String Cheese Incident triumphantly returns to Red Rocks for three-night romp

:: String Cheese Incident ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July  23-25 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

For anyone that has truly experienced a String Cheese Incident, it’s immediately crystal clear that the band built a loyal, if not rabid, fanbase during their 15 year run. Theirs were fans that would drive for days for a chance to catch an ‘Incident’ deep in the woods of Oregon, in a park in Texas, or in the heart of Manhattan. It was about so much more than the music, it was the connection between the band and the world around them that made The String Cheese Incident so special.

While it’s true that the band did break their hiatus for two shows last summer, including a much lauded headlining appearance at The Rothbury Festival, the announcement that most fans have been waiting for came earlier this year when the band revealed that they would be returning to Red Rocks this summer for a mighty three-night run.  In honor of their triumphant return to The Rocks, The Marquee caught up with keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth and several members of the extended family that the band has helped to nurture over the years, to talk about what the band has meant to their companies, their lives, and all of the Colorado music Continue — Read more »

New Pornographers release ‘a total monster’ with latest project Together

:: The New Pornographers ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: July 28 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

In an era when so many claim that good old fashioned pop music, the kind you like to crank up in a convertible with the top down, is dead, The New Pornographers return with an album chock full of tunes that are begging to be played at full volume on a winding country road. Their songs, with heavily layered instrumentation and dense harmonies, have an unmistakable feel that is strangely familiar even when being heard for the first time.

The mastermind behind The New Pornographers, and their new record Together, is Carl Newman. While he is better known as “AC” to some of his fans, Newman is a visionary artist whose outstanding ear for harmony and fearless approach to pop music have made the five New Pornographers albums possible. Continue — Read more »

Umphrey’s McGee lets fans in on the band dialogue and finds astounding results

:: Umphrey’s McGee ::

:: Red Rocks and Blue w/ Galactic and  The Wailers ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 3 ::

::  Gothic Theatre :: July 4 ::

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Umphrey’s McGee is a band that likes to keep a firm grasp on its future. The act is not just unconventional and on the leading edge when it comes to its progressive improvisational rock, but also with how it communicates with and caters to its fans.

When Umphrey’s McGee was formed at the University of Notre Dame in 1997, the band immediately took a forward-looking approach to promoting itself, staying in touch with fans and creating new and unusual live music experiences. With the band hosting ever larger and more passionate audiences at its concerts across the country, and being booked into headlining slots at most of the summer’s biggest music festivals, it appears the act’s tactics are paying off. Continue — Read more »

Danielle Ate the Sandwich uses lo-fi, hi-tech means to truly connect with fan base

:: Danielle Ate The Sandwich ::

:: Film on the Rocks Raising  Arizona with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals ::

:: Red Rocks  Amphitheatre :: July 6 ::

:: Twist and Shout :: July 7 ::

::  Walnut Room :: July 9 ::

:: Everyday Joes :: July 10 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Sometimes things that initially seem simple can be so wonderfully deep and layered that with a humble modesty a genius is revealed that might have easily been glossed over at first glance.

Such is the case with Danielle Ate The Sandwich, the Loveland, Colo.-based singer/songwriter/ukulele player, who since 2006 has been redefining the way the region looks at quirky, fun, acoustic music.

She has a shoot-from-the-hip attitude, but unlike many who try that, Ms. Sandwich actually hits the target with the precision of someone who planned the shot for months. Continue — Read more »

With new drummer and one less guitar, KORN’s Latest album returns to their roots

:: Korn ::

:: Mayhem Festival ::

:: Comfort Dental  Amphitheatre ::

:: July 18 ::

By Joe Kovack

Sometimes it takes nearly 20 years and nine albums to re-find yourself. With their latest record, Korn comes full circle with a back-to-basics sound.

Korn is back. Slightly reshaped and with a new record label, the Bakersfield, Calif. group has used their 17 years in the music business as a way to define who they are musically.

Starting in 1993, Korn became a seminal fixture in the emerging American nu-metal scene. Their first two efforts, Korn and Life is Peachy ,set them apart from the alternative and grunge bands that ruled American rock music in the ’90s. But it would be their third album Follow the Leader that would push the band into the mainstream and earn them their first of two Grammy awards. Though, as the new millennium arrived, so would years that would prove trying for the band, even while selling nearly 30 million records to date in their career. Continue — Read more »

KGNU celebrates 22nd annual Charles Sawtelle Mountain Jam at Gold Hill

:: KGNU’s 22nd Annual Charles Sawtelle Mountain Jam feat.  Oakhurst, Sarah Siskind and Friends, and the Blue Canyon Boys ::

::  Gold Hill Inn :: July 18 ::

By Jonathan S. Gang

According to dawgnet.com, Charles Sawtelle’s business card had only one word on it (besides his name). It had no address or telephone number —just one word:  “Expert.”

That says a lot about Sawtelle, something about his “less is more” approach to things, about his sense of humor, and besides, it was true. He was an “Expert.”

Hailed as “one of the most innovative guitar players in bluegrass history” by Flat Picking Merchantile, the Austin, Texas native came to Boulder in the late 1970s. He found his passion for music playing steel guitar and eventually found his way to the acoustic guitar and bluegrass music. Continue — Read more »

Rumanian Buck one of the many great discoveries at 1Oth annual UMS

:: Rumanian Buck ::

:: Denver Post Underground Music Showcase  ::

:: July 22 - 25 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

With more than 300 artists announced, including headliners Flobots, Machine Gun Blues and These United States, this month’s UMS will take over Denver for four days, and once again transform South Broadway into Denver’s answer to SXSW.

With that many artists, scattered over more than 25 venues (some of which regularly host music, and some of which have never had live music before), the element of discovery is the focus of the attention. Since its inception, the UMS (properly called The Denver Post’s Underground Music Showcase) has sought to do exactly what its name implies — highlight talent that is somewhere just off the radar of the mainstream. Continue — Read more »

Various Artists

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine

Oh Boy Records

3.5 out of 5 stars

I love it when compilations go for the deep cuts. Nothing is worse than hearing a compilation whose track list reads like a “Best Of” release.

That said, however, I can’t believe no one did “Sam Stone” on this compilation of John Prine songs, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows. I’m sure there are other fans of Prine who would miss other songs, and I guess that’s the only real downfall to this compilation.

Since his first, self-titled album was released in 1971, former Illinois letter carrier Prine has been simultaneously defining and defying the post-Dylan singer/songwriter movement from which he sprang. Bolder and stranger than the rest, yet beguilingly old-fashioned, Prine functions on his own timetable and by his own rules, going so far as to found his own label with longtime manager Al Bunetta, Oh Boy Records, thus liberating himself from the cat-and-mouse pressures of major label recording.

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows was born in the Oh Boy offices, as a group of staffers at the five-person company were discussing their favorite artists and wondering how some of these newer acts would go about interpreting John Prine’s music. From there, inquiries began to be made.

In a brilliant move, the record company didn’t make any suggestions about the songs the artists,picked, nor how they should sound. But, most brilliant of all, they didn’t enforce a deadline, thus giving artists all the time they needed to make their tracks shine. However, that move did make this project take two-and-a-half years — and it was worth every second.

From the opening notes of “Music Arcade,” by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, it’s clear that Oh Boy carefully chose the artists on the album — most of whom are well known enough to keep it interesting, but just off the radar enough to keep it from being some slick commercial b.s.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band do great justice to “Wedding Day in Funeralville” with a rocking flare. My Morning Jacket puts in one of the album’s best performances with “All The Best.” Jim James’ haunting vocals soar through the song, and the track ultimately sounds like something that could have been on the Jacket’s break-out album It Still Moves.

Josh Ritter, Lambchop and Justin Townes Earle each turn in strong renditions of some of Prine’s lesser-known tracks.

The Avett Brothers make “Spanish Pipedream” very much their own — their old-timey twang fits the track perfectly. Old Crow Medicine Show run splendidly through the sing-along ballad “Angel From Montgomery.”

Anyone who knows Prine’s work knows his vocal partner Iris Dement, and Sara Watkins of Nickle Creek pays homage to Dement’s style, in delivering the waltzing lullaby of “The Late John Garfield Blues.”

Drive-By Truckers, not shockingly, crank it up and tear through “Daddy’s Little Pumpkin,” before Deer Tick and Those Darlins close out the album with “Unwed Fathers” and “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian.”

This is a great homage to Prine, and one is sorely needed, but all in all, for this release to really shine it should have included even more artists, doing even more songs. Anything short of a boxed set on this, just kind of seems like an informal “Thanks,” instead of a hearty, humble “Thank you, sir.”

— Brian F. Johnson

Ben Jordan & The Heathens

Ghosts Breathing Through Our Strings

Crying Soul Music

4.5 out of 5 stars

Yeah, it’s really that good!

Boulder singer/songwriter Ben Jordan comes alive with this release, Ghosts Breathing Through Our Strings — his first full-length with his band The Heathens.

Since his vagabond days, before he settled in Colorado, Jordan has surrounded himself with top-notch musicians and on this release he outdoes himself. With accompaniment by Front Range session staples, drummer Brian McCrae (e-town, Yonder Mountain String Band) and guitarist Jack Leahy (The Paper Stars, Gregory Alan Isakov), Jordan takes his acoustic guitar sound and gives it a depth that he could never achieve on his own. That sound is significantly flushed out by Adam MacDougal of The Black Crowes on piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer and B3.

But even MacDougal’s famous pedigree is overshadowed by the final element that makes this album so impressive — the blend of vocals between Jordan and Jess DeNicola (John Common and the Blinding Flashes of Light, Jen Korte and the Loss).

Jordan and DeNicola compliment each other perfectly and that, combined with tales of travel and love, hearken back to the musical relationship between Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary, that made Whiskeytown such an enthralling and beautiful act.

Just like Whiskeytown, Jordan and the Heathens play a rock/alt-country blend that might not really be country, but is definitely something that you could wear cowboys boots to. The maturity that Jordan has gained in his several solo albums leading up to this release is shown in deep lyrics which refuse to date themselves, but seem to be from generations ago.

Recorded in several studios, both local and elsewhere, Jordan kept the production of the album very local, indeed. Ghosts Breathing Through Our Strings was co-produced, mixed, mastered and engineered by local studio owner Morgan Harris. Photos and art direction were provided by local friends Tyler Rose and Lindsay Holmes, and even Bolder Ink owner Lance Talon got in on the action, supplying one of his paintings for the cover.

The album is not only a great project for the band but, as it turns out, a great project for the local music community that came together for it. Jordan is great singer/songwriter, but without all of the other elements coming together on this project, the album could have been just another release.

Thank God it’s not.

— Brian F. Johnson

The Doors

When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors

Eagle Vision

4 out of 5 stars

Those who were paying attention already got to see this when it was shown at the Boulder Theatre a couple of times this spring.

Now it’s available on DVD, and for those who still can’t get over the old Val Kilmer and Meg Ryan catastrophe that was The Doors the movie, When You’re Strange will clear those images from your mind faster than a 30,000 mic acid trip. This documentary isn’t a Hollywood glamorization. This is the real deal — even though it is narrated by Johnny Depp.

When You’re Strange received accolades worldwide, being chosen as official selections in multiple film festivals and taking home an Audience Award from the SXSW Film Festival. It’s an entertaining and educational tour through the band’s twisted and short career, and its leader’s troubled mind. Definitely worth it.

— Brian F. Johnson

Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Rocksteady

Big Records

2 out of 5 stars

You would expect an album that has a track titled “Muhammad Ali” to have a little kick — enough to make you take a step back, if not knock you on your ass. But alas, Big Head Todd’s latest album Rocksteady packs all the punch of a grandma on quaaludes.

Even the title track “Rocksteady” fails to showcase much rock, instead coming off, in parts, like a dance track that can incite a head bob but not much more.

I know it’s kind of a sacrilege to pan Big Head Todd in these-here parts, but they’re capable of more — they’re just not doing it here. That begs the question about whether or not this release was just an attempt to keep their name on the tips of tongues of Triple A program directors. It seems to me that it was, and not a good one at that. For God’s sake, the band’s Wikipedia page’s latest update said that the band toured in 2008, and their Facebook page still has messages from February at the top.

The Monsters gained attention in 1993 when their album Sister Sweetly went platinum. If they ever want to recapture that enthusiasm they’re going to need to put a better foot forward than this.                                           — Brian F. Johnson