojak, who loves you, baby? We do. Have a weekend!

Undoubtedly, the biggest news this week was word that Jim Dalton had been asked to join Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, replacing his friend, departing guitarist Steve Larson. This was also the week that the Fray's new album hit stores, which made for a great photo opportunity for Locals Only host, Alf. We posted a lot of other stuff this week including a Q&A with Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, Sound Bites returned and we gave you the scoop on the lineup thus far for Heavenfest 2009. To catch up on things you might've missed this week or to refresh your memory, we've compiled a handy list of links for you after the jump. See you on Monday!

In terms of music news this was a slower week in the Mile High City. The biggest items were news of Overcasters being invited to perform at South By Southwest on the heels of a particularly harrowing trip to the East Coast a few weeks ago with the Fluid, followed closely by DJ Vajra's inclusion in a Serato Scratch ad in BPM Magazine. This week, the first review of the Fray's new record also came down from Rolling Stone, who panned it and tossed in a Coldplay comparison for good measure. Beyond the news and the free music we offered for download, the hottest item on the blog this week was the whole phenomenon of talking at shows. As a follow-up to the most recent installment of the Beatdown, we asked a few songwriters to weigh in with their thoughts, which inspired Cory Casiato to chime in with some thoughts of his own. If you missed anything of the things mentioned here, as always, we've assembled a handy list of links to all of the stories that ran on the blog this week. See you on Monday!

From Leftover Salmon's Bill McKay being arrested to Swayback adding Adam Tymn from Vaux to its line-up to Frontside Five and 29th St. Disciples landing record deals, there was tons happening this week. The biggest and perhaps most stunning item of the week, however, has to be news of the unfortunate and untimely demise of Hearts of Palm, one of the most promising bands to emerge from Denver in the past five years. After the jump, in case you missed anything, we've compiled a handy list of links to all of this week's stories so you can catch up. Have a weekend. See you on Monday.

This was very active week for music in the three-oh-three. Hell of a lot of stuff going on. Put it this way, we feel like we earned that cold one we're about crack by blogging our backsides off. No really. I have no ass. Ask around. I'm all front, no back. Of course, that could also just be the curse of the fatman. Where was I... oh, yeah, so, from checking out and weighing in on the Fray's show at the Gothic to having the pleasure of delivering news of Havok's (pictured above) new deal with Candle Light Records and word of the Pirate Signal's choice gig at Sundance, we had no shortage of things to write about. Missed a day? No worries. After the jump we've compiled handy list of links to this week's blog items. As my old buddy Dan Mitchell would say, have a weekend. -- Dave Herrera

Let's hope your Christmas was better than this.  

Here's you guide to all the great content on Backbeat Online you might have missed this week while you were busy getting trampled by crazed shoppers at Walmart, heavily drinking or wishing you didn't have to hang with the in-laws.

This week, U2 threw its colleagues at Live Nation a curve when it unexpectedly -- well, in this economy, it shouldn't really come as too big a surprise -- set about cashing in the 1.6 million shares it received as part of a 360 deal it signed with the entertainment conglomerate. According to a report filed by the Wall Street Journal, the current stock value is only at a fraction of what the band is guaranteed through its agreement, which means the company will now have to make up for the other $19 million in losses it will incur as a result. D'oh! Needless to say, things were decidedly less grim here at Backbeat headquarters (well, aside from the fact that we still owe clubs editor Jon Solomon twenty bucks, but that's a whole other Oprah). Anyhow, here's links to everthing we wrote about in the blog this week in case you missed it. -- Dave Herrera

Here's a guide to all the great content you might have missed this week while you were eating turkey, drinking heavily, watching football or the Sarah Palin video where the guy is slaughtering turkeys behind her. Just so happens that guy's half brother sings for Yerkish.

All eyes -- or ears, rather -- in the music world, including ours, were on Chinese Democracy this week. Most of us honestly never thought we'd live to see the release of the mythical Guns N' Roses record, and now that we had a chance to listen to it all the way through, we're sticking by our original assessment, based on hearing just a few songs: meh. Although parts of it are infinitely more listenable than expected, as a whole, it doesn't really seem to have been worth the excruciating amount of time it took to be released. Anyhow, we weighed in on that album this week, as well as Kanye's new one, which hits stores next week, and delivered a ton of other content, the headlines of which we've conveniently hot linked for you after the jump. Have a great weekend. We'll see you again on Monday. -- Dave Herrera