:: w/ Motörhead, Lacuna Coil, Volbeat ::

:: The Fillmore :: February 28 ::

By Brandon Daviet

I, for one, could not imagine a musical landscape without Megadeth. The “what if” scenario of Dave Mustaine staying in Metallica at the dawn of thrash music has just never made sense to me. While I will give Metallica their due as formable musicians I have always viewed Megadeth’s razor sharp musicianship and caustic politically charged wit as a far more valuable asset to the annuls of thrash and heavy metal than Metallica’s visions of sugar plums and other dreamtime inequities.

Still, from the perspective of financial success and mainstream achievements it is easy to see how Metallica’s domination of the airwaves and record charts could create a metaphorical hurdle that even Dave Mustaine himself has admitted to wanting to overcome. And that drive have contributed, often for the better, to Megadeth’s unrelenting ferocity onstage and off.

It was just recently, and a long time coming at that, that everything came full circle when Mustaine joined his former Metallica band mates onstage in San Francisco to perform a handful of songs that’s he had helped them write. That finally brought closure to the lingering “what if” question — what if, Mustaine rejoined Metallica?

It’s important to note this performance wasn’t some handout from the boys in Metallica to a fallen or unsuccessful former member, as Megadeth is still stronger than ever. In fact, Megadeth are touring with their very own handpicked lineup called “Gigantour” and are riding high with their thirteenth studio album, aptly named, 13. On this outing Megadeath are sharing the stage with the legendary Motörhead.

In addition the band has also welcomed back the only member that ever came close to being a true musical partner to Mustaine; bassist Dave Ellefson and has two relatively new members Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick who provide enough fresh blood to keep the newer fans interested and keep the older fans from calling the band a nostalgia act.

The Marquee recently had a few words with Broderick, who was born in Colorado and serves as the band’s lead and rhythm guitarist, about the current state of musical force the planet calls Megadeth.

Being the “new kid town” in terms of band tenure Broderick provides a unique prospective into the workings that is, in many ways, has always been more Dave Mustaine centered than any sort of collective effort. In terms of Ellefson rejoining the fold, Broderick said, “It was an amazing thing to watch, it was like an old friendship come back to life and I saw the old camaraderie between them blossom again.”

Broderick has only been with the band for two albums including the current release 13 and the band’s previous effort Endgame. Both albums have a large share of Megadeth’s trademark political dirge’s, something that Broderick, who is best known for his time in Jag Panzer, found refreshing, “I had explored political themes on my own, musically, but not to the extent that Megadeth does especially not lyrically,” Broderick said.

Meagadeth’s life blood is their bright-line distinctions of the ills of politics today, which spawned the Grammy nominated release 13. The album has its share of that with tracks like “Millennium of the Blind” and the jarring condemnation of “Whose Life is it Anyway.” Oddly enough, it is one of the less political relevant tracks “Public Enemy #1” that garnered the attention of the nominating committee. “I don’t know who picks these things, and getting a nomination is great, but ultimately what matters to me is what the fans and the people that actually listen to us a band thinks, that’s what matters to me,” Broderick said.

Another reality that often crosses the minds of many a longtime fan of a band like Megadeth is “just how long can these guys keep going?” Mustaine already threw in the towel once after he damaged one of his hands while attending, of all things, a sobriety support meeting. On top of that a band like Megadeth just doesn’t exist on simple power chord progressions, it takes a certain amount of physical exertion. But Broderick assures us that the band has no intention of slowing down at this juncture or finding a logical ending point to Megadeth’s story. “I think as a band we are just out there thrashing as hard as we can right now. It is not something we have discussed. If it does happen we will cross that bridge when we come to it as a band but it hasn’t happened yet,” he said.

The idea of keeping Megadeth going full steam is in fact the most logical at this point with many fans and even the Mustaine himself saying that 13 is one the band’s strongest records. For Broderick, a longtime fan before he became a member, the feeling is mutual. “To me it is almost like you can take any of the songs off this CD and put it back in time on any of the other records. For instance, a song like ‘Never Dead’ really fits in with the songs from Killing is My Business…, and then ‘Public Enemy #1’ really to me has that Youthanasia sound,” Broderick explained.

Basically, the moral of this story is that Megadeth are still at the top of their game as well as the top of the thrash metal heap as we blaze into 2012. The time is prime to catch the band live and the fact that it’s bundled with Motörhead is an added attraction should seal the deal.

:: Megadeth ::

:: w/ Motörhead, Lacuna Coil, Volbeat ::

:: The Fillmore :: February 28 ::

Recommended if you like:

• Metallica

• Slayrer

• Judas Priest

:: Widespread Panic ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: February 10 - 12 ::

By Hap Fry

For all intents and purposes, Widespread Panic’s legendary Sit & Ski Tour — which took place 16 years ago and was comprised mostly of stops through various Colorado mountain towns — originally was supposed to be completely acoustic.

That was the plan, at least until Panic’s late-great lead guitarist Michael Houser figuratively pulled the plug on the acoustic setup during the tour’s infancy, according to bass player Dave Schools in between sips of a triple latte while listening to the soothing sounds of Primus at his favorite Sonoma County café on an early-January day.

“We started off with the idea of being totally acoustic, and that fell by the wayside after exactly one set at the Fox Theatre when Mike Houser said he didn’t want to play acoustic,” Schools said while chuckling during a recent phone interview with The Marquee. “So, he started playing his electric at low volume and, bit by bit, as the tour wore on — we were just like, ‘Acoustic, my ass.’ We were just playing regular rock and roll shows, but still with the idea that anything goes.”

This time around, with Panic heading into its 26th year, Schools said things will play out differently, but with the promise that the band will still apply an anything-goes policy that’s kept fans wanting more for a quarter century.

Widespread Panic will wrap up its much-celebrated 25th year anniversary shows and play its final shows of 2012 with a pair of three-night runs at the Denver Fillmore (Feb. 10-12) and the Belly Up Aspen (Feb. 17-19) this month. The six shows are part of the well-publicized Wood Tour that kicked off in January with two shows in Washington D.C. and was followed by three more gigs in Atlanta.

“What I’m looking forward to this time is the fact that it is going to be purely acoustic,” Schools said. “There’s no going back. There’s not going to be any speakers on stage. You know, JoJo’s playing a piano and Jimmy’s going to have a brand new acoustic guitar custom fit to his own specifications. It’s going to be for real.”

Schools said he’d also fool around a little with a mariachi bass, but that the band will incorporate plenty of new bells and whistles that one might expect with such a unique and intimate tour.

“Nothing’s out of the picture,” School said. “We’ve worked on some different arrangements with some of the more classic material. We’ve written some songs, and we’ve added some surprising covers to the mix – none of which I’m going to mention specifically.”

But after being pushed a little further about that material, Schools offered this: “As far as new material goes, we’ll see what happens with all these songs. I fully expect a lot of it to be realized and possibly worked into these setlists. That’s a really big step for us, and if we can make it happen then we’re well on our way. We just like experimenting with other things, and we’d be fools not to.”

Really, as Schools said, the acoustic setup may be the best arrangement to suit the band’s creative urges — creative urges that date back to their band house off King Avenue in Athens, Ga. that they shared in the late eighties and early nineties, and where they wrote the albums Space Wrangler and Widespread Panic (aka Mom’s Kitchen).

“This tour was a real good idea,” Schools said. “The more thought we put into it, the more we realized it was capable of performing several functions. One, it’s going to give people something totally different, and that’s first and foremost. Secondly, I won’t say it’s an excuse because that’s not the right kind of word, but it’s a really good opportunity to reboot material and scale it down to its essence — just see what we can come up with. As far as old material goes, I think anything’s in play. It’s going to give us a chance to outfit a new suit, so to speak.

“The other thing we realized, and probably the most important thing, was writing new material within a particular paradigm. We can sort of shake off the restraints — take away all the things like volume, distortion, electronics, processing  — and take things back to their simplest, most pure essence and start there and see what happens.

“You know, we used to write that way. We used to sit around the front porch in Athens at our house on King with our acoustic guitars and watch people walk by and watch the cat try and dodge the catbirds. Some of the songs, well like ‘Porch Song,’ were written acoustically in the simplest [setting] or late at night when we couldn’t plug in because of the noise and the fact that the city councilman lived next door to us,” said Schools.

Panic most certainly won’t have to worry about any city councilman “pulling the plug” on them when they take the stage at the Fillmore. But rest assured, noise is a big concern of Schools and his five other bandmates this tour. “Really, to me, the biggest challenge is, are people going to be quiet and let us play quietly,” Schools said. “You know, they’re used to hearing us in arenas, and they’re used to feeling a lot of air moving through the speakers — maybe being in the back at the bar jibber-jawing. That’s going to be a challenge at a venue the size of the Fillmore — to actually get 3,000 people to focus and listen to us quietly.

“My hope is the strength of the music and the fact that it’s kind of the last chance to see us for a while will have an effect. We don’t mind if people sing along, but you don’t want to feel like people are talking over you because it’s quiet,” he said.

Those fortunate enough to attend any of the sold-out shows should want to tune in because, as mentioned above, these will be the final shows Panic performs as a group in 2012. Fans still concerned that the group may take a longer-than-expected hiatus should rest easy. Schools said he expects the band back on stage in 2013 and beyond.

“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “This [break] is something that we simply need to do — just take a little rest and just reboot ourselves. I’m sure plans are already in play in various circles to get us back out on the road. It was a pretty long year for us. We did a lot more little runs that satisfied a lot of [people]. It’s just time for a little break for everybody. I mean, there are some people with kids who might want to see them grow up a little bit.”

Arguably, no state has witnessed Panic grow up more significantly than Colorado. From their early gigs in Telluride to their sold-out shows at Red Rocks to their New Year’s Eve celebrations in Denver, Panic has evolved into a Colorado institution. And, as Schools reminisced, at the forefront of the institution was the Sit & Ski Tour, which ultimately helped pave the way for the Wood Tour.

“I’m pretty sure the idea of an acoustic tour was born from that — just reminiscing about the Sit & Ski Tour that we did in Colorado back in [1996], so that’s been a byproduct,” Schools said. “I think Sit & Ski became legendary because of just the freedom it inspired in us. You know, starting off to do something different is one thing, but letting it lead you where it may is another thing. We started off with the intent that it would be strictly acoustic, and it ended up blending into one of our most creative periods.”

:: Widespread Panic ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: February 10 – 12 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• Gov’t Mule

• Grateful Dead

• Mofro

:: Otis Taylor ::

:: Dazzle Jazz Showroom ::

:: February 18 and 19 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The music business is a fickle mistress. She’s incredibly kind to some for a year or two before turning her back and slamming the door, she dotes on some who clearly don’t deserve it, and often all but ignores some of the best and brightest talent out there. Sadly, Boulder’s own bluesman Otis Taylor seems to fit into that last category.

Taylor has released twelve mesmerizing albums over the course of the last 15 years and the venerable Downbeat magazine recently called him “one of our greatest living blues artists,” yet he has managed to stay mostly out of the public eye — with one notable exception.

Since 2009, when it was featured prominently in Michael Mann’s film Public Enemies, Taylor’s song “Ten Million Slaves” has sold more than 82,000 copies on iTunes. While the sales of that track are a bright spot for sure, the fact that he had the opportunity makes it a bit of a double edged sword. “I’m really good for movie directors because they want obscure artists so they can have their movies be different,” he said during a recent, long and rambling interview with The Marquee from his home in Boulder. He went on to comment cynically on the critical acclaim that his work has gotten over the years, saying, “That’s the kiss of death ain’t it?”

Clearly, people who are clued in to Taylor’s self-described “trance blues” sound are fascinated and enthralled by the depth and power behind his compositions, and it’s a wonder that more listeners haven’t caught on. “I’ve had to fight a hard battle,” Taylor said. “I don’t know what it is about me, I’ve had people say I’m bluer than blue, more like indigo. They would get upset with me back in the day because I was ‘too dark for blues,’ which was confusing for me. Then they would tell me ‘you don’t have any chord changes!’ Well, neither did Howlin’ Wolf or John Lee Hooker, but somehow I seem to piss people off because I want to be different, you know.”

Though he lives in Boulder now, Taylor was raised in Denver and honed his unique sound in the ’60s and ’70s during the countless hours he spent at the Denver Folklore Center. “It was four blocks from the house where I was raised. I would walk by it on the way to junior high school and finally, the summer before I went to high school, I stopped in and never really came out,” he admitted. “In the ’60s, you could just hang out and sit there all day long and nobody said anything. You’d listen to records, play instruments, watch other people play, and get free lessons. It was a magical time for me, I don’t really know how it happened.”

Fast forward 40 years to his new record Contraband and Taylor has created an outstanding collection of tracks that could well be described as a masterpiece. It is different, and it may not be textbook, but it’s all blues. From the swirling and gospel-infused psychedelia of “The Devil’s Gonna Lie,” to the haunting acoustic riffs of “2 Or 3 Times,” Taylor bends the blues genre to fit into the mold that he developed as a teenager. “My songwriting style hasn’t really changed,” he said, referring to the Contraband track “Romans Had Their Way,” that he wrote back in the ’60s. “I listen to old tapes from when I played the Folklore Center and some of those songs were 20 minutes long or more.”

Despite his dry, self-deprecating humor, Taylor was realistic and to the ­point when he discussed why he had chosen the intimate confines of Denver’s Dazzle Jazz as the venue for this month’s Contraband release shows. “It’s ’cause they come to see me there,” he said matter-of-factly. “When I get in that environment it’s a different kind of show. People listen and there’s no talking. People like up-close and intimate.”

With a capacity of only 100, the venue is a fraction the size of rooms like the Fox or Bluebird theaters, and will offer Taylor’s fans the opportunity to catch some amazing performances. “Last time I played there Kenny Passarelli came out and played piano on a song, Freddi from the Freddi-Henchi Band came by and sat in for a song, somebody from The Headhunters came by, so you never know who will sit in.”

While Contraband features his daughter Cassie Taylor, session drummer extraordinaire Larry Thompson, Denver cornet master Ron Miles, The Sheryl Renee Choir and more, Taylor was tight lipped about who might turn up during the two night run. “I don’t want to say because if it doesn’t happen, then I’m in trouble.”

:: Otis Taylor ::

:: Dazzle Jazz Showroom ::

:: February 18 and 19 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• Gary Moore

• Charlie Musselwhite

• Alvin Youngblood Hart

:: Bad Weather California ::

:: GNU Experience Gallery :: February 17 ::

:: hi-dive :: February 18 ::

By Cornelia Kane

Chris Adolf had to stop driving Bad Weather California’s van in order to take The Marquee’s call for our interview. Somehow, this came as no surprise. As lead singer/guitarist and frontman of the Denver-based indie rock/pop/ punk/surf/soul quartet Bad Weather California, the DIY-or-die ethos is evident in nearly everything he and his band do. Apparently, that also extends to driving duties, as Bad Weather California roams the East Coast on tour with Akron/Family.

Adolf was typically laid-back, even while contemplating the band’s impending eleven-hour trek straight through from their gig in Georgia that night to the Daytrotter studio in Illinois. The following afternoon, the band was scheduled, to perform an exclusive, stripped-down live session as part of the studio’s new streaming subscription service offered by Daytrotter, the influential web-based musical content provider. He was more concerned about the quality of BWC’s set than the overwhelming amount of hours on the road.

“We’re playing all these dates night after night, so our set’s really tight,” said Adolf. “It’s always kind of stressful playing on the radio, or internet … in that studio situation, where it’s like, ‘This take is it,’ and it goes out to the world, it’s really stressful and off-putting. I like the live, in front of an audience thing, because … they can see that you’re human when you’re messing up, you know? That means you’re a regular human.”

Speaking of the live show (which is hands down what BWC does best), be prepared to participate. Asked about the amazing audience call-and-response aspect to BWC’s live show, Adolf explained, “You have to keep it really simple. You have to keep it, like, three syllables so people can just shout back without having to memorize the line, you know? I was basically just really inspired by this footage on YouTube of Muddy Waters doing it.” His contemporary take on the traditional technique is amazingly refreshing, especially in this modern age of rock concert attendees expressing their enthusiasm mainly by remaining absolutely silent and motionless.

It’s hard to stay still when listening to the new BWC album Sunkissed, out February 21st on Akron/Family’s imprint, Midheaven. The record is rife with catchy, reverb-laden hooks, sparkling surf-rock guitar, and handclaps. In other words: all the best, most fun elements of traditional rock and roll. It’s not that you haven’t heard music like this before, it’s that you haven’t heard anyone having so much fun making music like this in a long time.

“It’s a collaboration with us and Seth from Akron/Family,” said Adolf. “It really sounds a lot like us, you know? It’s not as rowdy as the live show, but I think because we recorded it as a band in the studio we got some good jams.”

The Akron/Family tour and record deal came about in just the organic way you might imagine. “We got a show in Vail with them,” said Adolf. “There weren’t many people there, it was just a little show in a little bar and we just became friends. That night we just all hit it off and they really liked our CD, and from there they were like, ‘Hey, let’s help you.’ And they’ve been helping us ever since. It’s hard to be a band in Denver, because you’re on an island, and they saw us in that situation and wanted to help.”

Adolf described the BWC sound as “teenage weekend beach music. Punk rock that doesn’t sound like punk rock. Soul that doesn’t sound like soul.” On the BWC website, they call it “street-level music,” which is an apt description of both the rootsy, surf-punk the band is known for and their working-class approach to making it.

While the band has been around for over a decade, Adolf remains the primary and longest-standing member. The current lineup is rounded out by Joe Sampson on bass and guitar, Adam Baumeister on guitar and pedal steel, and Logan Cocoran on drums. All long-term veterans of the Denver rock scene, the members have played in a variety of other notable bands over the years.

The group, which Adolph explained was unceremoniously named Bad Weather California after finding that the band name ‘California’ was already taken, had the honor of touring with the Meat Puppets in 2011 — a match that was seemingly made in heaven. “The Meat Puppets tour was amazing. Those guys are grandfathers of punk rock music. They’re legends. It was amazing just to be around them. They’re really down-to-earth people, you know? You forget, because nowadays music is big business, but back then they started it. Punk rock was just punk rock; it was in the streets. That’s where they’re from. It was really inspiring to be around them for those dates,” said Adolf.

Up next, Adolf has plans to record and produce an album for local rocker The Heavy Drags this spring. “That’s going to be cool, they’re like the real garage-y kind of punk band, you know?” he enthused. “They’re out of Grand Junction and I think they’re one of Colorado’s best punk bands.”

:: Bad Weather California ::

:: GNU Experience Gallery :: February 17 ::

:: hi-dive :: February 18 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• The Meat Puppets

• The Giraffes

• The Minutemen

:: FaceMan’s Second Waltz ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: February 3 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

“Bill” of the great film(s) Kill Bill said the reason Superman was his favorite superhero was because Superman wore the costume of Clark Kent to blend in with the human race.

In the climactic scene of the movie, as a truth serum dart shot from Bill’s gun pulses through “Beatrix Kiddo’s” veins, Bill waxes poetic on the subject, saying: “Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red ‘S,’ that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears — the glasses, the business suit — that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us.”

While, in fact, nearly the opposite is true in reality for Faceman, I suspect that somewhere when “Steve” — the lead singer/songwriter and creative force behind the group — was born, that a part of Faceman already existed. His name, Steve, and the business suit he wears by day, is, like Kent, some sort of shield, in an attempt to blend in.

“I go by Steve, everyone knows that at this point,” said FaceMan during a recent interview with The Marquee. “Still, in my mind it’s not me. It’s this dual personality that I have. It’s how I feel creative. It’s sort of like a catalyst for me, so I can get out of my own mind. It’s hard to live with yourself day in and day out. This is my way, for better or worse. FaceMan is definitely not me. I’m not Steve up there. I’m FaceMan on stage.”

Last year, FaceMan, the group, released its debut self-titled album and hosted a CD release party at the Bluebird Theater in Denver that was dubbed “FaceMan’s First Waltz.” The event featured over 30 musicians from around the Denver scene, including a full marching band. The concept was for FaceMan to sort of be the house band for the event, playing their new material, but also material from the other bands that were there. Now, one year later — almost to the day— FaceMan is releasing its second album, FeedingTime, and will host FaceMan’s Second Waltz at the Bluebird.

This time, though, the band is changing, albeit only slightly, the concept. “We learned a lot from last year. It was rough with all those people up there but I think it was well received. Last year, we’d play two songs of their music and then do two of ours. This year, we’re building mini supergroups so members of four bands or so will get up and play five songs together. There will be about 40 artists and we’ll probably play about 30 songs, and 20 of them with be FaceMan songs,” FaceMan said.

Among the guest musicians for the Second Waltz are members of (and remember this is just a partial list) Achille Lauro, The Knew, Brer Rabbit of The Flobots who will emcee the event, Boulder Acoustic Society, Hindershot, Wheelchair Sports Camp, The Outfit, Kyle James Hauser, Rob Drabkin, Jesse Manley, and literally dozens more.

The Denver-based trio that is the foundation of FaceMan started working on FeedingTime only weeks after the First Waltz, and FaceMan said that he hopes he can make it a tradition each year.

“We want to try to do a Waltz every year, which may be stupid (laughs), but I want to use it as a platform to keep releasing albums,” FaceMan said. “I know there is no money in them, but I don’t care. It’s way more valuable to me. I mean, you can blog, but isn’t it a lot more badass to write a fucking novel?”

Even more badass than that though, is FaceMan’s ability to create the artistic basis for the project and then hand it off to so many other folks, be they musicians, videographers designing the set backdrop, or even the Etch-A-Sketch artist and puppeteer who created the video for the song “Need.”

Need from FaceMan on Vimeo.

“There is literally no creative direction given to them. It’s liberating for me, but it’s probably liberating for them as well. When you’re playing in a band and all of the initial ideas are coming from one person, it can create some conflict. But they’ve been so open-minded that I’ve returned the favor,” FaceMan said.

He continued, “It’d be like having a chicken and raising this chicken from infancy until it gets to the point where it can lay an egg. And that’s kind of like your egg. And you give it to someone and say cook me a fucking omelette. That omelette could be burned or undercooked. But I  feel like if I cook that omelette, I know how I cook an omelette and that’s not exciting to me. It’s exciting for me to see what someone is going to do with the raw material. I think the best thing you can give to another artist is 100% creative freedom on whatever medium they’re working under.”

:: FaceMan’s Second Waltz ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: February 3 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• Wilco

• The Flaming Lips

• Ween

:: Roster McCabe ::

:: Hodi’s Half Note :: February 8 ::

:: Shug’s :: February 9 ::

:: Cervantes’ Other Side :: February 11 ::

By Brian Turk

Musical ADHD has been plaguing the Front Range for some time now. The endless choices of music to see, talk about, and keep up with continually baffles minds.

This ailment can pull apart groups of friends, and even families, as the sick writhe through the streets, looking for a band that can somehow blend together all those different sounds that bounce around in their headphone-wearing heads.

Roster McCabe just might be one of the remedies for this rampantly spreading, and serious, affliction. This five piece band out of Minneapolis plays what they have defined as “Funky Reggae Dance Rock,” which I will translate into, “An irie and soulful blend of pop, rock and jam that puts the funk in disco and electrifies R&B.”

The Marquee recently caught up with Roster McCabe’s main songwriter and lead guitarist Michael Daum while the band was taking some time off of the road. “What we are doing now is trying to get new material ready for tour. We tour constantly, so it is very rare that we have some time off to make it up here (a practice house in northern Minnesota). It sounds relaxing, but a week up here can be very stressful. We only have a week to get a few more songs ready for tour. Since we play so many shows our fans quickly ask for new material,” said Daum.

According to Daum, Roster McCabe spent 270 days together on the road last year and played 180 shows. No wonder they needed to get away from it all. “The vibe up here is really positive. We are away from all the distractions. It isn’t remote, but it is in the very northern part of Minnesota,” said Daum. “We are in a big house, and are able to set up all of our equipment downstairs. Our drummer is also an amazing recording engineer. We have everything mic’d up and we record it all and talk about it.”

The band takes a collective approach to its functioning, and everyone gets their hands dirty in some facet. “The music and the lyrics I write a bulk of, but definitely not all of it. The last studio record we did, I was responsible for 65% of everything. Meaning 65% of everything that got pressed to that disc was something that popped into my brain,” Daum said. “We all have different roles in the band, and I decided a while back that since I am not the best singer, I should probably write the best songs. Songwriting is my thing. It’s what I think about the most and worry about the most.”

It is this attention to the deeper meaning of the music that may help Roster McCabe stand out in the jamband scene. It is one thing to be able to hoop, twirl and bounce to a song; but for it to have lyrical depth as well is a rare commodity. “What we hope is that when people actually get their hands on our music, they take time to go and listen to the songs and the lyrics. I try to approach songs from a lyrical and poetic standpoint. For me, this band is similar to a jam band in the way we move through genres, but we have what you might want to call pop vocals over it. If you were to peruse the lyric book of the CD and you actually see what we are singing, it’s all laden with metaphors, poetic devices and thought,” he said.

Daum said that while the band is from Minneapolis, their taste is straight out of Colorado — that ADHD-fueled musical diversity that is found in few other locales. “Our group listens to everything you guys listen to in Denver. Things from Medeski, Martin and Wood to Chromeo. You know what people’s iPods look like in Denver.  It’s got instrumental jam, dub step like Skrillex, an acoustic set from Phish, and some Lotus.”

Additionally, beyond shared interests, Daum said that the Colorado shows he’s played rank in his all-time favorite gigs. “Personally, for me — and I am not just telling you this because of where you’re from — but that Cervantes’ show, opening up for Kyle and Kang, was my favorite show that I’ve ever performed in my life,” said Daum. “All of a sudden we were opening up for members of String Cheese. I have always been a huge fan of SCI and especially Kang’s lead playing.” Cervantes’ must have had a fond memory of Roster McCabe as well, because their trip to Colorado this month finds them headlining Cervantes’ Other Side. “We are very honored to be having the Ragbirds doing that show with us. I don’t know how we got so lucky to have that all work out…but it did,” said Daum.

:: Roster McCabe ::

:: Hodi’s Half Note :: February 8 ::

:: Shug’s :: February 9 ::

:: Cervantes’ Other Side :: February 11 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• Louts

• Ultraviolet Hippopotamus

• String Cheese Incident

:: Whitewater Ramble ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 21 ::

By Levi Macy

It can prove difficult to break away from being just another local Front Range band. To become nationally recognized and accepted as a staple in your genre is a task that almost all bands strive for from inception. Within the last year, Fort Collins locals  WhiteWater Ramble have gone from a staple of the Colorado music scene to an up-and-coming driving force of the national jamband family.

“It was excellent. Definitely the best year in the history of the band. Not just financially speaking. It feels like we raised our profile and our stock,” said mandolin picker Patrick Sites in a recent interview with The Marquee.

WhiteWater Ramble has been playing shows in this region for close to eight years now, never really finding their place anywhere outside of the state. That all changed due to their decision to ramp up promotion, while attempting to reach fans in other regions.

In the time since the band started, the lineup has gone through many changes and the sound has evolved into the eclectic, funky, high octane Rocky Mountain dance-grass that the band has crafted.

“We play dance grooves, really high energy music,” Sites said. “We span genres every night. From old-time, jazz and swing, to Celtic/Irish, to even maybe dubstep. Our sound is based in bluegrass but we try not to have any boundaries, it’s fun for us and people enjoy the diversity.”

This ‘out of the box’ approach to traditional music is not the only reason 2011 was pivotal for the band. The year started with their first official studio release, All Night Drive. It took the band almost eight years to actually find themselves in a studio. “Honestly, we were kind of scared. It wasn’t until we got connected with Tim Carbone [Railroad Earth] that we decided it was time. He was instrumental both in producing the album and giving us the confidence to do a record,” said Sites. “We are a jam band and jam band is improvisation.”

Translating that from the stage into the studio was part of the reason it took such a long time for the group to find themselves creating a studio album. “We just knew we couldn’t get in a studio and play ten minute long jams and improvise and go crazy and hope it turned out ok. We didn’t want to spend a bunch of time and money and not end up with a solid product,” Sites explained.

Carbone took the reigns on the project and convinced the band that it was time to put all of the hard work and original music created over the years into something that represents what the band stands for. At the time, they weren’t aware that putting the album out would translate to momentum for exposure for the group, but the band took the unique approach of offering the album for free both digitally through their website as well as in physical form at their shows. “We printed around 3,000 physical copies that we just gave away,” Sites said. “People were so appreciative, left great reviews and really took it to heart. That lead to a larger booking agency and getting paired up on some tours. It got us a lot of notoriety and exposure that I think we wouldn’t have got if we tried to sell it.”

Sites went on to say, “We kind of decided as a band that it needed to be released for free. We wanted people to hear the record. It pretty much embodied everything the band had been about up to that point. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be a shame if we put this out and no one bought it.’ It would have been a tragedy to put out this album that we are really proud of and not have anyone listen to it.”

Since the release of All Night Drive, the presence of WhiteWater Ramble in the jam scene has noticeably grown to a level that the group has been striving to reach for a few years now. “We really flipped the switch in the past couple years. We have turned our focus from being an oversaturated Colorado band to a nationally recognized force. We have focused more on out-of-state touring, promoting, and trying to open ourselves up to new markets,” Sites said. “We never really knew how long we were going to take it, but once we made the switch we had to change the image of the band. We had to switch from being an all-around local band to a respected touring act doing big things.”

The push has really seemed to pay off for the fast-picking groove inducers. The album rocketed them to a new level of success, while their drive and passion to be unique has opened doors all over the country. In the last year, they played around 150 dates nationwide, with only fifteen or twenty of them in Colorado.

The band plans to take the momentum created by All Night Drive and keep running with it in 2012. “We are already planning and working on our next album,” Sites said with excitement. “Our style may be looser, but loose in a good way. It’s always growing, it’s fresh and fun. We are so excited and ready for whatever comes our way.”

:: Whitewater Ramble ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 21 ::

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:: Random Rab ::

:: Summit Music Hall :: February 18 ::

By Levi Macy

To go from childhood violinist, to the singer of a heavy metal band, to composing music for the Princess of Abu Dhabi’s bachelorette party may seem a very unlikely path for anyone, let alone someone from the heart of Midwest America.

But for Random Rab, that is a reality. Although composing music for the princess of a faraway place may not be what he is known for, or what he does regularly, it makes perfect sense that the princess would choose music such as Rab’s to be the background for her party.

Rab grew up singing in a metal band and then found a home in folk-based singer/songwriter music  before he made the move from Indiana to the West Coast. Once on the left coast, he and a friend had trouble finding a drummer for their band, which lead to the purchase of a drum machine. “After that was over I was stuck with all of this recording gear, so I started messing with that before I even had a computer. When computers came around I kind of jumped ship on all of the hardware and now work almost exclusively in Logic,” Rab said in a recent interview The Marquee. “Now, everything I do, I make myself. I’ll do my guitar, my voice and drums. Then I’ll get a guest artist in there sometimes. Now, my sound is pretty much a little bit of everything.” Which is a perfect fit for someone who dons the name Random Rab.

Rab has been on the electronic music scene in one capacity or another since about 1999, but it’s only been in recent years that he has been able to make the leap from underground sensation to a widely recognized producer. His sound is a one-of-a-kind journey through bass-heavy down-tempo drops and instrumental poetry.

The sound Rab produces today comes from countless years of honing his laptop craft — a lot of which he attributes to the sunrise Burning Man sets he has been playing since around 2003.

“It was 2003, maybe even as early as 2001. I had all of this music in my toolkit that I didn’t know what to do with. Breaks were really big and I played a lot of parties where everyone always wanted the ‘big beat.’ I had a bunch of other music I was working on and didn’t know what to do with it,” Rab said. “Then one year at Burning Man, sunrise came around and no one was slotted. At that time it seemed as if no one wanted to play sunrise — the party was pretty much over. I decided to play and it was just magical. I realized that sunrise was when I could play anything. When I played the first one, people were freaking out, I was freaking out. A whole new sound opened up for me, just an entirely new possibility. It’s kind of become my thing now.”

Since his first sunrise set both the electronic scene, as well as Rab’s sound, have evolved. What once was only suitable for first thing in the morning has slowly found its place in the mainstream. Rab explained: “Now, people in general as an audience have become more open to something different. They have heard a lot of banging beats. Now they are open to new forms of music in a way they haven’t been.”

That truth has become so apparent with the growth of so many sub-genres in the scene and the sprouting up of artists such as Random Rab himself, who don’t quite fit into any one style or definition. “When it first started it was a challenge just getting people into electronic music. At the time it wasn’t the big thing. Now, electronic music is actually becoming accepted,” he said.

But Rab prides himself on a unique sound that not only easily slips between the sub-genres, but also incorporates other musicians, bringing live music into the otherwise electronic mix, and Rab said that he likes the freedom that gives him, even though it can also come with some headaches.

“It’s a totally different experience. The band is a live fun show that really draws everyone in,” Rab said. “It’s got a certain power and I love doing it but it can be a logistical nightmare. Solo is cool because it gives me a chance to present my music and all of the things I have been working on in my studio. I can really focus more on the delicate sounds. Where, when I’m with my band, there is so much energy of this live music and the unexpected can happen. They are both equally amazing but have different draws. The electronic is more of the nuance and intricate sounds, where the live band is about power and energy.”

Regardless of whether he’s solo, with a  band, or on his latest album Visurreal (he also has another one in the works), Rab said that he looks at his work as more than just audible art, and he said that being open to how the piece turns out is part of the fun. “It’s almost like I’m a sculptor trying to carve away at a giant piece of marble to find a statue underneath,” he said. “I usually just try everything, then only use what sounds good by honing in on the sounds that can pass my test. I kind of do it in reverse, I have no idea what the song is going to sound like until it is done.”

:: Random Rab ::

:: Summit Music Hall :: February 18 ::

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:: Atmosphere ::

:: Common ::

:: Grieves + Budo ::

:: Get Cryphy ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: January 27 ::

By Hap Fry

In anticipation of what is rapidly approaching later this month, one might have expected the members of Minneapolis-based hip-hop band Atmosphere to have spent the holiday season reenacting a scene out of Rocky, running around their cold city in grey sweatsuits, training to the song “Eye of the Tiger.”

“That’s really not too far off,” said Atmosphere MC Sean Daley, who goes by the stage name Slug, during a recent phone interview with The Marquee from his Minneapolis residence. “The heater broke in my practice space, so we’ve been playing heatless for the past few weeks. But now, you’ve got me a little paranoid. Maybe we need to jog around the lake some in January,” he said.

Laps around the lake may very well be in order considering the feat that Slug and Atmosphere’s other lead half — DJ/producer Anthony “Ant” Davis — will attempt to pull off within the month. Atmosphere is set to play Red Rocks Amphitheatre on January 27.

Let’s allow that to better sink in: Atmosphere will play Red Rocks later this month in the first-ever winter concert at the famed Morrison venue.

“It seemed like a joke at first because, obviously, it’s winter,” Slug said. “Then, we quickly learned they weren’t joking. This was curated by some people in Colorado. They called and asked. It’s not like I had this bright idea to throw together a show at Red Rocks in January. If there is any shock value involved, I’m unaware. The joke would be on me because I’m probably more excited than anyone who will buy a ticket.”

The full bill of the Icelantic Winter on the Rocks, which is being held in conjunction with the SIA SnowShow (SnowSports Industries of America’s trade show), also features Common, Colorado native Grieves and his sidekick, Budo, and Get Cryphy.

Weather-Warehouse.com reported that last year’s January low in the Denver area was -3, while the high was 71. The mean was 31.4, which is on par with Slug’s forecast for the event. Credit the event’s headliner for having unwavering optimism, if nothing else. “I don’t think it’s going to be sub-zero,” Slug said. “I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be surprisingly gorgeous. I think it’s going to be about 35. That’s my prediction.”

Since forming in 1989, Atmosphere has taken on plenty of other head-scratching endeavors, but with this show, Slug knows Atmosphere is about to enter a whole other stratosphere.

“The idea of doing something that hasn’t been done before is always kind of interesting,” Slug said. “That’s not a good enough reason because there’s plenty of things that haven’t been done before that I’m not jumping up to do. But I’m familiar with the venue and the scene in Colorado. All of those things together, it was too compelling to turn down.”

From a musical perspective, Atmosphere has figured out over the years that it’s okay to spin a different message. The group’s latest album The Family Sign features plenty of intense lyrics and tackles serious subjects as evidenced by the tracks “The Last to Say” about domestic violence, and “She’s Enough” about monogamy and moving on from co-dependency.

“It always makes me excited when I can connect the record to my world,” said Slug, who recently married and had his second child. “Those two years surrounding that record, everything felt like it had a purpose. It wasn’t that long ago that I was just wasted with my head in the clouds, chasing whiskey and women. To be able to come out of the clouds with my body and brain intact and have the focus that I have is a blessing I can’t take for granted,” he said.

The refreshingly honest artist also does not take his roots for granted. According to Slug, Los Angeles and New York are not the only two cities with an ear for good hip-hop. “People view those places as hotbeds for hip-hop, but what people don’t realize is that Minneapolis is amazing for hip-hop,” Slug said. “You know, we don’t have anyone here as famous as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg, but pound for pound, I’m willing to bet — just on a per capita level — that we have more rappers here who don’t have to have day jobs than any other city in the U.S. I don’t think there are actually many cities that can compete with Minneapolis,” he boasted.

That creative base has ultimately helped to not only support the band, but mold and forge its music. Atmosphere has been employing the full  band setup for a few years now, but this element — which sees Nate Collins on guitar and Erick Anderson on keyboards — has been pushed even more with the 2011 release of The Family Sign. “We change it up and do things different with every album,” said Slug. “With The Family Sign album, [the writing] was 100% collaborative.”

The Family Sign, released on Rhymesayers Entertainment (the independent hip-hop label based in Minneapolis, co-founded by Slug  and Ant), shows a looser music styling — textured with swaggering guitar riffs and expansive keyboards — than on past Atmosphere albums, and lyrical content that has Slug, known for giving as little of a fuck as possible, taking a new approach to his life and his rhymes — an approach that doesn’t leave much room for not giving a fuck. Ant also took a minimalistic approach to the beats on the new album, creating an almost uncomfortable intimacy between the listener and Slug’s nearly Kierkegaardian approach to self-analysis and self-questioning. The track “Millennium Dodo” starts out with a couplet where Slug states, “I only act like an asshole/ Why don’t ch’y’all stand back, let the man grow.” And it’s with this lack of his usual sardonic edge that Slug explores themes of growing up, not as a young male, but rather as a family man and father (hence the album’s title).

Slug will show his appreciation to his home state in February when the group will play six different Minnesota towns in seven days. But for now, Slug is just trying to make it through the holiday season while getting ready to play one of the more unique gigs in Colorado history.

“We’ll see what happens,” Slug said. “I’m not afraid to try new stuff, especially when it sounds like a good time. Hopefully it goes off pretty well and becomes a trend.”

:: Icelantic Winter on the Rocks ::

:: Atmosphere ::

:: Common ::

:: Grieves + Budo ::

:: Get Cryphy ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: January 27 ::

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:: eTown - Lincoln Center :: January 26 ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: January 27 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

The music industry has never been real keen on longevity. Sure there are the legends, the hallowed artists whose names will always be synonymous with lengthy and acclaimed careers. But most musicians realize that if they are lucky enough to get noticed, they better enjoy it, ‘cause tomorrow there’ll be a new darling on the block, and they’ll be all but forgotten.

The Jayhawks are one of those bands, or at least it seemed they were destined to be, until a strange twist of fate brought them around full-circle again.

The band that played Americana music 10 years before anyone had come up with that term, emerged from Minneapolis in the mid-1980s. From a city that was launching The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Hüsker Dü and Prince, out came a band that wasn’t really rock and wasn’t really country — sort of like the Byrds or Gram Parsons, but with the acquired knowledge that came from watching a punk scene explode and just start to fade.

“We felt like we were mining this music that was just under the radar in a  funny way, by being such traditionalists — not purists, but traditionalists. In a way, we were kind of being rebels in our own way,” said founding member, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Gary Louris, in a recent interview with The Marquee.

The Jayhawks had named themselves after The Hawks — as in Levon and the Hawks, the group that once served as Bob Dylan’s backing band, before changing their name to The Band. They quickly amassed a staggering amount of material and after only a few years had put out a couple albums, including Blue Earth on Twin Tone Records. Legend has it that famed A&R representative  and producer George Drakoulias from Def American, was on the phone with Twin Tone Records president Dave Ayers in 1991, when Drakoulias heard Blue Earth playing in the background (or as ‘on-hold’ music, depending on which story you believe) and within a short time had signed The Jayhawks to Def American.

They released two damn near perfect records, Hollywood Town Hall (1992) and Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995), and as they sat perched on the edge of impending stardom, it all started to crumble away.

Founding member Mark Olson left the band unexpectedly in 1995, but Louris and company carried on and released some phenomenal albums, including 2000’s Smile. The album was lovingly reviewed by the New York Times, but the Times also ran that review under the headline, “What if you made a classic and no one cared?”

Lineup changes continued for some time and in 2004, The Jayhawks unceremoniously announced a hiatus.

But three years before that, the ground had unknowingly been laid for The Jayhawks to see brighter days. “Mark and I had been working on and off since 2001, so it wasn’t this huge gap,” Louris said. “We got together shortly after 9/11 to write some songs and that lead to an acoustic tour of some Jayhawks material, which lead to he and I making a record of new songs, Ready for the Flood, under the name Mark Olson and Gary Louris. The outpouring of audiences asking when we’d get back together made it clear that’s what people wanted to hear and I was ready to plug in again and play electric. I was really missing it.”

On top of that, Louris had been contacted about re-issues for his “super-group” star project Golden Smog, which he started in 1989 and has, over the years, featured members of The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Wilco and Big Star, among others. While on the phone with Rick Rubin, Louris said that he asked where the Jayhawks re-issues were and sadly learned that much of the Jayhawks catalog was out of print.

But leave it to the Jayhawks to turn that around. “Everyone from Uncle Tupelo to Leon Red to Golden Smog had all of these best-of compilations and here are The Jayhawks, who were a band I felt were important, with nothing. So through further talks with Rick we got some reissues going, which lead to a reunion (of the “classic” lineup of the Jayhawks), which lead to a new record, which leads us pretty much to this interview,” Louris said. “You know? We had some shows that we played as a band to celebrate the occasion and that set the stage, literally, for us to play together again. And we said, ‘This is fun, but let’s not just play the old songs, let’s play some new songs.’”

The band went almost immediately back into as prolific an era as their heyday, and the resulting album, Mockingbird Time, was released in September 2011. Critics said the album was what they should have recorded as a band in 1996 as a followup to Tomorrow The Green Grass.

But, as Louris said, “The reality is it’s not 1996 and we’re not the same people we were in ’96. The basic DNA is there, but we all had different life experiences and musical experiences, so it’s impossible. I think my son said it best. When he heard Mockingbird Time, he said, ‘It sounds like The Jayhawks, but it’s different.’ It’s the product of many things and the joy of playing together again.”

When The Jayhawks play Lincoln Center in Fort Collins this month, the show will be a taping for the nationally syndicated radio broadcast eTown. In addition to playing new material from Mockingbird Time, the band will also field questions from eTown host Nick Forster.

:: The Jayhawks ::

:: eTown - Lincoln Center :: January 26 ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: January 27 ::

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