Marquee Magazine » Cover Story
R.E.M. accelerates back into the spotlight, but it’s not really a ‘return’
:: R.E.M. ::
:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: June 3 ::
By Chris Castaneda
In 2008, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills are finally on the same page about R.E.M.’s direction.
Since 1997, R.E.M. has been struggling to find a voice for itself, ever since the band’s drummer, Bill Berry, exchanged the spotlight for farm life. The lines of communication between the remaining members, both personal and musical, have been, at best, shaky over the course of three post-Berry albums. Now, Accelerate, the band’s fourteenth album, lays to rest the question of whether or not R.E.M. could figure out how to be a band, again.
At 49, bassist Mike Mills is enjoying R.E.M’s latest chapter. “Accelerate is R.E.M. in 2008,” said Mills in a recent interview with The Marquee. “People have been trying to say, ‘Is it a return?’ or, ‘Are you looking backwards?’ I say, no. We don’t look backwards and wouldn’t know how to if we wanted to. So, this is strictly us in this year, in this moment.”
Marquee Tags: Accelerate, Bill Berry, Bill Rieflin, British Airways, Dublin, Ken Stringfellow, Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Olympia Theater, Peter Buck, R.E.M., Rolling Stone, Scott McCaughey, The Posies, Warner Bros., Warner Music GroupNo comments
Daniel Johnston’s raw genius continues to garner support and attention
:: Daniel Johnston :: Ogden Theatre :: April 5 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
Daniel Johnston is a 47-year-old man who seems trapped in the mind of a boy. His simple, painfully direct songs are refreshing in the way that they cut through the self examination and other filters of maturity and nakedly reveal the most intimate thoughts and feelings. He is a remarkable example of a man who has, in many ways, capitalized on his limitations to further his chosen art form. Of all the things to be admired about this man, the first and foremost is that he has never been afraid of showing his art to the world.
While many artists will take three or four years to put out ten or twelve songs that are “polished enough to release,” Johnston is famous for getting his music out to the public as quick as possible, in any way possible. His first album, Songs of Pain, released in 1981, contained 20 songs recorded in his garage on an old boom box and then dubbed onto cassette. Johnston took the dubbed cassettes around to radio stations, newspapers and music clubs, saying, “I’m Daniel Johnston, here’s a tape of mine for you to listen to.” Continue — Read more »
Marquee Tags: Beck, Daniel Johnston, Flaming Lips, Kurt Cobain, MTV, Songs of Pain, The Cutting Edge, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, The Late Great Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits1 comment
The Giraffes throw rules out the window and get set for new release
:: The Giraffes :: Larimer Lounge :: March 17 ::
By Brian F. Johnson
Few bands could get away with making spray painted “tour shirts” that read “Fuck in Jail” and “Touching is Teaching” but, then again, few bands have the take on rock and roll that Brooklyn, New York’s The Giraffes do.
The band’s web page gives some insight into that take with a rant that reads, in part: “Somewhere along the way rock and roll lost its edge and humor to a tawdry compromise with commercial success and the tired hackery that goes along with the trumping of ‘the next big thing.’” The rant goes on to unapologetically explain, loosely, who The Giraffes are and adds, “If you hate it, then go enjoy John Mayer and make sure to give him a reach around.”
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New York Dolls celebrate reunited time with a live CD due out soon
:: The New York Dolls :: Gothic Theatre :: February 26 ::
By Tiffany Childs
It’s been said that New York Dolls are ‘The Beatles of Attitude.’ With their androgynous looks and ever-famous lipstick-scrawled name, New York Dolls breezed into the music scene more than 37 years ago. And even though they broke up 33 years ago in “a haze of smack withdrawal and managerial anarchy,” it turns out they never really left us.
As a band in the ’70s, New York Dolls didn’t really get a whole lot of appreciation. They seemed to come a little too early for what they were doing. However, today, the list of bands influenced by the Dolls’ brand of strutting rock and roll attitude covers everyone from The Sex Pistols to Guns N’ Roses. Recently The Marquee spoke with one of the only two original members still alive – front man David Johansen – about the long love affair our music world has had with New York Dolls.
Marquee Tags: Arthur Killer Kane, David Johansen, New York Dolls, Sylain Sylvain
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Mars Volta encounters demons and spirits during recording of Bedlam in Goliath
:: The Mars Volta :: Fox Theatre :: January 27 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
As with so many records, there is a story behind The Mars Volta’s new album The Bedlam in Goliath, which will hit shelves at the end of the month. However, this one is not one of rock and roll excess, a broken heart, or a journey of self discovery. It is a story that some may disregard completely, while to others it is the foundation of deep seated beliefs centuries in the making. Either way, it is the stuff legends are made of and it is unraveling right before our eyes.
Omar Rodríguez-López, the musical mastermind and producer behind The Mars Volta, and vocalist/lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala spent many evenings on the band’s tour bus while on the road with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the fall of 2006 deeply engrossed in their new favorite pastime. “After a show, most of the college crowds that are at a Chili Peppers show want to know, ‘Where’s Flea? Can I meet Flea? Can you give me a pass so I can hang out with Flea?’” said Bixler-Zavala in a recent interview with The Marquee as he recovered from foot surgery and rehearsed for the band’s New Year’s costume ball. “We didn’t really want to deal with those kinds of people and we just kind of retreated to the bus where the new drug of choice was playing this antique game that Omar had bought for me.” The Soothsayer, as the game was known, was a talking board in the style of a modern Ouija board, sold by Parker Brothers.
Marquee Tags: Mars Volta
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Richie Havens’ legend endures as he enters his fourth decade of performing
:: Richie Havens :::: Boulder Theater :: December 3 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
It’s been nearly four decades since 500,000 people descended upon Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York for the legendary Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. While the festival featured more than 30 of the best-known bands and musicians of the era, the duties of opening the festival fell on one man, Richie Havens.
“I was the first one on stage because I had the least equipment and the least guys,” Havens said in a recent interview with The Marquee, as he recalled the logistical nightmare that was the original Woodstock. “I got helicoptered in and they said, ‘Hey Richie, 40 minutes.’ I said ‘ok’ and went out and did my forty minutes and walked backstage to go off and they said, ‘Richie, no one else is here yet, can you sing four more?’ I said ‘ok’ and went back and did four more and then went backstage and they said, ‘Hey Richie four more?’ They did that six times. I sang for two hours and forty-five minutes, every song I knew. Then I am going, ‘What am I going to sing now?’”
No tag for this post. No commentsThe Hold Steady tell the tales of Boys and Girls in America
:: Fox Theatre :: November 11 :: Ogden Theatre :: November 12 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
Craig Finn of The Hold Steady is a member of a dying breed of writers, the barroom poet. Finn’s words talk of betting on the ponies, high school dances, acid trips and religion, while introducing listeners to some of the most well developed characters in modern rock music. After a short time with The Hold Steady you feel like you know Charlemagne the strung out addict, Gideon the skinhead, and Holly the hoodrat who found religion. Finn has a way of telling a story that really worms its way into your soul.
No tag for this post. No commentsDevotchka polishes it’s newest full-length for release in early 2008
:: DeVotchKa :: Fillmore Auditorium :: October 27 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
When first exposed to their startlingly original sound, it is difficult to believe that DeVotchKa hails from right here in Denver and was formed a mere 10 years ago. Their Eastern European sound and the emotional crooning of lead singer Nick Urata could be the soundtrack to an Eastern Block nightmare, circa 1950. Perhaps they are musicians born in the wrong era or, more likely, they are trying to bring a neglected and largely untapped genre into the public eye.
“When I started this band 10 years ago I was kinda treading water in a sea of unknown musical styles,” Urata said in a recent interview with The Marquee, from a studio in California. “I just kind of honed in on what felt natural and what I felt like I could do some justice to. I definitely wanted to do something exotic, use unusual instruments and break away from the drudgery of guitar rock bands.”
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Monolith Festival: Red Rocks’ Biggest-Ever Festival Set To Blast Off
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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Ryan Adams sobers, matures and gets brilliant in the form of Easy Tiger
:: Ryan Adams and The Cardinals :: :: Fox Theatre :: August 2 :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 3 ::
By Brian F. Johnson
By all accounts, I shouldn’t be writing this article. In fact, no one should be writing articles on Ryan Adams. A year or so ago we should have all written obituaries on him — obituaries which would have poignantly compared him to the alt-country legend Gram Parsons (with whom Adams shares a birthday, November 5) and to other musicians and actors who died tragically before their time from drug overdoses. Adams’ penchant for speedballs (a lethal blend of uppers and downers) would have placed his death alongside the likes of Brent Mydland, River Phoenix and Layne Staley, as well as John Belushi and Chris Farley, who all died from speedball overdoses.
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Leftover Salmon reunite at their spawning grounds for festival dates
:: Leftover Salmon :: with moe. :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 28 ::
By Brian F. Johnson
When the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31, 2004, and the calendar flipped to 2005, Leftover Salmon was at home — on stage, playing to a sold-out crowd at Boulder’s Fox Theatre. Three hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, the band played their final song (“Pasta on the Mountain,” with a medley in the middle that included “Free Bird,” “Third Stone” and “The Star Spangled Banner”) and called it a night, and with that, also called it a wrap. After 15 years as a band, to the very day (their first gig was on New Year’s Eve in 1989 at The Eldo in Crested Butte, Colo.), the machine had outgrown the band and the incessant touring needed to feed that machine had gone beyond the band members’ threshold.
Leftover Salmon never claimed they were breaking up, but the “indefinite hiatus” label was cast upon them, and with members swimming off to pursue solo projects and spend time with their families, it looked like it’d be a very long time before they’d be onstage again.
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The Police put ego and fighting aside to reform for massive summer tour
:: The Police :: Pepsi Center :: June 9 and 10 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
It isn’t often that the cry “The Police are coming” generates as much excitement as it did in January of this year when Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland announced the much anticipated reunion tour of The Police. The tour — the band’s first since the globetrotting Synchronicity publicity caravan came to a halt in March of 1984 — has sold out within minutes in many markets and is sure to be one of the highest grossing tours of the year.
Known for fierce fighting and massive egos, many thought that a Police reunion was something that would never materialize. In fact, Sting’s infamous quote, “If I ever reformed the Police, I’d be certified insane,” ranks right up there with Don Henley saying The Eagles would get back together “when hell freezes over.” Apparently hell froze over back in 1994, and now it seems Sting has been fitted for a straitjacket.
Marquee Tags: Reunion, Stewart Copeland, Sting, Synchronicity, The PoliceNo comments