Marquee Magazine » October, 2006
Secret Machines break out of the box for an in-the-round tour
:: The Secret Machines ::Fox Theatre :: October 14 ::
By Jeffrey V. Smith
No comments
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah remain one of indie rock’s most truly independent bands
:: Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah :: Gothic Theatre :: October 6 ::
:: Boulder Theater :: October 7 ::
By Don Bartlett
In the brave new world of modern music, days are the new months. New bands burn through their life cycle in a fraction of the time of eras past, creating a strange and chiefly disingenuous climate in which bands can rise to prominence and peak before even releasing an album. Perhaps no band understands this new era more than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, one of the most hyped bands of recent years which is already experiencing a backlash — even without a record label pushing their product.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled, self-released debut dropped in late summer 2005 and spread like wildfire throughout the indie community on the strength of its catchy and refreshingly endearing sound. By the time of New York City’s CMJ Music Marathon in early October, 2005, they had been anointed the second coming of Christ long enough that the trend-monkeys were already scoffing at the notion of seeing such a “mainstream” band. This sort of cred-sniping has been around as long as music itself, but could a band really be born and eaten by their young in just 60 days time?
Marquee Tags: Alec Ounsworth, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, CMJ, Talking HeadsNo comments
Ben Kweller releases self-titled album reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s singers
:: Ben Kweller :: Gothic Theatre :: October 3 ::
:: Fox Theatre :: October 4 ::
By Alex Samuel
It’s hard to imagine Ben Kweller playing anywhere but the New York venues I roamed in high school. I was almost always the least cool person among a sea of anti-folk hipsters and musicians, and undoubtedly the youngest by several years (thanks to an unrealistic fake-ID and a little charm).
Before headlining tours globally, a 19-year-old Kweller moved to New York and frequented the small venues like the Mercury Lounge and the Knitting Factory. He quickly made friends with a herd of unquestionably talented musicians in the pulsating anti-folk scene of the Lower East Side. “There were a lot of bands that were starting out together,” Kweller recently told The Marquee. “It all started happening at the Mercury Lounge.”
Marquee Tags: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller, Gil Norton, The Mercury LoungeNo comments
The Benevento/russo Duo team up with Phish legends and cover their groceries
:: The Benevento/Russo Duo :: Fox Theatre :: October 13 ::
:: Bluebird Theatre :: October 14 ::
By Karen Schneider
The Benevento/Russo Duo began in 2002 when Joe Russo was offered a permanent Thursday night gig at The Knitting Factory in New York City. It was a way to pay for groceries, and at $100 a night splitting the proceeds by two sounded like a good idea. Russo teamed up with Marco Benevento, a childhood friend he had been playing music with for 15 years.
“Since our inception, we’d never planned on any of this happening. We never planned on touring or being a band, we’d planned on seeing each other every Thursday for a couple of months,” Joe Russo told The Marquee in a recent interview. “We just kind of let it happen to us and move with it as we can.”
Marquee Tags: Benevento/Russo Duo, Joe Russo, Mike Gordon, Play Pause Stop, Ropeadope RecordsNo comments
Silversun Pickups shine bright after full length gets major college radio play
:: Silversun Pickups :: with Viva Voce :: Hi-Dive :: October 24 ::
By Tim Dwenger
“We’ve got an in-store at Amoeba Records here in L.A. tonight,” said Brian Aubert, guitarist and front man for Silversun Pickups, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “The gig was planned a couple of months back but we just found out about it. Our label knew, our manager knew and people thought we knew, but we actually found out about it while reading the paper just like you would. We called our manager and said, ‘Hey is this happening?’ Sure enough, it’s happening. We were all just glad we were going to be in town and could make our own gig. It’s really funny how it works sometimes.”
While in-store performances are often known for their stripped-down sound, Aubert said his band had no intention of toning things down or going acoustic for the Amoeba event. “We know a guy at the store and asked him if we should play acoustic or mellow things out for the in-store and he said ‘No, just be yourselves and play loud.’ I’m not sure they know what they’re in for, but we are going to hammer through seven songs back-to-back for the full 30 minutes so no one can tell us we are being too loud. By the time they can tell us we’re too loud we’ll be done and packing things up,” Aubert chuckled.
Marquee Tags: Brian Aubert, Carnavas, Dangerbird Records, Silversun Pickups, The BreedersNo comments
Cabaret Diosa wraps it up after 10 years with two back-to-back shows
:: Cabaret Diosa :: Boulder Theater :: October 26 and 27 ::
By Jonathan Keller
After 10 years of spreading their self-proclaimed “New Mambo Revival” to fans across international borders, Cabaret Diosa is finally calling it quits with two final shows at the Boulder Theatre on October 26 and 27.
The concerts are titled “Willie Juanka and the Cha Cha Factory” and are billed as a two-night festival of decadence and dance. “It is going to be a final celebration,” said percussionist Manuel Rabinizmo in a recent interview with The Marquee. “This is going to be it.”
Marquee Tags: Apocalypso, Cabaret Diosa, Manuel Rabinizmo, Willie Juanka and the Cha Cha FactoryNo comments
North Carolina’s Avett Brothers release new EP , The Gleam, at start of tour
:: The Avett Brothers :: Belly Up :: October 12 ::
:: Dulcinea’s :: October 13 ::
:: Boulder Theater :: October 14 ::
By Alex Samuel
At first, it’s hard to understand Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers. His voice is slightly muffled and racing with articulate excitement. He sounds distant but feels close. He’s pensive, he’s honest, he pauses between breathes of clarity. Seth Avett epitomizes The Avett Brothers’ distinctly soulful harmony and gypsy picking.
On a Tuesday night in 1998, Scott Avett began getting together with flat-pickers and friends to play acoustic country and drink liquor in Greenville, NC. This gathering became called The Back Porch Project or Nemo Downstairs and seemed like nothing outside of a simple side project.
Marquee Tags: Avett Brothers, Greenville NC, Seth Avett, Shanti Groove, The GleamNo comments
Halloween shows around the Front Range:
By Brian F. Johnson
Halloween and New Year’s Eve are typically two of the best nights of the year for live music, particularly when those holidays fall on a weekend. This year we don’t get that luxury for Halloween, and many venues will be hosting their Halloween parties on Saturday, October 28. But for those who are still looking to venture out on the actual day for some trick-or-treating, there is still a great wealth of venues and bands to chose from.
Here are some examples (in no particular order). Check our full music calendar, which begins on page 32, for a full listing of shows.
No comments
Austin City Limits festival features 130 bands over three-day weekend
By Timothy Dwenger
Since I got back from the Austin City Limits Festival, which ran Sept. 15 - Sept. 17 in Austin, Texas, several people have asked me what the “highlight” of the festival was. Let me tell you, I haven’t been asked a harder question since “What’s your favorite band?” The reality is that there were many, many highlights for me among the three days, eight stages and 130 bands, and singling out just one wouldn’t do this festival, or my memories, any justice at all. So I am going to share as many as I can.
For instance, I couldn’t go without mentioning Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse and the rest of Gnarls Barkley, who played the main stage on Friday afternoon. Dressed in lab coats and plaid shirts, they introduced themselves as John Nash and the Beautiful Minds while their 13-person band covered Thomas Dolby’s “Blinded Me With Silence.” After an energetic set that included “Go-Go-Gadget Gospel,” “Smiley Faces” and, of course, “Crazy,” these guys have made me believe soul music can once again make it in the mainstream.
Marquee Tags: Austin City Limits, Centro-Matic, Gnarls Barkley, Iron and Wine, Sam Roberts Band, The Flaming Lips, The Secret Machines, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van MorrisonNo comments
From the barstool of the publisher - October, 2006
Can’t we all just leave Willie alone?
For those of you who don’t know, Willie Nelson, along with several other members of his band and crew, got busted on Sept. 18 in Saint Martin Parish, La.
The cop claims that he was making a routine commercial vehicle inspection, but (and I know this is a huge fucking surprise to everyone) when he approached the bus, he smelled “a strong odor of marijuana.” It was later revealed that Nelson and crew allegedly had more than one-and-a-half pounds of weed and just over three ounces of mushrooms.
Marquee Tags: Front-Row-Center Awards, Marijuana, Willie NelsonNo comments
Industry Profile: Don Strasburg stirs up the Denver pot by leaving Live Nation for AEG Live
By Brian F. Johnson
On a hot August afternoon Don Strasburg, one of the most powerful men in Colorado’s live music scene, sat at a sandwich shop on the Hill in Boulder, juggling his cell phone, Blackberry and a colossal sandwich. Every few seconds he’d drop one to pick up another, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time until he accidentally took a bite out of his Blackberry.
After each check of his phone he’d call out a new number: “Five minutes now,” he would spat.
What I thought was a series of negotiations for a high-profile gig that Strasburg was booking for his then-job as vice president of Live Nation’s Rocky Mountain Region was in fact a coup in the midst. Strasburg wasn’t setting up a conference call for a Red Rocks or Pepsi Center gig, he was getting his ducks in line to shake up the live Denver music scene in one of the biggest moves in recent years — a move so big, in fact, that while the initial splash may be old news today, the ripple effects continue to deluge the industry with what seems like daily tsunamis.
Marquee Tags: AEG Live, Chuck Morris, Don Strasburg, Live NationNo comments
CD Reviews - October - 2006
Dylan’s first album in five years may be one of the best of his career
Bob Dylan
Modern Times
Columbia Records
4.5 out of 5
Bob Dylan’s prophet-like reputation is largely due to the misconceived notions that many have been made about him throughout his career. Of course, Dylan himself has helped fuel the fire by seldom doing interviews and when he does he often weaves a very vague web of answers. Now, after his last two albums, Time out of Mind and Love & Theft, made substantial waves with critics and fans, Dylan has returned with his first album in five years.
The latest album Modern Times received a fair amount of speculation long before anybody had really heard it.
Some of the more popular rumors about the record included that many of the lyrics are lifted from poet Henry Timrod, and that Modern Times is the last chapter in a trilogy started with Time out of Mind. While it may be true that Timrod’s work has influenced Dylan, there is no instance of plagiarism on Modern Times. As for a trilogy, Dylan stated in a brief but recent interview with Rolling Stone that he never intended the records as a trilogy and if he had, he would have considered Love and Theft as the starting point.
Modern Times is a fairly sparse record both lyrically and musically. While Love and Theft featured deep lyrical meditations like “Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum,” Modern Times features simple, laid back songs like “When The Deal Goes Down.”
Overall, Modern Times is reminiscent of the loose vibes of Under the Red Sky, Down in the Groove and even, at times, Highway 61 Revisited.
Dylan has always played down his role as some sort of voice for the ’60s generation. A recent book of his past interviews published by Wenner Books clearly shows that Dylan has always considered himself a musician and an individual instead of part of some greater cause.
With Modern Times, Dylan manages to focus on that and as a result he has made one of the best records of his career.
— DJ Hippie
Ween’s Shinola Vol. 1 a perfect fit for those already initiated
Ween
Shinola, Vol. 1
MVD Audio
3.5 out of 5
If you don’t love Ween, you probably won’t dig Shinola, Vol. 1 too much, but if you’re already hooked on Gene and Dean Ween, Shinola is going to be the equivalent to finding the perfect outfit in the back of your neighborhood thrift store.
Originally released by Ween’s own Chocodog label, Shinola Vol. 1 is the first in a series of rarities collections by the ever-wacky Pennsylvania-based duo. Here Dean and Gene Ween’s giddy, genre-hopping sound careens from distorted lo-fi ditties (the bizarre “Tastes Good on th’ Bun”) to surprisingly straightforward pop/rock tunes (the blatantly Elvis Costello-like “Gabrielle,” and the amazingly beautiful “Did You See Me?”).
While this isn’t the best starting point for newcomers to the band’s absurd world (that would be The Mollusk or Chocolate and Cheese), Shinola Vol. 1 is sure to entertain the Ween faithful.
“Shinola is a collection of odds, ends and leftovers from around our studio and contains killer new mixes of a lot of songs that have been floating around the web in really crappy fidelity for a long time,” said Dean Ween in a press release. “There will be more of these to come in the future. It’s an ugly one. You really wanna pick this up. I’m not shitting you. This record has been a long time in coming.”
— Brian F. Johnson
Annie Stela is stellar on debut EP
Annie Stela
There is a Story Here
Capitol Records
3 out of 5
Annie Stela is set to release her Capitol Records debut Fool in January of 2007, but in time for a tour she has put out There’s a Story Here, a collection of four songs, three from her impending full-length. If you’re a fan of Sarah McLachlan, you’ll gravitate to this songstress, whose soaring melodies are as crisp as the Midwestern snow where she grew up.
— Brian F. Johnson
:: Annie Stela :: supporting Joseph Arthur :: Bluebird Theatre :: October 8 ::
GogoLab’s stakeout is high crime
GogoLab
The Stakeout
Dance Research Records
3 out of 5
GogoLab is a shoe-in for one of the most fun and original acts to come out of Colorado in recent years. The instrumental power trio, which just released its debut full-length The Stakeout, claims that it’s on a mission to re-examine the sound of ’60s and ’70s film and television through the lens of contemporary dance music — a world of double agents, renegade cops, car chases, cat suits and hip-shaking girls. The Stakeout is fun, funny, and one hell of a great groove that sounds like Medeski, Martin and Wood meets James Bond in a dark alley. — Brian F. Johnson
Don’t Die Cindy is radio worthy
Don’t Die Cindy
Most Imperfect Skies
Cake Records
4 out of 5
Don’t Die Cindy has the potential to drip all over the MTV “Afterhours” playlist. They might be Jimmy Eat World on vacation, they might be Fallout Boy’s cooler older brother, but whatever they are it’s complex, desperate and radio-worthy. Don’t Die Cindy’s album Most Perfect Skies is opened with the pop-punk “Wrong Side of Town,” while “Unclothed & Honest” is the six minutes that proves the band worthy of the occasional Radiohead fan.
Patrick Hosey (vocals, guitar and keyboard) explained it best: “This record is about trying to find your way to the truth. It’s about lying in bed at night wondering if God is real or not; wondering how you find love; wondering what you’re even here on Earth for.”
While the album has been done a thousand times before under the alias of endless one-hit-wonders, Don’t Die Cindy does it damn well and may even have some staying power.
— Alex Samuel
Favourite Sons confronts the ‘big stuff’
Favourite Sons
Down Beside Your Beauty
Vice Records
4 out of 5
“This band exists to talk about the things you go through when you confront the big stuff: love, regret, fear,” said Ken Griffin, the singer and principle songwriter of Favourite Sons. Griffin was the creative force behind the hugely influential but often overlooked ’90s art rock band Rollerskate Skinny. After R.S. fell apart, Griffin entered a dark world of drink and drugs and was away from music for nearly a decade, until a fan found him bartending and continued to pester him about his music. That started the ball rolling on what eventually became Favourite Sons. Grounded by Griffin’s confessional lyrics and the band’s thundering guitars and rhythm section, Down Beside Your Beauty has nothing to hide and a world of courageous conceits to offer. What you hear is what you get and what you get is nothing short of rock music stripped down to its most visceral elements — delivered with power, conviction and complete honesty.
— Brian F. Johnson
Adelman’s Henry’s Diner is majestic
Todd Adelman
Henry’s Diner
Independent
4.5 out of 5
Todd Adelman’s Henry’s Diner is, simply put, brilliant. The Nederland, Colo.-based songwriter conjures up moments of Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and seems to be the twin brother of the Portland-based band Richmond Fontaine with this release. Henry’s Diner is a collection of melancholy, semi-twangy story-telling that not only embraces but actually defines roots folk Americana in all of its glorious simplicity and simultaneous lyrical complexity. Adelman has hit the nail on the head here.
— Brian F. Johnson
Marquee Tags: Annie Stela, Bob Dylan, Don't Die Cindy, Favourite Sons, GogoLab, Todd Adelman, WeenNo comments