Cake

Friday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 10:15 p.m.

CAKE is one of those bands with a distinctive sound that is easy to identify, yet remains hard to label. In an amusing classification, Vince Difiore – trumpet, keys, vocals — told The Marquee in a recent interview, CAKE’s music is “just a bit downstream from mainstream.” Downstream or not, the band’s combination of funk, ska, pop, jazz, rap and country, among other genres, serves as the musical backing for songs ripe with lyrical wordplay, creating a style that has won the band several platinum albums and a dedicated fanbase that spans all sorts of demographics.
Part of the Columbia Records label for five years, CAKE recently decide to part ways with the major and create their own label, Upbeat Records. It’s on this label that the band plans to release their latest effort B-Sides and Rarities in October of this year. The album, a collection of songs originally sung by legends such as Frank Sinatra and George Jones, signifies a fresh start for CAKE. “This gives the band a new life,” Difiore said of the transition. “It’s a bit like moving from junior high to high school, moving from Columbia to our own label.”
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Editors

Friday :: New Belgium Stage :: 7:45 p.m.

This U.K. act has jumped on the hyperactive pop-punk machine of nostalgia that is currently being churned across the Atlantic. A hybrid of Franz Ferdinand and Echo and the Bunnymen, Editors forge far more experimental territory than their aforementioned inspirations. The Birmingham quartet’s 2005 debut The Back Room eared critical success as well as a Mercury Prize nomination for record sales in Britain, and found them on the bills of Coachella and Lollapalooza on this side of the pond. Their latest release An End Has a Start was helmed by legendary producer Jacknife Lee, who has been largely responsible for the signature sounds and success of U2, Kasabian and, more recently, Snow Patrol and Bloc Party.

— Brian Kenney

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:: Phil Lesh & Friends :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Sept. 28 ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: Sept. 29 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The music of the Grateful Dead has transcended decades and generations to become some of the most enduring music produced by one band in the history of rock and roll. For 30 years the Grateful Dead jammed and noodled their way through their shows, inadvertently creating an entire subgenre of rock music that continues to grow and thrive 12 years after the band officially parted ways.
While it’s true that the Grateful Dead name was retired in 1995 when legendary lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia passed away, the music has lived on through the various surviving members. Bob Weir’s Ratdog is actively touring, Mickey Hart and his various projects still interpret the material (and coincidentally, Hart has two gigs this month in Colorado with his Global Drum Project: Sept. 23 at the Boulder Theater and Sept. 24 at the Oriental Theatre), and bassist Phil Lesh has done his part to keep the flame alive by enlisting various “Friends” over the past eight years to help him in his quest to reinvent the songs and the spirit of the Grateful Dead.
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:: The National :: Ogden Theater :: Sept. 18 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

It’s been one of those years for Matt Berninger, front man of the Brooklyn-based The National — one that he probably never thought he would have when he was studying to become a graphic designer in Cincinnati. He’s been to Europe three times, he’s played to a sold out crowd at Radio City Music Hall and he met David Letterman all in the span of about five months.
What precipitated this whirlwind of events was a simple release by his band: an album called Boxer. “I think Boxer is the best album we’ve made,” Berninger told The Marquee from his New York City apartment on a rare break from touring. “This record has a different personality from the other ones. It took us a long time to find the atmosphere or mood that is represented on the album and I think the fact that we were patient and didn’t rush through it helped us to succeed. There wasn’t any big vision when we started, but we did a lot of different things and only used the ones that added to the song in an interesting way. Everything included on the final product has it own purpose.”
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