:: Dressy Bessy ::

:: "Open Air" Colorado Public Radio 2pm May 23::

:: Gothic Theatre May 25 ::

By Joe Kovack

Who said you had to write a record before releasing singles?

Leaving convention at the door, Denver born and bred Dressy Bessy plan to release a series of singles this summer rather than wait for its next album, which is tentatively scheduled for a 2013 release.

Starting with “Hey, Alice!” as the first in a number of singles for its “Summer Singles” collection, Dressy Bessy look to create music and get it to its fans without waiting for the obligatory full-length album. Subsequent digital singles will be released in July and September via the band’s website and through ITunes.

Dressy Bessy formed in Denver in 1997 and by 1999 released its first album “Pink Hearts Yellow Moons” which featured songs in Jamie Babbit’s indie film “But I’m A Cheerleader.” Since 2003 the band has had appearances on the Late Night with Conan Obrien show and Last Call with Carson Daly. Dressy Bessy will be playing two gigs in Denver this week, first in-studio for “Open Air” on Colorado Public Radio May 23 at 2 p.m. mountain time and at the Gothic Theatre May 25.

“We’re so ready to start playing shows and we’ve added some of the early hits into the set list,” said lead singer and guitarist, Tammy Ealom in a recent press release.

:: Break Science ::

:: Fox Theatre May 23 ::

:: Bluebird Theatre May 24 ::

:: Hodi's Half Note May 25 ::

By Joe Kovack

New York City’s electronic duo Break Science release newest single “Cosmic Love (Break Science Remix)” which features vocals from Florence + the Machine’s “Cosmic Love” and sampled beats from The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By.”

Break Science, consisting of Adam Deitch on drums and Borahm Lee on keys and laptop, have a combined music resume that spans a combined 30 years and includes working and producing with such artists as Wyclef Jean and the Fugees, Raekwon and GZA of the Wu Tang Clan, and even John Scofield. Break Science delivers a range of genres through its electronic sound; melding jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop into a substance that becomes its own.

Their latest release “Monolith Code” showcases the band’s energy and commitment to creating a unique sound. They are currently on tour and will play three shows around the Front Range at the end of May.

BY Joe Kovack

BOULDER- Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder will host a bench dedication ceremony for local musician and Colorado bluegrass aficionado Charles Sawtelle on Thursday May 24 at 5:30 p.m.

Sawtelle was a founding member of Hot Rize, a Colorado-based bluegrass band that became a staple of the genre around the Front Range and beyond since the late 70’s. Born in Austin Texas, Sawtelle spent most of his life growing up in Colorado, receiving his degree in fine arts and ceramics and eventually settling down in Boulder. Sawtelle was a full time employee of the Denver Folklore Center with band mate Nick Forster.

Hot Rize formed in 1978 and steadily grew to become one of the nation’s premiere bluegrass bands, eventually garnering a Grammy nomination for their 1990 album “Take it Home.” Sawtelle became known for his unique guitar styling and in a 1998 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine article, was said that “the Charles Sawtelle style of guitar playing is something all aspiring bluegrass guitarists would do well to spend time studying.” He spent the latter part of his life in Boulder with his recording studio Rancho Deville, producing records for many local and national artists. Sawtelle also recorded his solo CD here which was posthumously released. Sawtelle died of leukemia in 1999 at the age of 52.

The dedication will feature statements from family and friends and also a few songs from the remaining members of Hot Rize; Pete Wernick, Tim O’Brien, Nick Forster and Bryan Sutton, who will also be performing the following day, May 25th, in Denver at DU’s Newman Center in an event honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Folklore Center. The Chautauqua event is free and open to the public.

Photos By: Lisa Siciliano

:: Pepsi Center :: May 7, 2012 ::

By Brian F. Johnson
Photos (except for The Pig) by Lisa Siciliano/dogdazephoto.com

As a general rule of thumb, I hate scripted shows. Shows with high production values typically lose the spontaneity to connect with their audiences, due to the fact that everyone on stage is more worried about making their cues than they are focusing on the music.

Despite those constraints though, Roger Waters performing The Wall, is —hands down — one of the best tours in years. The Wall combines the theatrics and special effects of a Vegas show, with the imagery of Water’s masterpiece work. It’s incredible. It’s stunning. And it’s also completely contradictory to everything Pink Floyd’s The Wall stood for.

The performance starts with big indoor pyrotechnics that fire as “In The Flesh” (which originally, had the apt working title of “The Show”) kicks off. Waters appeared from behind the already, partially constructed wall, looking relatively young and considerably more handsome than he did in his youth. The man has aged well, but as soon as he hit the “Lights… roll the sound effects… action!” part of the song, there was no mistaking that Waters is now pushing 70 years old.

The Wall was always Waters’ vision and for this show, he makes no qualms about furthering that imagery with his own poignant slant. As the sizeable group, played “The Thin Ice” photos and stats of victims of war flashed on the screen. There were pictures of dough boys who lost their lives at Normandy, France during WWII, activists who had been claimed more recently, firefighters that perished during 9/11, and so on. It was particularly moving.

“Another Brick In the Wall (Part 1)” showcased the insanely dialed-in surround sound. I swear there was a group of singing first-grade English students standing behind me at the end of the song. The sound wasn’t just wrapping around the heads of the audience members, but seemed to be seeping up from the floor and from every bit of space in the Pepsi Center. The Wall is the best use of surround sound I have ever witnessed in a live setting.

“The Happiest Days of Our Lives” marked the first appearance of The Schoolmaster, in the form of a giant, inflatable 3D marionette puppet. Particularly trippy and wonderfully executed, The Schoolmaster’s dance on the corner of the stage was one of the show’s highlights.

With the slogan “Fear Builds Walls” on the stage wall — which throughout the first set had more and more blocks added to it during each song — and with the help of a group of school-aged kids, Waters launched in to The Wall’s biggest hit “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).”  When the hit as we all know it ended, Waters added an acoustic reprise of the song dedicated to Jean Charles de Menezes, who in 2005 was shot and killed by British police after being mistakenly identified as one of the fugitives in a failed plot to bomb the London Underground.

Up until this point in the  show, Waters had me in the palm of his hand. I was impressed that they had added some extended solos on some songs. I was blown away by the visual effects and was enjoying watching the wall being built before our eyes. But it was right at “Mother” that Waters started to lose me. Waters explained that in 1980 Pink Floyd had performed, and filmed, The Wall in its entirety at Earl’s Court in London. With artfully distorted footage playing behind him on the screen and the wall itself, today’s Waters accompanied the 1980 version of himself in performing “Mother.” It was a neat concept, but some of it came off as a karaoke performance, and some of the lines that Waters was supposed to sing, he left in the hands of the video version of himself.

But that’s not what started to change my mind about the show. I can pinpoint the exact moment where they lost me, and it was right after Waters sung the line “Mother, should I trust the government.” Right then, on the wall in that famous Pink Floyd font, the words “No Fucking Way” were projected. Now, c’mon. Part of what made The Wall, such an exemplary album and such a powerful statement was that it didn’t pander like that. No one ever said “No Fucking Way” after that line before, because nobody had to. It was understood, and having it put in our faces like that seemed to cheapen the message.

Following that, was the gorgeous song “Goodbye Blue Sky.” But again, the message seemed dumbed down and hypocritical. As cartooned bombers flew out toward the audience, they opened their bomb doors to begin dumping not bombs but corporate logos. McDonalds, Shell and Mercedes logos seemed to be raining down on the crowd — kind of a bold statement to be made considering that the show was being held at the Pepsi Center and t-shirts were being slung in the lobby for $40 a pop.

And for that matter, as the wall continued to climb toward the rafters, it dawned on me, that as cool as it is, there’s something that just doesn’t sit right about a wall being constructed with OSHA safety regulations. Now, I don’t expect Waters and his crew to throw something together that could be dangerous, but it is a bit funny that a show so that is so anti-government is so careful to follow codes in constructing a fake wall. Where’s the danger in rock and roll anymore?

With the wall completely built and a moderate intermission behind them, Waters and crew laid into the second set, or disc two, playing “Hey You” completely behind the wall. They then moved in front of the wall with the whole band dressed in fatigues, berets and sunglasses, and Waters as the evening’s dictator, barking orders to clap.

With an odd, almost Doo-Wop arrangement of “The Show Must Go On,” which featured some new lyrics that were never in the film or on the original album, Waters showed that he wasn’t opposed to making some modern-day edits to his work. But, when Waters picked up a fake machine gun and “blasted” the crowd as “In the Flesh” preached “If I had my way, I’d have all of you shot,” the theatrics seemed like a lame community theater interpretation of the song.

Not long thereafter during “Waiting for the Worms” very literal looking worms were projected onto the wall. It looked like a bad screen saver, in all honesty. And the song, which ends with a rant by the dictator over a megaphone, was so poorly executed that I believe in my gut, the megaphone wasn’t even transmitting a signal, and that Waters was simply acting as if he was yelling into it.

But, as the band dove into “The Trial” some hope was still there, and the video effects that made the wall spin in place (in one point, while Waters walked across the stage and ducked under it, lest he be struck by video bricks) was another great feat of the still astonishing visuals.

Those visuals, of course, ended with the destruction of the wall, with all of the bricks that had been stacked literally crumbling before the audience. The band, finally dressed in plain clothes walked out to great cheers in front of the rubble with acoustic instruments to play the final track of the opus, “Outside The Wall,” during which, massive Flaming Lips amounts of red confetti rained down over the crowd. The confetti was made up of the aforementioned dollar sings, and corporate logos which had fallen in video form during “Goodbye Blue Sky” — the capitalist remnants that signify even if all of our walls are torn down, that elements of greed will somehow prevail, like cockroaches.

All-in-all, The Wall is one of the most amazing performances and theatric undertakings that I’ve ever been blessed enough to witness. Still some of its execution, and the inability of the performance to overshadow the corporate structure in which it was taking place, revealed cracks in the production’s modern-day message, and ultimately that is more sad than the story of The Wall itself.

BY Joe Kovack

Beastie Boys co-founder Adam “MCA” Yauch has died today after a three year battle with cancer at the age of 47. Yauch is probably best known as the gravelly-voiced compliment to his band mates Adam “ADROCK” Horowitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond but was also a founding member of the Milarepa Foundation, which produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and the film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories.

The trio have helped shape hip hop since the 80′s and were the first hip hop group to top the Billboard charts. His humanitarian efforts helped bring the plight of the Tibetan people into the limelight. The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame just this year.

For the complete press release click here

:: Arctic Monkeys ::

:: 1st Bank Center :: May 1, 2012 ::
Photos by Lisa Sicliano and Scott D. Smith

BY Joe Kovack

Boulder, Colo.–The Fox Theatre will be closing its doors for two months this June and July because of much needed roof repairs and climate control maintenance.

The repairs come at the cusp of the theatre’s 20^th anniversary season of bringing live music to Boulder’s University Hill. The venue will be announcing shows all summer and plan to have the renovations done by the first week of August. Tickets will be available at the Fox Theatre Box Office located across the street at Albums on the Hill and at the Boulder Theatre Box Office with a full lineup of concerts ready to send off their anniversary season.

The building itself is deeply rooted in Boulder history sitting on 13th street on “The Hill” operating as various businesses as well as entertainment venues throughout the 20^th century. For the past 20 years the Fox as it sits has brought many national and local musicians through its doors. Check www.marqueemag.com and www.foxtheatre.com for future details.

:: Leftover Salmon ::

:: Aquatic Hitchhiker CD release concert ::

:: 700 block of Santa Fe Drive ::

:: May 13 from 1 to 6 p.m. ::

By Brian F. Johnson

No more pussy footin’ around about it. Leftover Salmon is no longer on hiatus —that ended years ago. And this year they will officially shelve the “reunion” status they’ve been playing under since they started dabbling in shows again in 2007.

No, in 2012 Leftover Salmon doesn’t need a qualifier for their status. For the first time since 2002, the band is simply that — a band — firing on all cylinders with a tour schedule of more than 60 dates lined up for the year.

“Yeah, were a full-on band again, man,” said guitarist and Leftover Salmon co-founder Vince Herman, during a recent interview with The Marquee.

Herman — never one to sound like Eeyore in the first place — was particularly lively, when The Marquee caught up with him while on a tour stop in Atlanta. It was the first day after a few weeks on tour when the group had time to stop and do laundry, and aside from the struggle of getting the machine to work, Herman seemed down-right giddy about the prospect of clean clothes.

But that nugget of joy was minor in comparison to Herman’s other reasons for being so jolly. The lead singer, who in recent months has dropped some serious weight and is working hard to keep it off, seems to have signed a new lease on life that is showing up in his health, his love life, and most importantly for us, in the band that he helped start back in 1989.

“It was time to shit or get off the pot,” he laughed. “You can only do the reunion stuff for so long before people start saying, ‘Well, are you a band or not?’”

Herman was quick to point out that he and his Leftover bandmates will continue to pursue their side projects, but that for the first time since the hiatus, Salmon is the main focus.

“I’m going to keep Great American Taxi going and I want to keep playing with my kids. We don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. We all have side projects that are worth maintaining and it brings other energy to the band when you can get out and do other things, you know? But man, this has just been too much fun,” he said.

All of that fun has resulted in Leftover Salmon’s first album in eight years — Aquatic Hitchhiker, which will be released May 22 on the band’s own label LoS Records. The album, which was recorded in Denver at Mighty Fine Studios, and in Portland, Ore. at Cloud Sound Studios, was produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Herman said that they had the unique experience of having Berlin involved in some of the writing sessions for the album.

“This was way more collaborative than anything that we’ve ever done before. In the past a lot of songs came pre-assembled, where the writer kind of had an idea of what they wanted it to sound like. For this process, we were writing for the record and we had some writing sessions where we got together and hung out for a few days and generated material. That was a really different process for us and having Steve there for those sessions really helped facilitate a lot of great ideas too,” Herman said.

As with past Leftover Salmon albums, Herman and mandolin virtuoso Drew Emmitt shouldered a large portion of the writing duties, but Aquatic Hitchhiker also features a song by bassist Greg Garrison, “Gone For Long,” and two songs, including the title track, by banjo shredder and Leftover’s newest member, Andy Thorn.

Herman gave Thorn great praise and admitted that the addition of the newest and youngest member of the group has a lot to do with the band’s new energy and enthusiasm. “Andy coming into the picture is definitely a major part of this,” said Herman. “He’s just a really talented kid. It’s phenomenal the shit he can play. It’s pretty out of hand.”

Leftover Salmon was one of the first bands that Thorn saw live at the age of 15, when he was growing up in North Carolina, and it’s clear in his playing that Leftover’s founding banjoist Mark Vann — who passed away in 2002 — was an integral influence on Thorn’s style. But Herman said that there is something more to Thorn’s style that the group is absolutely relishing. “It’s his willingness to go out and play really weird shit, while sticking to the real traditional bluegrass, which makes him really Mark-like. You never know what way he’s going to go on a solo,” Herman said. “You know we’ve all evolved as players by doing our other projects — it’s really expanded our ears. And so when you put that together — the songs, the new material, the players developing a bit more — it just kind of ends up that we’re a better band than when we dropped off, especially with Andy Thorn in that ‘BanJovi’ position.”

While the band was cutting the album in Portland, they were joined by a crew from iClips.net, which filmed and is now releasing a five-part documentary on Leftover and the creation of Aquatic Hitchhiker. Obviously influenced by the esoteric IFC Channel sketch comedy show “Portlandia,” the documentary bares the name Salmonlandia, and is being released as a five episode series on iClips.net. The series includes five download tracks, three of which are on the new album, and two of which are available only through iClips.

“Any more, trying to figure out what an album is, you have to expand, I guess,” said Herman. “You’ve got to throw some other things in to get it done.”

One of the things that Salmon will be throwing in for local fans is an unprecedented CD release party. Never ones to be satisfied with an ordinary soiree, Leftover Salmon will be taking over the Santa Fe Arts District the weekend before the CD is officially released, to host a free afternoon show in the middle of the 700 block of Santa Fe Drive in Denver. The party, which runs from 1 to 6 p.m. will also serve as a benefit for Conscious Alliance.

“We’re hoping that it’s an absolute fucking mess and there are way too many people,” Herman said. “It’s a great way to celebrate where we’re from and to celebrate the new record. A party in the streets? You know it doesn’t take much to convince me to do something like that.”

:: Leftover Salmon ::

:: Aquatic Hitchhiker CD release concert ::

:: 700 block of Santa Fe Drive ::

:: May 13 from 1 to 6 p.m. ::

Recommended if you Like:

• John Hartford

• Hot Rize

• New Grass Revival

:: Deer Tick ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: May 13 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

In the music industry there is such a huge difference between recording in a studio and performing live. Bands like The Beatles chose to give up touring entirely and focus on the sound they could only achieve in the studio, while other bands, like The Rolling Stones, seemed to focus more on harnessing the energy and power of their live show in studio settings. It’s a delicate line, and one that’s difficult to toe without alienating one group of fans or another. Are people coming to the shows to hear what they heard on the record? Or are they coming because they genuinely have a love for the band, their creative passion, and what they do on stage?

Providence, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick may not be The Stones or The Beatles, but they certainly are one of the most creatively prolific bands of recent memory. With four albums and two EPs in their short, seven-year career, John McCauley and his various band members have flirted with folk while remaining, at heart, a rock and roll band. Their most recent record, Divine Providence, proves this, in spades.

“I think we were desperate to record something that would capture our live shows,” McCauley said in a recent interview with The Marquee as he prepared to head out on a two-month tour. “Even when we play old tunes like ‘Spend the Night,’ now it sounds more like T. Rex than anything else. We’re able to kind of adapt to whatever situation we’re stuck playing in, but we got really sick of a lot of it, so we made it our mission to make a louder album. I think it really takes coming to a live show to ‘get’ us.”

The ‘us’ that McCauley is referring to is he and his four bandmates. While Deer Tick used to be a rotating cast of characters, McCauley is adamant that the current incarnation of the band is as permanent as it can get. “We’ve been a solid five-piece for a few years now,” he said. “This is the definitive lineup. If anybody quits or dies, Deer Tick is done. It’s me and Ian O’Neil on guitar, Chris Ryan on the bass, Rob Crowell on keys and sax, and Dennis Ryan on drums. We all sing.”

That idea of everyone singing is something that’s relatively new to Deer Tick. Until Divine Providence was released, McCauley was the only one who sang, but the new record features Ryan singing the dark tune “Clownin’ Around,” about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Ryan does a great job on the tune (in fact it’s one of the standout tunes on the album) and McCauley promises it’s not the last time that one of his bandmates will be featured on lead vocals. “I’ve always wanted to be in a band and not the star of the John McCauley show, so it seemed like the right move,” he said. “Yes, we’ll be doing a lot more of that.”

As evidence to this, Deer Tick released an EP entitled Tim back in February that showcases McCauley’s bandmate Ian O’Neil singing lead on another fantastic track, “She’s Not Spanish To Me.” While this EP is comprised of songs that were leftover from the sessions for Divine Providence, it is definitely not just a collection of cutting room rejects. “They’re good songs in my opinion, and didn’t need to be re-recorded,” McCauley said as he explained why the band decided to release the EP. “We just felt they didn’t fit the mood of the Divine Providence record.” He went on to laugh a little about why the band decided to name the EP “Tim.” “Tim is Tim Putnam, owner of our record label Partisan Records,” he said. “We almost got it manufactured with his face on the cover without him knowing about it but the guy who mastered it, John Baldwin, screwed up and mentioned ‘The Tim EP’ in an e-mail chain and let the cat out of the bag. We like to fuck with Tim. He likes to fuck with us, too.” Gag name or not, Tim is a very solid five-song EP that even allows fans a glimpse into the band’s past with an acoustic version of the Divine Providence gem “Main Street.”

Divine Providence and Tim are definitely a departure from what many Deer Tick fans may have been expecting, but anyone who has seen the band live knows they are also Deer Tick projects through and through. Many of the songs feature McCauley’s strained vocal chords cranking out thought provoking lyrics, but they are flavored with a punk sensibility that was absent from earlier records. In fact, it’s the edginess of The Ramones and The Replacements, that has taken the place of influences like John Prine and Hank Williams and keep these recent releases from being filed under Folk.

So, whether you are a fan of the old Deer Tick or the new, you have to give McCauley and his band credit for stepping to the plate and having the guts to put out an album that was unlike anything they had released before. The irony here is that on Divine Providence they were doing it to give the world a better picture of what they are like when they are performing live and in their element.

:: Deer Tick ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: May 13 ::

Recommended if you Like:

• Blitzen Trapper

• The Black Keys

• The Ramones