Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings recreate the feel and soul of Stax and motown

:: Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings ::

:: Ogden Theatre ::  September 28 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The ’60s was a magical time for music in this country. It was the decade that saw The Beach Boys mesh ’50s harmonies with rock and roll, the Stones and The Beatles lead The British Invasion onto our shores, and the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane brought the psychedelic San Francisco scene to an entire country of hungry young people desperate to rebel against authority. All the while, soul music was enjoying its heyday and there were two record labels, Stax and Motown, pumping out hit after hit by the likes of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Booker T. & The MG’s, and Stevie Wonder. Though both studios folded in the early ’70s, their legacy lives on.

Today, musician, producer and label owner Gabriel Roth is carving out a career molded in the spirit of those classic labels and carrying the torch for soul, funk and R&B musicians. Roth ran his first record label, Desco Records, with partner Philip Lehmann for several years. “It was an independent label where we made our own records and we put out 45’s and there was a lot of vinyl around,” Roth said in a recent interview with The Marquee from his home in Los Angeles. Continue — Read more »

Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice team up as Jenny and Johnny for new album

:: Jenny and Johnny ::

:: Supporting Pavement ::

::  Ogden Theatre :: September 9 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

When your career resumé reads like a list of some of the most pivotal pop culture TV shows, bands, brands and moments, you’d expect a sort of been-there, done-that swagger. But for Jenny Lewis, who started her career in a Jell-O commercial at age three, acted on shows like “The Golden Girls,” “Baywatch” and “Growing Pains” (mostly in small roles, but who cares?), and went on to front the band Rilo Kiley, perform with The Postal Service and Elvis Costello and now fronts a new band with her boyfriend, a swagger would just be too much bullshit to try to pull off. Lewis is more content to focus on content than she is on frilly nonsense like self-importance.

That, precisely, is what makes her, as Bust magazine put it, “one of the best-loved and most respected female solo acts in the indie scene, a rare example of true talent in the hype-heavy music world.” Continue — Read more »

Jamie Lidell leaves no eclectic influence untapped on his latest album Compass

:: Jamie Lidell ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: September 7 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

In 2008, Jamie Lidell burst out of the shadows of the underground music world with the release of his critically acclaimed soul record, Jim. The album transported listeners back to the early ’70s and had many people comparing him to ‘Blue Eyed Soul’ singers like Van Morrison or Steve Winwood. While the album was a relatively big success and has allowed him to share the stage with Prince and headline European festivals over the likes of Elvis Costello, his new record, Compass, proves that it was only a small step in the musical evolution of an extremely talented artist.

As he discussed the genesis of Compass in a recent interview with The Marquee, Lidell revealed that much of the album was born out of a more personal place than any of his previous work. “As things wound down after Jim I had a lot on my mind and I had been through some crazy changes in my life. I thought it was time to talk about some of that stuff more openly in my music and to try and find out what kind of artist I wanted to be,” he explained. As these kinds of thoughts were going through his mind, and some of the songs that eventually made their way onto the album were beginning to take shape, he got a very exciting phone call from a like-minded artist. Continue — Read more »

Dead Confederate finds a new way of recording with latest album Sugar

:: Dead Confederate ::

:: with Alberta Cross ::

::  Larimer Lounge :: September 18 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: September 19  ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what equipment you use. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what studio you’re in. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter who wrote the song. Because, when it comes down to it, sometimes it’s weather that influences the feel of an album more than anything.

When the Athens, Ga., quintet Dead Confederate left the South last winter to travel to the highly revered Water Music Recording Studios in Hoboken, N.J., they had a loose idea of how they wanted their new songs to sound. But after days upon days of being stuck in a studio due to a blinding nor’easter, the southern grunge rockers emerged with their sophomore album Sugar and a whole new idea of how their songs could sound. Continue — Read more »

Rose Hill Drive comes out of hibernation with a new lineup and new tracks

:: Rose Hill Drive ::

:: Fox Theatre :: September 25 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

From 2003 through 2008, Boulder’s own Rose Hill Drive was riding high on a wave of success. They toured the world and opened for some of the biggest names in rock and roll, like The Who, The Black Crowes, and Van Halen. They drove two tour vans into the ground criss-crossing the country, and released two albums.

But when the reverb faded from their amps following their annual New Year’s Eve show at the Boulder Theater on December 31, 2008 — a show in which they covered Led Zeppelin II in its entirety — it looked like the band was done. Continue — Read more »

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros redefine the term ‘cult following’

:: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros ::

:: Ogden Theatre ::  August 11 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: 2010 FMQB Triple A Conference ::  August 12 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Charles Manson’s original career aspiration was to be a musician. But 41 years after Manson and his acid-head cronies started Helter Skelter, another group of California ideologists, known as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros seem to have succeeded where Manson so miserably failed — being a happy and adored musical group.

This group wears the same hippie clothes as Manson and his followers, they have members who are also well versed in intoxicants, and they travel in such large numbers that calling them a cult isn’t much of a stretch. But where the band is really skilled is in converting followers. Their 2009 debut Up From Below features the instantly infectious track “Home,” which has been popping up in commercials and movie trailers with its cutesy lyrics, catchy chorus and ensemble folk rhythms. While the track was released last year, it’s proving to be the feel-good song of 2010, and not just to fans and critics but even for the band members themselves. “This is experience is so different because it was very genuine and creative and, you know, writing stuff that we love, and working on it because we love the song. I’m thrilled it’s doing what it’s doing, but we didn’t really think about it while it was happening. I just knew that it was special to me, you know?” said guitarist Christian Letts in a recent interview with The Marquee. Continue — Read more »

My Morning Jacket touches down for third annual Mile High Music Festival

:: My Morning Jacket ::

:: Mile High Music Festival :: August  15 ::

(festival runs Aug. 14 and 15)

By Brian F. Johnson

If all of the other groups playing the Mile High Music Festival banded together to make the most righteous rock and roll sound they could, it would most likely still pale in comparison to the power of My Morning Jacket.

That’s not to take away from the other bands at all. There are other acts on the lineup that are more famous; acts that are louder, have toured more, or been around longer than the Jacket. But the fact of the matter is that My Morning Jacket is completely unparalleled in today’s music world. The L.A. Weekly called them “the best live band in the world,” and Rolling Stone said that they “unleash more firepower than any band of their generation can match.” Continue — Read more »

Primus’ original cast returns to the road, gets set to release new album

:: Primus ::

:: w/ Gogol Bordello & The Dead Kenny G’s ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 12 ::

By Joe Kovack

To be considered a power trio in rock and roll, the requirements are quite simple: guitar, bass, drums and an uncanny ability to rock out. Primus meets and exceeds these requirements with psychedelic ease — like their 1960’s predecessors such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream.

Starting in the Bay Area of Northern California in the late ’80s, Primus hit the scene during the height of the metal and grunge eras of the late ’90s, when Metallica and Nirvana were dominating music. Despite, or maybe because of the fact that they weren’t doing what everyone else was, the eclectic three-piece established themselves as one of the most innovative bands of our time and laid the groundwork for  their cult-like following. Continue — Read more »

Pretty Lights comes off whirlwind summer tour for first headlining red rocks show

:: Pretty Lights ::

:: w/ MiMOSA, Emancipator & Zion-I ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 7 ::

By Hap Fry

It wasn’t a matter of national security. It was more about sanity and peace of mind.

When Derek Vincent Smith stepped outside for a smoke break during a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport recently, the 6-foot-9-inch hip-hop/electronica wizard made sure his backpack was well protected by Thunder, his traveling VJ.

“I was like, ‘Don’t let this leave your body at all,’” Smith said during a recent telephone interview with The Marquee. “It was funny because it was so important to me.” Continue — Read more »

The Waifs scrap their big band and return to their roots for 2Oth annual Folks Festival

:: The Waifs ::

:: 20th Rocky Mountain Folks Festival ::

::  August 15 :: (Festival runs Aug. 13 - 15) ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Infighting in bands; it’s a story that’s been told countless times. Sometimes it ends in a breakup that is splashed all over the cover of tabloids (see The Eagles) and sometimes it ends in a band member being shown the door (see Dickey Betts and The Allman Brothers). Often, there is a reunion down the road after the band members have “patched things up,” but it’s rare that this kind of strife works itself out while a band is still actively touring and recording together. That’s where Australian folk group The Waifs have managed to set themselves apart. It wasn’t too long ago that sisters Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson were throwing things at each other onstage while their bandmate Josh Cunningham was literally caught right between them.

“It was pretty bad. I see videos of us performing and at the time I don’t think we fully understood  that our issues were very obvious from the audience’s perspective,” Thorn said when The Marquee reached her by phone at home in Utah.  “It seemed to work for us in a funny sort of way, though, people liked the contention and the friction as we threw tambourines at each other but I see that stuff now and it makes me cringe.” Continue — Read more »

Cotton Jones masterminds balance real life and family on the road

:: Cotton Jones ::

:: w/ Parson Red Heads and Fruit Bats ::

:: Hi-Dive :: August 20 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The music of Cotton Jones is the perfect soundtrack for an evening on the back porch, with a sunset and a tall glass of iced tea or an ice cold beer.  The tender harmonies, mellow melodies and Leonard Cohen influences that shine through give the songs a dreamlike quality that seems to dilute your consciousness as you get lost in the images they create.

The masterminds behind these haunting songs are the husband and wife team of Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw. While they legally married in October of last year, they have been working closely for the past five years in both Cotton Jones and Page France, the latter which disbanded in 2008 due to the fact that Nau and McGraw wanted to focus their musical efforts on Cotton Jones. Continue — Read more »

The Warlock Pinchers  return to Denver after 18 years

:: Warlock Pinchers ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: August 6 and 7 ::

By Brandon daviet

There are not many bands that have stones to proclaim themselves as “the official sound of Satan,” but that’s exactly what Colorado’s own Warlock Pinchers did when they busted out of Boulder’s CU campus at the tail end of the ’80s.

For five years, between 1987 and 1992, the Warlock Pinchers dominated the Colorado music scene and during that time they released a pair of classic albums on San Francisco’s Boner Records that still enjoy good sales today, Deadly Kung Fu Action and Circusized Peanuts. In that same time frame they also became infamous for their incendiary live shows and created a small merchandising empire, something that few other, if any, Colorado bred bands (especially from that era) can lay claim to. Continue — Read more »