For a lot of hip-hop fans in Denver, DJ Chonz is only known as the afternoon and weekend DJ on the city's "hip-hop" radio station, KS107.5. They don't know he cut his teeth hustling mixtapes at Cinco De Mayo, competing in Regional DMC Championships, and opening up for national artists like The Roots, Goodie Mob, Tha Alkaholiks and dozens more. They also don't know he's been releasing underground hip-hop mixtapes for quite sometime now.

One of the latest is Catch the Buzz 3, featuring everyone from Chino XL and Rhyemfest to locals Playalitcal and Infinite Mindz. Listen to it and download it after the jump. - Quibian Salazar-Moreno

Our sister paper LA Weekly has an excellent story up this week about photographer Peter Beste's work with the gruesome, scary and highly theatrical leading figures of Norwegian black metal. Accompanying the story is an entertaining, and very, very NSFW slide show of selected photographs from Beste's book. These photos cast their subjects in an honest, open-minded light that isn't exactly flattering but always avoids the cheap, easy characterization in favor of something complex and genuine. Plus, there's a naked girl covered in cow's blood and a pig's head on a stake. -- Cory Casciato

Dig Out Your Soul, the seventh studio release by Oasis, marks a new role for Noel Gallagher, the band's figurative helmsman and one of its literal front men. Gallagher, who took on the role of producer for the band's previous studio outings, has handed complete production control over to Dave Sardy, opting instead to focus on songwriting, band camaraderie and drinking. According to Gallagher, it's a shift that's allowed for a more focused approach to the creative process. It's also allowed for more streamlined partying.

French singer-songwriter Sebastien Tellier isn't shy about talking about either his sexuality or Sexuality, his new album, throughout which he delves into matters of the flesh with great delight. But he also sees the sacred side of salaciousness, as he makes clear in a December 4 Westword profile and the following Q&A.

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving, and I found myself at Forest Room 5, where several local filmmakers were screening their works, a friend and local artist named Claudine Rousseau had hung her poignant and pint-sized paintings, and Mike Marchant of Widowers was performing a solo set.

Tickets for B.B. King's April 10 Boulder Theater show go on sale Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. 

There was a lot more action this week with concert announcements, including Scott Weiland's gig at the Gothic Theatre February 2, KBPI's Birthday Bash with Slipknot, Coheed & Cambria and Trivium March 3 at the Denver Coliseum, Railroad Earth's two-day run at the Ogden Theatre on April 3 and 4, and B.B. King's April 10 show at the Boulder Theater.

AEG announced today that it would be selling specially priced $19.50 tickets for Oasis's December 8 show at the Broomfield Event Center. Lastly, Bonerama had to postpone its five-date Colorado run until spring of 2009. Here's a rundown of the other shows going on sale this weekend, or recently announced. For ticket information, click on the venue links. --Jon Solomon

Chances are better than good that if we asked you right now to guess which Denver band was name-dropped in the current issue of Spin, Bum Kon would probably be the last name you'd come up with. Not that the group doesn't merit a mention, mind you; it's just that the act, which disbanded during the Reagan era, isn't exactly top-of-mind these days. It is, however, for Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham. Evidently, the flesh-baring lead singer, whose band is profiled this month by Brian Raftery, was fired up about finding an out-of-print single by Bum Kon at a punk record fair in Toronto. -- Dave Herrera

I received an email a couple weeks ago from the 1090 Club, the delightfully unique indie rock outfit from Billings, Montana. The band was offering its new album, Natural Selection, for digital download for free through amiestreet.com. I had never heard of the website, but, after having gone all gooey over the group's previous release, Shipwrecked on Shores (which, as of today, is available for $2.98 from SideCho Records or $1.93 from Amie Street), I knew I'd get more than my zero dollars' worth for the new record.

Monolith Festival co-founder Matt Fecher kicks off the first of his New Music Mondays tonight at the Larimer Lounge (2721 Larimer St.). Fecher, who hosts the night as DJ Hot to Death, will be bringing in local artists, media, tastemakers, DJs and friends every Monday. In addition to having two guest DJs per week, music fans also can bring down vinyl or iPods a share a few of their favorite cuts. There's no cover and it runs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Photo: Jon Solomon


Ours, Plane Jane Automobile and Yerkish
Friday, November 28, 2008
Toad Tavern

I was floored the first time I saw Ours at the Walnut Room nearly two years ago. I was fully drawn into the band's performance and awestruck by singer's Jimmy Gnecco's vocal delivery, especially his soaring Jeff Buckley-esque falsetto. My expectations were high before seeing Ours last Friday, and the band delivered a solid performance, but it didn't quite hit me in the gut the way the other show did.

Wetlands, Widowers, the Dendrites, Monofog and Fissure Mystic
Friday, November 28, 2008
Larimer Lounge
Better than: Stuffing down turkey sandwiches while watching David Lynch films and weeping

On the day after Thanksgiving, the good hipsters of Denver shook off the tryptophan hangover and braved the snow to catch the Wetlands' CD release party at the Larimer Lounge. And it's safe to say no one was sorry they did. It turned out to be a great show. Which it would have to be to justify the ridiculous amount of bands playing. Consider that I showed up around eight, shortly before Fissure Mystic went on. I didn't leave until about 2:30 in the morning. ("After the bar closed?" you ask, incredulously. Yes, but more on that later.)

Wil Swindler's Elevenet
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge

Wil Swindler's weekend show at Dazzle helped me recover a lost memory. I must have been three years old at most. My mother was rifling through my parents' vinyl collection at our suburban home in Aurora, and the Beatles' "White Album" was playing on the turntable. I picked up the worn cardboard jacket bearing the images of the four band members, and asked innocently, "Which one of these guys was killed?"

Photo: Tom Murphy


Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk w/Yellow Elephant and Married in Berdichev
Saturday, November 29th, 2008
Rhinoceropolis
Better Than: Seeing well-established bands in a less idealistic setting.

As a relatively new, experimental band, Yellow Elephant is still working out its kinks and inconsistencies, but this show was one where things came together well. The set started with electro-metallic drums and minimal keyboard atmospherics weaving into a sonic tapestry of plaintive vocals, gentle plucks of the harp and what can best be described as the electronic analog to the sound made by water droplets condensing at the hood of a stove and dropping intermittently onto a hot, greasy pan.