After a backbreaking weekend of live music, I strolled into Shine for a performance by self-professed “quirky folk” band, The Shook Twins. Shine is a glimpse into what Boulder was and in some circumstances still is, and the complete antithesis of the growing corporate model seen along Pearl Street and recently highlighted by the emergence of Wal-Mart.

I’ve said it so many times to so many different people, “go see the Motet”. I tell my jam friends, my womp friends, and even my white rapper friends, “go see the damn Motet”.  Anybody that has ever listened to me has been completely blown away. Most people have just never had that much funk in their face before, so it’s understandable when they complain about a neck pain the next morning.

On a mild January Friday night in Boulder, my photographer, Harvdog and I decided to skip the usual CU ragefest and check out Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue performing the "Best Of Winterland" at our local Boulder Theater.

On yet another unusually warm January weeknight in Fayetteville, AR, Brooklyn-based Eliot Lipp played an energetic, upbeat show. The crowd was a bit sparse, likely due to the fact that it’s a new year (people make resolutions to save money, not go out, etc.) and the show was on a weeknight. But unlike some much larger shows, it seemed each person who bought a ticket to the show was there for the music.

On December 31, 2012, The Mantras along with Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, rang in 2013 in fine fashion at Greensboro, North Carolina's Blind Tiger.  On this leg of the tour, the Mantras and Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band are alternating the headlining role from night to night.