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By: Quinn Jones I was eating Burger King in an empty Lowe’s parking lot as dusk fell. Earlier that day I had received an email from a close friend. The SoCC had a press pass to see The War On Drugs that very night at the Mission Ballroom. I responded to the email expressing my interest, but I didn’t think I had any chance at the tickets, given that I wasn’t a SoCC reporter. Because I felt that my chances of getting that press pass were slim, I decided I would spend the evening with my sister. Mid-burger, I get an email back from my SoCC liaison: I got the press pass! I wolfed the rest of the meal and set my course for the Mission Ballroom. The energy in the ballroom was palpable. Hipsters young and old were forced to pack themselves into the cavernous hall. The hype was real, but th...

Check out what some of our DJs and writers consider their favorite albums of 2021. Whole Lotta Red, Playboi Carti (Although it came out in 2020, it's been considered a 2021 album since it came out at the very end of 2020). This album made me respect Playboi Carti as an artist. The experimentation on this album, both vocally and production-wise, is like no other hip-hop project of the past year. On Whole Lotta Red, Carti does everything outside of the box. While maintaining his simple, often repetitive lyrics that have made him such a polarizing artist, he pushes the boundaries of hip-hop even further by introducing distorted production and chaotic, punk-inspired vocals. This album is unpredictable in a good way. At one moment he could be screaming over a WAKEUPFILTHY beat ...

By Tamar Crump A blue-haired fairy girl grazed the stage with her guitar on a cool Saturday night in Denver, Colorado at the Marquis Theater to tell a few stories about herself. Neon purple light eliminated the stage, which was covered in colorful drawings and various stuffed animals, signaling both the growth from child to adult but also the stories and experiences that shaped the girl and the music. Madeline is a 19-year old sing-songwriter from Bellaire, Texas embarking on an exciting journey telling her stories of growth and pain to the world. The melodic singer gained fame after sharing videos of her singing song covers on Tiktok gaining thousands of followers and even getting recognition from singers such as Lizzo and Billie Eilish.  My friend and I attended the show, ...

Lo-fi pop powerhouse Japanese Breakfast embraced joy at Denver’s Ogden Theatre in October in support of her new album Jubilee. Korean-American multi-instrumentalist Michelle Zauner is the musician and songwriter behind Japanese Breakfast. She dazzled the sold-out venue as she brought us into her world. Zauner opened the show with my favorite track from the album, “Paprika,” a triumphant song about “reveling in the beauty of music,” she said in the album’s digital liner notes on Apple Music. Moody synths undulated as she sang about waking from a dream, then the audience joined in as horns and snare drums crescendoed into a celebratory chorus: “How’s it feel to be at the center of magic / To linger in tones and words?” the audience sang rhetorically along with Zauner. “How’s it feel ...

By Oliviero Zanalda Jonah Mutono is a multi-talented recording artist who released one of the best, and one of the  most underrated, albums of 2020: GERG. This album is a story of accepting identity - it tells Jonah’s story. Born into a religious Ugandan family, Jonah struggled to accept his identity and come out as a queer man. This album describes just that. GERG, as he explained to me, was the secret name he saved his now ex-boyfriend as on his phone. This was done in an effort to cover up the fact that he was dating a man. If he ever got a heart emoji text from someone named GERG, his religious friends and family wouldn’t suspect him of dating a man, it could be anyone. This story is just the tip of the GERG iceberg. As you listen to this album, you’ll begin to learn more...

By Tess Rittenberg Adele released her previous album, 25, on November 20, 2015. After that, she disappeared from the spotlight, leaving listeners unsure when she would make music again. six years later, almost to the day, Adele’s new album, 30, will be released on November 19, 2021. However, she released a sneak peek for her viewers; her new single “Easy On Me” dropped on October 15. Let’s take a deeper dive into the lyrics and hopes for the new album! Image courtesy of The Edge When Adele was asked on Instagram live what her new album is about, she famously responded “divorce, babe, divorce” in her lovely British accent. But what is “Easy on Me” about? It is about the baggage that Adele has in her previous relationship, which happened when she was “still a child”, and to be gen...

By Emily Faulks Two raccoons huddle together for warmth on top of the gigantic red sandstone slabs that surround the venue, our source of entertainment for the 45-minute wait into the amphitheater. Hunter’s moon, the full moon following a Harvest moon that signaled preparation for winter, begins to rise over the hills up into the clear sky- setting the scene for the cold night ahead. Having suffered the mistake of not bringing a coat to the last October concert at Red Rocks, I am bundled and excited for the four-hour performance Dead and Company has in store for us.  This past summer, my friend Natalie and I took a trip down to Bristow, Virginia- the closest location that Dead and Company was traveling to on their 2021 tour- our first Dead & Co. concert. We brought heavy ra...

By Tim Smith Snail Mail is easily one of my favorite bands, and what I have loved so much about them is their simplicity. On Habit and Lush (Snail Mail’s debut EP and album, respectively), the group perfected their crisp, yet jangly, garage rock sound. It’s what got me into them: crunchy loud guitar (usually in some open tuning), clean bass and drums to back it up, and Jordan’s piercing and personal lyrics. Their new track, Benjamin Franklin, however, is a complete departure from their trademark sound. The song starts with bouncy drums and a poppy baseline, and we don’t even hear Jordan’s guitar until two minutes in. For the first time in a Snail Mail track, synths take the place of lead guitar to create the melody. There’s something distinctively different about Jordan’s vocals too, a...