GWAR starts two-year celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary

:: GWAR ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: November 11 ::

By Brandon Daviet

In many ways, GWAR’s career plays out like an intergalactic version of “Celebrity Rehab” crossed with the pages of Marvel Comics, albeit with a slightly more perverted tone. Not a day goes by when the group doesn’t find themselves embroiled in conflicts and adventures that should grace the tabloids in every known star system.

And with the late-summer release of their album Lust In Space those tabloids are really starting to take notice. In recent months GWAR has found themselves getting more press than a summer blockbuster, more ladies than Wilt Chamberlain, and more gigs than a hippie jam band on a never-ending tour.

For those who are not familiar, the Richmond, Va.-based metal band lives in a false reality they’ve created, which essentially states that the space beasts of GWAR came to Earth eons ago, had sex with the apes and created the human race. They wear over-the-top costumes, have live shows that involve dousing their audiences with blood and other boody fluids, and rarely, if ever, break character. But despite the gimmicky, comedic nature of the band, the group actually does play quality metal — quality enough to earn them two Grammy nominations and sustain them for the last two-and-a-half decades. Continue — Read more »

Blind Pilot chains up the bikes and hops in a van for 3 Rounds Tour

:: Blind Pilot ::
 :: Bluebird Theater :: November 28 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

In the summer of 2005, two friends packed tents, clothes and guitars into little homemade trailers, hitched them to their bicycles and set out on an adventure that was meant to be nothing more than that — an adventure. Starting out in Vancouver, B.C., guitarist Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski dubbed themselves Blind Pilot and began pedaling their way down the coast, stopping to play music every night for anyone who’d listen. In their eyes it was the perfect summer vacation. Little did they know that it was the beginning of something much bigger.

Their hook-filled blend of folk and pop attracted listeners from many walks of life and it wasn’t long before the duo realized that they were on to something. They pooled their meager resources and found a friend of a friend by the name of Skyler Norwood, who was willing to record the songs that became the band’s debut album, 3 Rounds and A Sound, for next to nothing. With Norwood’s help the project expanded rapidly and soon the Blind Pilot sound included bass, horns and vibraphone, among other instruments. Continue — Read more »

Zappa Plays Zappa takes the music of frank to a new generation of fans

:: Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 25 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

“I always knew that I lived with a composer
who, luckily, through rock and roll,
was able to afford his habit which was writing
music — writing dots on paper.” wife Gail Zappa

When Frank Zappa passed away from prostate cancer in 1993, the Zappa family lost their patriarch, the band that bore his name lost its anchor, and a generation of audiences lost one of the most prolific and genius composers that contemporary America has ever seen.

Frank Zappa played his final concert in 1988. While he had left an enormous catalog with enough material to guarantee posthumous releases, the live performance music of Frank Zappa was largely a ship adrift without rudder or compass. In 2005, Frank’s own son Dweezil — one of the few individuals in the world who had the skills to pull it off, and also had the genetic green light to take on such an ambitious project — decided to change that. Continue — Read more »

Playing for Change tour follows the mission of founder Mark Johnson

:: Playing for Change ::

:: Paramount Theatre :: November 8 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

How many times have you been walking down the street or through a bus, subway or train station and heard music that pulled your mind out of your every day thoughts and made you stop and listen? It might have been a mournful sax tune, deft fingers plucking out a familiar melody on the strings of a nylon guitar, or a kid drumming on the bottom of a plaster bucket, but whatever it was, it caught your ear for one reason — because it was unusually good.

While there are millions of people who hear this kind of music every day and are lucky enough to have it change their lives for a minute or two, about 10 years ago recording engineer and producer Mark Johnson heard two monks in a New York City subway station and it changed his life forever. “One of them was playing a nylon guitar and the other one was singing in a language that I didn’t understand and I imagine most people didn’t understand. On this day I saw about 200 people just stop and honestly nobody got on the train and everybody was just watching these monks,” Johnson told The Marquee during a recent interview on the eve of the first date of the first Playing for Change tour. “I just looked around during this performance of the most beautiful music I had ever heard and saw people crying, and jaws dropping. Then I got on the train and I went to the studio and it occurred to me that the best music I ever heard in my life was on the way to the studio and not in the studio. I think that was supposed to be some kind of message for me. Music and art are just moments in time that can exist anywhere. That was the day I realized that I wanted to search for those moments.”
Continue — Read more »

Tool and Perfect Circle’s Keenan puts his latest group, Puscifer, on the road

:: Puscifer ::

:: Paramount Theatre ::

:: November 20 & 21 ::

By Joe Kovack

Leave your expectations at the door. Maynard James Keenan’s latest incarnation Puscifer, is a veritable orgy of the senses.

“Expectations pave the road to hell, so come with no expectations and just enjoy it and understand that every show you see is going to be a different show,” Keenan said in a recent interview with The Marquee. As the enigmatic front man of Tool and A Perfect Circle, Keenan’s barrel of creativity seems to have no bottom. Puscifer, the latest musical project in Keenan’s endlessly growing repertoire, is the culmination of 15 years of watching the world evolve and change into a musical landscape where artists can express themselves without the constraints of contrasting expectations from large recording companies.

In an age where major record labels are dying and musicians take their own reigns, the idea of Puscifer can come to life. “I think, generally speaking, that all the ideas we had back in the mid-Nineties to do we just couldn’t possibly do them financially back then, but we’ve reached a stage in video making and just music, in general, where you can do a lot of this stuff at home. With all the technology, there are more tools at your disposal, so the videos we’ve done with Puscifer — what would have cost millions — now only cost pennies,” said Keenan. And that is what Keenan’s vision of Puscifer represents, a creation of the individual without the appeasement of a higher power. Continue — Read more »

CR Gruver and friends to perform annual ‘The Last Waltz Revisited’ show

:: CR Gruver ::

:: with Polytoxic (acoustic) ::

:: Wash Park Grille :: November 19 ::

::The Last Waltz Revisited ::

:: Boulder Theater :: November 20 ::

:: with Polytoxic ::

:: Owsley’s Golden Road :: November 21 ::

:: The Last Waltz Revisited ::

::Cervante’s Masterpiece :: November 25 ::

By Brandon Daviet

When you are a borderline obsessive about music and have spent your whole life growing up in the shadows and alleyways of the same city, you tend to become a bit partial about your local music scene. In fact, without Denver’s slow-rising scene I wouldn’t be typing this for you now. Long ago, after complaining to a long forgotten local music magazine when Metallica skipped us on a pre-Black album tour the pen was thrust into my hand after said magazine offered me a job after reading my anti-cow-town screed. Seventeen years later, without much to show except a few good memories, a pickled liver and a slightly larger CD collection, the pen remains in my hand for better or worse. The fact is, I am still passionate about the health of the local scene and when I see a chance to point out something right within it I try to take time to mention it.

Continue — Read more »

The Rolling Stones
Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out (Super Deluxe Box Set)

Abkco Records

4 out of 5 stars

If you want to get your Ya-Ya’s out this Christmas, you’re gonna have to get your wallet out too; but it is well worth it if you’re a Rolling Stones fan. The Stones have unleashed a souped-up of version what many believe to be their greatest live album (I have to respectfully disagree and say my favorite is Love You Live) Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out. Recorded in November,1969, just over a week before the infamous Altamont concert, the shows were the first time the band had ever played Madison Square Garden as they criss-crossed the country in support of their sublime masterpiece Let it Bleed.

There are no added songs or other material on disc one but the album still holds its magic; especially the ethereal version of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” that just seems to become more relevant with age and defines the essence of the Stones sound at the time. The real goodies come with the second and third disc. Disc two completes the original show by including the songs the band performed that were left off the original release. The highlights being “I’m Free” and — I can’t believe I’m saying I usually go piss when I they play it nowadays — the best version of “Satisfaction” I have ever fuckin’ heard.

The final disc and the DVD mixes things up a bit. Disc three features selections from the band’s opening acts B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner. The B.B. king portion is of course killer but the Ike and Tina Turner portion almost defies description in its perfection. The DVD is a short documentary featuring live video of the second disc tracks, a hilarious interlude of Mick Jagger wrangling “Jack” the donkey and Charlie Watts during the photo shoot for the album cover and “cameos” from Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and most of the Grateful Dead. Simply put, if there is a Stones fan in your life and they find this under the tree they are going to dig this way more than a pair of socks.

Monsters of Folk
Monsters of Folk
Shangri-La Records
3.5 out of 5 stars

When I first heard that Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) were getting together to record an album with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Sea Wolf) I have to admit, I kinda moaned out loud. I have enjoyed all three musicians as solo artists and with their various full-band projects. I also consider all to be tops in the art of songcraft; they are the cream of the crop. However, their self-titled debut album is simply an experimental collection of b-sides without much cohesive direction. Yes, there is a lot of novelty in this project and yes, there are some great moments, but this is not the “supergroup” album one would expect from this bunch of established crooners.

Monsters of Folk originally formed back in 2004 when each member was on a collective tour with their respective bands and solo projects. The tour was very loose (in terms of the artists’ access to each other) and a lot of time was spent jamming both on stage and backstage. They hit it off. The late-night backstage jam sessions have since become legendary and from those jams a mutual respect was formed and the seeds of some songs that would eventually become Monsters of Folk songs were planted. Even though each member had prior agreements to tend to over the next few years, they did agree to reconnect in the future. Staying true to their word, they delivered their 15-song self-titled debut album last month.

My main problem with Monsters of Folk is there is very little real collaboration between the three artists, at least in the recorded performances of the songs. James, Ward and Oberst each have three of the most distinct voices in popular music and I would have liked to have seen more vocal interplay and verse swapping on the album. The opening number “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F),” which could have been an “Evil   Urges” outtake, sets the stage of what the album could have been. The song is clearly driven by James, with his falsetto intro, refraining harp and electronic percussive backdrop. What makes the song work is that James sings the first verse, leaving the second verse for Ward and the third for Oberst.   The Ward-led “Baby Boomer” is another great example of this vocal interplay.

On most of the other songs, each artist takes the lead on their respective track and the others are present only for instrumental accompaniment and background vocals. A clear song leader, so-to-speak, is established on each track. James and Oberst lend a heavy country influence to the album and the James-led “The Right Place,” sounds like something Gram Parsons would have been happy to cover.

Oberst’s two best tunes on the album are “Ahead of the Curve” and the mandolin-driven “Man Named Truth.” The album sleeper surprise for me is Ward. He adds an edge and contributes four great songs, including the above mentioned “Baby Boomer,” “Whole Lotta Losin’,” the rag-time sounding “Goodway,” and the most beautiful track on the album, “The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me.”

Fans of these three artists are bound to find something on this album they will love, however, the sum of all three does not equal something greater than each individual. After all, they made it on their own strengths to begin with.

— Jonathan Keller

Langhorne Slim
Be Set Free
Kemado Records
4 out of 5 stars

If you haven’t heard of Langhorne Slim yet, it’s about damn time you did.   His 2008 self-titled release was a glimpse of something truly great and his sophomore release for Kemado Records, Be Set Free, should cement him as a strong force in the singer/songwriter movement. It is one of the best releases of the year.

Langhorne Slim is the stage name for Sean Scolnick, a Brooklyn-via-Pennsylvania musician who has released seven albums and EPs over the last eight years. Even though Slim hasn’t found much widespread success he is on the verge of big things. One of his songs, “Worries,” was picked up and featured in a Travelers Insurance commercial last month.
Throughout Slim’s recording career one thing has been made quite clear: his songs are strong enough to stand on their own without studio frills.  The acoustic roots-based instrumentation and his tinny voice provide a gritty edge to the overall outcome — creating an album full of hooks without the plastic slickness in most radio-friendly folk tunes. Be Set Free has definitely got some balls and the modern folk movement could certainly use some.

For starters, Slim really knows how to write and deliver a ballad. “I Love You, But Goodbye” might be one of the most beautifully, positive songs I have ever heard on the topic of losing someone. Other slower standouts include the acoustically driven “Sunday by the Sea,” with its accompanying piano and strings, and the album’s title track.

Don’t let the ballads fool you, though. Known for his raucous live shows, Slim knows how to get loud, even with acoustic instruments. The album’s first single “Say Yes” is an all-out venture featuring his touring band which consists of Jeff Ratner on upright bass, Malachi DeLorenzo on drums and David Moore on keyboard.

One of my favorite songs on the album is “Cinderella.” The song has a Motown bass, piano and drum groove and as Slim’s lead vocal comes in, an infectious chorus of background vocals answers his every line. The interplay between the two distinct vocal lines creates a near-perfect hook. Other songs of great note are “Land of Dreams” and the album closer “Boots Boy.”

Be Set Free is an album that should be noticed and without a single song over four minutes in length, it should be a guide to all songwriters that getting to the point is a smart move. That formula has worked perfectly for Slim.

— Jonathan Keller

Jon Ridnell
Reliance
Doggy Music
4 out of 5 stars

In the internationally recognized Front Range music mecca known as the small mountain town of Nederland, Colo., perhaps no local musician today is more respected by his peers than Jon “Blackdog” Ridnell. A fixture in the Nederland music community since the mid-’90s, Ridnell has helped set the modern definition of melding genres as well as re-solidify the high standard of musicianship the legendary town has been known for since the early 1970s.

In his latest release Reliance, with the help of superlative Front Range musicians, engineering and production, Ridnell has painted an entertaining panorama of the funky, relaxed and rockin’ world he occupies with his soulful songwriting and enormous guitar ability. Reliance shows the many sides of a man who plays jazzy, acoustic solo sets, sings home-brewed heart rending ballads, chills out island calypso style, hangs in the mountaintop hip-hop scene, picks country and bluegrass, shreds electric hard and heavy, or just likes to funk it up with the horns. It’s all Blackdog, i.e. Jon Ridnell, and it can all be found in healthy, cohesive servings on Reliance, his newest in a catalog that extends back to Ridnell’s pre-Colorado days touring around the New York area. Personal favorite tracks include the funky, soulful “Give It Back,” featuring the Mile High Horns, midi horn magician Cecil “P-nut” Daniels, and Nederland’s own MC Prakoshis, and “Giving Tree,” highlighting the acoustic, idyllic side of Ridnell, with sweet banjo accompaniment from YMSB’s Dave Johnston.

Produced by Lyons luminary Sally Van Meter (appearing on lap steel and slide guitar); recorded in the revolutionary “warm digital” Sonoma DSD System by Gus Skinas; mixed at Immersive and mastered by David Glasser at Airshow; featuring the sublime, solid backdrop of Dave Watts (drums) and Eric Thorin (bass), and a host of the very best instrumental and vocal support to be found in the region (Eben Grace, Eric Moon, Mollie O’Brien, Sally Truitt); and recorded at Nederland’s own Backdoor Theatre, Ridnell has shown that his Reliance on Rocky Mountain living certainly yields its own sparkling rewards.

— Bruce Lish

:: Jon Ridnell ::
:: Blue Owl Books (w/Sally Van Meter) ::
:: November 21 ::
:: Oskar Blues ::  CD Release ::
:: November 28 ::

:: Stage Stop ::
:: December 14 ::

:: Boulder Draft House ::  CD Release ::
:: December 18 ::

Otis Redding
The Best See & Hear
Shout Factory
3 out of 5 stars

The CD and the accompanying DVD are an excellent, excellent way to start out a morning — and the extensive liner notes by Bill Dahl give a concise but incredibly informative picture of Otis Redding, his career, and his tragic death at the age of 26.

The collection of songs on the CD features a slew of Redding’s hits for Stax/Volt, including, of course, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now),” “Respect,” “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)” and “Mr. Pitiful,” among others.

The DVD has some overlapping songs, but seeing Redding perform from these shows in Oslo, Norway, 1967 and the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967 are great compliments to the audio disc.

The problem with this collection, though, is the fact that it doesn’t really provide anything new. The audio is not re-mastered and the video is relatively poor quality (good by 1967 standards, but poor in today’s day and age). Most, even cursory fans of Redding will already have most of this material in their collection, and while this CD gives a great Cliff Notes version of his career, it fails to provide real fans with anything new. Those who need to get educated on Redding could do so easily with this package, however, and hopefully a new generation will embrace this American master that we lost way too early.

— Brian F. Johnson

John Mancini Band
JMB
Independent
3.5 out of 5 stars

The John Mancini Band has an identity crisis, or at the very least a geographical crisis. Everything from their song arrangements, to their overall sound, to even the packaging of their self-titled release screams “Boulder.” The band couldn’t be more Boulder, in fact, but the truth is the band comes from Baltimore, of all places — with its namesake having spent only a short time in Colorado, Crested Butte to be exact.

Regardless of that zip code challenge, JMB is getting huge accolades for their release, with tracks winning Relix Magazine’s JamOFF! contest and the Billboard World Song Contest, among many, many other awards.

The album is a fun mix of jammy party music, which shows a strong jumping off point for extended noodling, but keeps the songs tight enough that full concentration isn’t required for every track. It’s lively, fresh and light music, even if it does come from the East Coast.

— Brian F. Johnson