Yo La Tengo celebrates 25th year with its newest album Popular Songs

:: Yo La Tengo ::

:: with Cheap Time ::

:: Ogden Theatre ::

:: October 10 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Twenty-five years ago it was 1984. Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in the presidential election, Transformers first appeared as a Saturday morning cartoon, Michael Jackson won eight Grammy awards, and somewhere in the small town of Hoboken, New Jersey, the husband and wife duo of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley formed Yo La Tengo.
Continue — Read more »

Cobra Starship kills the afterburners to witness its 15 minutes

:: Cobra Starship ::

:: Ogden Theatre ::

:: October 20 ::

By Dan Rutherford

If you’re a fan of pop-punk you undoubtedly have an opinion of Cobra Starship and frontman Gabe Saporta.

Over the past decade Saporta’s musical endeavors, public persona, and sometimes questionable, over-the-top antics have allowed him to teeter-totter on the brink of pop-culture fame and infamy.

Once revered by emo kids for his leadership of the influential act Midtown, that undying love took a drastic turn among hardcore fans and the internet community after the creation of the dance punk project, Cobra Starship.

Until this summer, Cobra Starship was primarily known for the closing credit anthem “Snakes on a Plane (Bring It!),” from Samuel L. Jackson’s 2006 film Snakes on a Plane. Many critics considered it a perfect fit, matching the undeniably campy blockbuster with an act who’s only recorded material was a parody of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” and had never played a single live show. Continue — Read more »

Fort Knox Five sets dance floors ablaze with The New Gold Standard 2

:: Fort Knox Five ::

:: Cervante’s Masterpiece ::

:: October 24 ::

:: Fox Theatre :

:: October 25 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

In the ’70s, the organic rhythms of funk music filled dance floors in clubs across the country with gyrating masses of sweaty partygoers who just couldn’t get enough of the deep grooves. Bands like Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Meters followed James Brown’s lead and their bottom-heavy styles went on to influence the sounds of disco, house, hip-hop and many other genres. Though the funk craze subsided as metal and new wave took off in the ’80s, people have never lost the craving for primal music that makes them want to get out on the floor and move. Continue — Read more »

Denver’s Paper Bird flying as high and strong as a jet airplane

:: Paper Bird ::

:: Boulder Theater :: October 2 ::

By Cornelia Kane

Paper Bird is arguably Denver’s hottest up-and-coming folk/Americana/bluegrass septet, which might not sound like such a big deal — but has some industry insiders whispering that this could be Colorado’s next breakout band, joining the ranks of mainstream hit-makers 3OH!3, the Flobots, and the Fray.

All of the members are in their early twenties, and have only been playing together since 2006. But despite the relative youth of the band, the music that the seven members make when they get together sounds like it could have come from a Depression-era jukebox — not that there’s anything depressing about this jovial, harmony-laden music. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Continue — Read more »

Boulder’s Savoy cutting it’s marks on the wave of the electronic revolution

:: Savoy ::

:: Fox Theatre ::

:: October 24 ::

:: Aggie Theatre ::

:: October 31 ::

By Max Freeman

This trend of electronic beat building, occasional “whomping,” and spontaneous “knobbing” has taken over the Denver and Boulder area. This might have something to do with the mass production of electronic music and new age bands emerging from house parties. The local Boulder boys of Savoy were a part of those underground house parties and maybe that’s why their live show reenacts those same college parties.

House parties are made up of music, girls, and dancing; then whatever the attendee decides to partake in is up to them. The same basic components are applied to a Savoy live show: one giant dance party. “We try to do our own thing, by throwing a big dance party. We’re not afraid to go hard and push the energy of the floor,” said drummer Mike Kelly in a recent conversation with The Marquee on the porch of a local Boulder residence. Continue — Read more »

Head For The Hills gears up to roll out Emmitt-produced sophomore album

:: Head for the Hills ::

:: Harvestival :: October 10 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: October 23 ::

By David Stuhlemmer

At the dawn of their sixth year as a band, Head For The Hills has climbed up through the ranks to become one of the most notable success stories in the Colorado bluegrass scene.
The quartet is putting the final touches on their second album, and if their momentum continues, the band will end up having a superior view from their position on top of the bluegrass hill.

For this new album, produced by Leftover Salmon’s Drew Emmitt, the band members took a different direction than their debut release, Robber’s Roost. “We definitely made a conscious effort to get away from the Pro Tools, isolation booth and headphone model, which pretty much dominates. There is nothing wrong with that, but after that first album of being in different rooms with no sight lines, we wanted to take a new approach,” said mandolin player Mike Chappell. “ Some of the tracks were recorded completely live,” he added. Continue — Read more »

Halloween night concert choices range from electronica to Americana

By Brian F. Johnson

Each year, as kids gear up to grab candy, “adults” (and, we do use that term loosely) set their sights on area concerts.
With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, the choices at local venues offer as many alternatives as an overly-aggressive trick-or-treater’s loot bag at the end of the night.

:: Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit ::

:: Larimer Lounge ::

The former Drive-By Trucker axe slinger, who took off on his own path a few years ago, dropped his second solo album early in 2009. The self-titled disc has been deemed by Rolling Stone as one “not to be missed,” while The Tripwire called it “one hell of a record.” And, if those kudos weren’t enough, Esquire said of Isbell and his band: “Combine the sounds of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin and you’ve got Jason Isbell, a 28-year-old reviving Southern musical history.” Damn!

:: Swollen Members ::

:: Marquis Theater ::

Swollen Members have risen to the top of the underground hip-hop scene with a series of classic albums that have made them one of the genre’s brightest rising stars. Founded by two of the game’s best MCs, Mad Child and Prevail, along with the help of DJ Rob The Viking, Swollen Members have created a huge fan base while staying completely independent under their own label, Battle Axe Records. Swollen had taken a break over the past few years while Mad Child dealt with drug addiction and some legal issues, but, the group has come back stronger than ever with their upcoming new studio album Armed To The Teeth, which features guest appearances by Talib Kweli and Tech N9NE.

:: DeVotchKa ::

:: Boulder Theater ::

DeVotchKa cut their chops as a backing band for burlesque shows, so it’s no wonder that their Halloween concerts have become legendary. This unlikely and obscure act from Denver blends so many old-styles of music that the only possible outcome is something new and different. They’ve blown up huge, with the help of movie and television work, most notably in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, which fetched a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack.

:: Meese::

:: Gothic Theatre ::

This summer, Meese logged more than 20,000 miles over 39 states, supporting The Fray, Jack’s Mannequin and Copeland. The Colorado quartet was touring behind their Atlantic Records debut,  Broadcast, which was released this summer to national critical acclaim.

:: Bassnectar ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

The brand-new full-length Bassnectar album Cozza Frenzy dropped digitally on September 29, with CD’s available in stores on October 27 — just in time for Halloween. Bassnectar’s own label, Amorphous Music, teamed up with Child’s Play Records to unleash the album, an amalgamation of sound that combines dubstep, electro, hip-hop, and all styles of dirty digital bass-heavy music, and smashes it all into a collision of wobbling, intense basslines, and hypnotic hide-and-seek adventures.

:: Nashville Pussy ::

:: Bluebird Theater ::

True rock and roll doesn’t require definition. It’s self-explanatory based on a gut feeling and the unconditional devotion to the musical genre. Nashville Pussy have celebrated their brand of genuine rock and roll for more than a decade, in classic style at times, surprising at others, but always earthy, raw and unadulterated. Band mastermind Blaine Cartwright (vocals, guitar), his wife Ruyter Suys (guitar), Karen Cuda (bass) and Jeremy Thompson (drums) spent three years working on their latest rock release, From Hell To Texas, out on Steamhammer/SPV, which was released in February of this year.

:: Ghostface Killah::

:: Fox Theatre ::

Ghostface (the artist formerly known as Ghostface Killah, or GFK, to friends), armed with his latest heat rock of an album, Fish Scale — which boasts production from MF DOOM, Pete Rock, J.Dilla, MadLib, and many others — stands ready and willing to carry the Wu Tang’s burden and return rap to it’s proper course. “You know, niggas try to come on that other shit,” he said of hip-hop’s growing ranks of imposters on his website, “So I just had come back to raw drugs, sex, money, and murder shit real quick to show these young niggas how it’s s’possed to be done.” And who better to kick the truth to the young black youth, than Ghost, an artist more universally accepted than American Express.

:: The Motet ::

:: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom ::

The Motet has become legendary around Colorado for, every year, tackling a new band’s material for their Halloween throw down. Past performances have covered Prince and Michael Jackson, among others. This year, they will take on the music of Sly and the Family Stone — but for 2009 they’re taking the concept a bit further. In addition to Motet regulars, the band will, this year, feature Sly and Family Stone guitarist Gail Muldrow, who played on the 1975 album I Get High On You.

:: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club ::

:: Bender’s Tavern ::

Engaging, riveting, sad and humorous; demanding the audience to participate both live and while listening to their albums; Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has been branded with every musical description possible. This seems fitting, as SCAC describes their music as American; and after a decade of working and living as SCAC, they have created their own genre. The originally Denver-based band has recorded critically acclaimed albums on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Spin Magazine and No Depression have described them as the best live band in America. The songs are each thoughtfully crafted with unique arrangements, executed by superb musicianship, then fully realized through original, insightful and intelligent lyrics. With two of the most charismatic front men around and four accomplished musicians (Wovenhand, Delta 72, 16Horsepower), SCAC is the past, present and future of American music.

:: Euforquestra ::

:: Whistler’s Café ::

Originally from Iowa City, IA, relocated to Fort Collins, CO, Eufórquestra has been touring more than ever and is continuing to take its cutting edge music in different directions. Their self-proclaimed “Afro-Caribbean-Barnyard-Funk” brings a rhythmic wall of sound, integrating such genres as afrobeat, reggae, afro-Cuban, samba, soca, funk, salsa, and dub. This is music that ignites dance floors across the country with a sound that explodes, dances and melts in your ear with sheer bliss. This year the band recorded its third album, Soup, at Backbone Studios in Loveland, and released the project on October 6.

Phish
 Joy
 JEMP Records
 2.5 out of 5 stars

When rumor spread earlier this year that producer Steve Lilywhite was once again tackling a Phish studio effort, expectations were placed unreasonably high.  Lilywhite’s only previous collaboration with Phish spawned their most masterful studio work, Billy Breathes, which I have likened to the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty in both cohesion, acoustic subtlety and near-songwriting perfection.

However, Joy, Phish’s first studio release since 2004’s Undermined, fails to live up to those expectations and is an uneven album at its best. Continue — Read more »

A.A. Bondy

When The Devil’s Loose

Fat Possum Records

4 out of 5 stars

Like the blues legends of the Delta’s past, Scott Bondy goes by a stage name: A.A. Bondy. With this alter-ego, alphabetically just ahead of B.B., Bondy has begun to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter holding onto the values of backwoods Americana. His second studio effort, When The Devil’s Loose, is a majestic collection of songs and moods that should solidify Bondy’s place on the fringe of the mainstream. Continue — Read more »

The Black Crowes

Before the Frost

Red Distribution

4 out of 5 stars

They’re once again a prolific little bunch of stoners. With their latest album Before the Frost and the accompanying digital release Until the Freeze, The Black Crowes have dropped 20 new songs on Crowes fans — and this is in relatively rapid succession to their release Warpaint Live, which came out earlier this year on the heals of last year’s studio version.

It may have taken a seven year break for the Crowes to starting producing again, but the wait has been worth it. Before the Frost is a return to Black Crowes of old. I popped this album in for a friend and two chords into the first song, we laughed, “Yep, sounds just like a Crowes album.”
And for the most part, we’re right. There is a great return here to road-worthy, up-all-night driving tunes. The song “A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound” has all of the elements that made the Crowesclassic “Wiser Time” a brilliant travel tune, back when it was released in the early 1990s.

But, as much as I love this band, I still have to call them on their crap. Someone must have laced their weed, for them to record “I Ain’t Hiding,” which takes a complete left-turn from the other songs on the album and sounds like a bad television commerical soundtrack. Skip this song when you bring the disc into your iTunes and you could just love this album. Or, let me put it another way, if you like My Morning Jacket’s “Highly Suspicious,” you’ll dig this.

Hello Kavita
to a loved one
Independent
4 out of 5 stars

Hello Kavita isn’t the kind of band that’s gonna melt your face with fancy licks. They’re not going to dazzle you with stage theatrics. The beauty and genius of Hello Kavita is a subdued excitement that is always just below the surface, and doesn’t need to be in your face to be awe-inspiring.

Following closely on the heels of their 2008 release And Then We Turned Sideways, which drew incredible amounts of local praise, the five-piece Denver band will be releasing to a loved one  later this month.

to a loved one continues where their first album left off — the band hasn’t undergone any major style or personnel changes — and hopefully that’s a sign that while Hello Kavita may say things in a mid-tempo, quiet rock kind of way, they have a lot of things to say, and plan on continuing to do so, beautifully, for some time to come.

:: Hello Kavita ::
:: Hi-Dive :: Oct 23 ::

Danny Shafer
 One Morning
 Independent
 3.5 out of 5 stars

With some of the most genuine sincerity in today’s local scene, a voice way older than he is, and a smooth presentation and style, Danny Shafer is truly the epitome of a modern troubador — he may never end up as a household name, but Shafer’s not gunning for that. He’s content with entertaining a few folks at a time, and he does that more than 100 nights a year.

This latest release from the Boulder boy, One Morning, gives hearty nods to Shafer’s influences, including, of course, John Prine, whom he mentions in the opening track. But while embracing his heroes and contemporaries, Shafer also blazes his own path. A staple in the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival scene, Shafer has had the opportunity to play among, and be instructed by some of his biggest influences over the years, and the education has paid itself off one hundred fold.

Shafer is seasoned enough to avoid the pitfalls of singer/songwriters, but original and skilled enough to take chances which, most of the time, pay great dividends.
One of the greatest treats of Shafer’s playing, however, is his quick little fills between chords, some done subtly enough that even an intent lisener might lose it amongst the backdrop of a song. That skill, coupled with his songwriting prowess, delivers a powerful CD with One Morning.