:: Dinosaur Jr. ::

:: Fox Theatre :: April 14 and 15:: 

By Tim Dwenger

The original lineup of Dinosaur Jr. flew apart in true rock and roll fashion: name calling, explosions to the media, and there are even rumors that J Mascis hit Barlow on the head with a guitar during a show. It was a meltdown that lived up to the deafening music that the trio had generated over the course of five years and three albums together.

“It was an extremely well publicized break-up and I was really pissed off when they kicked me out of the band. It pretty much ended up with me calling J [Mascis] an ‘asshole’ and J saying some pretty awful stuff to me,” bassist Lou Barlow told The Marquee on the eve of Dinosaur Jr.’s recent tour of Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

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:: Editors/stellastarr* :: Bluebird Theater :: April 21:: 

By Tim Dwenger

Already a huge success in the U.K., Editors are poised to take the U.S. by storm. At the recent SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, they were doing countless interviews, playing radio shows and industry parties before their jet-lag even wore off. Between the effort they have recently been focusing on the U.S. market and their massive popularity in the U.K., they became one of the most talked-about bands at SXSW. After playing two private gigs, their first public set of the Festival at Blender Bar was nearly impossible to get into. England’s answer to Interpol, these four lads have a serious work ethic and understand that a major record label isn’t necessarily going to make you a star. 

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By Jeffrey V. Smith

A proper review of South By Southwest, the music industry’s annual Spring Break love-fest in Austin, is impossible. There is simply no way to properly expound on the multitude of facets that together make up the lunacy that is SXSW. Thousands of bands and fans from around the globe all come together with, managers, publicists, journalists, label execs, venue owners, radio programmers, booking agents—and any other profession with a vague relevance to the music industry—creating a 24/7 music scene that is too big for anyone’s plate, let alone words.

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:: John Vanderslice :: Hi-Dive :: April 11 :: 

By Tim Dwenger

Playing music for a living is romanticized in our world. It is seen by many as a cushy, glamorous way to pay the rent. There are men, women and children who dream about picking up a guitar, quitting their day jobs or dropping out of school, and living the rock star lifestyle. What most of these people don’t realize is that the life of a musician takes more hard work and dedication than virtually any profession if you want to be successful.

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:: Guster :: Aggie Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: etown at Boulder Theater :: April 2 :: 

By Matt Marty

The sensational melodies and acoustic guitars of the Boston band Guster are being taken to another level with the soon-to-be-released Ganging Up On The Sun, due out in June. A new band member and a new style of song writing are the driving forces behind the rejuvenated group, but Guster does not stop there with the new theme.  The band is touring in a new way, with a bio-diesel bus and many more innovative ideas in tow that allow them to be more environmentally conscious. 

Over the years, Guster has established themselves as a radio friendly band, but  not a band that is seen on MTV. Guster’s music would be best described as alternative rock pop. The core of Guster’s fan base is college students, but Guster’s music spreads to older audiences as well.

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:: Beto Hale :: CD Release Party :: Walnut Room :: April 7 :: 

By Brian Kenney 

A split personality exists in Beto Hale, a duality that’s not based on artistic indecisiveness or a question of direction. It’s more of artistic inventiveness. Like a painter with a huge palette, Hale has so many colors to chose from, that it’s never known what hue will be placed on the canvas next.

This month, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Hale will release American Mythology, a disc intensely influenced by his multi-cultural dual citizenship. Hale’s tenor, a bright and ringing tone influenced by the melodic styles of every voice from John Denver to Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, meshes with Santana-like guitar virtuosity and is complimented by Hale’s passionate soft jazzy percussion. 

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:: Polytoxic ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: April 6 ::

:: Highland Pacific :: April ::8

:: Wash Park Grille :: Mondays 

By Lisa Oshlo 

Occasionally, big ideas take on lives of their own. That’s what happened for Denver’s Polytoxic sometime around November, when the band was looking for a way to expand on its popular album-of-the-month concept.

In a recent conversation with The Marquee, keyboardist CR Gruver explained it like this: “We needed to maintain our sanity and our personal lives. So we thought, instead of doing an album every month, why don’t we do a soundtrack, a couple of times a year? And then of course the first thing you think of is ‘Spinal Tap.’” Thus, what began as a flash of inspiration fleshed out into a full-on, multi-media live performance of the music from the legendary film.

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:: Melissa Ivey Band ::

:: Southside Johnnys :: April 5 ::

:: Nissi’s :: April 7 ::

:: Sunset Event Center :: April 8 ::

:: Croc’s Mexican Grill :: April 20 ::

:: D-Note :: April 22 

By Brian Kenney

Melissa Ivey owns her art, and these days ownership in America takes a sincere and severe dedication to establish, grow and keep such an investment.

Born in Denver and raised in Northern California, Ivey took to music as an escape. “I grew up cutting class and heading out to San Francisco,” Ivey recently told The Marquee. “And at school they always said ‘We always saw you leaving school, but never saw you at school.’ So I got in a lot of trouble, but at an early age I realized I was driven to music and I knew what I wanted to do.”

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Two file sharers were indicted this month and face up to 11 years in prison for allegedly sharing tracks from Ryan Adam’s 2005 Jacksonville City Nights prior to the official release of the album.

If the two kids, Jared Chase Bowser, 21, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Robert Thomas, 24, of Milwaukee, Wisc., are sentenced to that long of a term, it will be the one of the worst atrocities in the courts since the justice system started imposing mandatory minimums in drug sentences.

Let’s get this straight: The Marquee does not promote, condone, or support illegal file sharing in ANY situation, and this situation is unique in that the files shared were from pre-released copies, a move which the parent label Universal Music said “damages our artist and our marketing plans for the album.”

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‘Leaked’ Guns N’ Roses tracks give insight into the  mythical yet-to-be released Chinese Democracy

July 21, 1987 started out like any other day in music history. Trucks delivered hundreds of new cassette tapes and CDs, by a host of artists new and old, to stores around the county just like they do every Tuesday. Few, if any, realized that on this particular day the face of music would be changed forever. Among the new releases were Madonna’s Who’s That Girl soundtrack and the first album by a surly Los Angeles rock band that called themselves Guns N’ Roses.

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