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Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Comfort Dental Amphitheatre

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

prog rock masters Coheed and Cambria finalize their saga with a prequel

:: Coheed and Cambria ::

:: w/ Circa Survive  Torche ::

::  Ogden Theatre :: May 11::

By Joe Kovack

When it comes to storytelling with intensely intricate rock and roll, Coheed and Cambria have perfected the genre. They may even have helped to reinvent it. Rock bands are no strangers to concept albums focusing on a central story or theme, but the boys of Coheed and Cambria took it a step further by creating a five-album saga penned The Amory Wars. The brainchild of lead singer Claudio Sanchez, the saga follows the story of lovers Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon, and their quest to save their children and the world in the fictional universe called Heaven’s Fence. While the sci-fi plot adds that extra appeal to the hardcore fan, many fans old and new dig them without even realizing the profundity of the story behind the music, as bass player Michael Robert Todd told The Marquee in a recent interview. “Being that it’s an ongoing saga, it can work with us or against us. The people that are really into the band really like it, but for someone who may have never heard us before it can be a little daunting. It has enabled us to add that extra tier of media for our fans if they choose. But we’re a rock band first, the story and the saga is there if you want it, but we’re not trying to cram it down anybody’s throat. It’s amazing we’re still gaining fans after ten years and five albums, I think it’s the live show that’s really translated all these years and every time we play it seems that a couple more people come out the next time,” Todd said. Coheed and Cambria’s sound is as epic as the story it helps present, with Sanchez’s larger-than-life guitar chops and vocals; Travis Stever, whose guitar is parallel to the frontman’s; ex-Dillinger Escape Plan member Chris Pennie providing drumming that pulsates yet doesn’t overpower; and Todd’s melodic bass interweaving throughout. Their songs can lift you up and drive you headstrong into oblivion, and then bring you to a place of tranquility and serenity, which serves quite well for the feel of the new album and the whole story itself. Coheed and Cambria have proven through the years that they can bring a powerful energy to their sound that becomes infectious — like a pop song that is so catchy it stays in your head. But these guys do it with a more progressive, off tempo approach. They’ve drawn comparisons to Rush and Iron Maiden, respectfully, and rightfully so. They all share the same element of pushing the boundaries of conventional rock, but still have that subtle pop quality that can appeal to the masses. Year of the Black Rainbow shares the formula of their past records yet exceeds them in intensity and focus. This may be attributed to new producers Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction) and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool), who added an outside perspective that helped with the creative block the guys were feeling. “I don’t know if it was writer’s block, it was more like writer’s diarrhea,” laughed Todd. “We were just writing a ton of shit and we realized, ‘What do we do with all this stuff?’ These guys were real hands-on and more of an artistically contributing factor than most producers we had worked with. It was like adding another band member, they took the music and changed perspective and the record has a lot of different vibes than we’ve done before. It’s different but we’re psyched on it,” Todd said. The tour, which starts April 22, will mark the band’s first headlining effort in over two years. But fans shouldn’t fret, thinking that the band may be a little rusty. In fact, they may be more prepared and excited than ever. Having opened up for Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iomi’s band Heaven and Hell this past summer, and also playing with John Paul Jones and Slipknot, the guys of Coheed and Cambria have shared the stage with some great acts these last two years and are more ready than ever to kick off their own headlining tour again. “I get why we got to do the opening slots, and we did some great ones. We’ve definitely gained some fans that have maybe dismissed us before but then saw us live and became a fan. But the headlining tour is where we feel most comfortable. It’s like practice,” said Todd. “We play every night for two hours, and we get better. It’s really healthy and therapeutic. This tour is going to be pretty mellow production wise, maybe some smoke and shit, but for the most part it’s just going be an old school rock show. And this is what we love to do, so fans are going see a real happy band out there.” :: Coheed and Cambria :: :: w/ Circa Survive Torche :: :: Ogden Theatre :: May 11:: Recommended if you Like: • Mars Volta • At the Drive In • Iron Maiden

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Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

This Month in Music History

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:03:35 +0000

This Month in music history September 2 • 1995: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio September 3 • 1977: Elvis Presley has 27 albums and 9 singles on the UK chart simultaneously • 1967: Folk singer Woodie Guthrie dies in New York City at the age of 52 September 5 • 1987: After 30 years, the television show “American Bandstand” is cancelled • 1946: Freddie Mercury of Queen is born Frederick Farookh Bulsara September 6 • 1989: Neil Young wins Best Video at the MTV Music Awards for “This Note’s For You,” which was originally banned by the station • 1985: After Paul McCartney suggests he invest in publishing rights, Michael Jackson outbids the surviving Beatles and purchases the ATV music catalog, which contains the rights to over 250 John Lennon/Paul McCartney songs, for $47 million, thus ending his friendship with McCartney • 1961: Bob Dylan makes his live performance debut at The Gaslight Café in New York City • 1944: Roger Waters of Pink Floyd is born September 7 • 1996: Tupac Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight are shot while driving in Knight’s Mercedes following a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas; Shakur will die six days later • 1978: The Who’s Keith Moon dies of a drug overdose • 1936: Buddy Holly is born Charles Hardin Holley September 8 • 1932: Patsy Cline is born Virginia Patterson Hensley September 9 • 1941: Otis Redding is born September 10 • 1988: Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” hits #1 on the singles charts • 1950: Joe Perry of Aerosmith is born September 11 • 1987: Peter Tosh is murdered in his Jamaican home • 1965: Moby is born Richard Melville Hall September 12 • 1944: Barry White is born September 13 • 1976: Fiona Apple is born September 14 • 1984: The first MTV Music Awards takes place, with Herbie Hancock winning multiple categories • 1968: Pete Townshend of The Who tells Rolling Stone magazine that he has an idea of creating a rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy September 16 • 1970: Jimi Hendrix makes his final public appearance when he joins Eric Burdon and WAR at a London club • 1925: B.B. King is born Riley B. King September 17 • 1967: Ed Sullivan requests that Jim Morrison change the lyrics “Girl we couldn’t get much higher” to “Girl we couldn’t get much better” during their performance; Morrison agrees but performs the original lyrics September 18 • 1983: KISS appear on MTV without their makeup • 1970: Jimi Hendrix dies in London September 19: • 1981: Simon and Garfunkel reunite to perform in New York City’s Central Park for over 400,000 fans September 20 • 1970: Jim Morrison of The Doors is found guilty of indecent exposure during a Miami concert September 21 • 1968: Trugoy of De La Soul is born David Jude Jolicoeur September 22 • 1960: Joan Jett is born Joan Larkin September 23 • 1974: Robbie McIntosh of The Average White Band dies when he mistakenly snorts pure heroin, thinking it was cocaine • 1949: Bruce Springsteen is born September 24 • 1993: Drummer Steven Adler of Guns N’ Roses is awarded $2.5 million from the band for being kicked out due to an ongoing heroin addiction September 25 • 1980: Led Zeppelin’s John “Bonzo” Bonham dies of alcohol abuse • 1976: Boston’s debut album enters the charts and will become the fastest selling debut album in history September 26 • 1969: San Francisco’s concert hall, The Fillmore West opens September 27 • 1947: Meat Loaf is born Marvin Lee Aday September 28 • 1991: Jazz legend Miles Davis dies in New York at the age of 65 September 29 • 1935: Jerry Lee Lewis is born September 30 • 1964: Trey Anastasio of Phish is born • 1963: Jim Croce dies when his plane crashes into a tree upon takeoff Complied from the archives of Rock & Roll Library www.rocklibrary.com

From the barstool of the publisher, September 2005

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:07:31 +0000

From the barstool of the publisher

May I have the envelope please ... I know it sounds trite, but it truly does bring us great pleasure to present this issue of The Marquee to you. This is our biggest issue ever, due mostly to the fact that for the first time, The Marquee has taken the opportunity to acknowledge the best, brightest, loudest and coolest entities in the local music scene, with our inaugural Front-Row-Center Awards. It’s an issue that has been a long time in coming, and one that pitted us against each other, with all of us arguing for who we personally thought should have been chosen for each category. From bands to venues to other music-related establishments, the staff of The Marquee left no stone un-turned to reveal those businesses and bands that go above and beyond to be part of the music scene, or simply to be good at their jobs. It was a fun and sometimes brutal selection process, and we had a friggin’ blast putting it together. Speaking of putting it all together, we must now take the time to acknowledge a few folks who did not receive awards but should have — our most amazing staff. This issue was grueling for them, and they all rose to the challenge to deliver it to you. In particular, our interns Alex Samuel, Yvette Rebik and Page Bayless worked overtime on this month’s Marquee. Without their help, this issue would still be just a bunch of crummy files on a computer. Additionally, our copy editor Bruce Lish read and re-read all of this until his eyes nearly popped out. To them, and to our writers, we owe a huge thank you. This month is also exciting for us, as it marks our involvement with Telluride Blues and Brews and The South Park Music Festival. Working with the folks at both festivals has been an awesome experience. It’s gotten us pumped and reaffirmed our belief that the Front Range is truly the best place in the world for a music fan. In addition, our multiple ‘liquid meetings’ with South Park executive director Matt Fecher got us so excited that it’s no wonder we dedicated so much time to covering his festival. (We’ll forget about the fact that Fecher never got us that helicopter to fly into South Park during the festival. Hey, there’s always next year.) So, if you’re new to the Front Range, back for another year of school, or if you never left, let The Marquee be your guide to get you through rest of the year. See you at the shows.

September 2005 CD Reviews

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:08:13 +0000

Blackout Pact pulsates with raw excitement

The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor Astro Magnetics 3.5 out of 5

Somewhere between heroine, chic glam rocker and self-loathing, shampoo-less indie kids, sits The Blackout Pact. Recently living in a New Jersey practice space has left the six musicians to throw their balls to the wall, play until they are inside out, and somehow look good doing it. The darkly sexy “punk-n-roll” is a raspy spew of melody and energy that leaves the listener to assume these guys have dealt with a lot of shit. When they formed in the summer of 2003, most of the members had just been kicked out of their former bands (included MxPx’s Mike Herrera) and somehow ended up in Denver, and eventually, New York. After being crushed by a major label, the boys met Tony-nominated Geoff Rickly of Thursday in a crappy hot dog dive. Once Rickly was through pouring praise on The Blackout Pact, he offered to produce the debut album, Hello Sailor, set to release on October 18. Songs like “If You Dress Up Like Halloween, Ghouls Will Try and Get In Your Pants” and “Hey Babes, I’m A Zombie, Give Me Brains,” show off a vigorous chest pumping playfulness in the increasingly jaded band, while “Playing Dead Don’t Take The Ring Off Your Finger Baby” can shift you to solitude in three minutes flat. The almost nostalgic songs are reminiscent of your buddies’ high school garage band that was actually good and the pride you felt when they actually released a CD. From the album to the stage, The Blackout Pact is pulsating with raw excitement, reality and non-stop touring.

— Alex Samuel

Six Mile Grove creates timeless tracks Bumper Crop

Six Mile Grove Bumper Crop Rena’s Kitchen Music 4.5 out of 5

Six Mile Grove was recently called the “best thing to come along in the music business for quite awhile.” And it’s really no great stretch. An occasional twang from a guitar string ignites a flashback to a college town southern bar with a big hound dog at the foot of a barstool. Pop, folk, alt-country and rock fully charge the battery of Six Mile Grove — 100 percent from-the-heart, dyed-in-the-wool honest pickers, grinners, and sometimes weepers. The rootsy blend of good ole’ drums and guitar sounds like Dispatch and Pat Green had a jam session that Six Mile Grove caught on tape. Former cover-banders and brothers Brandon and Brian Sampson put the band together through the ’90s and eventually became a popular bar band performing more than 150 dates a year. Now they plan on hitting up the South Park Music Festival. Dance-worthy and nostalgic, Six Mile Grove’s album Bumper Crop creates timeless rockabilly without the knee-slapping goofiness.

— Alex Samuel

Legion of Mary shows a flawless Garcia

Legion of Mary The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1: Legion of Mary Rhino 5 out of 5

Jerry Garcia formed Legion of Mary in 1974, creating eclectic performances known only to concert goers and devoted tapers. The band line-up consisted of Merle Saunders on keyboards and vocals, John Kahn on bass, Martin Fiero on saxaphone and flute, and Paul Humphreys on drums (Humprheys was replaced by Ron Tutt in 1975). Right on the heals of the 10-year anniversary of Garcia’s death, Legion of Mary comes back to life on this two-disc album, reincarnating that classic, stinky funk sound with jazz thrown into the mix. Garcia’s vocals remain soft, while the instruments take the main stage. Legion of Mary successfully keeps the funk alive through the slow songs, and their musical climaxes certainly please the ears. Their adventurous yet smooth transitions between jazz and funk create a perfect two disc set.

— Yvette Rebik

Cerulean refreshingly addictive on No Sense

Cerulean No Sense In Waiting Spinwheel Records 4 out of 5

If U2 had recorded Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness it may have ended up something like Cerulean’s newest album, No Sense In Waiting. The positive-minded Los Angeles trio produces the kind of music that makes you feel lonely and content at some points, and glowing with epiphanies at others. The delicate but definitive vocals shine in the truthful “Quiet Release,” while certain fullness radiates from “Keep Repeating.” The sparkling, blend of delicate beauty and the shadows of late ’80s college radio is refreshingly addictive and not to be missed. Cerulean’s drive flies in the face of hipster apathy that many bands champion, or worse, imitate these days. Nevertheless, as the rock world continues its ongoing cycle of exhuming heroes from 20 years past, Cerulean find themselves shadowed by the latest Anglophile love fest.

— Alex Samuel

Stubbs the zombie Soundtrack blends new artists with 195O’s songs

Shout Factory Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack Aspyr Media 3.5 out of 5

There’s something all too natural about Cake lacing “Strangers in the Night” with trumpets and style or Death Cab For Cutie moaning “Earth Angel” with the same longing as the original. Thankfully, Shout!Factory united the poodle skirts of the ’50s with the short skirts and long jackets of today in the soundtrack to the slightly bizarre new video game, Stubbs the Zombie. Big names aren’t the only artists to grace this compilation; local heroes Rose Hill Drive wail out on a version of “Shakin’ All Over” while Clem Snide pumps up a slowed down ska version of “Tears On My Pillow.” So pop this in next time you’re in the car, ’cuz with the exception of Phantom Planets’s zombie-inspired tune, you and your mother might actually agree on a CD. Other artists who appear include The Flaming Lips, The Ravonettes, The Dandy Warhols, The Walkmen, Ben Kweller and more.

— Alex Samuel

Packway Handle Band Goes Gospel

The Packway Handle Band (Sinner) You Better Get Ready Busboat Music 3.5 out of 5

The natural harmonies and quick banjo picking of Athens, Ga.’s Packway Handle Band is reminiscent of Colo.’s Yonder Mountain String Band. The album (Sinner) You Better Get Ready combines old school Americana and basic bluegrass with a forward thinking acoustic style and a more modern twist. The spirited album is available at Albums on The Hill or on www.packwayhandleband.com. From songs like “There’s Something Groing On In The Graveyard (Like You Ain’t Never Seen)” that breathe cool summer air into your chest, to the playfully Madonna-gone-gospel groove “Like A Prayer,” The Packway Handle Band’s (Sinner) You Better Get Ready will have you bobbing your head whether or not you’re a bluegrass fan.

— Alex Samuel

Fina Dupa not far from great on The Booty

Fina Dupa The Booty Independent 2.5 out of 5

Fina Dupa, a five-piece funk band from Denver, takes control of their sound and destination by completely self-producing their new EP, The Booty. Although they’re a group of white boys, they clearly have strong reggae and jazz influences. The songs on The Booty have electrifying and lengthy instrumental solos, but this element puts their sound on the fine line between funk and jam band. Vocalist Dan Levin has impressive pipes and even takes the listener to a quaint jazz club on the track “Got No Reason.” Their mixture of funk, reggae, jazz and jam opens the doors for a wide audience, but keeps funk fans somewhat confused.

— Yvette Rebik

E! music director lends advice to indie bands on how to get their music heard

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:09:24 +0000

E! music director lends advice to indie bands on how to get their music heard

By Ryan Williams for Indianapolismusic.net

There’s no such thing as a typical day for Chris Jackson, music director for the E! Entertainment network. Jackson says his normal day’s activities can range from getting clearance from Suge Knight for a track to be played on “True Hollywood Stories” to contracting a composition for the network’s “Wild On!” series. Most of these tracks do come from major label bands, although Jackson says that independent artists are starting to see a larger share of the time. He estimates that ten to twenty percent of E!’s music comes from indie labels and artists, and he sees that time increasing. Jackson said the key to getting noticed is to “Be very, very good. If you’re good, if you pay attention to your craft, you will get noticed.” Jackson recommends comparing your work to major label releases and notable indie labels like Saddle Creek, Victory and Merge. “If you can’t be objective, get someone who can be.” He adds that indie artists shouldn’t worry about using tricks to get noticed. Jackson keeps music on file, and he says that music directors and supervisors do keep in touch and share information, so it’s important to network and build relationships. Something one director can’t use might get passed on to another. Once the song is chosen, there is the question of how to license the music and what the artist gets paid. Jackson said, “There is no standard for licensing agreements,” but that there are consistencies among peer groups of artists.

:: South Park Music Festival ::  Panel Discussion ::  Licensing Your Music in TV and Films  :: Friday, Sept. 9 ::

XM program director says that there is a home for indie music on satellite

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:10:31 +0000

XM program director says that there is a home for indie music on satellite

By Ryan Williams for Indianapolismusic.net

Thanks to its ability to provide dozens of channels of programming and the decision to largely replace commercials with subscription fees, satellite radio has put itself in a position to offer more diverse and adventurous programming. XM Unsigned Channel program director Billy Zero takes that ability and extends national airplay to those who wouldn't ordinarily have a chance to see it — the unsigned independent artist. Zero said the channel “appeals to so many different people,” which can be a blessing and a curse. While it means that his channel enjoys a wider listenership than most of XM’s other offerings, it does make the channel hard to program. There is no set genre Zero sticks with, so anything is fair game. Zero adds that the audience “needs to spend some time with the channel to understand what's going on.” With the genre restrictions gone, Zero says it’s ultimately the quality of the music that makes the difference as to whether it gets played or not. “The music has to be there first. If it’s good, it’ll find its way on.” He notes that artists like Trevor Hall and Halestorm have received label attention and deals after being featured on the channel, and he feels the channel is being successful if such occurrences happen monthly.

:: South Park Music Festival ::

Panel Discussion ::  Current and Future State of Indie Music  :: Friday, Sept. 9 ::

The South Park Music Festival

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:11:06 +0000

South Park Festival

In his book Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman writes that music conferences are best at doing one thing: bringing the über-geeks of music together (usually in a very un-rock and roll setting). Those dweebs spend hours discussing the merits of highly obscure albums and droning on about why their favorite esoteric artists are part of the vast conspiracy that will never allow them to be heard by people other than their fellow music nerds.But Matt Fecher, executive director of the South Park Music Festival and Conference, has set out to prove the usually-wise insight of Klosterman dead wrong. Fecher, who previously ran the independent label Benchmark Records in Indianapolis and served as the executive director of the Midwest Music Summit, has put together one of the best independent line-ups in the country, coupled it with a crack lot of industry insiders and placed it all in the mountains. The result is more retreat than festival, and more down home than corporate conference. “Sean Murphy of ASCAP has said that we’ve already accomplished what SxSW (South by Southwest Festival) set out to do, which was to make this a legitimate industry retreat, but at South By, it turned all corporate. We’re two years in and we’ve managed to create the buzz,” Fecher said. While Fecher’s sarcasm-laden humor may come off as cocky, he’s humble when he says: “I can say without hesitation that we have the strongest mid-sized conference panel anywhere. It’s better than Nemo. It’s better than Atlantis. It’s better than NxNE and I think we’re better than CMJ’s Music Marathon.” Fecher credits that accomplishment mostly to the location factor. “Putting people in the mountains is the secret. South Park is unique in that people will come to see indie bands up in the mountains. Last year we had 6,000 people on Saturday. Anywhere else in the country an independent line-up would never draw that many people,” he said. South Park’s proximity to the Front Range music scene and the stodginess of other festivals in the country, are other parts of the magic that Fecher has tapped into. “People are tired of SxSW and not being able to ‘get in.’ If you’re from Colorado you might be able to get in, but if you’re from Indianapolis or Illinois, you’re not going to be able to get in to South By. So there are all these little conferences out in that area to fill the void. We kind of took that concept here — to give bands an event to be part of, and you don’t have to be on spinART or Lookout to be able to get in,” Fecher said. “No one else is doing that in such a laid back atmosphere.” And it’s clear that people want to be a part of it. Though there was only enough room for 140 bands in total, Fecher received over 1,100 submissions from bands to play the festival. Thirty percent of the bands chosen to attend are from Colorado. And, Fecher prides the festival on the fact that while there is a huge local representation, nothing is central to any one scene on the Front Range. South Park will also feature panelists discussing everything from “Getting Ahead in a DIY world,” to “The Art of the Record Deal.” On top of it all, South Park Music Festival is entirely free. Fecher said that the goal was to keep it all about the music. “We’re not about the money, or anything like that, and I think that’s why people have embraced it so much, and that’s what we want,” Fecher said. “I want this to be the Sundance of music — for it to be the yearly taste-making event geared up to provide what large-scale festivals can’t.

Kan’nal channels primal screams into recent success

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:11:08 +0000

Kan’nal channels primal screams into recent success

By Brian Kenney

Fire, Air, Earth, Water: the four elements that pertain to human existence. It is upon these elements, these entities, along with the echoes of Mayan tribal lore, a taste of Guatemalan culture and the hint of the literary style of magical realism, that Boulder’s Kan’nal seems poised to take their performance art to the next level. Bohemianism is the root of the existence of Kan’nal and the essence of the fate that brought the group together. The various individual creative avenues found one another in Guatemala and in various ancient towns shadowing Mayan ruins in Mexico. Upon “La Ruta Maya,” group founder, lyricist and singer Tzol, and guitarist Tierro came upon bassist Rodolfo Escobar III and his traveling partner Teresita. As the group fortified its existence, adding new members drummer Gilly Gonzalez and percussionist Aaron Jerad, they found the ability to connect or “channel” with the Guatemalan audiences for which they played. Tzol’s passionate lyrics fused with Tierro and Escobar’s original guitar compositions. It was an energy to which drummer Gonzalez provided a subliminal percussion and didgeridoo, and fellow percussionist Jerad enhanced even further. On the visual front, Teresita translated each work into a shamanistic and ritualistic dance and the performance-based edge quickly earned the band a reputation in Central America. For Tzol, the nurturing by the atmosphere of their environment was life enriching, life changing, and he quickly felt an honest and genuine connection with Guatemala. “Artists down there, rather than barely surviving, are actually thriving and feeling enriched on very little. Other artists and musicians feel very honest. They seem much more alive,” he said. For Tzol (pronounced “soul”), who takes his name from the Mayan translation of the Spanish sol or “sun,” traveling awakened a certain spiritual awareness that lay dormant while living in the States. “I’ve met some of the happiest people I’ve ever met and they were living the simplest lives. Which is the total opposite of what the States are about. Down there, they’re like, ‘Wow. Art. Music!’” Bassist Escobar quickly realized that the payout for performance far exceeded monetary value. “You’re traveling and you’re not making a whole lot of cash, but people genuinely enjoy what you are doing,” he said. Fast forward a few years to the band relocating to Boulder in 2003 under the tutelage and guidance of The Boulder Group Management. The band entered into the music scene that has nurtured such multicultural expressionistic performance based acts as Ozomatli and Cabaret Diosa to national prominence. Here the band was able to intensify its mission. “Before, when we lived in separate places, we’d come together about two weeks before the tour and rehearse,” Jerad recalls. “Now we’re always together. We rehearse together, live together.” Drawing tribal influences from the Native American tradition of channeling the shaman, Kan’nal connects with the audience during their performance rituals. “Everyone has a shaman within them,” Tzol explains. “I mean, what is the shaman but a way of expressing their innermost spirit. And when we, Kan’nal, put all of our musical energy together, we channel all of that innermost spirit and energy.” Mysticism, shamanism, magical realism, fantasy, masquerades, role-playing, fire breathing, each highly orchestrated performance tells a story. Kan’nal are myth makers and traveling storytellers; their songs, narrative poems which elicit the same dream-like quality that for years has preoccupied the style of Central and South American literature known as “magical realism.” “We’re all gypsies at heart,” said Jerad. Kan’nal’s live show is mandatory. Kan’nal is performance art, their transcendental connections with the natural environment must be ritualized. Yet their essence is culturally explored music, and this comes through on Dreamwalker, their major label debut (Sony Red Eye) due on shelves on Sept. 20. “This CD made itself,” Tzol said. “The music was always there. We want our audience to experience our live vibe and our goal was to get that vibe on the CD.” Dreamwalker plays out like a dream walk itself, a vision quest of sorts with the sequencing urging listeners on their own musical walkabout. The adrenalin-orchestrated track “Gypsy” opens the disc, while slower numbers such as the oneric “Time” coddle a listener into relaxation. The group also includes three live tracks. “The thing with Kan’nal is that you need to go to a show and experience the vibe with it,” Tzol said. “We want to trigger people. Try to stir things up. We want to get people to think about a higher self. But we don’t want to push anything on people. We want to inspire people to discover themselves.”

Kan’nal :: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: September 2 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Ozomatli
• Spearhead
• Cabaret Diosa

Maceo Parker brings funk-laden sounds to Telluride Blues and Brews and Boulder

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:12:06 +0000

Maceo Parker brings funk-laden sounds to Telluride Blues and Brews and Boulder

By Tim Dwenger

“Two percent jazz, 98 percent funky stuff” is how Maceo Parker describes his music. He has been a landmark on the funk landscape since he had the opportunity to honk on a big baritone sax for James Brown in 1965. The addition of Parker to the Godfather of Soul’s big band helped to lay the groundwork for the new wave of funk that dominated the urban musical scene for the better part of the ’70s. Though he got his foot in the door with James Brown on the baritone, Parker quickly convinced those around him that the tenor sax was the horn he was born to play. “Maceo, I want you to blow!” became one of the Godfather’s signature lines as Parker quickly established himself as the cornerstone of Brown’s funk-laden sound. Having cut his teeth in the band of one of the best in the business, it didn’t take Parker long to branch out. He remained with Brown’s band well into the ’80s, but he and his horn got around. In the ’70s he got himself involved in the tightly woven fabric of George Clinton’s Parliament and Funkadelic projects. As a member of the P-Funk Empire, he began to work with such superstars as Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, Bernie Worrell and many others. Though P-Funk is known worldwide, perhaps the highest profile musical project Parker has been involved with was his recent stint as the sax player for Prince’s Musicology Tour. In a recent interview with The Marquee Parker told of how he and Prince became acquainted. “I was working on a concept that we called Dial M-A-C-E-O, and the concept was that I try get people to come into the studio and help me rather than me go out and help them. During the same time we were working on that, Prince had recorded something that he wanted me to play on. Somebody who represented him found me in Spain and asked me if I would come in and play on the track. I figured it was my opportunity to tell him ‘I would love to have you breathe, or belch, or something, on my new record’ just so I could say ‘it’s Prince,’ you know. So I did a couple of his tunes and he did background on some of my stuff. It turned out to be really, really great.” It was on the Musicology Tour that Prince dubbed Parker “The Teacher.” On stage his saxophone was a featured instrument in the show, and Prince even gave up center stage to allow Parker to pay tribute to one of his idols, the late Ray Charles. His heart wrenching version of “Georgia On My Mind,” stood out to many critics as one of the highlights of the entire show. Parker had the honor of opening for the R&B legend on a three-week European tour several years ago and has fond memories of the experience. “I got a chance to sit in with Ray one night, on one song. When I went up on stage I told him I had been having a little problem with my saxophone during my warm up. He just listened to me and that was it. Afterwards he whispered, ‘I bet you thought, ‘saxophone if you ever play good, you gotta play good now,’” he laughed. Though it took a while for the finality of it to set in, Ray Charles’ passing was difficult for Parker. “After the Prince tour and all the times I had played ‘Georgia,’ it hadn’t really dawned on me that Ray had actually died and passed. I mean, you know it, but you don’t know it. You don’t want to accept the fact that he is really gone. On a European tour I was doin’ ‘Georgia’ and all of a sudden I was fighting against the tears and the bad feelings and I had to cut it short. I was thinkin’ ‘What in the world is going on? What is happenin’? I just can’t sing it man.’ I was thinking about Ray and the fact that he was actually gone, and I just had to turn around to the guys and just cut it off and go into something funky. It just came when it did and I couldn’t even hardly talk.” Despite the feelings of loss he experienced on stage that night, Parker does count himself fortunate. “There may be a million people with a million stories about Ray Charles, but to be one of them, it’s priceless,” Parker said. Parker also counts himself fortunate that he has fans of all ages, races and economic backgrounds all around the world. Touring Europe, Japan and the U.S. within a two-month time span may be old hat for a seasoned road veteran, but Parker is quick to acknowledge that his fans are the only reason he can do what he does, and make a living doing it. As he says every night from the stage, “On behalf of all of us, we love you.”

Maceo Parker :: Telluride Blues and Brews Festival :: Sept. 17 ::

:: Fox Theater :: Sept. 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• James Brown
• Karl Denson
• Galactic

Cat Empire claws its way into the states with Two Shoes

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:12:37 +0000

Cat Empire claws its way into the states with Two Shoes

By Jonathan Keller

In the fifth line of the opening track off Cat Empire’s second album Two Shoes, the sophomore effort that is supposed to break the band stateside, the group shouts in glorious unison, “‘Show us the money’ was the call of the night.” Having already had two double-platinum albums in Australia, the band’s formula of danceable sing-alongs with the right amount of jam will show this Melbourne sextet quite a bit of U.S. green in the coming year.Cat Empire is a very unique band. They exhibit a sound where the commerciality of the music has no ceiling. Consisting of Ryan Monro on double and electric bass, Harry J. Angus on trumpet and vocals, Will Hull-Brown on drums, Felix Riebl on percussion and vocals, Ollie McGill on Rhodes, melodica and banjo, and Jamshid “Jumps” Khadiwala on decks and turntables, the band, as a functioning unit, is musically solid. They feature huge horns over Latin rhythms which are driven by booming bass, turntables and a vocalist who has somehow made rapping with a thick Australian accent sound very cool and unrehearsed. Their music is upbeat but unpredictable. It is danceable yet somehow challenging. Think England’s The Streets meets Buena Vista Social Club with a twist of Spearhead (minus the political jargon). “Our sound comes from having six people in a band with different tastes,” Monro said in a recent telephone interview from Australia with The Marquee. “We are always searching for different things, never excluding anything we might hear. Our sound just kind of happened naturally. Each member brought in what he liked. ” Formed in Melbourne in 1999 as a trio, Cat Empire originally featured McGill on keyboards, Riebel on percussion and Monro on bass. The trio frequented various underground bars where it played shows and started to build a small following — its members still honing and discovering their own unique sound. A little over a year later, Cat Empire was a full blown six-piece that had a double platinum debut album and received six Australian Record Industry Association nominations (Australia’s version of the Grammy). “In the beginning we played a lot and learned that the live energy from the audience is a big part of playing,” Monroe said. “For the most part, we really enjoy touring. Getting in front of an audience is the band’s strong point. Playing together comes quite naturally.” This natural sound has made Cat Empire a success in both their homeland and in Europe. Having released Two Shoes in Australia on Virgin/EMI in April, Cat Empire is surprisingly still without an American contact. In many ways, the band is a roaming free agent, touring the U.S. for the sake of touring and spreading its music. Why? Well, because they can and they have the money to do it. According to a press kit from Hoopla Media and Public Relations, vocalist and trumpeter Harry J. Angus said the band has had many American offers, but none with the freedom that their label in Australia allows. If the band was to break big stateside, it is quite clear that Two Shoes is the album that could do it. Last fall, Cat Empire decided to record Two Shoes in Havana, Cuba, with the assistance of producer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club), who was a fan of the band’s first album, at the now-world famous Egrem Studios (Buena Vista Social Club, Afro Cuban All-Stars, Irakere). The product, Two Shoes, is atmospheric, tight and easy to listen to and enjoy. The first Australian single, “Sly,” debuted at #1 on the Australian charts and went platinum in just four weeks. The album does a great job of showcasing the band’s strengths, which include swooping hooks and layers of melodic musicianship, which can easily be expanded in Cat Empire’s live show. The disc itself sounds very live at times, especially on headphones. “We went to that studio to work with Jerry because of Buena Vista and the Afro Cuban All-Stars,” Monro said. “We went in wanting to do a live thing and the record that came out sounds very much alive to me. To be isolated, you get more done. Our first record took seven months and this one was recorded in a month and then mixed in London. I am proud of this one especially.” With a 16-date tour of North America beginning next month, Cat Empire seems unabashed by the difficult task of becoming an American success, maybe not realizing how hard it might actually be. “It is just another tour,” Monro said. “It is really no different than any other. Most people might feel pressure, but we have had a really good time when we came there before. We are excited to see the area and let the music speak. We have never been to Colorado.” Maybe Cat Empire somehow knows they are a commercial gold mine awaiting discovery.

Cat Empire :: Boulder Theater :: September 29

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Buena Vista Social Club
• The Streets
• Liquid Soul

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s prepare to blow up South Park Fest

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:13:12 +0000

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s prepare to blow up South Park Fest

Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s is the band you want to tell your friends about before they start dripping down some radio station’s countdown. The band seems to have dropped out of a Bob Dylan documentary and started playing painfully beautiful indy rock music reminiscent of, ‘the way [the band] feels when [they] watch Woody Allen movies.’ The delicate melodies blend with stories thought up by 21-year-old Richard Edwards and are delivered by an orchestra of simplicity. “We just try and arrange things in an interesting way as much as we can so that it sounds different to us. It’s definitely better or worse or equal to what else is going on,” says Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s singer/songwriter Edwards on claims that the band is inventing the genre “scarf rock.”Urban folk or “scarf rock” is a mixture of insightful guitars, witty rhythms and the electronic edge that echoes The Postal Service (even though Edwards claims to have been doing it first). The painfully sincere lyrics are complimented by breaths of trumpet or cello and are delivered with comforting cynicism as songs like “Skeleton Key” engulf anything real and boil it down to a bittersweet memory. With influences like Paul Simon, Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead and even The Arcade Fire, Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s have plenty of inspiration for a unique sound. “We kind of just asked everyone we knew to play an instrument and what sounded good we kept,” said Edwards. “We wanted to sound different and wanted any kind instruments that sounded good.” The band began when Edwards went to a pet shop to buy Margot, a kitten and now the band’s namesake, and met up with Andy Frye. When the two recognized each other and began talking about musical obsessions, they decided to start the band. With the help of drummer Chris Frye (of The Academy), bass and Rhodes players Tyler and Emily Watkins, mutual friend Jesse Lee on cello and trumpeter Hubert Glova, Edwards and Frye formed the band of individuals that is Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s. “Everyone’s very unique and fun and nice to be around and interesting, and no one puts on a shirt they don’t like — so I think they are cool.” The band’s newest album, which was meant to be released in late April, was released May 31 under the name Dust Of Retreat. While the delay was caused by disorganization, it’s hard to believe this is Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s’ first-ever album. The intricate balance between elaborate dramas and low key songs is the epitome of vintage cool, but to Edwards, the album was just ‘so-so.’ “Every record you make is kind of a snapshot of what’s going on and what you had access to. You do the best you can and it kind of naturally expands,” he said. Perhaps as an attempt to keep Margot and the Nuclear So-So’s from being too modest, bigger labels have been swarming the band after the Standard Recording release. Luckily for the mid-size indie labels of the world, Edwards, who plans on sticking to indie labels forever, feels that big labels “fall into the ‘Safeway’ of art. They strip the freedom that helps you grow and make better music.” Frye and Edwards plan on flying to New York to talk to labels right before they kick off their latest tour, with the idea that the band will “probably get serious about a new album after the tour,” said Edwards.

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s

:: South Park Music Festival ::

Sept. 8 :: VIP Party :: Fairplay Hotel ::

Sept. 10 :: Front Street Stage ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Postal Service
• Bob Dylan
• The Arcade Fire

Alice Cooper takes on the ‘roll’ of the happiest man in rock

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:14:52 +0000

Alice Cooper takes on the ‘roll’ of the happiest man in rock

By Brandon Daviet

You wouldn’t guess by looking at him, but Alice Cooper is quite possibly one of the happiest men in rock and roll — the reigning godfather of shock rock is currently in the midst of a world tour to support one of his best albums in years, the recently released Dirty Diamonds. In fact, Dirty Diamonds is quite possibly one of Cooper’s best ever. Dirty Diamonds is a strong, rocking record that could easily stand alongside classics like Billion Dollar Babies and Trash. As if that’s not enough to keep Cooper busy, he is also enjoying smashing success as a DJ. Cooper’s open rock and roll format, coupled with descriptive and often-sordid tales of Cooper’s legendary career, has proved just what the struggling classic rock radio format has been looking for.Cooper, who just completed the European portion of his current world tour, was kind enough recently to catch The Marquee up on his current comings and goings. “The radio show is great, I am having more fun with that than with anything. I can play whatever I want and almost everybody I play are friends of mine,” said Cooper. “The show is currently in over 80 markets and keeps getting bigger, and it’s great not having to play the same AC/DC song 100 times.” In addition to a nightly set of electric tunes, Cooper is also turning fans on to cuts off of Dirty Diamonds, something that many “classic rock” artists don’t have a chance to do. “I think regular radio has a play list of like thirty songs, so it’s no wonder that the fans are enjoying the variety, I have been getting e-mail from all over the world,” said Cooper. Variety is also the name of the game for Cooper’s new album. Dirty Diamonds is the continuation of a more “organic” recording (translation: playing live in the studio) that Cooper started working on with the release of 2003’s The Eyes of Alice Cooper. The organic records are something that Alice Cooper had been shunning for more conceptual works like Brutal Planet, an album that also spawned a haunted house of the same name, and the recent grease-like street epic Dragontown. “I think I may have started the concept album and I really enjoy doing them, but it was time to do something else,” said Cooper. For fans familiar with Cooper’s work, Dirty Diamonds is a different beast, indeed. It has a lot of parallels to Trash, Cooper’s 1989 answer to the explosion of Hollywood bands like Motley Crue and W.A.S.P. Filled with unrelenting rockers and “power ballads,” Trash, just like the new record, showed that Cooper can easily gauge what his fans want to hear. “I was listening to bands like Jet and The White Stripes and I was thinking that this was all really retro music,” said Cooper. “Most of those bands are really just like late ’60s , early ’70s garage bands and the time was just right to make a good rock record.”

Alice Cooper :: Budweiser Event Center :: September 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• GWAR
• W.A.S.P.
• Jane’s Addiction

Rose Hill Drive hits the nitro boosters on its cruise to the top

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:15:09 +0000

Rose Hill Drive hits the nitro boosters on its cruise to the top

By Cornelia Kane and Brian F. Johnson

Rose Hill Drive is a name that is quickly becoming synonymous with the resurgence of raw, garage-style rock and roll in a record industry that has become stagnant with bloated pop stars. The trio from Boulder that features brothers Jake and Daniel Sproul (on bass and guitar, respectively) and their high school buddy Nate Barnes (drums) doesn’t have to play in garages anymore, but their sound is still pure, unfiltered rock and roll.Though the bars and studios that they play in may be a little nicer now than when they started out (the band came together in 2000 and had their first national tour in 2003), the guys have not lost any of the dedication and unwillingness to compromise their sound that has taken them to the top of today’s list of unsigned bands. Their relentless touring schedule and technical prowess have brought the band into the spotlight numerous times, culminating with a packed set at this year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. Daniel told The Marquee in a recent interview that Bonnaroo was “the peak. We were unknown, with no record, and we were drawing them in with the music. We were on top of the world.” The band is actually not that unknown: They were on the Vans Warped Tour in 2004 and have also opened for such bands as the reunited Black Crowes, Gov’t Mule and Van Halen. The latter liked Rose Hill Drive so much that when their run with them was over, they asked them right back to play another round of shows — surprising, but not so to those who have seen the band live. Forget about the fact that Barnes is the oldest member of the band at 23. Something about Rose Hill Drive’s stage presence is years beyond their age. While the music ain’t polished, the boys’ approach is damn-near spit shined. And, more importantly, it’s seemingly not at all contrived. Daniel’s mane of long, curly hair obscures his face for 75 percent of the performance, the other 25 percent of the time it is flying back and forth while soloing. Barnes, “The Foot” as he’s known to some friends and admirers, hits the skins so solidly that pieces of his drumsticks routinely go flying past his ears as they disintegrate. And Jake, who also tackles vocals for the band, approaches the microphone with a disdain that seems to say no matter how far it’s cranked, it won’t be loud enough to properly convey the band’s essence to the masses. The band actually has their high-decibel policy written into their contract. According to Jake, “Turning down is not an option. If you don’t understand that, that’s your problem.” Rose Hill Drive’s sound is a no-holds-barred sonic barrage. Imagine the fierce intensity of John Bonham’s drumming from Led Zeppelin I, the guitar chops of early, Cream-era Clapton, and the full-tilt tenor of a young Ozzy Osbourne, mixed with the raw energy of a Stooges show. You might come close. If you ask the band members or any of their crew to put a label on their sound, as many bands seem loath to do these days, the answer quickly and invariably comes back, “rock and roll!” With sets consisting mainly of original material, the band is not afraid to delve into covers by rock greats such as Black Sabbaths’ “Faeries Wear Boots,” or The Who’s “Young Man Blues.” Last year, fans and industry insiders alike were expecting the band to break right away. But, more than a year later, there is still no label and no full-length studio release — and that’s just the way they want it, for now. Since deciding to pursue their dream of making music their career, the guys have had many experiences that have made them no strangers to the sometimes devious machinations of the record industry. When the band burst onto the scene, playing first at friends’ parties and then moving into touring the Front Range and eventually the U.S., record label execs quickly lined up, each ready to make the band a deal, but none willing to share the band’s long-term vision and give them the creative freedom that Rose Hill Drive values above everything else. “It’s been a practice in patience, a life lesson,” said Daniel, who has expressed countless times his desire to develop Rose Hill Drive into a band whose lifespan will far exceed that of their contemporaries. One of the band’s biggest tests came last year when they hooked up with famed producer Brendan O’Brien. A friend had given O’Brien (Rage Against The Machine, Springsteen) one of Rose Hill Drive’s demo EPs, and after some negotiation, they entered the studio to record what was to be the band’s first album (still with no label). Then the band did something that no one expected — they shelved the project. While the tracks they laid down for that record now sit collecting dust, every band member has expressed gratitude for the opportunity and insight gained from the experience. “The main thing is that we weren’t ready to make our first album. It was a great thing, but it felt forced,” said Barnes. Added Jake, “It sounded slick, and we’re not slick. We’re free to create, and we’re not taking that lightly.” And creating is certainly what they’ve been up to. Creating new fans, creating new opportunities, and of course, creating new music. The band has written a spate of new tunes in recent months, using the experiences of the road and the studio as a catalyst for some. “We learned so much. We wouldn’t be writing the tunes we are now without it,” Barnes said. While Jake handles the lead vocals and still writes most of the lyrics, Daniel recently penned the first tune where he was responsible for the lyrics and the music. Always humble, he claimed that he was hardly part of the process. “It just kind of wrote itself,” he said. Barnes said that the band’s approach to songwriting is loose and unstructured, which allows them to compose exactly the music they want. “We have no set system. We’re always writing,” he said. The band is currently writing songs that might appear on a future release, although they do not have a target date, and they aree tracking some songs at Boulder’s Coupe Studios, with no self-imposed time constraints. “We’re more into it than we’ve ever been,” said Jake. Next month will mark Rose Hill Drive’s first gig outside the U.S., when they play the Azkena Rock Fest, in Bilbao, Spain. They will be sharing the stage with bands Gov’t Mule, Queens of the Stone Age and Wilco. And, while fans still wait breathlessly for a studio release, the band has a live CD, recorded April 8 and 9, 2005, at the Fox Theatre, in Boulder.

Rose Hill Drive :: Fox Theatre :: September 9 and 10 ::

Telluride Blues and Brews :: Late Night Juke Joint Show :: Sheridan Opera House:: September 16

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Black Sabbath
• Led Zeppelin
• Cream

This month in sweet music history

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:01:37 +0000

This Month in music History

October 1 • 1975: Al Jackson of The MG’s is shot to death in his Memphis, Tenn. home by an intruder; oddly, his wife had shot him in the chest in July October 2 • 1994: John Mellencamp announces he has had a mild heart attack brought on by a four-pack-per -day cigarette habit • 1967: All six members of the Grateful Dead are arrested for drug possession after a raid at their 710 Ashbury Street house in San Francisco • 1951: Sting is born Gordon Sumner, in Newcastle, England October 3 • 1967: Woody Guthrie dies in Queens, New York, at the age of 55 • 1954: Stevie Ray Vaughan is born October 4 • 1992: Singer Sinead O’Connor rips up a picture of Pope John Paul during an appearance on “Saturday Night Live” • 1970: Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room at the age of 27 • 1956: Johnny Cash is jailed for one night for drug possession October 5 • 1992: Guns N’ Roses holds the top two positions on the charts with their albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II • 1954: Humanitarian and Boomtown Rats leader Bob Geldof is born • 1949: Brian Johnson of AC/DC is born October 6 • 1994: Glen Frey undergoes colon surgery October 7 • 1957: “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark premieres on U.S. television October 8 • 1980: Bob Marley collapses during a concert in Pittsburgh and will never perform again • 1966: The U.S. Government officially declares LSD an illegal substance October 9 • 1975: Sean Ono Lennon is born to John Ono Lennon and Yoko Lennon Ono • 1940: John Lennon is born October 10 • 1978: Steve Perry joins Journey • 1953: David Lee Roth is born • 1917: Thelonius Monk is born October 12 • 1997: John Denver is killed when the plane he is piloting crashes over Monterey Bay, Calif. • 1979: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull suffers an eye injury after a rose is thrown on stage and a thorn pierces his eye • 1978: Nancy Spungen, girlfriend to ex-Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, is found dead of knife wounds in room 100 of New York City’s Chelsea Hotel October 13 • 1941: Singer/songwriter/musician Paul Simon is born October 16 • 1977: John Mayer is born • 1971: Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” is released • 1962: Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers is born Michael Balzary • 1947: Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead is born October 17 • 1990: Vanilla Ice’s To The Extreme is the first album to top the U.S. album chart on CD without a vinyl counterpart • 1974: Eminem is born Bruce Marshall Mathers III October 18 • 1931: Phonograph inventor Thomas Edison dies • 1926: Chuck Berry is born October 19 • 1965: Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd is born October 20 • 1977: Lynyrd Skynyrd loses Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines when their plane crashes into a Mississippi swamp • 1971: Snoop Doggy Dogg is born Calvin Broadus October 21 • 1995: Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of a cocaine overdose at the age of 28 October 24 • 1962: James Brown records “Live From The Apollo” October 25 • 1991: Concert promoter Bill Graham dies in a helicopter crash October 27 • 1975: Bruce Springsteen is on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines as a result of his “Born To Run” popularity • 1967: Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver is born October 28 • 1936: Charlie Daniels is born October 29 • 1971: At the age of 24, Duane Allman dies in surgery after he is injured in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Ga. October 30 • 1986: License To Ill by The Beastie Boys becomes the first rap album to reach #1 October 31 • 1966: King Ad-Rock of The Beastie Boys is born Adam Horovitz

Complied from the archives of Rock & Roll Library www.rocklibrary.com

North Miss hits its prime with new album

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:06 +0000

North Miss hits its prime with new album

North Mississippi All Stars
Electric Blue Watermelon
ATO Records
4.5 out of 5

Electric Blue Watermelon, North Mississippi All Star’s most sincere album to date, is an all-star blend of Delta family roots, call-and-response shouts, sticky riffs and a faithful ass-shakin’ beat.

Jim Dickinson (one of the first white boys to bear the blues in the Delta) took his sons Cody and Luther Dickinson, along with bandmate Chris Chew, to Sam Philips’ studio — the birthplace of Elvis, B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf — for six months of bringing out the best. According to Jim Dickinson, the name of the album is a reference to a Memphis blues-festival band led by Lee Baker in the ’60s called Electric Blue Watermelon, and it shows. North Miss. loves to pay homage to blues idols in their live shows while incorporating newer musicians into their music, creating collaborative energy in a sometimes-cliquey music world. “Hipsters, hippies and rock musicians historically interacted with Delta and Hill Country masters and the creative flow went in both directions,” said Jim Dickinson. Jim Dickinson played on the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album and lets it show through his sons in the should-have-been-a-Stones’-classic, “Teasin’ Brown.” “Mississippi Bollweevil” is reincarnated as a high-energy, sweat dripping, buzzed out version of the American folk classic. Songs like the slide-saturated Hendrix callout “Stompin’ My Foot” features a slide guitar, a jubilant vibe and Al Kapone, the Memphis-based emcee featured in the movie Hustle and Flow. Al Kapone adds a hip-hop commentary to a high energy North Miss. gem. The duet between Lucinda Williams and Luther Dickinson on “Hurry Up Sunrise” brings a level of femininity to Electric Blue Watermelon while the more intense “No Mo” brings bad boy antics to the foreground with deep-chested vocals, huskier riffs and a refrain by Kapone. Other special guests include Robert Randolph, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Otha Turner and Rising Star Fife and Drums. Electric Blue Watermelon is a prime example of a band in its prime.

-Alex Samuel

Oakhurst puts a good cowboy boot forward on dual mono

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:09 +0000

Oakhurst puts a good cowboy boot forward on dual mono

Oakhurst
Dual Mono
Big Bender Records
3 out of 5

Old timey string quartet meets honky-tonk rowdies, Oakhurst has played over 30 venues in Colorado and isn’t about to stop; the band throws down years of “busking” (street performance) onto a 14-song album called Dual Mono. The Denver-based performers combine their rowdy roots with bluegrass and the ‘zen’ mastership of producer Matt Kowal of the Reals. Teetering between high energy that pulsates from your speakers and mellow acoustic moans, the album relocates its audience to a bizarre street performance filled with unparalleled musicianship. Dual Mono was recorded in novel fashion at locations across the state, including an adobe cabin down near Walsenberg in southern Colorado. Three tracks were recorded there during a three-day blizzard, around a cluster of mics in the living room of said cabin, while the band was snowed in. No overdubs whatsoever. Dual Mono is the follow-up to the band’s Big Bender debut Greenhorn and it’s evident that the band is continuing to add rings to their tree as they grow and mature as musicians.

— Alex Samuel

Old 97’s capture live a perfect live show

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:18 +0000

Old 97’s capture live a perfect live show

Old 97’s
Alive and Wired
New West Records
3.5 out of 5

They are country and they are rock. They are hoarse, gritty, sweaty and strangely sexy, and they say they like to be the underdogs. They live by a motto Bruce Springsteen spray painted on a poster in Tower Records and they dare you to party with them all night. They are the Old 97’s and Alive and Wired is a two-disc taste of what the hell goes on at an Old 97’s show. Recorded in Texas (and full of Lone-Star pride), all 30 songs buzz with genuine excitement and secrete the smell of beer, whiskey and southern boys. The Old 97’s explode with energy and sincerity and the album left this die-hard New Yorker hunting for cowboy boots and a country bar to wear them in.

— Alex Samuel

Shanti Groove pays homage to local launching pad with DVD

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:19 +0000

Shanti Groove pays homage to local launching pad with DVD

Shanti Groove
Home At The Fox
Independent
4 out of 5

The progressive “slam grass” darlings, Shanti Groove, are shaking up the scene with a studio album, national tour and a DVD called Home At The Fox — the venue where the boys grew from local bad-asses to regional and then national touring status. From the title menu of the DVD to the last song in the “groove 2” section, the viewer is electrified with the same excitement they’d feel at the real show. While the editing is occasionally clichéd or fails to avoid a silhouetted fellow fan, the visuals explore the entire stage and creatively portray the sweetly picked banjo or homey vocals of the band’s dancing front man. Shanti Groove’s energy is well portrayed in this home-style brew of electric grooves and sunny day riffs.

— Alex Samuel

Sts9 misses the mark with Artifact: Perspectives

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:26 +0000

Sts9 misses the mark with Artifact: Perspectives

STS9
ARTiFACT: Perspectives
1320 Records
1 out of 5

Usually, Sound Tribe Sector 9 is synonymous with exploration and progressive grooving; this time, however, STS9 is on par with elevator music from a broken speaker. Even though the band members think the ARTiFACT: Perspectives experience was “truly a blessing,” the album proves to be a boring and somewhat irritating rehash of ARTiFACT, the band’s most recent studio release. The album has three remixes of “Tokyo,” four remixes of “Better Day,” two versions of “Somesing” and two versions of “Possibilities,” all in a 15 song album. Mr. Lif’s “Possibilities Remix” is a three-minute saving grace during the painfully repetitive and shockingly funkless album.

— Alex Samuel

Soulive seeks radio play with new album Break Out

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:44 +0000

Soulive seeks radio play with new album Break Out

Soulive
Break Out
Concord Records
4 out of 5

Break Out, the brand new album from Soulive, is poised to be just that, their break-out. With two songs being pushed for major market radio play and a young hip record company behind them, the excitement is palpable. “It is a little weird and freaky for us to have songs on the radio, and we’re going to get to do some of the late night shows in the next couple of weeks,” Alan Evans said in a conversation with The Marquee recently. Soulive has been making some of the funkiest jazz on the jam band circuit for the last five years, and on their Concord Records debut they break the mold. The backbone of Soulive is still the tight grooves layed down by the Evans brothers, Neal (keyboards) and Alan (drums). However, on this release their focus has moved away from complex jazz and is honed in on soul and R&B. Within the opening seconds of the album, it becomes clear that this is a well produced project that is worthy of the high profile guests that add to the sound (Ivan Neville, Chaka Kahn, Robert Randolph, and Reggie Watts of Maktub, among others). The core trio of the Evans brothers and Eric Krasno (Guitar) welcome each guest with open arms, giving them the opportunity to shape the sound of the band. “While Got Soul?” introduces the listener to the new Soulive with a very dirty ’70s funk beat that pulses from the speakers, “Cachaca” is strongly flavored with Latin jazz elements. No one would call Break Out a jazz record; however, one listen will reveal the jazz training these boys have had. Further down the tracklist, Robert Randolph lends his pedal steel to a blistering version of the Hendrix classic “Crosstown Traffic.” With a vocal chorus that is just audible enough to give a gospel feel, and a guitar duel between Krasno and Randolph, this song is one of the standout tracks on the album. Throughout the record, the soloists seem to emerge from the densely layered music with stealth, giving the music an effortless feel. Each new rhythm, riff or shrill horn line, stalk the listener, striking at exactly the right moment. Over the years, Soulive has formed a very positive relationship with Maktub frontman Reggie Watts. Watts joins Soulive again on this project, bringing his best Curtis Mayfield to the table. The result is the R&B soaked “She’s Hooked,” Soulive’s first song to chart in mainstream radio play. Soulive are paving the way for other, original young bands and they realize their role as pioneers. “We want to get our foot in the door and keep it open for other bands that are trying to do something new,” said Alan. Soulive started out with the mission of “bringing jazz back to the dance floor,” and they have done it again. This record is sure to get you moving and shaking. They have grown up and it is clear that this is the music that Soulive wants to be making right now.

—Timothy Dwenger

Dickey Betts heads back to where it all begins with Hall of Fame show DVD/CD release

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:02:45 +0000

Dickey Betts heads back to where it all begins with Hall of Fame show DVD/CD release

Dickey Betts & Great Southern
Back Where It All Begins – Live From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum
Eagle Rock Entertainment
3.5 out of 5

Fans of Dickey Betts will enjoy watching the Southern Rock hero lead his band Great Southern through a soulful, if somewhat subdued, 12-song set. Fans of the Allman Brothers be warned, though, as you could be somewhat disappointed while watching this DVD recorded at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on September 29, 2004. Betts sings signature tunes such as “Blue Sky” and “Ramblin’ Man” and all is good. Michael Kach takes the vocals over from behind his Hammond organ for a few of the songs as well. On the opening “Statesboro Blues,” Kach playfully adds the lyric, “I ain’t Gregg Allman baby.” Well, his point is glaringly obvious to anyone listening. Nevertheless, Betts’ playing is sharp throughout, as his fingers still manage to magically find harmonics all over the fretboard. Prefaced with a verbal nod to Jerry Garcia, Betts begins “Blue Sky” by intertwining the signature riff with licks from the Grateful Dead’s “Franklin’s Tower.” Although his erstwhile ‘brothers’ are elsewhere, Betts keeps it in the family by having his “pride and joy” — son Duane Betts on guitar — join the band for the instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” An accompanying five-song CD of soundcheck versions of familiar songs provides an interesting listening alternative. The DVD also includes an interview with Betts discussing selected tracks. So, if you are looking for hard-rocking Allman Brother blues then you might want to look elsewhere; but, for the country-infused sound of Dickey Betts & Great Southern, you will appreciate this DVD. — Daniel J. Cohen

After Midnite, we gonna let it all hang down

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:04:27 +0000

Midnite brings roots reggae to the U.S. from the Virgin Islands

By Cornelia Kane

Since the untimely death of Robert Nesta Marley (known to most as “Bob”) in 1982, there has been a void in the world of reggae music that has gone essentially unfilled, despite efforts by countless bands to hold that title spot. The roots style that Marley perfected and popularized has lost ground to other types of reggae, such as dub and dancehall. Original rebel music made by Rastafarians has become increasingly hard to find, while remixes and covers of old Marley tunes continue to dominate playlists. While the world looks to Jamaica for the second coming of Bob, roots music has re-emerged somewhere else entirely: the U.S. Virgin Islands. The band Midnite, founded over a decade ago by lead singer/lyricist Vaughn Benjamin and keyboardist Gaindei Ron Benjamin on the island of St. Croix, have made their own brand of cutting edge roots rock reggae by blending new recording technology with traditional drum and bass patterns, and conscious lyrics that are cutting-edge, yet age-old in content. In 1994, they moved the band to Washington D.C., but then in 1999, after developing a massive following in that area and at the peak of their stateside popularity, they returned to their island home. So, maybe it isn’t such an accident that the re-surfacing of raw roots music happened where it did. “Let me tell you, there are men here in St. Croix who simultaneously, believe it or not, when the movement was trodding out in Jamaica, there were men trodding out the same way, without knowledge of the Jamaican movement,” said Vaughn Benjamin in a recent interview with The Marquee. “And years back, there’s a man from St. Thomas — Edward Wilmot Blyden — this is who Marcus Garvey followed. So the Virgin Islands has always been in the front line.” Midnite truly are the people’s band. With very little industry support, they have managed to inspire a new generation with their music, drawing larger and larger crowds to their shows. “People pick out what they think is a commercial tune,” said Vaughn. “Because the playlists of the whole Earth are controlled by the same monsters, the playlists are guarded to make sure that nothing they have not screened can get through.” Youth, both here in the U.S. and internationally, are drawn in by the band’s music but also by their message: to look to the teachings of the Rastafarian faith. While songs about trying to do good, revolution, social inequality and injustice might not seem fit with your typical teenager’s notion of what makes a rockin’ tune, Midnite is still managing to win over many. “There’s a massive explosion of reggae music. I mean, endless youth. Because of that explosion it seems the children’s hearts are directed onto Haillie Selassie the Most High. The youth, it seems, have lost interest in any music which is decorative, ornamental and vanity-based. They want reality music. We just don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s going to be big. I personally am just doing the Almighty’s work, which is to tell a very good truth, a practical truth. That truth can be utilized in a social-economic cycle, in a logical, political setting, for the betterment of whole groups of people. That’s what I’m about and let the financial chips fall where they may,” Vaughn stated emphatically. As a matter of fact, those chips have been stacking up nicely for the group in recent years, as word of mouth has brought them worldwide acclaim and recognition. With five full length albums in addition to scores of EPs and compilations, Midnite already have a prodigious body of recorded work to stand upon.

Midnite
:: Aggie Theatre :: Oct. 12 ::
:: Trilogy :: Oct. 14 ::
:: Quixote’s True Blue :: Oct. 15

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Bob Marley • Pete Tosh • Israel Vibrations

The New Pornographers

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:05:24 +0000

New Pornographers ride the newest wave of Canadian invasion with Twin Cinema CD

By Chris McNamara

What do Cannibal Corpse, Nashville Pussy, and Insane Clown Posse have in common? They’re all bands with outrageously shocking names that produce outrageously bad music. It’s almost a rule in rock & roll — the talent of a group is inversely proportional to the shock value of its name. So how do you explain The New Pornographers? Their name would suggest that the band members realized their music sucked, so they decided to adopt a moniker that would at least raise a few eyebrows — Barenaked Ladies was already taken. But they’re an exception to the rule, as novel as a shaved bush in old pornography. With their third album, Twin Cinema (Matador), released in August, the Vancouver-based collective could make the leap from niche heroes to mainstream idols in the same fashion Jenna Jameson has. And nobody had to take it in the ass. The Marquee recently sat down with multi-instrumentalist and band founder A.C. Newman. The Marquee: The instrumentation on Twin Cinema is all over the map—xylophone, pump organ, ebow, melodion. What is your background with music? A.C. Newman: I never had any training, no schooling. And I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 18. (Newman is now 37.) I just approach writing from a D.I.Y. aesthetic. With most instruments I just pick them up and it’s easy to get cool sounds out of them. Like the ebow; that does most of the work. I can’t even play keyboards very well, but I can pick out some part in my mind and play it. I only play guitar and sing when we’re live. The Marquee: What about your background with bands? A.C. Newman: I was with Superconducter, a six-guitar band. We started out as a joke and accidentally became a real band. Concurrently with that I was in Zumpano. That was the beginning of me being a serious songwriter. We were very much influenced by the ’60s — The Zombies, Beach Boys. But then, like any band, I got frustrated with that. I formed The New Pornographers in 1997, but it was part-time so it took the longest time to get it going. Our first show was in 1998. In late 2000 we finally got our record Mass Romantic finished. If I’d known this would have taken off I’d have started it sooner. The Marquee: The band roster lists nine names, though you and guitarist Dan Bejar are the primary songwriters. Describe the creative process. A.C. Newman: We don’t write with each other, but we might rewrite songs in practice or in the course of arranging them. Sometimes my songs take shape in the studio — there’s a certain degree of spontaneity. The Marquee: What’s your favorite line on Twin Cinema? A.C. Newman: It’s from “The Bleeding Heart Show.” “Our golden handshake has been smashed into the shape / It’s taken magic to a primitive new place.” The Marquee: That’s a good example of the cryptic lyrics you write. What is the Bleeding Heart Show? A.C. Newman: A lot of my songs are just going for feeling more than a straight narrative. On this record there is a sense of me getting my act together. Picking myself up and flying right. Not being a screwup. Figuring out how to be a better person. And that involves relationships, which always seep in there. The Marquee: There seems to be a lot of honest lyricism these days, with bands like The New Pornographers, or Postal Service or Arcade Fire. Is sincerity newly hip? A.C. Newman: There are lots of confessional emo songwriters, but Postal Service or Arcade Fire are more about the joy of living. They inspire people; make them want to jump up and down. We try to make music to hit somebody on some level. The Marquee: Band members are Canadian and American. Why, on tracks like “Broken Breads,” do you sound so English? A.C. Newman: When playing pop music it’s hard not to sound English. The English really nailed pop music. We’re not trying to sound English, but so many of our influences are and those sounds seep in—The Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Zombies. The Marquee: Are you part of a Canadian invasion? A.C. Newman: There is definitely more good Canadian bands now than there have been since the late ’60s. It is always happening in Canada, but like in the ’60s, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young had to go to the U.S. to do it. The Marquee: You probably get asked this during every interview — why the shocking name? A.C. Newman: Dan has a song called “Pornographers” on his Destroyer record. I don’t think of it as shocking. Maybe it’s shocking in an unshocking way. ‘Pornographer’ is a really bland word.

New Pornographers :: Gothic Theatre :: Oct. 3

Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Arcade Fire • Postal Service • The Shins

Stryper! GET DOWN!

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:05:48 +0000

’8O’s Christian Metal rockers Stryper resurrects themselves

By Brandon Daviet

It’s been 15 years since Stryper, one of the first and easily the most recognizable of the Christian metal bands, released their last studio album Against the Law. That may not be a whole lot of time when compared to the texts of the Bible, but it is a lifetime when you are talking about rock and roll. In fact, 15 years represents the entire career of southern rockers The Black Crowes, so far, and is also roughly the amount of time Axl Rose has spent trying to make a new Gun’s ’n Roses album. So it’s no surprise that when Stryper announced they were coming out of retirement to do a tour and test the proverbial waters of their popularity, critics and fans alike were skeptical. No one can say for sure if it was divine intervention or not, but the fact is that Stryper’s return was successful enough (the band drew over 1,000 people to their 2003 performance at the Ogden Theatre) to warrant a full-scale reunion and a new album aptly titled Reborn. Stryper’s singer and creative force Michael Sweet recently took the time to enlighten The Marquee on the band’s new album and resurrection. “We tried to update the band’s sound without making the album sound dated,” said Sweet. “We wanted to capture all of the things that fans have come to expect from a Stryper album while leaving some of the effects we used on the last few records behind.” The band’s approach to the record, a group of songs that actually started as a solo project for Michael Sweet, seems to have paid off; Reborn is a solid metal record that can easily stand along side the new wave of Christian metal bands but still retains the classic hallmarks of Stryper albums like Soldiers Under Command and the band’s platinum album To Hell With the Devil. “When I was shopping the album as a solo disc everyone that heard it was like, ‘There is really something here,’ so I made a few calls to Oz Fox (the band’s founding guitarist) and a few others and we decided to re-record some of the album and make it a Stryper album,” Sweet says about the album’s creation. In addition to Oz Fox, Stryper is rounded out by Michael’s brother Robert Sweet, whose amazing drumming is easily one of the best parts of Stryper’s sound, and bassist Tracy Ferrie, who replaced original member Tim Gaines. “Tim just wanted to step out and do some different things and he wasn’t completely happy with some of the harder edged music that the band was making, but it was a mutual split and we still love him dearly,” said Sweet. “Tracy has brought a lot of new ideas to the band and we are happy to be able to have such a great musician join our ranks.” For Stryper, who have always practiced what they preach, finding stardom alongside bands like Mötley Crüe and Ratt proved a real challenge for them as they followed God’s path for the band. “The ’80s were difficult at times, it is a lot less difficult when you surround yourself with people and things that represent God. I mean if we get up on Sunday and have church in the back of the bus we find it’s a lot less difficult to resist temptations and all the garbage that the world has to offer,” said Sweet. In addition, the band has had to deal with a new generation of fans that have distanced themselves from organized religion. “It’s one of those things where you have to open yourself to God’s word, if you are closed-minded and put up a wall you are not going to hear anything,” said Sweet. “There were times in my life where I was really rebellious and didn’t want to hear anything and I didn’t want to hear anything about God, and then I reached out and took that little baby step and started listening, then the flood gates opened. I can tell people this life doesn’t have that much to offer and I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean that in the best way possible. What I mean is there is more to this life, we are all going to step into eternity someday and that’s when we are all going to have to ask ourselves where do we want to go.”

Stryper :: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom :: Oct. 14

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Whitecross • Jerusalem • Forever

System of a Down

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:06:45 +0000

Unconventional music, CD concept propel System of a Down to the top of metal

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Wild Creativity, unique instrumentation, one-of-a-kind lyrical passion, tricky time and structural shifts, and Eastern European folk music with operatic influences are descriptions not commonly used to portray a band outside the world of jazz or jam bands. Certainly not a metal band. But System of a Down, the current reigning champion of metal around the world, is all that and more. The unlikely mix of ingredients, styles and politics that encompasses System of a Down’s sound would not normally equate to popularity, and its members are as surprised as anyone that it has. It is, after all, widely considered to be one of the most original, wholly unique bands recording today — not something the masses usually accept. Newsweek calls it “prog-rock-metal-politico-pop with an operatic twist” while the Los Angeles Times suggests it’s as if the “Marx Brothers took possession of Metallica and hired Frank Zappa as arranger.” Sounds strange, but it is in fact not only extremely popular, it’s wildly addicting and begs the question why more bands don’t do it the S.O.A.D. way. The Los Angeles-based band—comprised of four Armenian Americans, two of which were born in Lebanon, one in Armenia and another in Hollywood — formed in 1995 after former schoolmates reunited in the same recording studio with their respective bands. Vocalist Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan have never looked back. Their self-titled debut was released in 1998, after years of touring and growing a fan base, and was followed in 2001 by Toxicity, which found unexpected commercial success with songs like the number one “Aerials,” “Chop Suey!” and “Toxicity.” The latest release, Mezmerize, which debuted at the top of the Billboard charts, was released in May and is the first half of a two-part CD set. The highly anticipated part two, Hypnotize, drops in mid-November and is expected to sell just as well as the first. The packaging for the new release is specially designed to physically join together with the prior release, creating one unified product with continuous artwork. More importantly, the albums interlock musically. The final track on Hypnotize, “Soldier Side,” completes “Soldier Side Intro,” which appears as the opening track on Mezmerize. The improbable success of the act can be attributed to its unconventional approach to making music, but it’s the unseen musical genius behind it that has propelled it to the top. Guitarist and songwriter Daran Malakian is the band’s driving force and is a self-described gear-head and music geek. It’s all he does. He also does a lot of musical experimentation and has even gone so far as covering his walls and ceiling with dozens of acoustic guitars so the sounds from his amps resonate with the guitar strings, creating a “really unique” tone. Malakian also explained that while recording the latest CDs he would spend days working on a single snare drum sound. “Music’s my life,” he explained. Adding to the brain power behind the scenes is the band’s producer, Rick Rubin, another collaborator whose overriding passion is creating great music. The producer is one of today’s most important and is credited with helping Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine, among others, to reach the top. His work with Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and Donovan is also well known and respected. Malakian, who has produced each of the band’s CDs with Rubin, explained that Rubin “gives us an honest and straightforward point of view on what we’re doing. He’ll tell us which songs or which parts stand out in a particular song.” There is little doubt he’s been instrumental in helping S.O.A.D. put its best foot forward. In the end, S.O.A.D. sounds more like a senior-year art school project than a mainstream music group, In fact, the band’s vocalist, Tankian, explained that “We’re artists for the sake of art” and that the band’s expression “is pure and natural” in terms of where it comes from. “I think that’s always better with art, because once you have something in mind and you try to achieve it, it becomes less pure in some ways. If you just let whatever expression there is come out, I think it’s more potent. I think it’s more real,” said Tankian. The band sets itself even further away from the pack with its fearless attitude toward the future and doing new things. According to Malakian, “Some bands are afraid of their fans” and worry that they’re not going to like a new direction. “We don’t have that mindset,” he said. “We’ve gotta impress ourselves before we impress the fans—you gotta love yourself first.” Speaking of fans, the band’s members have developed a deep relationship with theirs over the years. “The impact that we’ve had on people, artistically, socially and politically, is pretty amazing,” Tankian said. “A lot of bands are marketed by labels to certain demographics. With us it was just the opposite from day one.” The band toured heavily and built up a fan base before they did any video or radio. “That’s the old-fashioned way, and it’s how bands should be broken. And that’s why I think — luckily — we’ve had a good long career, and one that’s perpetually increasing. We’re not an overnight-success kind of band.” No matter what might be behind the band’s success, it is certainly worth a listen whether you enjoy heavy or quirky sounds or simply artfully created music. Since the band’s own description of itself runs the gamut from Metallica to Frank Zappa to Gilbert & Sullivan to Armenian folk tunes, and features lyrics involving war, religion, politics, love, genocide, drugs, sex, injustice and having a good time, there is likely some part of their sound that’s up your alley. Rest assured, however, this is no pansy metal band. They can thrash as hard as any band, they just choose to do it with an artist’s flair.

System of a Down :: with The Mars Volta and Bad Acid Trip :: Pepsi Center :: Oct. 2

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Frank Zappa • Slayer • Rage Against the Machine

Blues Travelers

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:07:39 +0000

Blues Traveler stop thinking so much for their latest incarnation

By Brian Kenney

Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges! The tone and velocity with which Blues Traveler’s new disc ¡Bastardos! comic book-like cover jumps out at you in sunset oranges and yellows, shows five sombrero wearing, pistol-waving, fist-a-cuff flying, lone ranger banditos and one damsel in distress. Apparently there are no badges needed for the ambassadors of pop jam. “Hey, we’re five Clint Eastwoods doing what we want to do,” said Blues Traveler keyboardist Ben Wilson in a recent conversation with The Marquee. The whole ¡Bastardos! package echoes the spaghetti western cartoonish style that BT 2.0 take. It’s a philosophy that states they’re too young to be old, don’t think too much about making records, and don’t take anything too seriously. But don’t get the idea that this is some Spanish rice-flavored concept album where Blues Traveler meets Buena Vista Social Club. No, this is just Blues Traveler being Blues Traveler. But this time they’re having more fun. ¡Bastardos! contains the same urgency as before and utilizes the chemistry of an entire quintet. For Wilson, who spoke with The Marquee during a break from a make-up session on the Jay Leno show, “¡Bastardos! feels more like a representation of the whole band.” It’s a whole band that has seen some significant lineup changes since the days of “”Runaround.” Wilson is Blues Traveler’s most recent addition, and bassist Tad Kinchla joined in 2001. Wilson and Kinchla join original founders drummer Brenden Hill, guitarist Chan Kinchla and the charismatic frontman and harmonica player John Popper. Wilson said that the new line-up has given the band a new dynamic and is ultimately resulting in a happier Blues Traveler. “With the last few records, there wasn’t the same sense of satisfaction,” he said. And it’s almost no wonder. Blues Traveler is a band that has gone through enormous growing pains since it first burst onto the scene in 1990 with its self-titled debut. They followed four years later with the highly praised Four and their top hit “Runaround.” Blues Traveler came of age before fans eyes. And perhaps it was those growing pains and the stress from the continual touring and recording schedule, that ultimately lead to the most serious growing pain of all: the 1999 death of original bassist Bobby Sheehan of a drug overdose, during a self-imposed hiatus from touring. So for Blues Traveler, it was soul searching and driving and diving ever deeper to find out why they all got into rock and roll on the first place. With that soul searching came a new attitude and input from the whole band. ¡Bastardos!, a comprehensive effort, has every band member credited for offering musical ideas, with Wilson co-writing almost half the songs on the album — even yielding lyrics, a specialty usually reserved for Popper. It seems band-wide that they took the advice that pitching coaches usually employ on their struggling ace: don’t think about things too much. “The record is a reaction to the opposite of stressing out about what kind of record to make and what kind of band we are. (We wanted to) just let things happen,” Wilson said. “It felt fresh, organic, and just kind of happened. Nothing was pushed. Nothing was grinded.” Yet, with the collective effort, the record, Wilson said, is “more of a representation of where the band is now.” “John came up with the title. Originally, the consideration was for Blues Traveler: Those Bastards, as in Blues Traveler, those bastards did it again!” Wilson said. Tongue-in-cheek, and perhaps a nod to the Spanish influence in Austin where the record was recorded, “Bastards” became ¡Bastardos!, complete with bandito high jinks and the five Clint Eastwoods rescuing their damsel.

Blues Traveler :: Fox Theatre ::  Oct 25 and 26

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Phish • Dave Matthews • Hootie and the Blowfish

Jason Mraz, aka Mr. A-Z

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:08:11 +0000

Jason Mraz follows Rocket with a more personal look at Mr. A-Z

By Yvette Rebik

Following an artist through a year of their life is not something that most fans are afforded. But fans of the hip-hop influenced singer/songwriter Jason Mraz are getting exactly that opportunity with the release of Mraz’s sophomore release Mr. A - Z. The album is exactly 365 days of Mraz, all packed into just under one hour. Mr. A-Z took exactly one year to make, from the day the first word was scripted in January 2004 to mastering in January 2005. Calling from San Diego, Calif., where he now lives, the Mechanicsville, Va., native had recently returned from Japan. Taking the trip as a break, he enjoyed his time off before hitting the road in late September to promote his pseudo self-titled release, a tour which will strip his sound back to that of an intimate solo artist, in lieu of the full band which he had toured with after the release of his major label debut, Waiting for My Rocket to Come.” And while Mraz has spent enough time on the road to be a salty road warrior, he said he’s looking forward to getting back out and into the zone — for the most part. “I love touring, especially when it’s three to four weeks into it. You get into a zone and things happen on tour that you can’t expect. But at the same time, on most days, I feel like a traveling salesman who is trying to meet his quota,” Mraz said. Mraz’s mixed emotions regarding touring continued as he explained his early days on the road. He and his band drove everywhere and saw breathtaking sunrises before the lavish tour bus came along. Because the bus travels at night, he never sees the road moving by him anymore. “You really have to push yourself to see things and be inspired by things again,” he said. Leaving home for life on the road, at least for a few months, made the skat master’s heart ache. The great surf, warm weather and work on his house made him not want to leave. “Deep down I love this pain I’m feeling because as much as I’m going to miss my girlfriend and house, I’m going to love the tour. Life is a little too perfect sometimes,” he said. With the addition of some acoustic shows, which are Mraz’s favorite, his tour will bring fans back to his coffee shop days. His mind can wander freely without the worries of five other guys moving with him. Mraz invites his audience to a quieter world of spirituality and intimacy during these shows. “I’m going out into the world and being this image that has been promoted about me. When you put it out there, people think they know you because of such and such. That stuff catches me off guard,” he said. “I forget how people know me. The fact that I talk about myself all the time, it can drive you crazy.” And though it does drive him crazy, Mraz said that it’s part of what Mr. A - Z is all about. “While the reality-based tongue-in-cheek wordsmithing of Rocket is back again, I also wanted this album to suggest that I was ready to reveal a little more about myself,” he said. Many think that musicians have the easiest jobs but, according to Mraz, it’s a nightmare in the sense that it seems that those in the spotlight are constantly giving up something, a secret part of themselves that should be kept private. “It’s tricky. I want to be truthful about this whole thing, but you have to keep things locked away,” he said. Even answering questions during an interview can become a repetitive process. “If I say the same answer to a question I get twice, then I start to feel like a robot. I then start to not even believe what I’m saying. It becomes an answer, not a feeling anymore ... The stories within these songs find your Humble Kind of Denial having a go at my own placement in relationships lost and found again, in the ever-changing music business, as a geek and an artist and, at times, a controversially unpopular smoker just trying to breathe freely.”

Jason Mraz :: with James Blunt :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Oct. 24

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Jack Johnson • G. Love and Special Sauce • John Mayer

Calexico and Iron & Wine

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:09:22 +0000

Iron & Wine, Calexico team up for the release of In the Reins EP and Tour

By Timothy Dwenger

As the final notes of “Dead Man’s Will” fade out of the speakers and the first collaboration between Iron & Wine and Calexico comes to a close, there is a strange sense of calm that sweeps in. In the Reins makes its mark as a very solid seven-song EP that showcases the unique attributes of each musician. While both bands have had success on their own, Sam Beam’s role in this project as lead singer and songwriter for Calexico seems a natural fit. As a joint tour looms, both John Convertino of Calexico, and Sam Beam of Iron & Wine took time to speak with The Marquee about the In the Reins project. Though In the Reins was released in mid-September, it was back in 2002 when Howard Greynolds of Overcoat Records originally put Beam in touch with Calexico founders John Convertino and Joey Burns. At the time, they tossed the idea around of re-recording some of the songs Beam had recorded at home on his four-track. The idea didn’t come to fruition due to other commitments, and the unaltered versions of the songs eventually became the Iron & Wine debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle. But they never put the idea to rest, said Beam. “We always sort of kept the idea in the back of our minds, that we’d really like to do a project together sometime,” he said. The intervening years have seen Sam Beam and his music explode on the national scene. With strong backing from the mega indie label SubPop, Iron and Wine has evolved from meager beginnings in the home studio of Sam Beam to being one of the most popular acts on the ever-expanding indie-folk scene. The massively successful Garden State Soundtrack (where Beam and company covered the Postal Service hit, “Such Great Heights”) certainly gave them a boost. However, it is his own, original material that has kept him in the crosshairs of industry professionals and music fans alike. Though Iron and Wine hails from southern Florida and Calexico from Tuscon, Ariz., one can instantly see why Greynolds thought these two would play off each other well. Each has a very distinctive acoustic sound that draws heavily on regional influences. Beam’s stripped down blues-based sound reflects the southern landscape that he has been surrounded by for most of his life. In sharp contrast, Calexico incorporates the complexity of the Mariachi music that filters across the border into Arizona with their mellow Southwestern folk ballads. It somehow seems fitting that the two sounds melt into one with Beam’s whispery vocals guiding the way. In the Reins was completed in five short days at Tuscon’s Wavelab Studios. Beam arrived alone, armed with a notebook of songs and his acoustic guitar. “I had all these songs lying around, older songs that didn’t make it on the first couple records, and we took them into the studio and re-did them,” Beam said. “I had recorded them at my house as I do all my songs, and had sent them the recordings. In the studio, sometimes they changed significantly and sometimes they didn’t. The fun of the project was to take these songs that only existed in a certain context and put them in the hands of a band that well-versed in different types of music.” The resulting songs have been given rave reviews by the toughest of critics. The cynical, and often downright cruel, Indie rock webzine Pitchfork praised the collaboration: “In the Reins is the first in what, if we’re all very lucky, will be a series of collaborations between Iron & Wine and Calexico. There isn’t a disappointing song on the EP.” As the bands prepare to go on the road together this fall, they are planning a stage show that should be anything but disappointing. Modeled loosely on The Band’s legendary Last Waltz, both bands will invite musician friends to join them on stage as the show stops in various cities around the country. “We’re good friends with the girls in Sleater-Kinney, so maybe when we’re in Portland they’ll join us,” Convertino speculated. With all the shows and festivals these two bands have played over the past several years, it is almost impossible to imagine who might show up at a given gig. Beam admitted that “our agents might be doing some set-up work with guests, but we aren’t doing much of that planning at this point. It will come together as the shows get a little closer and we can find out who is available.” Though Convertino was reluctant to commit to any guests that would be gracing the stage of the Fillmore when the tour swings through town, he did mention, “We have some friends who are in Devotchka.” Take it for what you will, but be assured that the Iron & Wine / Calexico co-headlining tour will offer the audience some surprises along the way and promises a show-closing performance of In the Reins in its entirety.

Iron & Wine and Calexico :: Fillmore Auditorium ::  Oct. 26

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Bright Eyes • M. Ward • Elliot Smith

Calexico and Iron & Wine

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:09:22 +0000

Iron & Wine, Calexico team up for the release of In the Reins EP and Tour

By Timothy Dwenger

Iron & Wine and Calexico :: Fillmore Auditorium ::  Oct. 26

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Bright Eyes • M. Ward • Elliot Smith

Tim O' Brien

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:10:34 +0000

Tim O’Brien returns to boulder with new band for benefit show

By Bruce Lish

Boulder favorite son Tim O’Brien continues to thrive in his ‘new’ home in Nashville, Tenn., and continues moving forward in a musical career that has brought him from his birthplace in the river steel-town of Wheeling, W. V., to Wyoming and Colorado, and now for almost a decade to a busy and rewarding career in one of the music meccas of the world. “I outgrew Boulder for that reason (the business aspect),” said O’Brien in a very gracious, recent conversation with The Marquee. “I had to dig in and find a way to support my family, this (Nashville) being by a bigger stream ... you put a lot of lines out there, like a fisherman,” he continued. “It’s a bigger stream to fish out of here.” If the company he’s been keeping and the projects he’s had offers from lately are any indication, then Tim O. has continued to ‘catch some pretty good ones’ as his career blossoms in the southeast not too far from where he grew up. Names like Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks, the movie Cold Mountain, and places like the old Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Old Opry, have a well-deserved place in O’Brien’s extensive run of credits. With one child through college and another hopefully heading that way, the move away from Colorado has proven to be a wise decision for O’Brien and his family of four. After over 20 years living in Boulder Valley, the longtime mandolin and fiddle player from the legendary bluegrass band Hot Rize says he misses this area but is enthusiastic about being in Nashville. “It really is the center of the bluegrass community,” said the current president of the International Bluegrass Musicians Association (IBMA). “All the infrastructure is here.” While O’Brien has certainly expanded his career in Nashville, working as a producer and playing on a wide variety of projects, he remains active touring as a performer. During October, O’Brien will play close to 20 shows as he and his band tour across the county. The tour will feature a new band for O’Brien as he leaves behind his acclaimed material that pays homage to his Irish homeland, the Celtic tradition and American roots music, and begins focusing on new material. “Starting Oct. 1st, I’ll be playing with a new group,” said O’Brien. Featured along with himself will be longtime collaborator Dennis Crouch on upright bass, holdover from the previous group Casey Driessen on fiddle, and Northwest music wizard Danny Barnes on electric guitar and banjo. O’Brien mentioned that a drummer/percussionist, possibly Kenny Malone, may be added on occasion. “The American roots stuff is all covered,” said O’Brien. “[That group of albums] was about the folk music of the British Isles and how it worked itself out when it got here ... I’m really looking forward to mixing that new stew and seeing what comes out.” While O’Brien has no immediate plans to head into the studio with the new group, his playing can be heard in a wide variety of recent projects. In addition to his releases Fiddler’s Green and Cornbread Nation which, respectively, signal a close to the Irish roots theme and helps point the way for his next musical direction, O’Brien also appears on Moody Bluegrass: A Nashville Tribute To The Moody Blues, currently nominated for IBMA Recorded Event Of The Year. Fans of the one-time supergroup New Grange will be pleased to hear that the Christmas Heritage Album will be available this holiday season on the Compass label. (O’Brien is also currently nominated for IBMA Male Vocalist Of The Year.) On their Boulder stop, The Tim O’Brien Band will perform at the Fifth Annual Acoustic Harvest & Cajun Feast — Blue Sky Bridge Benefit. Blue Sky Bridge is a local organization dedicated to assisting child victims of sexual abuse and to breaking the cycle of child sexual abuse through education and social change.

Tim O’Brien Band :: Boulder Theater :: Oct. 7

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Hot Rize • John Hartford • Tony Rice

Tim O' Brien

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:10:34 +0000

Tim O’Brien returns to boulder with new band for benefit show

By Bruce Lish

Tim O’Brien Band :: Boulder Theater :: Oct. 7

Spectate if you Gravitate: • Hot Rize • John Hartford • Tony Rice

Son Volt

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:11:05 +0000

A Revamped and Re-amped Farrar puts Son Volt back together for Okemah

By Brian Kenney

Flipping through the ‘S’s in the Rolodex of Americana long enough eventually brings you to Son Volt (see also Farrar, Jay). In some circles Son Volt is as much a musical institution in Americana, alt-Country, pseudo honky tonk and folk rock as those who proceeded the band and those whom the band hold in high esteem — the Guthries and Dylans of the world. When the band and primary songwriter/founder Jay Farrar revamped and re-amped after a seven year hiatus, the result was no mere speck on a radar screen, but a giant beaming mass that set the Americana world on end. Okemah and the Melody of Riot, Son Volt’s first studio offering since 1998’s Wide Swing Tremolo, blends the melodic trucker rock that gave Son Volt an identity in the mid ’90s, with semi-politically charged anthems. Bringing Son Volt back together as a project was “difficult to qualify as another beginning,” Farrar said in a conversation with The Marquee as he prepared for a gig in Birmingham, Ala. But in fact, this incarnation of Son Volt is much different from the ones which preceded it. Last year, Farrar hooked up with the original Son Volt lineup — multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist, bassist Jim Boquist and drummer Mike Heidorn — to record on Por Vida, a benefit record for Texas songwriter Alejandro Escovedo. Farrar, who said that he had been missing the “whole band” approach to music after several years of solo projects, thought that the members were finally back on the same page. But when it came down to it, much to Farrar’s dismay, the former Son Volters weren’t game. So the lead singer/guitarist/pianist/ harmonicist hand-picked drummer Dave Bryson (Canyon), bassist Andrew Duplantis (Jon Dee Graham) and guitarist Brad Rice (Ryan Adams, The Backsliders, Tift Merrit) to form the new Son Volt. “It reminds me of how it was with Son Volt’s (1995 debut) Trace. With Okemah the band went into the studio without ever playing live,” Farrar said. And while in the past Son Volt and Farrar’s solo work may have lent itself to a folk-infused classification, he asserts that Okemah and the Melody of Riot is more than a rock record. “We wanted to come back with a more rock oriented collection of melodic songwriting,” he said. As the 12 new songs on Okemah swing from commotion to contemplation, they remain anchored in Farrar’s passionate questioning of history to find words that articulate present calamities. His songs snatch eternal verities from the flames of terrorism and the shadows of political despair – and believe that hope will trump fears. Okemah and the Melody of Riot partially takes its title from the birthplace town of Woody Guthrie (Okemah, Okla.), but the personality of folk ends there, for the most part. While it could be argued that the album — with its Guthrie reference and the fact that the album was written during the height of the re-election of George W. Bush — had a specific mission in mind, Farrar contends that he didn’t set out to make a completely politically charged album. “We had no preconceived manifesto,” Farrar said. “Although we did record the album on the run up to the election, only a few serious political overtones preoccupy the tracks.” But Farrar has never been afraid of politics in his music. Farrar’s first band, the famed Uncle Tupelo, reacted to Reaganomics that plagued the country in the early ’90s. While grunge went one way with its sound, the alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo went another. “I think bands like Uncle Tupelo and Nirvana were drawing from the same well,” Farrar said. “Except we used pedal steel guitars.” With Okemah, however, Farrar’s only agenda was a raw stripped-down certainty. With this record he wanted to get back to the sound of early Son Volt. “After having done two primarily acoustic-oriented solo records and a lot of acoustic touring, I was ready to get back to playing electric,” he said. For Okemah and the Melody of Riot, Farrar said, “We wanted to capture as much live in the studio as we could and always try for a song in the first 10 takes, while the energy is still there. We wanted an original sound. We didn’t want to fix any mistakes,” he explained. The rawness of Son Volt’s tunes permeates through in more-than-edgy melodies and soft-spoken harmonies. But it’s the lyrically driven ballads of Farrar — echoing his earliest non-musical literary influences — that lay the foundation for the American identity of Son Volt. “When I was younger I was reading anything I could find. Kerouac, Faulkner, Vonnegut. I used to work in a bookstore,” explained Farrar. The beat influences are incredibly apparent on so many of Son Volt’s earliest recordings. From the lead track “Windfall” on 1996’s Trace, to “Gramophone,” the last track on the recently released Afterglow 61 EP, Farrar’s work still echoes the best of the beat writers, despite the fact that he’s thirty years younger than them. Son Volt :: Aggie Theatre :: Oct. 10 :: Boulder Theater :: Oct. 11 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Uncle Tupelo • Drive-By Truckers • Old 97’s

From the Barstool of the Publisher

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 06:15:53 +0000

From the barstool of the publisher

I usually use this space for my “From the Barstool of the Publisher” column. But something happened this month on the way to deadline that made me stop and change that. While under the gun of deadline, the new Lucero DVD review (that I had yet to write) was pulled from the issue due to space constraints. But, while waiting for the various last-minute items like dates and stories to roll in, I popped in the DVD and immediately realized I had made a big mistake. This DVD needs to be reviewed and you all need to see it. And, you all need to see Lucero live. The band is playing a number of dates in the area this month (see the calendar section for details). So take a break from my normal ramblings for once and take a look at this instead. See you at the shows. Lucero’s new DVD is a masterful dream Lucero Dreaming in America — DVD Liberty and Lament 5 out of 5 Dreaming in America, which debuted Sept. 16 at the CMJ Festival in New York, is the first DVD to take a look inside one of best bands you’ve never heard of — at least until now. It’s the best music documentary DVD since Sam Jones turned his lens on Wilco for I am Trying to Break Your Heart. In fact, it tells a similar story in many ways, but Dreaming in America has a powerful poignancy going for it that the Wilco documentary does not, and by nature, cannot. That poignancy lies in the fact that it’s a story about a band that is almost there, but not quite there yet, and that takes the underdog spirit of Wilco and multiplies it by 10. Through a series of live and studio clips of the band in action, intermingled with interviews (mostly with lead singer and guitarist Ben Nichols), filmmaker Aaron Goldman paints a masterful picture of what a hard-working, van traveling band, scratching for their break and their place in this tumultuous industry, is all about. Dreaming is an honest film that portrays a band that wears their truest love of playing music in front of people on their checkered flannel sleaves and it’s about time someone took notice of Lucero.

— Brian F. Johnson

My Morning Jacket takes a less-is-more approach with latest, Z

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 16:46:38 +0000

My Morning Jacket :: Fox Theatre :: Oct. 31

By Brian F. Johnson

If My Morning Jacket were an article of clothing, it wouldn’t fall under casual garb, for sure. It would be something ragged and rugged, yet cleaned, pressed and donned for special occasions, or even church. Not religious-type church — although you might get some exposure to that too — My Morning Jacket would fit best worn entering the hallowed halls of rock and roll and the Church of Reverb. My Morning Jacket is, in fact, not an article of clothing, but a five piece Kentucky-based rock quintet that was born, raised and baptized in that Church of Reverb — a gargantuan sweeping temple with limitless ceilings and speakers as large as Peterbilt sleeper cabs. And, with its latest release, the band’s fourth full-length album, Z, its as if the band has graduated from altar boy to high priest. While the album’s single-letter title has an air of finality to it, lead singer and author of My Morning Jacket’s songs, Jim James, said in a recent interview with The Marquee that the end is not something that’s even in the band’s vocabulary right now. “I speak through music and lyrics, so with the title I wanted to get away from speaking and use something that didn’t mean anything at all — just one letter not connected to any other letters or vowels at all,” James said in his quiet, almost melancholy tone which has just a pinch of a Southern twang to it. In his dry but cutting wit, he added, “I like the shape of it. You can bend it to make a triangle. You can lop off one end to make a 7. I feel like it had a lot going for it.” But then James mentions something that makes it all seem obvious. “It’s also the last letter, the 26th letter in the alphabet, and I wrote all the songs when I was 26,” he said. It appears that James’ 26th year was an adventurous one. The songwriter, who is now a mere 27, took great daring leaps with his voice on the new album, and in doing so, comes away more immaculate than even the band’s highly praised previous effort, 2003’s ATO/RCA release It Still Moves, the band’s debut album for the label. Z breathes with a requisite sense of the unknown, heightened by the band’s unique arrangements and employment of exotic soundscapes. The driving force of songs like “Off the Record,” or the haunting confessions of “It Beats for You,” bring forth the true shape of Z, almost familiar yet ever-reaching into new territory. Songs such as “Knot Comes Loose” reacquaint the pure song writing and the spiritual singing of James, while “Lay Low” becomes an extension of those qualities coupled with an un-ironic guitar assault courtesy of James and Carl Broemel. Patrick Hallahan (drums), Two Tone Tommy (bass) and Bo Koster (keys) lay down a soulful rhythm on “Wordless Chorus,” which gives James the perfect launching pad for his celestial voice to reach un-charted heights. In order to gain access to those heights, James and company left their thoroughbred-laden home of Louisville and travelled to upstate New York’s Allaire Studios to record the album. “We went from one comfort zone to another,” said James. “We were locked away on top of a mountain and we stayed there for the better part of a month.” All of the songs that the band was in the process of putting down had been written beforehand and the band had spent quite a bit of time rehearsing, as well as playing some songs on the road before entering the studio, but none of the songs were completed. “We were still doing finishing touches. They were 90 percent done, but we always like to leave that window of opportunity,” James said. Leaving that window open for the Z sessions was probably even more important than on past albums. For the first time, My Morning Jacket worked with a producer and the insight he brought to the table was one that James said was quite appreciated. Part of never having had a producer before was a pride thing, said James, who has produced all previous My Morning Jacket releases. “And the other part was that I have never found anyone I could give my baby to, based on their roster or what they’d done before. Once you know the person is talented, the other half is their personality. Are they going to come in and push you around and make you put your verses here and choruses here?” James said. Enter legendary producer John Leckie (Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Radiohead). James went to meet and hang out with Leckie before the sessions and found themselves to be of similar qualities — quiet, kind of reserved and laid back. “Once we got into it, his talent was really making the band feel comfortable,” said James. “But, he also wasn’t afraid to be the asshole, or the one who says, ‘You know, that take wasn’t good.’ Or, ‘That vocal wasn’t great and you can do better.’” James said that insight was important to the boys, who have always had the D.I.Y. approach. “Sometimes when everybody in the band is just there, you know, people don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, or you might think that it was a good take because everyone is tired. We really learned the value of having another ear there,” said James. While James is thrilled with the end result of the album, however, he said that he wouldn’t trade the band’s earlier works and self-produced albums if he could. “We do have records that might have some mistakes or have some records that don’t sound great — not because we wanted to make a lo-fi record, but because we were only 20 and we didn’t have any money,” he said, adding that those early adventures give My Morning Jacket a sense of history that James feels many bands who simply pop out of nowhere with a smash album don’t have. James said too that the band took a bit of a minimalist approach to Z, using the old adage that sometimes the notes that are not played are just as important as the ones which are played. “On all of our records we always tried to do a ton of stuff,” said James. “You know, have a ton of vocals and two guitars harmonizing and acoustic guitars and reverb on all of the drums — you know, this huge wall of stuff going on, and on Z we wanted to be conscious of not doing anything unless you really needed to do it. Like to have no guitars or no keyboards come in until halfway through the song. On It Still Moves it was like, ‘1, 2, 3, 4 everybody start playing’. This one we tried to get everyone not to play unless they had too.” Even the band’s infamous sixth member, Reverb, which the band actually refers to as a person, took a cautious approach on Z, according to James. He laughed at my comment that while it’s still quite prevalent that the band members are disciples of the Church of Reverb, it seems as if they aren’t attending every week. “I think he (Reverb) plays just like the rest of us. He kind of waits until he needs to come in. On a song like ‘Wordless Chorus’ I don’t think it would have as much impact when the chorus hits if the verse wasn’t drier,” said James. The album’s cover art, as well, takes on the less-is-more approach — in theory, anyway. The cartoon-like painting, titled “The World Within,” by Kathleen Wiley, shows three birds operating on another bird, who is cut and held open revealing ‘internal organs’ of skyscrapers, highways and cars (it’s not as gruesome as it sounds). “I thought it set a good tone about the world within us and going inside and being more within yourself, is how I took it,” James said. “It’s something that I try really hard to do, to stop thinking and stop the mental noise and chatter in my mind. It really is like static, just a thousand voices and mental movies in your mind and when you stop and you just concentrate on your surroundings or where you are, it’s really like turning off a loud radio that’s just playing a bunch of shit,” explained James. With Z being the band’s second release with RCA/ATO, it’s reasonable to think that the label has begun to put its touches on the band and its sound, but James said that, in fact, the label has been incredibly supportive. “I have nothing but props to give to RCA and ATO. They took a risky venture with us ‘cause we’re not an easily marketable band,” he said. “We’re not a bunch of cute young guys that wear tight leather pants and all that stuff for all of the little girls. We don’t try to write radio singles and stuff like that, but they’ve been nothing but supportive and never once tried to step into the studio and tell us that we couldn’t do something or that we had to do this or had to do that.” So while My Morning Jacket continues to take great strides with each album it releases, and the band’s popularity continues to grow, it does not appear that My Morning Jacket will soon become discarded clothing left on the front porch for the Salvation Army truck to pick up. In fact, it appears as if the jacket will be carefully cleaned, mended and kept around as an heirloom for regular visits to the halls of rock and roll. My Morning Jacket :: Fox Theatre :: Oct. 31 Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Flaming Lips • Neil Young and Crazy Horse • Wilco

This Month in Music History-November

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:01:49 +0000

This Month in music history November 1 • 1969: After a seven year absence, Elvis Presley returns to Billboard’s number one position with “Suspicious Minds” November 3 • 1972: James Taylor and Carly Simon are married in a NYC apartment • 1954: Adam Ant is born Harry Beetle November 5 • 1946: Gram Parsons of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers is born November 9 • 1993: Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee is arrested for trying to take a gun on an airplane • 1967: The first issue of Rolling Stone is published in San Francisco and comes with a free 'roach clip' November 11 • 1972: At the age of 24, Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley is killed in a motorcycle accident. three blocks from where guitarist Duane Allman was also killed November 12 • 1970: The Doors make their last concert appearance while in New Orleans • 1945: Neil Young is born November 15 • 1969: Janis Joplin is arrested in Tampa, Florida for the use of “vulgar and indecent language” November 20 • 1994: Singer/songwriter David Crosby receives a liver transplant • 1970: The Who’s Keith Moon collapses twice during a San Francisco concert • 1965: Mike D (Diamond) of The Beastie Boys is born • 1946: Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers is born November 22 • 1997: Michael Hutchence of INXS hangs himself in an Australian hotel room • 1967: Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice's Restaurant Masacree” is released November 24 • 1991: Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury dies of pneumonia the day after announcing to the world that he had AIDS November 25 • 1976: The Band plays its last concert at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom; the show is recorded and made into the epic Martin Scorsese-directed film The Last Waltz November 26 • 1968: Cream plays its last show at London’s Royal Albert Hall November 27 • 1942: Jimi Hendrix is born November 29 • 2001: George Harrison dies at the age of 58 at his home in Los Angeles Complied from the archives of Rock & Roll Library www.rocklibrary.com

CD Reviews

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:02:53 +0000

Richmond Fontaine completes masterful trilogy with its delightfully melancholy The Fitzgerald Richmond Fontaine The Fitzgerald Decor Records 4 out of 5 There are no sadder songs. Writer Willy Vlautin looks deep into the faces we all turn away from, and stares out from their eyes, feels their desperation and embodies their resignation, envisions their hopeless hopes, delivering it in a voice that hovers on the nether side of faltering strength and failing faith. In the wake of Winnemucca, on the heels of Post to Wire, the band Richmond Fontaine delivers the third piece in a masterful trilogy that exposes the underside of the invisible America. Cast in a sparse musical landscape, unsettling in its austerity, reflecting the barren truth of lives “broken, blown, lost and blue,” The Fitzgerald opens with a delicately circular guitar figure, introducing an encompassing atmosphere of isolation, supported by a gentle but matter-of-fact trapped voice of acceptance, detailing the everyday horrors of lives “too late to leave.” The characters that populate these dark tales are vividly drawn in short, exact bursts, not described but created, in their actions, in the shadows of their powerlessness, in the bottoms of the glasses that they down in the bars that they haunt. Beginning first where debts are paid with broken hands and bloody faces in “The Warehouse Life,” to where nightmares are ignited by howling winds and blood-soaked shirts, and you fall into uneasy sleep in “Welhorn Yards,” to a drunken world with no escape in “Black Road,” to the unsettling sleeplessness induced by the discovery of a young man’s body in “The Incident At Conklin Creek,” there is a genuinely unrelenting terror in the wounding of the wounded in these songs. Paul Brainard’s funereal piano, Sean Oldham’s quivering martial high hats and the shuddering violin of Liza Reitz, escort the mournful voice of Willy Vlautin as it descends into the madness that embraces and is consumed by gloom, darkness and heartache in “Disappeared.” In the song “Exit 194B” Willy sings, “there was a darkness in both of us that neither was strong enough to escape.” This is not escapist fare. In many ways, all of the characters in all of these songs are the American desaparecidos, we’ve shut the blinds on them, hidden them, lost them, abandoned children “dragging a suitcase by a piece of rope,” unloved teens, “always walked with his head down, always staring at the ground,” battered wives who stay “no charges did she file,” and those that run away “don’t look and it won’t hurt,” the denied and excluded, hoping someone will shine a light, and save their lives. As Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin, guitars, songs and vocals, the solid bottom, Dave Harding on bass, Sean Oldham, drums, with Paul Brainard guitar and piano, Mike Coykendall engineering and contributing baritone guitar and harmonica, Liza Reitz on accordion, as well as violin, and JD Foster on keyboards and production duties, have created a troubling work of sorrowful beauty. This is a band that rewards discovery with a depth of emotion unequaled in what is usually labeled alternative country. — Andy Schneidkraut Grateful Dead Lyrics Book a treasure for deadheads The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics By David Dodd Free Press 4 out of 5 David Dodd, who has for the last 10 years been the tireless creator and keeper of the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics website, is either certifiably insane, a genius, or both. The verdict is still out. For over a decade now, Dodd has been engrossed in the search to answer questions about the lyrics of the Grateful Dead. Who is Crazy Otton in “Ramble on Rose?” What is a Dark Star? Does the line “Let him cast a stone at me” in “Playing in the Band” refer to the New Testament passage in John 8, or is it more indicative of the reference from Matthew 7:1-5? These are the thoughts that rattle through Dodd’s mind, who has recently taken his gargantuan collection of annotations from the web and put them into one of the most beautiful and massive Grateful Dead lyrics books to date. “I just love to look for little factoids and trivia. When you work at a reference desk in a busy library and work with the public, you get asked everything under the sun, everyday,” said Dodd in a recent interview with The Marquee. Dodd, who is the city librarian of San Rafael, Calif., said that originally, he thought of annotating the lyrics of the Grateful Dead as a way to improve his own reference skills — surely, if he could figure out who Mr. Benson from “Candy-man” is, he could help the public with their obscure questions. Some questions, though, sent Dodd into crazy subcultures of subcultures. For instance, despite all of his research, Dodd is still not able to say with exact certainty what is meant by a “Double-E Waterfall” in “China Cat Sunflower.” In his quest to determine this line in particular, he looked at Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” which mentions catching a Double-E Train. Dodd interviewed train people and found that it could, in fact, refer to a double express or double-ender train, but he also found that it could refer to a painting by poet e.e. cummings titled “Waterfall,” and that it could refer to a guitar chord by the same name, played high up on the neck of a guitar. Though Dodd is an integral part of the extended Grateful Dead family, he never was able to ask lyricist Robert Hunter what he meant, and to Dodd, this is a blessing. “I never had the option to contact Robert and that, to me, in a way makes it fun, because it makes it so that all of these things are possibilities,” Dodd said. Overall, Dodd annotated about 250 songs, in chronological order, and even the most educated Dead Head will be shocked at the vast amount of titles that never became part of their repertoire. Though much of the material in the book is and will continue to be available through Dodd’s annotated lyrics website, the book brings with it a forward by Robert Hunter, a preface by Alan Trist and illustrations by Jim Carpenter, which are not available on the web. The book, Dodd commented, is a “snapshot” of where the project is now, and with that thought in mind, future editions are certainly possible. As for Dodd, he said much of his focus will stay with his current job at the San Rafael Library, but that he might also delve into another annotation project. He has joked about annotating The Beatles repertoire for years, and he said that he may begin to look into it with more fervor in the near future. There may be a myriad of “coffee table books” available about the Grateul Dead, but none bring more insight and passion into the stories behind the stories as this, and none will make readers more enlightened, engrossed and perplexed. The Complete Annotated Lyrics of the Grateful Dead is the jewel among gems. — By Brian F. Johnson Jefferson Hamer’s Left Wing Sweetheart is a daring departure that dramatically succeeds Jefferson Hamer Left Wing Sweetheart Independent 4 out of 5 He’s been successful twice before with the acoustic bluegrassy-ish Single Malt Band and as part of The Wayfarers, which was deemed one of the “best traditional Irish acts in the American Southwest.” And his kind, humble nature is as awe-inspiring as his playing. Jefferson Hamer is the darling of the Front Range music scene and his newest album, Left Wing Sweetheart, is sweetly honest and displays Hamer’s roots along with his newest renditions of what music should be. The album of original songs, which will be released this month, with a CD release party at Trilogy on Nov. 10, was recorded alongside Ben Kaufmann, not only of the Yonder Mountain String Band but also of the same Massachusetts high school Hamer attended before he hit CU. Along with Kaufman, is a veritable who’s who of Front Range musicians, including Sally Van Meter, KC Groves, Eric Deutsch and Mark Dalio. Left Wing Sweetheart is, simply put, the album that Hamer needed to make. It’s a daring departure for the musician — a collection of songs which take Hamer out of his comfort zone, but in doing so, finds him as relaxed as a grandpa with a Sunday-morning paper. Sometimes twangy, sometimes rockin’ and always heart-felt, Left Wing Sweetheart is as diverse as can be, without jumping all over the place. Perhaps the only way to express the bright-eyed album’s sunny core is by words of advice on Hamer’s website: “Keep picking, listening to music, pile your bedside books high, get outside once in a while, and remember — records sound better than CDs.” — Alex Samuel Chute Nine shakes the saddles on Love & Hate Chute Nine Love & Hate Audio Grind Records 3 out of 5 Chute Nine’s formula is fairly simple; take line-dancing soul, folky story-telling and a twanged out version of Boston, add a bassist named Stingray, open for Dierks Bently or Chelly Wright and play your country heart out for fans nationally. Their newest album, Love & Hate, while a bit much for this city girl, shows a progressive side of country that could make anyone nostalgic for Wranglers and cowboy boots. “Hound Dog,” the album’s fifth track, illuminates the band’s rowdier side while the opening track, “Do You Still Do It,” is the closest to thing to a break-up song on the album. “Music American,” should have made its debut during the tractor scene of Footloose and the hidden track, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Like It’s,” belongs at the opening set for a Van Halen show in Memphis. These truly complex country boys are proud of the “saddle-shaking, straight-shootin’ brand of country” that they have mastered on this album. — Alex Saumel

From the barstool of the publisher

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:03:27 +0000

From the barstool of the publisher

I was reading Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live this morning when the Zen God of pop culture once again burst my bubble and made feel even less cool that I already do. Klosterman said, “Right now, most rock journalism is just mild criticism with a Q & A attached; nobody learns anything (usually) and nothing new is created (ever).” Klosterman went on to point out that some time ago the former lead singer of Soul Coughing once “disregarded the entire career of Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau by saying, ‘Let’s face facts here — what Robert Christgau does is write about his mail.’ And this is completely true; as a rock critic, you make a living reviewing your mail and anybody who disagrees with that assertion is kidding themselves. Thus, the deeper question that drives (and/or depresses) rock critics is this: ‘How important is my job?’” I’d like to think that Klosterman was a geeky little kid who got picked on relentlessly from grade school through college. I really hope that he has suffered. That being said, however, I think it’s obvious that he turned inward during his troublesome formative years and developed a wit and knowledge that allows him now, as a hip author and senior writer for Spin Magazine, to come off as a cool mother fucker who can slice through my remaining shreds of dignity and hurt me. Hey, Chuck, I never picked on you as a kid, so stop making me feel like crap about myself, o. k.? I am going to go down the incredibly self-defensive route of denial on this one and claim that what we do at The Marquee is important. I believe that we’re more important than the news. Now, my co-publisher will certainly argue against me on this point, but I don’t care. If politicians botched the response to Hurricane Katrina, it’s not something that really affected me. Like most of our readers, I’m more concerned about who is signed on to play the benefit concerts in this area. “Yeah, bummer about that storm. I heard that they’re gonna put on an awesome benefit show for it. It’ll be sweet!” That is what impacts me, and thus The Marquee is more important than any political decision made in Washington, or elsewhere — argue all you want but that’s the point I’m sticking to. So, yeah, I may write about my mail. I may present, as Chuckie-boy so simply put it, “mild criticism with a Q & A attached,” but I think people can and do learn from that — maybe not the most monumental facts in the world, but they learn nonetheless. And thus, I think Klosterman is just a sad little geek (albeit a cool geek now), still trying to get back at everyone who made him cry in the 1980s over his belief that Flock of Seagulls was going to revolutionize rock and roll. See you at the shows.

Boys Night Out

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:04:56 +0000

Boys Night Out takes a daring fugitive-style leap with conceptual Trainwreck

Boys Night Out :: Nintendo Fusion Tour :: Fillmore Auditorium :: November 9

By Brandon Daviet

Many bands wait until late in their careers to put out a full-fledged concept album. Pink Floyd were well into their drug-induced ramblings before they released The Wall. The Who were superstars on both sides of the pond when they released Tommy, and even Green Day waited until they were the established voice of the iPod Generation before they released American Idiot. Not so for Ontario, Canada punk rockers Boys Night Out, who have released the dramatic and conceptual Trainwreck as their third studio album. In many ways, Trainwreck is much darker than the aforementioned American Idiot. Whereas Green Day took the story of a boy sent off to lose his own life in Iraq, Trainwreck tells a story of loss that is a lot closer to home. Trainwreck follows the story of a man who kills his girlfriend and then, under the influence of psychotropic drugs and the watchful eye of medical professionals, wrestles with the demons in his head. While the story ultimately ends in redemption, the path that it follows is filled with tragedy. All of the song titles on Trainwreck contain just one word and describe an action. Tracks like “Medicating” and “Sentencing” take the listener through each step of the main character’s decline and redemption. Boy’s Night Out guitarist Jeff Davis took some time to speak with The Marquee about the band’s chilling new album and upcoming tour. “We really knew what we wanted to do with the album from the beginning,” said Davis. “We have wanted to do a concept album for a long time and I had a lot of the record already written.” Listening to the raw brilliance of Trainwreck, it is overtly, and sometimes painfully obvious that a lot of the material came from the band’s collective soul. “We really wanted each song on the album to tell its own part of the story,” Davis said. For the most part, the band has accomplished their mission. Trainwreck plays out like a ratings sweep-week episode of “Law and Order” and still manages to hold several radio-ready songs. Still, when the band brought the album to their label, Ferret Records, the label was a bit hesitant at first. “We made a decision to make sure the record had some catchy songs on it and, in the end, I think we did that,” said Davis. “But yeah, the record company had some worries at first, but after they heard the record they got behind us one hundred percent.” Part of the record company’s concern was centered on the fact that Boys Night Out had come up with, among other things, song titles that were humorous and over the top. Songs like “I got punched in the face for sticking my nose in other peoples business” seemed a far cry from the seriousness of Trainwreck. “If anything,” said Davis, “I really think a lot of our stuff comes off as tongue-in-cheek but really isn’t.” Despite the initial trepidation, Trainwreck has been well received by fans and Boys Night Out will be heading out on the Nintendo Fusion Tour this fall. The shows will feature an interactive setup focusing on Nintendo’s best games and the tour has already sold out several dates. Boys Night Out will begin spreading the story of Trainwreck to hordes of new fans. “We will only be playing parts of the album on this tour, but we are all big fans of video games, so the tour is going to be lots of fun,” Davies concluded. Boys Night Out :: Nintendo Fusion Tour :: Fillmore Auditorium :: November 9 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Green Day • Nine Inch Nails • Pink Floyd

Sol and Swift’s Soul Warrior Krew

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:05:37 +0000

Sol and Swift unify denver hip-hop scene with weekly meeting

Soul Warriors :: Appaloosa Grill :: Every Wednesday Night

By Neil McIntyre

Using samples and breaks, hip-hop music was born from all other musical genres. It was the incredible diversity and variety of culture in New York City in the 1970s that proved the perfect melting pot for its conception. Original pioneering deejays like Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaatta were known to play almost everything they could get their hands on, from funk to punk. Hip-hop is all about unity and while present-day Denver is far from 1970s New York, it appears as if the local hip-hop scene has the unity concept down. Although much smaller in scale than NYC, Denver’s 16th Street Mall and the Appaloosa Grill host an amalgamation of people and urban culture that represents everything the Metro Area has to offer. Everyone from the hungry thug to the kid from the country club is involved in Sol and Swift’s Soul Warrior Krew — a group that is not about image or marketing ploys. Denver’s Sol and Swift’s Soul Warrior Krew is all about soul. The group is bringing their music back to its source, to a time before the media tarnished the universal culture of hip-hop, which was meant to bridge gaps, not widen them. Sol and Jon Swift have been providing a forum for Colorado artists to collaborate for about a year — a unity meeting of sorts. Formerly held on Monday nights at the Grill, the group has moved the forum to Wednesdays in recent months and have been featuring many of the Front Range’s top groups. The Soul Warrior Krew consists of the hard-knockin’ rhymes and rhythms of Rraahh Foundashun, the musicianship of jazz-trained Jon Swift, the melodic vocal talents of Ron and Mississippi, as well as the instrumental background of Yo, Flaco! (2005 Marquee Magazine Front Row Center Award winner for Best Hip-Hop Band). The influence and talents of at least a dozen other regular performers provide the perfect icing and complement to this musical layer cake. Sol and Swift presents the Situations in Life, the group’s upcoming release, is a spin-off of the weekly meetings, going so far as to incorporate the help of local jazz legend Eric Gunnison, who is along for the ride playing keys on several tracks The album, due out at the end of November, was created in great part by the freedom of the open environment at Appaloosa Grill. Not having to rely on a cover charge to pay themselves, the musicians’ talents are truly nurtured at the 16th Street Mall anchor point. And, the collective has fostered so much talent and fun, in fact, that it often spills into the streets as horn players and vocalists alike line up in the doorway. With such an intimate setting, performers are hardly distinguishable from their audience. Even Snoop Dogg’s band came to jam with the Soul Warrior’s this past summer. Soul Warriors :: Appaloosa Grill :: Every Wednesday Night Spectate if you Gravitate: • D’Angelo • De La Soul • Blackalicious

Matt Nathanson

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:06:39 +0000

Matt Nathanson leaves the big labels behind and finds himself independently

Matt Nathanson :

: Bluebird Theatre :: November 3

:: Aggie Theatre :: November 4

:: Fox Theatre :: November 5

By Yvette Rebik

With his recent departure from Universal Records, Massachusetts-born, San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson has returned to his independent roots. He’s back on the road showcasing upcoming material from next summer’s new studio album, as well as classics from his extensive catalog, dating back to 1993. Between building new relationships with his audience and leaving a major record label, Nathanson is just beginning to catch his stride. Making witty remarks and dropping F-bombs left and right, Nathanson revealed to The Marquee what is most important to him in the music business. “I’m back to being independent, and dude, it’s so cool,” he said. “I thought that if I signed with a major, I would get this influx of money, knowledge and great people to help work on records. Sure it was fantastic and fun, but I realized that I couldn’t do anything on my own.” Nathanson didn’t want to compromise his musical values for the perks of being on a major label like Universal. The thought of giving up the masters to a record disappointed him. According to Nathanson, selling “fifty-something thousand records” did not seem important to the label. He disagreed. “I thought, ‘Dude, fuck that’s great! We pushed the button and now we’re getting it,’ but they only know how to take something to radio, and they only know how to spend money from its reaction on radio.” After not seeing eye-to-eye on several issues, Nathanson parted with the label on good terms. He thought Universal was a fantastic label, but he just didn’t fit in with them. He left with more confidence in what he wanted to do with his music and returned to the life as an independent musician. In order to pay the bills and put food on the table, Nathanson hit the road. By touring all the time, not only does he make good money, but he also builds a strong fan base. To him, the most important thing about playing live is building a connection with the audience. “When I used to go see certain people play, like Richard Thompson and Greg Brown, they would tell these rad stories. Even if I didn’t know the song, they would set up the song in such a way that I was engaged,” said Nathanson. This connection is exactly what he strives for in his own shows. “Dude, it’s the only way to go. It’s so fucking uninspiring when a band blasts through their songs and doesn’t pay any attention to the people. To me, if a crowd is engaged, it makes it a better show,” he said. Nathanson uses the comedic side of his personality to establish a relationship and eliminate any distance from the fans. Laughter is the best way to break down a barrier in conversations, he said, and Nathanson isn’t afraid to use that to reveal his true personality. “I’m just me. I’m a total music dork who’s fucking up on stage with verbal diarrhea,” he said. Right now, Nathanson isn’t certain if he’ll be searching for a new label anytime soon, but he also said that he’s not ruled it out. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it again, but to get off Universal felt right because I didn’t really want to be there. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to shop around for another deal, but if I start thinking too much about it, it’ll never work out. You just have to stick to the immediate plan.” Matt Nathanson : : Bluebird Theatre :: November 3 :: Aggie Theatre :: November 4 :: Fox Theatre :: November 5 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Howie Day • Greg Brown • Marc Broussard

8traC

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:07:25 +0000

8traC steps in as Boulder’s modern Motown connection

8traC

:: KGNU Monday Night Kabaret :: Nov. 7

:: CD Release Party :: Rhumba :: Nov. 8

By Chibo Acevedo

Since early in 2004, 8traC has been pounding out Motown sounds, R&B rhythms, soulful funky grooves and newer interpretations all along the Front Range. Originally spawned as a cover band with old school R&B roots as inspiration, 8traC has taken strides to develop its own material and is now proving to be a powerful force in the Front Range music scene. Be it hard hitting funk with a message or passionate grooves with lush harmonies and musical integrity, the plight of the human condition is at the core of the 8traC vision. Spearheaded by power-vocalist Chantel Mead, 8traC started out by bringing some of the old school Motown and funk back to life with fresh new arrangements. Their influences run far and wide, but include the likes of Quincy Jones, Michael Franti and Stevie Wonder, just to name a few. A little more than a year into the life of the project, ‘Chanti’ finally stepped up with her original material and, in collaboration with Derek VanScoten (guitar) and Chris Misner (drums), a nucleus of creativity was brought to light. VanScoten’s rich pallet of layers and textures, not to mention a very schooled background, coupled with Misner’s extensive realm of rhythms, makes the groove of the original material unstoppable. Take all of this, add a tight horn section, deeply soulful bass, and poignant lyrics sung with authority, and you have the heart of 8traC. The band is somewhat of a local ‘super group’ as many of its members play in other well known acts in and around the Front Range, including Devious3, Cabaret Diosa, and Jubal and The Rude Boys. The remaining line-up of the band includes Paul McDaniel on bass, Erinn Bone on trumpet and backing vocals, and Serafin Sanchez on saxophone and backing vocals. Considering this, and all the various influences brought to the table, their sound is a fresh and invigorating slant on the old-school style. 8traC have just finished their first original EP, entitled the Uplift EP and, according to Mead, the band is recording a full-length album this winter, with plans of hitting the road next summer. The Marquee caught up with Mead recently, who said that the band’s goal is to simply have fun, but to also convey a positive message. “Our music is strongly message driven,” Mead said. “Though I don’t overly state this in our bio, my lyrics are consciously focused on issues that affect us deeply every day. Be it fear and war, or love and community, it’s all life and we all deal with it. So where are we headed? We can only hope in the direction of unity through music.” 8traC :: KGNU Monday Night Kabaret :: Nov. 7 :: CD Release Party :: Rhumba :: Nov. 8 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Stevie Wonder • Quincy Jones • Michael Franti

Drag the River

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:08:26 +0000

Fort Collins’ alt-country specialists Drag the River not about to run dry

Drag the River :: Aggie Theatre :: November 6 ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: November 7

By Cornelia Kane

It might seem to most folks like punk rock and country are sort of like oil and water: they don’t mix. Well, that ain’t necessarily true, as proved by Fort Collins’ own alt-country band, Drag the River. Formed in 1996 by core members Jon Snodgrass (guitar, vocals), of Armchair Martian, and Chad Price (guitar, vocals), the band started as two guys messing around during off hours at a local recording studio. The Blasting Room — home to punk legends The Descendents and ALL. “Chad and I had kind of met before, but when he gave me a Ted Hawkins’ recording in 1994 [maverick southern black soul-folk singer who moved to Venice Beach later in life and was ‘discovered’ by a major label just before his death], that’s when we really bro’ed down,” recalled Snodgrass in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We talked about Missouri, where we’d both grown up less than an hour from each other. We’d been in a lot of the same places at the same time but not known each other — like at ALL shows before Chad joined the band, and also Bad Brains and many other punk shows at a place called the Outhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.” Copies of these informal jam sessions that the two laid down at The Blasting Room began to appear and circulate as bootlegs, so the guys decided to put out their first official release, Hobo’s Demos, a collection of rough cuts, around 2000. After putting a lineup together and doing some touring, the band released their first full-length studio album, 2002’s Closed, which, like the album before, came out on Upland/O&O Records, a label co-run by Joe Carducci (formerly of the now defunct label SST, which put out records by many legendary punk bands such as Black Flag, Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen). Punk rock roots run deep within the band, yet their sound and songs’ subjects remain decidedly “country and Mid-Western,” according to Snodgrass. After a few more EPs, a vinyl pressing, and a live album (recorded at the Starlight in Fort Collins), the band has established themselves firmly within their genre, opening for bands such as North Mississippi Allstars as well as touring regularly as a headliner. In the tradition of legendary ’70s country rock outlaws like Townes Van Zandt, David Allan Coe, Charlie Daniels and Steve Earle, there seems to be a fresh bumper crop of bands that sing songs about hard livin,’ hard lovin’ and hard-drinkin’. Many of these bands have actually been around for many years, and Drag the River can certainly be included in the list of “new old bands” that have recently come into popularity with the resurgence of interest in alt-country. While all the bands have distinctions, some being more bluegrass-oriented, some more hardcore punk, Drag the River stands apart from the pack as the trailblazers of the modern whisky ballad. They make the kind of music that might make you want to cry into your beer or break a barstool over someone’s back, depending on how many drinks you’ve had. While the lineup has recently changed, Snodgrass’s raspy, plaintive vocals, trading lead with Price, lyrics about love and loss, the twang of pedal steel, and a rock and roll drummer are still the staples of a Drag the River show. Taking a page from the legendary country rocker Graham Parsons, they make some of the rockingest sad music you’ve heard for a while. The new lineup includes Casey Prestwood, of Hot Rod Circuit, on pedal steel, and drummer Dave Barker, who stepped in after former drummer Paul Rucker recently moved to California. Bassist J.J. Nobody, joined the band in 2002. “Some shows are Jon and Chad duo shows, which is the way the band started. Our new steel player is in another band and sometimes is on tour with them. So now, we play either as a five piece or a two piece,” said Snodgrass of the recent changes. The band will be touring nationally this fall and winter. “Next year, we’ll release two CDs. One with the new band and the other unreleased material featuring the old guys. We’re also putting out maybe three or four 7-inches, which will be of the music on one of the CDs, but the CD won’t come out until all the vinyl is gone. We’ll also be re-releasing Closed on super-limited vinyl,” said Snodgrass. Drag the River :: Aggie Theatre :: November 6 :: :: Bluebird Theater :: November 7 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Hüsker Dü • Lucero • Townes Van Zandt

Broken Social Scene

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:09:39 +0000

Broken social Scene emerges as canada’s indie-rock super group

Broken Social Scene :: Boulder Theater :: November 1

By Brian Kenney

Blame it on Canada? The northern half of the continent is no longer content taking blame. No longer will the country be the butt of jokes — certainly not music jokes. (OK, aside from Loverboy, Celene Dion and Bare Naked Ladies.) Kevin Drew, founder, lyricist and sometimes frontman for Broken Social Scene, takes bites of a sandwich as his tour bus, crowded with a band large enough to warrant its own postal code, rolls through the outskirts of Ottawa shortly after the Toronto debut of their latest self-titled disc, and proclaims, “In this little Leave it to Beaver world that has been created, it’s all about fucking.” Drew spoke with The Marquee as his bus barreled down the highway. Broken Social Scene has emerged as one of Canada’s indie-rock super groups, with a membership that is always in flux and fusion, growing or shrinking, but more often than not, growing. “Let’s see,” bandmate Charles Spearin tallies, “We’ve got 11 out with us this time.” Broken Social Scene materialized in 1999 when Drew, formerly of K.C. Accidental, and Brendan Canning, formerly of By Divine Right, bonded their friendship into a band. They spent the next few years honing an atmospheric rock sound in their native Toronto and developing a flawless musical dynamic. Feel Good Lost marked their debut album in 2001 and introduced a revolving cast of Canadian indie musicians. Drew’s fellow mate, Spearin from Do Make Say Think, was added to the band, as well as Evan Cranley (Stars), James Shaw, and Emily Haines (Metric). By the time their guitar-fueled sophomore effort, You Forgot It in People, was released in fall 2002, Broken Social Scene had become an 11-piece collective. Jason Collett, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff and Leslie Feist fulfilled the band’s bombastic, orchestrated sound and critics praised the album as the best thing to come out of Canada since Terrence and Phillip. Plans were made for a stateside release on Arts & Crafts the following summer. A surprise, however, changed those plans in spring, 2003, when Broken Social Scene won a Juno (Canada’s equivalent of a Grammy) for Alternative Album of the Year. In order to maintain praise from critics, the band issued their first ever b-siders & rarities collection, Bee Hives, in spring 2004. For the band’s 2005 self-titled studio album, Broken Social Scene once again joined producer David Newfeld. Additional contributions by select members of Stars, Metric, Do Make Say Think, Raising the Fawn, the Dears and others contributed to the ambitious sounds of Broken Social Scene. While the vibe of Broken Social Scene is communal, there’s more to it than art house kitsch. “There are certainly some readers in the band, but while you might expect the bus to be littered with books, it’s actually quite a party,” Drew said. So don’t be surprised to see more than just music coming form the members of Broken Social Scene at their shows. What you can expect might be closer to a happening, and not in the corny beatnik existence and experience of the word, but a show that will never be able to be replicated — an experience unique unto itself. Much like a sexual experience. “Sexuality is a wonderful topic to immerse yourself into,” Drew said. It has been the core of their very existence, the preoccupations of their lyrics. At the same time, their instrumental tracks possess their own melodic sensuality. There is a primal sexuality that preoccupies their sound, a certain attention paid to the sensuality that comes when two (or more individuals) play suck face, flop body and grab ass (not necessarily in that order). Most songs echo intense overt sexual overtones and ride a lyrical Freudian slip and slide of sexual discomfort. With tunes such as “Handjobs for the Holidays,” “Lover’s Spit” and “I’m Still Your Fag,” the tongue-in-cheek members of Broken Social Scene are wishing, through musical vignettes of tragi-comic greeting cards, that the world will simply lighten up. Back in the tour bus, somewhere between Ontario and Toronto, Spearin considers the first few shows of the tour as a springboard and breeding ground. “We’re on home turf,” he said. For Spearin, touring offers its own set of challenges. “During the recording process, we go in in pairs or small groups. We never really see the whole group. So when we tour, we rehearse and all of us get together and try to figure out how to play the new songs. We write in the studio, then learn how to play the songs live. It’s kind of a backwards thing,” he said. But recording the latest disc brought with it a certain amount of freedom, even with all the possibility of artistic egos floundering within the confines of studio space. “We know how to compromise without the competition,” Spearin said. He did acknowledge, with a wry laugh, a certain underhanded Darwinistic approach to band members trying to get their favorite tracks on the record. “We campaign for a song and sometimes you have to get a team together to do that. Ultimately, though, the album is a true collective of where we are now.” Broken Social Scene :: Boulder Theater :: November 1 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Bright Eyes • Franz Ferdinand • The Arcade Fire

American Music Club

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:10:01 +0000

American Music Club comes back after 1O years with love songs for patriots

American Music Club :: Supporting Spoon :: Boulder Theater :: November 12

By Timothy Dwenger

“It was the same old story you hear every day; struggles with a major label, disagreements with management, and conversations with accountants about money you don’t have. The only way we could free ourselves was to break-up,” Tim Mooney, the drummer for American Music Club (AMC), told The Marquee from his home in San Francisco. AMC had spent 12 years being different and innovative in a haze of ’80s synth pop. They had been acclaimed by the likes of Rolling Stone and landed a major record deal with the Warner Brother’s subsidiary, Reprise. Yet in 1995, shortly after the release of San Francisco, they found themselves caught between creative decisions and business decisions. A place no true musician wants to be. The break-up was amicable; however it was still a break-up. The band members went about their lives and pursued their own projects and interests. Mark Eitzel (vocals, guitar, songwriter) released a prolific 10 albums and toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, keeping the extensive AMC fan base placated as they collectively held their breath for a reunion. In the summer of 2003, the members of AMC answered their fans’ prayers and decided it was time to test their own mettle. “There had been this talk going around between different combinations of the members for a couple of years. Starting with ‘What if we got back together and did some shows?’ and then ‘What if we made a record?’ It was that kind of thing,” Mooney said. “After a while, I just thought, ‘darn it I’m gonna call Eitzel up and see what he says.” The conversation went very well and Eitzel agreed to come out to San Francisco from his temporary home in Chicago to see if the dynamic was right to make music together again. “Since I have the studio, we could all just go there and record whatever we did,” Mooney remembered. They had the rare opportunity to record with no particular direction in mind. They weren’t racking up a bill for studio time or having to pay an engineer to man the board. They could just lay down tracks and see what happened. It didn’t take long till they realized that the music they were creating was worthy of being released as an American Music Club record. The result of those sessions was the first album of new material from AMC in 10 years, Love Songs for Patriots. The album envelops the listener in an intricately produced musical fabric that could be majestically reminiscent of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound if the band let their hair down a little. As it is, the album’s densely layered songs add a brooding element that subtly compliments Eitzel’s understated voice and pensive lyrics. Eitzel has been the soul of AMC’s sound on each of their eight full length albums since their inception in 1983. In 1991, he was dubbed songwriter of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and he has received countless other accolades from media worldwide. Eitzel’s lyrics are the kind that make you want to sit closer the speaker. Lines like, “Day-to-day life is something we all know too much about,” strike a chord and make you think twice. The songs of AMC are truly poetry set to music and not in the way that most songwriters do it, in the way that Ezra Pound or Allen Ginsberg might have done it. Dare yourself to read his lyrics aloud, late at night, and marvel at where he might have gotten the inspiration. He sets himself apart by capturing thoughts others don’t think, or more importantly, don’t want to think. When Eitzel and AMC stop in at the Boulder Theater on November 12 to promote Love Songs, they will be opening for the Austin band, Spoon. The connections between the two bands run deeper than just this tour. When Spoon drummer Jim Eno decided to renovate the recording studio that is housed in his garage, he sold the console to a studio in San Francisco. That studio turned out to be Mooney’s own, Closer. When AMC tracked Love Songs for Patriots at Closer Studio, it was Eno’s board that was behind the glass. While both bands are decidedly in the indie rock camp, they evoke different feelings. Spoon is a brightly staccato rock and roll, while AMC mixes soaring, melancholy-laced melodies with profound songwriting. Mooney described an AMC show by saying, “At our shows there are people laughing, and there are people crying.” He went on to say, “I hope that the people who come to hear Spoon will like us as well. I think they will.” American Music Club :: Supporting Spoon :: Boulder Theater :: November 12 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Nick Cave • Eels • Bright Eyes

Tarantella

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:11:13 +0000

Denver’s Tarantella cinematically blends Old-West, Argentina, italy and Colorado

Tarantella :: CD Release party :: with Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots :: Bender’s Tavern :: Nov. 4

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Denver’s distinctive and edgy cow-town sound has emerged in more than a few of its seditious — and successful — underground bands in recent years. Bands like Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Maraca 5-0, 16 Horsepower and its side-projects Woven Hand and Lilium, have all helped to define Denver’s sound and put the region on the nation’s musical radar. Now the sound has found its way into the music of Tarantella, a band that not only embraces and expands musical facets of its predecessors, it also includes a few of their members. Tarantella’s sound, while incorporating hints of the region’s novel approach to traditional American music, is much more of an eclectic melting-pot of styles, moods and emotions than its contemporaries. The band’s roots and unique influences lie with lead singer and songwriter Kal Cahoone, who grew up in California and Colorado with an Italian grandmother and has lived in Argentina, where Calhoone married a well-known instrumentalist and composer doing “wild-West music” in Buenos Aires. She also teaches Spanish. Anyone who has heard Cahoone’s extraordinary, mesmerizing vocal work would find it difficult to believe she didn’t start singing until her late twenties. “I’ve always loved singing. I just didn’t have the guts to do anything,” she recently told The Marquee. Thanks to a night out at a karaoke bar, that all changed. Before she started to sing in public, however, she spent six months in Chile living on an ocean-side hill in complete silence. “No friends and no phone, no radio and no TV, no computer, no nothing. I literally found my voice. I started writing lyrics and poems and singing. It completely changed my life,” Cahoone said. While the musician claims the band has never had much of a plan to create a certain sound or type of music, her influences come through nevertheless. “Obviously, coming from where I did, there are influences from the Latin world,” she said. “I’m into boleros, ballads and romantic music in a sense, but I’m also into country and folklore.” Upon retuning to Colorado from South America, Cahoone had the idea to combine all of her influences, as well as try to capture the “sound that might come from this place,” despite having “no idea what the sound of Colorado might be.” Her attempt has yielded unique, surprisingly cinematic music that playfully draws a line between a hypnotizing, Latin sound and the soundtrack to an old, dusty Western, then crosses it repeatedly. Add in surreal, dramatic, emotive vocals not too unlike Siouxsie and the Banshees’s, and you get Tarantella. At least something reasonably close, considering the band ultimately falls into the unclassifiable category. If it helps to understand, the name refers to a dance characterized by the rapid whirling of couples, as well as taking some of the name of the tarantula, whose bite was allegedly cured only by frenetic dancing. The band that would ultimately assist Cahoone with this musical stew began to manifest at the turn of the Millennium when she took a tape to John Rumley after a gig with his band Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. At the time, she had just returned from Argentina. “I didn’t know him at all,” the Slim Cessna’s fan said. “ I just went up to him, gave him a tape and said if you like it, give me a call. I actually had no idea why I wanted to work with him.” Rumley ended up falling in love with the music and saw an opportunity to explore a musical side that hadn’t been available to him in his main gig. Although the group started as a duo with Cahoone and Rumley, the two soon decided to add violin player Kelly O’Dea after seeing her play with Maraca 5-0. The band grew again when bass fiddle player Dan Jon Grandbois and drummer Ordy Garrison, Rumley’s band mates from Slim Cessna’s, were added. Garrison has since left the band and been replaced by Chad Johnson. Rounding out the act as it appears on its upcoming release, is guitarist and revered recording engineer ‘Big Bad Bob’ Ferbrache, owner of Denver’s Absinthe Studios. “He was into the music, Cahoone said of the former 16 Horsepower member. Despite being on maternity leave from music this past year, Cahoone is ready to once again get her band on stage and start performing and celebrating the band’s latest self-titled release. “There are a lot of songs that we’ve been working on for a while, so it’s a pretty big deal for it finally to come out,” Cahoone said. The self-titled disc is being released on former Dead Kennedy’s front-man Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles Records, thanks to the band’s connections with label-mate Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. No matter the success of the CD, tour plans are up in the air. Cahoone has never aspired to tour and isn’t sure she’s ready to change her mind. “I’m not into seeing the world on a tour bus. I don’t want to go to towns for just one day. It would really kill my soul to do that,” she said. The musician did say she’d be into touring the U.S. sometime. “It would depend. If I could bring my baby, maybe,” she said. Tarantella :: CD Release party :: with Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots :: Bender’s Tavern :: Nov. 4 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Siouxsie and the Banshees • Slim Cessna’s Auto Club • 16 Horsepower

Arlo Guthrie

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:12:45 +0000

Guthrie boards ‘the City of New Orleans’ for Benefit Train Tour

Arlo Guthrie :: 40th Anniversary Alice’s Restaurant Massacree :: Boulder Theater :: Nov. 10

By Bruce Lish

“After the hurricane, nothing was running. The planes were down, the roads were out, it was the one form of transportation that was still available, that could get close, and Congress wanted to cut its funding! It just don’t make any sense,” said folk and rock legend Arlo Guthrie, talking about trains and hurricanes. You could almost hear him throw in the word, ‘man!’ at the end, as his voice climbed just a little and he reminded me of the first time I heard “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” or “The Motor-cycle [pronounced ‘sickle’] Song” as a boy. In the mid-1960s, Arlo Guthrie, son of folk legend Woodie Guthrie, was one of the voices of a generation in rebellion. His presence and his words and music at the original Woodstock festival and beyond are now also the stuff of legend ...“The New York Thruway is closed, man!” ... “A lot of freaks!” ... “Comin’ in to Los Angeleez, bringing in a couple of keys, don’t touch my bags won’t you please, Mr. Customs Man...” Like some of his early peers, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has had a productive and varied career since the days when crazy young folkies first began experimenting with electric guitars and drums. Visiting five continents in the last four decades as a performer — often times with his son Abe on keyboards — performing his music with symphony orchestras, starting his own record label, stints in acting, writing and publishing, fundraising to combat life-threatening diseases, and founding an educational/cultural/interfaith center in the old Trinity Church where, forty years ago, Alice of the now-famous “Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat” once lived: Arlo Guthrie has been living a blessed life as a professional musician. Through it all, he is still an activist at heart with the belief that he and his fellow musicians can change the world. His most recent crusade is help music venues devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “They [the people at Amtrak] are very excited,” said Guthrie in a recent phone conversation with The Marquee. “They were under siege from Congress to cut subsidies and funding. Amtrak was basically fighting for survival. It seemed like a perfect win-win thing,” he said, talking about plans for ‘Christmas on The City of New Orleans with Arlo Guthrie and Friends,’ a benefit train tour. Planning to depart Chicago on Dec. 5 on Amtrak’s “The City of New Orleans” and arriving in or near the ravaged Delta city on Dec. 17, Arlo and friends will be collecting and delivering a wide variety of music related gear to small clubs and music venues in New Orleans and throughout the Hurricane Katrina disaster area. The goal, to help them get back up and operating as quickly as possible. “I am determined to help restore all those little places and bring the music back as soon as possible,” he said. As times continue to change, the nearly-timeless 1967 holiday hippy ballad “Alice’s Restaurant” comes and goes from Guthrie’s repertoire. The song itself, however, has changed very little. “We didn’t have to do anything,” said Guthrie, “these are the same things we were doing 40 years ago ... Sometime after the war in Vietnam and the draft ended, we stopped playing it,” he continued. “Carter [President Jimmy] brought it back for a little while, and then we brought it back again in the early ‘90s, and in ’95.” ‘Alice’ is back again in 2005, he said, “because the times are so freakin’ similar! Once again, we’re back in a country politically divided, almost down the middle like in the Sixties, with an unpopular war overseas, and with controversy over the environment.” Guthrie noted that the impact of a song like “Alice’s Restaurant,” still vital today yet ground-breaking 40 years ago, resonates in comedians like Jon Stewart and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” which simply were not mass media options back in the day. He sees this type of political satire breaking through into the mainstream as positive evidence that the efforts of his generation may not have been in vain. Thanksgiving 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the actual events that took place in Stockbridge, Mass., that became the saga about the restaurant where “you can get anything you want,” about Officer Opie and the pile of garbage and the 8 x 10 color glossy photos with the circles and arrows and the paragraphs on the back of each one. In celebration of this milestone, Arlo has been touring with son Abe on keys and Gordon Titcomb on strings, along with modern old-timey band The Mammals. In recent years, Guthrie has cut back a bit on studio work and album releases to devote more time to other interests, while still playing nearly 120 shows a year. Fortunately, a fairly recent live performance was released this past summer on Guthrie’s Rising Son Records. Live in Sydney, a new double disc recorded in Australia in June of 2004, features endearing versions of some of his long-time favorites, along with a some new originals that have also been well received. Arlo Guthrie :: 40th Anniversary Alice’s Restaurant Massacree :: Boulder Theater :: Nov. 10 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Bob Dylan • Woodie Guthrie • Joan Baez

Umphrey’s McGee

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:13:32 +0000

Umphrey’s McGee becomes the new darlings of the jam scene

Umphrey’s McGee :: Fillmore Auditorium :: November 12

By Karen Schneider

Umphrey’s McGee may claim that they’re not a jam band, but they should be holding their heads high as they take on the role of the Darlings of the 21st Century jam scene — a role which, to a large extent, has little to do with their sound. “There’s a connotation of what a jam band sounds like,” Brendan Bayliss, guitarist and vocalist for Umphrey’s McGee, told The Marquee in a recent interview. “I think, to a certain degree, we don’t fall into that. I just don’t like someone to have a preconceived notion of what we sound like,” Bayliss said. The Chicago-based sextet (Brendan Bayliss – guitar and vocals, Jake Cinninger – guitar and vocals, Joel Cummins – keyboard and vocals, Andy Farag – percussion and groove box, Kris Myers – drums and vocals, and Ryan Stasik – bass) is definitely far from your ordinary ‘jam’ band. In fact, the band is not entirely satisfied with that label. With influences ranging from Miles Davis to Frank Zappa, there is not really any category the band comfortably falls into. A typical show can incorporate songs such as Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood”, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and the theme song to “Family Feud.” This band is here to have a good time and play music. With songs ranging from death metal to circus tunes, Umphrey’s McGee refuses to be categorized. “The music is so much more abstract, and you can’t really know what it sounds like until you hear it.” Bayliss said. Formed at Notre Dame University in November of 1997, the band started as just a group of friends hanging out and playing music together. Keyboardist Joel Cummins recruited Brendan Bayliss, bassist Ryan Stasik and drummer Mike Mirro to play a college recital. From there, the band started to play regularly and their first gig was in January, 1998. The name, Umphrey’s McGee, is taken directly from Bayliss’ second cousin, a lawyer in Southern Mississippi. “One thing we’ve done, from the beginning, was make friendship a priority and having fun a priority. If it becomes a job, it’s just not going to be the same and it’s just not going to go as far as it could, or be as good as it possibly could,” Bayliss said. The band soon recorded their first album, Greatest Hits Volume III with fake Billboard music chart positions for all the songs. Within a year, the band invited percussionist Andy Farag to join in on the fun, and recorded “Songs For Older Women.” Through the budding music scene in South Bend, Ind., Umphrey’s quickly became friends with the only other local jam-type band, Ali Baba’s Tahini. The two bands frequently played together and carved a niche that would develop into the prog/jam music scene for the town. In 2000, guitarist from Ali Baba’s Tahini, Jake Cinninger joined forces with Umphrey’s McGee and they recorded “One Fat Sucka” and Umphrey’s first studio album Local Band Does OK. In 2002, the band was in for some changes. Drummer Mike Mirro decided that he was leaving the music to pursue a career in medicine. A hard blow to everyone, Umphrey’s McGee had no other choice but to look for a new drummer. The first package the band opened was from drummer Kris Myers, who had a masters degree in jazz drumming and was playing with hard jazz fusion band Kick the Kat. For his part, Kris had no idea who the band was and had little awareness of the jam scene, but a friend recommended he audition. The band had almost effortlessly found their newest member, and Myers debuted with Umphrey’s on New Years Eve, 2002. The band released their first DVD in 2003, Live from the Lake Coast, filmed July 26th and 27th, 2002, from the Skyline Stage in Chicago. This was the band’s last collaboration with original drummer Mike Mirro. “In retrospect, there are some things that could have killed us, and I don’t think that we would be where we are without them.” Bayliss said. The newly restructured band went back into the studio and teamed up with SCI Fidelity Records to begin work on the vastly successful 2004 album, Anchor Drops. Released in June of 2004, Anchor Drops was critically acclaimed and earned Umphrey’s McGee recognition from both the jam community as well as the mainstream media. Rolling Stone slated Umphrey’s as a band to watch in their “hot issue” and the Chicago Music Awards bestowed the coveted Best Entertainer of the Year to the band. The Jammy’s presented the band with three nominations in 2005 (the most nominations for any band) and they walked away with the accolade Song of the Year for “In the Kitchen.” The past 18 months have seen a huge rise for Umphrey’s McGee. First up was the recording of the band’s sold out New Year’s Eve shows at the Riviera Theater in Chicago, for their second DVD. Wrapped Around Chicago; New Years at the Riv is a two disc set, released October 18, 2005. Umphrey’s then teamed up with Phil Lesh and Friends to play the Mardi Gras Spectacular in San Francisco. Subsequently, the band headed to Amsterdam to play the debut Jam in the Dam. From there, a late-night set at Tippitina’s during Jazz Fest and then on to the annual Bonnaroo music festival. They also were part of the 14-date Big Summer Classic, and they just played the inaugural Vegoose Festival this Halloween. Maybe a portion of that recent success can be attributed to the fact that the members of the band take a team-like approach to their music. With six different writers, and everyone’s ideas, the songwriting is a very ego-less and democratic process. “Everybody writes, someone will bring something to the table, and you’re allowed to kind of figure out what you think you could play best, instead of being told what to play,” Bayliss said. “The bulk of it is someone comes to the table with a skeleton or a whole song. We kind of come up with sections and try to figure out good ways to piece them together. It’s collaborative in that regard.” Umphrey’s McGee has never forgotten how they got to where they are today. The band is very grateful for their many fans, the people who made the band a success. “Having come from being fans on the other side of it, and now being on this side of it, you have to remember where you came from. We are just really appreciative and lucky to be able to do this for a living, and it’s because of the fans,” Bayliss said. The band is also very active in the community. They frequently raise money for various non-profit organizations such as the Mimi Fishman Foundation and Conscious Alliance. They have recently teamed up with Ropeadope’s RENEW ORLEANS effort to benefit the New Orleans musicians hurricane relief fund. The band has also held clothing drives for hurricane victims and donated thousands of dollars to hurricane relief. “Basically, anything we can do to do something positive. Either a specific show was a specific cause or an entire tour with a specific cause, we just add a little to the ticket price.” Bayliss said. “That way, at the end of every show you can say ‘thanks everybody, we raised this much money,’ and everyone knows that they contributed too.” Currently, Umphrey’s McGee is working on a new album due out in early 2006. “We initially recorded an electric album and an acoustic album,” Bayliss said. “We were going to put out the two, then we decided that there was enough stuff that was thematically linked that we could just put one album together.” Umphrey’s McGee plans to keep on touring and will be playing Jam Cruise early next year. The band also plans on returning to Europe for the second Jam in the Dam and also for their own European tour. Umphrey’s McGee is a relentless touring machine ... even if they are kind of a jam band. Umphrey’s McGee :: Fillmore Auditorium :: November 12 Spectate if you Gravitate: • String Cheese Incident • Particle • Disco Biscuits

Nashville Pussy

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:14:11 +0000

Nashville Pussy snatches up Denver’s own as new bassist

Nashville Pussy :: Bluebird Theatre :: November 12

By Lisa Oshlo

Crossing the country in a whiskey-filled delirium, white-trash junk rockers Nashville Pussy is exactly the kind of band that your parents warned you about. This is caustic co-ed rock and roll at its redneck primal peak. The band has recently kidnapped a bass player from Denver, released a new album, and scared the shit out of men, women and children across the U.S. and Canada, and they ain’t about to tap the brakes any time soon. Nashville Pussy is no stranger to the open road, having toured steadily since Blaine Cartwright and wife Ruyter Suys founded the band almost a decade ago. Jeremy Thompson has been their drummer for about as long, and the band recently recruited Denver’s own Karen Cuda (bass player for Hemi Cuda) to rollick on the low end. The band members have always been from different parts of the U.S. and Canada, so they began their career on the road and have stayed there pretty much ever since. However, after multiple lineup changes, Cartwright declares proudly that Nashville Pussy is “finally Yankee free.” The Marquee spoke recently with Suys, Cartwright and Cuda through a crackling cell phone from a small mountain town in Canada during a recent tour stop. “People go bonkers. They just go totally nuts,” said Suys referring to the last time the band rolled through tiny Nelson, B.C. “I think they were partying for, like, days before we got there.” That is likely due to the band’s reputation for live shows which are erotic, fast, and loud. “The goal is to get loaded and get laid,” said Suys. Cartwright and Thompson look like they were yanked straight from the cab of a semi, while the two vixens mix biker babe sensibilities with truck-stop chic — and intense talent. Suys has been playing the guitar since the age of eight, and Cuda has been playing bass for 13 years. Their live shows today aren’t quite as raunchy as in years past, when ex-bassist Corey Parks used to breathe fire, and Parks and Suys would make out on stage. “It’s not too raunchy,” said Cartwright. “The girls just look really good and they’re aggressive when they play, but it’s nothing really staged. I think it kind of gets exaggerated. It’s raunchy because the girls are pretty and they jump around and play well.” Regardless of the degree of raunch, Nashville Pussy remain the personification of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Suys met Cartwright when he was touring through Saskatchewan with his former band, 9 Pound Hammer. As he tells it, “I was playing and she was a girl that was hanging around, and we kind of hooked up. I heard her play guitar and we got married.” According to Suys, it was “a one-night stand gone wrong.” All kidding aside, it is their strong marital bond that has allowed the group to flourish through the experience of multiple record labels and rotating players. Tired of being bored by the rock bands they would go out to see, the couple founded Nashville Pussy in 1996 in order to create “a contemporary version of the music that made you do all that shit in high school,” said Suys. The band’s illustrious name comes from the introduction to Ted Nugent’s “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” on his Double Live Gonzo album. While Suys concedes that few in the audience grasp the reference, she is proud of having “a name with balls.” Nashville Pussy released their debut album, Let Them Eat Pussy, on the indie label Amphetamine Reptile in 1998. Despite a lack of radio airplay, the critical acclaim it received prompted Mercury to reissue the record (despite initially deeming it “too offensive to manufacture,” according to an industry source) and garnered them a slot opening for Marilyn Manson. Nashville Pussy was then nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the single “Fried Chicken and Coffee.” Ultimately, however, the award went to Metallica. “And where are they now?” joked Cartwright. “Really, that was just kind of a fluke,” he continues. “People who win Grammies have huge audiences anyway, so that makes it kind of a goofy award. But ... I still want one.” The band’s second album, High as Hell, was released in 2000 on TVT. Produced by The Fastbacks’ Kurt Block (who was also at the helm of their first disc), the album plays like the result of mixing drinks, drugs, porn, and southern rock. Southern rock is a big influence on the band, who currently reside in Atlanta and “constantly draw on its rich musical heritage,” said Suys. Citing legendary southern rockers such as the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Suys continued, “those are good roots to grow on.” Nashville Pussy released their third album, Say Something Nasty, on Artemis Records in 2002. The year 2000 was one of growth for the band in many ways. They played to large crowds on the Tattoo the Earth Tour, alongside bands like Slipknot and Slayer. They also opened some dates for both The Misfits and Suicidal Tendencies. In addition, Lynyrd Skynyrd invited them to open a special show in Nashville, Tenn. However, 2000 was also the year that saw the seismic shift that was the departure of longtime bassist Corey Parks. Various artists filled the position until Cartwright was introduced to Karen (Exley) Cuda by friends in a band called the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs. Cuda was half of the Denver band Hemi Cuda, who have been described as “the alpha bitches of gritty girl rock.” Fortunately for Nashville Pussy fans, Hemi Cuda had taken a break so that the other half of the band, Anika Zappe, could begin the journey that is motherhood. Hemi Cuda had recently completed a new album, but the break was perfect timing, said Cuda. “Super smooth.” It’s been just about a year, and Karen has adjusted to life as one of the Pussies. “It’s awesome,” she says. “This will be my first time in Denver with this band, so it should really be a blast.” While she and Suys often end up catering to the core of men’s fantasies during performances, Nashville Pussy, she said, is practically a feminist band. They clearly embody feminine strength — to put it simply, these girls kick ass. Both Suys and Cuda cop to the fact that most men in the audience are simultaneously fascinated with and intimidated by them. “But it was probably that way even before there was a band,” laughs Ruys. “[Hemi Cuda] was really good,” said Cartwright, “and Karen just fit in perfectly.” By fit in perfectly, Cartwright means that she is a wickedly beautiful woman that simply shreds on the bass guitar, and doesn’t mind gettin’ sleazy for the party. Cuda worked with the existing band on their latest album, this year’s Get Some. Their first for Spitfire Records, it is at once both fresh and driving. The songs have more of a metal edge than Say Something Nasty, and there is less of the punk component present on their debut album. Produced by Daniel Rey (Ramones, White Zombie, Masters of Reality), Get Some sounds more polished than their previous efforts, but without losing that good-ol’-boy rock and roll feel. Cuda seems to inject the band with a shot of adrenaline, as their new material is both faster and harder than their previous releases. It also shows Cartwright as a crackerjack songwriter, with an exceedingly clever wit and a voice reminiscent of Alice Cooper (although physically, Cartwright bears a striking resemblance to Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmeister). In addition to deft composition and thrashing beats, there is also a fair amount of funk and groove consciousness. There’s a standout version of Ike and Tina Turner’s funk classic “Nutbush City Limits,” perfectly suited to a band that has that married-couple thing going on. In the past couple of years, Nashville Pussy have been really putting out. Two songs from the disc High as Hell, “Wrong Side of a Gun” and “Shoot First and Run Like Hell,” were featured in the movie Super Troopers. The band was also asked to do a cover of Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ with Disaster” for the upcoming movie Run Ronnie Run. In addition to being featured on the soundtrack, Blaine Cartwright makes his acting debut in the movie, playing Duke who, you guessed it, kicks ass and takes names. The band recorded “The Kids are Back” for a Twisted Sister tribute album, “Age of Pamparius” for the Turbonegro tribute album, and a grinding version of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” for the Free the West Memphis Three benefit album. The really amazing part is that they have accomplished all of this while living their “Southern Discomfort” lifestyle, a lifestyle which Cartwright likens to “AC/DC making out with Motorhead while Lynyrd Skynyrd watches.” Nashville Pussy :: Bluebird Theatre :: November 12 Spectate if you Gravitate: • Supersuckers • Motorhead • Babes in Toyland

This Month in music history

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 06:01:01 +0000

December 1

• 1983: Neil Young is sued by Geffen Records for producing albums that are “not commercial”

• 1982: Michael Jackson releases Thriller

December 2

• 1970: Jay-Z is born Shawn Corey Carter

December 3

• 1979: Eleven Who fans are trampled to death rushing to gain admittance for general seating at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum

• 1948: Ozzy Osbourne is born John Michael Osbourne

December 4

• 1993: Frank Zappa dies of pancreatic cancer

December 6

• 1988: Roy Orbison dies of a heart attack

• 1969: Infamous stabbing by the Hell’s Angels at Altamont occurs during Rolling Stones show

• 1956: Randy Rhodes is born

December 7

• 1949: Tom Waits in born

• 1942: Singer/songwriter Harry Chapin is born

December 8

• 1980: John Lennon is assassinated in front of his NYC apartment building

• 1947: Gregg Allman is born

• 1943: Jim Morrison is born

December 10

• 1967: Otis Redding dies in a plane crash

December 11

• 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis secretly weds his third wife, third cousin Myra Gale Brown

December 12

• 1943: Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band is born

• 1915: Frank Sinatra is born

December 13

• 1948: Ted Nugent is born

December 18

• 1943: Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is born

December 22

• 1946: Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick is born

December 23

• 1966: Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is born

December 25

• 1946: Jimmy Buffett is born

December 26

• 1940: Legendary music producer and “Wall of Sound” creator Phil Spector is born

December 30

• 1999: George Harrison is stabbed several times after he and his wife, Olivia, are attacked by an intruder in their home outside London

• 1928: Bo Diddley is born

December 31

• 1984: Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his left arm in a car accident in England

• 1943: John Denver is born John Henry Deutschendorf

CD Reviews

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:02:46 +0000

Wilco’s Kicking Television - Live in Chicago superb, despite being as fulfilling as internet porn

Wilco

Kicking Television - Live in Chicago

Nonesuch Records

4 out of 5

It took a while for one of the world’s best live bands to release a live CD, but with the mid-November release of Wilco’s Kicking Television - Live in Chicago, the wait is finally over — and it was certainly worth it.

Kicking Television was recorded in Wilco’s home town of Chicago at the Vic Theatre. The two disc set captures perfectly the aura of live Wilco — its melancholy ballads and raucous rock.

2005 has been a very good year for Wilco.

Their 2004 album A ghost is born earned the band two Grammy Awards. Two of their earlier albums, 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and 1996’s Being There, as well as the DVD I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, have been certified gold. And it seems as if people finally ‘get’ them. The international press has heralded Wilco as “the world’s most exciting live rock band” that is “capable of almost anything.”

In the decade since frontman Jeff Tweedy assembled Wilco out of the ashes of the demise of Uncle Tupelo, the band has released seven albums (including two collaborations with the estate of Woody Guthrie). There has been a well documented departure from one large record company and a well documented arrival at a new one. There have been books, documentaries and the aforementioned Grammys and gold records, not to mention the personnel changes, the drugs, the depression, a near collapse and triumphant rehabilitation.

While Wilco has and always will remain Tweedy’s band, the singer said that it is because of the men sharing the stage with him that Wilco is doing so well. “It’s really the best it’s ever felt,” Tweedy told the press earlier this year. “I would say at this point, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a band that felt this connected and unified with the collective vision.”

The song selection for Kicking Television was taken from their four-night run in Chicago and highlights tracks from nearly the entire Wilco catalog.

It also subtly shows Tweedy’s renewed stage presence and damn near giddiness in front of a crowd. Halfway through the first disc he says to the crowd, “Let’s get this party started! (laughs) With this mid-tempo rock.”

Anyone who has seen Wilco live knows that the band can turn a corner from countrified rock to over-the-top outlandish super-symphonic sounds in a heartbeat and Kicking Television demonstrates this perfectly. In fact, it does so in the first few tracks on disc one.

After Tweedy and company wrap up a sing-along ending of “Misunderstood” that leaves the audience with “nothing/nothing/nothing/nothing,” they launch into “Company In My Back,” followed by “The Late Greats.” Throughout the relatively mellow “Hell is Chrome,” the band begins to hint at the sonic overload to come, before unleashing it with full fervor on “Handshake Drugs” and “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.”

Never one to leave you with only one cathartic release, Wilco builds again near the end of disc two with the sublime and orgasmic “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” before heading into a slightly spacey, but incredibly heart-felt sendoff in the form of a cover of Charlie Wright’s “Comment.”

While the disc is superb, there are two areas in which it fails. One is nit-picky, the other it will never overcome.

The nit-picky one is that whoever labeled the masters titled both the first and second disc exactly the same (instead of labeling it ‘disc one’ and ‘disc two’), so when placed on a computer or portable device, the album does not play in order. That leaves the astute listener to either flip through the songs constantly to get the proper order or leaves them feeling a lack of continuity for the building of climaxes for which Wilco is famous. (Listeners can also re-title the album so that it plays in order, so as said before, this is nit-picky).

The larger problem is that this is simply just two plastic discs. This is not live Wilco, it’s only a recording of them playing live and thus it’s a bit like internet porn. It’s o.k. to look at. It’ll do the job, but in the end you know it’s not real.

Kicking Television will make you want to see Wilco live ... right now ... right in your living room, and unless you have some major, major pull, that’s never going to happen.

— Brian F. Johnson

Kravitz’s limited edition is limited in scope

Lenny Kravitz

Greatest Hits: Limited Tour Edition

Virgin Records

3 out of 5

It’s a brilliant marketing idea: Take an already successful album, in this case one that has gone eight times platinum, and re-release it with a bit more for the really eager fan, and do it all right before Christmas.

That’s exactly what Lenny Kravitz has done here with Greatest Hits: Limited Tour Edition.

Featuring 17 songs from Kravitz’s vast catalog, plus two new additions that weren’t in the original Greatest Hits release, Kravitz once again asks his fans if they will go his way.

The special part of this release are the six videos that are packaged on disc two, including “American Woman,” “Always on the Run,” and “Fly Away.”

Featuring Kravitz’s trademark combination of funk and rock and roll, the four-time Grammy Award winner, who recently played what is being billed as the longest tour of South America by an international artist ever, goes over his repertoire from “Let Love Rule” to his latest tracks, “Where are we Runnin?” and “Dig In,” on the new release.

It’s all well done. There’s nothing that can be picked apart about the collection, but ... and you knew a ‘but’ was coming ... the package seems to be nothing more than a self-serving attempt to garner attention for the current arena tour with Aerosmith, which kicked off in October.

It’s also so full of photos of Kravitz that it could double as a wall calendar. Anyone who loves Kravitz’s looks as much as his music will be in heaven.

— Forbes Winter

New Marley Collection features a ‘new’ track with help from Eric Clapton

Bob Marley

Africa Unite: The Singles Collection

Island/Tuff Gong/UMe

4 out of 5

Bob Marley would have turned 60 this year. Sixty!

Had the King of Reggae lived this long, this album would not be special. But Africa Unite: The Singles Collection comes off as one of the best Marley releases in years for one simple fact, it contains a new track.

“Slogans” is the first officially released Marley song in more than a decade. The track, a mellow tune that seemingly simultaneously channels “No Woman, No Cry,” “Could You Be Loved” and “Three Little Birds,” is believed to have been recorded in a bedroom in Miami in 1979. The tapes were kept at Marley’s mother’s house, and last year sons Stephen and Ziggy revisited the acoustic demo. They then overdubbed the tracks with other instruments, including guitar by Slowhand himself, Eric Clapton.

Stephen and Ziggy produced the track specifically for this release.

Another “new” recording is a remix of “Africa Unite,” which originally appeared on 1979’s Survival. The track, as presented on this collection, was remixed by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who was personally invited to create the remix by Marley’s wife, Rita.

Famed U.K. producer Ashley Beedle handles another remix on the CD, tackling “Standup Jamrock,” a melding of “Get Up, Stand Up” and “Welcome to Jamrock.”

The album also features 17 vintage classic tracks spanning Marley’s career from his early sides to his Island Record hits. It’s a great present to Mr. Marley for his birthday.

— Taylor Johnson

Grateful Dead revisit the hallowed 1969 Fillmore West shows that gave birth to Live/Dead

Grateful Dead

Fillmore West 1969

Rhino Records

4 out of 5

One of the greatest concert albums ever recorded, the Grateful Dead’s landmark 1969 Live/Dead immortalized the band at its cosmic zenith performing on its home turf in San Francisco.

The only flaw with Live/Dead was that it was too short. It failed to capture the complete feel of those shows. But with Fillmore West 1969, a three-disc set which includes more than three previously unreleased hours of those performances, some of the very best from the Dead's legendary stand at the fabled Fillmore have been reborn.

Live/Dead was the first successful 16-track live recording in music history, at a time when two track was the standard and eight track was considered state-of-the-art. Fillmore West 1969 is mixed from those original 16-track master tapes and contains 19 iconic Dead songs presented in pristine HDCD.

Recorded between February 27 and March 2, 1969, Fillmore West 1969 distills the essential moments from all four Fillmore concerts, including masterful moments from Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, during a rare snippet of The Dead’s history when Tom Constanten handled the keyboard position.

From “Good Morning Little School Girl” to “We Bid You Goodnight” (yes, the same “We Bid You Goodnight” that was cut short on Live/Dead), this glimpse into early-era Dead is right-on.

Never one to go short on packaging, Fillmore West 1969 includes a 72-page hardbound booklet filled with nearly 100 rare photos and extensive liner notes, including a new essay by longtime Dead publicist and biographer Dennis McNally.

— Brian F. Johnson

Jubal plays chameleon on self-titled release

Jubal

Cuezone Records

3 out of 5

Holy diversity, Batman.

In the first two tracks of the Nederland-based troubador Jubal’s self-titled release from Cuezone Records, Jubal goes from light reggae to classical guitar to happy-hippie Keller Williams-ish folk mixed with hip-hop.

Luckily, it doesn’t just stop there. Throughout the album Jubal shifts gears more than a truck driver on a mountain pass. Not only does he shift the gears, he takes on the persona of the genres he tackles. When listening to one of his reggae-based tracks, he is a reggae musician. When he takes on the blues, he is a bluesman.

Plain and simple, Jubal is Nederland’s chameleon and changes his color and form to fit in with a whole host of supporters from Johnny Jyemo to Ben Senterfit and Jarad Astin.

— Alex Samuel

Eric McFadden Trio re-releases Joy of Suffering

Eric McFadden Trio

Joy of Suffering

Terminus Records

4 out of 5

Like protagonists from some epic western novel, Eric McFadden Trio arrives on the contemporary music scene preceded by anxious rumors and curious anticipation.

A veteran of celebrated underground bands including Liar, the Eric McFadden Experience, Alien Lovestock and IZM, Eric McFadden’s sinister songs, vampiric vocals and flamenco-rock guitar improvisations have made him an icon along America’s western seaboard. Lest you dismiss the preceding as absurd hyperbole, consider the fact that McFadden has performed and recorded with the lordly likes of Bo Diddley, the late Joe Strummer, Widespread Panic, psychobilly rockers The Reverend Horton Heat, blues troubadour Keb Mo’, Rolling Stone Ron Wood, Primus kahuna Les Claypool and others.

With EMT’s re-release of Joy of Suffering, McFadden, along with bassist James Whiton and drummer Paulo Baldi, continues down a very dark path of rock and roll without going hardcore.

One reviewer said: “At times, their sound mimics elements of Tom Waits’ dreamy, sordid underworld with a harder edge, and at others even approaches a Motorhead heaviness. The all-acoustic band comes forward as a fully plugged-in Mack truck.”

In listening to the CD, it’s hard to remember that the band is, in fact, acoustic — which is really the coolest part about EMT. It’s hopefully a novelty that will not wear off, and with songs like “Put It Down,” “Bury Our Sins” and “Memories Can’t Wait,” it doesn’t appear that will happen anytime soon.

Eric McFadden Trio :: Trilogy Lounge :: December 15

56 Hope road fails to impress with Live CD

56 Hope Road

Once Isn Our Lives

Albino Deer Records

2 out of 5

At first cursory listen to 56 Hope Road’s new live release Once In Our Lives, the band falls flat, with tracks that easily lump the band into the deluge of jam-heavy funky acts and does little to set them apart.

Fortunately, the band rallies heavily, throwing in hip-hop and ska-based beats and comes back to show some true musicianship and some top-notch vocals that help the lackluster start.

However, just like a sports team that starts off soft in a game, sometimes even the best rallies do little to cancel out the early impression.

Recorded live at the incendiary 10,000 Lakes Festival this summer, it’s possible that a large problem with the CD could be the mix, which sometimes makes congas or other background instruments overpower the band’s lyrical prowess.

The true issue is that the recording does little to capture the band’s professionalism that is evident on their 2004 studio release Drop it All.

It’s great that 56 Hope Road played 10,000 Lakes, but a future live recording, professionally produced, might do more to showcase the band than this release, which comes across as a decent audience recording at best.

— Brian F. Johnson

KISS Rock the Nation Live a masterpiece for those who ‘get’ The world’s most theatrical band

KISS

Rock The Nation Live

Image Entertainment

4 out of 5

There are a ton of people — including a self-serving bunch on the new DVD KISS Rock The Nation Live — who will tell you that KISS changed their lives.

I am not one of those people.

Quite honestly, I’d like to be. I’d love to be able to say that I ‘get it,’ but I don’t. I never have and I don’t think I ever will.

During the past three decades KISS have been the supreme live act, grossing $300 million in ticket sales in the last four years alone. They have sold more than 80 million records worldwide and were awarded 28 gold and 31 platinum albums.

I completely respect KISS’s longevity. I whole-heartedly applaud their numbers (in both record sales and live performance grosses). I admire many of their songs. And I give them credit that they can place such a high level of attention on theatrics in their shows, while still playing some great tunes. But, after three decades, the novelty that once made them such an interesting study has worn off and their present-day performances and songs seem trite and formulaic.

That being said, long-time fans of KISS will love this new DVD, as it follows the band on their 2004 Rock the Nation Tour.

All of the band’s hits are there, as are views into the band’s soundchecks, photo sessions, life on the road (or in the air, on their KISS jet) and even the infamous dressing room.

One of the cooler features on the DVD is the KISS Power Vision that allows viewers to switch from band member to band member throughout select tracks.

It’s a really, really cool DVD, despite showing a frighteningly old-looking Paul Stanley sans makeup — but I, unfortunately, still don’t get it.

— Brian F. Johnson

From the barstool of the publisher

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:03:46 +0000

It’s always odd to write a column that recaps a year when that year has yet to end, but this issue is our last one of 2005 and so we must, despite what the calendar says at the time of this writing.

Once again, The Marquee has assembled a list of industry insiders to pick their Shows of the Year for this annual end-of-the-year feature.

The rules are the same as in years past. The show had to have taken place during 2005 (or on the 2004-2005 New Year) and it is required that the show be one which occurred on the Front Range — no votes for Bonnaroo, Vegoose or anything out of our territory allowed.

This year is one of the most diverse listings we’ve seen and it’s no wonder. We are blessed with one of the best music scenes around. According to our counts from our calendar section, there were over 10,000 musical performances between Colorado Springs and Fort Collins this year. That’s an average of almost 30 shows a day! Where else does that happen? I bet even New York City would be impressed by those numbers.

More than just the numbers, the diversity is the truly amazing aspect. From small barrooms and coffee shops to our illustrious Red Rocks Amphitheatre, musicians ranging from solo artists to huge ensembles can be found every night.

Here’s what we and some of our friends thought were the highlights of 2005:

Brian F. Johnson

Editor/Co-Publisher

Marquee Magazine

Wilco — Red Rocks Amphitheatre — June 17, 2005

The masters of melancholy rock and roll have been dubbed by the international press as “the world’s most exciting live rock band.” It’s no wonder then that the best band, in the best venue, was such an epic night. It seemed an odd combination to have The Roots opening for Wilco, but the party vibe from the opening set carried over flawlessly into Wilco’s time on the stage. They hit the ground running and had the crowd eating out of their hands. With songs from their entire catalog, Wilco did what it does best — building to climaxes and giving fans multiple orgasmic releases time and time again. It was truly one of the finest nights I’ve ever spent at Red Rocks.

Daniel J. Cohen

Co-Publisher

Marquee Magazine

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band — Fox Theatre — March 8, 2005

Want some free advice? Never leave a show early. If I had hastily bolted from the Fox in March, I would have missed Kenny Wayne Shepherd resurrect the original masters of “Voodoo Chile,” Jimi and Stevie Ray. KWS and his band were decent, but not life-altering. I was glad I checked out a set and had thoughts about an early exit. Luckily, my musical conscience prevailed. As the encore of “Voodoo Chile” revved up, the band members started walking off the stage one by one – leaving a classic power trio of drummer, bassist and Kenny Wayne with his Strat. I was blown away by that guitar for the next 20 minutes. I never saw Jimi or Stevie Ray in person, but now I can claim I saw Kenny Wayne live.

John Caprio

General Manager

Fox Theatre

James Blunt — Formerly the Player’s Club — Aug. 11, 2005

One of the most amazing voices out there - had the place in complete and mesmerized silence. Anyone who bumps Coldplay off the European charts at #1 during the time of this performance, gets my nod. Seeing him at the Player's Club building was a surreal experience. A magical performance totally under the radar.

Matt Fecher

Executive Director

South Park Music Festival

Brian Jonestown Massacre —Larimer Lounge — July 20, 2005

Anton Newcombe is not a movie — he’s the real deal, the last of the great rock and rollers. Between baiting the audience and executing perfectly chaotic versions of their staple songs, it was everything the audience could have asked for. Despite their new following on the heels of their recent movie stardom, BJM continues to prove that they're still absolutely crucial. Believe the hype.

Liz Forster

Studio Manager

Immersive Studios

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s — South Park Music Festival — Sept. 8-10, 2005

My pick for this year's best show traveled from the Midwest to the South Park Music Festival in Fairplay. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s played all three days of the Festival with performances ranging from a solo acoustic set by the band’s leader, Richard Edwards, with subtle and perfect duet harmonies sung with keyboardist Emily Watkins, to a full-fledged attack by this eclectic and really groovy nine piece ultra-modern folk-rock outfit. I hear rumors they have inked a deal and it’s no surprise, they really are a great band. Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes should take himself a bit less seriously with these guys living in his backyard.

Frank Pestello

Account Executive

Celebrity Access

Seether/Dark New Day — Ogden Theater — Sept. 13, 2005

I would have to say that the soldout crowd and the amazing “vibe” and energy that the show produced was off the hook. Dark New Day really got the crowd ready for Seether and the sound was great. Seether’s set involved the “new” hits along with an awesome blend of songs off their first album. The bands were also very relaxed and cool, Dark New Day came into the crowd after their set and hung out with everyone for the Seether set.

And then when Seether finished up, they came out to sign autographs and see their fans. To me, putting your fans first so you can continue to have that base and create new fans, truly shows musicians working for the respect and support of their fans.

Peter Olivo

CEO

Bill Bass Concerts, Inc.

My Morning Jacket — Fox Theatre — Oct. 31, 2005

My pick for Show of the Year would have to be My Morning Jacket at the Fox on Halloween. From the minute they came out dressed as The Ghostbusters, to the rocking encore and everything in between, the show was one of the most intense, visually and sonically pleasing shows I have ever seen. It rivaled the Wilco and White Stripes Red Rocks shows in pure intensity, but something about the intimate confines of the Fox gave it the victory by a nose.

Scott Roche

Executive Producer

Coupe Studios Music Inc.

Rose Hill Drive — Fillmore Auditorium — Feb. 12, 2005

The 2005 Show of the Year for me has to be Rose Hill Drive and Gov’t Mule at The Fillmore in February. Rose Hill crushed in front of a house full of Mule fans and left with a whole mess of new fans. Seeing Daniel Sproul tearing up Gov't Mule’s encore with Warren Haynes was awesome.

Justin Levy

Director of Marketing

House of Blues Concerts

DEVO — Coors Amphitheatre — Aug. 23, 2005

Making their first Colorado appearance since the early ’80s, DEVO made their return a night to remember. Tight as hell, the boys in yellow jumpsuits and red energy domes delivered the goods. Their set spanned an under-appreciated career of “before their time” pop gems. A lot of the concert goers entered the venue not sure what to expect. The look on peoples faces as they left was priceless — pure satisfaction.

I was 11 when I bought my first Devo record. 23 years later I finally got a chance to see the band live. It was worth the wait.

Kekoa Lopez

Budweiser True Music

Anheuser-Busch of Denver

Staind — Fox Theatre — Aug. 23, 2005

Budweiser’s “One Night Stand” with Staind was a night of great music, great times and great beer, all for free. Budweiser hooked it up for 750 lucky fans who got an up-close-and-personal show in the venue’s intimate confines.

Mark Vann Foundation

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:04:43 +0000

 Mark Vann Foundation Benefit :: Boulder Theater :: Dec. 16

Let’s Pick!: Mark Vann Foundation hosts annual benefit at Boulder Theater

By Vince Herman

from Leftover Salmon

& Great American Taxi

Boy Howdy folks!

Through concerts, individual donations and merchandise sales, the Mark Vann Foundation — formed after the untimely passing of Leftover Salmon banjo extraordinaire Mark Vann — has been able to lend assistance to the Music Maker Relief Foundation, Conscious Alliance and the Tipitina’s Foundation. These organizations help needy musicians throughout the South and especially those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The Mark Vann Foundation has helped preserve hundreds of hours of musical history through the Steam Powered Preservation Society, and has helped disabled kids gain independence through The Beginning Steps Foundation in San Francisco. The Mark Vann Foundation has also been encouraging kids to develop careers in the arts through the Van Go Mobile Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas. This innovative, community-funded program helps kids get commissions for artwork placed in the community, from murals to benches. Kids at the workshop work on making a difference in their community and getting paid for it. Mark would have been particularly happy to encourage kids to make that leap of faith and pursue a career in the arts, having made that leap himself.

Van Go BIG!

The Mark Vann Foundation is also particularly excited about making music lessons affordable for kids wanting to work at it. By working with teachers in town, like John “Black Dog” Ridnell, they’re planting seeds for the next generation of pickers. Anyone knowing of a kid who could benefit from this aspect of the foundation’s work should let us know through www.markvannfoundation.org.

The Mark Vann Foundation will be hosting a wild picking party this month at the Boulder Theater to help the foundation do some of these good things in Mark’s name. Many of Boulder’s finest pickers will be there picking, singing and having a good time in order to do all of that.

The Shanti Groove boys will be going at it in that rock and roll bluegrass style with Jason “Mudflap” Flournoy on the five string. Flournoy is a real student of the BanJovi style which Mark pioneered and is carrying the torch well.

Arthur Lee Land’s innovative “bluegrassish” band will keep the place in boogie formation along with another banjo-less band, Great American Taxi. The Taxi is a pile of pickers devoted to bringing the hippies back to country music. Taxi keyboard player Chad Staehly has done all the legwork for this show and has been a major force on the Mark Vann Foundation Board.

Dr. and Nurse Banjo, Pete and Joan Wernick, will be on hand to put some banjo back into the night, along with the side project of Yonder Mountain String Band banjo picker Dave Johnston, who will bring his band Swingset.

More BANJO!

As is the tradition of these holiday picking parties, there is no telling who will show up to celebrate our community and do a little good, while remembering our fallen compadre. Remembering the past, planting seeds for the future and having a good time while doing it.

Let’s PICK!

Mark Vann Foundation Benefit :: Boulder Theater :: Dec. 16

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Leftover Salmon

• Shanti Groove

• Banjo jokes

Moonshine Still

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:05:50 +0000

Moonshine Still :: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: Dec.30 and 31

Moonshine still hits cervante’s for New Years shows with Shanti Groove

By Matt Marty

With 10 years under their belt, Moonshine Still is almost elderly in the jam scene and their latest album, [R]evolution, is being hailed as their greatest leap in maturity yet.

Founded in 1996 by bass player Ray Petren and lead singer/guitar player Scott Baston, Moonshine Still toured throughout the southeast and became a must-see live act in their early days.

Completing the lineup are drummer/vocalist Will Robinson, percussionist Bill Jarrett, guitarist David Shore, and keyboardist Trippe Wright.

The Georgia natives were able to get their name out through extensive touring and playing the festival circuit. The High Sierra Music Festival and Mid Atlantic Music Festival have been high-profile stops for the band and opportunities that they have not taken lightly. “The festival scene has allowed us to be seen by so many people that would have never heard of us before, we have been able to gain fans through people just walking by and hearing our set, and that is something that can only happen by playing festivals,” said Ray Petren in a recent interview with The Marquee.

In addition to the coveted festival gigs, Moonshine Still was taken under the wings by Front Range pioneers Leftover Salmon. Moonshine toured with Leftover and has since taken former Leftover frontman Vince Herman on the road with them. “Playing with Vince was a hell of a lot of fun; it was really cool to watch someone who has been doing it for so long,” said Petren. “I liked sitting back and seeing how they go about daily routines as a band. That’s what we were able to learn from Salmon.”

Moonshine Still’s latest studio release, [R]evolution, which came out last April, demonstrates a certain individuality about the band that sets them apart from their peers in the jam scene.

Produced by Robert Hannon, who is known for his work in engineering OutKast’s Speaker Boxxx/Love Below, Moonshine Still’s creative melodies and profound lyrics are illuminated in their most professional recording to date.

The legendary Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta was the home for the recording of [R]evolution, and Jarrett said that the experience allowed them to utilize tools that they have not had access to before. “In the studio, we as artists have access to more tools and technology to enable us to create a broader sound,” said Jarrett.

[R]evolution is an album that moves through catchy melodies into well- structured instrumental pieces and finishes with striking harmonies that solidify Moonshine Still as a band to watch out for. “It was good for us to get something out that sounded really good, and something that we could be proud of,” said Petren. “I believe this record will help us a lot in getting our name out.”

Moonshine Still :: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: Dec. 30 and 31

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Disco Biscuits

• Umphrey’s McGee

• String Cheese Incident

Hells Bells

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:06:35 +0000

 Hells Belles :: Cervante’s Masterpece Ballroom :: December 27 ::

AC/DC Tribute Hells Belles grows into one of the Front Range’s favorite acts

By Brandon Daviet

For rock musicians and fans alike, there is no practice more holy than paying proper homage to one’s favorite band. For many people the songs of the past serve as a sort of audio photograph, invoking memories of good times past or a loved one lost, and for most folks dusting off a classic album or attending a concert is tribute enough.

For others, like the girls in the all-female AC/DC tribute band Hells Belles, faithfully recreating the music of their idols is not only the ultimate tribute but also a demanding job. Hells Belles bassist Mandy Reed, who plays the part of AC/DC’s Cliff Williams, took a few minutes to talk to The Marquee about life in a tribute band.

“The band was actually the idea of our former guitarist Amy, she had the idea for the band for several years,” said Reed.

While tribute bands are nothing new, the prospect of a female AC/DC is a unique concept considering that most of AC/DC’s songs contain thinly veiled and overtly masculine sexual innuendos, something that is not lost on the girls in Hells Belles. “We grew up with AC/DC just like everyone, their music was at every high school party and there is no denying they are a great, blues-based rock and roll band that is sexy and smart,” said Reed. “I think a lot of their lyrics are geared toward women and I have been a fan of the band for a long, long time.”

While being in a tribute band is undoubtedly fun, there is also a bit of razzing that comes with the territory. Many music purists think that being in a tribute band is nowhere near as difficult as being in an original band. Add to that the commonly held misconception that AC/DC’s music is simple to play and you have a hard career to justify. “AC/DC’s music is far from simple, in fact being in Hells Belles has made all of us much better musicians,” said Reed. “AC/DC’s rhythm section is extremely solid and Phil Rudd’s drumming is like a metronome. Playing their music is a real challenge.”

Like many other tribute bands, the members of Hells Bells also play in other bands that perform original music, to satisfy their creative yearnings. “We all have our side projects, I have a punk band called Neutral Boy, and Adrian, who does Angus’s part, has Adrian and the Sickness,” said Reed. “We all have a lot of fun with both Hells Belles and our original bands.”

As any AC/DC fan understands, there are two distinct eras in the band’s history. There is the original band that was led by the enigmatic Bon Scott and there is the post-Back in Black line-up that became larger than life. Back in Black, the first AC/DC record to feature Brian Johnson on vocals, has become one of the best selling albums of all time. For Hells Belles, just like many AC/DC fans, both eras hold their own importance.

“Bon Scott was so sly and his lyrics were extremely clever, he is one of the greatest lyricists around, in my mind, and after his death Brian Johnson had to come around and fill these huge shoes,” said Reed. “What really amazes me about Brian Johnson is his continuing respect for Bon Scott, he was honored to be able to be in the band and help them continue on.”

For Hells Belles, continuing on is also the plan. The band has just recorded their first CD of AC/DC songs and have also just launched an online store to sell the album and the band’s other merchandise.

Hells Belles :: Cervante’s Masterpece Ballroom :: December 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• AC/DC

• Faster Pussycat

• Guns N’ Roses

Jeff Austin

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:07:11 +0000

:: Jeff Austin and Friends :: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: December 2

:: Aggie Theatre :: December 3

:: Fox Theatre :: December 4

:: Yonder Mountain String Band :: December 30 and 31 :: Fillmore Auditorium ::

Austin looks to take on nashville in 2OO6 while keeping yonder a priority

By Bruce Lish

“It’s pretty amazing. There’s really no other way you can put it. Big Head Todd had the room for three years running, I think. It was theirs as long as they wanted ... fuck man, to have the home town faithful....” Putting it mildly, mandolin player/vocalist Jeff Austin of Yonder Mountain String Band was quite pleased to be hosting this coming New Year’s Eve at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium, for the second year running. And with a line-up for Dec. 30 which includes the Neville Brothers, and for the 31st that features “Panama Red” Peter Rowan and former Leftover Salmon heroes Vince Herman and Drew Emmitt in a mini-reunion/collaboration, along with local favorites Uncle Earl — plus special guest fiddler extraordinaire, ‘Yonder Family’ member Darol Anger — Austin has a whole lot to be excited about.

“We wanted to have Pete [Rowan] out the last couple of years, and it finally worked out. And the thought came out about a Leftover Salmon reunion. We wanted to keep it in the family, keep it a home town kind of vibe,” said Austin, who spoke with The Marquee recently during a quick pleasure trip to The Big Apple.

In contrast to the upcoming decidedly homespun New Year’s run, Yonder’s continued growth, along with Austin’s personal journey, has brought the Colorado jamgrass scene in the form of these four occasionally clean-cut, fast-and-fun-pickin’ young men originally from the Chicago and Boston areas, to put down some new stakes in places like the music jungles of Los Angeles and Nashville.

“We’ve been a band for seven years now and I think it’s a natural development,” said Austin, commenting on Yonder’s recent decision to sign with L.A.-based Vanguard-Welk Records and record their upcoming yet-untitled studio album in the southern California confines of producer Tom Rothrock’s (Elliot Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, Beck) home studio. Vanguard-Welk is also the home of modern bluegrass favorites Alison Krauss and Nickel Creek. “Frogpad [Records, Yonder’s own record label] will still exist. It’s just going to step into the background for a little bit,” said Austin. “We could possibly do as much as three records with [Vanguard-Welk] if things go good ... It’s just giving us different ideas and different tools to work with,” he continued. “We wanted to get out of our element, and continue to experiment a little. I think it [the new album] sounds more like us.” He elaborated, “There’s some different instrumentation and effects like we’ve been playing around with lately, and bridging gaps between songs, more continuity. If it can get people talking about this kind of music more, to actually have it up in the [popular music] mix,” explained Austin, then the latest studio effort, he concluded, was well worth their departure from a more traditional acoustic setting.

“No matter what happens, the process [of making the record] was the huge thing,” said Austin, as he noted the memory among his keenest band moments of 2005. The new Yonder album should appear sometime around late spring or early summer.

Jeff Austin’s personal path also has led the extroverted singer down roads that, for now, seem to wind much further from the Colorado Front Range and Yonder’s tour schedule than in recent years. “I may make a slight exodus [to Nashville] and do some songwriting for a couple of years. It seemed like it might be a good idea,” he said, having already taken a cursory look into living accommodations in the ‘Bluegrass Capital’ area. “In no way would it affect anything with Yonder,” emphasized Austin, whose growing friendship with Nashville songwriters Shawn Camp, Todd Snider and others, has nonetheless planted the thought of leaving Colorado to mingle for a while in the Southeast music scene. But unlike other noted Boulder area bluegrass-Nashville-emigres Tim O’Brien and Noam Pikelny, Austin is quick to add, “But I’m sure the curse of Chief Niwot will bring me back here,” sounding confident that Colorado is still home. As for his commitment to the continued growth and success of Yonder Mountain String Band, Austin assures all that his Yonder roots are still firmly set.

In what has become a real nice pre-New Year’s tradition in its own right, Austin will again be hosting a string of Jeff Austin and Friends shows around the area in early December. Featuring special guests Shawn Camp and bassist Brynn Davies, the Jeff and Friends run will also spotlight local singer/songwriter Benny Galloway’s new band, The Wayward Sons, along with a slew of local friends. “It’s just another excuse to spend some time and pick with friends I don’t get enough time to spend with these days,” said Austin. A wide variety of some of the finest ‘picking pals’ in the Front Range are apt to appear onstage at most any time during a Jeff and Friends show.

:: Jeff Austin and Friends :: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: December 2

:: Aggie Theatre :: December 3

:: Fox Theatre :: December 4

:: Yonder Mountain String Band :: December 30 and 31 :: Fillmore Auditorium ::

Head for the Hills

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:08:26 +0000



Head for the Hills :: Table Mountain Inn :: December 29

Fort Collins born bluegrassers Head for the Hills, branch out across Front Range

By Kathy Foster-Patton

It’s not often that a band that hasn’t even made a CD fills up venues like the Mishawaka Amphitheatre, or shares the stage with such luminaries of bluegrass as Pete Wernick and David Grisman. But the college boys from Head For The Hills have the recipe that pulls in the crowds. By spicing up some bluegrass standards, which they mix in with their own homebrew, some hip-hop influence and sometimes even a clarinet, the band takes a different approach to the jamgrass scene.

The band members recently took time out from songwriting, performing and studying for finals to speak with The Marquee about their music and where school ranks in the mix of things.

Head For The Hills formed at Colorado State University in 2003 when the guys met jamming at their dorm and realized they had a common love for music and performing. Guitarist/banjoist Adam Kinghorn and mandolinist Mike Chappell hooked up with Matt Loewen on bass and Joe Lessard on fiddle to put together a band that refocuses bluegrass basics with the ingredients necessary for extended high energy dancing and jamming.

Every band member sings and writes music and each started playing an instrument at a young age. After an initial foray on the bass in fourth grade, Loewen switched to the clarinet, which he still uses for some selected songs. Mostly, though, he holds down the bass guitar spot or he takes on the low end with a portable upright. Chappell started his musical career on a 12-string guitar, switching off to the mandolin a few years ago, influenced by Kinghorn. Lessard is also a member of a hip-hop band, hence the “grass hop” tunes that are part of their repertoire.

Well on their way in the songwriting arena, Head For The Hills have original work posted on their website and are putting together the music for their debut CD. Kinghorn explained that a lot goes into producing the band’s songs. “My creative process involves being inspired and turning that inspiration into something unique that I create. I try to capture the essence or feel of other songs that inspire me and then I try to put my own spin on it,” he said. Chappell chimed in, “The creative process that we use is interesting. Usually how it works out is one of us comes forward with a concept — be it words, an interesting lick, chord structure, etc. After that we all basically add our two cents’ into the song writing process. It gets interesting because we all have very different creative likes and dislikes, so compromising is something that will happen when we have songs.”

At a recent show at the D-Note in Arvada, Head For The Hills teamed up with Dr. Banjo himself, Pete Wernick, and they played together for two sets to a standing room crowd. The band had not met Wernick prior to the show; introductions took place fifteen minutes before the first song. Kinghorn was intimidated enough that he left his own banjo at home. They changed their style, playing more traditional bluegrass such as the opener, “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” rather than cutting loose with their normal jamming routine. Loewen said that while it was cool just being on a stage with some of the greats they had the opportunity to encounter, the real treat is the education it provides. “I feel both honored and lucky that we’ve been able to share the stage with greats like David Grisman, and playing with Pete Wernick was both a privilege and a great learning experience,” said Loewen. Lessard agreed, “Supporting and performing with some of our strongest influences is both humbling and incredibly inspiring for us as growing musicians.”

In terms of the future, the guys recognize that it is open-ended. Loewen shares, “Looking forward, I want to become a better bluegrass band first — working on timing, melody in solos, stuff like that — and then never look back and see where things take us.” Chappell continued, “If you would have asked me this a year ago I would have predicted everything wrong! I do think I can say that in the future our goal is to get much better at playing bluegrass and focusing on musicianship.”

Balancing music and school is their ongoing challenge. “This is by far the most difficult thing. We basically practice every day when it works for us all. It just gets really hard during test weeks and playing a huge show on that weekend,” said Chappell. “Sometimes it gets stressful, but most of the time it is not too bad.” Loewen continued, “We are all dedicated to graduating, so school is something that is taken seriously.” Lessard laid out the bottom line. “I think we’re all the kind of people who are happy being way too busy. So it’s healthy.”

Head for the Hills :: Table Mountain Inn :: December 29

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• David Grisman

• Yonder Mountain String Band

• Shanti Groove

Centro-Matic

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:09:44 +0000


Centro-Matic :: supporting Drive-By Truckers :: Fox Theatre :: December 29, 30 and 31

Centro-matic’s Will Johnson juggles multiple projects and loves it all

By Tim Dwenger

“If we found the time,” sings Will Johnson on the opening line of Centro-Matic’s most recent release, the Flashes and Cables EP. His tenor voice is as recognizable as the passion that seeps through his lyrics. He may not have a highly trained or technically beautiful voice, but in the tradition of singers like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan, he sings from a place deep inside his soul in a style that can’t be taught.

Time is something Johnson has found little of recently and he generously shared some of it with The Marquee while in Dallas on a short run of shows in a high-profile solo opening slot for My Morning Jacket. With only three shows remaining on his run with “The Jackets,” Johnson is coming up on some well deserved time off. “It has been about four months straight on the road, with one band or another,” he said. “I got back from Europe at about 1 a.m. yesterday morning after doing about a month of shows over there with South San Gabriel [Johnson’s other band]. It is a matter of which mask to put on each night.”

Music fans in his home town of Austin, Texas have been very supportive of this prolific musician and all of his projects. Since parting ways with the Dallas-based band Funland in 1996, Johnson has released 19 albums or EPs; 13 with Centro-Matic, his rock and roll project, three with Centro-Matic’s mellower cousin, South San Gabriel, and three solo albums that feature nothing but his own guitar work and vocals.

As the lone songwriter for all three of these projects, it is clear that Johnson is one of a rare breed of writers that can fill notebooks upon notebooks with inspired, well thought-out lyrics, almost at will. He reflected on his prolific ability to write songs and said, “I understand and respect the idea that there may come a day where I can’t. So long as I’ve got it in me, and have that energy and spirit in my soul, I should respect that and get it out. There may come a day where I’m gonna go sell paint, or shoes, or sofa cushions. If that’s the case and I didn’t get it out when the getting was good, then I’ve only got myself to blame and there is nothing sadder than a great song that was never written.”

As one might expect, Johnson’s influences come in all shapes and sizes. As a well read man, Johnson is often moved by the prose he reads and those who write it. “I get inspired by writers as much as I do by musicians,” he said. “I am reading a book by Rick Bass right now and he has been a big inspiration to me. I love Southern writers like Faulkner and Welty and Larry Brown. When I first started writing, John Updike’s Rabbit Run books were a big influence on me,” he said.

In Centro-Matic, Johnson’s image-laden lyrics and warbling tenor are paired with a rollicking, barroom rock sound that is full of loud, fuzzy guitars and anchored by the tight rhythm section of drummer Matt Pence and bassist Mark Hedman. While simple, it is a sound that could be heard pouring through the cracks in the wall of a roadhouse in Texas just as easily as it could be heard in a ski town bar right here in Colorado. It is dirty, beer drinking rock and roll that meshes surprisingly well with Johnson’s passionate, sensitive songwriting.

Centro-Matic will showcase its sound in Boulder during a three night stand supporting Drive-By Truckers at the Fox Theatre leading up to and including New Year’s Eve. The two bands have grown to be friends over the last several years. “Patterson [Hood] would come out to our shows whenever we went through Athens,” Johnson remembered. “We would always hang with him at his house. The friendship kept rolling on to the point where we were doing a few shows together.”

This friendship between the bands has evolved over the years. Trucker Jason Isbell toured as a guitarist with Centro-Matic last year and Johnson promises some collaboration between the two bands over the course of their run at the Fox. “Usually toward the end of their set Scott [Danborn] and/or I will come up on stage and join them on anywhere from a handful of songs to, hell, a bunch. It really depends on the night. The doors are always open to each band and its members to come and join in.”

This year’s New Year festivities will not be the first time the bands have been together when the ball dropped. Johnson refers to New Year’s Eve with the Truckers as “a kind of a tradition we have between the two bands. It began with a run in 2002 in Chicago, and we have tried to keep it going. It is a very family style atmosphere when we hang out, it’s very cool, I really enjoy it. We are all looking forward to the run at the Fox, it should be a great time!”

Centro-Matic :: supporting Drive-By Truckers :: Fox Theatre :: December 29, 30 and 31

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Uncle Tupelo

• Neil Young

• The Wrens

Rasputina

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:10:32 +0000

:: Fox Theatre :: December 8

:: Bluebird Theater :: December 9

:: Black Sheep :: December 10

Rasputina: Historically influenced and constantly costumed cello rockers

By Cornelia Kane

What does the name of a lecherous 18th-century Siberian mystic who was said to have controlled Russia’s tsar with his dark powers have to do with a three-piece rock group that dresses in period clothing and rocks out with cellos? Quite a bit, if that band is Rasputina.

“I took the name Rasputin because of all the crazy things people associate with it, and then added an ‘a’ to feminize it, which made it even more disturbing," front-woman Melora Creager told The Marquee in a recent interview. The name began as the title of a song, but developed into the band name at the suggestion of original member Julia Kent.

Rasputina has gone through several line-up changes over the years since its inception in 1991, with Creager always remaining the core member. She has been playing the cello since the age of nine, but wrote her first song, a taste of what was to come later, called “The Ballad of Lizzie Borden,” when she was just six.

Rasputina’s current line-up came together three years ago when Creager met fellow cellist/vocalist Zoe Keating through the Internet Cellist Society. “I think what we have now is really something special,” said Creager of the new lineup, which currently consists of herself, Keating, and the top-hat wearing, bespectacled Jonathon TeBeest on drums.

“When I first started, I drew inspiration solely from classical music, coming from that background. Recently, I’ve been listening to more classic rock, trying to dissect the songs to figure out how and why they work,” said Creager, who quickly added that her favorite classic influences are Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. No real surprise there, as the bands all share a similar fondness for mysticism and the occult.

The new line-up functions well as a unit onstage probably because, although Creager is the main songwriter and sole lyricist, she always takes her ideas to the whole band to be worked on and filled in. While she does do some drum programming, she prefers TeBeest’s original drum compositions. And in Keating she has found her third, and perhaps best, female cellist collaborator or “second chair.”

Since 1991, the band has released four full-length albums in addition to numerous EP’s, 7’s, and compilations. In 1997, Marilyn Manson remixed tracks from their 1996 Columbia full-length, Thanks For The Ether, and released it as an EP called Transylvanian Regurgitations. Over the years they have shared the stage with the likes of Nirvana, Kula Shaker and Porno for Pyros.

Their latest, titled A Radical Recital, was released this year on the band’s own imprint, Filthy Bonnet, and was recorded live in 2004 (or, according to the album artwork, “1804”). Asked why they chose now to put out their first live release, Creager responded frankly, “To buy us some time to record. Also, the band has been around for a long time now, and we felt it was the right time in our career to put out a live record."

The live release is the perfect showcase for the witty, seemingly off-the-cuff, sometimes nonsensical remarks that Creager is famous for making to pass the time during breaks between songs. This tendency for making comments has sparked such interest that on-line one can now find an archive of them, searchable by keyword, that goes all the way back to 1996! Example: “Last song. This corset is killing me. It must be the uterine plug I'm wearing.” What?

“A lot of times I’ll have an idea in mind that I want to refine over the course of a tour. It won’t be the same thing every night, but I’ll change the words or structure of a sentence over and over to make it better,” Creager told The Marquee.

Creager’s voice sounds like a cross between PJ Harvey and Kim Deal; raw and throaty one moment and then all at once soft and sweet. Her edgy, tongue-in-cheek lyrics contain references to Howard Hughes and Hitler. The songs contain a lot of personality; they are dry, cynical, humorous, autobiographic and pithy. The effect of the band live is eerie. With their gothic look, including dreadlocks, corsets, hair extensions, medieval makeup and facial piercings, they certainly stand apart from their contemporaries. “Historically influenced and constantly costumed” is the band’s mantra, and they certainly look the part.

As the current tour winds down, Creager alerted The Marquee that the band will be headed into the studio to record an album of new material.

Rasputina :: Fox Theatre :: December 8

:: Bluebird Theater :: December 9

:: Black Sheep :: December 10

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Dresden Dolls

• PJ Harvey

• Matson Jones

311

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:11:40 +0000

311 :: Fox Theatre :: December 11 ::

311 releases don’t tread on me, dodges storms and gets comfy after 15 years

By Timothy Dwenger

For more than 15 years the band 311 has been at the forefront of the genre melding craze that has swept through the music industry.

While the band was in the midst of three consecutive sold-out shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco, The Marquee caught up with singer Nick Hexum.

311 was born out of two groups of friends who went to high school in Omaha. “Three of us went to one school and two went to another. Me, Tim (Mahoney – guitar) and Chad (Sexton – drums) were buds, and then we met P-nut (bass) and S.A. (Martinez – vocals) later on,” said Hexum.

After playing in various combinations, in bands such as Unity and Fish Hippos, 311 became official when they played their first gig under the moniker in 1990. Though Martinez wouldn’t become a full-time band member until 1992, he sat in often in the early days. “What was really good about developing in Omaha is that the people of the city were really open-minded about our crazy and unique blend of music. Putting rap with reggae with rock really wasn’t done at the time,” Hexum said.

In their first two years of existence 311 released three records on Hexum’s own What Have You Records label. “I started the label back in 1990 to put out our first three independent records. I was the sole employee, doing everything myself,” he said. The records made their way through the Omaha scene and 311 developed a significant local following.

In 1992, feeling they had outgrown the music scene in Omaha, the members of 311 packed up their lives and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a major label record deal. “One of our Omaha records was just kinda passed through a few different guys and eventually it got to an executive at Capricorn who loved it,” said Hexum. “He wanted to see us live before we signed so we decided to go back to Omaha, where we could draw a packed house. We chose Sokol Hall, where we had played our debut show opening for Fugazi in 1990. The showcase came off very well and they were sold on us.”

Music, 311’s major label debut, was released by Capricorn in February of 1993. About a year later Grassroots hit the shelves and the band began to see some national press. Things were about to explode. “The beginning was slow going for a while, as far as getting on the radio and that kind of thing. We just stuck to our guns and around 1995-1996 radio and MTV came around to us,” Hexum remembered.

Much of the credit for the explosion of 311 goes to the single for the song “Down,” off of the band’s third album, 311 (The Blue Album). The song went to #1 and the album was eventually certified triple platinum. The band had come a long way from its days in Omaha.

The most recent studio effort from 311 may remain focused on the sound that got them started, but also shows the great leaps in maturity that the band and its music have taken. Don’t Tread On Me has enough energy to make people believe it was released by a group in their early 20’s, however the lyrics are tackling much more mature issues. Hexum was proud to say, “The album is about freedom. Personal freedom. Freedom from any kind of oppression — political, religious, or social.”

Don’t Tread On Me comes more than 15 years after their first gig and Hexum is quick to acknowledge one of the secrets of the band’s longevity. Giving a nod to the many bands that broke at the same time and have long since disbanded, he mentioned that all five of them recognize the significance of keeping the important things in life in focus and getting some time apart. “I like to go down to The Keys and fish, and other people have their own different things that they like to do. However, we miss it pretty quick and want to get back to making music together. I feel like we stumbled on something really great with this line-up and I don’t see any end in sight. Right now I wouldn’t change a thing,” Hexum said.

To facilitate his love for fishing and relaxation, Hexum recently gave in to temptation and purchased an island get-away just off Key West. “It is a six-acre island with a 4,000 square foot luxury home on it. It is my absolute dream and I kinda stumbled upon it,” he explained.

Unfortunately, the retreat was ravaged by the recent hurricane that swept through the area just days before Hexum sat down to talk with The Marquee. “It took a pretty bad hit during Hurricane Wilma. It blasted my dock away, and this is such a heavy duty dock that it actually had a heliport on it,” he said. “The storm surge and the waves were just unbelievable. It blasted out some walls on the ground floor.”

In the meantime, Hexum is focusing on the current 311 tour and reviving What Have You Records. “It is a tough process, setting up a new label and breaking new artists, but I really believe in this music.”

The music he is talking about is that of his younger brother, Zack. “Zack is the only one on the label right now and I have kinda decided that if a guy as talented as him can’t make it then I really don’t want to be involved in that side of the business. I am busy enough with 311 and I have enough opportunities to remix and produce other artists,” Hexum said.

Zack Hexum opened for 311 on the first night of their stand at The Fillmore in San Francisco and was warmly received. “A lot of 311 fans have become Zack fans,” Hexum said. “He is a solo artist and his music incorporates elements of Coldplay and The Beatles with an indie feel.”

Fresh off a summer shed tour that brought them to the relatively intimate confines of Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 311 is scaling things down significantly on its current tour, going even more intimate with smaller club venue gigs. It has been nearly six years since the band played the Fox Theatre and Hexum is very excited to be getting back to the intense energy of smaller clubs that he says pushes his band to another level.

311 :: Fox Theatre :: December 11 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sublime

• Red Hot Chili Peppers

• Incubus

Dandy Warhols

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:12:06 +0000

The Dandy Warhols :: Gothic Theatre :: December 9

Lovely Outcasts, the Dandy Warhols take control with their Odditorium

By Emily H. Lanigan

If you weren’t That Kid, you at least knew That Kid.

In 1995, That Kid had on a worn out polo shirt, a moth-eaten cardigan, Vans boat shoes, huge sunglasses and was never without a backpack. That Kid was smart at school, but it only really showed in art class. He was obsessed with Andy Warhol’s Factory and he read magazines that nobody ever heard of.

Best of all, That Kid was tapped into the indie scene from San Diego to Berlin and knew all the best bands. That Kid adored The Dandy Warhols.

For 10 years, the Dandy Warhols have been playing music for That Kid. They realized That Kid’s dream and built their own version of The Factory in their hometown of Portland, Ore. and christened it The Odditorium.

This fall they released Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, the first album recorded at The Odditorium.

As the Dandy Warhols were gearing up to set out on their 20-date national tour, The Marquee caught up with the Dandy’s lead singer and creative force, Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

The Dandy Warhol’s have moved toward having almost complete control of their band, including newspaper ads, posters, videos and most importantly, music. “You get yourself hurt if you don’t do it,” said Taylor-Taylor, referring to the importance of creative control.

The professional part of The Odditorium was built as production space for all things Dandy related. “It’s our job being a band so The Odditorium is our place to work,” said Taylor-Taylor. The facility includes two recording studios, a library and a screening room.

Similar to The Factory, The Odditorium is part studio and part clubhouse. However, Taylor-Taylor likes to refer to it as “an artist think tank.” It also includes an indoor basketball court and a professional kitchen where they often have Portland chefs come in to cater dinner parties. “A lot of things happen there,” he said. “Sometimes there’s a barbeque on the deck, sometimes there’s actual jock behavior. There’s a lot of making art and little films and web design and making records.” The band often bring in their slacker friends and put them to work editing film or whatever needs to be done. “It has everything you need, cause we’re right on,” said Taylor-Taylor.

Odditorium or The Warlords of Mars, the debut Odditorium release, has a raw, stripped-down production value that contrasts with much of the current musical vista. “This album was about how real are the sounds. We didn’t do a lot of mixing, we left it real organic but the orchestration is very sophisticated,” said Taylor-Taylor.

The band’s previous album, Welcome to the Monkey House, was very slick and more akin to bands of right now such as The Killers and Franz Ferdinand. “I didn’t want to go that way (on Odditorium),” said Taylor-Taylor. “With the horns and all it would end up sounding more like Air and less like The Doors.”

In terms of moving away from polished production, Taylor-Taylor said that he thinks it’s time The Dandy Warhols establish themselves as a psychedelic stoner band. “This album is kind and sweet and darling sounding,” he said. “And by doing that, we have made it so that our audience comes back to who we want it to be.”

For Taylor-Taylor, the creative process includes the two essential elements of art and entertainment. “Art seeks to get the damn feeling across — it seeks no congratulations, it just needs to exist. But entertainment is where you really iron it out and you work on it until you believe 200,000 people will go buy this,” he said.

He continued to explain that like anything profound, music has a somewhat shapeless beginning. “At the moment of conception, it’s only emotional, it’s just this thing that happens and it’s what you feel,” said Taylor-Taylor. “Giving it shape and growing it and exploring how many different ways you can take this thing, that’s the intellectual part.”

Finding a balance between emotion and intellect is a challenge. “That’s the trick, because you have to focus on the feeling. You’ve got to balance your craft and the intellectual part. If it starts to feel too smarty and too produced, then you’ve got to lay off until you feel those feelings again,” he said.

Last year, the Dandy Warhols, along with Brian Jonestown Massacre, were featured in the documentary Dig!, which won the Grand Jury Best Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Many bands would welcome the notoriety that comes with being part of an award-winning documentary, however, Taylor-Taylor and his band were less than pleased with the final product. “We exploded when we saw it. We were so pissed off,” he said. “There’s nothing about music, nothing about what music is and what art is. It’s like a Jerry Springer episode.”

Neither The Dandy’s nor Brian Jonestown Massacre had anything to do with the creative process of the film. “You’ve got to realize that you need to control your trip. Brian Jonestown Massacre was featured for one year out of an eight year relationship,” said Taylor-Taylor, explaining the false chronology of the film and how he thinks that the filmmakers warped the story’s time-line in order to focus on a short-lived feud between the two bands.

“I would have made it about a lot more than when they got really jealous and we were being dicks when we got signed,” he continued. “I would like to see it more about art and music and more about what artists are like. I would like it to be a little more graceful with something more beautiful than people badmouthing my band for two hours.”

Fame, in general, has not been a companion of The Dandy Warhols. “When you have a big hit you’re surrounded by the worst people,” said Taylor-Taylor. “Fame and success attracts the worst fucking people.”

That is, in part, why The Dandy Warhols created The Odditorium. “I think the best thing you can do in this world is to surround yourself with soft, lovely outcasts, similar to us, our people and protect them from the kinds of people they need to be protected from,” he said. “We need people who are into French New Wave Cinema.”

That Kid worships Jean-Luc Godard and knows exactly what Taylor-Taylor is talking about. The Dandys feel that for the first time in a long time, with Odditorium or The Warlords of Mars, That Kid is back, dominating their audience. “I can get into a car with fans and go to the next bar,” he said. “Our fans are really lovely and thoughtful — not bitter — hopeful and smart and not sitting around and bitching,” he said. “I can sit on the edge of the stage after a show and my fans are like, ‘Let’s go take come cool pictures, make a stupid little weird film.”

Courtney Taylor-Taylor was That Kid too.

The Dandy Warhols :: Gothic Theatre :: December 9

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Velvet Underground

• The Ravonettes

• Radiohead

CD Reviews - January - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:49:13 +0000

Rick Rubin makes Neil Diamond an American icon all over again with brilliance on 12 songs

Neil Diamond

12 Songs

Columbia Records

5 out of 5

Who would have thought that a producer known for his work in hard rock and rap would help Neil Diamond, of all people, craft the best album he’s made in the last two decades, if not his entire career?

12 Songs shows the man who is known for sequins, cheesey love songs and the trite “rock” that some of our parents dig, as he once was — a brilliant songwriter who can make you cry, even when you’re smiling.

Much of the credit for Diamond’s return to his roots on 12 Songs can be credited to legendary producer Rick Rubin, who is best known for his work with hip-hop acts like LL Cool J and Jay Z, as well as hardcore acts like Slayer and System of a Down.

Rubin, according to a recent CNN article, who is a fan of classic Neil Diamond songs like “Solitary Man” and “Sweet Caroline,” had been calling Diamond for nearly a decade, but it wasn’t until three years ago that Diamond finally returned Rubin’s calls and agreed to meet with him.

That meeting may ultimately end up changing the way Diamond will some day be remembered.

The two sat down and listened to Diamond tracks of old, some that Diamond himself had not heard in years. Throughout those listening sessions one thing became clear — that Diamond, who had not played a guitar on one of his own records since the 1960s, had to pick one up again. That, Rubin was insistent about.

Rubin told CNN that Diamond sang differently when playing the guitar. “There was a purity to the vocal that was more natural and less of a performance. He was less able to think about what he was singing and it sounded better,” Rubin said.

The two reportedly fought over the issue while in the studio, but ultimately Diamond commented that Rubin had been right all along.

Diamond wrote in the liner notes of the album that to get the material for 12 Songs he locked himself in a studio with a “box of number 2 pencils, a big stack of my trusty yellow legal pads and a funky old three-quarter size Martin guitar with an E minor chord that could break your heart.”

“I told Rick that I’d call when I had some new things to play,” Diamond continues in the liner notes. He spent three months writing songs before sharing them with Rubin and when he finally did share the fruits of his labor, Rubin insisted on more labor.

“Rick was determined not to rush the process, but to wait until we got the essence of the songs I was working on. I loved the sheer freedom of creating music for its own sake,” Diamond wrote.

Ultimately, after nearly a year, Diamond came out with somewhere between 30 and 40 songs, with several of the songs that ended up on the album coming at the end of the marathon writing session.

The dozen songs that were finally chosen are some of the most heartfelt, beautiful and simple arrangements that the 64-year-old Diamond has ever created.

Beginning with a hauntingly melodic track titled “Oh, Mary,” Diamond strips away all of the pomp that has made him an arena-sized star over the years, resulting in one of the truest, most intimate glimpses of the singer that has ever been seen.

Love ballads like “Save Me a Saturday Night,” coupled with more groovy Diamond-esque tracks like “Delirious Love,” flow seemingly effortlessly through the CD. Despite all of the work put into the project, the true magic is that it comes across as if Uncle Neil sat down in a living room with an acoustic guitar and played these songs perfectly for the first time, almost without thought.

With his raspy deep voice as strong as ever, tracks like the non-apologetic “I’m On To You” come across not like the hopped-up versions of his gargantuan live performances, but like tremendously delicate poems that still have enough power to move listeners.

Rubin’s persistent, tenacious pursuit of Diamond and his prodding to get the best out of this American icon will most certainly revitalize Diamond’s career, and will open up a whole new audience to this man, who was perilously close to slipping into obscurity, remembered simply as a musician that my mom used to like, and as a punch line by music aficionados. Fortunately, 12 Songs will keep that from happening.

— Brian F. Johnson

Remedy Motel’s My Favorite Record rules

Remedy Motel

My Favorite Record

Porch Rock Entertainment

4 out of 5

Why aren’t these guys a household name yet?

Remedy Motel plays some of the most radio-friendly Americana that’s been produced in the last decade, and their newest album My Favorite Record is another example of how dumb the music listening public is. If it weren’t so dumb, these guys would be huge by now.

Mica Johnson’s vocals are the highlight of this Southern California band, but the boys playing behind him have the chops to keep it all more than entertaining.

This band is the perfect companion on the road in any kind of weather, as Remedy Motel’s road worthiness and musical beauty reveals itself behind every swerve in the road.

Fantastic!

— Brian F. Johnson

Alan Yates Band’s Red nails melodic pop fun

Alan Yates Band

Red

Tripolar Records

3 out of 5

It was inevitable that Alan Yates, an engineer and live sound mixer from Atlanta, Ga., would eventually step out from behind the board and record his own tracks.

The engineer-turned-performer, who has worked with a gamut of artists from Collective Soul to Elton John, released his self-produced Mint Condition in 2003 to critical acclaim.

The follow-up, Red, brings Yates forward with his band in an intensely fun and inspiring blend of melodic pop rock.

Obviously, Yates has learned a thing or two at his normal seat behind the board. Red was recorded over a period of six months, a formula that he says helped the album ultimately turn out as “spontaneity with polish, but not unnatural perfection.”

— Brian F. Johnson

Michael Lloyd Band’s EP Highwater amazes

Michael Lloyd Band

Highwaters EP

Independent

4 out of 5

One of Boulder’s best kept secrets is about to bust wide open.

Michael Lloyd Band will shortly look back on when they were just an obscurity. Their new release Highwaters, a six-song collection of some of the most professional piano rock to hit the Front Range since Ben Folds last visited here, is shockingly strong.

What’s most amazing is that the EP is a debut for the local act, but sounds as professional as Joe Jackson or, as another reviewer put it, “It’s as if Steely Dan were writing hip songs today.”

Singer/songwriter/pianist Mike Liquori studied jazz at CU Boulder and has surrounded himself with other alumni — as well as other Front Range staples — for the release, which should earn them an honorary doctorate it’s so good.

— Alex Samuel

Rush’s R3O shows a stale version of the once greats

Rush

R30

Zoe Vision/Rounder Records

2 out of 5

Unbelievable. Amazing. It made me a fan all over again. Unfortunately, that was just the packaging.

Rush’s new collosal R30 DVD and CD release is one of the best put together packages in a long time (it even comes with signed guitar picks and a backstage pass), but the recording of the band’s supposedly epic show in Frankfurt, Germany falls flat with energy. Even during Rush’s perfect performances of their fan favorites, something is missing. Maybe it’s that they’re getting old, but the show that once made these guys legendary seems a bit stale on R30. Even an absolutely stellar performance by the world’s best drummer, Neil Peart, on his signature song “Tom Sawyer” doesn’t revive the set, as Peart comes across as almost bored.

The days of their bad hair and big shows are gone, it’s sad to say.

— Brian F. Johnson

Live dvd gives great snapshot of Franti shows

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Live in Sydney

Music Video Distributors

4 out of 5

There’s a reason that Michael Franti sells out venues whenever he comes to the Front Range. It’s because crowds here demand strong performances in music and showmanship and Franti delivers, seemingly effortlessly.

His new DVD Live in Sydney is a testament to that. Filmed in October of 2003, the DVD features a 10-track set that shows Franti and Spearhead frantic in the throes of their exuberant soul/hip-hop style songs and beautifully heartfelt in Franti’s emotional acoustic ballads.

The performance, filmed at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, highlights Franti’s global appeal. Since the beginning of his career, Franti has grown from an angry young political rapper to an artist who has morphed his social unease and passion for change with his love for music and his desire for world-wide unity and happiness.

The only problem with the DVD is its length, or lack there of, as the run time comes in at 70 minutes. The good thing, in fact the great thing, is that once the DVD has been viewed to death, viewers can take the DVD with them, flip it over and drop it in their CD player to hit the CD recording of the show on the other side. It’s a great convenience that more bands should do.

Special bonus features also show a recording session of “Ganja Baby,” an incredibly somber and heartfelt acoustic version of “Bomb the World,” and a beatbox session by Radio Active.

If Michael Franti and Spearhead keep performing shows with such enthusiasm, their desire to change the world may actually come to fruition. At least, it’s a nice thing to dream about while you watch them play.

— Alex Samuel

From the Barstool of the Publisher - January, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:51:53 +0000

It was reported in December by CNN, that hard-line Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned Western music from Iran’s radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest cultural decrees from the Islamic Revolution.

According to Iran’s Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, the ruling was “required.”

Now, I don’t know what life in Iran is like. I’ve never been, I don’t know personally anyone who has, and I don’t plan on visiting any time soon. But from the sounds of this report alone, it doesn’t seem like a pleasant place to live.

It’s not because of rulings like this, or the fact that the country has, most recently, been gripped for eight years by a reformist-led revolution and that the new president won office in August on a platform that he’d revert to ultra-conservative principles promoted by the revolution.

No, what really struck me as terrible were the tracks that the president was banning. CNN reported that songs such as George Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” as well as tunes by saxophonist Kenny G. regularly accompanied Iranian broadcasts — and that alone makes me feel like Iran must be one of the most horrible places to live in the world.

I might have been able to argue that I understand where President Ahmadinejad was coming from if they were talking about music that was wrought with Western ideals and commercialism. I might have even been able to empathize with a man who thinks that the culture from the West was bringing with it morally challenged societal ethics and beliefs. But, come on!

If they’re playing George Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” then the country has a few more problems than just a revolution on its hands.

And, wouldn’t it just figure for the United States, that of all the good music and culture we’re fortunate enough to have here, Kenny G. would be the one that would leak all the way to Iran?

No wonder the rest of the world hates us.

On a brighter note, devoid of “Hotel California,” Happy 2006. This year marks the start of year four for The Marquee. We can’t begin to emphasize how grateful we are that the Front Range has supported us the way it has over the last three years and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. To everyone who has helped us, we thank you from the bottom of our musically-cholesterolled hearts.

As always, we’ll see you at the shows.

Planes Mistaken for Stars still cruising at altitude despite recent line-up changes

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:52:16 +0000

:: Planes Mistaken For Stars :: Hi Dive :: January 6 (early and late shows) ::

By Molly Chappell

When most bands pack up to seek fame and fortune, they don’t bring thirteen of their friends to Denver. But Planes Mistaken For Stars aren’t like most bands.

The grassroots screamo band was voted the Best Underground Band in 2003 by a Denver Post readers poll. And that hype has seemed to follow them, as they continue to play Denver clubs, as well as touring, both nationally and internationally.

Between heavy riffs of intense hardcore sounds, the band finds pockets of calm that could be compared to their experience growing up in Peoria, Ill., only hours away from the intense city life of Chicago. It was this very atmosphere that fueled the raw, somber and fervent songs that Planes would ultimately become so well known for. With little more than dilapidated foundries and strip malls as its backdrop, lifelong friends Gared O'Donnell, Matt Bellinger, Mike Rickets and Aaron Wise plotted their escape from this run-down middle American suburbia.

Shortly after their debut release, a self-titled EP on Deep Elm Records, Wise was replaced by bassist Jamie Drier. With Drier in the line-up, the band released the EP Knife In The Marathon, the Fuck With Fire LP and the Spearheading The Sin Movement 7”/CD single. Also upon Drier’s entry into the band came a commitment to touring. Planes averaged over 100 shows per year from 1999 to 2003, playing in various venues worldwide.

When the band came to Colorado their last concern was “making it,” instead they were more concerned with making their music. They have never worried about playing bigger venues, they have been more concerned with whether or not the audience is having a good time.

“There’s not much we’ve intentionally done or not done. We haven’t jumped through hoops to have our band plastered everywhere. Any kudos are well deserved because we didn’t get acknowledgement by kissing the right asses; we’ve earned it,” Planes lead singer and guitarist Gared O’Donnell said in a recent interview with The Marquee.

One of the things that they’ve earned is a recent deal with Abacus Recordings and the group is planning their debut release for the label, Call A Priest, in summer 2006.

While the band is growing in stature, O’Donnell said that one of their main concerns is keeping centered mentally around their fans. “We have become more receptive to different opportunities,” O’Donnell said. “We are not as gun shy about success. At the same time, we need to know that if we are in a higher position we need to be respectful of our fans.”

While the band members are still young, several are also engrossed with family. O’Donnell was in fact pulled away from doing dishes and hanging out with his kid for this interview. But the family aspect does not keep the band from giving their all musically — they have played 215 shows since February 2004.

O’Donnell said that the music, in fact, helps keep the other elements of his life in check. “If we weren’t playing we wouldn’t be right and I would end up a bitter old fucker because I didn’t follow my calling,” he said.

The band has faced some big changes recently with their line-up. Matt Bellinger (guitarist) left the band and bassist Chuck French transitioned to guitar, while Neil Keener from Denver’s Red Cloud took over the bass position. O’Donnell said that despite the line-up changes the band has not skipped a beat. In fact, he said, “When Matt was leaving we were doing a lot of questioning. We asked ourselves, ‘Do we still want to be Planes?’ Planes is more Plans without someone who doesn’t want to be there 100 percent. Since we’ve been working with Neil (Keener), we feel more like Planes than we ever have.”

The same year that line-up change took place, O’Donnell, Bellinger, French, and Ricketts began the writing process for Up In Them Guts, which came out in July of 2004 on No Idea Records. With each past record being done hastily and on a minimal budget, the band wanted to take their time on what many suspect will be their definitive album. “Writing is always first and foremost a catharsis,” said O’Donnell. “And all we really want to be able to do is go on tour to play for the people we love, and the people who love us back.”

The changes, he said, have given another layer to the band, in fact. The old songs are entities themselves and their new songs will really show how the band’s overall sound has been affected.

Planes Mistaken For Stars :: Hi Dive :: January 6 (early and late shows) ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Ataris

• Dillinger Escape Plan

• Against Me!

Papa Grows Funk shaken by Katrina, but still road worthy and powerful

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:53:44 +0000

:: Papa Grows Funk ::Oskar Blues :: Jan. 27 ::

:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom :: Jan. 28::

By Matt Marty

“Can you feel the music?” asks front man John Gros on the first track of Papa Grows Funk’s new album Shakin’. How could you not feel the music? Papa Grows Funk has power — power to make its audiences get up, dance and play air guitar every time they hear Papa’s music. It is raw, funky and most importantly, just down-right good.

The New Orleans-based band contains a line-up of nothing less than stellar musicians, including bassist Marc Pero, Jason Mingledorff on sax and guitarist June Yamagishi, all of which provide the sail for John Gros to direct the ship with his Hammond B3 and funky vocals.

For Gros, Papa Grows Funk was a gig to fill his Monday nights. Playing keyboards for George Porter Jr.’s band and fronting a band of his own, MuleBone were his top priority. In a recent interview with The Marquee, Gros said, “Papa Grows Funk slowly and steadily started getting more and more phone calls and the calendar started to fill up.”

As the work with George Porter Jr. started to subside and Papa Grows Funk started to gain recognition, the next logical step was to record some tracks. “We had been together nine months and the best way for people to take us seriously and for us to get some gigs was to put a CD out,” said Gros. So that is exactly what they did in 2001 with their release of Doin’ It.

Word of mouth about Papa Grows Funk quickly spread in the New Orleans area. The band was able to gain fans from very diverse musical backgrounds, which contributed to their success in New Orleans. “Our fan base integrated all the way from the Funky Meters, Radiators crowd to the Widespread Panic, Phish crowd,” Gros said. After a short time, Papa Grows Funk was being heavily traded over the internet and the word of mouth that started in New Orleans started to spread around the country.

The success in New Orleans led to the group expanding to markets outside of the South. To keep families intact, the touring schedule for Papa Grows Funk was, and still is, going out of town for a long weekend or a week. “We don’t do a lot of six week or two month tours,” said Gros.

Playing markets like San Francisco, Colorado and New York have been the closer-to-home gigs for Papa Grows Funk. In the past few years the band has gone abroad, playing in France and Japan. “It was like the Beatles, when we went into June’s (Yamagishi’s) first solo, whoever was sitting down was screaming and jumping up and down. It was wild,” said Gros of the trip to Japan.

The past few years have been filled with success for Papa Grows Funk, although the events of the last five months have stalled plans for the future momentarily. Hurricane Katrina has affected Papa Grows Funk in a tremendous way, as it has all New Orleans residents. Sax player Mingledorff has had to temporarily relocate to Tampa Bay, Fla., due to roof damage to his house. The rest of the band has been fortunate enough not to have had major damage to their homes and they are all now living back in New Orleans. The absence of a member has been tough on the band, logistically as well as spiritually, said Gros. “When we’re going out of town, we have to make sure that he has a plane ticket or a car to wherever we’re going, which has made things complicated,” said Gros.

Despite the problems in New Orleans, Papa Grows Funk continues to play their Monday night gig, which has been a return to normalcy for many New Orleans residents. For Gros, he sees this as a meaningful step in the rebuilding of New Orleans. The return of New Orleans musicians is just one step in the renovation of the city, in Gros’ eyes. Papa Grows Funk has no plans to leave the city, he said. “We are a New Orleans band. This is home, and this is where we are going to be,” Gros said.

:: Papa Grows Funk

::Oskar Blues :: Jan. 27 ::

:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom :: Jan. 28::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Radiators

• Funky Meters

• Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Aquarium Rescue Unit, with Herring and the Colonel, swim into Front Range

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:54:56 +0000

:: Aquarium Rescue Unit :: Fox Theatre :: January 20 and 21 ::

By Jeffrey V. Smith

For respected rock-fusion guitarist Jimmy Herring, stepping back into his role in Aquarium Rescue Unit (ARU) will be like putting on a pair of favorite shoes he hasn’t worn in a while. “It’ll just be so comfortable,” he recently told The Marquee. The band, which was a favorite of the early ’90s pre-jam band explosion, reunites briefly for a pair of shows at the Fox Theatre Friday and Saturday, January 20-21. The rare reunion shows are the only ones planned by the band at this time.

ARU’s roots go back to a once-a-week gig at Atlanta’s Little Five Points Inn that featured a rotating cast of musicians backing Col. Bruce Hampton and his unconventional “out” musical philosophy. The cover was non-existent, the beers were 99 cents and the musicians went without paychecks. “It wasn’t something we were looking to get paid for,” Herring explained. In fact, when he discovered the group “it was more like performance art than music.” Later, after Herring was asked to join the band along with mandolin player Matt Mundy, he explained that it “turned more toward a musical side with a performance art twist. If you’ve got Bruce, there will always be some craziness,” he added.

According to the musician — who at the time had already attended classes at Berklee College of Music, graduated from the California Guitar Institute of Technology and taught classes at the Atlanta Institute of Music — playing with Hampton “was a liberating experience. It was all about us learning from him how to play yourself; how not to be just a parrot. It’s not like he’s this technical virtuoso or anything, but he’s in-touch with himself and so many virtuosos just aren’t.”

Herring said Hampton had that “one thing” that kept everyone in the band fascinated, which was “this dude can play himself no matter what.” While the guitarist maintains that Hampton’s music “might not be what mainstream America considers acceptable,” it was “really appealing” to the band’s members. “It was the one night a week we could play whatever we wanted. It was a real open situation.”

The cast of musicians that would eventually form the touring and recording band began to solidify when drummer Jeff Sipe , who went on to play with Colorado’s Leftover Salmon, hooked up with Hampton. After his first experience with Bruce, Herring immediately called his friend and bassist Oteil Burbridge, who is best known for his recent work with the Allman Brothers Band, and told him he had to check it out because it was so cathartic. Eventually, in 1989 they invited Herring to play. Initially, Mundy, Charles Williams and Jeff Mosier—who later founded Blueground Undergrass — also played in the band. “We just kinda followed Bruce around for about six years, and learned a lot,” Herring said of the experience.

When Herring finally joined the band, he had already been playing with Burbridge, Sipe (a.k.a. Apt. Q258) and Williams, but he was really drawn to the experience with Hampton “because it was real liberating. It wasn’t like anything else I’d ever done.” According to Herring, the music was “simple,” like roots music. “The simpler things are, from the start, the more you can improvise and do things with it,” he explained. “That was what that group was all about; taking the simplest things and just implying other things over it.” Those “other things” included a fusion of bluegrass, rock, Latin, jazz, and flawless chops.

The band, content with its once-a-week sessions of musical fun, began its rise in popularity in 1989 when members of Widespread Panic happened into the Little Five Points Inn and heard the act. “They started hanging with us and talking with us, saying we were crazy,” Herring said. Panic had a sold-out, three-night run at Atlanta’s Center Stage Theater the following week. While not intending to have an opening act, the members of Panic were so taken aback by what they had heard, they invited them to open each night of the run. They went on to invite ARU on full tours and helped expose the act to countless music fans as well as other musicians.

After releasing its debut album in 1991, ARU went on to play on the first two H.O.R.D.E. tours in 1992 and 1993. The band’s second album and studio debut, Mirrors of Embarrassment, was released in 1993.

The act started to fade away shortly after the second release and while it never officially broke up, it simply stopped existing and only reformed sporadically. The dynamics started to change in 1993 when Mundy retired from music and returned home to Georgia. Within a year, Hampton retired from the road and left the band, citing health concerns. He later formed the Fiji Mariners and The Codetalkers. Following a short period featuring Burbridge on lead vocals, ARU added Paul Henson as its new front man. Without Hampton, however, the magic had left. Touring slowed down by 1996 and band members went their separate ways.

Despite moving on to gigs where he employed his legendary improvisational voyages with Jazz is Dead, The Dead, Phil & Friends, the Allman Brothers Band and several other acts, Herring is excited to come back together with his former bandmates in ARU. “Everybody’s interests have broadened since the day when we were actually living the experience and doing it full time,” he said.

Having the opportunity to play with Hampton taught Herring and his fellow band members plenty and allowed them to reach previously unknown musical areas — something they are excited to re-experience. “The best music we’ve ever played has been when we’re not doing it,” the guitarist said. “There used to be long stretches of time where we knew it wasn’t us doing it. That’s part of what we learned from Bruce, how to get out of our own way. It’s something that can’t be taught. You have to be around that type of atmosphere long enough for it to sink in. If you’re with a group of people, all capable people, and everyone is totally going for the same goal — which is to get out of your way and let the music play you instead of you play the music — that’s always the best stuff in my opinion.”

The two nights at the Fox Theatre feature a line-up as close to the original as possible, considering Matt Mundy no longer performs. In addition to Hampton, Herring, Sipe and Burbridge, Bobby Lee Rogers from The Codetalkers will be joining the band. “He’s a brilliant musician,” Herring said. “We miss Matt Mundy a lot. It’s never going be the same when you take an ingredient out of the mix.” A few of the band’s recent reunions — like last year’s Jamcruise — did not have a replacement for Mundy. “We went ahead and did it without anyone filling in because we always felt like you can’t replace him.” They feel a little different now, Herring explained. “You can’t replace him but you can put someone in that spot where their voice will fill that void.” Bobby fits the criteria perfectly and, according to Herring, knows Hampton as well as anyone. “He’ll fit in like a glove,” he said.

:: Aquarium Rescue Unit :: Fox Theatre :: January 20 and 21 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Jazz is Dead

• Leftover Salmon

• Frank Zappa

Anthrax reunites its ‘classic’ lineup, putting Belladonna in front of the mic

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:55:48 +0000

:: Anthrax :: Fox Theatre :: January 18 ::

By Brandon Daviet

2005 was a great year for Anthrax — the New York-based veteran metal band, not the white powdery substance favored by some terrorists.In the summer of 2005 the band, which along with Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth helped bring metal to the mainstream, reinstated original singer Joey Belladonna to their ranks and hit the road on what is being described by the band as a greatest hits tour. Rumors of a reunion with Belladonna, who was replaced by former Armored Saint singer John Bush in 1993 and a spot on 2005’s Ozzfest were heavily circulated early in the year. But as the summer of 2005 showed, the rumor was only partially correct while Anthrax did choose to make amends with Belladonna the rumors that the band would play the U.S. version of Ozzfest proved to be false. In the end the band did play the European version of Ozzfest at Donington Castle and landed a spot on the festivals 10th Anniversary DVD.

Now, in addition to Belladonna, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, guitarist Scott Ian and guitarist Dan Spitz — who in the last decade since leaving Anthrax, had spent his time in self-imposed isoltation, completely devoid of music, where we became one of the world’s most coveted master watch makers — would all once again stand on stage together.

“This is gut-check time, and something in my gut tells me the time is right. We have something to finish, and a younger generation needs to see it,” said Bello in a release announcing the reunion.

With albums like Among the Living and State of Euphoria, Anthrax created their own style of metal by incorporating a generous dose of humor and wit into a genre that was often criticized for its narrow-minded lyrics and fans. The band’s love of comics and movies was also reflected in songs like “I Am the Law,” based on the Judge Dread comic, and the title track to the band’s most famous album, Among The Living, that was inspired by Stephen King’s The Stand. There is also a healthy dose of punk rock aesthetics incorporated into the band’s overall image.

In 1987, at the height of the band’s popularity, Anthrax changed the face of metal forever by releasing “I’m the Man.” “I’m the Man” was one of the first songs to be a true rap/metal hybrid. The song was a humorous and raunchy romp filled with silly rhymes, metal guitar and a sample from Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.” Soon, the band was on the road with Public Enemy and the styles of rap and metal were melded forever. “We put out I’m the Man on our own terms, we had total creative freedom with our recording contract so there was no opposition from the record company,” said Scott Ian when he spoke to The Marquee during the band’s holiday break. “We have always done what we wanted with the band, that’s always been important to us.”

Integrity is also very important to Anthrax, as the band has become one of the most outspoken groups in metal when it comes to the state of the music business. As a result, the band is being cautiously optimistic about the current reunion and their resurgence in popularity. “We are planning to try a few new tunes on the upcoming tour in January, but we won’t make an album just to make one,” said Ian. “We are really enjoying playing live with Joey and we are playing songs we haven’t played in a long time, like “Medusa,” and are considering others like “Skeletons in the Closet.”

While Anthrax has had a better-than-average run in the metal world, the band has also had its share of low points. After the 2001 terrorist attacks on the band’s home city of New York, the band’s moniker became one of the most feared words in the world. While the band briefly considered changing their name, it was ultimately decided that the name would stay. Still, the band hasn’t been able to get substantial radio play since and resorted to sending out the single from their last studio album without the band’s name on it.

Anthrax, like many in the metal community, were also deeply devastated by the killing of Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and several other innocent victims, who were murdered by deranged fan Nathan Gale in December of 2004. Dimebag and the members of Anthrax had toured together and Dimebag had even played on an Anthrax track called “Riding Shotgun.” The night before The Marquee interviewed Ian, it was announced that a civil lawsuit was being filed against the Alarosa Villa in Ohio, where the shooting occurred. “I absolutely think the club should be responsible for what happened,” Ian said. “There is no excuse for a club not to have appropriate security. Many people have said that Gale was causing trouble earlier in the evening. If that club would have had appropriate security, things may have turned out different.”

Despite the loss of their metal brother and the political incorrectness of their name, Anthrax are looking forward to touring in 2006 and are taking the future of the band one step at a time.

:: Anthrax :: Fox Theatre :: January 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• D.R.I

• Murphy’s Law

• Armored Saint

Arrested Development continues to push what’s expected of hip-hop acts

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:56:32 +0000

:: Arrested Development :: Fox Theatre :: January 11::

By Tim Dwenger

For teenagers today “Arrested Development” is a TV show on Fox that stars Hogan Family alum Jason Bateman and comic David Cross. For teenagers of the ’90s, Arrested Development was one of the hottest hip-hop acts around. Chart topping hits such as “Tennessee” and “Mr. Wendal” broke the hip-hop mold and are still viewed as unique contributions to an ever evolving genre.

Arrested Development’s leader and lyrical mastermind, Speech, spoke with The Marquee recently about his band, his solo career and the message that he brings with him to the stage. “We call ourselves 20th Century Africans. We are talking about self determination. We want African people to have a sense of pride in who we are, a sense of accomplishment, and a vision of where we are going,” he said.

“Right now in the hip-hop industry you’ve got so many groups and artists that allow images of degradation, images that debase black women, and images that make us look like clowns on television. We strive to provide images that really project who we are and who we can be, even if our situation is desperate, and sometimes frustrating, as a people,” said Speech.

When Arrested Development first brought their “Life Music” to the stage in the early ’90s they showed up with drums and other live instruments in a time when hip-hop relied largely on prerecorded instrumentation. “We had these live drums on stage at a time when two turntables were more than enough to ask for, and most people were dealing with just a DAT machine,” recalled Speech.

Their music also broke down another barrier in hip-hop that hadn’t been pushed by other acts at the time, melodic rapping. “‘Tennessee’ and ‘Raining Revolution’ and some of the other songs on our first album were really some of the first times that a person capitalized on that style,” said Speech. The melodic rapping style that Speech pioneered propelled Arrested Development up the charts at a meteoric pace. They were a hip-hop act that was appealing to a whole new audience, an audience who felt this kind of hip-hop was different because they could sing along to a melody and get down to a funky groove. It was, in short, a recipe for success.

This recipe includes what Speech feels is a key ingredient that is missing from most popular music in our culture. “Baba Oje, the Elder in our group, is now 73 years old. When I was putting the group together, I noticed that in many of the more beautiful cultures in the world, the elders are much more involved with the youth and the two groups really coexist,” said Speech. “In American, and other Western cultures, there is a real gap of ideals. The elders have the wisdom and the youth have the energy. I wanted to combine the wisdom of the elders with the energy of the youth.”

Baba Oje is currently out on the road with Arrested Development in their latest incarnation. Speech claims that Oje is in better physical shape than anyone else in the group. “He is a rawist, he roller-skates, he dances and he sings. His role is multi-faceted and always exciting. He is a catalyst for us to be more real,” Speech said.

When faced with the reality that his solo career hasn’t been as successful in the states as were the days of Arrested Development, Speech isn’t fazed. “For my entire career I have been the type of artist that thinks that life is exciting. I wanna try it all and experience it all. America is a little conservative with what we allow artists to do,” he said. “I was trying to experiment with a whole different kind of energy on my first album after Arrested Development; I was wearing suits behind a Rhodes keyboard and was talking about hippies and escapism. I think they were like, ‘What is Speech on?’”

This conservative nature may have been rewarded, as Speech ended the hiatus of Arrested Development in 1999 and has taken the group on the road several times since. While not his full-time focus, Arrested Development is a creative outlet that he can’t ignore. “After being on our own for a while, we were curious to see what we were capable of and what kind of music we would come out with when we got back together,” said Speech.

Arrested Development has been playing to packed houses across the country off and on for the past five years. They sell out several-thousand-seat venues and shake the roofs off of dance clubs. Speech describes their show as “very high energy,” and is thrilled that the young music lovers are still attracted to his sound.

“There is a whole new generation of hip-hop lovers today. In the early Nineties some of them were eight, nine or 10 years old and they weren’t seeing us live, they sort of heard about us. There is a sort of legendary status associated with Arrested Development,” he said. “These kids come out to our shows and they are amazed at the type of vibrancy that we have as a group and the type of culture we present. It is a total refreshing vibe from what they get in this generation.”

:: Arrested Development :: Fox Theatre ::

:: January 11::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Roots

• A Tribe Called Quest

• The Fugees

Denver’s indie rock scene gets hotter and smarter with the rise of Hot Iqs

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:57:29 +0000

:: Hot IQs :: Hi-Dive :: January 28 ::

By Cornelia Kane

“We like hot girls with hot IQs,” croons Eli Mishkin, lead singer and guitarist for the Denver band Hot IQs on their debut album, 2004’s An Argument Between Brain and Feet, released on the independent Morning After Records. Their brand of smart lounge pop-rock has lately been earning the band critical acclaim, with opening spots for such established acts as Hot Hot Heat and Brian Jonestown Massacre. Fresh off a national tour opening for both Built to Spill and Tegan and Sara, Mishkin found time to talk with The Marquee about the band’s adjusting to life on the road and future plans.

“We were extremely lucky to tour with amazing bands that have huge followings, so we had the luxury of playing to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people a night, basically just piggybacking onto their existing fame,” he joked, adding that opening for indie legends Built To Spill recently was a special treat. “We really lucked out to have that opportunity as such a new touring band.”

The band, which is rounded out by Elaine Acosta (drums) and Bryan Feuchtinger (bass), is happy for the recent airplay and attention from labels, but they have remained humble about their inauspicious beginnings. “Elaine and I had known each other for a couple of years from being DJs together at the college radio station in Boulder. We hung out quite a bit, going to shows and talking about music obsessively. One day we were sitting in her apartment talking about all the concerts we’d been to and how great underground music is and we decided that we should become an underground band, kind of as a lark,” Mishkin said.

The two quickly got Acosta a drum set and Mishkin, who already played guitar, turned Acosta’s apartment into a rehearsal space. “We started practicing the next day in her apartment and quickly the police were called. Then for the next couple of weeks, they were called every day that we practiced. Our practicing wasn’t really practicing; it was just smashing on the drums and making noise because we didn’t know what we were doing. So that was the birth of the band,” said Mishkin.

The duo knew that they needed a bassist to round out the trio and looked to Feuchtinger to fill the spot. “Bryan had been playing drums for about 14 years but was new to the bass, so he brought that newness and the raw energy to the bass that we had to our instruments and … that was sort of the beginning of the end,” Mishkin said.

The raw energy certainly comes through on the album, and the instrumentation remains simple yet inexplicably dancey, showcasing Mishkin’s witty, sometimes sarcastic lyrics. “Hot IQs put the indie-rock chocolate in your disco peanut butter,” is how their website puts it.

The band soon played their first gig, even though they may not have been ready for the stage — they didn’t even have a name the first time they played as a band. “We had four songs and maybe a cover. I guess a few people saw something. They overlooked the fact that we were just making noise and couldn’t really perform or get across any real sound, but people saw a spark of something and I don’t know what it was, but I guess people still see that spark because we can still now just barely play songs, but we’re getting away with it,” Mishkin said.

That spark may soon grow into a fire, as the next album is expected in early spring. “We’re hoping to make a much bigger splash with it, national tours, more festivals, that type of thing,” he said.

The band is headed to the studio now, and they don’t have far to go, as they’ll be following the same formula as their debut, recording in Feuchtinger’s home studio. The label has yet to be determined.

“We have a pretty clear vision of how we want ourselves to sound, and that’s part of that controlling your own destiny aspect of independent music that we that we really gravitate towards. So we’re good to go ourselves on this one,” Mishkin said.

Mishkin said that the band isn’t necessarily anti- or pro-major label, but that their main goal is keeping things on the up and up. “Our main goal is pretty much coke and whores, so ... No, really, any amount of integrity we can maintain with each level of success is, I think, our goal,” he joked.

Interesting fact: the band was originally called The Royal We. “We liked that name quite a bit, but five other bands in the country liked that name also. So, right before we released our album we decided to change to something we wouldn’t be sued for. And we changed to something that we created, which are the Hot IQs, which as far as we know is a wholly Hot IQs creation. We stole it from our song. I’d like to say that we did it for thematic reasons, but I think part of it was sheer laziness; because we liked the fact that we had a theme song already, and none of the other songs fit as a band name all that well,” Mishkin said.

:: Hot IQs :: Hi-Dive :: January 28 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Spoon

• Hot Hot Heat

• Dressy Bessy

INXS takes to the road with new singer culled from reality TV show

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:58:09 +0000

:: INXS :: Denver Convention Center :: January 30 ::

By Jonathan Keller

When most bands are looking for a new band member, particularly a lead singer, they stay close to home, roaming through their contact grapevine of friends and fellow musicians. INXS, however, decided to go a very different route. They let their biggest fans try out for their vacant lead singer slot in a televised contest. The winner of the contest would become the lead singer of INXS — recording a new studio album with the band and then fronting them on a world tour. It seems INXS has finally found their man.

This past summer INXS decided to let VH1 host a globally-aired reality program called “Rock Star INXS.” The kicker: The winner of the 13-week televised contest — a sort of “American Idol” with more volume and rock and roll — would take the crown title of INXS’ new lead singer. Needless to say, the show was a sleeper summer hit, bringing INXS into the living rooms of millions of households, reminding many viewers of the past glory INXS had experienced in the ’80s. By the season finale, INXS had whittled their way through a field of 15 vocalists and found their new equal. If his name has any bearing on his recent victory, 32-year-old J.D. Fortune is now riding a virgin wave of rock celebrity.

“On a scale of one to 10, the past few months have been at about 5000,” Fortune said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “It is tough, though. The hardest part has been keeping up with them. These guys work their asses off in every way.”

It has been quite a while since INXS has been in the minds and ears of popular music connoisseurs. Before the VH1 show aired, the reason was simple: INXS has not had an American hit in nearly 13 years and after the alleged suicide of vocalist Michael Hutchence in 1997, the band clearly lost direction. They cycled through three lead singers before agreeing to do the VH1 show. As a teen, Fortune was a big fan of INXS and now he sees INXS in two distinct incarnations: old and new.

“The INXS of old is the one I grew up on, the one that inspired me,” Fortune explained. “They are the reason I did the show. If it was any other band I probably wouldn’t have done it. Now, it is about respect and love for the band as we move forward.”

Originally started as a pub band hailing from Australia, INXS went on to become one of the Continent’s biggest musical exports by the late ’80s, globally recognized and rewarded through their album and single sales. Consisting of three brothers Andrew Farriss (guitar and keyboards), Tim Farriss (guitar), Jon Farriss (drums), and Gary Beers (bass), Kirk Pengilly (guitar, saxophone) and Hutchence, INXS released their eponymous debut in 1980 on Deluxe Records. The band released three more albums in the early ’80s before they had a solid international hit with 1985’s Listen Like Thieves, which worked its way up to #11 on the U.S. charts. Their following album Kick, released in 1987, solidified their international stardom, going multi-platinum in multiple countries and spawning four U.S. Top 10 singles: “Need You Tonight,” “Devil Inside,” “New Sensation,” and “Never Tear Us Apart.”

Fronted by the exuberant Hutchence, the band had another hit with its follow-up, X, before the grunge movement of the early ’90s had dated and brought the group back to earth. While other groups of the era such as U2 were able to adapt to the changing musical climate with their album Achtung Baby, for example, INXS fell short both commercially and critically with 1993’s raw sounding Full Moon, Dirty Hearts.

INXS released a few more albums in the mid-’90s, but by the time Hutchence was found dead in his Sydney hotel room in 1997 of an apparent self-hanging, the band was hitless and sliding more and more into obscurity.

VH1’s “Rock Star INXS” has brought the band back from the obscurity. With Fortune as the new front man the band hopes its latest release Switch and their recent television success will bring back some of the glory of old. The first step was letting Fortune contribute to the band as a whole.

“I was really flattered that the band accepted my musical contributions on the record,” Fortune said. “When I first started the show I thought it was going to be, ‘Okay here is song number one, song number two, song number eight.’ But we really had a blank canvas and literally worked 18 hours a day, writing and recording. I really enjoyed the recording process — painting pictures with sounds.”

Switch is an 11-track disc that has radio play written all over it. In a sense, it is commercially viable like the INXS singles of old, yet the sound of Switch is very much current with mainstream radio — slick and to the point (very few extended solos on this one). Anyone searching for the old INXS sound might find glimpses of it on the new album, but overall it is a new sound for INXS.

With Switch now on the table, INXS is embarking on a world tour in support of it, starting in January. This is something that is very new to Fortune. “My favorite part so far has been the recording but we have not really toured yet. We have just been doing press. I am sure when I get on stage in front of 20,000 people I will like touring more,” he said laughing.

Fortune, being much younger than the rest of the band, is still learning the ropes of life as a celebrity and the responsibilities of being a band front man. Luckily, the band seems patient and more than willing to make things work with him.

“No matter how much I screw up, they (the band) have been there before and probably done it,” Fortune said. “They can take me aside and let me know what is going on.” With more lessons to be learned on the road, Fortune sees a new successful start for INXS and with the marketing genius of the TV show, the band has received more press than most could ever imagine. The time for INXS is obviously now, and the charting of “Pretty Vegas” coming 22-and-a-half years after the appearance of the first INXS chart single shows that there is still quite a bit of life in them.

:: INXS :: Denver Convention Center :: January 30 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The original INXS

• U2

• Matchbox 20

Cake brings Unlimited Sunshine Tour to Denver with Tegan and Sara

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 17:59:07 +0000

 :: Unlimited Sunshine Tour ::

:: featuring CAKE, Gogol Bordello, Tegan and Sara, and Eugene Mirman ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: January 25

By Tim Dwenger

“I don’t wanna go to Sunset Strip. I don’t wanna feel the emptiness, bold marquees with stupid band names,” sings CAKE front man John McCrea in his unique speak-singing style. According to his longtime bandmate and trumpeter, Vince DiFiore, McCrea harbors a certain disdain for the music business. In a recent interview from the band’s studio in Sacramento, DiFiore told The Marquee, “John took his music to L.A. and formed a band there. He felt like the industry was taking advantage of him and other people were going to own his songs. He just didn’t like the big rock scene on Sunset Boulevard, it seemed so overblown, so he moved back to Sacramento and started CAKE.”

This attitude, and CAKE’s strict do-it-yourself work ethic, has been something that the band has fiercely defended throughout their 15 year career. They arrange, produce and record all their own material. McCrea even does all of their album artwork. CAKE’s early days with Capricorn Records set the stage for continued do-it-yourself success with a much bigger record label. “Once we had the success we did with Capricorn [Records], we moved over to Columbia [Records] and they understood that was how we wanted to do things. We were able to write up all of our contracts to ensure we could continue to do it our way,” DiFiore said.

DiFiore acknowledged that some people may consider naming your band after a pile of empty calories held together by a gooey mixture of butter and sugar, stupid, but he disagrees. “The phonetic ‘umph’ of it works really well. It is a four-letter word that has the impact of shit, or fuck, without the curse word.”

“There weren’t any city codes against flyering around town when we were starting out,” said DiFiore. “A four letter word looked really good on the flyers we used to post. We would pick graphics that were juxtaposed to the word ‘cake’ and looked like a non-sequitor but were interesting and artistic in some way. The name really just works well on a lot of levels.”

This style of graphics that McCrea designs has graced the cover of all five of the band’s albums. A pig, a crown, and a ’50s couple have been paired with the instantly recognizable CAKE name to create a highly effective branding tool that the band is proud of. “There is so much out there, so much to consume. We want to keep things uncluttered so they are easy to recognize,” DiFiore said.

In an effort to keep their indie roots in sight and help other bands on their way up, CAKE came up with the idea for the Unlimited Sunshine Tour. The festival-like format of the tour allows for the members of CAKE to hand pick other bands to join them on the road for a series of dates. “We played a lot of radio festivals over the years and wanted to do one our way, without all the marketing agendas. We have had some great bands on the tour in the past, bands like Cheap Trick, De La Soul, Modest Mouse, and The Flaming Lips,” said Di Fiore.

This year’s support comes from indie songstresses Tegan and Sara and gypsy-punk rockers Gogol Bordello. Tegan and Sara have been generating significant buzz with their 2004 album So Jealous and have become something of indie rock sex symbols. Gogol Bordello was recently featured in the film Everything Is Illuminated, which featured their music as well as their front man and founder, Eugene Hutz, acting opposite The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood.

The tours’s MC and resident joke teller will be Sub-Pop comedian Eugene Mirman. His press materials relate the story that Mirman turned to comedy “after being called a commie and fag in junior high and high school.” Subsequently, he “developed a keen sense of humor as a defense mechanism,” and has evolved into a nationally known comedian who sometimes “blows people’s minds.”

The quirky, spoken songs of CAKE will be anchoring the evening’s festivities as they have on each of the previous Unlimited Sunshine tours. With recent appearances at the Fox, Magness Arena and Red Rocks, CAKE has chosen the stage of the Fillmore Auditorium for this year’s outing. Ironically, whether or not McCrea and his bandmates think it is stupid or not, the marquee on Colfax is already displaying, in anticipation of their arrival, big bold letters that read: CAKE.

:: Unlimited Sunshine Tour ::

:: featuring CAKE, Gogol Bordello, Tegan and Sara, and Eugene Mirman ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: January 25

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Soul Coughing

• Weezer

• Modest Mouse

Big Head Todd and the Monsters Launch national Tour from home

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:00:35 +0000

:: Big Head Todd & The Monsters :: Boulder Theater :: Jan. 12 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: Jan 13 ::

:: Sold Out ::

By Alex Samuel

Big Head Todd and The Monsters spawned from Boulder’s belly in 1986 and has gone on to be one of the Front Range’s most successful acts, taking over the venues and airwaves of endless cities globally.

Shortly after the band’s birth, Westword voted them as the best local rock band, calling them a “power trio worth its weight in hype.”

The Monsters lived up to the legend. In their early days they went on to have the top selling album in Boulder’s own Albums On The Hill, and in 1993 their album Sister Sweetly graced Billboard charts with three massive hits before going platinum.

Now, as they gear up to kick off yet another national tour, the University Hill heroes-gone-rock-ready road rebels are going back to the small local venues that cultivated their monumental start with back-to-back sold out shows at the Boulder Theater and Fox Theatre.

The Monsters will begin the tour at the Boulder Theater on Jan. 12 and then head up to the Hill for a show at the Fox Theatre the next night, a tour rarity in the Boulder scene but a logical decision to Mr. Big Head himself, Todd Mohr.

In an interview with The Marquee, Mohr said that the small but intimate Fox Theatre oozes Monster history and is among the band’s favorites, while the Boulder Theater is where 1994’s Stratagem was recorded and where the band played regular gigs in ’87. “Mostly, it was just fun to talk about doing two dates in a small town,” Mohr said.

The venues hold years of tradition but the Monsters try to present a different show every time they play. The band’s constantly growing catalogue of music is backed by over eight studio albums and by new, more eclectic music. The Monsters are currently free to explore different areas of music, including a more acoustic and folk-oriented arena, Mohr said. His raspy voice, — calloused as his guitar-great hands probably are — interrupted a thoughtful pause to say, “When you get older you don’t feel like you have to impress anyone.”

Since their first musical experiments in the Columbine High School Jazz Band to this March’s second-ever Big Carribean Cruise through the British Virgin Islands, the band has become anything but old.

In 1981, Columbine High’s Brian Nevin and Rob Squires started Intruder, a group that, according to Big Head Todd & The Monsters’ timeline, took pride in the “butchering of songs by bands such as Rush, Led Zeppelin, Billy Squire and whatever else was the flavor of the day.” The following spring, Squires graduated and took off to the University of Colorado, Boulder, where high school jazz band buddies Mohr and Nevin eventually followed.

After the local success of the pre-Monster rockers T.J. & The Twisters, the trio became more serious and dubbed themselves Big Head Todd & The Monsters as a play on flamboyant band names of the time. They bought an old Dodge van named “The Colonel” and hit the road running, leaving, what they did not know at the time, would be an undeniable mark on the music industry.

So while it may not be 1986 anymore and the mustard-colored Colonel has long since been retired, Mohr and the Monsters are far from old news. They spent the late 1980s and the early 1990s touring and recording, and released the platinum, three-hit-wonder Sister Sweetly in ’93.

In 1997, Big Head Todd and The Monsters released Beautiful World, an album that epitomized The Monsters’ capacity for collaboration. The trio combined producer Jerry Harrison’s Talking Heads history with Mohr’s lyrical grace, to create an album that settled in the 47th spot on the Billboard album chart, despite lacking a prominent single. The album brags an appearance by John Lee Hooker and a funked-out center with Parliament Funk veteran Bernie Worrell on the organ.

While later albums exploded with a little help from the radio, the roaring press buzz and even the video world, the band’s concrete fan base serves as the true fuel to The Monster’s fire. The early albums, Another Mayberry and Midnight Radio, were sold strictly through live shows and consignment and hit the 30,000 point without getting any of their elbow grease on the industry’s white collar.

In 1992, soon after the boys were signed on the spot by the president of Giant Records following a performance in Aspen, booking guru Frank Barcelona checked out a Chicago gig and signed The Monsters to his talent agency and began a frenzy of more-than-notable tours and appearances with both rock legends and soon-to-be-someones.

The same year, Don Henley personally invited the band to perform with Neil Young, Roger Waters and others at a benefit for his Walden Woods project. In ’93 the boys cruised on the road with Blues Traveler and Widespread Panic, hit up the David Letterman Show for their first of seven network appearances and opened for Robert Plant himself.

As if the Big Head boys didn’t get their fair share of gigs with greats from now and then, The Monsters played with future greats when Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band and Sheryl Crow warmed up the crowd for several shows. By 1994, the band toured with well-established gods and starry eyed up-and-comers, had a platinum record explode all over the States, and was only beginning its madness.

When The London Times said “American rock doesn’t get any more classy than this” in reference to the Boulder boys, they couldn’t have been more correct. Big Head Todd & The Monsters define rock class when the trio, after blinding successes, remembers their roots and stays true to the local rookies.

In an interview last year, Monsters fan and Boulder local Jake Sproul, relived his band, Rose Hill Drive’s, experience opening for the Monsters in 2004. “Big Head Todd rocks because he’s from here. He’s awesome. We’re really big fans of Big Head Todd, we’ve been to like 30 shows,” Sproul said glowing with excitement. “We really like him. We could recite his entire live show and how he did things differently from the record and stuff. We kind of grew up with that. So it was a big deal to learn how it happens, be a fan and play with the group.”

While the band keeps it local, they will also leave the area, and the country, again this year with a large core group of fans in tow. Big Head Todd and The Monsters will play with 170 fans during March’s 2006 Big Caribbean Cruise. The second-ever cruise will be on a 360-foot, four-masted mega yacht called the Star Clipper and will sail fans through a “fantastic part of the world,” Mohr said. The cruise begins and ends on St. Maarten and includes stops at various private beaches and out-of-the-way ports. Mohr, whose voice seemed to breathe excitement at the mere mention of the beach, said that last year’s inaugural cruise was a very private experience and one of the “funnest times” in his life.

Mohr may be a vintage cool voyager but he does roll with the times; he created the Todd Park Mohr Philosophy Blog (morephilosophy. blogspot.com) and in conjunction with iTunes he and the Monsters also have a Podcast called “The Big Head Todd Cast,” where they post mostly studio recordings. The Todd Cast brags nine previously unreleased tracks, including a “Kokomo”-esque version of “Bittersweet” that echoes Mohr and the Monsters’ laid back versatility.

Most recently, Big Head Todd and The Monsters entered the locally famed IMMERSIVETM Studios in early December to tape a pilot TV show with the legendary Alan Parsons. The band did a one-song session with Parsons in IMMERSIVE’s Studio No. 6 before heading over to IMMERSIVE’s live sound stage, Studio No. 7 to record a live version of the song.

The entire experience, including the studio session and the live performance, was shot on high definition by three cameras by Denver’s Moxie Media, with Mike Schrader directing. The purpose was to develop a pilot which would put different bands together with Parsons for one session, all of which would be recorded and broadcast in a behind-the-scenes kind of look at what it takes to record and produce a song.

Once the program is edited, the producers will be looking to air the show on a cable or network channel, or other alternative broadcasting realms that are available over broadband production outlets. The time frame on the airing of the program has yet to be decided.

Mohr said that the entire process was really fascinating to he and his bandmates. “It’s a whole different world and experience that he comes from — the whole English rock thing. There’s a lot of learning that I got done,” Mohr said.

:: Big Head Todd & The Monsters ::

:: Boulder Theater :: Jan. 12 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: Jan 13 ::

:: Sold Out ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Toad the Wet Sprocket

• Blues Traveler

• The Samples

CD Reviews - February - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:49:12 +0000

Railroad Earth releases its first live album Elko

Railroad Earth

Elko

SCI Fidelity Records

4 out of 5

If there were any justice in the world, Railroad Earth would be at the top of the jam grass scene. But then again, if they were there, they probably wouldn’t like the title anyway.

Their new double live CD, Elko, released in late January, shows what their die-hard fans, and anyone lucky enough to have caught one of their countless shows, already knows — that the band’s impeccable musicianship, coupled with the brute strength of songs penned by frontman Todd Sheaffer, is a phenomenal combination to which few bands can even come close.

Elko was recorded during Railroad Earth’s 2005 spring tour and captures the band’s live performances flawlessly, but the CD also shows why Railroad Earth has garnered such a loyal and devoted fan base since its inception in 2001. The reason is simple. While the band can easily be pigeon-holed into the aforementioned jam grass scene, Railroad Earth touches on so many musical idioms and fits them together so seamlessly that it never comes across as self-indulgent, as is the case with so many other bands these days.

That could be due in large part to the loose environment in which the band was originally formed. “When we started, we only loosely had the idea of getting together and playing some music. It started that informally, just getting together and doing some picking and playing,” Sheaffer said.

Over a six-month formative period, the band worked on some original songs as well as playing covers that they thought would be fun to play at shows. Railroad Earth then entered the studio to lay down five songs for a demo. Within a week they had a manager on board and they still didn’t even have a press photo when they landed a slot at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It was their tenth gig.

The band recorded another five songs, combined them with their demo tracks and released their debut album The Black Bear Sessions.

Since then, they have released two more studio albums on the largely bluegrass imprint Sugar Hill Records (2002’s Bird in a House and 2004’s The Good Life). They have also toured almost constantly, honing their sound as a live act.

Mandolin player John Skehan admitted that Railroad Earth has improvisational tendencies, but he said that the band is careful to only use improv as an accent to the music, and not let it rule their songs or their shows. “Our M.O. has always been that we can improvise all day long, but we only do it in service to the song. There are a lot of songs that when we play them live, we adhere to arrangements from the record. And other songs, in the nature and the spirit of the song, everyone knows we can kind of take flight on them,” said Skehan.

And when the band does take flight, it’s something that gets noticed. In fact, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has not only asked some of the members of Railroad Earth to be “Friends” in his Phil & Friends band, he has also learned to play some of Railroad Earth’s repertoire.

It’s not that Railroad Earth sits atop the same high horse that nearly every jam band has these days, which claims “We’re not a jam band but we do jam.” But, in this case, lumping them into such a categorization does not fit, despite the fact that every song on Elko clocks in at over six minutes with some reaching more than 15 minutes. And, likewise, the band plays a lot of bluegrass, but can’t really be lumped in there because they do so with drums (a taboo in bluegrass).

The band members don’t know what the hell to call it either, but they do have some ideas.

“I always describe it as a string band, but an amplified string band with drums,” said Skehan. Violinist/vocalist Tim Carbone calls Railroad Earth a “Country & Eastern” band, owning to the band’s birth in a beautifully rural area of upstate New Jersey.

However the hell they’re classified, they should still be filed under ‘A’ for “awesome,” and Elko should be filed close by under ‘AL’ for “awesome live.”

— Brian F. Johnson

:: Railroad Earth ::

:: with Honky Tonk Homeslice ::

:: Marquee Magazine presents at the Fox Theatre :: February 3 ::

:: Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom :: February 4 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: February 5 ::

Copperopolis sees Hunter return to trio

Charlie Hunter Trio

Copperopolis

Ropeadope Records

4 out of 5

Charlie Hunter has come back to the faithful trio to produce a new album Copperopolis. From solo to duo, quartet, quintet and finally back to trio, Charlie Hunter keeps on rocking that 8-string guitar. While Hunter was playing with other projects (most recently including Garage-A-Trois and Groundruther), he has once again found himself going back to where it all began with the trio. The addition of John Ellis playing both the Wurlitzer and melodica opened up a lot of time for Hunter to do what he does best, and that is to simply shred. Copperopolis sends the band in a different direction than their previous release Friends Seen and Unseen, this time the trio rocking the whole way through. With its jazzy rock feel, this is the album fans have been calling for for years.

— Monica Banks

Boylan’s sophomore CD is diverse and vibrant

David Boylan

Slave

Portabella Productions

2 1/2 out of 5

David Boylan’s latest release Slave is a diverse and vibrant work for those who are too old to be young and too young to be old.

This ten-track collection combines the liberties of full-fledged rock and roll abandon with the wry musings and grainy soundscapes of the more traditional singer-songwriter.

Boylan began his musical career in 1988, co-founding the rock group The Feds. He made the decision to go solo in 1997. Slave, his sophomore album, is nostalgic of his younger rock and roll years, but this time it’s more than sex, drugs and rock and roll. Boylan is sure to include his life experiences in some telling acoustic ballads and fills in the space between his words of wisdom with punchy rhythm and strong hooks.

— Monica Banks

David Boylan :: Redfish :: February 18

Beto Hale’s Mythology is surprising and intriguing

Beto Hale

American Mythology

Lalo Records

3 out of 5

Beto Hale’s upcoming album American Mythology is a musical extension of his multi-cultural background, including introspective ballads and political anthems. The Latin-American artist combines the sweet sounds of a Spanish serenade with the vibrant stylings of American rock.

After receiving his education from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Hale became the editor-in-chief of Boulder-based Musico Pro magazine, but this sense of security was not for him and he quit to pursue his melody-making dreams. Beto Hale is an exciting bilingual musical force to be reckoned with.

— Monica Banks

Hot Buttered Rum’s newest goes down smooth

Hot Buttered Rum String Band

Well-Oiled Machine

Harmonized Records

4 out of 5

Hot Buttered Rum’s new studio album Well Oiled Machine has the effortless flow the title suggests. By re-enlisting sound engineer Dave Dennison (who produced the band’s first album), Hot Buttered Rum was able to produce an album packed with melodic bluegrass topped with vibrant lyrics, to give that save-the-world kind of inspiration.

From the political “Guns or Butter” to the environmental “Poison Oak,” Hot Buttered Rum voice their sweet-sounding opinions over their polished musicianship. The band called on their friend Peter Rowan to open the album with “Firefly” and ended it smoothly with the help of Darol Anger and Mike Marshall on “Wedding Day.”

Hot Buttered Rum’s ten-track album Well Oiled Machine goes down as easily as the recycled vegetable oil their tour bus runs on.

— Monica Banks

Some by Sea’s Side Cho release an indie pleasure

Some By Sea

On Fire! (igloo)

Side Cho Records

3 out of 5

Some By Sea’s latest album On fire! (igloo) is a collection of tracks reminiscent of indie/emo rock that is worthy of “The O.C.”

After having self-released their debut album, they were picked up by Side Cho Records to put out their sophomore release for the pleasure of all fans indie.

Some By Sea began as a one-man side project and evolved into a quintet. Rachel Bowman on cello and piano adds an innovative twist, mixing in orchestral instrumentals with the emotionally charged lyrics and indie rock rhythms. This is an album for the emo rockers.

— Monica Banks

DVD shows Barrett as genius, not acid casualty

Syd Barrett

Under Review

Music Video Distributors

3 out of 5

Syd Barrett is a man whose mythology will always overshadow or at least heavily cloak his musicianship.

While his former bandmates in Pink Floyd have become global superstars, Barrett remains an enigma and a complete recluse. But it was Barrett who originally formed the band, immediately becoming its chief songwriter and lead guitarist, as well as the driving force behind much of the material on the band’s famed album Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Under Review paints a glorious picture of the singer and songwriter as founder of one of the ’60’s pinnacle psychedelic acts, but the DVD also reveals insights into Barrett’s battle with mental illness.

Barrett has long been labeled as one of the great acid casualties of the ’60s, with rumors of a severe breakdown due to his use of LSD. (My favorite rumor is the one that he was so disturbed that he had to be placed in a mental hospital, complete with straight jacket, after trying to peel himself like an orange.)

But Under Review reveals a different side of the story, with biographers and close friends saying that it was mental illness, in and of itself, that led to Barrett’s mental decline, odd song structure and eventual departure from Pink Floyd in 1968.

The DVD follows Barrett from his creative prime, with Piper material such as “Arnold Layne,” “See Emily Play,” “Bike” and “Interstellar Overdrive,” through embarrassing moments like the Spinal Tap-esque “Apples and Oranges,” and concludes with an overview of Barrett’s obscure solo work, produced by former bandmate Roger Waters and his Floyd replacement, David Gilmour.

All in all, Under Review is best viewed as documentary of Pink Floyd’s earliest recordings and a snapshot of what could have been, had Barrett stayed around long enough to see it all materialize.

— Brian F. Johnson

From the Barstool of the Publisher - February, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:50:30 +0000

A congratulations is in order.

For more than two years friends, fans and family have been anxiously holding their breaths waiting for an announcement that Boulder’s best rock band, Rose Hill Drive, had signed to a label. There were a lot of close calls and even more speculation, but this month all of those folks finally exhaled (as opposed to all of us, who simply continue to inhale).

Rose Hill Drive’s manager, Brian Schwartz, first let the surprise be known when he appeared before the New Year’s Eve shows, where Rose Hill performed Led Zeppelin I in its entirety, with trimmed locks. (The band and its manager had made a pact long ago that none of them would cut their hair until a deal had been inked.)

But Schwartz, one of the kings of suspense, did not let the cat out of the bag then, and kept even close insiders at arms’ length as the final details were hammered out.

In mid-January, however, it was finally announced that the band has signed a multi-faceted deal with Megaforce Records and with local family SCI Fidelity.

Schwartz was careful to point out that the signing in and of itself is not that big of a deal and that the band’s first release will be the real triumph.

The band immediately went into the studio after New Years and laid down the tracks for the as-of-yet untitled album, which should be out in late spring or early summer.

With Schwartz’s sentiments in mind, it may be true that Rose Hill Drive has yet to win the big game, but they have scored a major touchdown and for that we applaud, or more appropriately, pump our fists in their direction.

I still remember clearly the first time I heard Rose Hill Drive — late one night nearly three years ago, driving home from a concert when a friend said they needed something loud to stay awake. “I have no idea what this is, but it’s supposed to be loud,” I told him, as I slid the band’s first demo/EP into the player. We sat there dumbfounded as the band’s “In the News” cranked through the system’s feeble speakers, and I immediately became a fan.

Since then, I have seen the band grow musically as if someone was pouring major amounts of Musical Miracle-Gro on them daily. I’ve been around to see their early gigs where few people knew about them, to seeing sold out shows every time they play the area. It’s been a pleasure to watch and we at The Marquee can’t wait for the future chapters of this band to unfold before our eyes.

Congratulations gentlemen! We wish you all the best. You deserve it.

We’ll see you at the shows.

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers caravan into town with Reverend Horton Heat

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:51:26 +0000

:: Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers ::

:: with Rev. Horton Heat ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 17 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :; February 18 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: February 19 ::

:: White Buffalo :: Febuary 25 ::

By Brian Kenney

Col. J.D. Wilkes works crowds like an iconic soothsayer, whipping them into a frenzy with hypnotic hymnals of psychedelic psychobilly. He is the preacher at a pulpit, the carnival sharpie, the vaudevillian expressionist, the village idiot, the court jester and the dynamic auctioneer all wrapped in one. In short, as the front man of Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, there are very few things that the Colonel isn’t.

“We throw everything at them but the kitchen sink,” Wilkes said of Shack Shakers’ shows. Anything and everything for the sake of entertainment, for showmanship, for the carnival. “We’re not up there trying to be respective to the clergy. We don’t play the tortured artist [because it comes down to] are you there for the crowd or are you there for yourself?”

The Colonel values above all else the performance. Even it if means assured sacrifices and risks. “[Performance art] desires a certain amount of self-deprecation,” Wilkes said. “Like Conan O’Brien. He plays the fool every night. But he plays the wise fool. These people know how to move an audience. They use humor to endear themselves to the audience. That’s what I love about Howlin’ Wolf and Jello Biafra.”

Col. J.D. Wilkes has learned the qualities of being a front man in the more than five years he and Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers have been together. Wilkes, given the honorary military title of colonel by the governor of Kentucky, earned that title for the same reason: he is a leader. Col. Wilkes epitomizes the front man and leadership role like that of some of the most quintessential front men in history, many of which Wilkes has studied and admires. He appreciates the way an individual can sway a crowd, penetrating the complacency of an audience like a preacher at church.

“I watch the televangelist channel. Not a lot, but once in awhile. But it was Howlin’ Wolf. He is a real showman. He wasn’t just a force of nature; he was also a trickster, a humorous jokester. He wasn’t afraid to play the fool. It’s a return to charisma. A turn away from self importance,” Wilkes said.

It’s this vulnerability that endears himself to crowds and as a result, Wilkes can never let his guard down, even for a second. He has to front the show, captivate an audience, ring in the sideshow suckers, bamboozle the clem. Metaphorically speaking, he is a man of various disguises and he wears many hats.

There are very few things that Wilke’s band Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers aren’t. Folk, polka, delta blues, hillbilly bluegrass, country, gypsy, punk, rock and roll … and yodeling, the band covers it all.

Wilkes, with Mark Robertson on upright bass and David Lee on guitar, needs no advance man when they roll into town with a blues harp, the jawbone of an ass, a vibraslap, glockenspiel, a washboard and a handful of “penta-caustic” musical tongue-in-cheek sermons for the crowd.

“We try to go from performance artists to recording artists, and the way we go about that is to try to capture more eccentricities of sound and channel them into a musical direction; an auditory or sonic experience: tractor sounds, motors, fan belts, weird samples of auctioneers,” said Wilkes. “[We try to create] the same aesthetic perception in the minds of a live audience and in the studio. It all helps to reinforce the mental image.”

Hank III’s a big fan. Robert Plant requested them to open shows on his European tour. Reverend Horton Heat habitually pulls them on the road with him, and Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra has called Col. J.D “the last great rock and roll front man.”

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers released their debut Cock-a-Doodle-Don’t in 2003. Their latest disc Pandelirium, a February 2006 release (on Yeproc), according to Wilkes, has got that same carnival sideshow feeling to it. “A Southern gothic carnival theme. A different type of a big top thing. Different from our last one, which had a religious theme [2004’s Believe].”

These observations often trickle into the content of Wilkes’ songs. “I write about things around me that fascinate me. But I don’t do it from a point of view that is condescending or ironic ... That’s the difference between the Shack Shakers and other country,” he surmises. “We’re not trying to be ironic or coffee shop cowboys…with all hat and no herd.”

:: Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers ::

:: with Rev. Horton Heat ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 17 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :; February 18 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: February 19 ::

:: White Buffalo :: Febuary 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Reverend Horton Heat

• Scotch Greens

• Bedouin Soundclash

Outformation puts a contemporary twist on the Southern Rock Genre

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:53:23 +0000

:: Outformation ::

:: Cactus Jack’s Saloon :: February 2 ::

:: The Starlight :: February 3 ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: February 4 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 5 ::

:: Southern Sun :: February 6 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

For guitarist Sam Holt, Outformation was a band many years in the making. Holt and bass player Grady Upchurch played together in high school bands before both relocated to Atlanta, Ga., where Holt landed his job as guitar tech for Michael Houser and Widespread Panic.

While working in that capacity, Holt continued to play with Upchurch on the side until Houser’s death in 2002 prompted him to pay more attention to his own musical dreams.

Currently at work with Widespread Panic in the Bahamas, Holt spoke with The Marquee about the evolution of his band.

“[Houser] was always a real supporter of mine,” said Holt. “He would listen to me playing his guitar and tell me I should be playing music. When he got sick, things started to get more real, and I figured that if he believes in me, and [the other band members] believe in me, then there’s no reason not to do this.”

Holt and Upchurch recruited New Orleans drummer Lee Schwartz through mutual friends and Outformation became a full-fledged band after Houser’s untimely death from pancreatic cancer. With Schwartz rounding out the trio, Holt felt this band “could really be something.”

Outformation’s first studio effort, 2005’s Tennessee Before Daylight (produced by longtime friend and Panic keyboardist John “JoJo” Hermann), was released amidst much industry buzz, including a nomination for Album of the Year from Honest Tune Magazine. Holt describes the album as “definitely a song-oriented album, rather than a jam album, although we do jam live. It’s song-oriented rock with a southern feel,” he said.

It’s no wonder Holt is hard pressed to describe the band’s sound, which is influenced by artists ranging from Black Sabbath to Bill Withers to Willie Nelson to the Grateful Dead and, of course, Widespread Panic.

“For so long it’s been Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers that were thought of as Southern Rock, but I think it’s mutated,” said Holt. “That’s still where Southern Rock came from, but now it’s definitely something that’s more the feeling of southern rock.”

Holt describes his guitar style as “pretty heavy at times, with a lot of distortion, but there’s also a lot of country in it. Well, before country got too cheesed out. I play with my thumb instead of a pick,” he continued, “and that’s a pretty distinct sound. I borrow a lot from Toy Caldwell of the Marshall Tucker Band.”

While it is decidedly exciting that Outformation has appeared so forcefully on the scene, it has become increasingly difficult for Holt to wear both of his hats as Outformation frontman and Widespread Panic employee. “It’s definitely a give and take,” he said. “The exposure helps us grow — occasionally we play after Panic shows — but then we can only tour when Panic’s not touring. Right now it’s a pretty good thing for us. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing both, but we’re gonna find out.”

“Teching is a job — which I do love,” said Holt. “But with guitar playing, all the emotions that you have can come out. Playing guitar is expressing how you feel. It took me a while to be able to play like that.”

In addition to the original trio, Outformation has picked up some additional players for their current tour: Denver’s own C.R. Gruver (Polytoxic) joins on keys, Clarke Keown on guitar, and Jeff “Birddog” Lane on percussion.

“We put our heart in our music,” said Holt, “and that’s all we can do.”

:: Outformation ::

:: Cactus Jack’s Saloon :: February 2 ::

:: The Starlight :: February 3 ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: February 4 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 5 ::

:: Southern Sun :: February 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Allman Brothers Band

• Widespread Panic

• Marshall Tucker Band

Galactic weathers Katrina’s wrath, gets land legs back after Jam Cruise

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:53:38 +0000

:: Galactic :: with special guests Leo Nocentelli of the Meters, Big Chief Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians, Teddy Boutte, and the Rebirth Brass Band :: Fillmore Auditorium :: February 18 ::

By Karen Schneider

New Orleans-based Galactic has been through some turbulent times lately, but that won’t stop the party band from doing what they do best — funking all night. With what seems to be a special affinity for the late-night shows, Galactic is one of those great bands that can, and often does, play until the sun comes up.

Recently wrapping up another stint on Jam Cruise, The Marquee caught up with guitarist Jeff Raines as he and his bandmates worked to get their land legs back.

“The Jam Cruise people ... every year they have progressively gotten the whole thing more and more organized. It’s always good fun. It’s kind of nice for us to do something different for a week a year. I think Jam Cruise is really fun for the fans because there’s no backstage, everyone is just kind of hanging out,” Raines said. And hanging out and partying is one of Galactic’s fortes.

“I think it benefits the bands as well. You end up meeting a lot of people who have been coming to see your shows for years and have never met you. The people are very respectful, and on that level I think it’s a really cool event,” Raines said.

Yet as nature has shown everyone, all the fun and partying in the world could not stop the fury and flood waters of Hurricane Katrina. Like many others in New Orleans, the band was hit hard by the storm. “We were definitely relatively lucky as a band. I mean, it’s hard to say you’re lucky, living in New Orleans these days. Richard (Vogel) our keyboard player’s house flooded, so he lost everything he owned. Ben Ellman, our saxophone player, moved — he needed a new roof on his house so he moved to New York, but besides him we’ve all stayed,” Raines said.

And Raines said that the band is determined to stay in New Orleans and re-build the city, and their lives. “We love the city, and we are going to help in rebuilding for however long that takes. This is not the kind of thing that’s going to change anytime soon. New Orleans can be such a refreshing place to live, pre-Katrina, but now, you really learn to appreciate what you’ve got after something like this happens,” Raines said.

Galactic built themselves their very own studio a few years back, a studio that is now condemned after the building next door collapsed. Pre-Katrina the band was also working on a new album, a project which has now been set back months. “We’re all here, trying to make it work, and it’s going really slowly, but little teeny things happen every day. In my neighborhood I can drive around for a few blocks and not even know that it happened, but then there will be a destroyed building. We are in the process of searching for another studio here in New Orleans. It’s kind of a bummer,” Raines said.

Another big change for the band was the departure of vocalist Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet in 2004, a move which redefined the band as an instrumental act.

“When we parted ways with our singer, it felt like the right thing to do at the time. I think we have been having more fun with the projects just seeing what happens in this environment,” Raines said. While the band has had guest vocalists sit in on certain performances, they are not actively looking for another lead singer. As for the fans, the band said that it has had no complaints.

“I like to think that our music comes from an honest place. It’s not like we are this music industry-created band of people that was put together to make money for some record label. We are real musicians playing real music, and we’re not trying to get on the radio and be pop stars, we are trying to make a living actually playing gigs. I think there is a certain honesty in that, and that maybe translates to people’s experience seeing us,” Raines said.

That honesty, from both the band and the fans, is valued within the jam band music scene, the scene that has embraced Galactic with open arms. “I think as a music scene, the whole jam band scene is pretty cool.” Raines said. “Generally the fans are very into seeing live music, and not all about watching MTV and hearing pop radio, which I think is great. I always thought the jam band scene was descendants of the Grateful Dead, and our band has nothing to do whatsoever with the Grateful Dead. No one in our band was ever really influenced by that band, I don’t think our music really is, so I found it kind of surprising that the scene embraced what we were doing, and it felt very fortunate, really.”

Galactic started some 10-odd years ago with the relocation of two former punks from Washington D.C. Guitarist Jeff Raines and bassist Robert Mercurio decided they needed some schooling, New Orleans style. While Mercurio attended Loyola, Raines attended Tulane. Both got their degrees, but got a much more important education from the bars and shows of the Crescent City. Inspired by the music of Dr. John, The Meters, Professor Longhair and The Neville Brothers, to name a few, the two got their degrees in funkology as well.

The pair swiftly met up with the other members of Galactic (Ben Ellman on harmonica, tenor and baritone sax, Stanton Moore on drums and Richard Vogel on keys) through the New Orleans music scene, and the band started out mainly as a Meters cover band. After a while they decided they needed to play their own music, and Galactic was born. “In the end, we’re a funk band and we play funk music and we try to make it fun for people to come and see our shows, to dance and maybe forget some of their daily grind and have a good time for a few hours,” Raines said.

Currently the band is busy with their new Coup de Gras Tour, inspired by the New Orleans annual celebration of Mardi Gras. The tour began in Tempe, AZ. and wraps up in New Orleans on Mardi Gras weekend with two nights at Tipitina’s.

“I think there is a national interest now more so than ever before in all things New Orleans,” Raines said.

:: Galactic :: with special guests Leo Nocentelli of the Meters, Big Chief Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians, Teddy Boutte, and the Rebirth Brass Band :: Fillmore Auditorium ::

:: February 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Meters

• Dirty Dozen Brass Band

• The Neville Brothers

Matt Pond PA shoots straight with sixth album, Several Arrows Later

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:54:38 +0000

:: matt pond PA :: with dios malos :: Bluebird Theater :: February 25 ::

By Molly Chappell

matt pond PA isn’t a place in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t something that’s being put on the map.

matt pond PA is, in fact, a “chamber pop” band that has gotten placed in the atlases of the world by creating music that is delicately layered, with a persistent beat that keeps it from becoming another depressing melody.

Several Arrows Later is the sixth full-length album by the band, but to Matt Pond, the man, it is the most successful. “I like our other albums, but I like this one more because I am more in tune with it right now. I am probably most in tune with what I am writing right now. If each album wasn’t better than the last one I probably wouldn’t put it out,” said Pond in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Matt Pond, the man, grew up in New Hampshire, but matt pond PA, the band, was formed in Philadelphia, where pond lived in the late 1990s.

matt pond PA recorded several albums and EPs during Pond’s Philadelphia tenure, enjoying brief stints on labels File 13 and Polyvinyl. During this period band members came and went, making matt pond PA more of a revolving cast than a permanent company. In 2003 Pond moved to Brooklyn, where he met the people that would finally root the band in friendship and fidelity: Brian Pearl (guitars/piano), Dan Crowell (drums) and Daniel Mitha (bass). The following year, matt pond PA released Emblems (Altitude). People took notice, the critics liked it and a couple of songs even showed up on “The O.C.”

Pond wrote the bulk of Several Arrows Later during the time he was settling into New York, running away to New Hampshire to escape his claustrophobia and touring in his big white van. It is an autobiographical album full of anxiety and nostalgia, longing and fulfillment. “Philly wasn’t good for me … there were mutual dislikes,” Pond said of his initial move away from the City of Brotherly Love.

Now that he’s officially a New Yorker, he said that ‘The City’ is a nurturing environment for his band and for his music as an art form. “In this city people are in bands and go to see other bands. It is exciting to have my heroes and idols come to see us. That is the greatest thing ever — when musicians you respect come to see you. I moved to New York with the intention of being ambitious. It’s hard to do that in other places without undermining yourself ... It is easier to be in New York because you are not humiliated by your passion,” said Pond.

All of that being said, Pond still looks back with fondness on his days in the sparsely populated corner of New England. “I lived in New Hampshire until I was 18,” he said. “It is a lot quieter. I never realized what a spastic person I was until I moved. In New York you are getting touched by hundreds of people every time you are on a subway, but people are trying to do something here and living here is hard. “

Hard living, however, has given way to good payoffs for the band, even though, in Pond’s eyes, the triumphs have not taken away from his goal of making music that comes from the heart. matt pond PA has two songs on “The O.C.” soundtrack and has appeared on “Conan O’Brien.” “I don’t think anything has made us change according to what’s happened. If anything I have gotten less conscious. When I was on TV I was not self-conscious at all. We don’t write songs with the intention of being on ‘The O.C.,’” he said.

While he may not be self conscious, Pond still has self doubts about his music “I sometimes wonder if I have a terminal disease and people are encouraging me to make me feel okay,” he said. “I am always being interpreted by other people. Some have gone as far as trashing me. It’s hard not to listen. Other times they will make up the most brilliant things and say I said them.”

:: matt pond PA :: with dios malos ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: February 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Death Cab for Cutie

• Bright Eyes

• The New Pornographers

Bright Channel Shines its way through indie-rock gloom on its D.I.Y. sophomore CD

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:55:22 +0000

:: Bright Channel :: with Monofog and Moccasin :: Hi-Dive :: February 24 ::

By Cornelia Kane

After having their debut record produced by Steve Albini, the guitarist of the 1980s cult band Big Black, who is most famous for producing classic albums by Nineties rock acts, including Nirvana, the Pixies and PJ Harvey, it seems like there wouldn’t be much in the indie-rock world left to achieve for the Denver-based melodic rockers Bright Channel. So the band —which takes its name from a recording term — took the next logical step, self-recording and producing their new record, due out this month on their own label, in their own recording studio that they built themselves.

Oh, and they do their own cover artwork, too, adhering completely to the indie-rock D.I.Y. mantra.

“This record, in particular, is kind of an experiment to see how much we actually could handle taking on ourselves. We did all the writing, the music and all the recording, production, mixing, artwork, all that stuff. It became a pretty big chore but I think it came together all right,” said guitarist Jeff Suthers in a recent interview with The Marquee.

The band, which was named Best Live Band by Westword in 2004, only relinquished mastering duties on the new release, the one thing Suthers is quick to point out that they didn’t do. The band turned the record over to the same person that mastered the first album, who came on the recommendation of Albini.

“We thought it would be a good comparison to have the same guy master, like, an Albini recording versus what we came up with ourselves, just to give us a reference for how we should handle this stuff in the future,” said Suthers.

Suthers added that the band, which is rounded out by bassist Shannon Stein and drummer Brian Banks, plans to remain independent. With their own label up and running, staffed chiefly by the band members, and their own studio set up just the way they want it, it doesn’t appear that they need much help from the outside world at all.

“The first one we recorded with Steve Albini you know, so it was a little bit of a change of pace [to record on our own] but I think we’re pretty happy with it. We were able to spend a little bit more time on it than we did on the first one, with mixing and fix-its, that sort of thing,” said Suthers.

The band that rose like a phoenix from the ashes of other critically acclaimed area bands, including Pteranodon and Volplane, has been labeled as “shoe-gazer” rock, but that definition misses its target rather widely.

On the new album Self Propelled, due out this month on their own label, Flight Approved, the band shines with a fierce intensity, seeming to channel Sonic Youth’s shimmering wall of noise at times. Suthers’ vocals come through the intricate texture of the songs, sometimes sounding a bit like a Sebadoh-era Lou Barlow.

The band’s first album, self-titled and released in 2004 on Flight Approved, was recorded in only one week at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago. The latest project, by contrast, took between six and eight weeks to record.

Suthers said he enjoyed both experiences, but welcomed having a more relaxed schedule the second time around. “The biggest thing was having the time to step outside of it for a week or two and maybe have some friends listen to, and then maybe go back and make a few adjustments from there. This way allows for a lot more creative control, and we save a few bucks,” he said.

Flight Approved, Suthers said, is a bit of a self-indulgent project on one hand, while also being a vehicle to help friends in the indie scene. “It’s kind of a homespun little label that we came up with to release some projects that we had going on and also friends of ours,” he said. Both Pteranodon albums are available through the label. Volplane, a band that included both Suthers and Stein and existed from approximately 1995 to 1999, recorded two records’ worth of material but they have never been released. Mastering and releasing that material is a goal that Suthers has set for the label in the future. “It’s all just in a pile now,” he said.

:: Bright Channel ::

:: with Monofog and Moccasin ::

:: Hi-Dive :: February 24 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Brian Jonestown Massacre

• Dandy Warhols

• Sonic Youth

Motion City Soundtrack’s newest release brings fresh sound to familiar formula

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:56:38 +0000

:: Motion City Soundtrack :: Gothic Theatre :: February 21 ::

By Matt Marty

“Never judge a book by its cover” is a well-known euphemism that is often over-looked in our day-to-day routine and even more easily overlooked in today’s music world. Motion City Soundtrack is a band that can easily be labeled on a first listen — a power pop band with just enough angst for teens everywhere to gravitate to, but not so much angst as to alienate themselves from mainstream radio play. They have catchy melodies and great harmonies, which for a lot of people is reason enough to look the other way, but Motion City Soundtrack has something different about them which makes that old adage ring true.

Motion City Soundtrack is a band with a lot to offer, and a band that has paid its dues to get to where it is today. Formed in 1999 when vocalist/guitarist Josh Cain convinced his friend Justin Pierre (who handles guitar, vocals and Einstein-styled highlighted hair) to start the band, Motion City Soundtrack, which later included bassist/pianist/vocalist Matthew Taylor and drummer Tony Thaxton, gained recognition not through their hometown, but rather through their relentless attack on other cities throughout the midwest and east coast. “We played cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee and they treated us much better than Minneapolis because we didn’t play here that often,” said keyboardist and moog player Jesse Johnson in a recent interview with The Marquee.

The first big break for Motion City Soundtrack came in the summer of 2003 with the release of “The Future Freaks Me Out,” a song off their first album I Am The Movie. Because of the success of their single, Motion City Soundtrack was asked to join Blink-182 on a tour of Europe and Japan in 2004. This was more than Motion City Soundtrack had ever expected. “We have exceeded anything we’ve ever thought we could do, so just as long as we can stay where we are now we will be happy,” said Johnson.

Somewhere backstage on that tour, Blink bassist Mark Hoppus modestly mentioned to the group that he was interested in pursuing production work once his band took a necessary pause later in the year. Though he didn’t know it at the time, Hoppus had just found his first client. “We thought of it almost as a joke,” said Cain. “But on our last day of tour I asked him, point blank, ‘Do you want to produce our record?’ When he said, ‘Fuck yeah’ I was like, ‘Okay … can I get your phone number then?’”

One of the reasons for the unique sound of Motion City Soundtrack that has gained them a faithful legion of fans, comes from their diverse musical influences. “Some of us grew up listening to metal, some of us grew up listening to punk, and some of us grew up listening to indie rock,” said Johnson. Each member’s personal musical taste contributes to a sound that is very difficult to pin down. It is a familiar sound, and yet it is something new and very fresh.

This new and fresh sound has gained them recognition by music lovers, enough so that Motion City Soundtrack is now embarking on their first headlining tour of the United Kingdom and North America. Playing just over 40 shows in the next three months, the band has sold out venues on both sides of the Atlantic promoting their newest album, Commit This To Memory.

The Mark Hoppus-produced Commit This To Memory is a large step for such a young band to take, and a step that most bands never actually get to take. Listening to a CD from start to finish is rare nowadays and Motion City Soundtrack’s newest release is that rare CD that can be put in without the need to go back and forth between tracks. “We all really wanted it to flow, and kind of tell a story and still have everything leading to the next,” said Johnson.

A key track on this CD is a song that might not see radio play, but does the exact opposite of what is currently being done in the music industry. Rather than putting filler songs in between potential singles, Motion City Soundtrack put a song called “Feel Like Rain” in the middle of Commit This To Memory to lead into the second half of the album. It is refreshing for music lovers to buy a CD and find more great tracks instead of a single that is surrounded by very mediocre songs.

In a very competitive industry, that is what separates Motion City Soundtrack from the rest of the pack. They are a band that is willing to take a risk for quality, and not compromise to an industry that revolves around the one song that could hit number one. And that theme is something that could help propel them even further than their wildest dreams already have.

:: Motion City Soundtrack ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: February 21 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Fall Out Boy

• All American Rejects

• Matchbook Romance

Bayside regroups after tragedy

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:57:43 +0000

:: Bayside :: Marquis Theatre :: February 2 ::

By Brian Kenney

Many say that 2005 was a tragic year, but for New York’s Bayside, tragic is an understatement.

When a band tours heavily, spending more of their time on the road than with their families, strange events can occur. Sometimes those events are tragic. For Bayside fans, Boulder and Halloween 2005 will always bruise their memories and hold a bittersweet spot in their hearts. It was the last show for drummer John “Beatz” Holohan.

On Halloween night, while on the Never Sleep Again Tour with fellow Warped Tour alum and label-mates Hawthorne Heights and Silverstein, Bayside played a show at the Boulder Theater, and after finishing their set, caravanned ahead in their tour van.

Shortly after 3 a.m., on a stretch of highway on the outskirts of Cheyenne, Wyo., their van hit a patch of black ice, skidded off the road and rolled over. Much of the crew were seriously injured. Bassist Nick Ghanbarian suffered major back trauma. Vocalist Anthony Raneri and guitarist Jack O’Shea escaped injury. Drummer Holohan did not. He was killed on impact.

Devastated but dealing with the tragedy as best they could, Raneri and O’Shea headed back out on tour as a duo, rejoining Hawthorne Heights and Silverstein in Florida near the end of the tour.

It sounded then, as it does now, like a daunting decision, but scroll back to the year 2000 and you will see that Long Island’s Bayside has always persevered.

Born out of the same punk scene that produced Taking Back Sunday and Brand New, Bayside took their name from a trendy iconic Queens neighborhood.

In some respects Raneri and company have always been marketing geniuses, self-promoting machines. They were one of the first bands to take advantage of a fledgling blog domain known as myspace.com and even went further to initiate the tongue-in-cheek web domain baysideisacult.com

“It [myspace] is just one more way for a new band to do it themselves,” Raneri said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Ten to 15 years ago a band always needed money for promotions and if you didn’t have it, it wasn’t going to work. Now, it’s like if you work hard you’ll get your music out there.”

Bayside’s music has gotten out there and rave reviews have stoked their East Coast popularity, their fan loyalty and in a post 9/11 world, their generosity. Gathering with fellow New York borough bands, Bayside appeared on From Brooklyn with Love, a punk compilation benefiting the victims of 9/11. Subsequent tour offers poured in, and after several EP, and a few line-up tweakings in which bassist Ghanbarian and drummer Holohan came aboard, Bayside released their Victory Records debut. 2004’s Sirens and Condolences proved a prophetic title to what would happen a little over a year later.

Still very much in the process of healing, the band is now promoting their most recent self-titled release. Raneri surmises, “After [John’s passing] we went back on tour. I wouldn’t call it back on our feet necessarily, but we were back on tour,” he said, before pausing a minute. “But now we’re where we need to be. And we wanted to get right back to Boulder! We wanted to get right back to Salt Lake City!"

New addition Gavin Miller (of the recently disbanded Santa Barbara outfit Staring Back) has come in behind the kit and Nick Testa joins as interim bassist until Ghanbarian recovers and returns full time.

After this tour Bayside will open a series of dates for their inspirational heroes The Smoking Popes, an act that Bayside readily covers on their soon-to-be-released CD/DVD Bayside Acoustic. The disc, which features Popes covers as well as an Elliot Smith tune — in addition to one new gem, “Winter” — chronicles the acoustic shows Raneri and O’Shea played in the aftermath of October’s tragedy.

:: Bayside :: Marquis Theatre :: February 2 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Alkaline Trio

• Taking Back Sunday

• Brand New

Low relinquishes its slowcore crown

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:58:23 +0000

:: Low :: The Black Sheep :: February 24 ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: February 25 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

After years of reigning as the crowned kings of “slowcore,” Low’s recent album The Great Destroyer has pleasantly surprised critics and fans alike with its lushly textured, almost upbeat sound. The opening tracks of the album, “Monkey” and “California,” are dangerously close to being radio friendly and yet they still seem to appeal to even the most cynical of the indie-rock kids.

With subtle hooks that dangle delicately over a soundscape that is as wintery as a January night in Minnesota, Low’s Sub-Pop Records debut is mesmerizing and strikingly original. Images in grainy black and white of snow drifts and abandoned farmhouses are conjured up by the haunting sound that reverberates from the soul of this band.

Alan Sparhawk (vocals and guitar) and his wife Mimi Parker are the backbone of Low. Parker sits behind a minimalist drum kit, providing the booming backbeat and the harmony vocals that so distinctly characterize the sound of this 13-year-old band. Until recently, bass duties were performed by Zak Sally. Sally’s departure from the band in December had been hinted at as far back as 2003 and has prompted Sparhawk and Parker to invite fellow Duluth resident Matt Livingston to join the band for the time being.

“Being a band that had a certain groove for many years and to have one of those parts change to something different has taught us a lot about who we are and who we aren’t. Livingston is an incredibly talented musician and bass is actually his second instrument. He also plays sax in a really great reggae band,” Sparhawk recently told the Marquee from the home he shares with Parker and their five-year-old daughter Hollis. “I am looking forward to these shows because time and time again it has proven this is how we figure out things as a band, just to go out and play shows and see how it goes.”

In a move that doesn’t seem to be common in the world of touring musicians, young Hollis joins the band on most of their road trips. “It means bringing a nanny on the road and planning shows so people can get where they need to be, and kids can get fed and be to bed on time,” said Sparhawk. The guitarist seems proud of the way they have chosen to raise their daughter. “I can already see that she has developed certain characteristics because of her unique lifestyle that I think are good.”

After the initial tour in support of The Great Destroyer, Low took some time off the road. The time off seems to have been a good decision. Sparhawk feels up to getting up every day, and while he acknowledges he may not be the right man to make that decision about touring, he admits that his wife has the “veto power,” and she didn’t use it this time.

In addition to giving Sparhawk time to put things back together, the break also allowed him to concentrate on things other than touring, like his daughter and his songwriting. “I have a ton of new songs that I have been writing. I like the songs but right now I am not sure that I like how they sound,” said Sparhawk. “We’ll get to work some of that out on the road on this next tour. We like to work through new songs when we are out on the road, as we know that most of the people coming out have heard us play the songs off of The Great Destroyer already. We’ll play some of them, but we are going to try not to rely on those songs.”

This time out, Low will venture into a new Denver venue for them. “Usually when we play Denver, we play the Bluebird and that is one of my favorite venues, but I think this time we are playing the Larimer Lounge,” Sparhawk said.

:: Low ::

:: The Black Sheep :: February 24 ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: February 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sigur Ros

• M83

• Wilco

The Giraffes berate today’s image of rock and roll with no apologies

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:59:56 +0000

:: The Giraffes :: Larimer Lounge :: February 18 ::

By Cornelia Kane

At 28, most people have yet to suffer one heart attack, let alone two, and most certainly aren’t walking around with a pacemaker already installed. But for The Giraffes vocalist Aaron Lazar, it’s just par for the course.

Apparently, one day last January, he was walking around New York City’s Chinatown when he blacked out. He regained consciousness later in an emergency room and learned that he had suffered two heart attacks and was now outfitted with a device that sends electric shocks to his most vital organs when his blood pressure is sufficiently elevated. Being the singer for Brooklyn’s premier up-and-coming “sexy rock” combo, this development hasn’t caused him to ease up a bit and as a result, he sometimes pays the price onstage, when his life-saving device gives him a life-affirming shock in the middle of a particularly rockin’ set. That’s hard-core.

But that is not even close to the real reason that this band rocks so hard. To fully comprehend it, one has to listen to The Giraffes latest album or go see their live show and bear witness to some of the most interesting facial hair since the inception of the November Beard Club (Lazar, for his part, sports a spiffy handlebar). But watch out for split lips and shattered eardrums.

The band came together in 1996 when original members guitarist Damien Paris, bassist John Rosenthal, and drummer Andrew Totolos were playing a bar gig and singer Lazar happened to stumble in with a friend of his, named Tim, who Lazar affectionately refers to as a “total miscreant and general dirt-bag.”

“I really liked what they were doing with just instrumentals, like surf metal stuff, and then I heard they were looking for a singer,” said Lazar in a recent interview with The Marquee. “So, of course I got drunk and acted like a buffoon, but somehow I still got the gig.”

Now, Lazar’s Thin Lizzy-meets-Urge Overkill vocals and punch-drunk attitude seem an integral part of the four-piece’s hard rocking, yet strangely danceable style that seems heavily influenced by Seventies rock bands like MC5 or Thin Lizzy.

The band released two albums on their own before getting signed to hot indie label Razor & Tie last year, almost by accident. Once again, the right person happened to be in the right place at the right time, as a friend of Paris’s brought a friend who used to work for MTV along to a gig one night, and from there everything seemed to fall into place. The Giraffes’ newest album is their third, a self-titled, self-produced piece released in July 2005 on Razor & Tie. The band spent some time sleeping and recording by themselves in a converted barn in the Hudson Valley to make The Giraffes, and the resulting album is arguably their most polished to date.

The band writes together, but Lazar is chiefly responsible for the lyrics. Or, as he puts it, “they’re my fault. You don’t have to be a poet to be a good lyricist … poetry can suck a dick.”

The Giraffes flows song to song with intensity and tons of balls, and the band makes no apologies for it. “If you hate it, then go enjoy John Mayer and make sure to give him a reach around,” said Lazar. “This is a rock album, a well executed, no bullshit piece of rock music to be blasted as loud as possible.”

The band’s raucous live shows are things of legend, with passion, fighting and complete mayhem as the only rule. The Giraffes recent New Year’s Eve show at the Ace of Clubs in N.Y.C. was one of the best in Lazar’s recent memory. “We were all expecting to get hurt. It was relatively violent, I’d say, but not too crazy. My girlfriend got her head cut,” he said.

The title of their second album, Helping You Help Yourself, released on the independent Apesauce Records, was taken from a pair of machetes that hang crossed on the wall in Lazar’s apartment, the blades of which read, “Helping You” on one, and on the other, “Help Yourself.” Another of Lazar’s interesting hobbies, after music and hurting himself, is collecting knives, swords, machetes and bayonets. Now that’s rock and roll.

And this band is all about rock and roll. They claim on their website that “somewhere along the way, rock and roll lost its edge and humor to a tawdry compromise with commercial success and the tired hackery that goes along with the trumping of ‘the next big thing.’ Ever since, the world has bathed in the hyperbole of bad promotion when a bucket of shit to the face would’ve been just as sufficient. Rock is dead and (N.Y. rock critic) Chuck Eddy killed it.”

:: The Giraffes ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: February 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• MC5

• Thin Lizzy

• Danko Jones

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club restored to health with a Howl

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 18:00:44 +0000

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club :: Gothic Threatre :: February 5

By Emily H. Lanigan

In August 2004, amid exhaustive touring and personal excess, the three founding members of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the stage in Edinburgh, Scotland and walked off as a twosome. Without drummer Nick Jago, the remaining members, guitarist Peter Hayes and bassist Robert Levon Been, holed up in a basement studio outside of Philadelphia and began creating what would be the Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Abandoning their fuzzed out clamor, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club went back to basics. “We changed out the sound. Some of our fans don’t recognize it. But in my mind this is the music that started rock and roll. We just picked all the pieces apart,” said Been in a recent interview with The Marquee.

In a sense, Howl was the crutch that kept the music going through a trying time for the band. “We split up as a band before the record happened and we used the record to keep ourselves going. Those are the reasons that we started in the first place. The album and the songs did help us a lot, it got us through a bad time,” said Been. “So it’s pretty special to me and I’m proud of the music. It means a little more.”

Some might argue that for these reasons, Howl is a very self-serving album. Been doesn’t deny that and admits that in making Howl there was no consideration of the audience. “I think it’s still important to make selfish music, in the best sense of the word. I feel that far too often people try too hard to cater to other people.”

This is an adage that many artists have touted over the years, including legends such as George Harrison, who claimed to never to listen the radio; Bob Dylan, who was publicly scorned for plugging in; and contemporaries like Wilco, who have shifted sounds countless times, alienating fans and record company executives in the process.

Been sees those examples as road maps to finding the music that he was truly destined to make. “[We] try not to cater. If you make music that you really believe in, then people will find it,” said Been.

However, Howl was not an album that happened at the spur of the moment as a reactionary piece. It is a pre-meditated collection of songs written over several years. “We’ve been writing these songs ever since we started,” said Been, explaining that the tracks on the album are what the band calls “back porch songs. Most of them were written on a deck or stoop somewhere. Anywhere there was some wood around. Enough wood to stomp your feet and keep the rhythm going.”

And as the band recorded the tracks, they kept not only the rhythm going, but re-found their band as well. Jago rejoined the band toward the end of the recording process and was able to get back behind the drum kit on the song “Promise.”

“The record was pretty much finished, but at least we were able to have him play on one of his favorite songs. It brought things full circle,” said Been, who said that before Jago’s break the band was spiraling out of control. “We were attacking each other, it was insane and nobody wanted to be there; too many drugs; too many things pulling us down. We just didn’t know how to say ‘no’ anymore. We were running on empty.”

That exhaustion pushed the band members, all in their own ways, to find a way to “burn it all down to build it up from scratch, to make it matter again. Some of the songs were written as a kind of musical exercise. With ‘Possible Son,’ I was listening to a lot of Sam Cook and Otis Redding at the time. I did want to try my hand at that. And the same way with ‘Promise.’ I always wanted to try and write something like that. It sounded simple but hard as hell to pull off,” said Been.

Been further explained that he feels that sort of work is a good challenge and it keeps a musician working hard.

“If we made another rock record, it would’ve been hard to find a new place to go because we’d thrown in the kitchen sink for our second album,” said Been. “This was the genuine challenge that we needed. I think that’s a big reason why the band had been deteriorating, ‘cause we weren’t pushing ourselves. We knew there was a lot more we were capable of.”

“When you listen to old records, from the Beach Boys to Beatles to Stones to Neil Young, it sounded like they were going by the seat of their pants a little bit,” said Hayes. “So that kinda became the guiding principle for this record. It really sounded like those groups were having fun, never knowing where they were gonna land.”

However, because of the drastic change from fuzzed out rock to a folkier Americana sound, many BRMC fans have been disappointed with Howl, but Been and the band see it differently. “I think it’s a pretty nice record and it just wants to get along with everyone,” said Been. “I consider it very friendly compared to some of our other records who tried to get people more pissed off,” However, angry fans don’t bother Been. “I’m all for it because it’s not gonna be for everyone,” he said. “I’d rather people have a feeling of good or bad as long as it’s a feeling. It’s inspiring.”

Howl may not really fit in with a lot of what’s on the musical forefront at the moment, but the band views that as a good thing — something that they can point to as part of the magic and originality of the release.

“I don’t think it sounds like the radio right now and it doesn’t sound like anything going on right now. And in that way people think it’s not interactive and doesn’t appeal,” said Been. “But if you don’t subscribe to that medium as the end-all be-all, then it’s one of the most universal records that we’ve ever done. And we wanted something that was gonna be an invitation to a lot more people than what we were expecting and it’s got a joyful spirit and comes with open arms.”

At the time of recording, BRMC was in between labels, which also seems to benefit Howl. “As soon as music was made into an industry, it took on a slightly different form and everything has a cost,” said Been. However, he doesn’t let that sway him from his love. “Music can heal and can protect and inspire a great mass number of people. You’ve got fight for it and that’s all that matters.”

Having departed from Virgin, Hayes and Been paid for studio time out of their own pockets for Howl. But once Howl was completed, label suitors were soon lining up to bring the band on board.

Fittingly, the group elected to go with RCA’s Ashley Newton, the same A&R man who’d originally signed them to Virgin Records back in 1999. RCA/Victor — home to Blind Willie McTell, Jimmie Rodgers, Sam Cooke and Waylon Jennings, all in their own way influences on Howl — seems a perfect place for BRMC. The group also secured a deal with ECHO in Europe.

“We’re lucky little bastards, RCA in the States and the cool thing with the ECHO arrangement overseas is that we’re linking it up with our own imprint, Abstract Dragon,” Been said. “We’ve taken a goddamn beating for having a D.I.Y. ethic regarding our music the last few years, now it’s finally paying off.”

Ultimately, it has to be understood that BRMC is a band that believes in the rock and roll mythos — the saving grace, the excess, the exquisite burn, and all the rest of it. The experience of the past year — the highs and lows, the tumult and triumph — has only strengthened their understanding of the precious human alchemy that occurs among the great rock groups, that same unique power that exists between them.

“I guess there was this unspoken thing between us that was finally spoken,” said Hayes. “Sure, we questioned each other for a while. But the band is bigger than the three of us. From where I came from, and how the three of us ended up together, it just doesn’t … it just doesn’t happen like that very often. You don’t get the opportunity to grow up together in this way. That should be respected and it shouldn’t ever be thrown away. We had to dig pretty hard and deep to figure that out, but it was all worth the wait.”

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club :: Gothic Threatre :: February 5

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Strokes

• The Charlatans

• Super Furry Animals

CD Reviews - March - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:50:29 +0000

Etienne de Rocher sets an astounding precedent with his self-titled debut CD

Etienne de Rocher

Fog City Records

4.5 out of 5

Some would call Etienne de Rocher a perfectionist. Others perhaps would call him genius. In the end, he is probably a little bit of both. After taking five years of hard work and dedication on his self-titled debut album, it becomes clear that this singer/songwriter isn’t messing around.

Like a picture-perfect painting of a struggling up-and-comer, Rocher began his career in the basement of a small Oakland, Calif. apartment building. It was here that Rocher laid down a four-track demo which was soon in the hands of record industry heavyweight Glen Ballard. As independent as the sounds on his album, Rocher turned down a deal with Capitol Records, with the intention of remaining faithful to his own sense of style.

After hearing his record, it becomes clear to any listener that Rocher is in it for the music, and it is the music that is at the heart of each and every song. This 12-track album is mature and fun, and one can’t help but fall in love with Rocher’s soothing voice and graceful rhythm.

Influenced by two of music history’s greats, The Beatles and Jimmy Page, is Rocher, a blossoming artist who has the potential to possess greatness.

— Michelle Gross

Tim Hanauer’s Boomerang Makes up for lost time

Tim Hanauer

Boomerang

440 Records

4 out of 5

The great traditional singer/songwriter style lives on in local music.

Tim Hanauer combines the surfer-boy lullabies of Jack Johnson with a John Mayer folk-tinged feel.

Hanauer didn’t start his journey into the musical realm until he was 17, but he’s making up for a late start.

“Yellow Raincoat” has already been featured on CBS’s “The Ghost Whisperer” and Denver’s own KQMT, The Mountain, has placed Hanauer’s cover of “8 Days A Week” as the first track on their Mountain Homegrown Volume IV release.

— Monica Banks

:: Tim Hanauer ::

:: Starlight :: March 10

:: D Note :: March 11

Adventure showcases indies

Various artists

Cuvée Vol. 3

Adventure Records

4 out of 5

For the third time now, Boulder’s own Adventure Records has come out with its Cuvée sampler that is a snapshot of today’s Front Range music scene.

Whereas previous Cuvée’s have featured a broad assortment of Colorado artists, Vol. 3 brilliantly takes a more direct look at the talented and growing Colorado indie scene.

From relative unknowns (Kettle Black) to those who have gone on to create large followings outside the Front Range (Devotchka), the CD drips with indie pride, wit, intelligence, and yes, whining in some cases.

— Brian F. Johnson

:: CD Release Party ::

:: f/ Hot IQs, Monofog, Mannequin Makeout and more ::

:: Trilogy ::

:: March 4 ::

We are Scientists emerge as indie’s new darlings

We Are Scientists

With Love And Squalor

Virgin Records

4 out of 5

As cute as the kitty-cats which grace the cover of their latest release, We Are Scientists are the latest buzz in the indie-rock scene.

Their debut album With Love and Squalor aptly combines a sense of pop-punk while attacking the new-wave indie-pop culture. Following in the footsteps of bands like The Killers and Bloc Party, We Are Scientists remain tasteful in creating their own unique sense of style and rhythm.

The trio of college pals, after graduating from Pomona College in California, headed straight for the Big Apple for a change of scene. After months of getting small local gigs around town, the band was offered a deal from Virgin Records. From there their sounds were heard internationally, inevitably selling out their first headline tour. Their debut album is host to the hit song “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt.”

For über-infobeggars, there are three music videos that come with the CD, one of which was directed by Akiva Scahffer, who directed SNL’s “Lazy Sunday.”

— Michelle Gross

No Dylan on Rolling Thunder DVD release

Bob Dylan/Joel Gilbert

1975 - 1987: Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years

Music Video Distributors

1 out of 5

You can’t say they don’t warn you. It says right on the DVD cover, “Contains no Bob Dylan songs.” They should have added, “Contains no point.” The DVD is supposed to be about Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and Gospel Years, but it comes across more as a what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation video from producer and director Joel Gilbert.

The equivalent of this would be a weird documentary on Mario Andretti that doesn’t mention cars.

— Brian F. Johnson

Motörhead’s Stagefright DVD captures the ‘loudest band in the world’ at their volumized best

Motörhead

Stagefright

SPV Records

4 out of 5

There has been a lot of hemming and hawing lately in music circles about the groundbreaking deal recently signed by the heavy metal band Korn. Most of the controversy surrounds the fact that Korn’s lead singer, who has never been one to mince words, has said that the band intends to “turn Korn into a brand name” by signing an exclusive deal with Clear Channel’s New Music that is more a business partnership than a traditional record deal.

The cries by many music purists that call the move proof that rock and roll has succumbed to big business and lost its creative spirit are rather absurd. If you think about it, The Rolling Stones, KISS and the Grateful Dead have all openly admitted, to varying degrees, that to have a successful career as a musician you have to have more than just raw talent but business smarts as well. This is something Lemmy Killmeister and his band Motörhead have been doing for 30 years.

Motörhead is one of those bands, much like AC/DC, Iron Maiden or The Ramones, that are highly respected by the majority of rock and roll fans based mainly on their legendary reputation. Many teens have worn out their first Motörhead shirt way before attending one of the band’s concerts.

In fact, Motörhead have single-handedly created a surly reputation that owes just as much to the band’s presence and attitude as it does to the band’s vast catalog of straight up rock and roll.

Motörhead’s music is also legendary; the band’s creative output is vast and eclectic, at least by stoner standards, and their live shows are to this day a stunning testament to all the things that make rock and roll a lifestyle for many fans.

However, over the band’s illustrious career visual documents of their live prowess have been restricted to low quality, illegal bootleg videos. Several years ago Motorhead finally released their first DVD, Boneshaker: 25 & Alive, but the DVD’s sound quality was uneven and many fans shunned the release.

The band’s newest DVD Stagefright, however, is a completely different matter. Filmed in the band’s home turf of Germany as they celebrated their 30th anniversary, Stagefright is a blistering dose of the group that many have called the “loudest band in the world.”

Stagefright is a beautifully edited concert, the show is presented in its entirety and the band’s performance in front of the camera is as humorous as it is rocking, thanks to Killmeister’s sarcastic wit. The band belts out high-octane versions of fan favorites like “Stay Clean” and “Just Because You Got The Power (That Don’t Mean You Got the Right)” for an ecstatic crowd. Even the band’s live staples like “Orgasmatron” and the infamous battle cry of “Ace of Spades” sound as potent today as they did when they were written.

While no DVD can completely capture a band’s live energy, the camera work on Stagefright comes very close. Filmed with 23 high definition cameras, Stagefright captures not only the enthusiasm of the band but also the enthusiasm of the crowd. From the bikers banging their heads during “Dr. Rock” to the teenage girls sitting on their boyfriends’ shoulders to get a better view, it’s easy to see the universal appeal Motörhead has had for metal fans.

In addition to the concert, Stagefright features a second disc of bonus material that highlights the road crew, the band’s legendary influence on the L.A. music scene and a documentary piece focusing on the band’s dedicated fans.

While a full documentary of the band is missing, fans who want to know more about Motörhead should check out Killmeister’s biography White Line Fever.

All in all, Stagefright is everything a good concert film should be: a complete concert with killer sound and editing and great packaging. Motörhead have spent their career playing by their rules and are still one of the best tickets around.

Long live Motörhead!

— Brandon Daviet

From the Barstool of the Publisher - March, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:51:44 +0000

Close this issue back up and take another look at that cover. While we’re honored to have James Blunt on the cover, that’s not what I’m referring to. Take a look at the little numbers near the top. Do you see it? It reads Vol. 4, as in one, two three, four.

Four is a pretty magical number in music, and in the world.

In music, four is the number of completed, numbered symphonies by Johannes Brahms. There were four Beatles. There are many four string instruments. There’s, of course, 4/4 time. 4 is the name of an album by Foreigner and Four is an album by Blues Traveler.

Elsewhere in the world, four is the smallest composite number, the number of classical elements (earth, air, fire, water), the number of terrestrial (or rocky) planets, the number of suits in a deck of playing cards and the number of horsemen of the Apocalypse (war, famine, plague, death). There are four seasons, four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) and there were four Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve.

There are about a hundred (or should I say, 400) more examples that I could give you, but I guess you’re wondering by now if I’m going anywhere with this. There are, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, four answers to that question: yes, positively, certainly and indubitably.

This issue marks the start of Year Number Four for The Marquee!

It’s a milestone we’re all too proud of. But in the chalkboard, detention-scrawled words of Bart Simpson (who only has four fingers, and no thumb) we “will not celebrate meaningless milestones.” Just know that we couldn’t have made it four years without your help. The Front Range community has embraced us for three complete trips around the sun and we can’t begin to thank you all enough.

It’s been a fantastic ride and we’re not about to stop. This year you’ll be seeing some big things from The Marquee. We’re set up to be sponsors on some of the biggest festivals in the state, including the Plunge Festival, which happens this month in Telluride (see page 22).

We will also launch our message board this month, a chance for y’all to get in contact with one another, look for tapers and traders, view on-line reviews and post your own comments about bands, shows, venues, etc. We hope that you take advantage of it and use it often, and that it maintains a good, positive feel as a music community meeting place. Thank you again for all of the support, encouragement and fun times. We appreciate it.

See you at the shows.

Thrice keeps its image while redefining their sound with release of Vheissu

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:52:19 +0000

:: Thrice ::

:: Taste of Chaos Tour ::

:: f/ Deftones, Story of the Year, Atreyu ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

::March 25 ::

By Brian Kenney

No more screamo. It wasn’t a declaration; it was more of an undercurrent, an unspoken rule, as loose as that rule could be.

On their latest disc VHEISSU (pronounced Vee-shoo), Orange County California’s Thrice issued an unwritten statement through their music: “We’ve moved beyond our sound.”

The Marquee caught up with Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge recently to discuss the headlining slot on the second annual Taste of Chaos Tour, as well as to divulge what prompted the shift on their creative compass. “It was definitely challenging, but as we’ve grown as people and musicians, the scope of music that we listen to has changed. Back in the day it was a lot of punk, hardcore, metal. But with this record we listened to everything from jazz to classical to movie scores to singer-songwriter stuff, and because of that, we’re trying to incorporate everything into us as a band. And this time around we had so much time to write and record and experiment with new instrumentation and arrangements, we could really implement those ideas,” Breckenridge said, during a recent tour stop in Texas.

As a band, guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge and drummer Riley Breckenridge challenge themselves to breach their comfort in favor of musical growth, a conscious decision that, for artists, often comes with a certain amount of vulnerability. If that’s the case, VHEISSU shows absolutely no insecurity or indecisiveness, but rather a well developed collection of fresh inventive voice and vision. “With the last record (2003’s Artist in the Ambulance) we had some lofty goals and ambitious ideas but we didn’t have the time to execute them. This time we had time to experiment. As a result, this record sounds like such a departure from what we’ve done in the past,” said Breckenridge.

But while changing some of where they came from, Thrice didn’t want to surrender their influences outright. Building upon the melodic, harmonic and chorus-driven scaffolding of Artist in the Ambulance, VHEISSU, released in October 2005, contains screamo throwbacks such as “Hold Fast Hope,” which testifies to where the band once was, and still, by and large, is. As relevant as that sound was, more challenging tunes such as “Between the End and Where We Lie” and “Atlantic” show a group whose past informed their present and is preparing them for a long distance future.

Thrice took the title for VHEISSU from one of the classics of post modern literature: V. Thomas Pynchon’s classic underground novel of 1963; VHEISSU is the loose collection of arcane myths found in its serpentine plot.

VHEISSU was recorded at the famed Bearsville Studio near Woodstock, N.Y. Bearsville is famous for hosting some of the industry’s heaviest hitters. The Pretenders, Phish, Blues Traveler, Foreigner and R.E.M. have all called the mountain getaway home for a few months in their recording careers.

Bearsville was a surprising venue for a punk band from Southern California to record in, but an epic venue for a punk band looking to recreate its sound. Producer Steve Osborne (Massive Attack, Doves, U2, Peter Gabriel) was brought on board in April, May and June of last year to create the distinct sound that materialized out of the sessions.

Breckenridge likened the studio to an artist’s retreat. “We did all of VHEISSU in The Barn [at Bearsville] and it’s so cool. You live in a little apartment in the middle of the woods. And you’re totally isolated from everything. You don’t have to worry about the rigors of life or stress from family and friends; you just focus on music and making an album,” he said.

Breckenridge fed off the studio vibe immensely. “You walk through the halls and see all the records recorded there and it’s equally inspiring and defeating because you see all these influential bands who’ve recorded here,” he said. “Dylan, 10,000 Maniacs — walls and walls of records recorded there. And then we say, ‘How the hell did we end up here?’”

Thrice, handpicked for the Taste of Chaos Tour by Warped Tour pioneer Kevin Lyman, has dutifully earned the headlining nod. In fact, Lyman held them in such high regard that they lent a hand in picking who would tour with them on Taste of Chaos 2006. “They actually gave us a little input on who was going to be on tour and who was going to be part of it. It’s a good variety of bands so you get an audience that is into different types of music but all interested in a good rock show. And it’s cool to be a part of that,” said Breckenridge.

:: Thrice ::

:: Taste of Chaos Tour ::

:: f/ Deftones, Story of the Year, Atreyu ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

::March 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Alkaline Trio

• Fallout Boy

• Radiohead

56 Hope Road takes jambase title of road warrior for 2005 tour schedule

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:53:41 +0000

:: 56 Hope Road ::

:: Sancho’s Broken Arrow :: March 13 ::

:: Conor O’Neill’s (Fort Collins) :: March 15 ::

:: Tivoli Student Union (CU Denver) :: March 16 :: (afternoon show)

:: Trilogy :: March 16 ::

:: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: March 18 :

By Yvette Rebik

Now known as the #1 “Road Warriors” for 2005 on JamBase, the high-powered acoustic funk band 56 Hope Road has double-clutched its touring vehicle and pointed the grille in the direction of another title for 2006.

“We didn’t expect to win, but we’re ecstatic because we’re proud of that honor,” said Steve Goveia, vocals and acoustic guitar, in a recent interview with The Marquee.

56 Hope Road played a total of 219 shows in 2005, surpassing approximately 12,000 bands registered on JamBase. “We wanted to play that many shows, and we’re happy that we were recognized by JamBase,” the band said in a release following the announcement.

Most bands at the level of 56 Hope Road have a 15-passenger van that everyone squishes into, but since the band is on the road so much, they pooled their money together and purchased an RV. The extra space helped the band as a whole.

“It’s nice being able to sleep, go and hang out in the RV and not sit in the club,” he said, “which can get old very quickly.”

One routine guaranteed not to become mundane for 56 Hope Road is playing their music. Funk is known for its improvisation on stage during shows, and Goveia explained how his band stays on track while keeping each performance unique.

“Our improv goes on in areas of songs where we can stretch out, but it never really goes off into space like a true jam band would. Our style comes from being comfortable with each other on stage and trusting everyone up there with you,” Goveia said.

Their love for funk music started in their younger years, with dance beats speaking to them instead of heavy metal riffs or country twangs.

“We’re all from that hip-hop era, growing up in the ’80s,” he said. “You can’t resist feeling and moving to the music. It puts a smile on people’s faces as well as mine and ours.”

Goveia and Dave Hamilton, vocals and guitar, draw inspiration from “good things” in their lives, as well as struggles, for their songwriting. When writing songs, they use abstract thought and force listeners to interpret the songs, compared to artists putting the lyrics on a silver platter and serving it to the audience.

“Like poetry, the idea of abstract writing uses our words and life experiences with a twist so it could be anybody’s situation,” said Goveia. “I don’t like it when people straight up and tell you the story. I like to make people think and wonder what we’re talking about.”

With three albums already notched on their belt (Once in Our Lives, live 2005, Drop It All, 2004 and All Points Connect, 2002), 56 Hope Road will add another to their resume by going back to the studio in May. They will continue to play live in 2006, since putting on credible shows are more important to the band than an acclaimed studio album.

“Industry people could say you have a great album, but they don’t really care unless you’re putting butts in seats,” said Goveia. “It’s still up there, don’t get me wrong, but if we played a huge show for 20,000, that would be way good.”

:: 56 Hope Road ::

:: Sancho’s Broken Arrow :: March 13 ::

:: Conor O’Neill’s (Fort Collins) :: March 15 ::

:: Tivoli Student Union (CU Denver) :: March 16 :: (afternoon show)

:: Trilogy :: March 16 ::

:: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: March 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• G. Love and Special Sauce

• Dave Matthews Band

• Medeski, Martin and Wood

Band of Horses set to release its sub-pop debut everything all the time

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:54:31 +0000

:: Band of Horses :: Larimer Lounge :: March 12 ::

By Tim Dwenger

When the Seattle band Carissa’s Wierd finally called it quits after 10 years of playing the same indie rock clubs across the country, the sometimes bassist/sometimes drummer Ben Bridwell found himself with nothing to do. Bartending by night, Bridwell now had some significant free time during the day, which the band had previously helped him fill. Without that outlet, Bridwell quickly realized that he needed it, or something like it.

Carissa’s Wierd had been the project of Mat Brooke and Jenn Ghetto, and Bridwell had been their fill-in behind the kit or on the bass when they didn’t have regular members in those spots. “Before Carissa’s Wierd I had never played the drums or the bass, I just kinda filled in where they needed help,” Bridwell told The Marquee in a recent interview from his Seattle practice space. “When the band ended I started to fill my time during the day with learning to play the guitar and starting to write my own songs.”Brooke and Ghetto had written all of Carissa’s songs over the years, so songwriting was a new undertaking for Bridwell, but it has come easily. Armed with several songs written on dreary Seattle afternoons, Bridwell decided to put together a band. While Ghetto had gone on to concentrate on a solo project, it didn’t take long before Brooke decided to join his friend and help him flesh out his ideas. Dubbed Horses, the two released an initial EP that was available only at shows. Early gigs were packed, as fans of Carissa’s Wierd came out in droves to find out what their heroes were up to.

Horses was quickly gaining popularity throughout the Pacific Northwest scene and with popularity comes scrutiny. Bridwell soon learned that the name Horses was already taken and had been for about 30 years. As it turns out, Horses was the name of a late Sixties West Coast pop band with ties to the Grateful Dead and a rather famous guitar player, Don Johnson, of “Miami Vice” fame. “We found out that Horses had recently re-released an album and we decided that we didn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting sued over our name. Our website was already called bandofhorses.com so we figured that was the right name to take,” Bridwell said. “I haven’t listened to the Horses album, but I would be interested to see what they sounded like.”

With their first legal scare behind them, Band of Horses began to get some breaks. Years earlier Bridwell had met, and become friends with, a young singer/songwriter from South Carolina. “Sam [Beam] played me some of his music when he was staying with my brother one time about six or seven years ago,” said Bridwell. “I couldn’t get enough of it and I pretty much wore out the tape he gave me. I had a record label at the time and we began talking about releasing something on my label. As time went on and he sent me more and more of his work I began to realize that this was bigger than I was capable of handling, and I started handing his songs out to everyone I knew. Eventually it got into the right hands.”

The right hands Bridwell is referring to are the hands of Sub-Pop Records. Sam Beam, recording with his sister and various other musicians as Iron and Wine, has gone on to release two full-length albums and several EPs on the label. The two remain friends and Band of Horses began to pick up one-off gigs as the opener for Iron and Wine around Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t long before Beam offered his friend a spot as the opening band on an East Coast tour in 2005.

The lush, dreamy guitar pop that characterizes the sound of Band of Horses was warmly received by Iron and Wine fans and the attention given to their self-released EP was noticed by Sub-Pop. It wasn’t long before Bridwell and company had inked their own deal with the indie giants. Though the songs have existed for the better part of two years, they have only been heard by those lucky enough to have attended a show or gotten their hands on the EP.

On March 21st that will all change with the Sub-Pop release of Everything All the Time, the debut full length from Bridwell’s Band of Horses.

:: Band of Horses ::

:: Larimer Lounge ::

:: March 12 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Jane’s Addiction

• Death Cab for Cutie

• Galaxie 500

Seminal band Zero reunites after six years for three shows at Cervantes’

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:55:30 +0000

:: Zero :: Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom :: March 9 - 11 ::

By Matt Marty

The number zero means a lot of things to a lot of people. Having zero dollars is never desirable, but yet having zeros at the end of a check is a sign of success. Zero is the median between positive and negative, and very hard to pin down. So it is only fitting that the band Zero acts a little unorthodox compared to most bands.

Started in 1984 by guitarist extraordinaire Steve Kimock and drummer Greg Anton, Zero became a Bay Area fixture. Through extensive touring and generating new material, Zero gained an allegiance of devoted fans from coast to coast. After sixteen years of consistent work, Zero called for a hiatus. No one really expected the hiatus to last as long as it did, but for six years the members of Zero did not play together.

“It was easier for everybody to move on with their own stuff than it was for us to move forward in a unified way,” remarked Kimock in a recent interview with The Marquee. The hiatus’ lengthy period of time led many, even the band members, to believe that it was a permanent thing, rather than a temporary issue. “I figured the hiatus would be more like six weeks rather then six years.”

Over the six years, Kimock kept busy with his own projects. The most notable of Kimock’s solo projects is The Steve Kimock Band. During the hiatus he has mixed up the line-up of his band to keep things fresh. He has also worked with Phil Lesh & Friends, and Bruce Hornsby. Despite the busy bee-like attitude Kimock has assumed over the six years, there are many that still yearn for Zero’s return.

One of the reasons Zero has such a faithful following can be traced to their material. A good deal of Zero’s material comes from poet guru Robert Hunter, who formally wrote with Jerry Garcia and contributed to many Grateful Dead classics. Hunter adds an element to the band’s great musicianship with his unique profound writing style. As for new Zero/Hunter material, there isn’t any at this point in time, although Zero is looking at some new pieces for their upcoming shows.

Also new for the upcoming shows is Kimock’s son John Morgan Kimock, who will be playing drums. Although the elder Kimock says his son has been in the band since he was two, these will be the first Zero shows that feature sixteen-year-old John as an actual playing member of the band. For Kimock, it is a very special thing. “It’s my favorite thing on earth to play with my son,” said Kimock. The rest of the Zero line-up will be rounded out by co-founding member, drummer Greg Anton, Martin Fierro on sax, Liam Hanrahan on bass, Pete Sears on keyboards, and the powerful Judge Murphy singing the beautiful Hunter melodies.

The line-up will feature a very special addition with former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux-Mackay joining the band. Godchaux goes way back with Kimock and Anton to earlier days before Zero was formed. Kimock couldn’t be happier she is singing with the band, because her presence brings a different kind of energy to the show.

Currently there aren’t plans beyond the reunion shows in Denver, but Kimock said that’s not due to lack of desire. “One step at a time,” he said. “We want to get our focus and energy together to get the show on the road again.”

:: Zero ::

:: Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom ::

:: March 9 - 11 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Grateful Dead

• The Great Society

• The Diggers

Ben Taylor’s Another Run Around the Sun highlights his artistic growth

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:56:22 +0000

:: Ben Taylor :: Bluebird Theatre :: March 2 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 3 ::

By Alex Samuel

For as long as there have been rock and roll celebrities, there’s been endless attention paid to their children. The sons and daughters of our favorite musical monarchies end up monopolizing the cover of US Weekly, marrying Michael Jackson, or attempting to spill out witty commentary on endless VH1 specials. You’ve seen it and that’s just the way it is. Or is it?

Ben Taylor (as in James Taylor) settled into a house on Martha’s Vineyard with his flower garden, his girlfriend and a couple of small dogs and has achieved a major milestone in his trek towards a career that promises to be as timeless as the greats that raised him.

Taylor’s upbringing was far from typical. His parents, Carly Simon and James Taylor, settled on separate sides of the musical spectrum; James Taylor locked himself in rooms for months before he unveiled his work to his family, while Simon would wake an entire house to hear her rough mixes before they were perfect.

Taylor toured with his father and watched him perform from the side of the stage. By high school, Taylor taught himself to play guitar and grew up playing his father’s music. His father influenced him the most musically, he said, while his mother, who he calls a great songwriter, had a very different role in his musical growth. “She wrote me a manual with all sorts of suggestions on how to write songs — it was great, it gave me an extra boost of confidence and ideas,” Taylor recently said in a trans-Atlantic interview with The Marquee.

Taylor’s unique home life was coupled with a distinctive adolescence. After attending several private schools in Manhattan, Taylor replaced four years of stuffy classrooms with a series of trips to the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon and a farm in New Mexico. After each trip, Taylor would write essays about his experiences and receive high school credit for them. This “cool way to get an education” led Taylor to believe, at least for a short time, that he would become a farmer.

Eventually, Taylor teetered on the edge of a decision; would he step into his hereditary spotlight or would he work the land in the sunlight?

By the age of 20, Taylor chose the spotlight. After he recorded a cover of The Beatles’ “I Will” for the Bye Bye, Love soundtrack and recorded an album for Epic Records, he was left disenchanted by the industry and by his insecurities.

After returning from a trip to the Caribbean that replenished his creative edge, Taylor met drummer Larry Ciancia (Fiona Apple, Everlast) in Los Angeles and launched the Ben Taylor Band. Finally, Taylor banished his insecurities and became the confident artist he is today; “I think that’s something that flows in and out of reality – you’re comfort with yourself,” said the surprisingly humble Taylor. “On a good day you’re completely comfortable with yourself and maybe usually you are, but with performance it helps to be that way all the time.”

His newest album, Another Run Around The Sun, stands as a highlight in Taylor’s growth. The album illuminates his confidence and complexities while remaining sincere and exposed. Taylor paints layers of genuine acoustics on top of earthy jazz and elegant lyrics.

Another Run was recorded in London with the help of Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby. “Those guys are fantastic,” Taylor said. “Kevin has a great ear and Jonathan has great hair.”

Taylor worked with Bacon and Quarmby on his first album, Green Dragon, Name a Fox (Sony Work Group), in 2002. Taylor, who was trying to do something different from anything before, felt he could have done better and later took off to Evergreen, Colo. to record his second album, Famous Among The Barns, on his own Iris label.

Every element of the newest album is pure Taylor and whether he grew into his own style or the London air was particularly invigorating, Another Run is his best album to date. Some of the album’s songs are fleeting stories, while other songs reflect Taylor’s relationships and experiences. “‘Digest’ is the one I connect with the most. That one’s about a friend of mine who’s in jail for the next ten years on top of the five he’s already been there for,” said Taylor of the melancholy picking and carefully harmonized vocals. The album’s undeniably sexy track, “You Must Have Fallen,” is a heartbeat short of a dusty romance, while “Nothing I Can Do” echoes Taylor’s father.

Taylor is touring before he gets back into the studio and will hit up Colorado early this month. Tristan Prettyman, who Taylor calls a beautiful girl with a beautiful voice, will open for him throughout the entire tour.

As Taylor soars past his newly placed milestone, he stays grounded and lighthearted. “I am a small dog in a big man’s body,” he said to The Marquee, “Small dogs pretty much say it all.”

:: Ben Taylor ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: March 2 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 3 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• James Taylor

• Jack Johnson

• Rich Price

Plunge brings hip-hop and urban rock to Telluride in mid-winter music festival

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:57:25 +0000

:: Plunge Music Festival :: March 22 - 26 :: Telluride, Colo. ::

Telluride, Colo. has long been known as host to some of the premeire summer and fall festivals in the country, with a roster that includes Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Blues and Brews and the Telluride Jazz Festival.

Those events have kept the gorgeous mountain retreat in the forefront of people’s minds during the summer months when the snow isn’t falling. But there’s a new festival in town, which plans on celebrating the connection between mountain sport culture and urban rock and hip-hop in both style and sound.

The Plunge Music Festival, now in its second year, is named after one of Colorado’s most famous ski runs, and bills itself as the festival with “thirty-five hundred vertical feet of entertainment.” The festival’s theme is to make skiing as much a centerpiece as the acts themselves, with riding by day, après ski concerts in the afternoon and music all night long.

Festival acts include Rahzel of the Roots, Tre Hardson of Pharcyde, Enon, The Slip, DJ Logic, Adam Deitch Project, Brother’s Past and many supporting acts.

Rahzel will be this year’s headlining attraction.

The undisputed “Godfather of Noyze” has re-defined the beat box. A self-defined “vocal percussionist,” Rahzel (rhymes with ‘gazelle’) has perfectly mastered this quintessential hip-hop art form and has emerged as a true virtuoso.

Rahzel is best known as a member of The Roots, hip-hop’s cutting-edge live band. Over the past several years he has emerged as the one to watch.

Though his tastes do run far and wide, Rahzel is quick to acknowledge, first and foremost, his hip-hop origins. Growing up as a youngster in New York, Rahzel admired his cousin Rahim, a founding member of the pioneering Furious Five. “I remember watching Grand Master Flash before I could even see over the gate,” said Rahzel. “Having that influence alone was incredible.”

Later, Rahzel roadied for Ultramagnetic MCs. “In every important phase of hip-hop, I was there, absorbing everything that was going on,” he said.

Rahzel grew up in Queens, N.Y., and recalled that “not having was never an excuse for not doing.” In its most organic state, the essence of hip-hop is making something out of nothing and Rahzel learned how to feed his need to be creative. “We didn’t have the turntables inside the locker room and we couldn’t bring our boom box in there,” he said. “Either we were banging on the locker, or somebody was (making music) with their mouth.”

Over time, Rahzel’s gifts for vocal percussion led him to seek his own career as an artist. He already had a thriving solo career when The Roots asked him to join their group. “We’re colleagues, and we have tremendous respect for each other. They respect my history, I respect theirs,” he said.

:: Plunge Music Festival ::

:: March 22 - 26 ::

:: Telluride, Colo. ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Roots

• Pharcyde

• The Slip

Nine Colorado bands to make the trek to SxSW

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:58:34 +0000

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Unlike any other music event in the country, the increasingly trendy yet vital annual South By Southwest Music Festival and Conference, in Austin, Texas is to the music industry what the Sundance Festival is to Hollywood.

It’s where up-and-comers go to get exposed to industry insiders and the insiders come together to feed and fuel each other in the “Live Music Capital of the World.” With hundreds of band showcases featuring thousands of musicians from around the globe, conference panels with the likes of Neil Young and the Beastie Boys, a trade show, demo listening workshops and more, it’s clear this event is different.

From March 15-19, Austin’s many music venues along and near its infamous 6th Street nightlife district will run non-stop with bands of every genre looking for a break and some exposure. With each of the venues, and the rest of the town for that matter, filled with everyone from record execs to publicists to music fans looking for something different, SXSW is the perfect place to do just that.

Devotchka

Quietly becoming one of the most celebrated bands making music today, Denver’s eclectic and eccentric four-piece DeVotchka mix influences as strange as they are interesting. Cabaret, spaghetti Westerns, and the immigrant dance music of Eastern Europe are all thrown into a mix of American folk and punk roots. The band, which has toured with a burlesque and fetish entertainer as an opener, includes Nick Urata on vocals, guitar and trumpet; violinist/accordionist Tom Hagerman; sousaphone/bass player Jeanie Schroder; and drummer Shawn King. Supporting musicians rotate in and out of the highly original group’s line-up, contributing such sounds as strings and bazoukis. Its latest recording How it Ends was picked by Westword as 2005’s best and they called it a “delightful mind-blower.” Devotchka also recently scored the film Little Miss Sunshine, due for summer release. Even NPR’s “All Things Considered” called the band’s offerings “everything music should be.” Devotchka’s next tour includes Europe dates in April and May.

Dressy Bessy

The “fabulous” indie-pop act Dressy Bessy, formed in Denver in 1997, incorporates power-pop chords, a thundering rhythm section and the stunning vocals and witty lyrics of lead-singer Tammy Ealom. The act’s latest release Electrified reflects the band’s bombastic songwriting and lyrical cleverness. Live, the band adds an additional, infectious element of overt spontaneity while creating an atmosphere of being party central. According to Spin Magazine, “the heart of power-pop is still beating and Dressy Bessy are holding the stethoscope.” The band will be featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien March 6 and heads to Europe in April and May.

Vaux

Formed in 1997 under the name Eiffel, Denver’s indie-rock band Vaux started to find success in 2003 through never-ending tours and the critical success of its album There Must be Some Way to Stop Them. The CD prompted Alternative Press Magazine to name the act one of “100 Bands to Watch” and propelled them onto tours with bands like Thrice, My Chemical Romance, Coheed & Cambria and The Used. The sextet signed with Atlantic Records in 2004 but left before releasing its debut recorded in England with U2 producer Garret Lee. It’s now available on-line and on tour. The band’s current sound is a lighter departure from its early days in the Denver punk scene.

Erin Roberts & Porlolo

Known as one of Denver’s most compelling musicians and a maven of the local scene, Erin Roberts and her act Porlolo plays trumpet-inflected, dark and rustic indie-folk. Porlolo’s recent release Storm and Season boasts a “wide-eyed and melancholic sweetness” and highlights Roberts’ breathy, mysterious style. The musician is known to fans of local alternative music as the host of Radio 1190’s “Local Shakedown” show. Roberts plays a SXSW send-off party at the Hi-Dive March 10.

Uncle Earl

The modern, old-time string band Uncle Earl, featuring Lyons-based K.C. Groves, is a five-piece, all-female powerhouse brought together by a love of American roots music. The band’s national debut She Waits for Night is both contemporary and old-fashioned simultaneously and appeals to fans of folk, old-time, alt-country, bluegrass and jam-band genres. The act started in 1999 when Groves needed a band to promote a recording. The CD release shows went over so well that the band decided to stay together. Uncle Earl, which also includes Kristen Andreassen, Rayna Gellert, Sharon Gilchrist and Abigail Washburn, has since become regulars on the Colorado music festival circuit and are gaining national attention.

Cephalic Carnage

Purveyors of “Rocky Mountain hydro-grind,” Denver’s outlandish Cephalic Carnage fuses its blast beat grindcore with death metal and left-field jazz breakdowns. Formed in 1992, the act, which is no stranger to SXSW, set out to break down musical barriers by raising both expectations and “extremity” in heavy music. The group intermixes passages of hypersonic grindcore, slow-motion doom-metal and far-out rock and roll. It toured Europe heavily in 2004 and released its latest disc, Anomalies, in 2005. This fourth recording by the band continues its trek toward being one of the world’s most creative and challenging bands. The Alternative Press called the band “insanely gifted” while The Village Voice calls it “remarkable.”

The Czars

Goodbye, the latest LP from The Czars, marks not only a farewell to lost loves and tough times, but a new beginning for the Colorado-based quartet. The Czars started in 1994 when vocalist John Grant and bassist Chris Pearson met at Rock Island, a club in Denver. The Czars became the first American band to sign with Bella Union and grabbed a string of opening slots for high-profile groups like Low, the Dirty Three, and Ween. The band then locked themselves in their studio for six months to record what would be their most ambitious album to date, Goodbye. Goodbye’s U.K. release on Bella Union in 2004 cemented the group’s status as a critical favorite and outranked works by The Shins, Morrissey and Bjork on Mojo’s Top 50 list for 2004.

Born in the Flood

Denver indie-rock quartet Born In The Flood continues its ongoing evolution and transformation into one of the region’s more powerful, sophisticated and emotive bands. The group has performed in Denver since 2002, but its roots run back over a decade to a small Missouri town where the band’s singer and songwriter, Nathaniel D. Rateliff, and bassist Joseph Pope III were childhood friends. When their band outgrew its small-town location, the pair headed to Denver, where they added guitarist Matt Fox and drummer Mike Hall to the mix. Born In The Flood released its second and latest disc, The Fear That We May Not Be, in 2005.

The Great Redneck Hope

Colorado Springs grindcore act The Great Redneck Hope have been producing music and a live show that is unrivaled in “wit, power and often bizarre quirk” for over five years. The act’s brand of “technical violence” is generally thought to put most others in its genre to shame.

The Strokes tweak their sound with latest, First Impressions of Earth

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:59:19 +0000

:: The Strokes :: Fillmore Auditorium :: March 19 ::

By Cornelia Kane

The Strokes is a band that was born with a silver spoon, but has cast the silver away in search of its own fate and musical sojourn.

The five members came from what are considered upper-class families (for example, lead singer Julian Casablancas’ father John founded Elite, one of the world’s largest modeling agencies) and met while attending expensive private or boarding schools in both Manhattan and Switzerland. They hardly seem like the type of young men who would yearn to don tight pants and pen catchy yet slightly anti-social and world-weary tunes.

So, how did one of the hottest modern rock acts of the past decade — a band that critics have hailed as the resurgence of raw, garage-style rock and roll, a band that single-handedly sparked a new wave of bands whose names start with “the,” and made greasy hair hip (again) — manifest itself from such a seemingly very un-rock and roll background? Well, there was the drinking.

Much of the attitude that oozes off the band’s three albums to date comes from the lyrics penned by Casablancas, which feature topics such as women, drinking, parties, and the fake and vapid nature of some people, especially those unscrupulous socialites that can often be found hanging around popular bands. But now that they’re sober(er) and settled down with wives and girlfriends, The Strokes continue to show their dedication to making their brand of hip, pop rock on their latest album, First Impressions of Earth, released in January on RCA.

The band, which includes guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti, might have eased up a bit on the partying, but it doesn’t seem to have dulled their edge at all. Moretti, in a recent interview with The Marquee, talked about their past success and future plans.

“I love the U.K. crowd. They’re a blast,” came Moretti’s voice over the phone, with only a one or two second delay. The band was in England at the time of the interview, in the middle of a sold-out tour of the U.K. The U.S. tour starts this month.

Moretti told The Marquee about the early days of the band and their rocketship ride from playing bars in New York to a platinum selling debut record, 2001’s Is This It. “We were all in college, around the year 2000. We started playing shows around New York, recording demos to try to get as many shows as we could possibly get. Our demo got sent to England, and Jeff Travis from Rough Trade heard it and said he wanted to sign us. So, after playing for a while around the city, we went to England and had a little first tour there. Then everything kind of grew exponentially from there,” he said, laughing.

Sounds simple. But in reality the band had already logged many hours playing clubs on New York’s Lower East Side before attracting the notice of Ryan Gentles, the booking agent for the trendy Mercury Lounge. Soon the band was a fixture there, and Gentles believed in them so much that he eventually quit his job to become the band’s manager full-time. “I made it sound like it happened right away. We’d been playing in New York for a long, long time before we sent the demo off to England,” admitted Moretti.

The band’s experience getting a U.S. distribution deal after getting signed to Rough Trade was also very different from that of most bands. “After we got picked up by Rough Trade in England and started playing some shows, U.S. labels kind of took interest, I guess, and we met with a bunch of labels that wanted to sign us,” said Moretti.

The latest album was recorded at The Strokes’ new private studio in Manhattan. “We’ve had this rehearsal space in the [world-renowned] Music Building in New York; it’s in Hell’s Kitchen. A bunch of unsigned bands go there to rehearse because you get to share studios with a bunch of other bands. You see, if you’re growing up in New York, you don’t really have a place to play. You don’t have a garage to set up,” said Morretti. “So we kept going to this building and it kind of became our home. We just recently got a recording studio of our own going there in the Music Building. We decided to buy some recording equipment and just make our rehearsal space our recording space as well.”

They also tried a new producer this time around, who came on Hammond’s recommendation. “Albert was working with his friend on some music at a different studio and he met David Kahne, who was producing his friend’s stuff, and realized shortly after that this guy really knew what he was talking about,” said Morretti. “So he invited him over to our studio to help us out, because we wanted to change our sound a little bit. He just really knew what the hell he was talking about. He really is an encyclopedia of music knowledge. So we stuck with him.”

The changing of their sound also came with a visual change as well. The band had been fortunate enough early on to be befriended by Roman Coppola, son of the renowned director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather). Though the band had always admired the work the junior Coppola had done for them, for the new video they switched it up in an attempt to show another side.

Their most recent video, “Heart in a Cage” was directed by Samuel Bayer and the video for the first single, “Juicebox,” was directed by Michael Palmieri, although the director had his name removed from the project after MTV heavily censored the version that aired. The “Heart in a Cage” video was an especially exciting shoot for the band, during which some members briefly feared for their lives. “It’s going to be a pretty cool video, I believe, from what I’ve seen so far,” said Moretti. “We were all outside and Nick and Albert were playing their guitars on the ledge of a building. They were actually on the ledge without a harness, like 50 stories up in Manhattan. When we were watching the video back again, Albert said ‘I don’t know how I did that. It makes me scared just watching.’”

In addition to their daredevilish video shoots, the band has been writing and recording new material, a process that has recently, with the new album, become more collective. “You’ve caught us at a kind of transitional phase in our professional life, where things seem to be a little bit different from how it was in the beginning. In the beginning, it was like, Julian would bring in his song and we would all put in our parts and try to arrange it together. But lately, I feel like more people are putting their two cents in. It’s getting pretty cool,” Morretti said.

That being said, however, Moretti explained that the group won’t be hitting the studio anytime soon. “We’re already thinking of new music to put down. But we’re in kind of the touring mind-frame right now, just to promote this record, so there’s not really any concrete ideas for the future except possible future show dates, and how we’re going to wrap the tour. That and we’re pretending like we’re working on new music, to keep us sane,” Moretti joked.

:: The Strokes ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

:: March 19 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Cars

• The Arcade Fire

• The Hives

James Blunt captures Brit Awards, heads back to the States for tour

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 18:00:26 +0000

:: James Blunt :: Paramount Theatre :: March 30 ::

By Tim Dwenger

James Blunt. He became a household name in Europe last summer and the buzz is steadily building here in the States. He is the man who knocked Coldplay out of the number one spot on the charts in the U.K. in the summer of 2005 and accomplished something that has people comparing him to the likes of Rod Stewart and Elton John. He had both the number one single, “You’re Beautiful,” and the number one album, Back to Bedlam, on the U.K. charts for five straight weeks . The last time a male singer/songwriter managed to garner that kind of attention was in the ’70s when Rod Stewart was bringing the house down with hits like Every Picture Tells a Story’s “Maggie May” and Atlantic Crossing’s “Sailing.”

Recently — on the heels of winning two of the coveted Brit Awards (England’s version of the Grammy’s) — Blunt sat down to talk with The Marquee from backstage at a gig in Plymouth, England. “The Brit Awards were a great experience, I have attended them before, but it was a thrill to be receiving awards alongside bands like Coldplay, The Kaiser Chiefs and Kanye West,” said Blunt.

Blunt was awarded Best Pop Act, beating out mega-diva Madonna, and his award for Best British Male Solo Artist was presented to him by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.

With success like this comes attention, a whole lot of attention. “I get recognized almost every second these days. It really doesn’t bother me very much. The only time it really gets in the way is when I am trying to go to the loo and people just won’t let me by,” he said in his heavy British accent.

He seems to be handling his new status as a heartthrob and superstar very well, considering his last career wasn’t exactly glamorous. Upon graduating from university Blunt spent four years in the British Army. His assignment included being stationed in Canada and also in Kosovo. While in the army, Blunt kept himself focused on the music career he had dreamed about since he was a young boy. “I really looked at the army as my day job. I focused on it during the day and then at night I’d be out at the pubs with my mates or writing songs and playing music,” said Blunt.

In a lot of ways he seemed to have more time to focus on music when he was in the Army. The service being his “day job,” he was able to have the free time at night to do what he wanted. These days things are different and Blunt is facing the realities of what it means to be successful in the music business. “I write in the one spare minute I get a day,” he said. “Today we had load-in this morning, then we sound checked for an hour, now I have two hours of interviews and then I am off to a meet and greet before the show. It is a busy life and there isn’t much time for me to be creative.”

Apparently, Blunt has had some time over the last year to pen some new songs, because he admits that he and his band are playing some new tunes out on the road this year. “Well I guess I better play the tunes from the album right?” he joked before going on to say, “We are also working out a few new songs on the stage and we have just started playing a couple of covers, which is something we have never done before.” He doesn’t want to divulge the songs that he is covering, but is quick to say that they have been very well received.

It is hard to imagine what Blunt does on stage not being well received. His audience ranges in age from 13 to 60 and to say that the ladies are crazy about him would be putting it mildly. His high tenor voice is reminiscent of Elton John or David Gray and by most accounts his stage presence is captivating.

Blunt takes pride that he has accomplished so much in so short a time without becoming a slave to the industry. He remains very involved in the management aspects of his career and claims to love his busy life on the road. He stresses the fact that playing with a band made up of “all my mates” is a particularly bright spot for him.

Blunt and his mates will have a new addition to the mix when they arrive in Denver, and while it won’t be in the form of a new member, the addition will be a critical part of the sound of the band. “I am very excited to be coming back to Denver because it is a beautiful place with great venues and a good vibe, but also because I will be picking up a new 12-string guitar that is being made for me by Bob Dooney in Boulder,” said Blunt.

Dooney is the owner of The Guitar Cellar in Boulder and was kind enough to talk to The Marquee about the project and how it got started. “James and his band were in town for the AAA Radio Convention last summer and I got to hear him play and really enjoyed his music,” Dooney recalled. “I approached him after the show, we got to talking, and he ended up coming down to the store and really liked what he saw. He bought one guitar off the shelf and we started talking about a custom piece. He was really interested in a 12-string and decided we could help him out.”

The guitar, which Dooney is working on furiously to have completed for Blunt’s arrival in Denver at the end of the month, is a sunburst finished custom Dreadnought style 12-string that will work elements of Blunt’s dancing monkey logo into the design. While Blunt passed along his input into the design of the guitar, he left the majority of the design decisions up to Dooney and his staff. “We have been e-mailing back and forth over the past several months concerning the guitar and he is a really down-to-earth and accessible guy. I have enjoyed working with him,” Dooney said.

Provided everything goes according to plan, Blunt’s first songs on the new instrument will be played on stage at the Paramount Theatre in Denver when Blunt and his band take the stage.

Opening the show that evening will be one of Blunt’s personal favorite bands, The Boy Least Likely To ... Blunt describes them as “very poppy, kind of like the Magic Numbers. They are friends of mine and I invited them to come along on the tour with me. I like to be involved with the planning of things like that, as it really reflects on who I am,” he said.

:: James Blunt ::

:: Paramount Theatre ::

:: March 30 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• David Gray

• John Mayer

• Coldplay

CD Reviews - April - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:51:29 +0000

‘Leaked’ Guns N’ Roses tracks give insight into the mythical yet-to-be released Chinese Democracy

July 21, 1987 started out like any other day in music history. Trucks delivered hundreds of new cassette tapes and CDs, by a host of artists new and old, to stores around the county just like they do every Tuesday. Few, if any, realized that on this particular day the face of music would be changed forever. Among the new releases were Madonna’s Who’s That Girl soundtrack and the first album by a surly Los Angeles rock band that called themselves Guns N’ Roses.

Appetite for Destruction exposed the dark underbelly of late ’80s L.A. with tales of booze, drugs and sex that are still some of the most rocking and confrontational songs ever released. Although Appetite For Destruction took about a year to catch serious fire on the charts, the ultimate result was clear; Guns N’ Roses were now one of the most famous bands in the world.

Guns N’ Roses started to splinter when the band entered the studio to try and top Appetite. Despite constant controversies and the firing of drummer Steven Adler, who was replaced by ex-cult member Matt Sorum shortly before recording began, and the departure of rythym guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who was replaced by Gilby Clark shortly after the album was finished, the result was the ambitious double album Use Your Illusion I and II. The rest of the band then fell apart after the tour, leaving the charismatic but explosive frontman Axl Rose the sole remaining member.

Now, more than 15 years after the Use Your Illusion records were released, Chinese Democracy has become the most anticipated and expensive recording ever made, as Rose has written, recorded and re-recorded the tracks over and over, all the while hiring and firing different members to replace his former bandmates.

While a firm release date is still in the works, Rose recently told Rolling Stone the album is close to completion. New music has recently surfaced, including a good quality demo of the song “I.R.S.” which was leaked over the internet and radio last month.

Marquee writer Brandon Daviet has heard several of the album’s new tracks. Here’s a quick breakdown of several of the new tracks:

“Chinese Democracy”

Sample lyric: “It doesn’t really matter you’re gonna find out for yourself”

A relatively short but blistering guitar-driven track inspired by the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the Dali Lama’s resulting escape and exile, “Chinese Democracy” proves that Axl is still as confrontational as ever with his songs. “Chinese Democracy” has been performed live several times, but a studio version has yet to surface.

“T.W.A.T. (There Was a Time)”

Sample lyric: “If there is something I can make of this or anything at all / it’d be that the devil hates a loser and you thought you had it all.”

A bouncy, hip-hop tinged drum beat plays underneath as Rose’s singing wanders reflectively over thoughts of the past. This is easily single material. Although lyrically dense like some of the Illusion songs, this song has a great hook of a chorus and will most likely be one of the best tracks on the album. The song’s target is reportedly an ex-girlfriend of Rose’s.

“Madagascar”

Sample Lyrics: “Forgive that they tore down my soul / Bless them that they might grow old”

This song is a sweeping ballad like “Estranged” and “November Rain” and is almost a continuation of those songs. While “Estranged” explored Rose’s fear and despair, “Madagascar” seems to focus more on his rejuvenation. Heavily based around Rose’s piano playing, this song highlights his love for artists like Elton John and Queen.

“I.R.S.”

Sample Lyric: “Going to call the president, going to need a private eye / Going to get the I.R.S, Going to need the FBI.”

A strong, lean song with acoustic guitars and unforgettable chorus, this is Rose at his paranoid best. When this song was leaked it actually made Number 49 on the Radio and Records charts for that day. Rose’s management quickly ordered a “cease and desist” to anyone playing the track but the overwhelming response to the track proves that G N’ R still has many fans.

The Verdict: While an album as groundbreaking and raw as Appetite for Destruction is not going to happen, all signs seem to point to Chinese Democracy becoming a huge record as long as Rose can keep his head together.

— Brandon Daviet

Drive-By Truckers get personal with their newest release A Blessing and A Curse

Drive-By Truckers

A Blessing and A Curse

New West Records

4 out of 5

Great storytellers know how to set the scene. Before they tell you what’s going on, they tell you where you are, what the mood is, how things look, and even how things smell.

Drive-By Truckers aren’t great storytellers, they’re champion storytellers, and in their last three albums have set the scene of where they’re from and what that means in excruciating detail. 2002’s Southern Rock Opera in and of itself can give the listener a better picture of life in the South than an upper-level college course on the subject. The Trucker’s follow-ups to Rock Opera, 2003’s Decoration Day and 2004’s The Dirty South, continued on the theme, filling in the minute details.

But their seventh album, which releases on April 25 from New West Records, finally gets to what’s going on in the story. Now that their listeners know the whos and wheres, the Truckers are letting listeners into the living rooms of their home to tell them what is actually happening.

The result is an incredibly personal album, impeccably played out in the passionate, loud, three-guitar attack that is Drive-By Truckers’ style.

For once, instead of listening to the band talk about people who may have lived on their block, or around the corner, the band’s three guitar-slinging vocalists and songwriters Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell are now saying, ‘This is what went down in my house last week.’

From Isbell’s biting self-analysis of “Easy on Yourself” and “Daylight,” the songwriter lays out personal struggles of the past years in a poignant, yet very Trucker-esque approach.

Cooley, on the other hand, shares tales of his extended family, most notably on the track “Space City,” a beautiful track that offers a bittersweet tale about his grandfather following his grandmother’s death and how one learns to make it through the intangible and the unflinching realities of life.

Hood, in a sense, offers the “theme” of the album, although, for once, the Truckers are careful to present less of a theme and more of just an album than previous releases. That loose theme, however, is that to love is to feel pain.

Whether it’s with the track “Goodbye,” which incidentally was written on the DBT bus in Fort Collins, or with the closing track “A World of Hurt,” Hood is magnificent in his down-right delicate delivery of painful observations.

Writer Alex V. Cook put it perfectly: The Truckers “avoid the trap of caricature in their songs, instead building their poetry out of the sweetest and harshest things available in this world — love and the pain that comes with it,” the blessings and the curses.

Despite all the pain and curses, the album ends on the most positive line to date in Trucker’s history. Simply spoken by Hood just before “World of Hurt” fades off into pedal steel bliss, “It’s great to be alive.” With that optimism, even after they have bared their souls with hearts on their sleeves, A Blessing and A Curse comes off as the most sincere and honest release in the self-help genre to date. Take that, Dr. Phil.

— Brian F. Johnson

Black Crowes get freaky with concert DVD

The Black Crowes

Freak ‘n’ Roll ... Into the Fog

Eagle Rock Entertainment

3 out of 5

Last year, a revived and re-formed Black Crowes tore up the summer festival tour circuit. Their blistering sets were deemed by fans some of the best shows of their career, and proved that the band’s extended hiatus had paid massive dividends.

But when the band embarked on its own headlining tour, some of the punch of their earlier sets seemed to have dissipated as the group changed from “the world’s most rock and roll, rock and roll band,” to “the world’s most rock and roll, jam band.” The Crowes called it “Freak and Roll.” Rockers called it blasphemy.

That criticism aside, the Crowes first-ever concert DVD Freak ‘n’ Roll ... Into the Fog captures them perfectly during their five night run at the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.

Shot in hi-definition, the 19-song, two-and-a-half hour show highlights the band in both rock and roll and jam status, a perfect snapshot of where the band was at that particular time.

Complete with a four-piece horn section that added an unfathomable amount of depth to their tracks, the band rolls through classic Crowes tunes like “Sting Me,” “No Speak, No Slave” and “Remedy,” as well as rare gems like an acoustic “Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz” and perfectly picked covers such as Joe Cocker’s “Space Captain” and The Band’s “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down.”

The DVD also houses some special features of sound check performances and back stage footage, as well as shots of the band walking around San Francisco. Interviews and commentary would have been nice additions, but those aren’t missed when the magical highlight of acoustic songs hits home.

The DVD also has a Front Range tie-in, with famed local taper James “Jimmy Nomad” Lautenbach appearing in several shots throughout the concert.

— Brian F. Johnson

Blue Canyon Boys roll down the dirt road

The Blue Canyon Boys

Just An Ol’ Dirt Road

Independent

4 out of 5

Blending incredible brother-duet style vocals and hard-driving instrumental proficiency, The Blue Canyon Boys are quickly becoming a staple in the Front Range bluegrass scene. With Gary Dark on mandolin, Jason Hicks on guitar and Christopher Goodspeed on bass, this power trio offers well-crafted original material on their debut release Just An Ol’ Dirt Road. With their humorous stage presence and fine musicianship, the trio has been earning a reputation as a bluegrass band that plays with sincere intensity and raw emotion.

Their unique style has been entertaining audiences for over two years, with traditional influences that include the Stanley Brothers, Jim and Jesse, and Jimmy Martin. Coming together from across the country, The Blue Canyon Boys blend the brother-duet style harmony of Dark, the jazz-theory education of Hicks and the classic-country-rock background of Goodspeed to create a bluegrass all their own.

— Monica Banks

Escovedo shines on Mirror

Alejandro Escovedo

The Boxing Mirror

Back Porch Records

3 out of 5

On the latest of his seven albums, Alejandro Escovedo shines in instrumental bliss.

The varied stylistic hallmarks of his previous albums are found in full force alongside new modes, moods and musical variations.

Escovedo was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in the late 1990s and has struggled to support his family with his touring. In 2002 Escovedo fell critically ill from the effects of his disease. He spent the next two years regaining his health and made two appearances at SXSW in 2004, proving his career was not over. His recovery has been a spiritual journey that he attempts to convey in his latest album.

— Monica Banks

New York Doll tells an amazing story of Kane

New York Dolls

New York Doll

Visual Entertainment

4.5 out of 5

I’m not a fan of The New York Dolls, but even so, New York Doll may well go down as one of the best rock and roll tales of all time.

The DVD documentary chronicles the strange journey of Dolls bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane from rock god to lost soul, to spiritual giant, capturing on film one of those rare occasions when life is not only stranger, but better than fiction.

From the heyday of the Dolls to Kane’s descent into drugs and alcohol, and through to his debilitating accident and his “LSD trip from God,” Doll doesn’t pile on regrets like a “Behind the Music” show, rather it gives a heartfelt portrayal of Kane as a struggling man, who has wronged in the past and is trying to right it. It’s beautiful.

— Brian F. Johnson

Harmonious hits hard on debut CD Space Cadet

Harmonious Junk

Space Cadet

Dubious Maximus Music

3 out of 5

Harmonious Junk began as a side project by James Brown guitarist Damon Wood, finding influences and inspirations from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Phish and more. The band was supposed to serve as a forum between tours with the Godfather of Soul, but has grown into much more.

The debut album is packed with the spontaneity and the creative material Junk’s performances are known for. In 2005, Westword voted the band Denver’s “Best Jam Band,” a title that fits well for the quartet.

— Monica Banks

From the Barstool of the Publisher - April, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:52:33 +0000

Two file sharers were indicted this month and face up to 11 years in prison for allegedly sharing tracks from Ryan Adam’s 2005 Jacksonville City Nights prior to the official release of the album.

If the two kids, Jared Chase Bowser, 21, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Robert Thomas, 24, of Milwaukee, Wisc., are sentenced to that long of a term, it will be the one of the worst atrocities in the courts since the justice system started imposing mandatory minimums in drug sentences.

Let’s get this straight: The Marquee does not promote, condone, or support illegal file sharing in ANY situation, and this situation is unique in that the files shared were from pre-released copies, a move which the parent label Universal Music said “damages our artist and our marketing plans for the album.”

I agree with them, but 11 years?

I whole-heartedly support Universal and Adams in wanting some compensation, but if these kids go to jail for 11 years, and neither the label nor Adams request a lower sentence, it’ll be a sad day in music.

Bowser and Thomas were wrong — flat-out, but it would be nice if those going after file sharers and copyright infringements were seeking punishments that fit the crime.

I contend that if the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, who handed down the indictments, could figure out that Bowser and Thomas were the ones who posted the tracks on the internet, then they probably have the smarts to figure out what it financially cost Universal and Adams.

They did not take Adams’ life, nor did they ruin his career, and Jacksonville City Nights went on to be an impressively selling album and was critically well received. Universal, who released the album under their division Lost Highway Records, may have likely lost some money, but it didn’t bankrupt them.

I support a crackdown on file sharing, but not with ludicrous sentences meant to act as a scare tactic by the industry to discourage others. Make the punishment fit the crime. If these two boys go to jail until they are 32 and 35 years old, they will spend more time behind bars than those who have murdered people — and that is truly a crime.

They were fans — hard core enough to get their hands on a pre-release copy — who screwed up, and screwed up bad, but should they really have their lives ruined for such a stupid mistake?

I think not.

We’ll see you at the shows.

Melissa Ivey set to release new album

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:53:54 +0000

:: Melissa Ivey Band ::

:: Southside Johnnys :: April 5 ::

:: Nissi’s :: April 7 ::

:: Sunset Event Center :: April 8 ::

:: Croc’s Mexican Grill :: April 20 ::

:: D-Note :: April 22

By Brian Kenney

Melissa Ivey owns her art, and these days ownership in America takes a sincere and severe dedication to establish, grow and keep such an investment.

Born in Denver and raised in Northern California, Ivey took to music as an escape. “I grew up cutting class and heading out to San Francisco,” Ivey recently told The Marquee. “And at school they always said ‘We always saw you leaving school, but never saw you at school.’ So I got in a lot of trouble, but at an early age I realized I was driven to music and I knew what I wanted to do.”

And she does it well. Her songs seduce and beguile, entice and enchant a listener with distant yet comforting familiarity of small town Americana. A Denver resident since returning to the area in 2002, she has stormed the local singer/songwriter scene with her own brand of passionate and provocative overtures. This spitfire of a songstress was recently lauded for her craft in songwriting, winning Westword’s Showcase 2005 in the singer/songwriter category.

She discusses the prospects of her industry future like an aged veteran, and in some respects at the age of 23 she is. Ivey earned her education through the music industry itself. Early on she realized that there is the business of music and the music business and at times they are mutually exclusive.

“I’ve been doing it for eight years. I’ve been the booking agent. I’ve done the firing and hiring. It’s business first and foremost. If you have great songs, no one will hear them if you don’t have great business.”

The concept of music as a business planted a seed with Ivey early on. In June 2004 she, at the age of 20, seized the opportunity to go full throttle into her craft and founded her own production and marketing companies, Ivey Productions, L.L.C. and Ravyn Skye, L.L.C. “We’re truly unique in a sense that if no label signs us or distribution deal comes through, or no licensing gets set up, we’ve set ourselves up to succeed.”

A shrewd businesswoman, Ivey is at times skeptical and logical, yet risky and bold. “I’ve talked to bands who were supposed to be the ‘next big thing,’” she said, “and they all said ‘Be careful what you sign.’ There’s never a ‘for sure’ thing in this business unless you’re for sure doing it for yourself.”

For her latest disc (untitled at press time) she has cleverly created “themed” release parties which highlight songs from her latest disc. At her April 22 “fantasy/romance” themed show at the D-Note in Arvada, Ivey will highlight her performance with the release of the single “Lovers and Stars.”

Ivey was contacted by some of the industry’s most talented songwriters for her most recent project, most notably Christopher Jak and The Knack’s Burton Averre, who co-wrote and co-produced some of the tracks.

Eager to work with Ivey, Averre helped her hone her skills, toning songs down to minimalistic simplicity. “Burton Averre of the Knack is one those old school guys who says ‘This is what makes it a good song,’” Ivey said. “He taught me what to do and what not to do. And what rules I can break. And now, every time I write a song. I go back and ask myself: ‘What would Burton do? What would he say? How would he analyze this?’ He helped me by setting up the rules to songwriting.”

While Ivey has more than immersed herself in the industry and takes on the role of businesswoman in the process, she said that she couldn’t be happier that she chose this path. “Music is everything I thought it would be, but cooler,” said Ivey. “I always thought it would be this cool and it is. So I appreciate that.”

:: Melissa Ivey Band ::

:: Southside Johnnys :: April 5 ::

:: Nissi’s :: April 7 ::

:: Sunset Event Center :: April 8 ::

:: Croc’s Mexican Grill :: April 20 ::

:: D-Note :: April 22

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sheryl Crow

• Tristan Prettyman

• Jewel

Polytoxic pays tribute to Spinal tap for April Fool’s Day show

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:54:13 +0000

:: Polytoxic ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: April 6 ::

:: Highland Pacific :: April ::8

:: Wash Park Grille :: Mondays

By Lisa Oshlo

Occasionally, big ideas take on lives of their own. That’s what happened for Denver’s Polytoxic sometime around November, when the band was looking for a way to expand on its popular album-of-the-month concept.

In a recent conversation with The Marquee, keyboardist CR Gruver explained it like this: “We needed to maintain our sanity and our personal lives. So we thought, instead of doing an album every month, why don’t we do a soundtrack, a couple of times a year? And then of course the first thing you think of is ‘Spinal Tap.’” Thus, what began as a flash of inspiration fleshed out into a full-on, multi-media live performance of the music from the legendary film.

The added joke is that the band will stage this performance on April Fool’s Day. “Ironically enough,” said Gruver, “the original album was released on April Fool’s Day back in 1984. We figured it must just be a connection we have with Spinal Tap,” he said with a laugh.

This connection was hardly predicted prior to 2003, when founding members Gruver (on keyboards and bass) and Tori Pater (on guitar) were running in different circles. Both had recently moved to Denver, but Gruver played solo piano gigs while Pater played guitar in the local Henry Parson’s Project. The two eventually came together in Two Ton Moxie, where their work inspired a new band. But Polytoxic didn’t reach its full potential until about a year ago with the addition of drummer Chad “Chadzilla” Johnson. Once Johnson was on board, Polytoxic began to gel.

Gruver’s keyboard often leads the sonic assault, accompanied by Pater’s raspy rock and roll vocals and the persistent, driving beats of Johnson. The result is a band with soul that can seriously jam. And they know how to throw a hell of a party. They released their first full-length album, entitled First Steps, in 2005. That same year, Polytoxic was awarded Best Live Music Showcase by Denver’s Westword. That recognition was followed quickly by the recently awarded Best Concert of the Year from the same publication, which acknowledged the stunning tribute the band played to Scorscese’s elegiac The Last Waltz. Polytoxic have since put out a collaborative effort with Atlanta’s Outformation on vinyl, and expect to release a DVD sometime in April.

However, the Spinal Tap gig is by far the largest production the band has ever attempted. According to Gruver, “there will be video snippets, props for the big arena rock style show, a main stage for that show and a smaller stage up in the balcony, where all the other stuff goes on.” In addition to the band, there will be a colorful cast of characters on hand, including dancing midgets, spontaneously combusting drummers, and smoke-breathing stage props.

“We thought it would be hard at first, but the more people who have joined our team, the more possible it seems,” said Gruver. “A lot of our friends are artists, or production people, or stage people, and they’re all pitching in and making it a whole lot easier. We’re very fortunate to have all these great, creative people.”

While Polytoxic is decidedly good at covering other people’s material, they are most at home playing their original songs. The band never plays any of its music the same way twice, which allows them to move freely within the songs and play off each other rather than from rote memory. Gruver classifies most of their music as “improvisation-based jams, which are funk- and groove-oriented.” According to the band’s myspace web page, their music sounds like “Halloween candy mixed with Japanese B movies about large lizards. Basically, you bring your booty, and we’ll bring the PARTY!”

Polytoxic can inspire the most reluctant of audiences into an absolute dancing frenzy. Although they will be playing the music of Spinal Tap for most of the evening, there will also be a set of their own innovative music, with plenty of room for Polytoxic’s special brand of psychedelic improv.

:: Polytoxic ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: April 6 ::

:: Highland Pacific :: April ::8

:: Wash Park Grille :: Mondays

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Meters

• Widespread Panic

• Spinal Tap

Beto Hale blends cultures on American Mythology release

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:55:20 +0000

:: Beto Hale :: CD Release Party :: Walnut Room :: April 7 ::

By Brian Kenney

A split personality exists in Beto Hale, a duality that’s not based on artistic indecisiveness or a question of direction. It’s more of artistic inventiveness. Like a painter with a huge palette, Hale has so many colors to chose from, that it’s never known what hue will be placed on the canvas next.

This month, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Hale will release American Mythology, a disc intensely influenced by his multi-cultural dual citizenship. Hale’s tenor, a bright and ringing tone influenced by the melodic styles of every voice from John Denver to Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, meshes with Santana-like guitar virtuosity and is complimented by Hale’s passionate soft jazzy percussion.

American Mythology is unique in that it is a lush, multi-layered, bilingual disc. With this duality, this split, Hale had a number of directions he could have chosen in which to release the disc. “At first I thought I’d do the first 10 songs in one language, and then 10 in another,” Hale recently told The Marquee. “But I wasn’t sure if my whole feeling would get across.”

Fearing he would alienate one audience or another, he also had the choice of pressing two entirely different discs. Surveying friends, he finally decided to split the disc linguistically. “I have always written in a neutral way. So for my own benefit, I try to avoid any slang. So someone who listens from Spain or Cuba would not have a hard time getting what I’m saying,” he said.

It’s this approachability that seduces the listener and finds Hale’s songs so familiar. “Musically it flows, so I believe that people [who listen] will get over the language barrier. People who don’t speak any Spanish have come back and said ‘I love ‘En tu Labios’ or ‘Hoy.’’ They just connect with the vibe going on. Even the art work and lyrics are translated. For every song on American Mythology, I’ve put at least the first chorus and first verse in the other language.”

Hale’s musical pedigree runs deep. First introduced to a drum kit at the age of eight, classical guitar followed, and the natural progression took him to the piano. By the age of 11 he was playing in his first band, which had the privilege of performing in front of the U.S. embassy in Mexico City. During his teenage years he toured Mexico as a second keyboardist for the chart topping, ultra-popular teen pop band Timbiriche. These days, however, he has slowed down a bit and prefers immediate and intimate settings.

“I’ve run the gamut. I’ve had the chance to perform in front of 15,000 people. But I really look forward to smaller places, where you have 200-250 people and you can still have an intimate connection with the audience. My music has an element that if you lose that certain intimacy, [that element] might get lost in the mix. I can connect in mid-size venues, which lends itself to my introspection. Not that I wouldn’t like to play Wembley someday,” he said with a laugh.

Having gained exposure to the industry early on, Hale pursued the dream that entices every accomplished musician: he applied to Berklee School of Music and was accepted with a percussion scholarship. It’s no surprise that with such a wide ranging musical knowledge, Hale plays just about every instrument on American Mythology.

American Mythology is at once experimental and focused. It also possesses an immediacy that comes from his days in New York City playing with the punk outfit The Cogs. “On this album, things get going right away,” he said. “And I think that comes from playing in a punk band, because two minutes was a long time for a song. But you can do so much in two minutes. Kind of a less is more. A more lean approach. No extra fat.”

:: Beto Hale :: CD Release Party ::

:: Walnut Room :: April 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Peter Gabriel

• Dave Matthews

• Maná

Guster adds a new member and takes on environmental issues

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:56:12 +0000

:: Guster :: Aggie Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: etown at Boulder Theater :: April 2 ::

By Matt Marty

The sensational melodies and acoustic guitars of the Boston band Guster are being taken to another level with the soon-to-be-released Ganging Up On The Sun, due out in June. A new band member and a new style of song writing are the driving forces behind the rejuvenated group, but Guster does not stop there with the new theme. The band is touring in a new way, with a bio-diesel bus and many more innovative ideas in tow that allow them to be more environmentally conscious.

Over the years, Guster has established themselves as a radio friendly band, but not a band that is seen on MTV. Guster’s music would be best described as alternative rock pop. The core of Guster’s fan base is college students, but Guster’s music spreads to older audiences as well.

Guster’s roots take them all the way back to 1991, where they met in college, and after graduating in 1995 they became full-time musicians touring the country relentlessly, a trait they still haven’t lost. Guster was a trio headed up by Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner, both on guitar and vocals, and behind them still sits Brian Rosenworcel, who is responsible for drums and percussion. Guster’s latest edition is Joe Pisapia, who plays bass, guitar, keyboard and slew of other instruments. “After we made the last record, Keep It Together, it was clear that we needed another set of hands to pull it off live because we arranged that record for more than just three people to play. It went so well with Joe on the Keep It Together Tour that we brought him in as an official member of the band,” said Gardner in a recent interview with The Marquee.

The addition of the new member has also brought a new aspect of writing to the band. “For this record, this is the first time that we brought Joe in from the ground floor on the writing process, so instead of just the three of us writing, it was all four of us,” said Gardner.

Guster set aside an entire month for writing new material for the album, found a rehearsal space, and locked themselves in. “We sat down in a circle starting with nothing and someone would start with something. Brian would play a drumbeat, or I would play a guitar lick, or Ryan would sing a melody and we would end up with a song by the time we were done,” said Gardner.

Guster’s lyrical content is done in a much more unorthodox way. The lyrics are usually not composed until right before the track is going to be laid down. “Lyrically, there is more of a political undertone to this album. There is no agenda per say to the content, but rather comments on the state of where we are right now” he said.

To hype up the new release, Guster is embarking on a nationwide tour called the Campus Consciousness Tour. The tour is going to be a way to provide insight about the environment to college students and anyone else who attends.

“This is a big, ambitious tour. It is going to be eco-friendly, our tour busses will be running on bio-diesel, we’re going to be offsetting each concert with wind power to neutralize carbon emissions and we will have food drives and lots of other things,” said Gardner. In addition to all the things Guster will do during the show and getting to the show, they will also have demonstrations on campuses during the day of the show to explain the effects of global warming, and solutions for it.

:: Guster ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: April 1 ::

:: etown at Boulder Theater :: April 2 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Iron & Wine

• Mike Doughty

• The Bens

Vanderslice fights digital recording with his San francisco-based all analog studio

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:57:51 +0000

:: John Vanderslice :: Hi-Dive :: April 11 ::

By Tim Dwenger

Playing music for a living is romanticized in our world. It is seen by many as a cushy, glamorous way to pay the rent. There are men, women and children who dream about picking up a guitar, quitting their day jobs or dropping out of school, and living the rock star lifestyle. What most of these people don’t realize is that the life of a musician takes more hard work and dedication than virtually any profession if you want to be successful.

John Vanderslice, who is currently on tour with his newest band Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday, is a native of Florida who now resides in San Francisco. The man has a very realistic view of the music business and it is largely because he is up to his neck in it. “I have played almost 500 shows as John Vanderslice and at probably 90% of those shows I have played “Time Travel is Lonely,” he told The Marquee in a recent interview. “It is an absolute challenge for me to try to play that song now. I mean challenge in the sense that I am trying to play it well every time and not succumb to the boredom.”

Answers.com defines a Renaissance Man as “a man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences.” By this definition Vanderslice is most definitely a Renaissance Man. He has found a host of things to keep him from burning out on music. He is an avid photographer and movie buff and also owns and manages a very well respected recording studio in San Francisco’s Mission District.

His studio is Tiny Telephone and what makes it different from other studios in the Bay Area is that it is “one of the only all analog studios left in the Bay Area,” said Vanderslice. Founded in 1997, his studio has been growing while other analog facilities have been slowly dying out. “We have been open for almost nine years now and the studio stays pretty busy because it is priced very, very low. It is usually booked up two or three months in advance,” he said. “There was simply nothing in the middle of the market in San Francisco when we opened. There were rundown quasi rehearsal spaces that called themselves studios, and there were the big fancy ones. Don’t get me wrong, I love fancy studios but they cost upwards of a thousand dollars a day and there is no indie band that can pay that. I just saw a niche in the middle where we could gear ourselves toward indie bands that were selling records and trying to have a career.”

His vision was realized and to-date Tiny Telephone has been the birthplace of hundreds of albums. Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf, Third Eye Blind and Spoon are only a small sampling of the bands, both indie and major label, that have laid their music down at his studio.

His passion for analog instruments and recording equipment stems from a belief that the resulting sound is much more rich and raw than when using a digital medium. Each of Vanderslice’s five solo albums were recorded at Tiny Telephone with outstanding results. Acoustic guitars, field recorded samples and clever piano riffs are subjected to varying degrees of analog distortion and woven into a sonic carpet onto which Vanderslice lets his lyrics dance to life.

He has the uncanny ability to paint a lyrical picture so clearly that the listener is often convinced Vanderslice lived the story he is singing. In reality, while some the songs are autobiographical, his songwriting is often influenced by the photographs he takes, the movies he watches or the current events of the day. Delivered in his emotional tenor, the lyrics are poignant and effective at refusing to leave you alone long after the last note of the song has faded away.

:: John Vanderslice :: Hi-Dive :: April 11 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Death Cab for Cutie

• The Decemberists

• Sufjan Stevens

Austin outdoes itself again for annual music retreat

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:58:05 +0000

By Jeffrey V. Smith

A proper review of South By Southwest, the music industry’s annual Spring Break love-fest in Austin, is impossible. There is simply no way to properly expound on the multitude of facets that together make up the lunacy that is SXSW. Thousands of bands and fans from around the globe all come together with, managers, publicists, journalists, label execs, venue owners, radio programmers, booking agents—and any other profession with a vague relevance to the music industry—creating a 24/7 music scene that is too big for anyone’s plate, let alone words.

Amidst the hundreds of showcases in as many different venues and genres; the industry parties with their own line-up of bands; the concurrent music trade show and conference featuring musician interviews, panels and performances; unofficial events too numerous to count hyping still more acts and the random street performances there is no way any two people will experience the event the same way. Generalizations, highlights and some of the buzz generated can, however, be conveyed and hopefully open a few minds to what’s coming down the ’pike; at least until the independent music stew is stirred up again at SXSW ’07.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of Austin in March is that there is always something different and unexpected around each and every corner. No matter where you’re at with your musical choices and tastes, something more interesting, more appealing, more extreme is lurking just below the radar everywhere. The trick, both at SXSW and in the real world, is finding a gem in a giant metaphorical mountain of crap. It could be a four-piece French turntable collective, a visually disturbing Icelandic punk band, a stunning, traditional-Japanese “Geisha Song” singer, Mexican rappers or even young bluegrass pickers from Nashville. You never know what will pop-up while tracking the acts you do know about and actually want to see. All it takes is a random suggestion from a passer-by, getting to a venue early or taking a shortcut on the way to another band to end up in front of an act you never knew existed—perhaps from Istanbul, Iran or Indiana—changing your musical landscape forever. That’s common at SXSW and pretty much the point.

Officially there were over 1,400 bands in 65 venues but that’s only a small part of the story. Hundreds of parties and after-hours events, both official and not, non-SXSW venues with additional bands and even more musicians taking matters into their own hands by performing guerilla sets wherever they could also add to the mix. By the time you throw in the concurrent weeklong film and interactive festivals, the Austin Music Awards and numerous critics’ “picks” from every conceivable music rag, it’s impossible not to discover new and worthwhile music.

Or course, SXSW is not all about the new and different. Neil Young, for example delivered the keynote address at the conference while bands and musicians like the Beastie Boys, Morrissey, The Pretenders, Ray Davies, My Chemical Romance, Billy Bragg, k.d. lang and others held interview sessions and performed throughout out the four-day event. Their years of experience in the industry provide invaluable perspective during interview sessions while their performances raise the bar for the entire event.

Other, more contemporary bands being showcased have already launched and do not necessarily need the added industry exposure provided by playing SXSW. The Arctic Monkeys, Secret Machines, New Mastersounds, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, New Pornographers, Flaming Lips, Talib Kweli and others needed no introduction but did provide some very memorable live music moments while serving as a benchmark for other up-and-coming independent acts.

Needless to say, most of the industry’s eyes and ears are tuned into what happens at SXSW and the event can be responsible for many bands’ success stories. Create enough buzz and your act could become the next Bloc Party, Matisyahu or Franz Ferdinand. In a way, the event levels the playing field for smaller independent labels and bands. After 20 years it is considered the place to showcase bands to the American music industry, both from these shores and around the world. A showcase at SXSW can easily influence an act’s career if just the right journalist, radio programmer or label exec gets turned on. Chris Thile perhaps said it best when he told the audience during his Nickel Creek showcase. “It’s like a reverse meet and greet,” he said. “Here it’s the bands that tell the audience ‘you guys are so cool and awesome, we love you.’”

In the end I was able to get in front of 40-50 different bands and heard buzz on as many more. It wasn’t easy finding bands that rose above the din of obnoxious alt-rock acts and their angry, screeching lead singers but I did all right. Unfortunately some serious compromising must take place since it’s only possible to be in one place at one time and sometimes the sure-things win out over a musical gamble. For example, I couldn’t pass up seeing the Beastie Boys from the rail of Stubbs nor the two unannounced secret Flaming Lips shows, both if which were in tiny venues and over-the-top. For me, the bands that really leave an impression not only play well, but have the intension of creating a great live performance as well—something the Flaming Lips have perfected.

The highlights of SXSW 06 for this reviewer included Iceland’s Dr. Spock, which calls its music “heavy-metal cabaret with a dash of surf-porn cartoon funk.” The act was outrageously hilarious while laying down some heavy-duty, raging, euro-punk at the same time. Another standout was the “gypsy punk” act Gogol Bordello which has been called “Ukraine’s answer to the Pogues” and includes accordions and fiddles played at breakneck speeds. The band was one of the best at whipping the crowd into a frenzy and makes a stop at the Fox Theater April 2. Japan’s “Action Comic Punk Band” Peelander-Z performed another one its trademark outrageous sets and remains at the top of my favorites list. Another Japanese band, The Emeralds lived up to its reputation for playing “Samurai Rock ‘n’ Roll” and played a few strong sets at the event.

It wasn’t all just punk rock energy though. French guitarist and Hot Club of New York founding member, Stephane Wrembel and his Trio were an unexpected highlight. The group blends jazz, world, bluegrass, folk, Latino and rock, into a musical trip. I went to see the Brooklyn artist since David Grisman was joining him on stage but found myself as moved by Wremble as the much more well-known Grisman. Together they were out of this world. Nashville’s progressive bluegrass band The Stringdusters also proved to be quite talented and Nickel Creek’s showcase was another wonderful, acoustic and melodic reprieve from the noise most bands were making.

Other bands that proved to be hits and well received included Boston’s Apollo Sunshine which has a bouncy, ’60s-style melodic base and a powerful live show. Manchester, UK’s Nine Black Alps, which are the “perfect midpoint between the abattoir-blues of early Black Sabbath and the fried atmospherics of Ride,” also turned heads. Australia's heavy, fuzzed-out power trio Wolfmother was on many people’s must see list and didn’t disappoint. Imagine Grace Jones, Blondie, the Sugar Cubes, and Astrud Gilberto having a wild party and you’re only halfway to describing New York’s Brazilian Girls, which also made a buzz with its strong performances and unique sound. Stay tuned to hear more from bands like Snow Patrol, Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, Hellacopters, Editors, What Made Milwaukee Famous and Dr. Dog as well.

For anyone wishing to stay on the forefront of the independent music scene, whether business- or fan-related, SXSW is the place to do it. It’s also where you can expect the unexpected. Where else can you see hundreds of shows by previously unknown bands, hear veteran musicians answer audience questions, ride in an elevator with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, dance next to Elijah Wood at a Helmet show, see secret club shows from huge performers, bump into Billy Bragg and have him tell you about his previous night’s exploits with Morrissey and James Blunt all being schmoozed and fed free food and drink by record labels, industry businesses and even entire countries? Nowhere but Austin in March.

Editors, stellastarr* hook up for a co-headline tour following SXSW buzz

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:59:28 +0000

:: Editors/stellastarr* :: Bluebird Theater :: April 21::

By Tim Dwenger

Already a huge success in the U.K., Editors are poised to take the U.S. by storm. At the recent SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, they were doing countless interviews, playing radio shows and industry parties before their jet-lag even wore off. Between the effort they have recently been focusing on the U.S. market and their massive popularity in the U.K., they became one of the most talked-about bands at SXSW. After playing two private gigs, their first public set of the Festival at Blender Bar was nearly impossible to get into. England’s answer to Interpol, these four lads have a serious work ethic and understand that a major record label isn’t necessarily going to make you a star.

“If you sign to an indie label you are their priority,” drummer Ed Lay told The Marquee just hours before he was due to hit the stage at the Blender Bar for the BBC 6 Music Showcase. “You are at the forefront of all the thoughts of the people who work there. All of their work is geared toward making you a success. If you are at a major label you probably have ten, fifteen, maybe twenty bands who might be of the same style as you and who are all fighting for the same pot of money and attention. That is really not an ideal situation if you want to break a record.”

Editors strategy has paid off for them. Their debut album, The Back Room, was released by British Indie label Kitchenware and it has broken big, climbing all the way to number two on the U.K. charts.

Though not their first shows in the U.S., the gigs at SXSW were the kickoff of a major blitz Editors are aiming at the market on this side of the Atlantic. Having played a couple of a dates earlier this year, Lay seemed excited about the reception they received. “We came over here for about a week and half in January, just to show our faces and introduce ourselves. We didn’t know what to expect because we had never released anything (in the U.S.), and we didn’t know how the radio-play was going, but we were absolutely delighted at the response we got. The shows were rockin’ and in every town we played the kids were going wild and singing along with Tom [Smith] (vocals, guitar).”

The energy at an Editors show is no accident; they have spent several years creating a stage presence that the audience will remember. “When I was a kid I loved to go to a gig and just be attacked by the noise and the energy and I think that’s what we’ve always tried to convey as part of our live experience,” said Lay. “I don’t think there is anything much worse than a soulless performance. We really care about how we deliver our music and we pack a lot of aggression into it. We play pretty much all the songs on the record but we really try to twist the dynamic a bit and turn them more into rock songs instead of the dance/indie songs they are on the album.”

In a shrewd marketing move, Editors PR firm, Plus One Music, conceived of a co-headlining tour that will be hitting more than 30 markets across the U.S. and Canada this spring. Pairing Editors with stellastarr*, a New York-based band with similar New Wave hooks and deep booming male vocals, Plus One has created a bill that is sure to be the new wave revival tour of the year.

“We were really into the idea of a co-headline tour with Editors,” said Mandy Tannen, the bass player for stellastarr*, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “It just made sense to us because we felt we would both really benefit from being exposed to each other’s fanbase.”

stellastarr* is a band that is very focused on the visual as well as the musical element of the music business. Having met in art school in Brooklyn, all four members consider themselves visual artists as well as musicians. Tannen has designed a backdrop and set for the upcoming tour that ties into the artwork from their recent RCA release Harmonies for the Haunted. “There was another photograph that is similar to the one on the cover of the album and I used it for the backdrop. It is a veiled woman hanging upside down and her head just kind of sticks out from the ceiling. It is very surreal,” she said. “Then I also drape all the amps and cases on stage in that same material used for the veil in the photo. It is very airy feeling and we use a lot of backlighting and fog to complete the effect.”

This is the first tour that stellastarr* has used an artistic set of this nature. For years they, like Editors, worked hard playing small local clubs several times a month to get people talking. “Our motto was ‘short and sweet makes them want to come back for more,’” said Tannen. It has paid off for them, as they recently returned from a very successful run of shows in Scotland and England that led up to the U.K. release of Harmonies for the Haunted.

In a move that is sure to make music collectors stand up and take notice, both stellastarr* and Editors are making a previously unreleased track available to those who attend a show on the tour. A limited run of a 7” vinyl has been pressed and “one side is an Editors track and the other side is one of ours,” Tannen said. “It will be packaged with new artwork and available only at shows on this tour.”

:: Editors/stellastarr* ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: April 21::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Interpol

• Joy Division

• The Killers

Dinosaur Jr.: Back From Extinction to Tour the Earth Once Again

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:00:40 +0000

:: Dinosaur Jr. ::

:: Fox Theatre :: April 14 and 15::

By Tim Dwenger

The original lineup of Dinosaur Jr. flew apart in true rock and roll fashion: name calling, explosions to the media, and there are even rumors that J Mascis hit Barlow on the head with a guitar during a show. It was a meltdown that lived up to the deafening music that the trio had generated over the course of five years and three albums together.

“It was an extremely well publicized break-up and I was really pissed off when they kicked me out of the band. It pretty much ended up with me calling J [Mascis] an ‘asshole’ and J saying some pretty awful stuff to me,” bassist Lou Barlow told The Marquee on the eve of Dinosaur Jr.’s recent tour of Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Given the situation and the hard feelings that festered for 15 years, a reunion seemed about as unlikely as anything in music. Both Barlow and Mascis had gone on with their careers, Mascis continuing to record under the Dinosaur Jr. name, and Barlow focusing on side projects Sebadoh and founding Folk Implosion. The pair hardly saw each other between 1989 and 2002, and when they did it was not pretty. “J would show up at Sebadoh shows in the mid-90s, and I actually chased him out of one,” Barlow admitted. “I was just like ‘get the fuck out of here,’ and I just kept yelling at him ’til he left.”

The real turning point came in 2002, when both Barlow and Mascis were working in London at the same time. Barlow recalled the moment that he faced Mascis for the first time in all those years. “A mutual friend of ours, who is the sound guy for Dinosaur and was working with J at the time, said ‘Lou, you gotta come to this show that J is doing here.’ I reluctantly agreed and was like ‘O.K., this is it, I am going to face J.’ The first thing I said was ‘I apologize for chasing you out of that show and whatever else I’ve done to make you feel uncomfortable over the years.’ It took a minute but it kinda registered with him and he was like ‘Yeah, ok, that was a bit harsh.’ Then I met his wife, who is totally awesome, and got to know about everything that J was doing.”

It was shortly after this meeting that Barlow’s mom, who works with the families of children who suffer from autism in western Massachusetts, was putting together a benefit concert. “A woman who my mother works closely with is really good friends with J and his wife, so they asked J to play, my mother told me I was going to play and then they asked Sonic Youth, who also live in the area, if they would play. It was this big benefit show with the three of us as the final three acts of the night.”

Toward the end of the night Barlow, Mascis and two of their friends from their first band, Deep Wound, ended up on stage together running through an old hardcore song that Deep Wound used to do back in the early ’80s.

“The whole weekend of this event, my mom kept saying that we should have a Dinosaur reunion,” Barlow said. “I told her it wasn’t going to happen, as we didn’t even know where Murph was. However, the whole situation put the idea of a reunion into the mind of J’s manager, Brian Schwartz, who does business out of Boulder. He really was not entirely aware of the whole situation surrounding our break-up and the can of worms that he could potentially be opening by doing this. He ran the idea by the two of us and we said ‘O.K., if you can pull it together, we’ll give it a shot’ and he ran with it. Almost immediately he found Murph, who was living at his Mom’s house, and he made things happen,” said Barlow.

Though rumors had been circulating through the industry for months, Barlow officially announced the reunion during his solo set at SXSW in March of 2005. By April the band had appeared on national television and was hitting the road for its first run of shows since 1989.

Though Dinosaur Jr. had morphed through many line-up changes before fading out in the late ’90s as essentially a pseudonym for Mascis’s solo projects, the original line-up was never equaled.

Notoriously withdrawn and self-described as a weird kid, Joseph “J” Mascis grew up in Amherst, Mass., stewing himself in classic rock riffage ’til he discovered the ways of hardcore punk in the late ’70s. In the band Deep Wound, J found a friend in guitarist Lou Barlow from nearby Westfield, and along with himself on drums, singer Charlie Nakajima and bassist Scott Helland, the four-piece buzz-sawed their way out of the western Massachusetts hardcore punk scene in the early ’80s. They officially became Dinosaur after they dropped the other members; Mascis switched to guitar, Barlow moved over to bass and Barlow’s friend Emmett Jefferson “Murph” Murphy III, joined them on drums. (They eventually added the “Jr.” when a band of actual dinosaur rockers laid claim to the name.)

It was UMASS Amherst student Gerard Cosloy (of Matador Records fame) who first recognized that Dino were laying down a unique confabulation of sound in the Massachusetts’s wilds. Claiming they were the best band he’d ever seen, he tipped them to his friend Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who eventually asked Dinosaur Jr. on tour.

Some of the loudest, most aurally assaulting music to ever fill a rock club was generated by this historic trio. Their heavy brand of guitar rock paved the way for bands like Nirvana and the grunge movement that swept through music in the 90’s. A power trio in the true sense of the word, Dinosaur Jr. shows were often heralded as the loudest in the business.

“One of the first practices we ever had, Murph and I went over to J’s house, and J is sitting there with this new really high wattage amp that he had just bought. He was just sitting there and all of a sudden he just laid on his ‘Big Muff’ and we were like ‘OH MY FUCKING GOD!’ He literally had construction blast earmuffs on and Murph and I were scrambling around the house shoving toilet paper, or whatever we could find, into our ears,” Barlow recalled through bouts of laughter.

Twenty two years later the band hasn’t toned things down a bit. “We are probably louder than we were back in the ’80s. The stuff sounds better, the quality of the tones is better, though you can’t really tell because it is so fucking loud. We are all just much better players at this point and it feels really good to me,” said Barlow.

The first few shows in 2005 found the band on very solid footing. Things were falling into place nicely and what was originally intended to be a short spring reunion tour ended up stretching through till the end of the summer with dates on both sides of the Atlantic.

As if this wasn’t already more than anyone ever thought would happen, the three began entertaining thoughts of entering a studio together to lay down some tracks. Early this year it happened. Mascis, Barlow and Murph got together at Mascis’s house with tape rolling.

After a very relaxed month of work, the reunited Dinosaur Jr. is well on their way to their fourth studio album. “We’ve got eight songs with bass and drums on them,” Barlow said. “They are J’s songs so he has tons of guitar ideas and each song has a big solo section. I think he’s got his work cut out for him between shows over the next couple of months.”

The sessions were very similar to what Barlow remembered when the band recorded such albums as Bug and You’re Living All Over Me in the 80’s. J and Murph worked on the rhythms for hours and the volume was cranked all the way up. “J came in after I had done the last of my bass overdubs and said ‘That’s really fucking loud, I can hear it all the way down the street.’ And it was, it was so loud you had to wear hearing protection to even enter the room where I was doing it,” said Barlow.

Barlow seems very positive about the material they have recorded together, retaining the energy and aggression of the ’80s albums while incorporating all of the experience and maturity they have gained over the years of being apart. With any luck, the new album could show the unlocked potential of one of pre-grunge grunge rock’s greatest bands.

While Barlow admitted he doesn’t know when the album will hit the stores, since the band is taking on the project all themselves without label assistance, he said they were aiming for a release date before the end of the year. “We didn’t want to deal with a label on this one,” said Barlow. “We wanted to do it our way, at our pace, so I think J will be releasing it on his own label.”

:: Dinosaur Jr. ::

:: Fox Theatre :: April 14 and 15::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sonic Youth

• Nirvana

• Pavement

Folks Festival is the mellow alternative to fests

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:34:17 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

bluegrass.com/folks

 August 18-20

Lyons, Co.

The Folks Fest is a laid-back gathering on the St. Vrain river in Lyons. The event is much more mellow and smaller than the crowds you’ll find at the major festivals, but that doesn’t scare away the artists — Ani DiFranco and The Waifs are returning to the stage yet again this year. The festival kicks off with the Songwriter Showcase competition, where songwriters from around the world compete for a spot in the line-up. For those looking to brush up on their skills the festival features song writing workshops as well. The intimate setting is great for families (kids 12 and under are free) but leave the dog at home.

ARTISTS:

Ani DiFranco

The Waifs

Martin Sexton

Mindy Smith

Kathleen Edwards

Amos Lee

Andrew Bird

Jane Siberry

Billy Jonas

More TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Lyons, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 55 minute

Total Est. Distance: 49 miles

ALONG THE WAY: (See details under RockyGrass write-up)

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

Jazz Aspen Snowmass goes double-time with two events

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:35:48 +0000

By Tim Dwenger

jazzaspen.org

 June 22-25 and Sept. 1-4

Snowmass Village, Co.

What would a summer in the mountains be without a high end festival or two in Aspen? The perfect getaway for yuppie 30-something couples who like their music civilized, Jazz Aspen’s two festivals feature a massive stage, great sound, lush green grass, and a large VIP area where you can sit comfortably just steps from a top shelf open bar (though this will cost between $350 and $1,800). Over the past couple of summers the organizers have tried to mix up the crowd a bit and have brought in some of the biggest names in the jamband scene, including Trey Anastasio and Widespread Panic. With music starting in the late afternoon or evening, festival goers have the day to explore the town of Aspen or head into the mountains to do some hiking. While this is a relatively expensive festival, you get what you pay for and very few walk away unsatisfied.

ARTISTS:

June Festival:

Jamie Cullum

Lizz Wright

Diana Krall

Elvis Costello & The Imposters

Delbert McClinton

Trey Anastasio

Maceo Parker

Various Bands as Part of the JAS After Dark Series

September Festival :

TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Aspen, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 3 hours, 45 minute

Total Est. Distance: 197 miles

ALONG THE WAY: While in Aspen, head out the road a bit to Woody Creek. You can drive by (but not up to) to infamous Woody Creek Ranch, where the famed Dr. Hunter S. Thompson lived and died. Remember that while Aspen may be a bit “pinkies up,” the Good Doctor did run for sheriff in the 1970s on the “Freak Power” ticket. So it can’t be all bad.

Go Gonzo!

PRICES: $$$$$

CAMPING: No

Blues & Brews serves up suds with tasty tunes

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:37:33 +0000

By Monica Banks

tellurideblues.com

 Sept. 15-17

Telluride, Co.

Held in September, Blues & Brews is a good stop at the end of a summer festival tour. Blues & Brews features three days of world-renowned musicians performing live on the famous Telluride Town Park stage, late night jams in the local juke joints, 50 choice microbreweries serving up their handcrafted “cream of the barrel” during Saturday’s Grand Tasting, the Rainbow Kids area, free Acoustic Artist Series, Blues For Breakfast, and the Telluride Acoustic Blues Camp. Located in Telluride, it’s even a good weekend escape for the working stiffs who can’t get any time off.

Though it has “Blues” in its name the line-up can range anywhere from traditional blues to rock and roll.

ARTISTS: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Telluride, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 6 hours, 15 minute

Total Est. Distance: 363 miles

ALONG THE WAY: (See details under Telluride Bluegrass write-up)

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

Blues & Brews serves up suds with tasty tunes

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:37:33 +0000

By Monica Banks

tellurideblues.com

 Sept. 15-17

Telluride, Co.

Though it has “Blues” in its name the line-up can range anywhere from traditional blues to rock and roll.

ARTISTS: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Telluride, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 6 hours, 15 minute

Total Est. Distance: 363 miles

ALONG THE WAY: (See details under Telluride Bluegrass write-up)

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

RockyGrass hosts traditional bluegrass pickers

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:38:35 +0000

By Tim Dwenger

bluegrass.com/rockygrass

 July 28-30

Planet Bluegrass Ranch - Lyons, Co.

Set in the beautiful town of Lyons, Co. this festival combines some of the biggest names in bluegrass music world with one of the most beautiful venues in the world, period. Along the St. Vrain River, the Planet Bluegrass Ranch is an oasis nestled among the majestic red rock formations that dominate the Lyons landscape.

This 33-year old festival was nominated last year for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Event of the Year, and, as might be expected, it attracts fans old and young from all corners of the country and probably the world. RockyGrass tends to stay true to traditional bluegrass music and is a more pure bluegrass festival than its big brother in Telluride. Like Telluride, the on-site camping may be close quarters but it fosters new friendships, jam sessions and more than a few good laughs. For those who shy from big crowds the relatively low capacity of the Ranch allows this to be one of the most intimate feeling festivals around.

ARTISTS:

Yonder Mountain String Band

Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, & Edgar Meyer

Peter Rowan & Tony Rice

Mountain Heart

Richard Greene & the Brothers Barton

Tony Trischka Bluegrass Band featuring Roland White

Bearfoot Bluegrass

Town Mountain

Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes

Jerry Douglas presents Manzanita featuring Tony Rice, Sam Bush, & Dan Tyminski

Blue Highway

Uncle Earl

Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings

The Stringdusters

Crooked Still

Peter Rowan & Tony Rice

Earl Scruggs

Sam Bush Bluegrass Band

Tim O’Brien Band

Blue Highway

Darrell Scott Bluegrass Band

The Wilders

Abigail Washburn

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Lyons, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 55 minute

Total Est. Distance: 49 miles

ALONG THE WAY: In Lyons the Planet Bluegrass Ranch reigns supreme, but just down the road is Oskar Blues, THE music venue of Lyons. With a flare for blues and cajun, Oskar Blues is a great after-festival spot, before the camp-side picks get going. The venue always has special guests on festival weekends, and it’s never known who from RockyGrass’ main stage will show up at the club, post-festival.

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

Pickin’ on the Poudre kicks off Mish’s 90th year

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:39:04 +0000

By Karen Schneider

pickinonthepoudre.net

 May 12–13

Mishawaka Amphitheatre – Bellvue, Co.

Celebrating its second year, the Pickin on the Poudre Bluegrass Festival will kick off legendary Mishawaka’s 90th anniversary. Two days of bluegrass and nature, who could ask for more?

Mishawaka is an anomaly — a throw back to different times, but the free-for-all atmosphere has been toned down in recent years, and while it’s not quite as carefree, it’s still one of Colorado’s best outdoor venues.

Picking on the Poudre is only in its second year, but its already proving that gaining momentum is not a problem.

ARTISTS:

Jeff Austin and Friends (TBA)

Swing Set feat. Dave Johnston of YMSB

Head for the Hills

The Wayword Sons

The Laughing Hands

Wildwood Holler

Leadfoot

Jeff Miller

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Bellvue, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 1 hour, 19 minute

Total Est. Distance: 71 miles

ALONG THE WAY: The beautiful Poudre Canyon is host to a variety of recreational activities including hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, bouldering, cliff jumping, whitewater rafting, kayaking and more. Traditional style roller skating will be allowed in designated areas from 3-6 a.m.

PRICES: $$

CAMPING: Limited on-site. Additional campgrounds located nearby

South Park quickly becoming state’s best fest

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:40:19 +0000

By Michelle Gross

southparkmusic.com

 Sept. 7-10

South Park – Fairplay, CO

With only two years under its belt it’s hard to believe that the South Park Music Festival is on the verge of becoming the state’s best festival, but it is. Under the tutelage of director Matt Fecher, the festival has grown from a small gathering two years ago to a monsterous indie event in 2005, and plans are to expand for 2006.

Last year, the festival featured Margot and the Nuclear So and So. No one really knew the band, but since the festival, they have signed to a label, released their debut and filmed their videos. We can only hope that 2006 provides another break-out band like that.

Most bands are unsigned and unheard of, but that’s part of the allure in the tiny, white bread mountain town.

ARTISTS: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Fairplay, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 1 hour, 47minute

Total Est. Distance: 87 miles

ALONG THE WAY: On Highway 9 in Alma, just outside Fairplay, lies the South Park Saloon. The bar claims the distinction of being the bar with the highest elevation in North America.

PRICES: $

CAMPING: No

Telluride Bluegrass goes way beyond the twang

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:41:14 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

bluegrass.com

 June 15-18

Telluride, Co.

For 33 summers Telluride Bluegrass has been the premiere festival in Colorado. While the festival is and always has been routed in its bluegrass heritage, in recent years the promoters have continually pushed the envelope of what bluegrass means, changing the festival into more of an Americana catch-all music festival.

From traditionalists like Del McCoury to progressive bluegrassers like Sam Bush, this year’s line-up is no different. But the festival also has some very non-bluegrass acts, like The Barenaked Ladies and southern rockers and storytellers Drive-By Truckers.

Set amid the picturesque San Juan mountains, the festival is quite possibly the most visually stimulating gathering of its kind anywhere in the world. The natural backdrop is just that good, and Planet Bluegrass, the company that organizes the festival, runs it like a well-oiled machine, giving festival goers a fantastic outdoor concert experience.

ARTISTS:

Bonnie Raitt

Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Tim O’Brien, Bryan Sutton

Neko Case

Tim O'Brien

Drew Emmit Band

Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband

Wayword Sons

Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

The Decemberists

Drive-By Truckers

John Lehndorff

Jerry Douglas Band

The Greencards

Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers

The Badly Bent

Sam Bush Band

Yonder Mountain String Band

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Shawn Camp

John Cowan

Missy Higgins

Barenaked Ladies

John Prine

Nickel Creek

Tim O'Brien Band

Del McCoury Band

Edgar Meyer & Mike Marshall

Peter Rowan & Tony Rice

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to Telluride, Co.).

Total Est. Time: 6 hours, 15 minute

Total Est. Distance: 363 miles

ALONG THE WAY: The drive to Telluride can sometimes seem to take forever, but the drive through Glenwood Canyon makes it all worth while. It begs to be driven in a top-down convertible with music cranking.

Once in Telluride, trips via gondola over to Mountain Village provide some of the most spectacular views of the Telluride Box Canyon. A hike to Bridal Veil Falls, the highest cascade in Colorado, is also a must.

PRICES: $$$$

CAMPING: Limited on-site

CMJ is the lord of the indie conferences/festivals

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:42:05 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

www.cmj.com/marathon

 Oct. 31-Nov. 4

New York, N.Y.

If Bonnaroo is the king of the outdoor field festival, CMJ wears the crown when it comes to industry conference and indie gathering.

Since 1981, thousands of artists representing the worlds of rock, electronica, hip-hop, loud rock, Americana, international, blues, jazz and everything else have invaded New York during CMJ to perform in the city's premiere clubs and venues. Last year, CMJ attracted more than 100,000 people, and every year CMJ defines the up-and-coming artists of the year. Past artists are a who’s who of great acts, whom no one knew when they played CMJ.

This is the big dog, and attendance is a must.

ARTISTS: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co. to New York, N.Y.).

Total Est. Time: 27 hours, 8 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,779 miles

ALONG THE WAY: This is New York City, so even the most exhaustive list of things to do will miss something. For the music freaks however, New York is the ultimate gold mine. Among the numerous attractions are the infamous Dakota Building, where John Lennon was killed and the nearby spot in Central Park named in his honor as Strawberry Fields.

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: No

Atlantis brings indie to the heart of the South

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:43:17 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

atlantismusic.com

 Oct. 4-7

Atlanta, Ga.

Started in 1998, with the purpose of presenting a platform for the discovery of new talent in America, the Atlantis Conference and Festival is one of the up-and-coming events in the conference/festival/industry retreat genre. After eight years, Atlantis remains true to its mission, and thus is quickly growing into an international conference. With 95 percent of its performing artists unsigned and from all parts of the world, Atlantis is not just a Southeastern conference; it is an International Conference. The 9th Annual Conference will feature over 300 showcasing artists from all over the world.

Last year’s conference generated over 72,000 fans passing through a total of 14 venues.

ARTISTS: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co., to Atlanta, Ga.).

Total Est. Time: 21 hours, 5 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,403 miles

ALONG THE WAY: Just a slight out-of-the-way detour en-route to Atlanta is one of the quintessential American music attractions: Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Muscle Shoals was known for years as the “Hit Recording Capital of the World,” with artists like Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Picket, Michael Jackson and countless others cranking out hit after hit. The area is also home to “The Swampers,” the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section mentioned in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama.” While the hallowed halls of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio are now closed, the legendary FAME Recording Studios still operates, and since they are good southern people they’ll be polite enough to show you around.

PRICES: $$

CAMPING: No

Boston’s Nemo is like SXSW for the Northeast

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:44:47 +0000

By Matt Marty

nemoboston.com

 Sept. 28-30

Boston, Mass.

Moving into its tenth year of existence, the NEMO Music Festival has become the poster child festival of the Northeast. Like South by Southwest the NEMO festival attracts as many music fans as it does industry representatives and musicians. Taking advantage of the urban location, NEMO is set throughout Boston, and uses the city to its advantage, having 300 bands play in 30 different venues in 3 days. Are you seeing a theme yet? Aside from actual performances, during the day many different events are held including showcases, performance clinics, panel discussions, a music industry trade show and mentor sessions for artists. When the sun sets, the concerts at the surrounding venues begin.

Artists: TBA

Travel Time:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver Co., to Boston, Mass.).

Total Est. Time: 30 hours, 9 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,973 miles

Along The Way: Boston is home to the legendary Berklee College of Music. Founded in 1945, Berklee is the world's largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music. Its list of alumni is a venerable who’s who in music with artists ranging from Melissa Etheridge, Donald Fagen, Quincy Jones, Branford Marsalis, John Mayer, Steve Vai and many more. Also while in Boston, it’s required that you visit Fenway Park for a Red Sox game.

Prices: $$$

Camping: No

Cincinatti’s MidPoint is Indie for indie’s sake

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:45:59 +0000

By Chris M. Junior

mpmf.com

 Sept. 20-23

Cincinnati, Ohio

Now in its fifth year, Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival considers itself to be the “biggest and best” in the region and goes by the slogan “Independent Music for Independent Minds.” Much like South by Southwest, MidPoint is a festival and a conference, presenting bands from around the world along with a variety of panels and a trade show. What’s unique about MidPoint is its dual keynote speakers — one representing artists, the other representing the industry. Last year, it was singer Greg Dulli, formerly of Cincy’s own Afghan Whigs, along with writer/editor Alan Light, whose credits include Spin and Tracks magazines.

ARTISTS/PANELS:

To be announced in early July.

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from

Denver, Co., to Cincinnati, Ohio).

Total Est. Time: 17 hours, 57 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,193 miles

ALONG THE WAY: I-70 rolls right through St. Louis, Mo., the birthplace of Chuck Berry, who was born in a three-room house at 2520 Goode Ave. Berry memorabilia is on display at the Blueberry Hill club/restaurant, located in the Loop at 6504 Delmar. While in Cincy, be sure to visit Cincinnati Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark and home of the Cincinnati Opera. Up the road nearly four hours away is Cleveland, which is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for those who want to add a few hours to their trip.

PRICES: $$

CAMPING: No

Midwest Music Summit re-ignites midwest scene

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:47:39 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

midwestmusicsummit.com

 August 10-12

Indianapolis, IN.

Six years ago, one of the most aggressive undertakings in the history of the Indianapolis music scene came to life with the advent of the Midwest Music Summit.

Challenging the antiquated notion that music and the industry that surrounds it had somehow forgotten about the Midwest, the MMS launched an all-out attack by launching the festival, which now brings close to 300 artists each year.

By making the festival a combined conference and concert locale, the promoters have also re-introduced the music industry to the area and garnered attention from media outlets on both coasts.

Artists: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Co., to Indianapolis, In.).

Total Est. Time: 16 hours, 14 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,084 miles

ALONG THE WAY: One of Indiana’s biggest musical stars is John Mellencamp, who first broke out with hits like “Jack and Diane,” and “Small Town,” written in and about his humble town of Bloomington, Ind., just an hour up the road from Indianapolis. It’s a journey straight into the heartland and a world of Tasty Freezes.

PRICES: $$

CAMPING: No

Austin City Limits solidifies city as music capitol

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:48:16 +0000

By Michelle Gross

aclfestival.com

 September 15-17

Austin, Texas

The City of Austin has always been recognized as one of the live music capitols of the world, and the presence of the ACL festival is only helping to perpetuate that image.

Whereas the Austin City Limits television series traditionally paid homage to its Texas roots, the ACL Festival has been the place to find break-out bands and international sensations alike.

In 2004, promoters sold 75,000 tickets in one day of the festival, which prompted them to set a cap of 65,000 tickets for 2005. And it’s no wonder that the festival is so well attended. Last year, ACL attracted artists such as Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie, and according to wikipedia.com, rumored artists for 2006 are U2, Wilco and Beck.

Artists: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Co., to Austin, Texas).

Total Est. Time: 15 hours, 29 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 962 miles

ALONG THE WAY: Austin is like a candy store for music freaks. The musical history of the town is palpable. With an unparalleled list of musicians who have called Austin home (Townes Van Zandt, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Junior Brown, to name a very select few), the town is teaming with musical attractions, such as the famed Stubbs, which has been ground zero for musicians ranging from Vaughn, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.

PRICES: $$$$

CAMPING: No

Wakarusa is getting big in short order

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:49:17 +0000

By Monica Banks

wakarusa.com

 June 8-11

Lawrence, Kansas

Wakarusa is a Native American term meaning “ass-deep,” somewhat unfitting seeing that this festival puts any patron way over their head in music. The Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival is a four-day party in the heart of the Midwest. Born in 2004, the festival originally featured over 70 artists in a diverse and eclectic line-up. In 2005, Wakarusa returned and quickly established itself as a premiere, grassroots event in the nationwide outdoor music scene. Last year the event featured over 80 artists, five stages and over four days of non-stop music and entertainment. This year’s throw down is looking more and more like the highlight of the summer.

ARTISTS:

Gov’t Mule

Robert Randolph and the Family Band

The Greyboy Allstars

STS9

Yonder Mountain String Band

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Disco Biscuits

Les Claypool

Keller Williams

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Buckethead

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Railroad Earth

Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors

Benevento-Russo Duo,

ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra)

Perpetual Groove

Tim Reynolds

Cracker

New Monsoon

Oteil & the Peacemakers

Assembly of Dust

The Cat Empire

Papa Mali

Chubby Carrier

Todd Snider

Lucero

Will Hoge

Donna the Buffalo

Gabby La La

William Elliot Whitmore

Jake Shimabukuro

Bob Schneider

Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons

Samantha Stollenwerck

Larry Keel and Natural Bridge Delta Nove

MOFRO

Shooter Jennings

Camper Van Beethoven

Shanti Groove

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

Yard Dogs Road Show

and many more.

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Co. to Lawrence, Ks.).

Total Est. Time: 8 hours, 14 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 566 miles

ALONG THE WAY: Not far from Lawrence is Bonner Springs, Ks., a town that might otherwise forever be as obscure as dozens of other heartland towns, except for the fact that Bonner Springs High School is the home of Gene Clark, one of the founders of The Byrds. It may not be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but since it’s only a half an hour away from Lawrence, it’s worth a side-trip for a snapshot.

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

10,000 Lakes in line to be the jam fest of ’06

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:50:06 +0000

By Jeffrey V. Smith

10klf.com

 July 19-22

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

In only its fourth year, the annual 10,000 Lakes Festival has quickly become one of the largest destination festivals in the country, featuring many of the top acts in the jamband scene. The festival showcases over 35 artists and bands on four stages, including the Barn Stage on a shady hill overlooking the concert bowl, the Field Stage, the Saloon Stage for intimate concerts and late night jams, and the Main Stage.

Artists are given lengthy set times as well since, unlike other festivals, the event doesn’t try to fit every touring band in the nation on its bill. While not as massive and overwhelming as events like Bonnaroo, 10,000 Lakes Festival is much better at allowing music fans the chance to experience nearly every act on the line-up with little overlap. The festival also features a variety of unique sets and artists not found elsewhere. Other benefits over other large festivals include wireless Internet access, numerous bars and food/beverage/merchandise booths along with large, permanent restroom facilities with running water and showers surrounding the concert bowl. Camping at the 600-acre Soo Pass Ranch includes numerous lakeside, wooded and rolling-field campgrounds built specifically for fans to enjoy a spacious, friendly and comfortable setting.

ARTISTS:

Phil Lesh & Friends

Trey Anastasio

String Cheese Incident

Benevento-Russo Duo feat. Mike Gordon

The Keller Williams Incident (w/SCI)

O.A.R. (...Of A Revolution)

Umphrey's McGee

Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Keller Williams

Medeski Martin & Wood

Railroad Earth

The Everyone Orchestra

The Big Wu

Shooter Jennings

Garaj Mahal

Great American Taxi

The Mutaytor

Hot Buttered Rum

Tea Leaf Green

The Wood Brothers

WookieFoot

Green Lemon

Trampled By Turtles

Fat Maw Rooney

Backyard Tire Fire

God Johnson

Freshwater Collins

White Iron Band

Hooch

Down Lo

New Primitives

Unity

Moses Mayes

GypsyFoot

Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Co., to Detroit Lakes, Minn.).

Total Est. Time: 14 hours, 29 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,003 miles

ALONG THE WAY: The drive to northwest Minnesota from Denver couldn’t be more exciting. The drive traverses nearly the entire length of Nebraska's spectacular corn country and sites such as the Kool-Aid Man's Footprints at the Hastings Visitors Center. Historic sites commemorating, Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail can be found along the way as well. Nebraska’s renowned and very unique museum, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument sits about 3 miles east of Kearney and rises over Interstate 80 as a large arch. The route takes drivers through Lincoln, the state’s most, and only, progressive town and home to the University of Nebraska. Next, the route travels through Iowa's scenic corn country before reaching Sioux City where riverboat gambling is king. This is followed shortly by Sioux Falls, S.D., where the falls of the Big Sioux River are a popular attraction. About 50 miles short of the festival, the route takes the driver through exciting Fargo, N.D. home of The Fargo Theater and its mighty Wurlitzer Organ.

PRICES: $$$

CAMPING: Yes

Bonnaroo is king of modern-day festivals

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:51:14 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

bonnaroo.com.

 June 16-18

Manchester, Tenn.

This is the mother load. Bonnaroo, now in its fifth year, has become one of the country’s biggest festivals and each year turns the 700-acre farm in Tennessee into one of the biggest cities in the state. The four-day, multi-stage camping festival brings together some of the best performers in rock and roll, along with dozens of artists in complementary styles such as jazz, Americana, hip-hop, electronica, and just about any contemporary music you can think of.

In addition to dozens of epic performances, the festival's 100-acre entertainment village buzzes around the clock with attractions and activities including a classic arcade, on-site cinema, silent disco, comedy club, theater performers, a beer festival, and a music technology village. For its peaceful vibe, near-flawless logistics, and unrivaled entertainment options, Rolling Stone magazine named this revolutionary entertainment experience one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll. Be careful of the heat and the summer thunderstorms. Come prepared for that and the big crowds if you want to enjoy it.

ARTISTS:

Radiohead

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Phil Lesh & Friends

Beck

Elvis Costello & the Imposters featuring Allen Toussaint

Oysterhead

Bonnie Raitt

Death Cab for Cutie

moe.

Bright Eyes

The Neville Brothers

Les Claypool

Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

Buddy Guy

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley

Ben Folds

Robert Randolph & the Family Band

Dr. John

Matisyahu

G. Love & Special Sauce

Cypress Hill

Blackalicious

The Streets

Lyrics Born

My Morning Jacket

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Common

Sonic Youth

Matt Costa

Steel Pulse

Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove

Cat Power

Medeski Martin & Wood

Nickel Creek

Gomez

Atmosphere

Steve Earle

Blues Traveler

Amadou & Mariam

The Refugee All Stars

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

Umphrey's McGee

Disco Biscuits

Dresden Dolls

Son Volt

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Jerry Douglas

Soulive

Rusted Root

Devendra Banhart Band

Donavon Frankenreiter

Mike Doughty

Sasha

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

The Magic Numbers

Bill Frisell

Seu Jorge

Bettye LaVette

Dungen

Shooter Jennings

Rebirth Brass Band

Robinella

Andrew Bird

Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk

Steel Train

Jackie Greene

Devotchka

The Wood Brothers

dios (malos)

Toubab Krewe

The Motet

Marah

I-Nine

Balkan Beat Box

The Cat Empire

Tortured Soul

Deadboy & the Elephantmen

TRAVEL TIME:

(As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Co., to Manchester, Tenn.).

Total Est. Time: 18 hours, 16 minutes

Total Est. Distance: 1,220 miles

Along the way: If you’re going to Tennessee, you have to go to Memphis. You just HAVE to. Memphis is about four hours away from Manchester, Tenn., and is home to Elvis Presley’s Graceland. The city bills itself as the “Home of the Blues” and the “Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” In addition to enough Elvis to fill a lifetime, Memphis is also home to the Gibson Guitar factory, the historic Beale Street, The Delta Blues Museum, The Rock N Soul Museum and the Jack Daniel’s Distillery!

PRICES: $$$$

CAMPING: Yes

Spain’s Azkena Rock Fest is Europe’s finest

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:52:09 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

www.azkenarockfestival.com

 Aug. 31 - Sept. 2

Vitoria-Gazteiz, Spain

In just four years, Spain’s Azkena Rock Festival has grown from a small gathering of 3,000 people to last year’s record-setting 32,000 attendees, and with the acts it’s pulling in, it’s no wonder.

Azkena 2005 boasted a lineup that ranged from Wilco to Gov’t Mule, Queens of the Stone Age and The Pogues, and a ton of others, including Boulder’s own Rose Hill Drive.

While the lineup for Azkena 2006 has yet to be announced, the promoters are saying that it will continue on with the precedent they have set in recent years.

Supported by the Basque government, the Vitoria City Council and the Alava Cultural Foundation, the Azkena Rock Festival has become more than just a big rock show; it has transcended into a cultural phenomenon, even going so far as to earn governmental awards for its obvious impact on tourism in the region.

With the legendary Glastonbury Festival on hiatus this year, Azkena is taking on the role of the faithful torchbearer of the contemporary music movement in Europe, not only bringing in acts that customarily play harder rock, but also highlighting pop, rhythm and blues, Americana and punk rock.

Azkena is held in the Basque Country of Spain. While the area is noted as one of the most industrialized portions of the country, it is also wrought with history, nature and culture, featuring everything from Gothic cathedrals to modern-day golf courses. A highlighted attraction is the steep Cantabrian coast.

Visitors should be cautioned that, much like the afternoon sun showers that hit the Front Range each day, this region has its own brand of daily showers, called “txirimiri,” which is typically a very fine rain.

The organizers of Azkena also handle two other festivals in the region, the Santander Summer Festival (held the first week of July), which this year will feature Prodigy, Black Eyed Peas, Editors, and HIM, among others, and the Bilbao Live Festival, which will be held for the first time this year (July 13-15).

Artists: TBA

TRAVEL TIME:

Total Est. Time: Considering the varying number of flights, routes, layovers and connections, the flight can take anywhere from

15 to 18 hours.

Along the way: You’re going to be in Europe, so there is no shortage of things to see, but if you don’t have the time to travel outside of the festival’s region, there is a musical must-see, located right in the region: The Bilboa Orchestra Symphony. It was described by the international opera star Monserrat Caballé as the most beautiful room she had ever sung in.

The Conference and Music Hall was built by two architects, Soriano and Palacios, and opened in 1999. It has been acclaimed as one of the greatest contemporary feats realized by Spanish architects, symbolizing the last ship built at the old Euskalduna yard as an enormous facility at the heart of the city. The auditorium has seating for 2,164, exceptional acoustic capacity and a world-renowned organ.

PRICES: $$$$$

CAMPING: Yes

Festival season shaping up to be best ever

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:53:39 +0000

In today’s musical world, where concert goers have a wealth of choices, the festival format makes more sense than ever. It gives ticket holders a chance to get major bang per buck, and, while the planning may take a bit more time for the promoter, it helps them as well since they can put their eggs all in one basket.

All of that aside, the festival format, at its core is, simply fun. It’s a chance to shed the every-day world and live for a day or a weekend in a musical utopia with anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand like-minded musical freaks.

One of the best parts about a festival is the music it can expose listeners to. While you may chose to attend based on a headlining act, the “filler” sets from up-and-coming acts can be highlights as bands transform from simply a name on the list to tangible success stories.

In recent years, many festivals have taken on the format of industry conference and festival. It’s another smart move, as it gives industry personnel an excuse to attend (“I have to speak on the such and such panel”), and it helps create buzz. When someone in the office of a music magazine makes plans to head to a festival, that word of mouth is golden.

Whether you’re in the industry or not, those conferences can be almost as interesting as the bands themselves. Conferences also give artists the chance to interact with industry decision makers.

This month The Marquee looks at some of the top festivals around the world, the country and the state. From the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain to the Folk Festival in Lyons, each festival has its own flavor, and we hope to uncover a bit about what makes each one unique and worth attending.

Note: All travel times and distances are calculated from Denver, using mapquest.com. Price is marked by a dollar sign ($) with $ being a free or inexpensive ticket and $$$$$ being the most expensive.

We hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you at the festivals.

From the Barstool of the Publisher - May, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:54:13 +0000

Not since someone mixed peanut butter and chocolate together have two things combined as well as some great tunes and some tasty suds.

This month, The Marquee is proud to release, in conjunction with Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, something that does just that — mixes beer and music together in one handy package.

On May 18, the Singing 12-PackTM will hit liquor stores throughout the state. What does that mean? It means that when you buy a 12-pack of Oskar Blues beer (either Old Chub or Dale’s Pale Ale) you will receive free a 12-pack of songs to go with it.

Twelve songs on one CD from local and national acts — that’s a song per beer, if you’re counting.

When Oskar Blues first approached us to be part of the project, we didn’t know what we were getting into. But we knew it’d be fun, and it was. We ended up putting together a musical snapshot of the Front Range, a melange of artists you probably know and some you probably have never heard of.

The disc starts off with a throwdown from Great American Taxi (see their story on page 10 this month). It’s followed by long-time friends of The Marquee, Remedy Motel of southern California. Track 3 is by a band you probably haven’t heard of yet, but soon will: Margot and the Nuclear So and So (last year’s break-out band from the South Park Music Festival). The Midwest-based indie band has recently inked a record deal and are blowing up big.

The Railbenders and 18 Wheeler follow on the CD, adding a bit of honky tonk.

Denver rockers Anava and Westminster resident Beto Hale follow. Funkiphino, the Front Range’s tightest funk band, lead off the fourth quarter of the CD, followed by Polytoxic and Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams. And Denver’s Oakhurst and Zebra Junction cap the CD.

We really hope that you enjoy the disc and the beer that comes with it,

We’ll see you at the shows.

Mike Compton and David Long Stomp into town with new album

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:55:40 +0000

:: Mike Compton and David Long :: Swing Station :: May 4 ::

:: Swallow Hill :: May 6 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

Stomp: A dance involving a rhythmical, heavy step. Mike Compton and David Long will blow into town this month to give Denver audiences a taste of their first duet CD, aptly titled Stomp. There are two “stomps” on the recording, as well as a “hop” and a slew of other old-time songs.

These musicians, both writers and composers, took time out from their busy schedules to speak with The Marquee about their music, working together, and the support they received from David Grisman for this endeavor.

Compton and Long have been performing together since the spring of 2003, brought together by a mutual love of a variety of string music — rural country blues, old time, bluegrass, and early black string band music. Since hooking up, they have toured coast-to-coast, playing theaters, festivals, and house concerts. Stomp is their first endeavor at compiling the music that they like to play.

“We wanted to learn some older music, get serious and put something out that reflects our mutual appreciation of old string, early country blues, music that has dropped from the mainstream,” Compton said.

Long echoed the sentiments, “We wanted to pick material that’s not overdone, but that is an accurate and honest representation of that time period.”

The two really did their research to hone in on the sound that they wanted. For the influences on their song selections, Compton cited jug bands, string bands, the R.L. Burnside Record Store, the Delmores, and Charlie and Joe McCoy. He explained that they poured over material from Document Records with its compilations of rare, classic, and vintage music in the genres of blues, jazz, boogie-woogie, gospel and country. They also delved into the archives of Old Hat Records, which reissues vintage American music. Long pointed out the additional, obvious influence of Bill Monroe, as well as that which was perhaps less apparent, from the Mississippi Sheiks.

The first inklings of the idea for the recording came from none other than mandolin virtuoso David Grisman. He mentioned to the two mandolinists at his first symposium in 2004 that he thought they should cut a CD. Some months later, they called him back and said they had decided to do just that. Grisman provided them tremendous support throughout the process; they recorded in his studio, and he released the CD on his label, Acoustic Disc. Further, although the title might seem like a no-brainer, the idea came about late at night and also originated from Grisman.

Recording had its challenges. Compton was sick during the one-week window that they spent in Grisman’s studio. They learned some of the songs during that week, in between recording them. Compton commented that they had little time to get everything together once they decided to record. To complicate matters further, Grisman’s studio flooded one day. Then, after that one hectic week, it took another year to get the recording released.

The two said that the whole album is a thrill for them, but that certain songs, like the Compton original “Big Indian Blues” stood out amid the rest.

Long’s other favorite was another Compton-penned tune that he wrote during a period when he was driving the bus for John Hartford. Compton himself said, “Overall, I think that the non-Monroe material worked the best, but I really liked ‘Evening Prayer Blues,’ (which is a Monroe original) and ‘January Nightmare,’ a Long original.”

What makes the album work so well is the mutual admiration the musicians have for each other. “He’s got lots of energy and is really positive and easy to get along with,” Compton said of Long. “It’s refreshing because we learn from each other. I really appreciate his use of Bill Monroe’s language.”

Long speaks of Compton, Grammy-winning mandolinist from the Nashville Bluegrass Band, with a hint of awe. “Well, it’s a dream come true to play with one’s musical heroes,” he said.

While the pairing may have originally been thought of as a one-off, Compton and Long are looking for an agent, thinking about their next record, and searching for more historical material. Compton shared that they already have plenty of material to go back into the recording studio. They are interested in songs by contemporary writers that sound like the Carter Family, as well as mandolin duet material and tunes for octave mandolin.

:: Mike Compton and David Long :: Swing Station :: May 4 ::

:: Swallow Hill :: May 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bill Monroe

• The Delmore Brothers

• The Mississippi Sheiks

Musselwhite puts the south under the microscope with Delta Hardware

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:56:14 +0000

:: Charlie Musselwhite :: The Walnut Room :: May 25 ::

By Tim Dwenger

On the south side of Chicago in 1964 a small bar is packed to the rafters with blues fans who have come out to hear how the harmonica is really played. It isn’t some longtime resident musician on the bill tonight, but a newcomer, Charlie Musselwhite, who is gracing the stage. Having grown up on the same Memphis streets as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis, Musselwhite embodies the essence of American roots music. “I used to see Jerry Lee driving around in his orange Continental convertible. His hair would be flying in the wind as he was going to get a burger at this joint I knew on Highway 51.” Musselwhite recently told The Marquee.

Musselwhite soon got the itch and became enraptured by the idea of moving North to Chicago. He packed his bags and took off up Route 51 to pursue a career in blues music. “Everybody was there ... I’d been listening on the radio and had their records ... Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter and Sonny Boy. It was great!” It wasn’t long before he got the opportunity to record an album for Vanguard Records. He put together a band and released his first album Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite’s Southside Band. The album was the first of more than 20 that Charlie has released to date and stands strong in his catalog as one of the best blues records of the 1960’s.

On his 2004 release, Sanctuary, Musselwhite continued his legacy of legendary musical collaborations as he enlisted the help of several guest musicians including Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama. “One day Ben and I got to play together backing up John Lee (Hooker). Ben and I clicked so well musically, and we had so much fun, that every time we saw each other after that we said, ‘We gotta record. We gotta record.’ Finally that opportunity came around, and it was a heck of a lot of fun,” he said.

His new record, Delta Hardware, will be released on Real World Records on May 16, and it promises to be another scalding blues experience. With inspiration pulled from the recently-ravaged Mississippi Delta region, Musselwhite, who just turned 62, isn’t afraid to tackle very real social issues. His lyrics paint a picture of the region in a time of hardship and call for the country to brace for more.

:: Charlie Musselwhite :: The Walnut Room :: May 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bruce Springsteen

• J.J. Cale

• North Mississippi Allstars

The Helio Sequence returns to Denver on strength of The Love and distance

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:57:24 +0000

:: The Helio Sequence :: Walnut Room :: May 1 ::

By Molly Chappell

Helio Sequence, a duo out of Portland, has achieved what most musicians dream of — starting out playing in a basement, getting signed by a label, touring with the band of the time — in this case Modest Mouse — and becoming “professional artists.” Vocalist and guitarist Brandon Summers said sheepishly that he’s just getting comfortable with saying the words “professional artist.” He pauses and reflects, adding, “Whatever that means,” with a laugh.

Helio Sequence put out their first EP, Accelerated Slow Motion, in 1999, but Summers and his band mate Benjamin Weikel have been playing together since they were about 16, when they bonded through their mutual love for underground music. “We were surrounded by people who knew nothing about underground music. When we met we were listening to stuff like My Bloody Valentine,” he said from his Portland home in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Their mutual love of music pushed them to record at the record store they both worked at, Beaverton Music. Reflecting on the feverish production of Accelerated Slow Motion, Summers said, “It was a different experience because we had to record everything at night when the store was closing. I can still remember the feeling of the era — the delirium of putting everything together while gulping down coffee until 6 a.m. and then going to work next morning. We wanted to get out of the suburbs so badly. It was so suffocating and stifling to be 30 miles away from where we were. There was a culture divide and nobody knew the music that we were listening to. It seemed as though everyone was complacent about life. It was a really manic time with the feeling that we had to get out of there … and we did!”

After producing Young Effectuals, the duo’s first full-length album, they were itching to move forward, both from their locale and in terms of the group. “We didn’t have anywhere to go. We were barely getting by, and our backs were up against the wall. We had no where to practice,” said Summers. But move the musical brothers did.

When Modest Mouse’s percussionist went on hiatus, Weikel began touring with them while continuing to put full efforts into the duo. While on tour with Ugly Cassanova, Issac Brock of Modest Mouse let them record in his garage studio, which gave them the chance to feel more at home. The album was put out somewhat frantically, but nevertheless it was a great success for an independent release.

How times have changed? The guys now have their own studio and their last album, Love and Distance, was produced under a strict regiment of eight-hour days more than five days a week.

This physical transition is also apparent in their sound. Helio Sequence has moved from a somewhat frantic sound in their EP Accelerated Slow Motion to one that is masterfully created in a place where there’s room for their art to fully flourish. In their most recent album, The Love and Distance, due out in early June, their sound, while always imbedded in found sound and a focus on instrumental rifts, has become more fluid.

“A lot has changed in the five or six years we’ve been playing. We focus a lot more on songs and songwriting,” said Summers. “It is a lot easier to do a loop in an instrumental piece. We are also more aware of different types of music; all different types of music find a way into our songs. When you are younger, you come from a more naïve place where you have a favorite band, and you want your music to sound just like their band. It’s like saying, ‘I love the Pixies’ and trying to imitate their sound.”

One element that gives the duo such a sound of their own is that they are just two people. “Working with just the two was a huge idea when we first stared in ’96,” Summers said. “There were no other duos around, so we had a stripped down sound, but it was the chemistry that worked for us. It’s like a dual dictatorship. We actually had auditions and played with bassists for a while but in the end we just worked best together.”

:: The Helio Sequence :: Walnut Room :: May 1 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Modest Mouse

• Stereolab

• Broken Social Scene

’8Os legends The New Cars and Blondie team up for classic summer tour

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:58:05 +0000

:: The New Cars and Blondie :: Coors Amphitheater :: May 30 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

A rare and historic double billing, the New Cars and Blondie hit the road together this spring for Road Rage Tour 2006. It will be the first tour of Cars material in 17 years, the first time out for the New Cars, and Blondie’s first tour since being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last March. As such, it is likely to be one of the biggest and most anticipated shows of the season.

Joining the Cars’ original guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes are Todd Rundgren on guitar and vocals, fellow Utopia member Kasim Sulton on bass and vocals, and Tubes drummer Prairie Prince. The band will be performing a mix of classic Cars songs, Todd Rundgren songs, and material recently recorded by the newly formed band. The Marquee recently had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with members of the New Cars and Blondie.

“With the new lineup, we’re going to bring a certain freshness to the old material,” said Hawkes.

“Between the two bands, it should be a very entertaining night of strong music,” added Easton. “Blondie comes from a similar era, and we just think it’s a great night of songs, and you’ll know the words to every song.”

While some people doubt the viability of the New Cars, the band is not deterred. They point out that the music has aged well, and that the Cars’ influence can be heard heavily today in bands like the Vines and Franz Ferdinand.

“I’ve been a fan of the Cars since I first heard ‘Good Times Roll’ on the radio,” Rundgren said. “So, in that sense, if it’s not the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, at least it’s the realization of something that I think has a lot of potential to it and will be, ideally, fun for everyone involved.”

Everyone involved includes Blondie, and they are equally as excited for the pairing. “I’m really looking forward to this,” said Debbie Harry. “I think it’s going to be a very powerful show, and it’s probably one of the most compatible bills that we’ve ever been on, as far as musical styles.”

Blondie and the New Cars share some of the same musical sensibilities, having both emerged during the late ’70s and early ’80s “New Wave” era. On this tour, Blondie will largely be supporting their most recent release, Sound and Vision, which contains many of her classic songs. Some included are “Heart of Glass,” “Call Me,” “The Tide is High,” and “Sunday Girl,” as well as the newly-released and critically-acclaimed mash-up “Rapture Riders,” which combines Blondie’s hit “Rapture” with The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.”

The New Cars will be playing music from their greatest hits collection, The New Cars: It’s Alive, which will be released on May 9. Both old and new songs will be showcased.

As an added bonus, fans who purchase tickets for the shows online will be given a code for an unprecedented free download, which contains a total of ten songs split evenly between the two bands. Of the five songs from the New Cars, four will be classics and one will be the recently recorded “Not Tonight.” Of the five songs from Blondie, four will be unreleased live tracks, while one will be the new studio effort, “More than This.” The New Cars are also offering a free one-year membership into Easy Riders, the band’s official fan club.

Harry spoke of Blondie, but her words easily could have applied to her touring partners: “We did some inventive and exciting things with our music. I think we broke some ground. We came out of a really powerful time in music — a really good transitional period, and we’ve lasted. Our music has stood the test of time.”

:: The New Cars and Blondie :: Coors Amphitheater :: May 30 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Franz Ferdinand

• Garbage

• Pat Benatar

Great American Taxi still taking fares and expecting a summer album

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:59:58 +0000

:: Great American Taxi :: Gold Hill Inn :: May 29 ::

By Monica Banks

Everyone’s taught not to hitch a ride with strangers, but when this Taxi swings through town, it would be foolish not to jump in.

With the days of Leftover Salmon behind him, Vince Herman has joined forces with Mountain High Music to introduce the Great American Taxi. The group was put together for a benefit show last year and was originally thought to be temporary. However, Herman, Chad Staehly, Jefferson Hamer, Brian Schey and Jake Coffin have such great chemistry that the shows just keep coming effortlessly.

Even the band name was easy to come by. Great American Taxi is a term that was once used to refer to Herman’s skiing style (picture Herman careening down the slopes). When Staehly and Herman were trying to come up with a name over drinks at a bar, it seemed to be a perfect fit. “It was the easiest band name I’ve ever had to come up with,” Staehly said.

A taxi is also a good metaphor for the band itself, which leaves a standing invitation for musicians to join them on stage. “The lineup is somewhat flexible. You never know who’s going jump in the Taxi,” Herman said. Eben Grace sits in on the pedal steel when Taxi is in the area; the band has also been joined by the likes of Jeff Austin, Reed Foehl and many others. All are welcome aboard the Taxi.

While the band has a self-described Americana sound and an underlying purpose to re-introduce some twang to the Front Range, the band’s style can change in a moment’s notice. “We dwell in a few different worlds,” Staehly said. Taxi material has such a wide variety. The band is fearless with Herman’s extensive song repertoire. “Vince is one of those guys that’s a walking juke box,” Staehly said. Herman often calls on his song archive, coming up with songs the band has never rehearsed or played before.

The songs that do come out are belted out with a soulful happiness that can only come from musicians having an authentically good time. One show can range from country to rock and roll, to bluegrass, indie, slamgrass or jamband. “I’d call it a hippie-country-big band. The no fear thing is different from the Salmon days,” Herman said. Herman’s youngest son Silas has even joined the band a couple of times on stage, adding some Green Day to the mix. For the Great American Taxi, one song can change genres every time it’s played.

Previous experience within the band is diverse, ranging from bluegrass to ska. “At heart we’re a rock and roll band, but that really doesn’t mean anything anymore,” Hamer said. “There are so many different kinds of rock.” Much of the new Taxi material originated one weekend the band spent up at Staehly’s house in Fort Collins. The band brought up a mobile studio and got busy. In one weekend they collectively wrote 10 songs.

And the band has not only talent, but a message as well. The song “Appalachian Soul” has a beautiful melody but sends a message about mountain top removal in Virginia. “Essentially, they are raping the mountains,” said an appalled Herman, who gained an appreciation for the Appalachians after attending college back east.

While Taxi realizes the importance of spreading a message, the band is never short on good times and light-hearted laughter. “It’s fun to be able to switch from a song with a message and involving current events to some that are more frivolous,” Hamer said.

With good vibes and a wide variety of experience, the band is looking forward to recording their first full-length album this summer. Most of the members have other musical projects going on, but they intend to stick with the Taxi for as far as it will take them. “All bands are temporary, whether that means 30 years or two,” Hamer said.

As Coffin said, “It’s just a good ride.”

:: Great American Taxi :: Gold Hill Inn :: May 29 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Leftover Salmon

• Gram Parsons

• Townes Van Zandt

Gomez releases its most accessible album to date, How We Operate

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 May 2006 18:00:46 +0000

:: Gomez :: Fox Theatre :: May 16 ::

By Emily H. Lanigan

In 1998, then 19-year-old, charismatic lead singer Tom Gray, of British rock band Gomez, had his eye on politics. He was set up with an internship in the U.S. with a Democratic senator when Gomez was offered a recording contract. He abandoned the internship and hit the road. That year Gomez was jettisoned into the limelight when they received the coveted Mercury Music Prize for their debut album Bring It On.

“When we started we didn’t think we’d sell a single record,” said Gray, nursing a hangover at his home in Brighton, England, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We thought we’d have a bit of fun.” Intimidated by fame at such a young age, Gomez took a step back and has turned into a hard working touring band releasing its seventh album, How We Operate, this month. “We’ve done our career backwards,” joked Gray.

Since 1998, Gomez has stayed true to its music and continues to revolutionize its sound with every album they put out. REM’s Peter Buck once told Gray, “Don’t make the album they want you to make,” and it’s a sentiment that seems to have found a home with Gray. “I’ve got no real idea about career arc. You can try hard to achieve some kind of success, but it comes when you least expect it,” he said. “I think we’ll just make plenty of music and some people will like it, and some people won’t.”

With How We Operate, Gomez, for the first time, brought in a producer, Gil Norton (The Pixies, Foo Fighters), to weald the whip. “We’d never rehearsed a song before we went into the studio,” said Gray. “This time we spent a week at Blackie’s (Gomez bassist, Paul Blackburn) playing lots of different songs together. And I went to L.A. and worked with Ian for a week just writing, and then we did two weeks with Gil just choosing the 12 songs and then playing them a lot until we were happy with them. At one point we were recording so fast we didn’t hear the songs back until the second or third week.

“The last record (Split the Difference) was recorded in spits with some people not there and on the other side of the world. It was like recording three different records at the same time. But, with How we Operate we said, ‘What 12 songs can we all agree on?’ We recorded in a month and then mixed in two weeks.”

For Split the Difference, Gomez brought in producer Tchad Blake to mix the recordings. Explained Gray, “We mixed with him, but he insisted that he didn’t get a producer credit. He was more part of the chaos.” So, working with Norton was a whole new experience.

Gray’s respect for Norton started long before Gomez. “I’ve been a huge crazy Pixies fan my entire life,” said Gray. “I started talking to him about eight months ago, and he was really into the idea of producing How We Operate and had been a big fan for years. We knew we had to make a record quickly. We had to have a record ready for the first six months of this year, to keep up momentum. He’s from Liverpool so that helps, and he’s a fan of the same football team as us, which is important,” said Gray.

For a band with three songwriters — Gray and fellow lead singers, Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball, along with the elemental inclusions of bass player Paul Blackburn and drummer Olly Peacock — creating a unified vision may be easier said than done. In fact, fused eclecticism has become a trademark of the Gomez sound.

However, integrating consistency on How We Operate was something important to the band. Gray explained that they achieved this through good old-fashioned elbow grease. “We just fucking worked hard — made sure we were all working together on it,” Gray said. “It kind of has a theme about relationships and friendships and how we perceive ourselves.

Many would say that How We Operate is the most accessible Gomez album to date. This is much to do with the influence of Gil Norton. “We knew we needed someone who was kind of a disciplinarian with a very clear idea of what they wanted to do. Gil said, ‘this is the kind of record I wanted to make … I’m gonna simplify your arrangements.’ And we said, ‘O.K.’ His ability is sophisticated, but his tastes are simple, and it’s not unhelpful to make an accessible record.”

Public consumption is something that Gomez has struggled with over the years, and they have often been passed up by radio station play lists for lack of easy digestibility. However, Gray seems undaunted. “Our career has just developed the way it’s developed. We never did it to become famous. That was never really the plan. Developing some fame was kind of scary when we started. I was only 19 or 20 years old. We eschewed that anyway. We didn’t really do the stuff we should have done if that’s what we wanted. It’s our own doing.”

What Gomez does focus on is touring. They have relentlessly been on the road for the last eight years and have become known for their transcendent live performances. “We have a highly un-premeditated stage show. There’s no plan, which creates a level of spontaneity. You can’t really plan to be spontaneous,” he said.

:: Gomez :: Fox Theatre :: May 16 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Beck

• Beatles

• Wilco

CD Reviews - June - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:51:08 +0000

Public Enemy release ‘the most important’ hip-hop album of the year in response to Katrina

Public Enemy featuring Paris

Rebirth of a Nation

Guerrilla Funk Recordings

3.5 out of 5

There’s no denying the fact that over the ages disasters of all kinds have motivated those of an artistic bent to make some astounding art and music in response. In many ways, for good or bad, our entire history is documented through the eyes of those who are inspired, or in some cases enraged enough by an event to create a lasting emotional footnote. That’s the case with Rebirth of a Nation, the new album spearheaded by rap ambassadors Public Enemy and political activist/rapper Paris.

Rebirth of a Nation, an album born as a response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, is a legendary project in several ways. Released less that a year after Public Enemy’s last album New Whirl Odor, Rebirth of a Nation marks the first time that Public Enemy leader Chuck D. has let somebody else pen the band’s lyrics. The result is, in a (compound) word, mind-blowing.

Paris’ words backed by Public Enemy’s trademark sound create a powerful album that demands answers for the thousands and thousands of people affected by one of the country’s most tragic natural disasters.

Chuck D. pulls no punches on Rebirth of a Nation tracks like “Raw Shit” (featuring original N.W.A. member MC Ren) and the album’s flagship track “Hell No, We Ain’t All Right” takes strong issue with the emergency response, or lack thereof, after the storm hit.

Chuck D. has never seemed more like a leader and prophet than he is on this album and the album’s rough, confrontational beats only add to the album’s sense of urgency.

While Rebirth of a Nation certainty attacks those outside the rap community, the album also singles out many of those inside the community as well.

Chuck D. and Paris lambaste the current hip-hop culture of drugs and violence throughout the album and stress the points of individual responsibility and social consciousness on tracks like “Hannibal Lecture” and “Hard Truth Soldiers.” The album also features the upbeat Flavor Flav, who is in classic form throughout the album, most notably on the track “They Call Me Flavor” and the blunt, and somewhat disturbing, attack on plastic surgery called “Plastic Nation.”

Rebirth of a Nation is a landmark album and shows that rap music, despite its obvious pitfalls and in-fighting, is one the strongest forms of protest on record. Rebirth of a Nation may not be the best album of the year but it is easily one of the most important.

— Brandon Daviet

Parsons’ Fallen Angel is an exquisite portrait

Gram Parsons

Fallen Angel DVD

Rhino

4.5 out of 5

Gram Parsons’ music, life and legend are like a classic Tennessee Williams play, full of money, alcohol and tragedy.

In Fallen Angel, a documentary by producer/director Gandulf Hennig, Parsons, who so seemingly effortlessly spanned and combined country and rock, and inspired The Rolling Stones and countless artists since, is revealed in loving detail. Interviews with family, childhood friends, former bandmates and musical legends like Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris and Peter Buck, help to paint the detailed portrait of the young heir to an orange juice fortune turned musical icon.

From his work with The Byrds to the Flying Burrito Brothers to his final solo projects, Parsons’ discography is thoroughly dissected and intertwined with the amazing story of his life.

For those who don’t know Parsons, Fallen Angel will open a new world of musical exploration and for those who are already fans, it will reinforce what it was that made Parsons leave such an amazing, indelible mark on the future of music.

Brilliant!

— Brian F. Johnson

Moistboyz DVD raw as ever

Moistboyz

Live Jihad

Music Video Distributors

3.5 out of 5

There’s nothing slick about Moistboyz, aptly named “because we sweat.” And with the release of Live Jihad viewers can almost smell the B.O.

Filmed at the legendary Bowery Ballroom in New York last fall, Live Jihad perfectly captures the raw energy of the intense punk-metal band, formed in 1994. There’s no special features or trite clips of the band walking the streets of New York. The DVD is as stripped down as the band’s sound, but still hits watchers like a cue ball to the face.

— Brian F. Johnson

Paperclip’s Here’s my card is refreshing

Paperclip

Here’s My Card

Independent

3.5 out of 5

A band that contains a former member of moe. isn’t supposed to be anything but jammy. Once a jammer always a jammer, right?

Not true.

The Boulder-based Paperclip features the former drummer of moe., Chris Mazur, on the kit and vocals, but draws no comparison whatsoever to his earlier patchouli-filled world.

Paperclip’s independent, debut release Here’s My Card, spans genres from R.E.M.-style pop to late-’70’s era post-punk.

Here’s My Card is a refreshing change of pace for the Boulder scene, demonstrating that despite hippie roots, even the most devout frisbee tossers can and do change.

— Brian F. Johnson

Black cuts amazing double-disc set

Frank Black

Fastman Raiderman

Back Porch

4 out of 5

There are those who would praise anything released by Frank Black, those who think that the Pixies front man has never put out anything other than sheer genius. I am not one of these people, but when it comes to Fastman Raiderman, I probably sound like one.

The admittedly self-indulgent double-disc set is some of the most accessible Black to date; an inspiring blend that ranges from Pixie-esque material to country tracks to melancholy, insightful ballads. The album is also chock full of a similarly wide array of guests, including The Band’s Levon Helm and Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson.

Light one moment and devastatingly introspective the next, Fastman Raiderman picks up where his last album Honeycomb left off, but goes miles beyond.

— Brian F. Johnson

YMSB takes a different approach on latest

Yonder Mountain String Band

Vanguard Records

4 out of 5

Never anticipate what Yonder Mountain String Band will do next. For their first studio release in three years, Yonder has teamed up with rock producer Tom Rothrock (James Blunt, Foo Fighters, Elliot Smith) to produce an album that comes out as a different kind of grass. Yonder’s musical style, which in the past has stuck to its bluegrass roots, shifts in a different direction when the band employs the drumming of Pete Thomas, who has previously played with Elvis Costello. The result is still bluegrass, but with a folk-country-rock twist.

For a band that is constantly testing its creative limits, Yonder Mountain String Band certainly takes a significant step. While it’s not “traditionalbluegrass” it’s still pure YMSB, creative, talented and completely unexpected.

— Monica Banks

Schepps arrives with debut CD, Expedition

Jake Schepps

Expedition

Independent

4 out of 5

Inspired by a Strength in Numbers performance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Jake Schepps began his journey into grassroots music. He began his travels the right way, by studying the basics of bluegrass banjo with the late-great Mark Vann of Leftover Salmon.

While much of the material on his debut album Expedition, is Schepps’ own work, the album also covers The Beatles, David Byrne, and jazz samba-master Luis Bonfa.

For this Expedition, Schepps teamed up with Front Range staples Greg Schochet, Ross Martin, Jefferson Hamer and many more, resulting in a first-class album of classical bluegrass. With a folklore tinge, Schepps has surely arrived on the scene.

— Monica Banks

From the Barstool of the Publisher - June, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:52:07 +0000

Has myspace.com become so popular that it’s endangered of becoming obsolete?

Think about this for a second. A few years ago, people didn’t even know what myspace was (understandable, since it didn’t become myspace as we know it until 2003). Since January of this year alone, the site has quadrupled its membership, now totaling in the neighborhood of 40 million users according to a recent story in Business Week.

When myspace was in its infancy, it was a very useful tool, particularly for bands, to disseminate information, be it in the form of songs, bulletins on album releases, or invites to gigs. We have to wonder if the network has become so large, and the amount of bulletins, invites and comments so staggering, will people stop paying attention?

On a recent day, The Marquee’s myspace account received over 123 different communications in the form of friend requests, messages, comments and bulletin postings. Keep in mind that The Marquee has been carefully selective about whom we chose to have on there. Our biggest push, of course, is toward bands and the hardcore music fans we like to refer to as music freaks.

There are many days when we have plenty of free time on our hands, but even if we had the day off, the last thing we would do is go through all of those messages.

If myspace lasts long enough — and from the looks of its financial backing, it will — eventually everyone will be friends with everyone. It used to be that you had six degrees of separation from you and everyone else in the world. Now, you just need a myspace account.

Of the abused features in myspace, bulletins are perhaps the most annoying. The Marquee has been using bulletins to alert our friends to upcoming shows that we think are worthwhile, but in recent months, the sheer volume of bulletins has become so abundant that no one pays attention to them anymore. It’s like junk e-mail. No, I don’t want to take your stupid survey to find out “funny” personality traits. I swear these things are started by the same idiots who really think that forwarding an e-mail to all of their friends will one day net them a big check from Bill Gates. “It works ... trust me.” P-LEASE!

I think that musicians, fans and promoters who want to continue to use myspace need to take responsibility and stop using it as a daily brain dump. If we all don’t, it’ll soon be as useful as a dial-up connection on a Pentium I processor.

And remember this, myspace is like real life in only one way: It’s not the amount of friends you have, it’s how many good friends you have which counts.

See you at the shows ... and on stupid myspace.

www.myspace.com/marqueemag

Troubles, death, women and whiskey make The Earl Brothers happy

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:53:33 +0000

:: The Earl Brothers ::

:: Swing Station :: June 23 ::

::  Swallow Hill :: June 24 ::

:: The Rail :: June 25 ::

:: Southern Sun :: June 26 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

The Earl Brothers, a four-piece string band from Northern California, have been classified

as “hillbilly gothic” for the dark subjects that their bluegrass music addresses. The truth of the matter is, their raw and all-original songs make them just plain happy.

Guitarist and singer/songwriter John McKelvy took time out from preparing for a busy summer touring season to speak with The Marquee about The Earl Brothers, the influences on their music, and how they got together.

“Like any artist or songwriting musicians, our only real goal is to make ourselves happy,” McKelvy explained. “Truly, we’re just expressing ourselves. There is no preconceived goal. We’re just being honest with our songwriting and playing. We don’t try to copy anyone. We’re just being ourselves.”

The band focuses primarily on original music, written by McKelvy and banjoist Bobby Earl Davis. McKelvy allowed that on rare occasions they might play a Bill Monroe song. He explained that when they performed the traditional tune “Cluck Oh Hen,” they changed the words and the chords — in essence producing a different song.

McKelvy wouldn’t give any song credence over another, saying that the band leaves it up to the listener to decide which ones mean the most. “Each of us put a lot of work into each of our songs,” he said. In addition to McKelvy and his songwriting partner Davis, the Earl Brothers are rounded out with mandolinist Larry Hughes and bassist Josh Sidman.

None of the four bandmates are actually brothers, and all are originally from the eastern part of the U.S. — Florida, Virginia, and New York. They met in San Francisco, which is where they all call home now. McKelvy said that they took their name from Bobby Earl, and were looking for something that sounded real and old time. “The McKelvy Brothers certainly wasn’t an option,” he chuckled.

Davis and McKelvy founded the band after spending some time together hanging out in California bars and shooting pool. The four come from an eclectic background; McKelvy cites their experiences being in other bands over the years as the main influence that resulted in the current group. His own personal experience included punk and southern rock. In the early 1980s Davis and Hughes were in a band called The Squids, which entertained with electric bluegrass that had a punk sway to it. In retrospect, McKelvy says this was the early seed of the Earl Brothers. They feel that they now have a unique sound and are not bound to bluegrass.

The Earl Brothers released their first recording in 2004, titled Whiskey, Women, and Death. They followed that up with the recent Troubles to Blame, echoing the sad topics from the first album. They have been offered more than one record contract but have said no, saying that nothing felt right.

Record contract or not, the Earl Brothers are ahead of the game with a wealth of original music already prepared for their next endeavor. Davis and McKelvy already have 12 new songs in the bag for their next CD. McKelvy explained that they write a lot and their moods are similar, which provides the creative impetus for them to constantly produce new material.

The band members are looking forward to their upcoming gigs in Colorado, a state where they have performed only once before. Their summer travel plans also include shows in Tennessee, Georgia and Oregon. McKelvy says they are on the fringe of the bluegrass community — they are a club band and don’t play as many festivals as the more mainstream bands.

The “brothers” feel pretty darn good about what they are doing. Their state of excitement is an interesting juxtaposition to the depressing topics of their music.

:: The Earl Brothers ::

:: Swing Station :: June 23 ::

:: Swallow Hill :: June 24 ::

:: The Rail :: June 25 ::

:: Southern Sun :: June 26 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bill Monroe

• Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys

• Gillian Welch

Rogue Wave flying high on the strength of Descended Like Vultures

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:54:55 +0000

:: Rogue Wave ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: June 28 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The San Francisco Bay Area in the ’90s was the hotbed for technology associated with Al Gore’s proudest invention, the internet. With the advent of the internet and the meteoric rise in its use and importance to our culture, came thousands of people and companies looking to make their fortunes. Companies were being started by 21-year-old kids and it seemed like anyone who could type could get a job as a web developer. It was a time of great opportunity for many, but for Zach Rogue, the frontman and primary songwriter for Rogue Wave, it was what happened as the technology boom was winding down that changed his life.

In 2001 Rogue was laid off from his tedious job as a web developer and viewed it as an opportunity to tap into another side of his personality that had been lurking just outside his consciousness as long as he could remember. Rogue graciously sat down to talk to The Marquee recently as he packed up his belongings to move into a new house and prepare for an extensive national tour. “I had had enough of that style of life,” he said. “It was a lot of long hours but there wasn’t really anything that stimulating. I just wasn’t that into it. Once I got laid off it kinda cleared my schedule a bit so I started recording. I didn’t think I was going to make a record necessarily but I wanted to work on music a little bit.”

Rogue began to explore the writing process and as he laid down some demos on his four-track he was surprised at what he discovered. “I realized that I had been writing songs my whole life in my head but not really writing them down,” he said. “You know how you’re walking down the street and you are thinking about a song you heard on the radio and it is rolling around in your brain? It was the same for me but I realized the songs that had been rolling around in my head were my own songs. Songs I was working on I guess. I didn’t really think of it as legitimate because I didn’t think I was one of ‘those’ people and as a result I didn’t really nurture it. As I have continued on in songwriting I realize that I am sometimes tapping into an idea that was in me about 20 years ago or maybe 10 minutes ago.”

Rogue and producer Bill Racine took several of these four-track demo recordings into the studio and began working on what would become Rogue Wave’s debut CD, Out Of The Shadow. The CD, released on Rogue’s own label in 2003, and the newly formed band’s Bay Area live shows soon caught the attention of indie music giant Sub-Pop Records. In 2004 Out Of The Shadow was released nationally on Sub-Pop and things started to take off for Rogue Wave.

While the band had originated as a forum for Rogue to explore his musical ideas, it had now morphed into a full fledged project of its own. Consisting of Rogue, Pat Spurgeon (drums, etc.), Gram LeBron (guitar) and Evan Farrell (bass), the four soon found themselves spending nearly every waking moment together. “The more time you spend together and the more you get involved with this world of music, the more you isolate yourself from the rest of the world, so you only start to identify with each other,” Rogue said. “Only the four of us know what we are going through from our own little perspective and that binds us together and makes us closer. We tend to help each other out when something bad happens and when something great happens we kinda share in it.”

As they continue to gel as individuals the music seems to fall into place. Their recent release Descended Like Vultures was their first collaborative studio effort and it has attracted national attention and solid reviews have been turned in by everyone from Rolling Stone to Under The Radar.

Now as they prepare to hit the road for their second major tour of the year Rogue and his bandmates will play two of the biggest shows of their short career back-to-back. First they head to San Diego to support The Flaming Lips and then on to the main stage of the Sasquatch Music Festival, where they have the potential of playing in front of 20,000 people. “The last couple of tours we have done we have been playing to 800 people, and sometimes on a really good night 1000 or so, but it must be a whole different world when it is thousands and thousands of people,” Rogue said. “The closest we have come to that was when we were in Germany and by some weird twist of fate we were asked to open for Jimmy Eat World. We walked into this venue and I turned my amp on and thought there was something wrong with it. The room was so big that you could barely even hear it. I had it completely jacked up, if you do that in any other room it would have made your ears bleed. It was like our forces were powerless against the gigantitude of the room.”

The band takes their live show very seriously and artfully rearranges their lushly layered pop sound so that it translates very well from the studio to the stage. The quiet acoustic ballads are adapted to a full band without loosing the intimate feel of the song’s original structure and the bright harmonies and hooks of the band’s poppier tunes stream off the stage.

:: Rogue Wave ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: June 28 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Shins

• Belle and Sebastian

• Death Cab for Cutie

Mason Jennings continues to thunder with the release of Boneclouds

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:55:06 +0000

:: Mason Jennings :: with moe. and Unmphrey’s McGee ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: June 3 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: July 7 ::

By Molly Chappell

Mason Jennings’ is the epitome of an open book. With music that is delightfully honest the yo

ung man can’t help but wear his heart on his sleeve. His music exposes his deep connection to his spirituality, love, and pain.

But for Jennings, there’s no other way to present his music. “It hasn’t really been hard (to be exposed), because I couldn’t imagine it any other way. When I try to be something else it’s more difficult,” Jennings said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I am interested in the experience of life, not its meaning.”

This may be true of Jennings character, but he uses his talent to derive meaning from his experiences so that he can share that understanding through his songwriting. Jennings style is embedded in his care. His music isn’t a gimmick; he simply writes what comes to him. “I don’t invent songs to be a certain way. They just pop into my head,” he said.

While this approach seems logical, many other artists have abandoned trying to find music in the simplest form, by playing what they feel — not playing to sell records or imitate a certain sound.

Jennings’ keen ability to transform his experience into song has propelled his path. He was born in Hawaii and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. Dropping out of high school to pursue his music and traveling the States was natural. “My family thought it was a natural thing. It wasn’t exactly a solid home life. It was like walking out without a safety net and was a character building experience.”

Later, Jennings settled into Minneapolis — another natural move for him as his music is a reflection in the slow midwestern approach to life. He put his music on the line, as so many other successful musicians have, by playing in coffee shops and getting the word out there.

That early grassroots approach has given Jennings a faithful following from his humble beginnings when he started his own label, Architect Records, and distributed 100,000 copies of his first four albums on his own.

Things have come a long way from those first daring steps away from the norm. Jennings was the first musician signed by Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse to his Epic Records imprint, Glacial Pace. This has signified a change for Jennings as his new record, Boneclouds, released just last month, gave him the opportunity to work with musicians he holds in the highest regard. The album was produced by Noah Georgenson (Joanna Newsome, Devendra Banhart) and he was able to produce the album alongside Chris Morrissey on bass and Dave King (Bad Plus) on drums. Additionally, Brock helped him in the final stages of picking the tracks to weave his album into a great mix of songs.

Boneclouds, Jenning’s sixth album, touches a sense of reality and spiritual depth — as his other albums have — and successfully adds a new layer to his style with love ballads such as “Be Here Now” and “Gentlest Hammer,” that touch on the style of Lou Reed’s solo work, and “Jesus Are You Real.”

:: Mason Jennings :: with moe. and Unmphrey’s McGee ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: June 3 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: July 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bob Dylan

• Elliot Smith

• Wilco

Sonic Youth’s latest album Rather Ripped approaches ‘radio friendly’

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:56:41 +0000

:: Sonic Youth ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: June 27 ::

By Jonathan Keller

Sonic Youth is one of those rare bands that nearly everyone has heard of, but very few really know. Having been together for 25 years, the band is legendary in the underground rock scene and rock steady pioneers for having been part of New York City’s clangorous early-1980s No Wave movement.

Despite sporadic commercial success, they still carry a certain amount of anonymity, particularly among young kids. With their latest album set for release on June 13 and a summer tour to follow, which includes seven supporting dates for Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth is following the formula that has kept them going for so long — making honest albums and bringing that music to the live stage.

Sonic Youth’s new album, Rather Ripped, is a straight forward pop/rock album that is very concise and to the point — a departure for a band that is known for leaning towards the avant-garde when it comes to studio work. Recorded in the group’s hometown of New York City, Sonic Youth draws on many influences, most of which are its own. Returning to their nucleus formation of Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo, Sonic Youth has created a commercial gem of an album that has radio melodies without losing the band’s signature guitar edge.

“In light of Sonic Youth, it is going to be much more of a straight-ahead record,” said guitarist and vocalist Lee Ranaldo in a recent interview with The Marquee. “The music we make doesn’t really fit into the mainstream. But, this record is to the point. Public perception is something we have never had control over.”

Formed in 1981 in downtown New York City, Sonic Youth found itself in the middle of the No Wave movement of the early 1980s — an offshoot of the New York punk rock movement. No Wave, a play off of New Wave, simply implied the music belonged to no set genre or style.

“Thurston (Moore) was in a band called the Coachmen and I was in a band called The Flux,” Ranaldo said. “We met by seeing each other at shows and at various places around town. It wasn’t a friendship until we starting playing together.”

Bassist, guitarist and vocalist Kim Gordon, a visual arts student in Los Angeles before she moved to New York City, had been playing and writing with Moore for a few years before Ranaldo had joined the group. Drummer Steve Shelley didn’t come into the fold until 1984 and, with his addition, the band’s sound gelled into a pop/noise hybrid with much room for experimentation.

Signed to Black Flag’s record label, SST, in 1986, Sonic Youth released Sister in 1987 — a record that would put them on the underground map. It wasn’t until their double LP Daydream Nation was released in 1989 that the critical and major label acclaim found them. By the decade’s end (and with some fan backlash), Sonic Youth had signed to the major label Geffen Records.

At the beginning of the grunge movement in the early 1990s, Sonic Youth, fresh off their Geffen Records debut Goo, found itself headling a U.S. tour with fellow Geffen supporting band Nirvana. The tour was a success, but as Nirvana and many other Sonic Youth friends rocketed to superstardom, Sonic Youth never seemed to reach the commercial heights that the band’s younger counterparts realized. The band released nine more albums, many to critical acclaim, from 1992-2004. As Rather Ripped is approaching its release date, the band looks to be sitting on an album that should create some commercial noise.

Enlisting John Angello (Dinosaur Jr., Alice Cooper, Jimmy Eat World) to mix Rather Ripped was a wise decision for the band, considering this is Sonic Youth’s last album owed to Geffen Records under their current record contract, signed in the late 1980s. Angello has mixed the record rather cleanly, allowing guitars to layer concisely and the vocals and harmonies to shine. This record is clearly about the songs.

“We have known John for a long time but never had a chance to work together,” Ranaldo said. “We have been friends and always thought about working together. In the end it turned out to be a great decision.”

The result is Sonic Youth’s most commercial and listenable release to date.

:: Sonic Youth ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: June 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Dinosaur Jr.

• Pavement

• Built to Spill

Mon Frere cuts loose with cruel and cartoonish Blood Sweat & Swords

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:57:03 +0000

:: Mon Frere :: The Cellar :: June 4 ::

By Monica Banks

Don’t let the fam-friendly name fool you. While the band takes the name Mon Frere, which is the French translation of ‘my brother,’ they also take rock to a new level of death-pop.

“It’s Mon Frere in the most Americanized way,” said guitarist Kyle Swisher in an interview with The Marquee.

Although the name is French, Swisher actually had no idea that it meant ‘my brother’ until after the band was named. He got the name from a scene in the 1995 Kevin Smith film Mallrats, when Jason Lee’s character Brodie answers the door saying, ‘If it isn’t mon frere?’

With an eclectic mixture of punk, pop and death rock, Mon Frere has taken their sound to new heights with their latest release Blood, Sweat & Swords (Cake Records).

Mon Frere got together in September of 2003 and by February of the following year, with only a few basement rehearsals under their belt, they had won Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project’s Sound Off! Underage Band Competition in Seattle, Wash. The grand prize included a two-day recording session in Electrokitty Studios with producer Blake Wescott. The result was the band’s first release, an EP, Real Vampires.

Things have only gotten better since.

Vampires came up as a theme one day when the band was discussing the appearance of vampires on the show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The vampires look like normal people until they vamp out and their faces get scrunched. Swisher’s comment was that “real vampires don’t get shit faced.” The band stuck with the vampire theme and although it might not match up with Mon Frere very well, the mismatch has brought the band great fortune.

In fact, with the release of Blood, Sweat & Swords the band continues that mismatched approach with cover art that’s indicative of late 1970s heavy metal — a collection of dripping, bleeding skulls impaled on large cutlass-style swords. The tracks contained within have an edge, but essentially boil down to a trio of keyboards, de-tuned guitar and drums with electronic rock that comes off in a futuristically poppy way, full of brash punk energy. The album is simultaneously hard and soft, fast and slow, innocent and evil, and cruel and cartoonish.

Winning the Sound Off! competition really helped Mon Frere to break out of the local scene. “It was crazy to go from playing the local pavilion to playing in front of hundreds of people,” Swisher said. Their prize performance was only the sixth show they had done together as a band.

The distinct vocals of the group come from Nouela Johnston, a Korean native who has spent most of her life in Washington. Johnston is inspired by vampires and has a voice that allows her to sing just about anything she wants to.

The band has a variety of influences, Smashing Pumpkins being one of the favorites. While their fans and the music are similar to the emo scene, the band stays away from romantic associations. “I was playing in an emo-screamo group, but I decided to turn over a new leaf and start a new band,” Swisher said. “We don’t write songs about cute boys or anything,”

Swisher learned how to play the guitar for his senior project in high school and has stuck with it ever since. He went to high school with his bandmates, and while they were all in the same scene they weren’t close until they formed the band.

Like all rock groups, there have been changes in the line-up. Drummer Dustin McGhie is a recent addition of about six months. “Dustin was in my old band and Nouela knew him, so it was a pretty seamless switch,” Swisher said.

Blood, Sweat & Swords brings the band to new places, both musically and literally. The band has recently embarked on a tour that will bring them out to the Knitting Factory in N.Y.C., further than the band has ever gone before.

In addition to the stretches demanded by their tour, the band reached for some substance with the release of Swords. “Putting out a full album really feels good for the band, it adds a sense of longevity,” Swisher said.

Although Mon Frere has a long journey ahead, they are feeling ambitious. The band has been on tour before but never out to the East Coast. With new opportunities and different places on the horizon, their view is that anything is possible.

:: Mon Frere :: The Cellar :: June 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Smashing Pumpkins

• Yeah, Yeah Yeahs

• Pretty Girls Make Graves

Mon Frere cuts loose with cruel and cartoonish Blood Sweat & Swords

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:57:03 +0000

:: Mon Frere :: The Cellar :: June 4 ::

By Monica Banks

Don’t let the fam-friendly name fool you. While the band takes the name Mon Frere, which is the French translation of ‘my brother,’ they also take rock to a new level of death-pop.

“It’s Mon Frere in the most Americanized way,” said guitarist Kyle Swisher in an interview with The Marquee.

With an eclectic mixture of punk, pop and death rock, Mon Frere has taken their sound to new heights with their latest release Blood, Sweat & Swords (Cake Records).

Things have only gotten better since.

:: Mon Frere :: The Cellar :: June 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Smashing Pumpkins

• Yeah, Yeah Yeahs

• Pretty Girls Make Graves

Eels complete double tour for the double album Blinking Lights

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:58:14 +0000

:: Eels :: Fox Theatre :: June 7 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

“God damn right, it’s a beautiful day,” sings Mark Oliver Everett, a.k.a. “E,” on “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues.” The song, released during the summer of 2000, was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Road Trip, and exposed E and his band, Eels, to a much broader audience than any of his previous releases. Though a lyric this optimistic is a little out of character for E, the song showcases his signature brand of melodic and moody down-tempo rock music.

Since 1995, Eels have existed as a forum for E’s musical fantasies to be realized. The loose conglomeration of musicians that have played in Eels numbers in the high twenties, and includes such famous names as Tom Waits, T-Bone Burnett, Grant Lee Philips and Peter Buck of REM. Waits, in his own unique way, captured the spirit of Eels by saying, “Eels are outsiders, like folks that paint with fingernail polish.”

In the spring of 2005 E left these rock and roll names behind and hit the road for the Eels With Strings Tour that featured a string quartet and spawned Eels with Strings: Live At Town Hall, a CD and DVD release.

In a recent interview with The Marquee E discussed heading back out on the road without releasing a new studio album, something he has never done before. “Since Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005) was a big sprawling double album, I felt it should have two big sprawling tours in its honor. That’s the new rule, double album double tour. I am sure I am going to be pretty tired at the end of it so I am just glad it wasn’t a triple album,” he said.

This time out E has returned to a more familiar rock and roll line-up and the band’s roster reads like the credits of a Farrelly Brothers movie. ‘The Chet’ covers a variety of instruments, stringed and otherwise. ‘Krazy Al’ will be on bass and ‘Knuckles’ is set to be behind the drum kit. “Last year’s Eels concert was a gentleman’s concert, you could say, and this year I have a feeling ... well let’s just say it’s not going to be your parents’ Eels concert,” E chuckled. “One thing I hope to do this year is play a lot of Eels songs that have never been played live before.”

Fortunately, for those who were unable to catch the “gentleman’s concert,” it was captured live at New York City’s famed Town Hall and the result is a stunning collection of 22 songs culled from the six-album Eels discography. While the collection focuses on material from Blinking Lights, E and company presented tender readings of some of his most well known songs and a beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.”

In addition to Bob Dylan, E has covered several other artists over the years, but seldom on more than one tour. In 2004 E participated in a project that paid tribute to the songwriting of an unlikely musical hero, Daniel Johnston, the singer/songwriter and pilgrim of indie music who has released over 30 albums during his career. E’s version of “Livin’ Life” is a highlight of the late-great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered album. “Johnston is one of many who have influenced me over the years,” said E. “He is a great songwriter and we’ve been doing that song for a long time. I think we started playing that back in 1996 or so and I think it is the only cover tune I have done on more than one tour. It is just one of those songs you wish you’d written.”

Whether or not “Livin’ Life” will be on the setlist for this summer’s Eels - No Strings Attached Tour is anybody’s guess, but you can be sure that E will present a show that puts a new spin on his familiar songs. “Every tour has its own unique sort of twist to it and they are really their own thing. I like to think of it like it’s a whole new band that just happens to have the same name,” said E.

:: Eels :: Fox Theatre :: June 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Tom Waits

• Stephen Malkmus

• Badly Drawn Boy

The Streets drop ‘tour support’ but remain sharp and skeptical

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:59:31 +0000

:: The Streets :: Fox Theatre :: June 14 ::

By Sean Foran

The British rapper Mike Skinner (a.k.a. ‘The Streets’) sounds calm, settling in while his personal driver cruises through London to pick up a friend from work at Marks and Spencer.

Long before music became a lucrative vocation, Skinner was employed by the same department store in his hometown of Birmingham and even wage-slaved at a local Burger King. “I never spit in anyone’s food. I never took it out on the customers. I did steal from the tills, though,” he laughed, and I imagined a shifty smile lighting up the mug that’s looming large on billboards across Chicago courtesy of a Reebok shoe endorsement.

One thing Skinner never did since bursting from the U.K. garage scene to the cash register ring of three million albums, is shed his English skepticism. Looking out from a pint glass half-empty view of the gray London sky, he’s made his lyrics the battle cry for every sorry lad in line for a dole check (unemployment check). “My goal for making music was to pay the bills,” he said. “That’s still my goal in a way. I’m just trying to make sure I never have to get a normal job again.”

His goal crystallized like a crack rock after Skinner’s spare beats and Cockney logic produced Original Pirate Material in 2002. The album was the output of home (specifically his mom’s) recordings produced on a laptop in his bedroom. Listen close to the song “Turn The Page” and you can hear her telling him to turn the music down. At the time, U.K. garage vocals were either hyper raga chanting or a female lead with sultry pipes. Skinner’s street-smart spoken flow turned the genre upside down, giving a voice to all the aimless “geezers” who call their girls “birds not bitches” while drinking and drugging their boredom away in the lager ridden liver of England’s pub culture.

Next came A Grand Don’t Come For Free in 2004. A concept record in the vein of the Martin Scorsese movie After Hours, Skinner spun a flowing narrative about losing a thousand pounds (the monetary kind) and all the headaches, bookies and “bird” related troubles he encounters crossing the city to track it down. He snagged his second Mercury nomination with the release but lost to Lady Sovereign. Another kiss from the critics, however, held little sway because The Streets were now a record label rainmaker and that pays the bills. “As I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I realize how political those awards can be so I don’t take notice who’s winning them,” said Skinner. “That doesn’t mean they’re not important, but I’ve already got a sense of the people’s perception of my work and I don’t need an award for that.”

The Streets latest, The Hardest Way To Make an Easy Living, reveals the rapper grappling to maintain his sanity and contemplating what fame does to a bloke’s soul. The pharmaceuticals (“Pranging Out,” Skinner slang for hoovering up the booger sugar), the women (“War of the Sexes”), and even faith (“Never Went To Church”) get dissected as Skinner lifts his nose from the powdered mirror to take a long, hard look of self reflection. He’s finally getting his first sub par reviews, many of which focus on the lack of “go for broke” brilliance that burst from the first two releases. “Part of my success in the beginning was because I was the classic English underdog,” explained Skinner. “I can’t claim that now, but I think people still respect my abilities.”

What hasn’t changed is his penchant for stirring up lyrical controversy. The track “When You Wasn’t Famous” turned the British press away from Pete Doherty long enough to put an APB out on the unnamed female celebrity Skinner raps about smoking cocaine with on the track. Asked if she’ll eventually be discovered, he laughs warily, “Hopefully not. I think if it ever comes out and it could, that will cause me some trouble.” Skinner almost found it by dedicating the song to Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, on the BBC’s “Top of the Pops.” “That was a bit of a joke because people were saying it was her,” he remembered. “I probably shouldn’t have said that. My manager had a right go at me.”

The record also features the song “Two Nations”— a witty breakdown on the dichotomy between the U.S. and U.K. rap industries. Summing up the response for every British act that graced the cover of the London-based magazine NME but fell in line with the faceless fraternity of stateside indies, Skinner raps, “Understated is how we prefer to be. That’s why I’ve sold three million and you’ve never heard of me.” The track was originally slated to accompany the P-Diddy-produced Biggie Smalls tribute album but got nixed at the last minute. “He invited me down to the studio in New York when he was putting the album together,” recalled Skinner. “He asked me to send something in over one of their beats. In the end it wasn’t suitable for that kind of release.” With a line like “I’m proud we gave you people like John Lennon, even though you shot him as well,” I can see why.

The Hardest Way may emit a similar vibe to other “been there, done that, now I’m burned out” records like Eminem’s Encore or The Happy Mondays Yes, Please, but Skinner reminded me he’s focused. He’s avoiding the “tour support” (Skinner’s other name for the nose candy) on the road and is staying busy with business affairs at home. “I’m keeping my head down,” he said. “Just trying to get the job done each night. I’ve always had goals and at the moment, it’s getting the label off the ground.” Said label is The Beats, which has produced albums for up and coming artists The Mitchell Brothers and Professor Green. “I’m involved in the Grime scene a lot and I grew up in that world, so I’m really pleased to be accepted there,” said Skiner. “I sell a lot of records but I put back a lot in that scene. I’m able to give other rappers a lot of opportunities.”

The man-child who calls himself ‘The Streets’ has come full circle and although the present Mike Skinner owns the Rolls Royce he’s leaning against on the new album’s CD jacket, he’s still the same geezer at the chip shop. Skinner still goes unnoticed at his local pub and gets genuinely excited about a compliment. “I don’t think anyone’s ever going to expect me to be a role model but that’s the great thing about being British. I think we like all the trouble over the charity events.”

:: The Streets :: Fox Theatre :: June 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Arctic Monkeys

• Franz Ferdinand

• The Postal Service

Eagles of Death Metal rock sexy with wit, ’staches and a new kind of shock

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:00:13 +0000

:: Eagles of Death Metal ::

:: with The Giraffes ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: June 6 ::

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Little Richard should be proud. And, since that’s the goal of the Eagles of Death Metal, they should be too. If anyone does justice to the spirit of rock and roll and its original wild-man architect, it is Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes and his band.

Forget that the act’s latest CD has topped the sales charts, is getting great press, its music is being used in commercials and film, or that it has joined acts like The Strokes and Foo Fighters on big-venue tours and are invited to play festivals in the U.S. and Europe.

When it comes to measuring his band’s success, it’s making Little Richard proud that is most on the mind of the Eagles of Death Metal founder. Ultimately, Hughes’ band, which he created with his best friend and Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, is about reminding people that rock and roll is about having a good time, having fun and not taking anything too serious. Being glamorous, sexy and flaunting a big, gorgeous moustache fits nicely into the equation, too.

Much like Richard, the Eagles of Death Metal are all about shocking their audience. These days, however, that doesn’t mean what it used to. Hughes, who recently spoke with The Marquee, explained that the band is indeed into shock value, just in a “more clever” sense of the term. “Bleeding on stage or pissing on a crucifix isn’t really shocking anymore,” he said. “Shocking this day and age is to go up on stage and actually smile because you’re having a good time and actually not bullshit about the fact you’re trying to get laid. It’s about dancing and having fun and just kinda not taking everything so seriously.” Like Hughes enjoys saying, “This ain’t no Bible study, this is rock and roll.”

Also, like Richard, Hughes is into the glamorous side of rock. “Glam isn’t really about make-up. It’s about a glamorous attitude, it’s about almost a Praetorian or regal notion about yourself concerning the performance of rock and roll,” Hughes said. “That’s when it becomes glamorous. That’s where I like to approach the glam element of rock and roll.” Makes sense since one can’t really have a nickname like “Boots Electric” and not have an attitude like that.

While the Eagles of Death Metal may exist to make Little Richard proud, the band doesn’t quite share the same sound. In fact, Hughes calls his band’s music Disco Fuck. “I don’t know if you can print that, but that’s what we call it,” he said. “It’s basically bluegrass with stripper beats. Good fun dance music with a good beat. That’s really all it should be. It shouldn’t be brain surgery and it shouldn’t be hippie shit.” According to Hughes, the band “kind of came together on its own” while he and Homme “were fooling around one night smoking weed” and came up with the name. Homme then challenged Hughes to come up with music for a band that could be labeled The Eagles (think Hotel California) of death metal. “From there it just wanted to do it on its own,” said Hughes.

Hughes has commented that other possible takes on the band were the Yanni of Mariachi, the Styx of Punk Rock and the Air Supply of Techno.

Familiar elements stand out from the act’s otherwise original sound and an unashamed admission from Hughes explains why. “When I wanted to start writing music, I didn’t want to fuck around. I wanted to go do it immediately, so I looked at my favorite bands and said ‘I’ll just rip them off.’ I use Keith Richard’s open tunings, which is basically bluegrass-rooted, and stripper beats, which are what I love, like burlesque music — down and dirty stripper beats.” Add in Hughes’ uniquely demented, yet sexy, falsetto vocals and you’re starting to get the idea. By the way, if you haven’t figured it out yet, the band doesn’t play heavy, let alone death, metal.

While the sound may not be the same, Hughes’ live act does share Richard’s penchant for turning on the heat. What’s rock and roll, after all, without a live show and the Eagles of Death Metal are all about playing live.

Hughes explained that Death By Sexy, the act’s second disc, is only a “promise” of what fans get to see live. “For me it’s absolutely everything about the live experience,” Hughes said. “I want everyone to have a good time, I really do. I want everyone to walk away going ‘That was one of the best fucking rock shows I’ve ever seen.’ That should be my goal and that should be everyone’s goal: to do the best they possibly can do. This is a gift what we’re doing. And it’s a gift bestowed upon us by the people buying our records and coming to our shows, they better have a fucking good time.”

This refreshing attitude of Hughes’ to not only acknowledge but also give back to his fans seems to have come from a bit of fatherly advice. Keep in mind, however, that his father was “a rocker” and played in an early version of the Marshall Tucker Band. The guitarist said his dad used to tell him there were two types of rock bands in the world. There is the kind of band that will “come out and jack-off on stage for everyone to watch,” and there is the kind that “fucks everyone in the room.” He’d then ask his son, “Which kind of band would you want to be in?” Hughes’ answer must be obvious by now.

With that kind of sage wisdom at your fingertips growing up, it is no wonder Hughes loves his fans and when on stage he “interacts fully” with them. “The audience is a group of people that I love more than anything else when I’m up on stage,” he said. “And, when they love me a little bit, I give it right back in spades, times ten. I want to love each and every one of them so hard it hurts.” He explained by saying, “If someone came across the street to piss on me if I was on fire, I’d say ‘thanks.’ If they come and pay money to see me at a rock show, I’m hitting it. I’m really appreciative of that. Every day in rock and roll is a gift for me.”

His love affair with his fans is an effort to counter what Hughes calls an “entitlement attitude.” Everyone feels entitled to something, he explained. “The only thing you’re entitled to once you’re born, is death. That’s it. I don’t think anyone is entitled to shit. You earn it and then it’s yours. If you don’t, you don’t deserve it. Rock and roll is not anything anyone can actually deserve in all respects of the phrase. I don’t know anyone that actually deserves what we’re getting but we’re getting it and it’s good, so we should appreciate it.”

Hughes feels that when musicians walk on stage and act like their fans are “fucking lucky to get to look at them,” someone should “kick their ass.”

Despite Hughes’ insistence that his band came to life on its own, it’s his outrageous personality, and perhaps his fabulous mustache, that gives the band its life and its success. His friendship with Homme hasn’t hurt either. “I’m a secret weapon,” Hughes, the former journalist, explained. “My writing style is that I write what I know and I write what I feel or what I want. Half the music I write is for the maximum posing effect. You know, the kind of rock and roll that makes you want to stand in front of a mirror with the majesty of rock fist held high.”

Despite writing all the material for the band’s first disc, Peace, Love, Death Metal, and most on the current release, Hughes said his songs are “rough stones” before presenting them to Homme. “He helps me polish them up and get them to where they need to be,” he said. “He’s the only motherfucker who understands what’s going on in my crazy head. It’s rare. It is really a joy and a gift.”

Hughes, is looking forward to returning to Colorado, where he has an “extensive history” and a “couple of honey babies,” and finally doing a headlining show here. His dreams, however, are much bigger than venues like the Bluebird Theater, where the band plays June 6 with their fellow mustached rockers, The Giraffes. “We really shine in a club, but my goal is arena rock. I want to bring back true arena rock, which is actually fun and functional. According to Hughes, no matter what venue it is, “if you want to have the most unashamedly good time in your life,” you need to come to an Eagles of Death Metal show.

He also added, “If ladies want to feel re-inforced and good about simply being a woman,” they, too, need to come to his show. Finally, “If you just want to learn about how to get laid, have a good time and lighten up, or if you want to feel sexy and you want to be rocked by a mustache harder than you’ve ever been rocked in all your born days,” then a dose of the Eagles of Death Metal are what you need.

:: Eagles of Death Metal ::

:: with The Giraffes ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: June 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Rolling Stones

• Rev. Horton Heat

• Queens of the Stone Age

CD Reviews - July - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:51:52 +0000

The Man in Black’s fifth collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin is a another masterpiece

Johnny Cash

American V: A Hundred Highways

American Recordings

5 out of 5

Almost three years after his passing in September of 2003, some of the final musical moments of Johnny Cash’s legendary career are finally being released. A Hundred Highways is the fifth installment in Cash’s series of collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, and Rubin’s ‘midas touch’ is once again evident throughout the record.

Rubin, and those in charge of Cash’s affairs, purposely waited to release A Hundred Highways until the hype from the recent movie about Cash’s life, Walk The Line, died down. The reason for this is simple: A Hundred Highways is a stunning, important work that stands on its own and serves as self-penned eulogy from a man who often confronted death in his songs.

The recording itself is a somber affair and Cash chose tracks that question, and at times even welcome, his impending demise with a courage that is spine tingling to behold.

The basic tracks were recorded on days when Cash felt good enough to work, and after everyone in Cash’s inner circle recovered from his passing the album was flushed out —under the watchful guidance of Rubin — by a host of musicians that included Heartbreakers (as in Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers) Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, among others.

Among the songs that make up A Hundred Highways are outstanding covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “Further On Up The Road,” a haunting rendition of the traditional spiritual “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” and a great take on “Four Strong Winds,” a song by Ian Tyson that Neil Young made famous decades ago.

In addition, the last song that Cash wrote, “Like the 309,” is included here and shows that even in his final days Cash could play a guitar like a machine gun. “Like the 309” is not the best song Cash ever wrote, but it certainly shows that putting songs to music was truly his gift to the world.

A Hundred Highways probably won’t be Cash’s last record in the American series. Industry sources are already saying that a sixth installment of the series is in the works.

Thankfully, even though the man in black is gone, his music will be forever with us.

— DJ Hippie

Wedding Present collection is a smart, slow ache

The Wedding Present

Search for Paradise: Singles 2004-5

Manifesto Records

3.5 out of 5

It’s tough to put your finger on where, but you’ve heard these songs before — maybe not literally, but they are comfortingly familiar.

After an eight-year hiatus, The Wedding Present returned in 2004. During the time off David Gedge fronted Cinerama with his long-time girlfriend, Sally Murrell. After their breakup, though, Gedge moved to Seattle and his writing revealed a darker angst-ridden side that needed to be filed under his Wedding Present days.

A collection of unreleased versions of A-sides, plus all the B-sides, plus an extra disc of video footage, The Wedding Present’s newest collection proves that sometimes even the nastiest breakups give us the best gifts. It’s not a breakup album per se, but it is melancholy pop for the thinking man (or woman) that is energetic in its slow ache. Buy it now, so you have it the next time you need to say “goodbye.”

— Brian F. Johnson

Noir Towers with latest CD

Jim Noir

Tower of Love

Music Video Distributors

4 out of 5

Imagine a Wurlitzer jukebox stacked with the hits of ELO, Pepper-era Beatles, the Beach Boys, early Pink Floyd and Supertramp. Now, imagine blowing that jukebox up with with a cartoon-style dynamite stick and making a record from the exploded fragments of vinyl and luminescent tubing. There you will find Jim Noir’s Tower of Love.

It’s so good that if you’ve been watching the World Cup you’ve already heard his songs on the Adidas commercials, despite the fact that Noir made his concert debut in a series of gigs this year at SxSW.

If the British press, which showers him with adoration, is even half-correct, he’ll be monstrously successful.

— Brian F. Johnson

Drag the River’s newest is Crazy good

Drag the River

It’s Crazy

Suburban Home Records

4 out of 5

Local bands aren’t supposed to be this good. And local bands definitely aren’t supposed to produce studio work this solid. All of it should come from somewhere else.

But Drag the River doesn’t seem to care about that. Their latest release It’s Crazy is a fantastic piece of work that captures the band’s gritty alt-country and rock blends in a 13-song package.

Fans of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown and the like will love these guys, a group of “rednecks, rejects, lonely losers,” who in 2005 took home a Front Row Center Award from The Marquee for best alt-country band. If their work stays this good, we might have to just give them the honorary status each year.

— Brian F. Johnson

Liza flies high with Bird on a Wing

Liza

Bird on a Wing

Independent

3.5 out of 5

Liza, who was originally introduced to Colorado and the nation through her work in the early 1990s with the band Zuba, has been around Boulder for sometime now, but Bird on a Wing is her first solo release, and it marks a new beginning for the songstress.

Bird on a Wing is the first time in her 15-year career when she has taken on the singer/songwriter role, and also the first album where she made every decision for production from start to finish. The new mom, who had a baby girl earlier this year, is joined by the upper-echelon of Front Range musicians on Bird on a Wing, including Ross Martin, Brian McCrae, Erik Deutsch and Cassie Taylor.

— Brian F. Johnson

From the barstool of the publisher - July, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:52:55 +0000

I was reading Lester Bangs last night, on the night that I celebrated my 34th birthday (yes, birthdays are that exciting in your 30s).

For years I’ve heard the statement uttered in a number of different ways that Bangs died at the right time — 1982, for those who are counting.

For those of you who don’t know Bangs, seek him out. Trust me on this one. He is arguably one of the most influential rock critics ever. Writing in hyper-intelligent benzedrine prose that calls to mind Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, Bangs eschewed all conventional thinking as he discussed everything from Black Sabbath being the first truly Catholic band to Anne Murray’s smoldering sexuality. Some of you may know him from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s role in Almost Famous ... if that helps.

While I have often agreed with the aforementioned statement that Bangs got out when the getting was good — before he had to endure too much of the piss-poor ‘music’ that came out in the ’80s — I think for the first time in a long time he’d be even happier with today’s music than the music of his era.

I’m thinking that he’d be screaming with enthusiasm for bands like Wolfmother, The Giraffes and even The Eels — staying up for days on end with a suitcase of pharmaceuticals just to write and let people know about these acts.

Which leads me to my point (I hope): Rock and roll is going off the deep end again, in a good way.

Always the rebellious child that does exactly the opposite of the norm, rock and roll in recent years has stuck its middle fingers up high at our ultra-commercial, devastatingly disposable society. For the first time in a long time the guys (and occasional girls) writing rock and roll aren’t sniveling about the state of the world in their music, and on the songs where they border on sniveling it’s being done intelligently, not a poor-woe-is-us attitude.

Bangs once wrote: “The day of writing bullshit songs is over, as far as I’m concerned (remember, he died in ’82 and luckily missed the horrors of the ‘99 Luft Balloons’ era). I like to think that if people listen to the words, they’ll get the truth of the song ... In America the revolution that’s in people’s minds is ridiculous. You’re gonna hurt something on both sides whether you let it stay the way it is and just ride it out or do something different. You couldn’t get it into a worse state than it is now, and you could get something much better.”

Bangs is looking down on us, or maybe peering up from hell, but he’s one happy bastard again thanks to rock and roll and the wonderful people who write it.

See you at the shows.

Shafer, McCumber and Pawlina team up as Unknown Americans

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:53:58 +0000

By Damon Ruckel

As alt-country continues to come of age and defines its place nationally on the musical landscape, The Unknown Americans are, locally, melding traditional country melodies with rocking backbeat and beautiful harmonies, unveiling a cleaner, “poppier” side to Colorado singer/songwriter Danny Shafer’s writing and performing.

During his fifteen year tenure as a musician on the Front Range, Shafer has built a reputation as one of Colorado’s most prolific singer/songwriters, often playing several gigs a week with different line-ups under different band names. He might have been playing with The Danny Shafer Band, Danny Shafer & The Red Glory Ramblers, The All-Night Honky Tonk All-Stars or, most recently, with The Unknown Americans.

Kort McCumber, bassist for The Unknown Americans, knew Shafer by reputation before moving to Colorado from Nashville three years ago. “Danny’s name was known around Nashville as a guy out in Colorado who booked singer/songwriters at a place called Penny Lane. I sent him my stuff,” McCumber said in a recent interview with The Marquee.

“Yeah, I didn’t book him,” Shafer chuckled and looked over at his recent collaborator, “but when I met Kort on the Colorado music scene I thought that I had met my stunt double. We were both working musicians, and we were regularly playing all the same venues. Pretty soon people started suggesting that we play together and so we did.”

These two share a musical connection that is as evident when they are relaxed talking about music and The Unknown Americans as it is when they are smiling at each other on stage trading off vocal duties on soaring harmonies.

“I haven’t heard anyone here or in Nashville writing songs as good as Danny,” McCumber said.

Apparently he isn’t the only one who thinks so. According to Shafer, Hit and Run Bluegrass recorded two of his songs last year. “They have been playing them all over the country. Those guys are really great,” Shafer said.

Last fall Shafer wrote 15 songs for a new project that later became The Unknown Americans. Shafer and McCumber got together and Jason Pawlina on drums rounded out the trio. “Jason is a great drummer. We have played together off and on for the past 10 years,” Shafer said. “He is steady and strong.”

McCumber added, “He is the perfect drummer for our singer/songwriter style. We are really enjoying being a three-piece. If you add a pedal-steel to our mix then we take on a country sound. If you add a fiddle then we take on a bluegrass sound, but as a trio we have a certain freedom.”

Trading conversation as effortlessly as they do verse on stage, Shafer chimed in, “All three of us sing, which allows us to put together some amazing three-part harmonies. The Unknown Americans have a cleaner, ‘poppier’ sound than anything else that I have done. The vocals are more featured, more out front.”

Shafer and McCumber represent the original singer/songwriter work ethic, so when the trio got together this past January they didn’t waste any time. “It’s not like we spent three months wood-shedding this material. We had these songs. We were all out gigging solo for a living, so we just started playing the material in front of audiences, and the audiences really seem to be enjoying it,” Shafer said.

“Danny would be playing one side of town. I would be playing the other. Afterward, we would meet in the middle and play together,” McCumber added.

McCumber, who grew up playing piano and cello in Florida before moving to Nashville to be a professional musician, has certainly taken to his new surroundings. “Nashville is really competitive. There is more of a sense that you are ‘working’ as a songwriter and that you are in Nashville specifically for that purpose. I love being a musician in Colorado. People want to be here,” he said.

“You see people pushing the envelope and really helping each other along,” he continued, “There is the expectation that we are gonna play a lot of covers at the kind of gigs we get. It can be a real challenge to get people out of their seats for original music, but I work hard to get them out of their Friday night, after-work element. When you see them start to smile, then stand up, then start to dance, it is worth it. It is really rewarding.”

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Whiskeytown

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

• Flying Burrito Brothers

Lamb of God to release highly anticipated follow-up Sacrament this summer

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:54:59 +0000

:: Lamb of God ::

:: With Slayer on the Unholy Alliance Tour::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: July 26 ::

By Matt Marty

Staring down the barrel of their most highly anticipated record to date, the progressive metal quintet Lamb Of God is rising to the top of the metal world like their music — fast and ugly.

The roots of Lamb Of God trace back more than 15 years to Richmond, Va. It was there that college students Mark Morton, John Campbell and Chris Adler began their savage journey to becoming one of the hardest playing metal bands in the country. Today, Lamb Of God has two more members, Randy Blythe and Willie Adler, brother of Chris.

In the beginning, Lamb Of God had the difficult challenge of breaking out of the Richmond music scene. “We would play people’s houses and basements, which was an underground thing that goes on in the country today, and we decided we really liked doing what we were doing,” said John Campbell in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Just over a decade later, Lamb Of God signed with Epic Records after many other smaller record deals. And in 2004 they released Ashes of the Wake, which put Lamb Of God on the map. The album, which features appearances by Megadeth’s Chris Poland and Testament’s Alex Skolnick, is a dark and brooding collection of complex, structured metal. Revolver Magazine gave Lamb Of God the honor of Album of the Year in 2004, and the metal community is now waiting for the next thing from Lamb Of God — Sacrament, which will drop Aug. 22 on Epic Records. “We are always trying to outdo ourselves in writing and playing, and I think this record is a natural progression of what we do,” said Campbell.

With a highly successful major label debut there can be a lot of pressure to make a record that is different, while also incorporating familiar elements in new material. But Campbell said that it wasn’t a big hurdle for the band. “We have learned how to write music that has vocals involved. There is more melody on this album and I think that this is our best record to date. It is a great reflection of who we are,” said Campbell.

More important than the commercial success of the album is the reaction of the band’s fans. Campbell said that the fans’ reaction is their major concern but that they truly have no idea how their die-hards will react. “Who the fuck knows?” Campbell said. “I really think they will dig it. I think it will keep our fans happy.”

As for the future, of Lamb Of God is on the road this summer with Slayer as part of the Unholy Alliance Tour, which will bring them to Denver this month. “We will be playing new material for the tour, but probably only one song a night. We don’t want to throw a bunch of new material out to a Slayer crowd and have kids just standing there with their thumbs up their asses,” said Campbell.

Lamb Of God is at a critical juncture in their career. They have the task of getting over the monstrous hump of following up a successful major label debut. Many bands fall short, but Lamb Of God has the talent, confidence and will-power to succeed. As the metal world eagerly waits for the new material from Lamb Of God, the band will be simply leaving a path of destruction through each city they hit this summer on their Unholy Alliance Tour.

:: Lamb of God ::

:: With Slayer on the Unholy Alliance Tour::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: July 26 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Slayer

• Mastodon

• Children of Bodom

Rusted Root refocuses after years in relative obscurity and solo projects

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:55:18 +0000

:: Rusted Root ::

:: Mishawaka Amphitheatre :: July 7 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: July 8 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: July 18 ::

By Monica Banks

In the early 1990s Rusted Root exploded into the music world with a neo-hippie vibe and a blend of rock and world music that few had seen before, at least in such a mainstream realm.

Snatching up hits and critical acclaim with songs like “Send Me on My Way,” “Ecstasy” and “Rain,” the band’s second album, 1994’s When I Woke went platinum and there was barely a dormroom in America that didn’t have at least one copy of the album in its collection.

But soon after their great success came a level of great obscurity and in recent years, Michael Glabicki — the Charlie Manson of the Rusted Root family — was performing small solo gigs in clubs throughout the States.

Now, however, the band has regrouped, reformed and released a new album. That album is a two CD set of a collection of live songs, a combination of sensational songwriting and eclectic sounds from around the world, literally.

Rusted Root Live is a compilation of both old and new. For two years the band recorded every show they played. After this period of constant recording, the band sat down and listened to everything to decide what would go on the new album. “We really developed as a live band. Recording in studios didn’t capture our energy during a show,” said guitarist, vocalist and percussionist Liz Berlin in a recent interview with The Marquee. In their second decade of existence, Rusted Root has finally captured the energy that was missing from their six studio-released albums.

The album contains a cover of Neil Young’s “Powderfinger,” the early favorite, light-hearted “Send Me on My Way,” and the soulful “Blue Diamonds,” a song that arose from a near-death experience of Glabicki’s childhood. “When I was two-and-a-half years old I was hit by a car and in my unconsciousness, I met this sort of being and she’s been by me ever since,” Glabicki has said about the song. “We sort of have that kind of a deal where she’s going to stick around. It’s kind of a love song about that. A love song about an angel.”

A large part of the band’s obscurity over the last several years has been caused by the members exploring solo projects. Glabicki did the aforementioned club tours and released an album on his own titled Uprooted. Multi-instrumentalist Patrick Norman released his truly solo album Digital Underworld, playing all of the instruments himself. Drummer Jim Donovan has released six albums on his own, the last of which is Revelation 9, a blend of electronic and tribal beats. Vocalist Jenn Wertz has put out two albums on her own, Lovechild and Acoustic, and Berlin very recently released her solo debut AudioBioGraphical.

Berlin said that the freedom to explore these solo projects has helped to solidify the family feel of the band, with everyone doing their own thing, knowing ultimately that they have the support and backing of their bandmates. “Rusted Root is a lot like a family, the bad and the good,” said Berlin.

:: Rusted Root ::

:: Mishawaka Amphitheatre :: July 7 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: July 8 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: July 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Grateful Dead

• Dave Matthews Band

• Ben Harper

Steely Dan and Michael McDonald join forces for summer tour

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:56:39 +0000

:: Steely Dan :: with Michael McDonald ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: July 31 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

“This summer we’re going to try and condense the Steely Dan set down into a high-impact slamming type of set that will completely banish any talk of nostalgia or traipsing down memory lane,” said Walter Becker, one half of Steely Dan, in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Speaking about a tour with this much enthusiasm might come as a surprise to some older Steely Dan fans. While they have toured several times in recent years, back in 1974 Becker and his musical partner Donald Fagen bucked the trend of the music industry and retired from touring entirely for several years. They had grown tired of the rigors of the road and the mediocre sound in the venues. “At the point where we jumped out in the ’70s the control that we had over presenting our music and the way it sounded was pretty much hit or miss. Today it’s more consistent; the band sounds good every night and that really was not the case in the ’70s,” said Becker.

Early Steely Dan records were peppered with hits such as “Reeling in the Years,” “Do It Again” and “My Old School.” These early albums were constantly pushing the limit of, not only their musical abilities, but also the recording studios that Becker and Fagen deemed good enough to spend their time in. They are admitted audiophiles and put so much emphasis on attention to detail and nearly flawless studio sound that one can understand why the hit-or-miss nature of playing live in the ’70s might have driven them right out of the touring business.

As a strictly studio project, Becker and Fagen were able to concentrate on making the records they wanted to make. The results were some of the best material in the Steely Dan catalogue. Aja, Katy Lied and The Royal Scam were all released in the second half of the ’70s with Aja still widely considered to be the best Steely Dan album.

In 2001 Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While they have clearly left their mark on the world of rock and roll, Becker doesn’t believe that they have really had much of an influence on popular music. “Sometimes people remark that we had a big influence but I don’t really hear it ... at least not in pop music. I think we are more of an influence on composers of advertising jingles and perhaps smooth jazz groups,” said Becker.

Whether Steely Dan is classified as smooth jazz, easy listening or white blazer rock and roll, it is truly an eclectic blend of music that includes thick blue-eyed soul vocals supplied, from time to time, by one of the kings of the genre, Michael McDonald.

McDonald and Steely Dan first crossed paths when Becker and Fagen were in need of a touring keyboard player who could supply some background vocals. “We were trying to recreate some of our things that we did on record. We didn’t have Dave Palmer with us anymore, who had sung the high parts on stage,” said Becker. “Then Mike showed up and could sing those very high parts in his natural voice and also had a very strong mid-register sort of range and a real vocal style. He is a very powerful singer. So, we immediately started to have Mike do some of the leads and sing parts of our songs that were perfectly suited for him. We were very opportunistically oriented in those days, and Mike showing up just gave us a whole other direction to go in.”

It has been 32 years since that first meeting at Modern Music Studios, and this summer Steely Dan and Michael McDonald will return to the road together. McDonald won’t take the stage as a full member of Steely Dan but he has promised to add his vocals to a couple of choice cuts throughout the night. His main focus will be on a full set of his own immediately preceding Becker and Fagen.

:: Steely Dan :: with Michael McDonald ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: July 31 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Chicago

• Doobie Brothers

• Santana

Supersuckers get Paid as rock and roll records start selling big

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:57:26 +0000

:: Supersuckers ::

:: Supporting Social Distortion ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 15 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Three years ago when Eddie Spaghetti belted out “Rock and Roll Records Ain’t Selling This Year,” the biggest hit of the Supersucker’s career, he was dead-on right. Ironically, the song, off the band’s Motherfuckers Be Trippin’, went to number one on the RnR specialty charts for four weeks in a row, but the gist of the song was still correct: rock and roll was in a slump. Now, however, three full calendars later, rock and roll records are selling and the band, which recently grew to a four-piece, is soaking up the rock wave and riding it high with a new take on an old idea.

On June 6 the Supersuckers released Paid, a six-track EP that features the first release of new material by the band in over three years. The idea, according to Spaghetti, is to release a series of EPs before the band puts out a new full-length, and he said that it’s similar to the way things were done back in the embryonic days of rock and roll. “I wanted to just put out singles, but no one agreed, so we’re doing EPs for now,” said Spaghetti in a recent interview with The Marquee. “What we’re doing is feeling out new ways of releasing music from an independent rock band. We do everything ourselves short of distribution, so this is kind of an experiment.”

Spaghetti and the rest of the Suckers know that it could be a risk, as EPs are often given less credibility than LPs, but he said their thoughts are that Paid will end up helping the band in the long run. “We want people to get past the idea that an EP is a little thing and nothing to worry about. This is a big thing. It’s huge. It’s brand new music from us and it’s awesome, and just because it only has six songs on it doesn’t mean it’s any less awesome. This is a great way for people to not have to commit to spending $15 on a new, or hopefully new band that they haven’t heard of. We want to get this out to people who haven’t heard us.”

Spaghetti went on to explain that another EP will follow Paid in the next couple of months and a possible third might even be released before a full length album is issued.

As for the new material, Paid is all-new refined Supersuckers, with a cleaner sound than the band has ever had, but one that still embraces the band’s gritty heritage. The six songs that make up Paid seem like a clean-shaven, dressed up version of the group, but doesn’t in any way border on some type of over-produced sham. “The general consensus is that it sounds way better that we usually sound on our records, and that didn’t turn out to be a bad thing,” said Spaghetti. “We’ve erred on the side of being too shitty on records for too long. Now, we feel comfortable with the way we sound and that helps to be able to go in and record something that sounds great and not worry too much about whether or not we’re coming through.”

While he didn’t appear on Paid, part of what might be helping to tweak the Supersuckers live sound is the addition of their newest band member, drummer Scott Churilla, or ‘Scott-zilla’ as he is known to his bandmates. Churilla comes from a long tenure with the Rev. Horton Heat, and Spaghetti said he’s fitting right in with the band. “He’s perfect. Hell, he and I have already had our first, and second and third arguments, so I like that we’ve risen above all that and we just wanna rock,” said Spaghetti.

But, Spaghetti admitted too that they’re slightly wary to rock too hard this summer, as Social Distortion’s opener. “It’s gonna go one of two ways, either (Social D. frontman) Mike Ness is going to wonder why he doesn’t always have someone this good opening for him, or he’s gonna say we’ve gotta go, because we’re too good. We’re definitely gonna smoke ’em,” Spaghetti said.

:: Supersuckers ::

:: supporting Social Distortion ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 15 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Rev. Horton Heat

• Nashville Pussy

• Old 97s

Yorn wraps up album trilogy, plans intimate tour for latest CD

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:58:10 +0000

:: Pete Yorn ::

:: Walnut Room :: July 24 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: July 25 ::

By Marisa Beahm

With the final album of his Day trilogy completed, Pete Yorn’s music provides a song to match any mercurial mood. Beginning with his sensitive and introspective debut album, musicforthemorningafter, Yorn fashioned the perfect record for a mellow morning, followed by Day I Forgot, a melodic album which revisited his childhood and paid tribute to his influences. Yorn recently finished the final album, Nightcrawler, a more lively and percussion-driven album to finish off the trilogy. Nightcrawler provides the energetic element to his music that hadn’t yet been featured.

Through his first album, Yorn presented himself as an introspective musician, keen on examining the depths of human relationships without falling prey to trite observations. These qualities were demonstrated again with the release of Day I Forgot in 2003. While the songs investigate melancholy themes, Yorn’s emphasis on percussion adds energy, which leaves listeners with a sense of optimism. Yorn’s calm, yet emotive voice encapsulates the heartache and the depth of his observations.

This dynamic, soft-spoken singer/songwriter is on the road again, showcasing these diverse moods with his first-ever acoustic tour, You & Me. The You & Me Tour provides fans an early chance to hear tracks from Nightcrawler, which is slated for release on August 15.

Making a three-album trilogy wasn’t always Yorn’s ambition, but as his final album wrapped up, it seemed natural.

“It just kind of evolved that way when I was trying to make sense of it all. I’ve been thinking about what I’ve done in the past and it all fit together in a way,” said Yorn in an interview with The Marquee. “I’ve always been writing by myself and recording most of it myself. It never was a full-band kind of thing. This could be the end of that era in a way. I might explore other ways to capture music on my next records.”

The newest project, Nightcrawler, remains in the thematic vein of his previous records, which explore love, mortality, jealousy and materialism. However, this album is more up-tempo, and Yorn anticipates the songs being made into club remixes.

On the opening night of his acoustic tour Yorn joked that he would be “nervous as hell without my band, my security blanket behind me.” Despite the nerves, Yorn is eager for the tour because it gives him the chance to reconnect with his fan base, which has always been his priority as a musician. “My favorite thing has always been super-sweaty, small, intimate shows where I can reach out and touch the fans,” Yorn said.

In addition to many small venues, he will also be performing at independent record stores before his main shows. While Yorn prefers dark, smoky venues, the record stores provide the chance to meet more of his fans, in a setting where their faces aren’t hidden behind a cigarette cloud.

After his You & Me Tour, Yorn plans to tour again, this time accompanied by his full band, to do a larger-scale electric tour. Given the early success of musicforthemorningafter, if Nightcrawler follows in its footsteps, the current tour may be one of the last chances for fans to see Yorn in an intimate setting.

“(The acoustic tour) lets me present the songs in the most simplistic forms,” Yorn said.

While his music may be simple, his musical background is not. For a musician in his early 30s, he has an impressive resume, starting with his family. Yorn’s mother was a concert pianist, and he taught himself to play the drums when he was nine. On his albums, Yorn usually plays most of the instruments, but drums are still his instrument of choice.

“In the studio, I tend to build up the songs starting with drums first, so a lot of the finished production usually has a tight rhythm section, which adds to the overall presentation of the song,” he said.

After graduating from Syracuse University, Yorn began pursuing his musical career. In 2000 Yorn gained exposure when his song “Strange Condition” was featured in the Farrelly brothers’ film Me, Myself & Irene. Later, Yorn signed with Columbia Records and released his debut album musicforthemorningafter in 2001. musicforthemorningafter went gold in 2002 after Yorn went on a world tour for 18 months to promote the album.

Yorn’s young fan base is very loyal, and most of his concerts for the summer are already sold out. Even when he returns to larger crowds after You & Me, Yorn’s priorities will stay consistent. “I just want to enjoy every day and experience everything that comes my way. Do right by my fans, do right to myself and stay honest as a performer,” Yorn said.

:: Pete Yorn ::

:: Walnut Room :: July 24 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: July 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Shins

• David Gray

• Damien Rice

Will Hoge’s slow-roasted Southern American Music is fiercely independent

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:59:09 +0000

:: Marquee Magazine presents :: Will Hoge ::

:: The Walnut Room :: July 26 ::

:: Trilogy :: July 27 ::

By Emily H. Lanigan

As authentic as BBQ, Will Hoge grew up basted and slow roasted in the rock and roll of the American South. “Asking me why I play the music I play is like asking me why I talk the way I do,” said the Nashville, Tenn.-based Hoge, from the road, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I’m a product of my environment.” Along with the regular fired-up performances of his relentless tour schedule, his latest charcoal-fueled album, The Man Who Killed Love, independently released earlier this year, proves that being a product of his environment may be the magic in the formula that is Will Hoge.

“When you’re raised in the American South, you’re just sort of inundated with a certain kind of music. I grew up listening to music that I inherited from my father, like The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding and James Brown. “That’s just life in the American South,” explained Hoge. “It’s not like I had to look very far for musical influences. It’s where I’m from.”

Between 1999 and 2002 Hoge and his band, with its various line-ups, played all over the Nashville area. He released two live albums and a studio album before Atlantic Records signed him in 2002. Hoge left the label for creative reasons shortly after his only major label release, Blackbird on a Lonely Wire, debuted in 2003. In 2004 Hoge independently released the politically charged America EP and another live album, During the Before and After

Musically, Hoge never strayed too far from his own backyard. “I didn’t ever rebel. Mötley Crüe and Poison never interested me too much. It was much more of a rebellion to listen to The Temptations, Eddie Kendrick and David Ruffin. I was never trying to piss anyone off,” Hoge said.

This being the atmosphere of Hoge’s suckling, it’s almost strange that he didn’t pick up an instrument in his early childhood. “I got a guitar in my last year of high school,” said Hoge. “But, the love of music was always there. At the time, a lot of people that I knew started getting guitars. I bought it from a friend who had it in his basement, it belonged to his dad. I bought it for twenty-five dollars.”

From that seminal point, the flame was lit. As he learned the guitar, Hoge started writing songs. “I didn’t do it in front of people. I just started writing songs on my own,” he said. “You try to develop as a songwriter and the first time that you write is terrible and then you’re trying to learn how to be a performer.” However discouraging the process may have been, Hoge put a band together and started performing live on a regular basis almost immediately.

Vocally, Hoge has been compared to the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Adam Duritz. This spicy, dry-rubbed effect is created by a combination of soul and sound. “Singing’s one of those things that’s easier for me. It comes more naturally. I’ve been doing it forever. It’s not something that I’ve trained formally to do. I think that early on you have to emulate. At first you listen to records and start hearing something that you like. You try to take some of that and then you hear Otis Redding and you take some of that and then you hear Hank Williams. After a while it’s just kind of like this is what I sound like,” he explained.

As for perfecting the sauce, Hoge’s process is far from over. “There’s definitely a want to get better,” he said. “T

he people I look up to, I think those people always have a desire to get better. To push yourself and always try to keep learning.”

Hoge recognizes how far he’s come from the days of his first guitar but isn’t resting on his success. “There’s some satisfaction about where I am,” he said. “Two years ago I would have cut my leg off to be where I am now. I think that you have to be content where you are but not be satisfied. I want to keep making more records and touring.”

The reason Hoge pushes on is for the love of the heat. “Shit, why wouldn’t you do it? You get to go up there and put on a show. That’s why you do this shit. When you’re 15 years old and your dream is to be in a band? We’re getting to live that dream. It’s an amazing feeling to walk on stage every night and play music.”

:: Marquee Magazine presents ::

:: Will Hoge ::

:: The Walnut Room :: July 26 ::

:: Trilogy :: July 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Black Crowes

• Bob Schneider

• Counting Crows

The Flaming Lips think outside the bubble for newest CD At War with the Mystics

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:00:17 +0000

:: The Flaming Lips with Ween :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 29 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

“If you could blow up the world with the flick of a switch, would you do it?” The question comes from one of the oddest and most interesting characters in rock and roll today: Wayne Coyne. Coyne is the primary songwriter and front-man for The Flaming Lips and his existential leanings have taken a decidedly political turn on their new album At War With The Mystics. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” eventually culminates with Coyne morally espousing, “It’s a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want. Because you cannot know yourself or what you’d really do with all your power.”

Is he making a political statement or has he climbed up onto a pulpit to preach to his fans? While the latter is unlikely, Coyne has been known to do strange things over the years as the mad scientist of sorts who is behind many of The Flaming Lips more outrageous projects. He came up with the idea to walk over the crowd at Coachella in a giant bubble, he is the one who’s brainchild it was to record an album on four CDs that were meant to played simultaneously on four separate stereos, and he is the one who is directing a movie called Christmas on Mars, filming inside a grain silo in the middle of Oklahoma. Is he insane or is he a genius? As they said in Spinal Tap, “There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.”

So far in their career, The Lips haven’t fallen over into the stupid camp. The Marquee recently had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Ivins, co-founder of The Flaming Lips, to discuss furry animal costumes, Santa Claus and some of the other mysteries surrounding Oklahoma’s biggest rock band.

For years, The Flaming Lips managed to slip under mainstream radar despite completely groundbreaking work both on the stage and in the studio. “I think we got lucky in that we weren’t ever very popular when we were young,” said Coyne in a recent release. “We were always around bands that were popular enough to be considered rock stars and it’s a struggle. People make fun of Paris Hilton because she has trouble keeping her boyfriends, but it’s a struggle for any young person to have that much attention. When you’re young it is like a drug in a way — you just want more and more — and we were just making music, doing art, doing whatever it was without a lot of attention, fame, money and the shit that comes along with that. I think we just got lucky.”

The Lips luck hasn’t changed, although it does keep getting better. Since the release of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in 2002, the band has been on the top of the list of innovative artists on the popular music scene. That album spawned the mega hit “Do You Realize,” a melancholy meditation on mortality within the guise of an orchestral rock song. In an age when bands like Green Day and Blink 182 were hitting the top of the charts with three-minute punk rock anthems, The Lips broke the mold. They added strings, bells and choir-like harmonies to their rock songs and they did it so effectively that a large portion of the public who wouldn’t normally embrace “art rock” found themselves singing along with Coyne as he posed the question, “Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?”

Fortunately, with two of the three Lips being well into their 40’s (Steven Drozd, at 36 is the youngest member of the band), they have matured. Today, Ivins can speak confidently when he says that “now that we are older we can look at things and say, ‘well if we are going to have success and all that comes with it, we will know how to use it in more productive and constructive ways than if we were twenty and someone handed us a zillion dollars.’”

They may not be on their way to being handed a “zillion dollars” but The Lips popularity has soared recently. The long awaited release of At War With The Mystics recently landed them on the cover of Paste Magazine, the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater and several other high profile locations.

The tracks on At War With The Mystics were recorded over the course of three years and in between many other projects. “At one point during the sessions we were doing four separate things,” said Ivins, recalling the chaos that often comes with success. “I think there was a remix going on, we were working on our stuff, we were in the middle of a big archiving project, and doing surround sound remixes of our older albums. It was really just too much to keep track of and the Mystics project was the one that got delayed.”

While the three members of The Lips are largely responsible for the sound on the record, they have a secret weapon in their co-producer Dave Fridman, or ‘The Fourth Lip.’ Ivins speaks of Fridman’s input very fondly and the band’s respect for him is obvious. “As a band, all three of us take a very active role in the production of our records and we have worked with Dave since 1989, with the exception of Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. We like to say that we are a production team who just happens to work on our band.”

Experiencing The Flaming Lips as a recorded being is one thing, and it is a greatly powerful thing, however where Coyne and company really pull away from the pack is on the stage. “When we play live we want it to be even more of an experience and things are even more rocked out than they are on the record,” Ivins said. “For one thing, it is a lot louder than you could ever play it at home, and then we throw in a little extra distortion and just generally try to rock it up so that the experience is more visceral than just sitting in the comfort of your own home. If we don’t put on a great show for the people who are paying money to put some clothes on and get out of the house, we haven’t done our job.”

If the raw energy they pour forth on stage isn’t enough, there is a performance art side to The Lips stage show as well. Coyne stands front and center, sporting his trademark rumpled suit and wild gray-streaked hair and is flanked by Ivins and Drozd. “Stephen and I have stopped wearing the fury animal suits we were wearing for years,” Ivins said. “On this tour I have been wearing a skeleton suit and Steven wears this space age silver jumpsuit thing. We also have Santa Claus on one side of the stage and aliens on the other.” Couple the costumes with a giant video screen, disco ball, confetti and the gallons of fake blood that have been known to show up at Lips shows and you have yourself one hell of a concert.

Though previous Lips tours were completely over the top and unlike anything else out there, Ivins said that returning fans may be in for a surprise this summer and in years to come as the band still has the desire to keep pushing the envelope. “I think we are just going to keep upping the ante on the production of our live shows because after a while who wants to just go see a band play their instruments, especially in big venues. It just seems like it should be a cool show and plus, it’s more fun for us this way,” said Ivins.

:: The Flaming Lips ::

::with Ween ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: July 29 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Mercury Rev

• Super Fury Animals

• Belle and Sebastian

CD Reviews - August - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:50:01 +0000

Rose Hill Drive peels out off the starting line with a classic, self-titled debut release

Rose Hill Drive - Rose Hill Drive

Megaforce/SCI Fidelity

4 out of 5

Rose Hill Drive’s debut full-length release is like the Oreo cookie of rock and roll albums. It’s got a hard, crunchy rocking outside, with a soft and chewy acoustic inside.

One of the most highly anticipated releases by a local band in recent years, the wait has apparently been well worth it. For several years now, Rose Hill Drive has been creating a mushroom-cloud of a buzz across the country and overseas. This summer the band completed their first headlining tour of Europe and opened for rock and roll legends The Who.

Their self-titled debut is spectacular, and shows one of the youngest, yet simultaneously mature rock bands to come out of Colorado, musically and personally.

Kicking off with nut-grabbing versions of the fight songs “Showdown” and “Cold Enough,” the power trio then launches into re-worked versions of their show-stoppers “Cool Cody” and “The Guru.”

Rose Hill Drive follows that four-song series of punches with a side of the band seldom seen, an acoustic montage of tracks including “In the Beginning,” “Brain Novocaine” — which received considerable airtime on KBCO radio earlier this year — the breathtakingly gorgeous “Declaration of Independence,” and “It’s Simple.”

Those songs prove that while Rose Hill can easily rock the hell out of a live crowd, they also have the musical chops and depth to go beyond head banging. Surprisingly, and quite thankfully, the acoustic tracks don’t come off as wanna-be ’80s “power ballads” — they’re more refined, and much less formulaic than their big-haired predecessors.

Rose Hill comes out of the acoustic segment of the album with the tenacity of a re-built Trans Am in fifth gear with the throttle stuck wide open. “Raise Your Hands” has been in the band’s live repertoire for some time, but the song is destined to hold that spot as a concert anthem, and this studio version proves that the song is not just a fun audience participation number. “Man On Fire” and “Reptilian Blues,” for those in the know, are the best examples of the band’s growth in recent years. Originally named “Soul on Fire” and “Mexico,” respectively, the two tracks demonstrate the enormous and sometimes seemingly impossible strides that the band has taken in their growth, re-working their songs, heavily road testing them and keeping their edge and freshness all at the same time. The album ends with the heavy blues stomp “Cross the Line,” which fades off with a marching beat that can only mean a sequel is soon to follow.

The album is sonically exactly what the band needed, something that could show their refined musicianship, but not sound like a slick, overly-produced studio effort. Co-produced by the band and Nick DiDia (Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam), Rose Hill Drive comes across like a well-dressed effort, but not so well dressed that they’re tuxedoed for the prom. The album was recorded in true rock fashion, with no Pro Tools, no auto-tuning, no studio tricks, just pure raw energy that went straight to tape — and that organic approach helps to highlight the band’s skill and sound as well as a perfectly-placed light can reveal the true beauty of a painting.

Rose Hill Drive is exactly what the band has been searching and hoping for, for years. The band has turned down other label offers, shelved other projects and vehemently stood their ground that their first album would be just that, their first, not their first and only. Their honest desire to build themselves on their own terms shines through tremendously on this album, and gives just a glimpse of a long future to come from Colorado’s best-ever rock and roll act.

:: Rose Hill Drive ::

:: CD Release :: Bluebird Theater :: August 21 ::

:: CD Release :: Fox Theatre :: August 22 ::

— Brian F. Johnson

Lofgren fails to convert on Sacred Weapon

Nils Lofgren - Sacred Weapon

Vision Music

2 out of 5

Nils Lofgren may not be quite a legend, but he’s definitely up there in the realm, with a career spanning four decades and 50 full-length albums. He’s played with the likes of everyone from Rod Stewart to Bruce Springsteen and countless others, but if you’re not a fan of his already, Sacred Weapon, his latest release, probably isn’t going to change your mind.

Much of the album sounds forced and trite, despite a whole host of special guests including Willie Nelson, Graham Nash and Martin Sexton, among others. It’s over-produced and so clean you could eat off it, and not in the good way. Lofgren probably hasn’t lost his edge but this album definitely doesn’t cut it.

— Brian F. Johnson

The Drams leap high with Jubilee Dive

The Drams - Jubilee Dive

New West Records

3.5 out of 5

A blend that falls somewhere between the melancholy of Whiskeytown and the jubilant anthems of The Old 97s, The Drams Jubilee Dive manages to be simultaneously a thought-provoking commentary on our times and a hell of fun party that would compliment a 12-pack of industrial beer as perfectly as it would a nice bottle of wine. This dichotomy comes from singer/songwriter/guitarist Brent Best’s ability to embrace time-tested rock maneuvers with a fresh and vital take to the point where new material and tricks seem familiar and old standards seem new.

— Brian F. Johnson

Big Bender showcases best of Colorado Twang

Big Bender Records presents

Seven Dead Roses: Vol. 1

Big Bender

3.5 out of 5

The folks at Big Bender Records have never hidden their passion for the whisky bottle, but with their release of Seven Dead Roses, it’s as if they’ve dropped to their knees to ask that bottle for its hand in marriage.

The compilation, which signifies the rebirth of the region’s only roots rock, alt-country, roadhouse record label, comprises seven of the area’s best bands. From Ash Ganley and the Lyons Rock Council and Clint Clymer, to Brendan McKinney, Oakhurst and The Shitkickers, among others, the album is a tour of the region’s twangy bands, and a strong, fun picture of the scene today.

— Brian F. Johnson

Stevens’ Stand Up Girl tackles real life

Angie Stevens - Stand Up Girl

Independent

3 out of 5

Singer/songwriter Angie Stevens puts it as eloquently as any young mother and wife would: “I’m just trying to find good enough.”

Stevens’ album, Stand Up Girl, showcases her vulnerable voice reminiscent of music from the ’50s and ’60s: a gentle combination of roll, (not rock), and traditional country. A sense of familiarity is delivered through her songs with exposed emotions and unadorned impact. With a past riddled with hardships, including the suicide of her older brother, Stand Up Girl can’t help but be the much-needed soundtrack for those of us who are finding the bubblegum, over-produced pop tunes of MTV’s “Total Request Live” unfit for dealing with real life problems.

— Page Bayless

Sandi Thom breaks out of loft and into #1

Sandi Thom - Smile ... It Confuses People

Columbia Records

3.5 out of 5

Being broke, living in a South London flat with nothing but a web-cast and Myspace, singer/songwriter Sandi Thom had a meager beginning from which to launch her music to the #1 spot on the U.K. singles chart. Thom draws on a musical palette that varies from Bob Dylan and Stevie Nicks to Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. Her debut album, Smile … It confuses people, is making waves in the U.K. with the success of her first single, “I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker.” Smile showcases vocals that are reminiscent of the soulful Joss Stone and Janis Joplin with the small-town talent of, say, Kelly Clarkson. But don’t go running for the door at the mention of an American Idol, Sandi Thom is anything but.

— Page Bayless

:: Sandi Thom :: R&R Triple A Summit Luncheon @ St. Julien Hotel :: Aug. 4 ::

Thornley gets literate with My Glass Eye Thornley gets literate with My Glass Eye

Beth Thornley - My Glass Eye

Stiff Hip

4 out of 5

My only association with a glass eye before Beth Thornley was my eighth grade math teacher. This Alabama born singer/songwriter has officially replaced Mrs. Smith’s algebra and ever-present stare with a much more pleasant experience. Thank you, Beth.

Thornley’s My Glass Eye delivers each song with a distinctive viewpoint, a literate narrator, and a wealth of relatable imagery to interpret, with the tiniest hint of southern twang coming up every so often. Thornley looks unapproachable, which works well with her gentle, welcoming voice that manages to be sweet without being a total party killer if it happens to play when your iPod is on shuffle. Thus, I have added it to my iTunes library: Ani Difranco meets Sheryl Crow.

— Page Bayless

Boris Garcia outdoes itself with Finest

Boris Garcia - Mother’s Finest

Porchwerk Music

3.5 out of 5

Although Boris Garcia started as a few friends pooling cash for studio time, their second CD has grown to so much more. Mother’s Finest surpasses any and all expectations of “the band that wasn’t,” combining the sweet acoustics of folk rock and up-beat bluegrass licks.

—Monica Banks

Jenny Cleary lets go on Breakin’ Loose

Jenn Cleary - Breakin’ Loose

Independent

2.5 out of 5

Jenn Cleary wrote her first song after going through a figurative and literal dark period of losing her eyesight. The result Breaking Loose is a musical instruction on letting go. On her debut album Cleary embarks on her own version of female indie rock, leaping from playful tones to social critique and inquisition.

—Monica Banks

Mojomama’s CD highlights Rowand’s vocals

Mojomama - Think. Feel. Listen. Love.

Vision Music

3 out of 5

Mojomama’s sophomore album expresses a musical journey of growth that comes to life through the soulful singing of Jessica Rowand. Reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin, Think. Feel. Listen. Love. takes on the sounds of ’70s R&B, Latin-flavored rock and the deep soul of ‘40s blues all at once.

—Monica Banks

From the barstool of the publisher - August, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:51:06 +0000

On July 5, 2006 the Front Range music community lost a friend and guitarist/singer/songwriter, Joshua Lewandowski of the band Love Scene Clear.

Josh and his brother/flautist/singer Christian were involved in an automobile accident from which Christian is currently recovering.

The Lewandowski brothers founded Love Scene Clear in upstate New York in 1997. Percussionist Jeffrey Giering joined soon thereafter.

Describing themselves as “Ambient Transcendelic Rock,” they released their debut CD Wave of Grace in 2002 and had since been receiving widespread recognition, leading up to the 2005 release of their live CD, On the New Day.

Based in Boulder since 2003, Love Scene Clear played across the United States in a variety of venues, including festivals, theaters, clubs and holistic centers. Love Scene Clear has shared the bill with the likes of Spearhead, STS9, The Slip, Bernie Worrell, New Monsoon, Last Crack, Shawn Phillips, Krishna Das, and Jai Uttal.

Joshua played his final gig with with Love Scene Clear on June 30th at the Boulder Theatre with Kan’ Nal.

Stay tuned for details regarding a star-studded benefit this fall for Christian and Love Scene Clear.

Future releases from the archives are in the works, and the name Love Scene Clear will live on in some incarnation.

A memorial fund in memory of Joshua has been established to help support Christian’s recovery and hospital bills, which will be overwhelming, and donations will be accepted by check and will also be possible through Paypal directly from Love Scene Clear’s website, www.lovesceneclear.com.

Checks can be made out to LSC-Christian Lewandowski Care Fund and sent c/o Oneida Savings Bank 182 Main St. Oneida, NY 13421.

The Ethereal Plane takes on late-night Nedfest show, looks to studio

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:52:16 +0000

:: Ethereal Plane :: NedFest late-night @ Black Forest :: Friday, Aug. 25 ::

By Monica Banks

The Ethereal Plane has brought their funk-rock across the country several times over and now they’re back home again. As the summer season comes to a close the band will be bringing their sonic harmonics to the Nederland Music and Arts Festival along with Dr. John, the Motet, New Monsoon, Great American Taxi, ALO and many more.

The Ethereal Plane has appeared at the festival before, and this year they again have the honor of playing a late-night show at the Black Forest Inn, in Nederland. “It’s the with-no-end-in-sight late night show, where people really get down and party,” said lead guitarist and founder Patrick Latella, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “It’s a great energy to connect with.”

While there is no lack of inspiration on the road, Latella said that it is beneficial to be part of a strong community of musicians locally. “We like to be as creative with our instruments as we possibly can,” Latella said. For him, being surrounded by so much talent helps to push the music and also creates a great place to be experimental.

Off to an amoebic start, the Ethereal Plane took two years to find the right combination for its lineup. After solidifying into a power harmony trio in 2005, the band has taken on a life of non-stop rock. “The only way to get out there without signing to a label is to tour,” said Latella. Edwin Hurwitz provides heavy bass lines while Jason Folsom keeps the rhythm on drums.

The Ethereal Plane takes influence from classics like Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, combined with new-age electronica, an influence that is making its presence known in jam bands everywhere. “We’re each very individual people that spread through generations,” Latella said. Latella, who also writes most of the band’s material, and Hurwitz both have a long history of band experience that includes Butterhead and Shockra, respectively.

The band is looking forward to its performances at the Nederland Music and Arts Festival in hopeful anticipation to get their foot in the national festival door. “We really would like to play more festivals,” Latella said. In 2005, the band made appearances at the Telluride Jazz Celebration, South Park Music Festival, Nederland Music and Arts Festival and the Maydaze Festival. On previous tours, the band has played with frequent festivarians such as Perpetual Groove, Mofro, Tea Leaf Green, Moonshine Still and Cat Empire.

While The Ethereal Plane has enjoyed their time on the road, this fall the band will take a break from touring to spend time in the studio. Ethereal Plane has recorded a CD before, but not with the final line-up. Although the band is known for its live shows and dancing patrons, they are looking forward to focusing on the music in a studio setting. “A studio offers the band the opportunity to take the songs and the live energy gathered from performing into a completely creative environment where amazing things can happen,” said Latella. The band has hopes of putting out the album by November, but there is always room for a change in the plan. As Latella’s theory goes, “All the greatest music is made when it’s left open to chance.”

:: Ethereal Plane ::

:: NedFest late-night @ Black Forest ::

:: Friday, Aug. 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sound Tribe Sector 9

• Phish

• Motion For Alliance

Def Leppard releases yeah!, an album of covers, and hits the road with Journey

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:53:52 +0000

:: Def Leppard :: and Journey ::Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 15 ::

By DJ Hippie

There are few bands can really lay claim to having created music that is eternal. Sure, many bands sing about it. The Bangles sang about “The Eternal Flame” before the pop music gods snuffed the band’s popularity out like a cheap Wal-Mart candle, and Christian metal crusaders Stryper are still singing about the joys of eternity despite a career whose validity died years ago. English rockers Def Leppard are one of the rare exceptions. The band formed in 1977 invaded the world as part of “The New Wave of British Heavy Metal” and they haven’t slowed down since.

While there is no question that Def Leppard has strong elements of metal in their music, the band is really more of a rock band in the tradition of bands like The Faces, David Bowie and even the The Rolling Stones. This is not only reflected in the band’s monumental success but also on their latest album Yeah! (Success sidenote: The band is one of only a handful to earn not one, but two Diamond awards from the Recording Industry Association of America, commemorating sales of over ten million records. Even more staggering of a statistic is that in 1983, their break-out album, Pyromania, topped the charts, making it the first metal album to ever get to number one — and it did this at the time that Michael Jackson’s Thriller was everything and everywhere in the music world. The week it hit number one Pyromania beat out Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down at number two and Thriller at number three.)

Yeah! is an album comprised of covers from bands that influenced Def Leppard’s sound and the band’s long-time guitarist Phil Collen took some time out to discuss the new platter and the band’s stunning career with The Marquee.

Released in May of this year, Yeah! showcases Def Leppard at their best. “We actually decided to record an album of covers years ago, it was really just finding the right time,” said Collen. “After we finished the X Tour we started getting the ideas down and we started recording. We had a specific kind of music that we wanted to capture.”

Whittling down the track list for Yeah! was no easy task, considering that the members of the band are as avid about their music as your most anal-retentive jamband fan. In fact, the band wound up recording so many covers that several special editions of the album have been released at different retailers featuring live and unreleased material, like a cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” from the Yeah! sessions.

“The band was all very much on the same page when it came to what songs introduced us to music. We are all from that same working class background,” said Collen. “David Bowie and Marc Bolan had a profound impact on us all as teenagers, not just musically but just every thing about them. I can remember as teenagers we never got that whole teenage angst thing that so many kids get because we had this music as an outlet.”

Def Leppard have always had a simple vision for the band, to have a good time and to give fans the same. This ethic made the band a particular favorite to people hip to glam rock’s tales of drunken debauchery in the mid-Eighties. While Def Leppard were already amassing a loyal following, the release of Hysteria in 1987 propelled the band to superstar status. Hysteria is one of a select few albums that can boast seven charting singles and is still a staple on rock radio. The album and subsequent tour forever cemented Def Leppard’s place in rock history and made them the top selling band of the Eighties despite not getting as much attention as bands like Guns N’ Roses and Bon Jovi.

Even though Def Leppard have never shied away from their English heritage, the band has always found more success on this side of the pond. As a result, American music has also had a huge effect on Def Leppard’s progression as a band and helps explain the band’s widespread appeal. “American music has influenced us hugely, we actually sing with American accents and we learned a lot of stuff from listening to things like Motown and the like,” said Collen.

While Def Leppard could easily pack shows on their own, the band has never been one to hog the spotlight and after a great co-headlining tour with Bryan Adams last year, the band is about to embark on another double-header that may seem an odd paring to many fans but makes perfect sense to the band. “We are going to go out with Journey this summer,” said Collen. “When Journey was suggested everybody went completely bonkers and the tickets were selling out as soon as they went on sale, so it looks like it was a good idea.”

:: Def Leppard ::

:: and Journey ::

::Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: August 15 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Mott the Hoople

• Bon Jovi

• Journey

James Gang reforms for summer tour from Sturgis to Red Rocks

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:54:12 +0000

:: The James Gang :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 11::

By DJ Hippie

Back in the year of our lord 1966, the public’s eyes were just opening to the weird acid-fueled sounds coming out of San Francisco. But while the Golden State’s most colorful city was the epicenter of a new age in rock and roll, the genre was morphing into other forms all around the country. One such unlikely hotbed for musical growth was the clearly un-mean streets of Cleveland, Ohio.

The city’s native musicians were often steeped in the influence of blues and the growing popularity of Motown soul that was beginning to drift in from nearby Detroit. At the time, a young drummer named Jimmy Fox was just beginning to put together a band that would ultimately come to be known as The James Gang and serve as the launching pad for virtuoso guitarist Joe Walsh.

Fox, who along with Walsh and bassist Dale Peters round out the band’s most famous incarnation, took a minute to speak with The Marquee about the band’s thirty-plus year history. “The beginnings of The James Gang seems like ancient history now,” said Fox. “I was looking for a band that played hard rock and roll with a strong British influence and lots of guitar, and that was hard to do it the mid-Sixties in Ohio. It was a challenge but eventually it came together and when Joe Walsh joined that band things took off pretty well from there.”

The band’s early years were spent honing their skills on various blues and rock covers, and while the band always planned on writing their own material they let the fates tell them when. “We really didn’t have a grand vision for the band, mostly I just wanted to be surrounded by people who wanted to play and appreciated the kind of music I did,” said Fox. “The scene was just exploding in the Sixties with the emergence of people like Hendrix and Clapton. So in the beginning that was always the kind of music that we hoped to get the opportunity to play, but when you first start out you play what people wanted to hear and that means playing covers. Luckily, in the Sixties people were also open to hearing new things and we were able to start writing our own songs.”

In 1969 a young ABC records staff member named Bill Szymczyk heard the band’s demo and immediately signed them. The James Gang put out their first album, Yer Album, later that year. The album made an impressive run, remaining on the Billboard charts for close to a year.

Yer Album was a stunning exercise in musicianship and the band’s geographical roots were evident throughout the album. “Cleveland was a rhythm and blues town, it wasn’t really a rock and roll town yet. The bands I had played with locally up to that point had aspired to James Brown and Bobby Bland. We came along at a time when there was a new beast in town in the form of the teenage club,” said Fox. “These were places where you could go and you didn’t have to be eighteen and because of that there wasn’t a big alcohol scene and that allowed people to be more open to the music. We were able to reach a lot of people with our first album.”

Of course, any band who has had a hit with their first album knows that making a successful follow -up is a tall order, and after enjoying the success of Yer Album The James Gang began to put together what would become the legendary album The James Gang Rides Again. “There is a saying in the music business, ‘You have your whole life to write your first album but only about six months to write a second one.’ We had worked on new material in dressing rooms the whole time we were on the road and that kept us creative, many of the things that wound up the second album came from that,” said Fox.

James Gang Rides Again featured two of the band’s most enduring songs, “Funk 49” and “The Bomber.” Both songs remain staples of classic rock radio to this day. The album’s success allowed the band to stay on the road and keep creating new music in their downtime. In 1971 the band released Thirds, the band’s last studio effort, an album that featured the hit “Walk Away.”

At the end of 1971 Walsh left to start a solo career, which eventually led into his time with The Eagles. After continuing with The James Gang for several more years — who at one point featured Tommy Bolin on guitar — Fox dissolved the band in 1977. “At a certain point with the band we had run our course. We weren’t making the kind of music that was pleasing me at the end, it had become less fun,” said Fox. “There was no big blowup when the band stopped, we’ve always been in touch and some of the best times were always with Joe in the band. Then when Joe came to us with the opportunity to do three episodes of the “Drew Carey Show” in 1998 (as Drew Carey’s band The Horndogs) that sort of started things in motion again. We hung out in Hollywood and really had a lot of fun and we started performing gigs here and there.”

:: The James Gang ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: August 11::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Cream

• The Eagles

• Sly and The Family Stone

Reincarnated Subdudes step out of New Orleans from behind the levee

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:55:50 +0000

:: The Subdudes :: Louisville Street Faire :: August 11 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

Riding high on the airplay for their latest recording, Behind The Levee, the subdudes are more popular than at any time previously in their nearly 20 years of existence. Their good-time take on New Orleans-style Americana music is rippling throughout the U.S., garnering new fans and pulling people to the dance floors.

Formed in 1987 for what the members thought would be a one-time gig at Tipitina’s in New Orleans, the subdudes released five albums and toured continually before they disbanded in 1997. Ultimately, they reunited in 2002, with three original dudes and two new members. They released their latest record, Behind the Levee, in January of this year and are proud to note that it was produced by Keb Mo’.

“Really, Behind the Levee has given us more radio play, especially the ‘Papa Dukee’ song. It has done a great job at bringing in new people to our shows,” said bassist, vocalist and percussionist Tim Cook, during a recent interview with The Marquee. That song, actually entitled “Papa Dukee and the Mud People,” recounts childhood events in Louisiana that subdudes Steve Amedee and Tommy Malone clearly recall to this day. Although it might appear they put the recording together in response to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, the songs were complete and the record in the hopper prior to those tragic days. By chance, the timing of the release took place a few months after the hurricane broke through the levees.

Along with Cook, Amedee (vocals, tambourine, drums, percussion, electric mandolin), John Magnie (vocals, organ, keyboards, accordion), Malone (lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitar) and Jimmy Messa (bass, guitar, vocals) form the latest reincarnation of the subdudes. Amedee, Magnie, and Malone were original members of the band when it coalesced in the late 1980s. Their name was arrived at to try to please an audience that thought their sound was too loud — hence the subdued subdudes. The three remaining founders rose from the remnants of earlier bands from the late 1970s and early 1980s—The Percolators and the Continental Drifters.

Their next record is already in the works and they are talking nonstop about it, excited for the continuing evolution of their music. The group collaborated on quite a few of the tunes on the last CD and are big on working together to extract their best creativity.

Cook, who makes his home in Fort Collins, became close friends with the band members from its genesis. During the band’s first tenure, Cook wrote songs and hung out with the members, then went on tour with producer duties, while continuing to write with them. When the band went its separate ways in the late 1990s, Cook continued his friendship with Magnie, and it eventually sparked the band to reunite. “Finally one day John Magnie told me, ‘Play some songs with me!’ and that was the start. The two of us, along with Steve, became the Three Twins, first, then everything fell together and we got together with the other two guys and became the subdudes again.”

The subdudes are playing in Louisville at their local street fair in August and Cook can hardly wait. “This is our third time playing for these folks and we look forward to the Louisville gig every year. We love town concerts, with all the great people who attend. It’s fun — like playing at a revival. We don’t hold back! We’re ready to get the people dancing!”

:: The subdudes ::

:: Louisville Street Faire ::

:: August 11 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Keb Mo’

• The Neville Brothers

• Beausoleil

Ian Beert to play Hillfest and Nedfest

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:56:27 +0000

:: Ian Beert :: Hillfest :: Thursday, Aug. 24 ::

:: Nedfest :: Sunday, Aug. 27 ::

By Marisa Beahm

Good luck classifying Ian Beert: confident yet unpretentious, a musician who happens to be Christian, but is not a Christian musician, and a man whose music reflects past experiences, but who always lives in the moment.

With dedication, paired with passion and self-awareness that is evident in his music, Beert has proven himself a musician on the rise. Currently a senior communications major at CU-Boulder, Beert entered into the local music scene early in his college career.

Beert’s sound, like his personality, is graceful and un-forced. His expressive voice is either paired with light strumming on the acoustic guitar for a solo-set, or is backed by a newly formed band of local musicians. His style ranges from tender love songs, to up-beat funk, to “care-free bubble gum pop,” and he is even known to interweave a Britney Spears cover in his performances on occasion: anything to connect with his audience.

Forming a relationship with his listeners is a primary goal of Beert. He wants to reach his fans, not by ostentatious showmanship, but through humor and shared experience.

“I am not trying to be the funny guy or some sexy musician. The reality is I’m not all that cool. I’m not all that sexy. I wear white shirts,” Beert revealed in an interview with The Marquee.

Influenced by John Mayer and Jason Mraz, Beert admires these musicians for their focus on lyrics, which is also at the heart of his compositions. Another of his influences is his Christian background, but he does not label himself as a Christian artist.

“I rarely listen to Christian music. Divine nature and God are so much more inexpressible than one song that says ‘I love Jesus,’” Beert said. “Worship music, I don’t think, is one type of thing — all sorts of music is divine enough.”

Rather than focusing on worship music, he hones in on specific moments that he finds striking.

“Life is a continuous thing — we’re just going, going, going, but there’s some moments where it just feels that nothing is working, stuck-in the mud, or it starts pouring and you don’t even care about getting wet and you run around, or when your heart is broken and you don’t think there is any hope ... moments of intense emotion that define who you are. That’s what most of my songs are: that moment in a relationship,” he said.

Beert’s musical career began with his family in suburban Chicago. Hailing from a mother who is an orchestra teacher and a father who plays cello, he grew up around music. Following in his father’s footsteps, he began playing upright bass in the fourth grade. This career ended in high school, when he got sick of “feeling like such a dork” when he had to carry his bass in front of the girls’ choir. Later, he reentered the music scene when he joined choir and picked up a guitar. After his freshman year of college, he began writing original work and performing at local venues. His experience with performing in high school helped him combat nervousness at his performances. Without the nervousness, Beert finds performing inspirational.

“Playing at the Fox was the best hour of my life,” Beert said. “Everything was perfect. That’s the crazy thing about music, you write music about things that aren’t perfect, but for that brief instant you can feel totally at peace and connected with perfection.”

:: Ian Beert ::

:: Hillfest ::

:: Thursday, Aug. 24 ::

:: Nedfest ::

:: Sunday, Aug. 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Jason Mraz

• John Mayer

• Matthew Moon

Deep breaths spell success for Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:57:11 +0000

:: Death Cab For Cutie :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Sunday and Monday, August 6 and 7 ::

By Matt Marty

In the last year, Seattle’s Death Cab For Cutie has latched on to a scene of college and high school kids who are devout fans that are moved by the band’s raw, inventive, creative talent and attractive, imaginative melodies.

The story of Death Cab For Cutie traces back almost ten years to 1997 in the college town of Bellingham, Wash. It was there that Death Cab For Cutie front man Ben Gibbard met fellow guitarist/producer Chris Walla and bassist Nick Harmer. The band’s line-up would not be solidified until 2002, when drummer Jason McGerr became a full-time member.

“In October of 2002 we decided to give it a shot, and the rest is history. But I’ve known them for over ten years, so it’s not like I met them in an audition, we’ve been playing shows together for a long time,” said McGerr, in a recent interview with The Marquee.

After creating a positive buzz in the legendary Seattle music scene, Death Cab faced the daunting task of becoming a national act. “When I stepped into it, I did one van tour with them and after that point we started to add crew and then it turned into something bigger — not what it is today, but slowly and surely we got to where we are,” said McGerr. Relentless touring both in the U.S. and overseas, with a lot of persistence, pushed Death Cab over the hump that most bands never come close to crossing. Aside from their consistent touring, two great studio albums helped with that push over the hump.

Transatlanticism was the first of two breakthrough records for Death Cab, followed by the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Plans. McGerr stated it very simply, “If Transatlanticism was an inhale, Plans is the exhale.” Released within two years of each other, Plans shows a definite maturing within the band and the first single, “Soul Meets Body,” is one of the few choruses where all that is required for a sing-along is a “ba-ba-ba.” As for the rest of Plans, the striking melodies and relatable themes seem to hit close to home with a lot of today’s youth.

The material on Plans is a collaborative effort; each member contributes to a certain extent. “We all have input in the recording process but the embryo of the songs comes from Ben (Gibbard),” said McGerr.

With a thriving album and a dedicated fan base, Death Cab returned to what brought them their fame — the road.

Making a stop in England, and then at Lollapalooza in Chicago, Death Cab has a very busy tour schedule — that is met with a feverish desire by its fans. Tickets sold so well for the first Denver show that the band added a second concert at the Fillmore Auditorium. Once the fifteen-date tour concludes, Death Cab will be taking a much-deserved break. “For the last four years we have been on tour eight months of the year and we are all looking forward to a break, and then we will reconvene in the fall of next year and work on the next record,” said McGerr.

For those who have yet to hail the Cab, McGerr characterizes the band’s music saying, “It is pop music that is a reflection of society, the times and a state of the world without being too political.” Death Cab For Cutie sings about heartbreak and other issues that a younger generation can easily relate to. When Gibbard sings, “’Cause in my head there’s a Greyhound Station/ Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations/ So they may have a chance of finding a place/ Where they’re far more suited than here.” Those thoughts he sends off are the essence of Death Cab For Cutie.

:: Death Cab For Cutie ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

:: Sunday and Monday, August 6 and 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Postal Service

• Bright Eyes

• Modest Mouse

Andrew Bird puts an odd twist on virtuoso violin at 2OO6’s Folks Fest

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:58:10 +0000

:: Andrew Bird :: Folks Festival :: Sunday, August 20 ::

By Molly Chappell

If you wanted a perfect soundtrack to accompany the book Where the Wild Things Are it would be Andrew Bird’s The Mysterious Production of Eggs. The album, released early last year on Righteous Babe Records is intended to mirror the voyage of a child protagonist on a strange and frightening journey. Andrew Bird, who has been playing the violin since age four and has been deemed a professional whistler, does this through his odd lyrics and instrumentation.

He pours it on thick by looping layers of violin, a German percussion instrument known as the glockenspiel, and guitar, all the while showing that there is definitely an art to whistling. He has allowed room for the violin to rock, the same way that Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull painted the flute in a new light. Bird’s style is best likened to gypsy music, pulling from Middle Eastern, classical, hard rock, folk, and every other type of music in-between.

“It is hard for me to admit that technology would be integral to my music, but I have come to appreciate what looping allows me to do,” Bird said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “When I play live, I don’t use any presets or canned stuff. It’s all live and dangerous. You almost factor failure into the show. It’s precarious; it shouldn’t always work, but if it comes crashing down that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s why I rebelled against the classical style of violin — you’re never really perfect or good enough, but it is humbling to accept that sometimes things don’t pan out how you want them to.”

That refreshing view, in the face of over-produced, sanitized pop music, allows Bird to break the mold instrumentally, and coupled with his song’s subject matters Bird has an infinite canvas to paint his broad strokes.

“A lot of my lyrics are based on unanswered questions and limitless possibility. Smells are vivid and the best ideas come when you lose sense of where you are and matter-of-fact things. I always prefer to misunderstand songs. I think a lot of great things come out of misunderstandings.”

Bird’s 2003 release, Weather System, signaled a change for the artist. Bird had been in the process of building a barn in northern Illinois while putting together his 2001 album Swimming Hour with his full band, Bowl of Fire. “But while I was building the barn and getting used to this lifestyle change, I was writing new material, which was really naturally coming out of that change, which I [felt I] had to suppress in order to make the next Swimming Hour — you know, the next ‘band’ record. So I tried to make a record that I wasn’t really feeling. I wasn’t happy with it, so I scrapped it (temporarily); I went and made Weather Systems, which was the natural accompaniment to this rural, pastoral setting,” said Bird.

The freedom that came with being a solo artist is something the Bird has flourished in. “In the last 3 or 4 years I have benefitted from not playing with others. Once we disbanded I indulged and went into a vacuum. It is hard to constantly compromise and negotiate your interests with other musicians. Now there is a much more direct line between my head and my performance.”

Bird has already put together his newest album, although it still needs to be mixed and mastered and will not be out until early next year. “The album is not as labored or polished, it is much more wild,” he said.

:: Andrew Bird ::

:: Folks Festival::

:: Sunday, August 20 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Arcade Fire

• Belle and Sebastian

• Beck

Wolf Parade in line to be the next breakout from Montreal

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:59:17 +0000

:: Wolf Parade :: Fox Theatre :: August 28 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

The story of Wolf Parade is one part hard work, one part raw talent and one part damn good luck. These five guys got their big break almost before they were a band.

“Dan’s (Boeckner, guitar/vocals) old band, Atlas Strategic, had done a tour with Modest Mouse back in the day,” said Spencer Krug (keys/ vocals) from his home in Montreal, as the band tested equipment in their brand new studio and prepped to head out on the road. “Cut to 2004 and Isaac [Brock], the front man for Modest Mouse, called Dan up to find out what he was doing. We played him some of our new songs, he liked them, and right away there was talk of getting us signed to Sub Pop (Records), as he worked for them at the time.”

Brock quickly took the bass-less band under his wing and helped to set up a showcase at a loft party in Montreal so that Wolf Parade could strut their stuff in front of the Sub Pop brass. “Before they sign a band they want to see what your live show is like,” said Krug. Apparently the show went well and, with a record contract in the bag, the band headed out to Portland to record their debut LP with Brock.

“Isaac was in the studio whenever we were, helping us along, giving us a fresh perspective on things to help songs reach their full potential,” said Krug. “He would even just point out the simplest of shit like, ‘Hey your guitar is out of tune.’ Having his opinion in the mix really helped to solidify the strength of the record. We trusted his input and what he had to say and that is the most important thing when working with a producer.”

The final product of the sessions, Apologies to the Queen Mary, was released by Sub Pop in September of 2005 and has done its part to fuel the buzz about Montreal being the Seattle of this decade. With Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers and, of course, The Arcade Fire already making major waves in the highly competitive world of indie rock, these boys are nipping at their heels.

Hardly a year after Apologies hit the streets, Wolf Parade is a highly sought-after festival act. Featured sets at Coachella and Austin City Limits are highlights for this year, but their first major festival gig took place during the 2005 All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, aboard the Queen Mary in Los Angeles. While their set went well, the title of the record is a formal apology to the ship and her staff in light of what Krug described as “a bunch of friends getting drunk on a boat. There was immature, childish, frat party fun, but it was really just an energy release after our first festival. We were the newbies and we were a little nervous,” he said.

Fortunately, their upcoming tour does not involve any ships but it does take the band from coast to coast, where they will be headlining in many cities for the first time. While the show is sure to be dominated by songs pulled from Apologies, Krug shared that they “like to play new stuff on tour as well as old stuff, as much as possible. Little details of the new songs get changed every night and the song really takes shape when you are able to play in front of an audience.” He revealed that there are currently three new songs that they would definitely be road testing before heading into their new studio to begin recording.

Though they were very happy with Brock’s input to Apologies, they plan to record the next album on their own. “We want to record in a way that won’t be conducive to working with a producer. We are doing it ourselves here in Montreal in a little studio that we just finished building,” said Krug. “Sub Pop isn’t breathing down our necks for the next record, so we are going to take our time. While we have about half of the album written, we are going to build some of it from the ground up in the studio. We all live quite close to the studio, so we can go in and out at our leisure and slowly craft an album that hopefully won’t suck.”

:: Wolf Parade ::

:: Fox Theatre ::

:: August 28 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Arcade Fire

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

• Modest Mouse

Aimee Mann steps into the ring to fight the good fight and teams up with etown

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:00:09 +0000

:: etown rocks :: featuring David Gray, Aimee Mann and Beth Orton :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: Saturday, August 3 ::

By Emily H. Lanigan

When American bard Aimee Mann took to the stage a while back with a black eye, it can only be imagined what people in the crowd must have been thinking.

The tall but slender singer eventually told the crowd what the real story was, but she learned something along the way. “I realized no one will ask you how you got a black eye when you’re a woman. They just look at you like, ‘Oh, you poor thing. You should leave him,’” she later said.

But Mann hadn’t gotten the bruised face from her husband, it was kind of a self-inflicted wound. Not content with simply slinging a guitar, a little over a year ago Mann stepped into the boxing ring and has begun throwing punches for a hobby — a hobby that grew out of the character development of her latest project.

Mann has long regaled fans with tales of the human condition and the heroes and villains it makes of us all. Last year Mann finally put her talent into epic form and created an entire chronicle called The Forgotten Arm. The album tells the story of John, a drug addicted ex-boxer and Caroline, a white-trash girl facing a dead end. The characters meet, fall in love and road trip across the country. “The Forgotten Arm is much more of a specific story than my usual work,” said Mann in a recent interview with The Marquee.

“The character John, in The Forgotten Arm, is in denial about his drug use and his girlfriend, Caroline is in denial about it too,” said Mann. “In this state they embark on a ‘Let’s get the hell outta here’ road trip. It’s not unusual to have people think they can change their inner circumstances by making an outward change, by running away,” said Mann.

Over the last 20 years, Mann has created pop music for the thinker. “My characters and songs are usually based on people I know,” said Mann. “But most are an amalgamation of character traits of many people.” A long running theme seen not only in The Forgotten Arm, but in much of her previous work, is that of addiction. “I know people who have struggled with addiction problems,” she said. “But everyone has their dysfunctional family story and I think that putting it into the framework of addiction just makes it more universal.”

She said that she didn’t personally grow up around addiction but did grow up with her share of dysfunction. “I think writing about addiction is a way for me to relate to other people,” she said.

During the writing of The Forgotten Arm, while developing John’s character, Mann actually decided to step into the ring herself. “I train with Freddy Roach, he trained Mike Tyson and he trains me just for fun and we’re buddies,” said Mann. “It’s fun that the gym has become the center of my social life. I’ve done a little bit of sparring but not much and not lately.” The sparring came to a halt after she found out how easily she bruised. “I got hit and was worried about my nose until I looked in the mirror and found I had a black eye. And, as you know, I actually played a few shows with that black eye,” said Mann. “It’s really hard to do well. You think boxing looks easy but it’s not. I mostly work on having good form and executing punches.”

Executing punches is something Mann has done well for years, but never before in the literal sense. The artist is a slave to her muse, and it’s something that she can’t force.

In 1999 that inability to force her writing was a good thing, when it naturally produced some of her best-known and highly acclaimed work. Mann was nominated for an Academy Award for her song “Save Me” from the Magnolia soundtrack, to which she contributed eight songs. “I can’t be dictated to, it’s whatever comes out,” said Mann. “Even writing for movies, I sit down and if it’s not happening, it’s not happening.” Luckily, with Magnolia it was happening. Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson also chose some of her earlier released songs and actually wrote scenes around her lyrics.

Around that same time, however, Mann’s muse-driven process sparked a fight between her and Geffen Records. “The big labels take their few big acts and then do nothing for their lesser acts,” said Mann. “When Geffen got bought out, the big wigs didn’t even bother to listen to my album but had all kinds of ideas on how I should change it. When they gave me the opportunity to leave I felt lucky to get out.”

Mann now has her own label, Super Ego Records and even though she sells fewer albums, she admitted that she makes more money. “The fame was weird, too. I didn’t want to be that famous. So now, I’m less famous and make more money. It’s really great to have your own label and do the kind of work you want to do,” she said.

Currently, Mann has been working on a Christmas album set for release this winter. “It’s going to be half standards and half not-so-familiar stuff,” said Mann. “I wanted to do an interim project because I wasn’t ready to do a new record yet, but it’s been really good and we’ve been really into it,” she said. “Christmas, to me, is almost magical but still kind of spooky. Like the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon has that spooky edge. I wanted to reflect that and despite how commercial it is, show that it’s still exciting and magical,” said Mann.

Mann will be doing a special performance on this trip to Colorado as she teams up with etown for it’s 15th Anniversary Show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

etown, is a locally produced, nationally syndicated radio program that seeks to blend programs of diverse music and conversation in order to entertain, educate and engage a wide audience in appreciating and protecting our cultural and natural resources,

Often recorded at the Boulder Theater, etown usually consists of interviews with the performers, as well as the dedication each week of the “e-chievement” award to a person or organization that is in line with etown’s mission.

But the 15th anniversary show is going to shed some of the standard etown fanfare. Co-host and co-producer Helen Forster told The Marquee that those used to a normal etown taping are going to pleasantly surprised. “There is definitely going to be some flavoring of etown, but this is much more of a concert experience. There are not going to be live interviews on stage and no full-length “e-chievement” award. There will be different people making brief statements between bands, so that people have the chance to connect with etown’s mission, but this is an evening of concerts to celebrate etown,” Forster said.

Forster said that etown’s talent coordinator, Roger Menell, did a brilliant job of finding the right artists to perform for the event. With a lineup that includes Mann, Beth Orton and headliner David Gray, Forster said that the artists are not only capable of filling Red Rocks with their energy, but that they are also individuals who have been on etown and are in line with etown ideals.

etown celebrated its 15th anniversary earlier this year with a special taping at the Paramount Theatre in Denver with James Taylor. Forster said that the Red Rocks anniversary show is an extension of that celebration. “This is a way of expanding etown’s reach and appealing to a wider, more expansive audience. So we’re not saying ‘Hey it’s our anniversary again,’ I think it’s a continuation of the celebration. It’s just a different form of it. We did etown rocks a few years ago and it was so successful that we’ve wanted to come back, and the timing seemed right and the invitation was there, so we decided to do it.”

:: etown rocks ::

:: featuring David Gray, Aimee Mann and Beth Orton ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre ::

:: Saturday, August 3 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Suzanne Vega

• Elliot Smith

• Cowboy Junkies

CD Reviews - September - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:50:38 +0000

Gov’t Mule Hauls its ass into the studio and comes out with a gem called High & Mighty

Gov’t Mule

High & Mighty

ATO Records

4 out of 5

The Mule Train has arrived and it is flying High & Mighty.

Following up 2004’s Deja Voodoo, Gov’t Mule’s latest release, High & Mighty, is a step in the right direction with a now solidified lineup of four incredible musicians. Warren Haynes’ soulful voice and extraordinary guitar chops stand as the centerpiece for drummer Matt Abts, bassist Andy Hess and keyboard player Danny Louis to work around.

“Mr. High & Mighty” is the first track on the album, and is a return to the old Allen Woody days of the Mule. With a fast-paced beat and Warren’s screaming guitar, the song moves into quick changes, taking the listener through a valley of highs and lows. As the song finishes on a rather somber note, the album picks right up into “Brand New Angel,” which sounds like it could be off a volume of the Mule’s The Deep End.

As far as hard rocking electric rock anthems go, it is expected that Mule would deliver, but it is the slower ballads that really dig at the heart of this album. In the song “So Weak So Strong,” Haynes doesn’t paint the typical love picture with his lyrics, but rather speaks of the rougher qualities of a woman.

The lyrics on this album make it clear that Haynes speaks of a much darker side to life, one of which many people don’t know. “Nothing Again” is the story of an artist who hits the big time and doesn’t know how to handle the fame. It is a song of the dark crevasses life seems to have.

High & Mighty is big, both in scope and in sound. Built upon the rock solid foundation of 12 original songs and clocking in at well over an hour, the disc boasts an urgent, in-your-face sound reminiscent of the band's thunderous live concerts.

With a solid register of upbeat Zeppelin-like rock tracks, High & Mighty combines the slow ballads with the rock anthems beautifully. This album is not the groundbreaking phenomenon that The Deep End was, but rather a sign of where the band is at this time — and that ain’t a bad place at all.

:: Gov’t Mule ::

:: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: September 2::

— Matt Marty

Slayer’s Christ Illusion is a welcome return for band

Slayer

Christ Illusion

Def Jam Records

3 out of 5

Religion is easily one of the most criticized subjects to be tackled through the lyrics of modern music.

Slayer has always been vehement in their opinions when it comes to the subject.

Today, Slayer has pumped the well dry when it comes to any new views on religion. Instead, Christ Illusion makes a hubristic mockery of themselves that exposes the same intolerant attitude that the band has decried in others in the past. Admittedly, much of the devil-horns-in-the-air shtick comes from guitarist Kerry King, whose lyrics on songs like “Cult” and “Supremacist” stem more from anger than from any true objectivity.

King’s hate mongering aside, the rest of Christ Illusion is a welcome return to form for Slayer, whose last few albums were less than palatable. Drummer Dave Lombardo’s return to the band was long overdue and his presence reinstates Slayer’s musical chemistry.

— DJ Hippie

Petty’s Highway companion is a brilliant display

Tom Petty

Highway Companion

American Recordings

4 out of 5

I’ve seen Tom Petty live four times in the last year and not once was I wowed, but his newest CD Highway Companion is everything his live shows aren’t, and it’s spectacular.

Petty’s live shows are a carefully crafted display of old hits that don’t seem to have any punch behind them, but nearly every song on Highway Companion showcases Petty’s craftsmanship as a songwriter.

With just a few guests joining him on select tracks, the CD is truly a solo project (Petty’s third solo album of his 30 year career, and 18th overall). The simplistic approach works brilliantly here and proves that while some of his classics may not hold up live, his songwriting overall is a treasure.

— Brian F. Johnson

S.D.’s Carnivore makes rock relevant again

Simon Dawes

Carnivore

Record Collection Music

4.5 out of 5

Hands down, without a doubt: you will know Simon Dawes. The Malibu-based quartet is a unique combination of scholars and diggers whose uncompromising self-analysis lays the foundation for carefully detailed songs that reveal something new with each listen. Their newest release, Carnivore, showcases songs devoid of ego revealing character in its most raw and real form. You almost want to label them wise beyond their years, yet their sound brings something vulnerable that floats between the elementary and the refined. They have taken rock and made it alive and relevant in ways it hasn’t been in years.

— Page Bayless

Monsieur Leroc gets Slutty on new CD

Monsieur Leroc

I’m Not Young, but I Need the Money

Cornerstone RAS

4 out of 5

If you are starting to think that you’ve heard it all, take a cold shower. Monsieur Leroc’s I’m Not Young, but I Need the Money is the latest installment in neo-soul. His “electro-hop” sounds as if he has physically fused record and CD shards together to create a discombobulated jumble of deconstructed and reassembled sounds, both natural and synthetic. Each track is a seemingly nonsensical sampling of an Urban Outfitters mix tape. The combination of trance, swing, jazz, rap, blues and funk seems to carelessly fall into place while an all-encompassing calm governs these chopped transitions to create a smooth, rational sound amidst genre chaos. You quickly get the idea that he wants you to get something… or get some. His fascinating grooves are downright slutty.

— Page Bayless

Fischel’s late-summer release perfect for fall

Bargain Music

American Born

Cornerstone RAS

4 out of 5

The last time you may have heard Bargain Music’s Josh Fischel is on the Sublime cover album Look at All The Love We Found, for his cover of “Get Out.” This year Fischel is fresh off his first solo acoustic tour with his album American Born. In addition to the seven original tracks written by Fischel himself, the album also features covers of Tears for Fears, The Who and Lyle Lovett. Each track illuminates a different element of Fischel’s Long Beach, Calif. roots, from wandering ballads, to jumpy ska guitars to mellowed-out-surfer-boy acoustics. The album is a perfect way to ease out of starry-summer-eyes and into the fall.

— Alex Samuel

8Trac’s first full-length is a solid start

8TraC

Falling Up

Independent

3 out of 5

The funked-out trio 8TraC has finally released their first full-length album, Falling Up. The twelve-track album’s explosive vocals are reminiscent of Deep Banana Blackout’s Jen Durkin while the funky beats and out-there atmospherics echo George Clinton or even Jamiroqui. The album’s eigth track, “Fountain of Words,” features rapper Akilimanjaro and showcases 8TraC’s desire to “bring the world together one song at a time.” So, while world peace may not occur because of this album, it’s certainly good to throw on when you want to chill out.

— Alex Samuel

New Tegan and Sara DVD actually is pretty fun

Tegan and Sara

It’s Not Fun. Don’t do it!

Vapor/Sanctuary Records

3 out of 5

Tegan and Sara’s DVD It’s not fun. Don’t do it! documents the quirky duo’s performance in Toronto.

Aside from live performance of tracks and DVD extras, including a photo album from the road, their humorous banter is an added extra, bringing the fan to the stage on a more personal level.

The DVD is very much within the framework of their So Jealous album, chronicling the duo’s rise since the album was released in 2005. Tegan and Sara continue to entertain audiences with their spunky choruses and pop songs, and the DVD may be fans only hopes of a T&S fix for a while, since their new album will not be out until 2007.

— Page Bayless

Vaux’s climbs iTunes, gets set for Warped with new CD

VAUX

Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice

VX Records/Outlook Music Co.

4 out of 5

VAUX is not for the weak of heart and neither is the sextet’s newest album Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice. After being dropped from Atlantic Records nearly ten years ago, VAUX has released Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice as the follow-up to their 2004 release. The twelve-track album balances feverish energy with catchy riffs and creates haunting tracks worthy of being left on repeat. This self-proclaimed “huge progression” for the band was created at a time when VAUX was truly coming into their own sound. The band, which has been featured as iTunes’ “Free Download Of The Week,” had the perfect opportunity to showcase their new album this summer when they co-headlined this years Van’s Warped Tour with Schoolyard Heroes.

— Alex Samuel

From the Barstool of the Publisher - September, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:51:01 +0000

I generally don’t use this space to do reviews, but a lot of good stuff went down last month that must be re-hashed.

Shortly after wrapping up a tour with his band The Supersuckers, Eddie Spaghetti returned to Denver to play a solo show at Bender’s Tavern with his friends the Railbenders. No offense to Eddie whatsoever, but the Railbenders made this gig. Eddie came out and played a few quiet tunes that felt a bit uninspired, but when he finally invited Denver’s best country band on stage, things got cool, and stayed that way. What an amazingly fun night! Thank you Benders, Eddie and the Railbenders.

Early the next week, Portland-based Richmond Fontaine took on Larimer Lounge. Richmond Fontaine (it’s the band name, not a dude’s name) has some of the most melancholy, mellow and downright sad discographies. But seeing them live is a different story. They still tell the same tales about people who are down on their luck, but live it wasn’t “music to slit your wrists to.” It was passionate, real and the darkness of the stories was illuminated by the vibrancy that the band brought to them. And, to top it off, they’re some really, really good people. If you missed this show this time, do yourself a favor and don’t miss them the next time they come through town — trust me.

Midway through the month was a holy experience for me. It’s no secret around here that two of my all-time favorite bands are The Black Crowes and Drive-By Truckers. Getting to see them play together at Red Rocks was a dream come true. The Truckers stole the night in my opinion, giving one of the most sincerely appreciative sets I’ve ever seen by anyone on that stage. Lead singer Patterson Hood looked like a little kid in a toy store, he was so damn happy.

The Crowes set was good, solid, but the real magic came the following night when brothers Chris and Rich Robinson played an intimate acoustic set as Brothers of a Feather at the Fox Theatre. Going through a wide repertoire, including a Gram Parsons cover, it was a great end to the Crowes tour. Thank you to the Fox for pulling that off, and thank you to John Caprio for having us there.

Finally, Jeff Tweedy at Folks Festival was pure heaven. I’ve said before that Tweedy is ‘a’ Dylan of our time. After this set I know for sure, he is ‘THE’ Dylan of our time. To me, there is no other musician out there right now that comes close to reaching the depths he does with his art. He’s unbelievable.

Thank you to everyone for a great month.

See you at the shows.

The Marquee's Front-Row-Center Awards

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:53:50 +0000

You can hardly go a day in this region without someone commenting about the amazing phenomenon that is the Colorado music scene.

The Front Range is awash with top-notch local acts, and it’s a haven for nationally and internationally touring artists who travel through.

Venues (be they bars, large concert halls or eateries) who host the music are the infrastructure that allows the magic to happen on such a regular basis. Without that network, bands would struggle to find places to play that fit them.

The Marquee’s Front-Row-Center Awards are, in part, designed to praise these pillars of live music. But a lot more goes into a good concert than just the venue.

That’s why The Marquee has also painstakingly selected the best in local bands, to honor what they bring to the table in terms of making the Front Range a music mecca.

Name a genre and we’ll bet that you can find an awesome example of that type of band in the area. From alt-country, funk and R&B, to rock, hip-hop and jam, the musicians who call this Mile High region their home are, simply put, on their game — they have to be.

And, in addition to the venues and the musicians, the Front Range is also host to a broad spectrum of music-related shops. These are the stores that keep the musicians geared up, keep concert-going necessities in the fans’ pockets, and add to the excitement of the scene with well-taught music freaks ready to grab your ear about their favorite band while you shop.

You may not agree with all of our picks, and that’s cool. We probably wouldn’t agree with all of yours. Let the debates begin.

Best Large Outdoor Venue

Red Rocks Amphitheatre < Morrison, Colo.

www.redrocksonline.com

Millions of years of plate techtonics have yet to invent anything quite as perfect as Red Rocks Amphitheatre. With Mother Nature as the architect, the design of the Amphitheatre consists of two, three hundred-foot monoliths (Ship Rock and Creation Rock) that provide acoustic perfection for any performance. In addition to its perfection of natural acoustics and natural beauty, the sheer mass of history that the venue holds is as large as the rocks themselves. This is the last year that The Marquee will grant an award for Best Large Outdoor Venue, because, barring a catacalsimic shift in the earth, nothing is going to come along to rival the majesty of what is most certainly the best venue in the state and, quite possibly, the best venue in the world.

Best Small Outdoor Venue

Planet Bluegrass Ranch < Lyons, Colo.

www.bluegrass.com

Yet another repeat winner this year, but when it comes to outdoor festivals in Colorado, nobody does it better than the folks at Planet Bluegrass. Not only are the grounds of Planet Bluegrass an amazing example of harmony between nature and humans, the staff at the ranch has gone above and beyond just providing a place to hear music. Several years ago the staff launched a program to reduce the waste that their festivals produce, and each year they add another element to improve upon that. In 2004, the festivals became 100 percent wind powered and they have also introduced completely biodegradable plastic cups. The result has been a 50 percent decrease in their landfill waste. Additionally, they have some of the most pristine and well organized facilities, and their ability to book the best musical acts in the country matches up with everything else. Oh, and their volunteers rock!

Best Large Venue

The Paramount Theatre < Denver, Colo.

www.paramountdenver.com

The Paramount Theatre opened in the 1930s as a vaudeville house. The tapestries and chandeliers hint at the singing and dancing of the past while the stage holds contemporary acts of all kind. The acoustics are more than noteworthy, so each of the 2,015 audience members in this self-titled “entertainment-emporium” can hear perfectly. The venue’s upcoming acts range from Burt Bacharach and Judy Collins to the Pet Shop Boys to Evanesence and Zappa plays Zappa. So, whether you want to sink down with a drink in a comfy chair and try and dodge the guy spilling beer in the mosh pit, the art-deco Paramount Theatre can guarantee an evening that will leave you swooning for its modern-meets-mystique ambiance.

Best MEDIUM VENUE

Gothic Theatre < Englewood, Colo.

www.gothictheatre.com

Whoever changed the original façade of the Gothic Theatre in the 1940s from its art deco splendor should be severely castigated, but at least that moron didn’t mess up the inside — for that is where the theatre truly shines. The first rule when going to the Gothic is remember to look up. The art deco design is brought to life in a myriad of ways, and they all work perfectly to transform the otherwise boxy building into a beautiful room both from an aesthetic standpoint and a comfort angle as well. Above the large front bar, the sky-painted ceiling is striking and worth the admission alone. But, one of the true jewels of the theatre is its wonderful sweeping balcony that gives a bird’s eye view of the room. It’s one of the few venues left in the country that has such a functional and gorgeous balcony, and that functionality is so appreciated on crowded nights.

Best Small Venue

Larimer Lounge < Denver, Colo.

www.larimerlounge.com

If you didn’t know any better you’d drive right by this joint and not have a clue as to the coolness of the inside. The Larimer Lounge is, simply put, a dive, but it’s one of those dives with character, spunk, and phenomenal taste in music. The place has, seriously, some of the most disgusting bathrooms since CBGB’s, but even having to hold your breath for your entire trip to the can doesn’t take away from the room itself. If anyone else booked this place it would be a forgotten, lost little hole in the wall, but the magic of the lounge is the acts that it attracts. This year alone, they have showcased acts like Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, The Giraffes and Richmond Fontaine. From loud, screaming metal to shoe-gazer indie rockers, the Lounge is a destination point for bands traveling the country, and while they’re not greeted by roomy stages and decadent dressing rooms, the Lounge is always a shoe-in for a warm crowd. Larimer Lounge also has a team of poster artists that have shunned the cheapo 11 x 17 Kinkos copies for old school artistry and silk screened presentation. Some of the artwork that these folks have produced is legendary. All places that host music, large and small, should aspire to this level of excellence.

Best new Venue

3 Kings Tavern < Denver, Colo.

www.myspace.com/3kingstavern

Along South Broadway, the indie scene has blown up in recent years, so it’s no wonder that there was an inevitable yin to the indie scene’s yang. With an emphasis on rock, punk and country, 3 Kings Tavern opened in January of 2006 and has become a haven for up-and-coming bands, as well as touring bands. Part pub, part pool hall and part music venue, the Tavern has the feel of a cool community center, but one where you don’t play bingo with senior citizens and where you can get a tasty adult beverage while rocking out. It’s a welcome and refreshing scene to see on South Broadway and one that the town is certainly embracing.

Best Venue to discover a new band

The Hi-Dive < Denver, Colo.

www.hi-dive.com

In just a few short years, the little bar that was left empty after Jay Bianchi moved Quixote’s to another part of Denver has blossomed into a hip urban hang-out that continually takes leaps of faith on bands, and quite often hits gold in the process. Booking agent Ben DeSoto either has one of the best ears in Denver, or he has connections with one hell of a psychic. Name a local indie band that has sprung up in the last couple years and chances are their early gigs were performed at the Hi-Dive. Bright Channel? Yep. The Hot Iqs? Yes. DeVotchKa? Indubitably. The club still holds some of the feel from its past life as a jam club, but the acts standing on the small but elevated stage seem to take a another swipe at cleaning out the patchouli smell each night.

Best Eatery venue

Oskar Blues < Lyons, Colo.

www.oskarblues.com

Like an old recording, Oskar Blues’ exterior does not even begin to allude to the vibrance bottled inside. Two years after opening in 1997, Oskar Blues became a brewpub and joined their stereotype-bending cans of Dale’s Pale Ale (now being sold around the country) with fiery Cajun food and live roots music. Upon walking in to the atrium, southern-souled folk art greets you, including one painting that reads “Who died and made you Elvis?” The downstairs music room is dive-y at first glance because of the pool tables and cherry-red cushioned chairs, but the second you step towards the stage you inhale the history that’s taken place here; the music created in this dark corner seems to have painted the walls around it and echoed up the stairs to paint the entryway. While undeniably vibrant, the 100-person venue is nothing if not an intimate community of musicians and music-lovers.

Best Venue vibe

Oriental Theater < Denver, Colo.

www.theorientaltheater.com

The historic Oriental Theater boasts a Cinderella story as it sneaks up on other notable Colorado venues as one of the best this state has to offer. The antique, originally opened in 1927, called it quits after 60 years only to be suddenly revived by its current owners. An intense stint of recent renovations transformed the theater from prehistoric to savvy and sophisticated. By wisely preserving the most critical aspects of the building’s vintage aesthetic, the owners’ enterprise emerges as a hip, guest-friendly and intimate setting truly worthy of the “best venue vibe.” The Oriental takes a fresh approach to the tried and true method of entertaining with its foundation based on compassion toward the surrounding community and Denver culture. Utilizing the all-encompassing diversity of performance, the Oriental Theater has truly resurrected the good ole’ neighborhood hangout. By showcasing musicians, comedians, filmmakers, meetings and parties of all types and genres, the Oriental Theater replenishes a disappearing appreciation for the art of live performance.

Best Intimate venue

Nissi’s < Lafayette, Colo.

www.nissis.com

With acts ranging from classical and jazz to rock and acoustic, it’s no wonder Lafayette’s Nissi’s is this year’s best intimate venue. Serving up bistro-style dishes and irrefutable deserts, the establishment could stand solely as a restaurant, but it’s a good thing for Colorado’s local musicians that Nissi’s has a soft spot for live performances. A friend to the native band, Nissi’s splits the cover charge 80/20 in favor of the artists so that the local flavor is never far. Not only does this venue financially favor the musician, their second floor is home to the in-house award-winning strategic marketing and design firm that provides a boost for musicians who want it.

Best CD/Record shop

Twist and Shout < Denver, Colo.

www.twistandshout.com

Selection is an incredibly important part of any CD shop and for sheer volume alone Twist and Shout rises above all other stores on the Front Range. But to really be good a CD shop it needs a staff that can talk music and the folks at Twist and Shout can do that as well as college professors can talk about their subjects. That being said, Twist and Shout is a damn dangerous place. It’s set up well enough that you could, in theory, run in, find the album you’re looking for and book out of there in seconds, but anyone who has ever spent more than a few minutes in the place knows: a trip to Twist and Shout requires a time commitment. Inevitably, you end up finding what you’re looking for and usually anywhere from five to five hundred other must-haves. In addition to all the music itself, the store also boasts an expansive selection of books, memorabelia and art. All put together, Twist and Shout isn’t a playground for music freaks, it’s Six Flags, Disney World and Coney Island all rolled into one.

Best “Concert Supply” Shop

Rock N’ Robins < Fort Collins, Colo.

www.rocknrobins.com

If you love your tobacco waterpipe, you’ll love Rock N’ Robins. A combination of a music store, clothing store, jewelry shop and tobacco stand, this shop has everything from your collassal lung-killing apparatus to your little pocket pipe that’ll take you through countless Red Rocks sets. While the trend is to go for elaborate, expensive glass — and Robins does have its share — it also has some practical and affordable pieces that’ll still leave you with enough money in your wallet to get the good tobacco. The store also has one of the coolest outdoor murals on the Front Range and a visit should be made to check that out, if nothing else.

Best retail instrument Shop

Guitar Cellar < Boulder, Colo.

www.theguitarcellar.net

Located right between the Xoom Juice and the bike shop on the Hill, Guitar Cellar is an obvious choice for anyone from the CU freshman desperate for lessons and repairs, to the worldly collector searching for the perfect vintage six-string. The Guitar Cellar is a one-stop-string-lover’s-shop for repairs, custom and local builds, and vintage instruments. They not only offer bass, banjo and guitar lessons (and are looking for a mandolin teacher), but have an in-house performance space. The staff is passionate and friendly and will offer up a hand to the most clueless (and the most knowledgeable) of customers.

Best Rock

Rose Hill Drive

www.rosehilldrive.com

Rose Hill Drive began as high school kids at the foot of the Flatirons playing Blood Sugar Sex Magik covers, but go see them now and before Nate Barnes' foot even hits the pedal you'll know that they've become bigger than the Flatirons themselves. Is this incendiary threesome worthy of the FRC for Best Rock two years running? Of course they are; especially since producer Nick DiDia (Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam) and Rose Hill Drive got together to lay down dangerously addictive tracks for the band’s self-titled debut album. The album was released in August at a Marquee Magazine and KBCO Radio sponsored event at The Fox Theatre, near where the boys grew up. The album was not only released in the U.S.A. but in the U.K., Spain and, come September 22, Japan as well.

Best Indie Rock

DeVotchKa

www.devotchka.net

DeVotchKa was named after the slang word for “female” from the movie A Clockwork Orange. The indie group plays wistful gypsy melodies reminiscent of a darker Modest Mouse and echoes of a red-wine-soaked circus of cowboys and crooners. Nick Urata — who’s part-Jim Morrison, part-David Byrne — has a completely romantic voice that weaves in and out of the music. Currently, the band is featured in Little Miss Sunshine, the recent indie-esque movie, and while DeVotchKa is featured on the movie’s soundtrack, the band’s portfolio spans over three albums. Their latest EP, Curse Your Little Heart, is the push behind the latest West Coast tour and promises to uphold the sensuality of Devotchka’s past work.

Best Jazz / R&B

Michael Lloyd Band

www.mlband.com

The only way to describe the Michael Lloyd Band is through its members. Mike Liguori, 29, was born in Anchorage, Ak., grew up in Jersey and was knee deep in the Front Range scene throughout his stint at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Jim Ruberto, from western New York, rocks the hell out of steel guitar on cue and is a pretty killer producer and musician. The drummer, John Nelson, has backed Al Wilson, and bassist Jonathan Barkin has studied with Kai Eckhardt of Garaj Mahal. Face it, they’re cooler than you. Plus, the noteworthy artwork on the website is almost as unique as the deliciously bad-ass jazz-gone-jam that, once it’s stamped its place in your skull, will make you preemptively groove.

Best Hardcore

VAUX

www.wearevaux.com

With rockstar names like Quentin Smith, Ryder Robinson (no, not Chris Robinson’s kid, we still have a few years before that album), Joe McChan and Adam Tymn, one can only assume that the endearingly boisterous VAUX has hardcore talent that tends to go with such names. After getting signed by Atlantic Records in 1994, the band flew to England and spent a month recording with Carrett “Jacknife” Lee (U2, Snow Patrol) and, after a rough year, their album was slated and seemed to be ready for release. But before the release, Atlantic released VAUX from their contract and gave them back the rights. After years of guerilla marketing, or “hustling,” the band calls their current album, Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice, their masterwork.

Best Blues

Eddie “Devil Boy” Turner

www.eddiedevilboy.com

Cuban-born Eddie “Devil Boy” Turner has been playing sultry solos in a number of rock bands since he picked up his candy-apple guitar when he was twelve. In the ’70s, he shook his Chicago roots and joined the league of transplants in Boulder, where he quickly swallowed up the local scene. When his buddy Tommy Bolin formed The James Gang and Deep Purple, Turner jumped at the opportunity to jam as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. Sadly, Bolin died, leaving a stunned Turner to fade out of the scene. Somehow, almost a decade later, “Devil Boy” Turner was resurrected as the third member of the Otis Taylor Band. Today, Turner’s Afro-Cuban rhythms and Chicago blues background come to life in his first solo album, Rise. The disc pumps gospel into an old-school whiskey blues club.

Best Jam band

Polytoxic

www.polytoxic.biz

Anyone who lives in Boulder experiences the cult following of the “jam band.” We’ve all seen them: the hula-hoops, the dreadlocks, the patchwork clothing. Hell, we’ve smelled their patchouli oil. Lucky for Colorado, Polytoxic blows this all too common perception out of the water, keeping with the versatile stew that is the elusive jam, but exchanging the afore-mentioned stereotype for flannel shirts, beards, and one quirky blond drummer. Tori Pater, CR Gruver, and “Chadzilla” Johnson form this trio that provides the ultimate excuse to go out on a work night. Their funky grooves and southern grind is guaranteed original for each show. Rich vocals, powerful drum lines, and buoyant keys exquisitely parade their authentic material that fully samples a variety of toxins that gets a crowd moving.

Best Hip-hop

Deuce Mob

www.deucemob.com

We’ve been hearing about the East Coast, the West Coast, and of course, the ‘Dirty South.’ Rap and hip-hop continues to reward listeners and stun critics with talent that cannot be ignored. It’s about time the Midwest made its way into hip-hop shout-outs, and it will sound something like Deuce Mob. Front man DJ Fame has been working since the ’80s perfecting his craft of mixing and scratching, and with the interjection of AWB (“Average White Boy,” of course), the new and improved Deuce Mob proves to be nothing short of a perfect fit. They are rappers’ rappers putting a clever twist on a Snoop Dogg-like sound with grainy vocals that showcase a distinct Latino culture that has only recently become a major player in the hip-hop scene.

Best Funk

Mojomama

www.mojomama.net

What’s better than a Mama with a little mojo? Nothing except for the Colorado-based band Mojomama. Exploring a combination of funk, soul and rock, Jessica Rowand, Paul Rogalski, Britt Heaps, Mike Fogerty and Doug Carmichael form the quintet that holds itself personally responsible for making people feel good and getting them on their feet. In true funk style, Mojomama explores all parameters of music, sampling everything from ’40s-era blues to R&B, coming together to create sultry, hip-shaking grooves. The group creates the familiar and inviting atmosphere one would expect of old friends who want nothing more than to get funky.

Best Bluegrass

Uncle Earl

www.uncleearl.net

Known as the “g’earls,” the five lovely ladies of Uncle Earl have injected much-needed feminine mystique into traditional bluegrass music. Each equipped with solo endeavors, the members of Uncle Earl create a wholly organic sound complimented by the fiddle, banjo and mandolin. With infectious energy, undeniable charisma, sharp musicianship and a unique repertoire, Uncle Earl has infused bluegrass with a female energy that showcases their talents as one harmonious sound, rather than the traditional lead and back-up vocals. As far as bluegrass goes, these women are defiantly old-fashioned and defiantly contemporary. Their rich, sincere vocals infuse refreshingly unprocessed songs with the end product of perfectly aged folk music.

Best

Singer/Songwriter

Jonathan Byerley

www.jonathanbyerley.com

Jonathan Byerley started recording his debut album in his kitchen on an acoustic guitar. Eventually, he filled it out with horns, drums and organs, and released Hymns and Fragments last April. Byerley’s bearded baby face somehow fits his surprisingly deep voice as it sinks into his folky acoustics. Perhaps his most unique song is “Failed Season,” which somehow combines quiet cowboy horns with bouts of Beatles-esque energy. In fact, had Garden State been released a few years later, this song could have easily fit onto the soundtrack. While Byerley’s last project, Nightmare Fighters, focused primarily on heavier music, it came to an end as Byerley found his footing as a songwriter. “I just wasn’t a rock band kind of guy,” Byerley told The Marquee, “I’m just a singer/songwriter.”

The Marquee's Front-Row-Center Awards

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:53:50 +0000

You can hardly go a day in this region without someone commenting about the amazing phenomenon that is the Colorado music scene.

The Front Range is awash with top-notch local acts, and it’s a haven for nationally and internationally touring artists who travel through.

The Marquee’s Front-Row-Center Awards are, in part, designed to praise these pillars of live music. But a lot more goes into a good concert than just the venue.

That’s why The Marquee has also painstakingly selected the best in local bands, to honor what they bring to the table in terms of making the Front Range a music mecca.

You may not agree with all of our picks, and that’s cool. We probably wouldn’t agree with all of yours. Let the debates begin.

Best Large Outdoor Venue

Red Rocks Amphitheatre < Morrison, Colo.

www.redrocksonline.com

Best Small Outdoor Venue

Planet Bluegrass Ranch < Lyons, Colo.

www.bluegrass.com

Best Large Venue

The Paramount Theatre < Denver, Colo.

www.paramountdenver.com

Best MEDIUM VENUE

Gothic Theatre < Englewood, Colo.

www.gothictheatre.com

Best Small Venue

Larimer Lounge < Denver, Colo.

www.larimerlounge.com

Best new Venue

3 Kings Tavern < Denver, Colo.

www.myspace.com/3kingstavern

Best Venue to discover a new band

The Hi-Dive < Denver, Colo.

www.hi-dive.com

Best Eatery venue

Oskar Blues < Lyons, Colo.

www.oskarblues.com

Best Venue vibe

Oriental Theater < Denver, Colo.

www.theorientaltheater.com

Best Intimate venue

Nissi’s < Lafayette, Colo.

www.nissis.com

Best CD/Record shop

Twist and Shout < Denver, Colo.

www.twistandshout.com

Best “Concert Supply” Shop

Rock N’ Robins < Fort Collins, Colo.

www.rocknrobins.com

Best retail instrument Shop

Guitar Cellar < Boulder, Colo.

www.theguitarcellar.net

Best Rock

Rose Hill Drive

www.rosehilldrive.com

Rose Hill Drive began as high school kids at the foot of the Flatirons playing Blood Sugar Sex Magik covers, but go see them now and before Nate Barnes' foot even hits the pedal you'll know that they've become bigger than the Flatir ons themselves. Is this incendiary threesome worthy of the FRC for Best Rock two years running? Of course they are; especially since producer Nick DiDia (Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam) and Rose Hill Drive got together to lay down dangerously addictive tracks for the band’s self-titled debut album. The album was released in August at a Marquee Magazine and KBCO Radio sponsored event at The Fox Theatre, near where the boys grew up. The album was not only released in the U.S.A. but in the U.K., Spain and, come September 22, Japan as well.

Best Indie Rock

DeVotchKa

www.devotchka.net

Best Jazz / R&B

Michael Lloyd Band

www.mlband.com

Best Hardcore

VAUX

www.wearevaux.com

Best Blues

Eddie “Devil Boy” Turner

www.eddiedevilboy.com

Best Jam band

Polytoxic

www.polytoxic.biz

Best Hip-hop

Deuce Mob

www.deucemob.com

Best Funk

Mojomama

www.mojomama.net

Best Bluegrass

Uncle Earl

www.uncleearl.net

Best

Singer/Songwriter

Jonathan Byerley

www.jonathanbyerley.com

Boulder Acoustic Society revises American Roots Music with odd instrumentation

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:54:17 +0000

:: Boulder Acoustic Society :: Avogadro’s Number :: Sept. 8 ::

:: South Park Music Festival :: Sept. 10 ::

:: Trilogy Lounge :: September 15 ::

:: Estes Park Autumn Gold Festival :: Sept. 24 ::

:: Boulder Farmer’s Market :: Sept. 27 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

Boulder Acoustic Society is revising American roots music, taking contemporary Americana and infusing it with just enough weirdness to turn it on its head.

For the past three years, BAS has been impressing audiences on the Front Range and beyond with their twisted take on traditionalism. The core instruments played are upright bass (Aaron Kiem), guitar (Brad Jones), violin (Kailin Yong), and marimba (Scott Higgins). However, each member is a multi-instrumentalist, and it is not uncommon to hear ukulele, banjo, washboard and mandolin at one of their shows.

The Marquee spoke recently with Aaron Kiem about what informs their music, and just what it is about them that is unlike anybody else. He began by describing the music as “diverse for the string band world,” an accurate if conservative assertion, seeing as the audience is just as likely to hear Frank Zappa as Doc Watson.

“We all are ex-classical, ex-rock, and ex-funk musicians of various sorts, but we all found a voice in traditional American jazz and hot string band music. It’s almost like we didn’t choose it, but it’s how we could effectively communicate with each other,” said Kiem. “It became a language that we were comfortable with.”

“When I played classical music,” he continued, “I felt like I was giving my heart and soul and not getting anything back. But when it comes to string band music, it feels like I get all of that back ten-fold.”

The Boulder Acoustic Society recently debuted its second album, 8th Color, to high critical praise. It was produced by local resophonic slide guitar master Sally Van Meter, who was taken by both the band’s first release, 2004’s So Many Stars in the Sky, as well as their tight live performance. Long-time fan Darol Anger also makes an appearance on the new album.

Boulder Acoustic Society took second place in this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition despite, as Kiem described, “having one hand tied behind our backs.” The contest is strictly for stringed instruments, so the band was forced to neglect their cherished marimba and most of their offbeat repertoire. The fact that they placed second amongst traditionalists while being somewhat out of their element speaks volumes about their musical skills.

“We like people that don’t mind being a little different. We love traditional music and draw liberally from these traditions, but we’re not comfortable when people are so traditional that they don’t hear us.” said Kiem. “One thing that we really appreciate about what we do is that we can draw from dozens of musical traditions, but we don’t feel like we have to do anything in particular, because nobody has ever had these instruments together, ever.”

The ukulele, while not a core instrument, is of particular importance to the band. “It’s a mania-slash-interest,” said Kiem. “We’re really focused and dedicated to that instrument.” So much so that the band published a book of ukulele songs in 2004.

BAS will bring “a night of vintage hot jazz” to the Trilogy Lounge, which will showcase their many jazz stylings. “Since we always do different things we thought it’d be nice to do a show that focused just on one style of music,” said Kiem. The show will also feature some real outside talent, including Greg Schochet (the Hi Beams), Eric Thorin (Open Road) and Greg Harris (Pete Wernick’s Flexigrass).

:: Boulder Acoustic Society ::

:: Avogadro’s Number :: Sept. 8 ::

:: South Park Music Festival :: Sept. 10 ::

:: Trilogy Lounge :: September 15 ::

:: Estes Park Autumn Gold Festival ::

:: Sept. 24 ::

:: Boulder Farmer’s Market :: Sept. 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Pete Wernick’s Live Five

• Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings

• Yonder Mountain String Band

Pearl Street Allstars return for another Funky Good Times Benefit

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:55:03 +0000

:: Pearl Street Allstars :: Funky Good Times Benefit :: Boulder Theater :: September 8 ::

By Matt Marty

As summer draws to an end and the CU kids return to school, the depression sets in of having to wait nine months for next summer’s concert series. But before the summer actually draws to a close, the Mountain Sun’s birthday party (nicknamed the Funky Good Times Benefit Bash) will make an interesting segue from outdoor festival to indoor party with the help of the Pearl Street Allstars.

Who are these Allstars, you might ask? With an ever-evolving line-up year to year, this year’s line-up looks to be one of the most solid gatherings to date.

The two staples of the Funky Good Times event are bass legend George Porter and String Cheese Incident member Kyle Hollingsworth. The Marquee recently caught up with Porter, who is entering his third year as an Allstar. “One day, my phone rang from Colorado and it hasn’t stopped,” said Porter.

Porter’s career began back in the ’60s when he recorded with Allen Toussaint. His greatest legacy might be with his original band, The Legendary Meters. Throughout the last thirty years, Porter has worked with Paul McCartney, Dr. John, David Byrne and Patti Labelle, just to name a few.

It goes without saying that Porter is a world-class musician, but the other reoccurring name in this event is Kyle Hollingsworth, who may not have the reputation of Porter, but is well on his way. Hammering out the keys for The String Cheese Incident, Hollingsworth is known for his work ethic and strong music background, graduating from Towson State University in Baltimore with a degree in jazz piano performance.

First-timers to the event this year include Karl Denson from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Eric Krasno from Soulive and Neil Symonette, who is the drummer for Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon. “The only one I haven’t played with is Neil,” said Porter.

When it comes to a group of musicians who don’t regularly play with each other, it seems like they would be liable to make a lot of mistakes. “That is the fun of it all,” said Porter, “The day before, we play in an empty rehearsal hall for two hours, and then the next, night we play the gig. It leaves a lot of opportunity for mistakes, but that is what makes this event so fun.”

With a powerhouse line-up every year, some great musical memories are made for the fans, but also for the musicians who get to crawl out of their shells and play with new people for a night. “My favorite memories from this event aren’t anything in specific, but just the music we create,” said Porter. For Porter, who enjoys playing in Boulder, this event is a great way for him to play with some new folks and play one of his favorite stomping grounds. “I have never had a show fail in Boulder, so I keep coming back,” said Porter.

Trying not to get lost in the music, it is important to remember what this event actually benefits. All proceeds from the event will go to KGNU 88.5 FM and 1390 AM, Boulder County’s only non-profit community radio station. KGNU has been part of Boulder for 25 years, playing a diverse musical selection and reporting on local, national and international issues. Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery, who is celebrating their thirteenth year in business, is making all the funky good times possible and will, of course, have on hand their Pearl Street Porter.

:: Pearl Street Allstars ::

:: Funky Good Times Benefit ::

:: Boulder Theater ::

:: September 8 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Widespread Panic

• North Mississippi Allstars

• Mofro

Split Lip Rayfield guitarist faces his mortality with one final tour

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:55:21 +0000

:: Split Lip Rayfield :: Fox Theatre :: September 1 ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: September 2 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

How many musicians react to the diagnosis of terminal cancer with a decision to go on tour one last time? That’s just what Split Lip Rayfield vocalist and guitarist Kirk Rundstrom decided to do after going through surgery, chemotherapy and then the news that his illness was not curable. As the band cruised down the road to Manhattan, Kansas for yet another sold-out show on their “final” tour, Rundstrom spoke with The Marquee about his health, his music, and how much he wants to live life.

“I’m doing good, you know. Yeah,” Rundstrom said. He started with a reassurance to someone he doesn’t know and when asked what he would like to talk about, turns the conversation to his excitement over returning to Colorado. “Colorado is one of my favorite states in America. I just absolutely love it. I love the mountains, I love skiing. I love our fans there. I’m really excited about getting to go play there one more time. I have a lot of really close friends in Colorado and I’m excited about seeing them.”

The hard questions came next, which Rundstrom answered as matter-of-factly as when he explained that Manhattan was the home of K-State football. Queried as to why he decided to go on tour, he explained, “The doctors have given me not much time to live and I’m able to do it — if I want to do it. The longer I go without chemotherapy in my body, the better I feel. I love playing music and I wanted to go do it. I’m able to do it. I’m not giving up just because they said I don’t have much time to live. I want to live. I’m doing alternative treatment. I’m eating real healthy, you know. I don’t want to be in that bed. I’ve been in that bed since January and I wanted to be out. So I totally started getting my foot out the front door and walking and building my strength back up and started making my hands form the chords on the guitar and then it all came back slowly but surely.”

Rundstrom has a simple goal for what he expects to get out of the tour. “I just want to try to play as good as I can and do as good a job as I can. I take a lot of pride in my work. I want to do a good job. I want to get out there and live life. I’ve been stuck in a bed sick since January. I don’t want to be there no more,” he said.

In addition to Rundstrom, Split Lip Rayfield includes Eric Mardis on banjo and vocals, as well as Jeff Eaton on bass and vocals. In a move that delighted followers of the band, Wayne Gottstine, an original member and mandolinist, returned for these shows that are selling out at venue after venue. The excitement from their fan base is palpable on the Split Lip myspace site. One message fairly shrieks, “I’m going to experience Split Lip Rayfield LIVE TONIGHT?!?! AND FRIDAY?!?! AND SUNDAY?!?! WITH WAYNE?!?! After 15 Split-lipless months?!?!!”

Formed in 1998 as a means to get free beer, Split Lip’s music is hard to classify, termed alternatively bluegrass or punk or death metal or even cow punk. Their song choices may be bluegrass (Bill Monroe would turn over in his grave if he heard their versions of some of his tunes) or country, but the delivery is fast and furious and sometimes downright insane. Rundstrom explains it as “rock and roll played on bluegrass instruments.”

After his surgery, when the doctors detected further spread of his cancer, even they agreed that further chemotherapy was pointless. Rundstrom explained, “There’s no reason for me to do it. The doctors said it wasn’t going to stop the cancer and if anything at that point you’re killing all the good cells and your body can’t fight it off naturally.”

Only when asked about the future, did Rundstrom falter slightly, searching for the right words. “I have no idea. I’m just trying to get through today. I’m really focused on here, right now. Right now I’m feeling good. I just ate an orange. I’m drinking some water. I’m taking care of myself. I’m gonna go stretch out and do my best for the show tonight. I’m not giving up by any means. I always dreamed about growing old and playing music, and I still haven’t let go of that,” Rundstrom said.

Rundstrom writes a majority of the band’s original music. One of the tunes that he is most proud of is “Outlaw,” about a guy robbing a bank with a .45 revolver. Some of the lines rage, “I think it’s time to go. I’ll kick your ass from here to Mexico.” This could be his mantra now, on his last tour. He’s an outlaw to the end. As the fans say, “Get Hip to the Lip.” This might be the last chance.

A relief fund for Rundstrom has been established at www.splitliprayfield.com.

:: Split Lip Rayfield ::

:: Fox Theatre :: September 1 ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: September 2 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Yonder Mountain String Band

• Shanti Groove

• Head for the Hills

Virginia Coalition keeps rolling with live album and espresso

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:56:22 +0000

:: Virginia Coalition :: Fox Theatre :: September 13 ::

:: Quixote’s True Blue :: September 16 ::

By Alex Samuel

Who can get hundreds of girls (okay, and a few guys) to scream “Yes, we feel like getting it on!” in unison and mean it? Unless you guessed D.C.’s own Virginia Coalition, chances are you’re wrong.

From the second Virginia Coalition (VACO to friends and fans) step on stage until the end of their last sweaty encore, the crowd is standing, grooving and fueling the irresistible VACO energy that is flowing over the country faster than it takes you to pop in their new album, Live at the 9:30 Club.

The members of Virginia Coalition, Andrew Poliakoff, Paul Ottinger, Jarrett Nicolay and John Patrick met at T.C. Williams High School, the extremely diverse Alexandria, Va. school where Disney’s Remember The Titans was filmed. While the boys’ high school music tastes included radio standards, ‘go-go grooves’ (which are indigenous to D.C.) and some good old Virginia gospel helped create a very unique (and talented) group.

The D.C.-born and -based boys became a staple in their hometown scene after years of playing the Georgetown club circuit and the 1998 release of their nearly budget-less debut album, The Colors of the Sound.

Two years after Colors, VACO released Townberg, the band’s best studio album to date, and began to expand their touring schedule to include more shows along the East Coast.

Within three short years between the release of Virginia Coalition’s second and third albums, the band gained enough grassroots support to sell out venues up and down the coast, including the boys’ hometown 9:30 Club, in D.C.

“You go into it with all these competing worries and then you get it right and you’re, like, ‘I can’t believe all these people are here to see us!’” Poliakoff said of playing sold out shows at the 9:30 Club, during a recent interview with The Marquee. “It took me a few times to get into the head-space where I can even remember playing it after.”

When VACO’s third album, Rock and Roll Party, was released on DCN/Koch Records, the band expanded the already sold-out touring schedule to include some dates out west. In fact, the boys played 250 shows from coast to coast in 2003 alone, thus becoming true-blue road warriors and giving themselves over to what Poliakoff calls the gypsy feeling of the road.

Even with total submission to the gypsy feeling, the road can be draining. “I have one word,” Poliakoff added after trying to define the source of Virginia Coalition’s seemingly endless energy. “It’s called espresso. I have my own machine, you better believe it. A couple of shots and you’ll be good.”

Touring has proven to be a huge part of Virginia Coalition’s existence, leaving little time for songwriting and studio sessions, so it’s no wonder their newest album is a two-disc recording of an incendiary live set. The boys, who admittedly aren’t always in control of where a song turns, find the energy of a song on stage and play off that, something that is impossible to do in a studio.

“This live record is it. Now we’ve finally made it and, shit, I’d make another tomorrow,” Poliakoff said. “You play your show and you have a record. Makes sense to me.”

“[We have] a ridiculous existence,” Poliakoff ended. “Absolutely, 100 percent beautifully ridiculous.”

:: Virginia Coalition ::

:: Fox Theatre :: September 13 ::

:: Quixote’s True Blue :: September 16 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Widespread Panic

• North Mississippi Allstars

• Mofro

White Whale comes sailing out of the gate with ‘Roxy Sabbath’ sound

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:57:11 +0000

:: White Whale :: Larimer Lounge :: September 19 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Earlier this summer the Kansas State House of Representatives declared July 26, 2006 to be White Whale Day in the state of Kansas. Had there recently been a discovery of an ancient fossil? Had Moby Dick been hunted down in Kansas? No, the day was established to commemorate the release of Lawrence band White Whale’s debut album on Merge Records. While buzz about bands of an indie nature usually stays at a relatively low level and makes its way only to the ears of those ‘in the know,’ White Whale is apparently a favorite at the Kansas State House.

With lyrical themes that, at times, call to mind The Decemberists, and music that has drawn comparison to The Arcade Fire, it is easy to see why White Whale’s debut album, WWI, has drawn such widespread attention merely months into the band’s existence.

The eleven tracks that make up WWI convey a maturity often lacking in indie-rock. Themes of lost love and the realities of life weave through songs which often take place in nautical settings, leading to the obvious comparisons to The Decemberists. “I think that people are dwelling on it a little too much,” said bass player Rob Pope in a recent interview with The Marquee. “The nautical themes: whatever. It was really much more of a coincidence than you would be led to believe by listening to the record. It all just kind of fell together and took this theme. We were in no way trying to rip off bands like the Decemberists.” In fact, Pope and his bandmates have dubbed their sound “Roxy Sabbath” (equal parts Roxy Music and Black Sabbath).

White Whale’s “Roxy Sabbath” sound is produced by Pope, Matt Suggs of Butterglory, and three members of Thee Higher Burning Fire (John Anderson, Zach Holland and Dustin Kinsey). Pope’s last project, The Get Up Kids, Thee Higher Burning Fire and Butterglory were all successful indie bands in their own right, leading critics to dub the new band a supergroup of sorts.

While ‘supergroup’ may be stretching things a bit, this is a talented group of musicians who have all had the experience of playing in successful bands in the past. “Everyone has toured before in previous bands, so we all know the etiquette of touring,” said Pope, who had recently returned home from White Whale’s first proper run of shows. “I think the highlight of this first tour was that we always found a place to stay. We are getting it together and the audiences seem to be digging it. It will only get better from here, I imagine.”

As they continue to get more comfortable on stage, White Whale will continue debuting songs from WWI. “We just started playing “Fidget and Fudge” on this most recent tour and that was a bit of a challenge, but it is my favorite to play live right now,” said Pope. “I think our live show is a little more bombastic than the record. There is just more energy behind it. In a live setting, where we have control over how loud our amps go, we are going to pour a little more into it. We like to play loud.”

:: White Whale ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: September 19 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Arcade Fire

• Decemberists

• Wolf Parade

Eric Bachman straightens up his crooked fingers for solo album

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:58:10 +0000

:: Eric Bachmann & Richard Buckner :: The Walnut Room :: September 29 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Whether performing as Crooked Fingers or under his own name, one thing is for sure: Eric Bachmann is an outstanding singer/songwriter. His masterful manipulation of language conjures intricate images of hope or heartache as effortlessly as his delicate finger-picking sets the mood. Standing well over six feet tall and built like a lumberjack, Bachmann is an imposing figure on stage. However, his soft-spoken banter and haunting vocals quickly shatter any preconceived notions as his audience hangs on his every word.

Bachmann’s most recent release, To The Races, is a solo acoustic record in the style of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Like The Boss, he has stepped away from his band for this record. “Crooked Fingers has really become a band over the years and it would almost be a lie to say this is a Crooked Fingers album because it is really just me. Releasing it as Eric Bachmann just seemed like the obvious thing to do,” Bachman recently told The Marquee while preparing to head out on the road for a string of shows with Richard Buckner.

To The Races is as close to a truly solo project as many artists ever get. In the summer of 2005 Bachmann holed up in his touring van to live and write the majority of the songs that make up the album. As the songs neared completion he packed up and headed clear across the country to the small Outer Banks town of Buxton, NC. There, Bachmann transformed a small hotel room into a private recording studio and set to work on his first project for Saddle Creek Records, and that is where the he began to run into some trouble. “I don’t mind sleeping in my van and I don’t mind locking myself in a hotel room to get stuff done,” he said. “The issues start when you have a computer that is crashing all the time, microphone cables with shorts in them and preamps that are always peaking out. It’s the technical stuff that’s no fun to deal with when you are 300 miles from a music store.”

Musically, Bachmann relied heavily on his acoustic guitar and vocals to carry the songs on To The Races. Supplemented only by the eerie violin of Denver resident Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa and the angelic vocals of Miranda Brown, it is a stunning collection of songs that is sure to stand the test of time.

With the opening notes of “Man O’ War,” To The Races opens the door to a thought-provoking and, at times, heartbreaking study of solitude, with more than its share of standout tracks. “I like ‘Man O’ War’ and ‘Carrboro Woman’ a lot,” Bachmann said, reflecting on the songs he wrote for the album. “‘Man O’ War’ has a good story behind it for me personally. I wrote it while I was in Spain and had been driving a rental car around for two and a half weeks. At the time, I spoke Spanish poorly and literally didn’t speak to anyone for the entire time and I was feeling pretty weird and isolated. I ended up in Tarifa and this really hot Spanish woman started talking to me and bitching about the United States government having a military base in Rhoda, Spain. I ended up getting drunk that night and around four in the morning I woke up and that song just kinda fell out,” said Bachman.

Bachmann hasn’t always penned melancholy ballads meditating on the darker side of life, and it seems he didn’t discover the emotional gravity of his soulful baritone until several years into his career. In the early part of the ’90s he was the front man and part-time screamer for a group that released a couple of albums that bore a closer resemblance to early Dinosaur Jr. than they did Nebraska-era Springsteen.

Archers of Loaf began life as a punk-influenced indie garage rock band and in 1993 they released Icky Mettle; an album that was quickly noticed by college radio around the country. Their loud edgy songs were perfectly suited for throwing keg parties and pissing off parents. “It was really fun to be in that band and when I hear that music today I am proud of it, but I don’t really respond to that music anymore,” Bachmann said, betraying his maturity. “If I had to go back and sing those songs I’d be lying to people. Maybe I’d be over-thinking things, but that is how I am.”

While he may look back on the music that he is making today in the same way ten years from now, it is clear that these songs emanate from his soul and that his delivery is fueled by the passion of a true artist — the kind of passion that is so deeply rooted it can’t be ignored.

:: Eric Bachmann & Richard Buckner ::

:: The Walnut Room :: September 29 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bruce Springsteen

• Iron & Wine

• Kris Kristofferson

Boulder’s Von Skinny brings rock to Hapi Skratch/Marquee showcase

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:59:14 +0000

:: Von Skinny :: Trilogy :: September 7 ::

::: South Park Music Festival ::

:: Hapi Skratch/Marquee Magazine Colorado Showcase ::

:: September 9::

:: Larimer Lounge ::

:: September 28 ::

:: Buffalo Rose :: October 4 ::

By Marisa Beahm

Amp volume cranked to max: check.

Slight attitude and an aversion to school: check.

Litany of failed band names: check.

Long hair to thrash around during jams: check.

On the rock and roll artist checklist, Von Skinny has hit all the marks. Comprised of three powerful, zealous musicians, this Boulder-based band is paying their dues as they work their way up in the local music scene.

While most musicians have to start from the bottom on the musical ladder, playing the dingiest of venues to small audiences or worse, no audiences, it is all part of the rocky path to stardom. However, Von Skinny, which is Ben Sproul, 17, on guitar and vocals, Andrew Oakley, 16, on drums, and Vince Elwood, 17, on bass, have an added obstacle to most novice musicians: their ages.

“Venues don’t look at you the same way. We have to get work permits for our shows,” said Sproul in an interview with The Marquee. “Promoters try and take advantage of you, and venues can give you a hard time.”

Von Skinny also struggles to get their young fan base into their shows with age limits, find places to practice without disturbing parents and to prove themselves as serious musicians. However, once one witnesses this trio, their bold energy erases any doubt of their musical prowess.

Through an ambitious concert schedule, Von Skinny is seizing every opportunity to display their raw rock ballads, even if it means playing under some outlandish conditions. For instance, at a recent basement venue the band’s set was continuously interrupted by power outages. At another show in Central City, they were forced to play in the street when their venue fell-through and then were yelled at for disturbing opera fans attending a performance down the street. Von Skinny regards it all as a learning experience. “We are grateful for the good shows, but I’d rather play bad shows than no shows at all,” said Sproul.

Their passion for music is evident during their performances, and undoubtedly Von Skinny would rock with the same energy with or without a packed house. Their dominating music and confident stage presence pairs well with the smooth, unwaivering voice of Sproul. With jams not for the weak of eardrum, Von Skinny warns its listeners to bring earplugs. “The volume makes you feel the music more. It’s just part of the music,” said Sproul.

Von Skinny began playing together a year-and-a-half ago and have already developed a very close connection. Their band name comes from Sproul’s nickname: Benny Von Skinny, given to him by his brothers, who comprise two-thirds of the band Rose Hill Drive. Sproul is not the only tall, skinny one of the bunch.

“I am 6’4” and Vince is 6’5”. Andrew isn’t as tall, but he’s sitting down, so it doesn’t matter,” Sproul said.

Although they are “influenced by everything,” some of their prominent muses include Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Led Zeppelin. Like any true rock and roll artist, their music explores the open road and of course, the occasional love song, since girls “cause some serious emotions,” according to Sproul. But don’t expect to hear any songs laced with tenderness; they like to keep their songs as heavy as possible.

:: Von Skinny ::

:: Trilogy :: September 7 ::

::: South Park Music Festival ::

:: Hapi Skratch/Marquee Magazine Colorado Showcase ::

:: September 9::

:: Larimer Lounge ::

:: September 28 ::

:: Buffalo Rose :: October 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Rose Hill Drive

• Cream

• North Mississippi Allstars

Hornsby releases a boxed set to celebrate twenty years as a recording artist

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:00:33 +0000

:: Bruce Hornsby :: Vilar Center For The Arts :: September 14 ::

:: Chautauqua Auditorium :: September 15 ::

:: Telluride Blues and Brews :: September 16 ::

By Jonathan Keller

Bruce Hornsby is a simple man with a delicate southern drawl, but don’t let that fool you. He is also an intellectual and extremely studious musician. He is a musician’s musician and uniquely original. It would be safe to say Hornsby is an American music original because he embraces all forms of music with no prejudice, and that is what America is supposed to be all about — a melting pot of everything. Hornsby’s musical career has been and still is a melting pot of musical styles and genres. His new boxed set, Intersections 1985-2005, is a testament to that.

With the release of Intersections, Hornsby’s musical legacy is finally compiled in a cohesive four-CD, one-DVD boxed set, which was released by RCA/Legacy in late July. The boxed set was Hornsby’s idea to commemorate his 20 years as a recording artist. Hornsby and friend/drummer John Molo hand-picked the entire track list from a vault of live and studio recordings Hornsby has accumulated over the past two decades. Hornsby felt this project was a way for people to see what he has been up. “Over the past 10 years my music has evolved to a point where most people don’t know about,” said Hornsby in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I thought this was the time for me to release a document that defined what I do — a collection of definitive performances. This boxed set is not a stroll down memory lane, rather an artistic statement in the present.”

A distant relative of baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, Bruce Hornsby was a student of the piano at an early age and made music his chosen profession when he attended three highly regarded schools of music after high school, the University of Richmond, Berklee College of Music, and the University of Miami, from which he graduated in 1977. Upon graduation, Hornsby moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a studio musician and songwriter before eventually moving back to his native southern Virginia. It was there that he found his own voice, which most listeners are familiar with through his group, Bruce Hornsby & the Range.

One of music’s most in-demand side men, Hornsby is a three-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 10 million records since his multi-platinum debut, The Way It Is, in 1986. One of Hornsby’s greatest strengths is that he has always drawn from a wide array of influences — including jazz, pop, classical, bluegrass, rock, and even vaudeville — all the while bringing his patented blend of playful lyrical voicing and formidably refined musical ability into the fold. The man knows how to write a radio hit, but as he has shown, it is not the radio hit that defines you as a musician.

Most widely known for his pop-writing prowess in the 1980s, with a string of Top-5 hits including “The Way It Is,” “Mandolin Rain” and ‘The Valley Road,” Hornsby has never been pegged down to a specific genre. In addition to his early radio hits, he has also been an irregular member of the Grateful Dead and The Other Ones and has had collaborations with a slew of artists ranging from Ricky Skaggs to Roger Waters, all of which are featured on Intersections 1985-2000. Collaborations are something that Hornsby has always been eager to pursue.

“I just love music — the sounds of different styles. I am constantly searching and pursuing new music,” said Hornsby. “I enjoyed listening to bluegrass when I was younger. I did an interview once where they asked me what albums I would take to a deserted island and I said the first one would be Keith Jarrett’s Sun Bear Concerts and the second would be Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken. Well, someone read that interview and when they (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) decided to do Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. II, I jumped on the opportunity.”

What resulted in that collaboration was a re-recording of his track “Valley Road” which won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Recording.

In keeping true to his nomadic spirit, Hornsby has two new albums awaiting release, a bluegrass album with Ricky Skaggs and a jazz album with Jack DeJohnette and Christian McBride. Both are slated for release in 2007.

With much respect from a variety of musical communities, multi-platinum album success and constant requests for side work, Hornsby summed up his career as only he could: “I just want to be remembered as someone who created his own area in music as a songwriter and a piano player. Plus, I get to be a kid for a living. What could be better than that?”

:: Bruce Hornsby ::

:: Vilar Center For The Arts :: September 14 ::

:: Chautauqua Auditorium :: September 15 ::

:: Telluride Blues and Brews :: September 16 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Elton John

• Sting

• Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

CD Reviews - October - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:49:54 +0000

Dylan’s first album in five years may be one of the best of his career

Bob Dylan

Modern Times

Columbia Records

4.5 out of 5

Bob Dylan’s prophet-like reputation is largely due to the misconceived notions that many have been made about him throughout his career. Of course, Dylan himself has helped fuel the fire by seldom doing interviews and when he does he often weaves a very vague web of answers. Now, after his last two albums, Time out of Mind and Love & Theft, made substantial waves with critics and fans, Dylan has returned with his first album in five years.

The latest album Modern Times received a fair amount of speculation long before anybody had really heard it.

Some of the more popular rumors about the record included that many of the lyrics are lifted from poet Henry Timrod, and that Modern Times is the last chapter in a trilogy started with Time out of Mind. While it may be true that Timrod’s work has influenced Dylan, there is no instance of plagiarism on Modern Times. As for a trilogy, Dylan stated in a brief but recent interview with Rolling Stone that he never intended the records as a trilogy and if he had, he would have considered Love and Theft as the starting point.

Modern Times is a fairly sparse record both lyrically and musically. While Love and Theft featured deep lyrical meditations like “Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum,” Modern Times features simple, laid back songs like “When The Deal Goes Down.”

Overall, Modern Times is reminiscent of the loose vibes of Under the Red Sky, Down in the Groove and even, at times, Highway 61 Revisited.

Dylan has always played down his role as some sort of voice for the ’60s generation. A recent book of his past interviews published by Wenner Books clearly shows that Dylan has always considered himself a musician and an individual instead of part of some greater cause.

With Modern Times, Dylan manages to focus on that and as a result he has made one of the best records of his career.

— DJ Hippie

Ween’s Shinola Vol. 1 a perfect fit for those already initiated

Ween

Shinola, Vol. 1

MVD Audio

3.5 out of 5

If you don’t love Ween, you probably won’t dig Shinola, Vol. 1 too much, but if you’re already hooked on Gene and Dean Ween, Shinola is going to be the equivalent to finding the perfect outfit in the back of your neighborhood thrift store.

Originally released by Ween’s own Chocodog label, Shinola Vol. 1 is the first in a series of rarities collections by the ever-wacky Pennsylvania-based duo. Here Dean and Gene Ween’s giddy, genre-hopping sound careens from distorted lo-fi ditties (the bizarre “Tastes Good on th’ Bun”) to surprisingly straightforward pop/rock tunes (the blatantly Elvis Costello-like “Gabrielle,” and the amazingly beautiful “Did You See Me?”).

While this isn’t the best starting point for newcomers to the band’s absurd world (that would be The Mollusk or Chocolate and Cheese), Shinola Vol. 1 is sure to entertain the Ween faithful.

“Shinola is a collection of odds, ends and leftovers from around our studio and contains killer new mixes of a lot of songs that have been floating around the web in really crappy fidelity for a long time,” said Dean Ween in a press release. “There will be more of these to come in the future. It’s an ugly one. You really wanna pick this up. I’m not shitting you. This record has been a long time in coming.”

— Brian F. Johnson

Annie Stela is stellar on debut EP

Annie Stela

There is a Story Here

Capitol Records

3 out of 5

Annie Stela is set to release her Capitol Records debut Fool in January of 2007, but in time for a tour she has put out There’s a Story Here, a collection of four songs, three from her impending full-length. If you’re a fan of Sarah McLachlan, you’ll gravitate to this songstress, whose soaring melodies are as crisp as the Midwestern snow where she grew up.

— Brian F. Johnson

:: Annie Stela :: supporting Joseph Arthur :: Bluebird Theatre :: October 8 ::

GogoLab’s stakeout is high crime

GogoLab

The Stakeout

Dance Research Records

3 out of 5

GogoLab is a shoe-in for one of the most fun and original acts to come out of Colorado in recent years. The instrumental power trio, which just released its debut full-length The Stakeout, claims that it’s on a mission to re-examine the sound of ’60s and ’70s film and television through the lens of contemporary dance music — a world of double agents, renegade cops, car chases, cat suits and hip-shaking girls. The Stakeout is fun, funny, and one hell of a great groove that sounds like Medeski, Martin and Wood meets James Bond in a dark alley. — Brian F. Johnson

Don’t Die Cindy is radio worthy

Don’t Die Cindy

Most Imperfect Skies

Cake Records

4 out of 5

Don’t Die Cindy has the potential to drip all over the MTV “Afterhours” playlist. They might be Jimmy Eat World on vacation, they might be Fallout Boy’s cooler older brother, but whatever they are it’s complex, desperate and radio-worthy. Don’t Die Cindy’s album Most Perfect Skies is opened with the pop-punk “Wrong Side of Town,” while “Unclothed & Honest” is the six minutes that proves the band worthy of the occasional Radiohead fan.

Patrick Hosey (vocals, guitar and keyboard) explained it best: “This record is about trying to find your way to the truth. It’s about lying in bed at night wondering if God is real or not; wondering how you find love; wondering what you’re even here on Earth for.”

While the album has been done a thousand times before under the alias of endless one-hit-wonders, Don’t Die Cindy does it damn well and may even have some staying power.

— Alex Samuel

Favourite Sons confronts the ‘big stuff’

Favourite Sons

Down Beside Your Beauty

Vice Records

4 out of 5

“This band exists to talk about the things you go through when you confront the big stuff: love, regret, fear,” said Ken Griffin, the singer and principle songwriter of Favourite Sons. Griffin was the creative force behind the hugely influential but often overlooked ’90s art rock band Rollerskate Skinny. After R.S. fell apart, Griffin entered a dark world of drink and drugs and was away from music for nearly a decade, until a fan found him bartending and continued to pester him about his music. That started the ball rolling on what eventually became Favourite Sons. Grounded by Griffin’s confessional lyrics and the band’s thundering guitars and rhythm section, Down Beside Your Beauty has nothing to hide and a world of courageous conceits to offer. What you hear is what you get and what you get is nothing short of rock music stripped down to its most visceral elements — delivered with power, conviction and complete honesty.

— Brian F. Johnson

Adelman’s Henry’s Diner is majestic

Todd Adelman

Henry’s Diner

Independent

4.5 out of 5

Todd Adelman’s Henry’s Diner is, simply put, brilliant. The Nederland, Colo.-based songwriter conjures up moments of Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and seems to be the twin brother of the Portland-based band Richmond Fontaine with this release. Henry’s Diner is a collection of melancholy, semi-twangy story-telling that not only embraces but actually defines roots folk Americana in all of its glorious simplicity and simultaneous lyrical complexity. Adelman has hit the nail on the head here.

— Brian F. Johnson

Industry Profile: Don Strasburg stirs up the Denver pot by leaving Live Nation for AEG Live

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:50:33 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

On a hot August afternoon Don Strasburg, one of the most powerful men in Colorado’s live music scene, sat at a sandwich shop on the Hill in Boulder, juggling his cell phone, Blackberry and a colossal sandwich. Every few seconds he’d drop one to pick up another, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time until he accidentally took a bite out of his Blackberry.

After each check of his phone he’d call out a new number: “Five minutes now,” he would spat.

What I thought was a series of negotiations for a high-profile gig that Strasburg was booking for his then-job as vice president of Live Nation’s Rocky Mountain Region was in fact a coup in the midst. Strasburg wasn’t setting up a conference call for a Red Rocks or Pepsi Center gig, he was getting his ducks in line to shake up the live Denver music scene in one of the biggest moves in recent years — a move so big, in fact, that while the initial splash may be old news today, the ripple effects continue to deluge the industry with what seems like daily tsunamis.

Days after my meeting with Strasburg, it was announced that he, along with fellow Live Nation talent buyer Brent Fedrizzi, would be leaving the top-seeded Live Nation to take posts with the country’s second largest promoter, AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) Live. (Fedrizzi is currently under a non-compete from Live Nation, and will not take his post at AEG for several months.)

The announcement sparked rampant industry speculations that Chuck Morris, a man who has served as a mentor to Strasburg, would also leave Live Nation. Those speculations were confirmed in late September when the Denver Post announced that Morris would resign his position with Live Nation on Dec. 31 when his contract expires, in order to move over to AEG as president and CEO.

Conjecture continues that other people who have worked with Morris, Strasburg and Fedrizzi over the years will also be jumping ship to AEG, as the company positions itself for a full-on assault of the Denver market.

Throughout that initial meeting with Strasburg, and in the conversations that followed, the picture of who Strasburg is, came fully into focus. Don Strasburg is a tenacious pitbull — one who will bite the hand that feeds him, if he deems it necessary. He’s a man who pulls no punches and seldomly, if ever, apologizes for it. But it was also made abundantly clear that what he does, and how he acts is based on his love for live music and the magical moments that it can create. He IS a pitbull, but he’s a pitbull with a weird and twisted heart, capable of great compassion.

The following are excerpts from that initial interview and follow-up phone conversations:

Marquee: What was the first concert you saw?

Strasburg: Neil Young, Nassau Coliseum, Trans Tour, 1983.

Marquee: First album you ever purchased?

Strasburg: The first album I ever really remember owning was Fats Domino I’m Walking at six years old. But I remember being about 13 or 14 and joining the Columbia House Music Club and getting 12 records for the penny, but I don’t remember any of the titles I got.

Marquee: What’s on your playlist today?

Strasburg: Grateful Dead, Sept. 2, 1983, Boise, Idaho; a couple demos; and the new Jonah Smith record.

Marquee: What was your first industry job?

Strasburg: My first job was a one off, one night roadie gig at Candlestick Park for the Monsters of Rock Tour in 1988 or ’89. But my first real gig was when I was working at Colorado College and the first show I promoted was Phish at the Boulder Theater and Phish at Colorado College for Earth Day 1990. They weren’t even signed to a label yet. It was the second time they came to Colorado and the first time was a disaster in Telluride.

Marquee: What’s your dream show? If you could book anyone anywhere what would it be?

Strasburg: The big, big, big, big, big boys at The Fox. (Strasburg is also owner of the Fox Theatre and oversees operations and booking at the venue.) You know, Pink Floyd, The Stones, The Who. But I think anything beyond that is limiting my dreams.

Marquee: What’s changed the most in your business in recent years?

Strasburg: One of the biggest is that the paradigm has shifted from recorded music to live music. Suddenly guys who do what I do went from being secondary sources of income for artists to primary sources. Suddenly the artist and the promoter and the live relationship is more of their daily bread and their earnings than the record. It’s put a lot more pressure on the artists’ live performance and on the money and all of that kind of stuff.

Marquee: (Note: the next two questions were asked in regards to Strasburg’s post at Live Nation, but he has said in follow-up interviews that his move to AEG will not affect ticket prices in the Denver market.) Is an $8 “convenience fee” on tickets really convenient for anyone?

Strasburg: We fought really hard at our primary venues to always have a no service charge policy at our venues. So, if you want to get off your ass and drive down to the Fillmore on a Saturday and not get the convenience of sitting in your fucking underoos at your computer, drinking a cup of coffee and eating your fucking Honey Combs then you can get tickets at face value. More seriously, though, it’s very difficult to properly and equitably sell tickets to everybody at the same time and have a system that can manage the volume and capacity and expectations that the consumer has. Right now, the only service that exists that can manage the level we need to manage is Ticketmaster, so they have a fee that they charge to provide that to us and we’re at a loss to figure out a better way to do it.

Marquee: But, if a ticket is ultimately going to cost $50, why not make that the bottom line, instead of making it a $35 ticket and adding $15 in fees?

Strasburg: There’s slightly different costs for buying tickets in different forms. If you buy at an outlet, that’s a different price than if you buy it on a credit card or on the phone, if you buy four tickets it’s cheaper than two tickets ... My personal opinion is that we should have all-in pricing.

Marquee: Why do you do what you do?

Strasburg: To me this is a culture of people who love music and love the live music experience and love to dance. And it’s a culture of people that feel that it’s their job to produce these events and make sure they’re done properly. We can make a living doing it, but there is also a sense of personal pride in knowing that we’re responsible for helping our community have that kind of outlet and I feel like it’s a political outlet. I believe that hundreds or thousands of people dancing in a room together is inherently a political statement, even if it’s just one of having fun. It says that we believe in being human people with love and communicating with each other and letting go of the bullshit to just enjoy each other and be together in a larger group. Sometimes people want to go listen to punk rock and vent and God bless that they can vent together and it’s a great outlet to express it. I’ve always felt I was given a God-given responsibility to protect our community’s live environment and as I get older, my role changes and I go from being on the front lines to the back room, but either way my job is to nurture the other people that do what I’ve done and set an example for the community.

Marquee: Can you sum up why you made this move to AEG?

Strasburg: The number one thing was that a very close friend of mine said to me that the only difference between a groove and a grave is the size of the hole. I was in a very comfortable groove at my former employer, but it was not a challenge and you know I needed to do something where I could express myself and have more growth opportunities. Really, it’s a human, personal decision whether I want to work 9,000 hours a week, and have little life, or if I want to focus and enjoy it a little more because I have more time and energy to put into things that I’m passionate about.

From the barstool of the publisher - October, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:51:32 +0000

Can’t we all just leave Willie alone?

For those of you who don’t know, Willie Nelson, along with several other members of his band and crew, got busted on Sept. 18 in Saint Martin Parish, La.

The cop claims that he was making a routine commercial vehicle inspection, but (and I know this is a huge fucking surprise to everyone) when he approached the bus, he smelled “a strong odor of marijuana.” It was later revealed that Nelson and crew allegedly had more than one-and-a-half pounds of weed and just over three ounces of mushrooms.

According to Billboard, the crew and 73-year-old Nelson were let go after being issued misdemeanor citations for holding their stashes, but come on. Is citing Willie Nelson really going to do anything? I say that, at this point, Willie should be able to hook himself up to a Turkish skull bong at in the middle of a D.E.A. convention if he so chooses.

It’s Willie! Even if he were to get so out of his gourd on shrooms and weed (and I can only imagine the quality of dope he must have) it’s not like he’s going to do anything wrong, including skipping out on his taxes. He’s sure as hell not going to be driving his tour bus.

Here’s my solution to the Willie issue, for any of you in law enforcement: Either a) agree to just let him go about his life wihout threat of arrest, or b) give him a flat citation each year. Pick a number and tell him that he can do whatever he wants, but he must pay this one ticket each year, and then let the man be. He’s old. He’s one of the last great American icons and he should able to get away with whatever he wants to these days.

On another note entirely: I’ll tell you, you are a fickle bunch to make happy. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from last month’s Front-Row-Center Awards, some really good and some really bad, and you know what? Good!

If everyone was happy with the awards, it would mean we were just giving them out to friends. It’s our intention to spread the love around. Our awards wouldn’t mean a damn thing if there wasn’t a chance that even our good friends could lose in a category. It’s nothing personal — trust me. We just want to highlight everyone who does good stuff for the scene around here.

See you at the shows.

Austin City Limits festival features 130 bands over three-day weekend

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:52:16 +0000

By Timothy Dwenger

Since I got back from the Austin City Limits Festival, which ran Sept. 15 - Sept. 17 in Austin, Texas, several people have asked me what the “highlight” of the festival was. Let me tell you, I haven’t been asked a harder question since “What’s your favorite band?” The reality is that there were many, many highlights for me among the three days, eight stages and 130 bands, and singling out just one wouldn’t do this festival, or my memories, any justice at all. So I am going to share as many as I can.

For instance, I couldn’t go without mentioning Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse and the rest of Gnarls Barkley, who played the main stage on Friday afternoon. Dressed in lab coats and plaid shirts, they introduced themselves as John Nash and the Beautiful Minds while their 13-person band covered Thomas Dolby’s “Blinded Me With Silence.” After an energetic set that included “Go-Go-Gadget Gospel,” “Smiley Faces” and, of course, “Crazy,” these guys have made me believe soul music can once again make it in the mainstream.

Rather than funked out soul, it was traditional Irish soul featured Friday evening when Van “The Man” Morrison took the stage clad in trademark dark suit and pork-pie hat. Over the course of his 90 minute set, Morrison proved that he is still every bit the musician that he was when he rose to fame in the ’60s. Though he had a full band with him, including a string and horn section, it was the man on Hammond B3 organ who stole the show. It would have been nice if Morrison had scattered the “hits” throughout the set a bit more, but he did run through “Bright Side of the Road” and “Moondance” before wrapping up the evening with “Wild Night,” “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Gloria” to send everyone out into the humid Austin night.

Saturday began for me with Centro-Matic, a Texas band that made it to the “big stage” for the first time. Their fuzzed out bar-room rock, highlighted by Will Johnson’s warbling tenor, was a great way to kick start the day as they rocked through “Mighty Midshipman,” “Flashes and Cables,” “Calling Thermatico” and “Patience for the Ride” during their 60 minutes of “outdoor, mother fucking, big stage, rock music!”

Speaking of big stage rock music, The Secret Machines (see page 5) rocked the Heineken Stage later Saturday afternoon. From the opener “Alone, Jealous and Stoned,” their afternoon set was a who’s who of classic rock influences that ranged from Rush to Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin, while somehow managing to maintain a sound that was uniquely their own. These three extremely talented musicians worked together seamlessly to become one of the tightest bands I heard the whole weekend.

Known for stark arrangements and a very mellow vibe, Iron and Wine surprised me a bit on Saturday night. After opening with “Sodom, South Georgia” a shaggy Sam Beam called on his band to ratchet things up a bit for this “big festival crowd.” Apparently afraid he couldn’t recreate the intimacy he is known for in such a huge setting, Iron and Wine proceeded to rock out. While it was great to hear songs like “Freedom Hangs like Heaven,” “Evening on the Ground,” “Jezebel” and “Naked As We Came,” I have to admit that I prefer the original arrangements to the ones that dominated the ACL set.

Sunday afternoon brought one of the rawest rock and roll performances of the weekend. Sam Roberts Band came on to the Heineken Stage about 15 minutes early (a rarity at ACL) and was covered in sweat midway through their raucous opener, “The Resistance,” from their recent release Chemical City. This band has captured the essence of rock and roll. The band consists of two driving guitars, bass, keys and big huge Bonham-style drums, and Roberts himself plays the part of the charismatic front man as well as anyone today.

The sunset slot on Sunday evening welcomed one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend: The Flaming Lips. As their set began with the sun beating on the stage, Lips front man Wayne Coyne pulled his now famous bubble boy routine, climbing into an enormous plastic bubble which was then rolled off the front of the stage into the crowd. He proceed to walk and crawl on top of thousands of hands while an army of Santa’s took their positions stage left and an army of aliens took position stage right. The highly interactive and slightly insane set saw confetti launched from massive cheerleader style bullhorns, huge exploding balloons, giant inflatable aliens, Santas and spacemen, and, of course, Coyne doused in fake blood. As day yielded to night and the festival was drawing to a close, The Flaming Lips finished their memorable set with their melancholy mega hit “Do You Realize.”

The weekend wrapped up with summer festival stalwarts Tom Petty and Heartbreakers proving to the ACL crowd that they were back with a vengeance. They tore through such hits as “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “I Won't Back Down” and “Free Falling” before a huge storm ripped through the park dumping rain on the 60,000-plus in attendance. The band was forced to take a 30 minute break to allow the lightning to pass, but returned to finish out their set for those that stuck it out. The drenched crowd sang along to “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Refugee” and “American Girl” with such passion that Petty commended us for our efforts before careening through “You Wreck Me” to close out the fifth ACL Festival in true rock and roll fashion.

So there you have it, a quick glimpse into the three days I spent running around a huge park in Texas trying to catch as many bands as possible. Sure it was hotter than hell, the food could have been better, and at $4 bucks a can I spent a hell of a lot of money on beer, but rest assured I would do it again in a heartbeat. All 6o,000 of us were there to soak up live music and The Austin City Limits Festival is clearly one of the very best festivals the music industry has to offer these days, and even if it wasn’t, the fact that it is in Austin would be reason enough to go.

Halloween shows around the Front Range:

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:53:30 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

Halloween and New Year’s Eve are typically two of the best nights of the year for live music, particularly when those holidays fall on a weekend. This year we don’t get that luxury for Halloween, and many venues will be hosting their Halloween parties on Saturday, October 28. But for those who are still looking to venture out on the actual day for some trick-or-treating, there is still a great wealth of venues and bands to chose from.

Here are some examples (in no particular order). Check our full music calendar, which begins on page 32, for a full listing of shows.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band with Gomez — Fillmore Auditorium

Robert Randolph and the Family Band tore it up this summer while on tour with Drive-By Truckers and The Black Crowes. Many even said that Randolph’s sets blew away the headlining Crowes performances. Regardless, Randolph, who is known best for his approach to the pedal steel guitar, which eliminates the normal twang of the instrument in lieu of hard rocking Hendrix-esque jams, will light the Fillmore on fire on Halloween. With both of these bands together, the Fillmore will be one of the hottest tickets this year.

Tea Leaf Green — Fox Theatre

Tea Leaf Green is a San Francisco-based band of youthful gypsies with an abundance of rock and soul.

They have been described as a mix of Bob Dylan, The Faces and early Elton John, taking classic sounds and reminding crowds why they lifted their lighters into the air in the first place.

Their newest album Taught to Be Proud has been called breezy pop, with expansive exploration — a sonic hayride, as one reviewer called it.

Great American Taxi —

Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey

Great American Taxi could well be one of the most unique and fun bands to roll down out of the Boulder foothills in recent years. A star-studded cast of men who mostly found and developed their chops immersed in the jam band world, Taxi’s great mission is to return some twang to Colorado, without becoming a country band. The result are tracks that range from danceable sing-alongs to road-trip anthems that are impossible to pull out of your CD player. With Jefferson Hamer and Vince Herman doing much of the fronting of the band, the party vibe always follows the Taxi — no additional fare required.

Paperclip — First Street Pub

A band that contains a former member of moe. isn’t supposed to be anything but jammy. Once a jammer always a jammer, right?

Not true.

Boulder-based Paperclip features the former drummer of moe., Chris Mazur, on the kit and vocals, but draws no comparison whatsoever to his earlier patchouli-filled world.

Paperclip’s independent debut release Here’s My Card, spans genres from R.E.M.-style pop to late-’70s era post-punk. Here’s My Card is a refreshing change of pace for the Boulder scene, demonstrating that despite hippie roots, even the most devout frisbee tossers can and do change.

The fact that they’re playing at one of the last known bastions of mountain-town fun in the area, the First Street Pub in Nederland, can only mean one hell of a good time.

Awesome Color — Larimer Lounge

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Awesome Color are, live, a heavy, cosmic guitar kill group with a rhythm section like a freight train. They say that their guitar lick-lashing makes people cry “Oh, Hell yes!”

Though they’re still young, critics have raved about their shows and even likened them to the almighty Black Sabbath.

Moneen — Bluebird Theater

Working on their latest album The Red Tree, Moneen had a new awakening. For a band that is accustomed to touring extensively and taking only a month off to write an album before going back on the road, having real time to work on their songs was a concept they weren't used to. The process was both refreshing and painful, but the frustration that came from continually analyzing their work turned into determination to make the best album they could. The payoff is a mature and diverse record where each song is epic, not in length but in scope.

The Motet plays Madonna —

Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom

Founded in 1998 by drummer Dave Watts, The Motet has become the Front Range’s go-to dance party. Mixing jazz, afrobeat, afro-Cuban, funk and latin, the Motet both embraces and eschews the jam world. For several years they have been performing other people works on Halloween and this year is no exception as they take on the repertoire of the queen diva herself, Madonna.

Whitewater Ramble with Shanti Groove —

Aggie Theatre

Formed in 2004, Whitewater Ramble is high-octane jamgrass that crosses and fuses traditional and contemporary genres into a modern-day pickfest that captures the magic where the predecessors left off and takes it to new levels.

North Carolina’s Avett Brothers release new EP , The Gleam, at start of tour

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:54:49 +0000

:: The Avett Brothers :: Belly Up :: October 12 ::

:: Dulcinea’s :: October 13 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: October 14 ::

By Alex Samuel

At first, it’s hard to understand Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers. His voice is slightly muffled and racing with articulate excitement. He sounds distant but feels close. He’s pensive, he’s honest, he pauses between breathes of clarity. Seth Avett epitomizes The Avett Brothers’ distinctly soulful harmony and gypsy picking.

On a Tuesday night in 1998, Scott Avett began getting together with flat-pickers and friends to play acoustic country and drink liquor in Greenville, NC. This gathering became called The Back Porch Project or Nemo Downstairs and seemed like nothing outside of a simple side project.

The rest of the week, Scott and his brother Seth were involved in a five-piece hardcore band named Nemo. In 2001, Nemo “imploded” on itself, said Seth Avett, and the brothers had an American roots music awakening.

“The big rock and roll dream kind of died, in a way. The freedom of just taking your guitar and a banjo and going out and just playing on a sidewalk somewhere or a kitchen or bedroom or somewhere else, was very attractive,” said Seth Avett in a recent interview with The Marquee.

And so formed The Avett Brothers. Scott and Seth Avett, along with Bob Crawford, quickly transformed into a humble threesome who abandoned rock star dreams and set out to do what they love.

The Avett Brothers’ most recent full-length album, Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions, is tangible beauty. Each element of the 17-track album harmonizes elegance and loneliness as its endearingly antithetical sensibility traces real life for just over an hour.

While the opening track, “Talk on Indolence,” is upbeat and (almost) theatrical, the song’s balance between country twang and charming instrumentals prepares the listener for the bruiting cowboy antics of “Matrimony” or the slightly muted love song “Famous Flower of Manhattan,” that echoes with the loneliness of empty highways and heartbreak.

On September 19, the brothers released a six-song EP called The Gleam. Each track seems to spill from the gut of a weathered raconteur and floats beneath intricate picking and breathy honesty.

The wax-pressed sincerity that is available with every album the Avett Brothers sell may lead a listener to believe the band thrives chiefly in the studio. Thankfully, this is far from true.

When the Avett Brothers stand in the front of a venue’s crowd, everything else stops.

“For us, [playing live] becomes a room full of swirly tornado style levels of excitement and that way there’s an audience and then performance. It’s just kind of a celebration. That doesn’t have to mean hollering and screaming,” Avett said. “The live show is that moment. Period. Our time is very limited. When we play live that is the only time it will ever happen. It’s fluid and finite and that’s exciting.”

:: The Avett Brothers ::

:: Belly Up :: October 12 ::

:: Dulcinea’s :: October 13 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: October 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Old Crow Medicine Show

• Richmond Fontaine

• Shanti Groove

Cabaret Diosa wraps it up after 10 years with two back-to-back shows

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:55:59 +0000

:: Cabaret Diosa :: Boulder Theater :: October 26 and 27 ::

By Jonathan Keller

After 10 years of spreading their self-proclaimed “New Mambo Revival” to fans across international borders, Cabaret Diosa is finally calling it quits with two final shows at the Boulder Theatre on October 26 and 27.

The concerts are titled “Willie Juanka and the Cha Cha Factory” and are billed as a two-night festival of decadence and dance. “It is going to be a final celebration,” said percussionist Manuel Rabinizmo in a recent interview with The Marquee. “This is going to be it.”

With its members hailing from Colorado, Chicago and Austin, Cabaret Diosa has been a Boulder-based 10-piece mambo rock ensemble that is as theatrical in its live show as it is diverse, as evident in each member’s stage name. In addition to Rabinizmo, the group features Juan del Queso and Montana del Fuego as lead vocalists and also features Miguel Ramos (viola/keyboards/vocals), Diego Ricardo Ignacio (guitar/vocals), Pablo de Gallo (upright bass/vocals), Juan de la Selva (drums/percussion) and a horn section made up of Don Grandisimo de la Misconception, Arturo Sabado, Dinkis Con Creama.

Cabaret Diosa is not just a mambo-rock band, but rather “messengers of the New Mambo Revival,” which is “a grassroots socio-spiritual political movement that is now engulfing the globe in its all-consuming conflagration.” Clearly, the band has always taken its music seriously but they are never too shy for the extravagance of theatre.

“We have sent our message out long enough,” Rabinizmo said. “In all honesty, it just got to a point where everyone was really into it for about eight years, but constantly being broke and being away from our families has finally taken its toll.”

Originally formed in 1996 by Chris Till and Miguel Ramos, Cabaret Diosa was their unique vision of what an underground mambo band should be. According to guitarist/background vocalist Dario Rosa, after the band was formed, Till left to become a gypsy, leaving the other band members to carry on. Till left the band with a fictional mystique that Cabaret Diosa was a Cuban band from the 1950s that fled Cuba when Fidel Castro took control of the country. After fleeing, they came to the United States, where they found the fountain of youth. Drinking from the fountain has allowed them to create music and live theatre on the stage for the last 50 years. The time has now come for the band to retire their ageless act.

Cabaret Diosa has been in the forefront of the Colorado Front Range music scene for many years now, selling out venues such as the Boulder Theatre and the Aggie Theatre and headlining such festivals as the Denver LoDO Fest. With a firm grasp on the local music scene, Cabaret Diosa has also had a brush with national fame in their 10 years together. They have released three studio albums, VooDOO Pinata, Hi Fi Latin Exotica and their most recent, Apocalypso. They have also released a live album, Live At The Fox¸ which was recorded at one of their favorite venues in Boulder. Cabaret Diosa has also opened for such legendary acts as James Brown, Harry Belafonte, Santana, Maceo Parker and Widespread Panic, and shared the stage with acts such as Ozomatli, Karl Denson and the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

The band has clearly left a mark on the “underground mambo scene” they set out to create and had the success most bands would welcome with open arms. However, Cabaret Diosa now feels it is time to part ways on good terms.

“We are all leaving on good terms,” Rabinizmo said. “It was a pretty mutual thing. We are all moving on to other things and keeping busy.” Indeed they are. Rabinizmo has started his own video company in Boulder and is going to be working with Rose Hill Drive on a music video. Arturo Sabado (saxophone/flute/vocals) is living and playing music in Austin and Juan del Queso (vocals/percussion/clarinet) has been improv-acting in Chicago. All members will be back for the Boulder Theatre shows, including original member and guitarist Dario Rosa, who is finally leaving the Federal Witness Protection Program to play these shows. Due to the sensitivity of the case and his respect for Rosa, Rabinizmo refused to comment about the reason Rosa was placed in the program.

“He has been living in Utah, pretending to be a Mormon and he is a pretty debaucherous guy,” Rabinizmo said. “Luckily, the people he was hiding from are now either in jail or killed.”

With Rosa back in tow for the “Willie Juanka and the Cha Cha Factory” shows, the theatrical element should be fully expected, especially with the shows coinciding with Halloween weekend. Cabaret Diosa’s Halloween shows have become legendary over the years and Rabinizmo promises these farewell shows will not disappoint. Due to the band’s theatrical stage show, the October 26 show is rated R and the October 27 show is rated NC-17.

“We want people to come prepared for a good time,” Rabinizmo said.

:: Cabaret Diosa ::

:: Boulder Theater ::

:: October 26 and 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Squirrel Nut Zippers

• Buena Vista Social Club

• Tito Puente

Silversun Pickups shine bright after full length gets major college radio play

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:56:34 +0000

:: Silversun Pickups :: with Viva Voce :: Hi-Dive :: October 24 ::

By Tim Dwenger

“We’ve got an in-store at Amoeba Records here in L.A. tonight,” said Brian Aubert, guitarist and front man for Silversun Pickups, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “The gig was planned a couple of months back but we just found out about it. Our label knew, our manager knew and people thought we knew, but we actually found out about it while reading the paper just like you would. We called our manager and said, ‘Hey is this happening?’ Sure enough, it’s happening. We were all just glad we were going to be in town and could make our own gig. It’s really funny how it works sometimes.”

While in-store performances are often known for their stripped-down sound, Aubert said his band had no intention of toning things down or going acoustic for the Amoeba event. “We know a guy at the store and asked him if we should play acoustic or mellow things out for the in-store and he said ‘No, just be yourselves and play loud.’ I’m not sure they know what they’re in for, but we are going to hammer through seven songs back-to-back for the full 30 minutes so no one can tell us we are being too loud. By the time they can tell us we’re too loud we’ll be done and packing things up,” Aubert chuckled.

Over the course of the six years Silversun Pickups have existed, this kind of attitude has solidified their live show into a deafening amalgam of rock, psychedelia and shoe-gaze pop that leaves audiences gasping for breath and screaming for more. The tight, polished sound the band has achieved is a far cry from their humble beginnings in a practice space in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“I had just quit a friend’s band and was just kind of hanging around a practice space in Silver Lake when my friend Nikki decided she wanted to learn how to play bass,” Aubert remembers. “I said come on down. At the same time, my ex-girlfriend Elvira said, ‘I wanna learn how to play drums.’ She came down and learned about three or four beats. A week or so into that, Nikki and Elvira decided to make a tape to send into the CMJ Music Festival in New York. I thought it was ridiculous because we had no idea what we were doing and weren’t actually a band, but I went along with it. We needed a name to put on the tape so we looked out the window at Silver Sun Liquors across the street and said ‘Silversun Pickups? Okay.’ We actually got into CMJ and really couldn’t believe it. We decided to go. Not because we wanted to be a band but because we wanted to go to New York and hang out and see great bands. On that trip we ran into the guy that owns Spaceland here in L.A. and he asked us to play a gig the day we flew home. We took the gig and things just started to happen from there.”

It has been six years since that nameless trio made a tape on a boom box and accidentally started a band. In those six years Aubert (guitar and vocals), Nikki Monninger (bass) and the name (Silversun Pickups) are the only things that have remained constant. For years, The Pickups played with countless line-ups in clubs all over Southern California and slowly but steadily built a loyal local following. Recently, things changed.

In July of this year the first full-length album from Silversun Pickups, Carnavas, was released by Dangerbird Records. College radio around the country picked up the album and put it into regular rotation and it wasn’t long before major stations in Seattle and Los Angeles followed suit. Even MTV got in on the action, featuring the Pickups on the “You Hear It First” segment of MTV News.

“It’s been amazing on tour this summer and really, really bizarre at the same time. There were cities on the tour we had never been to and it was pandemonium in the venue. We’d get up there and people were smashed up against the stage and jumping up and yelling song titles, especially in Minneapolis, Chicago and Indianapolis, of all places,” Aubert said. “People were going insane and we’re just up there like, ‘What’s happening?’ After every show on the tour we’d go backstage and look at each other and just say, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, this is crazy.’ It has really felt good for me, personally, because it took so long for us to put this record out that when people were yelling song titles and singing along I knew it was real and people were buying it, people were listening to it and best of all people were liking it.”

Aubert confesses that with all the recent hype that has surrounded his band he has been getting recognized around L.A. a lot more. “It is a touch surreal when I get recognized in Silver Sun Liquors picking up a six pack. I hear things like, ‘Holy crap I’m watching a Silversun Pickup doing a Silver Sun pick-up,’ and I just have to laugh. I guess it’s good that after all this time people finally know who we are. It looks like we’re doing something right.”

:: Silversun Pickups ::

:: with Viva Voce ::

:: Hi-Dive :: October 24 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Breeders

• The Comas

• Smashing Pumpkins

The Benevento/russo Duo team up with Phish legends and cover their groceries

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:57:00 +0000

:: The Benevento/Russo Duo :: Fox Theatre :: October 13 ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: October 14 ::

By Karen Schneider

Sometimes accidents are the best way to get things started. In this case, it was just the break they never knew they needed.

The Benevento/Russo Duo began in 2002 when Joe Russo was offered a permanent Thursday night gig at The Knitting Factory in New York City. It was a way to pay for groceries, and at $100 a night splitting the proceeds by two sounded like a good idea. Russo teamed up with Marco Benevento, a childhood friend he had been playing music with for 15 years.

“Since our inception, we’d never planned on any of this happening. We never planned on touring or being a band, we’d planned on seeing each other every Thursday for a couple of months,” Joe Russo told The Marquee in a recent interview. “We just kind of let it happen to us and move with it as we can.”

And move with it they did. After self-releasing two albums, the Duo teamed up with Ropeadope Records and released Best Reason To Buy The Sun in 2005. The album spawned rave reviews, and the pair toured relentlessly through everything from sweaty dive bars to Bonnaroo and SXSW. Now, the two are at it again with their newest inception Play, Pause, Stop.

Earlier this year The Duo teamed up with Phish legends Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon to form the brain child GRAB (Gordon, Russo, Anastasio, and Benevento.) The band co-headlined with Phil Lesh and Friends’ summer tour, with The Duo opening each night.

“As a musician, you always want to go out and play with different people and get into different situations …we’ve been playing with Mike for a while and then Trey came in we ended up having this really great opportunity to do something that a lot of people don’t get a chance to do.” Russo said. “We definitely couldn’t pass it up.”

This year’s festival season has taken the band everywhere from Fuji Rock to Lollapalooza. Wrapping up Austin City Limits will mark the beginning of a few short weeks of time off before the band begins the second leg of their fall tour.

Although Russo favors the drums, he has been known to play the guitar and some electronica from time to time. On the new album, Benevento offers the keys, Mellotron, circuit-benders and a Wurlitzer. The pair will also trade instruments, a “collective consciousness” reached after many hours on the road.

“It’s a challenge; I think that’s what makes it so much fun,” Russo said. “Covering so much ground and really trying to get as many voices as possible happening with the four limbs and two voices that we have.”

Russo had to admit that the songwriting process is a lot easier with just one other person. “We pretty much just write a song that we would want to hear performed by anyone and then figure out how it do it,” Russo said. “We can write for a six-piece band and figure out how to do it with the two of us.”

The band is constantly developing. What began as a jam band has grown into more instrumental rock hook songs. “Who’s to say if we’ll ever get into lyrical stuff. We never really think it out too much,” Russo said. “I think it’s set us apart and brought us to where we are now.”

And now that groceries are covered, where does the band plan to go from here? The guys don’t really worry about it. “We never look too far down the road,” Russo said. “We like to see it keep growing.”

:: The Benevento/Russo Duo ::

:: Fox Theatre :: October 13 ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: October 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Particle

• RAQ

• Medeski, Martin & Wood

Ben Kweller releases self-titled album reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s singers

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:58:15 +0000

:: Ben Kweller :: Gothic Theatre :: October 3 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: October 4 ::

By Alex Samuel

It’s hard to imagine Ben Kweller playing anywhere but the New York venues I roamed in high school. I was almost always the least cool person among a sea of anti-folk hipsters and musicians, and undoubtedly the youngest by several years (thanks to an unrealistic fake-ID and a little charm).

Before headlining tours globally, a 19-year-old Kweller moved to New York and frequented the small venues like the Mercury Lounge and the Knitting Factory. He quickly made friends with a herd of unquestionably talented musicians in the pulsating anti-folk scene of the Lower East Side. “There were a lot of bands that were starting out together,” Kweller recently told The Marquee. “It all started happening at the Mercury Lounge.”

Even on the phone, Kweller sounded like he was singing his answers above the movement of a Houston, Texas sound check echoing behind him. The tour, which began in Houston and will end in Brighton, U.K. around Thanksgiving, will feature Kweller’s third album, Ben Kweller (ATO).

“I wasn’t trying to make anything hip or cool,” Kweller said of his upbeat and slightly off kilter album. “It’s a really personal album, the lyrics are personal and direct and I played the instruments, so that all combined is why I called it Ben Kweller.”

The album, produced by Gil Norton (Pixies), is more reminiscent of the male solo rocks singers of the 1970s and ’80s than his past albums, yet still retains the soulful hopefulness that draws attention to his honesty no matter how old the audience is, or what language they speak. Every sigh Kweller sings seems more sincere than the note before.

On the album’s first track, “Run,” Kweller’s desperate sincerity gently echoes with Bruce Springsteen’s desperate “Born To Run,” while the closing track, “This is War,” is a high-energy heart pulsing with intensity and bleeding with revolution song. What Kweller calls the album’s masterpiece, “Thirteen,” perfectly illustrates his dynamic talent. It is a nostalgic soul-quenching ballad that feels appropriate as the tune behind a lost-lover’s montage in a indie flick.

“I guess I’m just getting older and hopefully wiser,” Kweller said. “The older you get the more experiences you go through, the more you live and the more you have to say about it.” While Kweller seems a bit young to make statements about growing “older” and “wiser” at only 25 years old, in reality, he has done more than most people have as they approach their mid-life crises.

At age seven, Kweller learned drums and at nine years old he wrote his first song on the piano. When the songwriter schoolboy received his first guitar (a red Fender Stratocaster) on his eleventh birthday, it was no surprise he’d be in a band a year later. Kweller left high school to pursue rock and roll with Radish, the band he’d first played with at 12 years old, and saw the world inside the studio and out. After four albums and a steady run of touring, Kweller and girlfriend (now wife) Liz moved to Brooklyn and began his solo career.

Today, Kweller has been with his wife for eight years (married for three) and is parenting their 3-year-old son, Dorian. Liz has been with Kweller since the beginning of his solo career. “She’s been with me through it all and she’s seen me grow and it’s definitely become a family business,” Kweller said. “She’s a great idea person. She’s a visual artist, she does a lot of my merch design. It’s like we run a little mom and pop shop with clothes and bubble gum, but with music and merch instead.”

:: Ben Kweller ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: October 3 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: October 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Bens

• Ben Folds

• The Boy Least Likely To

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah remain one of indie rock’s most truly independent bands

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:59:52 +0000

:: Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah :: Gothic Theatre :: October 6 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: October 7 ::

By Don Bartlett

In the brave new world of modern music, days are the new months. New bands burn through their life cycle in a fraction of the time of eras past, creating a strange and chiefly disingenuous climate in which bands can rise to prominence and peak before even releasing an album. Perhaps no band understands this new era more than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, one of the most hyped bands of recent years which is already experiencing a backlash — even without a record label pushing their product.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled, self-released debut dropped in late summer 2005 and spread like wildfire throughout the indie community on the strength of its catchy and refreshingly endearing sound. By the time of New York City’s CMJ Music Marathon in early October, 2005, they had been anointed the second coming of Christ long enough that the trend-monkeys were already scoffing at the notion of seeing such a “mainstream” band. This sort of cred-sniping has been around as long as music itself, but could a band really be born and eaten by their young in just 60 days time?

As it happened, the burgeoning hipster backlash at CMJ didn’t have legs. At show time there were not one, but two enormous lines spewing out of New York’s Mercury Lounge in opposite directions down the block. They didn’t exactly blow the doors off in a live setting that night, but the record remained one of the freshest sounding debuts in years, and fans and critics alike were crowding onto the bandwagon.

Their quirky brand of pop draws endless comparisons to The Talking Heads that are hard to argue with, but the album is much too direct and melodic to take that comparison quite literally. Alec Ounsworth’s vocals display a brash, almost nasal tone that you’d despise if it didn’t sound so goddamn good. It was clear very quickly that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had a winner on their hands, and the music industry knew it. Suddenly a band that was still making trips to the post office to ship their CDs was being courted by the industry’s biggest names.

With a deep confidence in their record and perhaps a touch of innocent naiveté, Ounsworth and his bandmates politely declined the offers and stuck to the DIY path that had gotten them this far. In a move that may well turn out to be the blueprint for future generations, the band signed directly with a major distribution company, functionally breaking the last stranglehold of major labels.

“I don’t think the idea was fully formed at the time,” Ounsworth said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I did have a vague position that I may want to approach things in a particular way, but was idealistic — kind of a fantasy. It was fueled by an idea of maintaining a certain degree of independence. I think that I was lucky enough that one thing led to another.”

“We recorded the album and released the album as something that you can either take it or leave it, and that’s the way it should be. That’s really the bottom line. I mean, what are we talking about when we’re talking music, when we’re talking about an album? We’re talking about what intrigues us on a level that has nothing to do with anything but the album itself. We didn’t give it up to people and what they think. And that’s all there is to it. It was important to do that,” said Ounsworth.

Now, the band has recently wrapped up the recording of their second album, a project that Ounsworth is very tight-lipped about. “You’re going to have to wait and see,” he said. There’s around 11 different songs that we recorded in Casadega, N.Y., and that’s really all I can tell you,” he said.

From the beginning, CYHSY believed in their music and felt that once they signed, that it would no longer be completely theirs.

“There’s a lot to be said for security for certain people. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s much more interesting and exciting to not know what could happen,” said Ounsworth. “I mean sure, yeah, there were some offers that kind of suggested that we needed that. Then you think, ‘Wait, what does that mean, exactly?’ You’re set on that level, but are you really set? As far as I’m concerned success means actually living from moment to moment, working from moment to moment, not looking down the line and saying ‘I’m set for x amount of years’.”

In the end, Ounsworth may end up being indie rock’s own little version of Oprah. Now, I’m none too pleased to be writing about the woman who brought us legions of squealing sycophants intoxicated with pashminas and Dr. Phil, but she taught everyone a thing or two about having the balls to turn down the early payday. Goddamn, I’m even more uncomfortable talking about Oprah’s balls, but I think you get the point. If Ounsworth keeps writing songs like these, he’ll be “set for x amount of years” and then some, and he’ll do it because he had the confidence and determination to create his music the way he wanted it — within his own brave new world.

:: Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: October 6 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: October 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Talking Heads

• Wolf Parade

• Arctic Monkeys

Secret Machines break out of the box for an in-the-round tour

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:00:15 +0000

:: The Secret Machines ::Fox Theatre :: October 14 ::

By Jeffrey V. Smith

The secret is out. The “best band in New York City” is making intelligent, progressive, psychedelic music hip again. Whether it’s a first-rate studio production or an epic live performance, The Secret Machines are crafting music that is as innovative and artful as it is accessible and euphoric. A unique, intentionally communal, in-the-round experience awaits a fortunate few when the act brings its acclaimed live show to the Fox Theater — its only Colorado appearance —October 14.

Steeped in the raw energy of playing live, the band’s music has always taken the path of least resistance, its most natural, organic course. Simply put, “The Secret Machines is what happens when the three of us play music,” guitarist Ben Curtis recently told The Marquee. “It is what it is because of the way we play together. It’s not studio magic.” According to Curtis, his brother Brandon — who plays keys, bass and vocals — and drummer Josh Garza developed the band’s “aesthetic” by “playing together and realizing things that worked” with how they interacted and sounded together. “It wasn’t like, ‘Lets start a band and be loud and be psychedelic,’” he said. “It just turns out that’s what happens when we all play together. We simply listen to each other and just kind of let it go. We turn it on and we start playing.”

Despite its limited personnel, or perhaps because of it, when the band does “turn it on,” something smart, vast and almost rapturous comes about. Layered vocals and melodies; immense, bombastic drums; reverb-drenched, throbbing, swirling guitars and keyboards, all blend to create something almost glorious. To many who are transported to other realms, it’s even more. This is not what one would typically expect from an American rock trio. It’s nothing that surprises Curtis, however, who knows the band is plenty big enough to make the powerful music his band plays. “It is three people right now because it works,” he said, “there doesn’t really seem to be a hole for something else.”

The band further sets itself apart from the rock trio mold by foregoing the temptations of an overbearing lead instrument. “We’re not one of those bands,” Curtis explained. “Josh’s drums are as much in the forefront as the vocals, and the keys, guitar and bass all kind of create this sort of cloud of music. It’s interesting because no one is trying to step out and shred your face off or anything. It’s a cool dynamic.” That dynamic is part of what has attracted fans such as David Bowie, who has been praising the act since 2004, and Spiritualized's reclusive Jason Pierce and My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields to its live shows. It’s also allowed them to step into opportunities such as recording the Beatles’ “I am the Walrus” with U2’s Bono on lead vocals for an upcoming film release.

Even though the band’s notoriety comes from its mesmerizing live experiences, the band has been able to self-produce two well-received albums for Reprise/Warner Brothers: Now Here is Nowhere in 2004 and their most recent, Ten Silver Drops in 2006. Both works revolve around their own central theme, mood and atmosphere while, much like their live show, songs are threaded together with beginnings and endings blurred. Without a doubt, the band puts much more intention into their recorded work than most of today’s popular recording artists, especially ones that can also play a fantastic show. “Whether or not we’ve always accomplished what we wanted to do [in the studio] is questionable, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s all been up to us. The challenge is always ours,” Curtis said. “We’re really lucky our label has been so cool about that. They signed us because they are fans of what we do, so they’ve let us do it. We’ve been able to make records the way we want and have them sound the way we want them to sound. People have responded really well so far.”

Having been given the chance to make music with a record company’s support, for a passionate fan base, the band members feel they can do nothing less than their best. “It is something we feel like we should do because it’s such an opportunity,” Curtis explained. “We take the time to craft our records into something that flows and tells a complete story.” That concept, however, can be somewhat dangerous when so often songs have to stand alone thanks to Internet downloading and other new technology — something the band enthusiastically supports. The guitarist pointed out the irony in that despite being “one of the great albums of all time,” if The Who’s Tommy is put on shuffle, “it just sounds weird” and “doesn’t really make any sense.” For that reason, the Secret Machines approaches its creations a little differently. “We kept in mind that at some point the songs might have to stand on their own as individuals. You kind of have to walk that line of making an album versus a collection of songs.”

Even now, after being voted the “Best Band in New York City” by The New York Press, gaining the notoriety of music fans, critics and peers to be one of the best live bands anywhere and releasing its second major-label album to critical acclaim, the band feels it’s just now ready to “take things a little further out.” Never letting an opportunity go unexploited, Curtis and the band feel that this tour, by “branching out and doing something different with the presentation,” is the start of a new direction for the band. “We’re really trying different ways to get our music out to people that aren’t exactly the traditional ways,” he explained. “We’ve arrived at this point where we can do a lot of different things creatively, and that’s cool. It’s an opportunity we’re going to totally take advantage of every time. Anything can happen and that’s cool.”

This philosophy of doing things differently and doing things well has always been an aspect of the band’s live gigs, which is why they have such a loyal following. “We do what we can to create a really diverse environment for people coming to shows and make it a little more of an experience rather than like a TV show or something like that,” Curtis said.

This goes a long way toward explaining the whole in-the-round tour idea. “It’s really cool, I think, because people’s pre-conception of what it’s like to see a band is really distorted since you don’t know where to look. You are just kind of standing there with us,” Curtis explained. “We are right in the middle and you hear everything, but it’s less like a TV show and there is not that barricade of security bouncers staring at you in between the band and the audience. It’s really weird.” At the time of this interview, the band had only played on their round stage twice. “We did it once, and then we did it again and we were like, ‘We don’t want to play on a stage in front of people anymore’ because it’s totally different, it changes the way we play, it’s really interesting,” said Curtis.

The boundary pushing isn’t just for the band members’ benefit. They’re too loyal to their fans for that. “We do this because of how we want the audience to experience what we do. We wanted to do something different. It’s an opportunity, if you can go out and play music for someone and have the means to do it, why not do something really different,” Curtis said. “It just seems like something really special because it is exactly the way we play when we rehearse, in the middle facing each other. It’s interesting because we can keep contact with people around us and at the same time we can look at each other and we can really take our arrangements a little further out because we can keep eye contact and make decisions more quickly. That way it’s even less like a recitation of our material and more like a new performance. I think it’s better for the crowd and it’s better for us, too.

Ultimately, Curtis still plays and experiences music because he loves it. It’s something that is oddly missing in today’s highly financed reality of cookie-cutter, disposable, commercial-radio and MTV musicians. For Curtis, it’s not so much about the cash, although moving the band out of its one-room apartment with no hot water did have its blessings. It’s mostly about powerful, cosmic musical moments. “I know what we’ve done is good in the studio when we listen back and I can’t remember doing it. It’s weird, but it really does happen a lot,” he said. “Sometimes you slave over all the little decisions you can make musically, and those parts never really work out quite right. Every now and then, however, you kind of tune into something that happens. It’s really good and it really turns you on. Those are really great musical moments. We always wonder where they come from and how they happen. It’s really mysterious.” He added that they also happen in the live setting. “They happen live, the only difference is live you can’t hear them again, they are really temporal. That’s cool! That’s why we play music; we get kind of addicted to it.”

Don’t we all.

:: The Secret Machines ::

::Fox Theatre :: October 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Pink Floyd

• Flaming Lips

• U2

CD Reviews - November - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:49:26 +0000

My Morning Jacket’s Okonokos showcases America’s best live act

My Morning Jacket

Okonokos

ATO/RCA Records

4.5 out of 5

The phrase “best live band” is tossed around with reckless abandon these days, to the point where bands who should never be called the best at anything, except maybe sucking, end up getting kudos.

But anyone who doubts that the title should be given to My Morning Jacket need only listen to a few minutes of the band’s new double live CD and the accompanying DVD Okonokos.

The show was recorded at the legendary Fillmore West in San Francisco, but the band doesn’t seem to care about that. In fact, it takes some sleuth work to find out anything about the actual date of the show (I won’t ruin the surprise. I’ll let you search for it on your own). “We didn’t want to do My Morning Jacket: Live at The Fillmore, or Live at Shepherd’s Bush. We wanted to make it mysterious; it’s not about a time or a place. It’s about us playing music, somewhere,” said the band’s captain, Jim James, who writes all of the Jacket’s songs and is also the creator of the concept that goes along with the DVD.

The requests for a live release from My Morning Jacket have been plentiful since the band first started to pick up steam, but James said that it took some time for them to feel comfortable about putting out such a personal portrait of themselves. “People have always been asking us for a live record and we’ve always wanted to put one out, but we never really felt the time was right,” James said. “We thought about putting one out a while back but then Johnny and Danny (Quaid and Cash, guitarist and pianist as well as founding members) quit the band. Carl (Broemel) and Bo (Koster) joined, and we wanted to wait a while, until they felt they’d settled in. A couple of years later, we’re really feeling good and we’re in a positive place, and we sound better than ever. We decided to go for it.”

That may seem semi-cocky to say, but the band does in fact sound better than ever and Okonokos is the perfect example. The show goes through material from all of the Jacket’s releases and while the performance may not be as letter-perfect as the studio versions, it’s still better than most bands could hope for on their best nights.

James’ vocals are brilliant. Broemel’s guitar work is truly opulent and arresting, and drummer Patrick Hallahan comes across as one of the best rock and roll drummers since John Bonham (his opening ride on the high-hat on the anthematic song “One Big Holiday” is worth the CD and DVD alone).

So, the next time someone calls a band the “best live band in America” make sure that they’re talking about My Morning Jacket, or else call them out on being a liar.

— By Brian F. Johnson

Shooter Jennings misses the target with new live release

Shooter Jennings

Live at Irving Plaza 4.18.06

Universal Records South

2.5 out of 5

I just don’t get it. Shooter Jennings shows are fantastic, a tremendous blend of paying homage to his legendary country pedigree, and a rock show all his own. But Jennings’ albums have never sat right with me. I find them trite, way over-produced and somewhat uninspired. So, when I learned that the son of the great Waylon Jennings was to release his first live album, I was pumped thinking that I’d finally hit my own personal paydirt. But once again, I was left disappointed. Shooter Jennings Live at Irving Plaza is incredibly well done, don’t get me wrong. Featuring a blend of songs from his debut release Put the O Back in Country and his newest disc, released earlier this year, Electric Rodeo, Live at Irving Plaza shines with tracks like “Gone to Carolina” and “Southern Comfort,” but all-in-all it doesn’t seem to hold any magic. I guess live and in person is still the way to go with Shooter.

— Brian F. Johnson

IV Thieves emerge from Armstrong’s shadow

IV Thieves

If We Can’t Escape My Pretty

New West Records

4 out of 5

It’s so amazing when it all clicks right, and the IV Thieves are clicking perfectly. The band started out as Nic Armstrong and the Thieves, but when they toured, the band found its individuality and discovered that it worked best as a cohesive unit and not as a back-up band to Armstrong. The four members (Armstrong included) have learned to work together and each one of the four separate Thieves share duties of writing and singing on on If We Can’t Escape My Pretty. The band’s sound is autobiographical. The group originally formed in Nottingham, England, a working-class crime-infested area. They have since moved to Austin, Texas. Those two geographical references perfectly surmise the band — British working-class pop, fused with American fuzed out rock. Think Gomez meets Ryan Adams’ Cardinals.

— Brian F. Johnson

Wofford and his Hi-Beams shine brilliantly

Halden Wofford & The Hi Beams

Midnight Rodeo

Independent

3.5 out of 5

A lot of Colorado bands have recently embraced twang. But while those bands have flirted with it, Halden Wofford and the Hi Beams have ravished it, devoured it and knocked it up. Wofford and crew’s blend of hardcore honky-tonk could easily fall flat if it came from the wrong source, but the band’s sophomore release proves that these aren’t some kids having fun with the next catchy sound. It’s as genuine as industrial beer and damn near as tasty. If you’ve gravitated to any alt-country, you owe it to yourself to try these guys on for size, and see if you’re a true honky-tonker.

— Brian F. Johnson

Denmark’s Storgaard is exemplary

Storgaard

Glance Records

4.5 out of 5

It’s absolutely amazing, the different hats some people can wear so well.

Morten Storgaard is a perfect example. His new self-titled EP (a prelude to his full-length due in January) is an exquisite piece of singer/songwriter/folk in the James Blunt-type realm. With odd guitar tunings and delicate lyrics, he conveys his stories in an honest, heartfelt approach. He also accompanies himself on trumpet, which ads a miraculous depth to his songs. But what’s really surprising about this, is that Storgaard’s background is based around the Danish hardcore metal band Barricades. None of that can be heard or witnessed through this new release, though, which is as familiar and comfortable as an old, old friend with great stories. Well done.

— Brian F. Johnson

Lyrics Born live CD shows he’s no fluke

Lyrics Born

Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born Live

Quannum Records

4 out of 5

Lyrics Born is the shit! He’s gone from performing in underground clubs to taking on enormous crowds all over the world, and crossing over into audiences far from the normal hip-hop realm (some of his recent shows include Coachella, Lollapalooza, Vegoose, Bonnaroo, Langerado and Australia’s Good Vibe festival).

His new live CD, recorded in Australia, easily demonstrates why he’s gotten so popular, and why he appeals to so many different facets of people. From his politically infused “Stop Complaining” to his house-party anthems like “Do That There Melody,” the disc is a blast and can’t help but put you in a good mood. Not many hip-hop artists release live albums, and the few who have tried have often fallen short, but Lyrics Born has pulled it off wonderfully.

— Brian F. Johnson

SCI’s Austin City Limits DVD for Collectors

String Cheese Incident

Live from Austin Texas: Austin City Limits

New West Records

3 out of 5

In 2001, The String Cheese Incident was just starting to blow up as Boulder’s jam scene spread across the country. But as String Cheese took flight, T.V. appearances were few and far between, since few could give them the chance to explore their music. Enter Austin City Limits.

On July 24, 2001, String Cheese performed a full set on the show, and the result is this DVD. For rabid fans this is a great look back on the band in its early hey day, but it is five years old now, so if you’re not a fan of the band, this probably won’t be the thing that brings you in. Collectors, however, are going to love being able to add this to their stacks of live recordings.

— Brian F. Johnson

Industry Profile: Legendary promoter Barry Fey reminisces about the bygone era of music

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:50:21 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

There was once an era when big concerts weren’t ruled by big corporations. It was a time when a man in his late twenties could come to town and make a living and a legacy for himself by bringing talent to the area, and in the late 1960s that’s exactly what a young man from New York City named Barry Fey did here in Denver.

Fey is a legend among promoters, a mensch among musicians and a God-like figure to audiences of his shows, who knew that whether it was Mick Jagger or Joe Schmo on stage, he always cared about the fans, more than he did the artists.

Fey got into the music business “completely by accident” when he booked Baby Huey and the Babysitters (an act that he described as “more Stevie Wonder than Stevie Wonder”) to play a gig at the American Legion Hall in Rockford, Ill. on Easter Sunday in 1965. Fey made $92 that night and days later quit his job to start his career as a promoter.

He is credited with booking the first U.S. tour date for a then-relatively unknown British band, Led Zeppelin. While he was still in office, President Clinton honored Fey, saying that he had done so well in entertainment that he could have had a great career as a politician. Fey is responsible for helping to save the Colorado Symphony. He put together an old-timers baseball game in 1983, which was meant to promote the possibility of bringing Major League Baseball to Denver. He’s had a street named after him in Denver and, most notably, he was the man responsible in the 1980s for helping the United States learn about an upcoming Irish band called U2 — a relationship that is still close to this day, so much so that when Fey fell ill he was visited by Bono and company in his hospital room.

He was also known as an extravagant hot head who never backed down from anyone. He was a man that was as loud and tempestuous as his rock shows. It is rumored that he once pulled a gun on Axl Rose, when Rose tried to leave the stage during a Denver Guns ‘N’ Roses show (Fey said he was in fact packing a .357 with him, but that he never actually pulled it). And there is the comedically legendary story about the telephone repair man, who one day was outside Fey’s office when a phone flew out the window and landed at his feet. The repairman returned to Fey’s office daily for the next several weeks, checking to see if the company needed new phones.

These days, Fey, who has retired several times, the last of which was in December, 2003, is calmer, more modest and humbled by the way the people of Denver still treat him. He continually claims that he is “no longer relevant” to the scene, but Fey helped build the Colorado music scene and saying that he isn’t relevant is like saying that Elvis became irrelevant as soon as the Rolling Stones formed.

Marquee: What was the first concert you saw?

Fey: Chad Mitchell Trio at Houston Hall at the University of Pennsylvania.

Marquee: First album you ever purchased?

Fey: Peter, Paul and Mary at Carnegie Hall (and it was an album, not a CD).

Marquee: What are you listening to today?

Fey: Nothing. I can’t listen to music because the state of the music business today has no life, no soul. That’s how passionate I am about it. I don’t even go to concerts unless I am specifically invited. I listen to talk radio now, exclusively.

Marquee: How did you start Feyline Productions?

Fey: I had been booking shows with Ed Weimer, and when it came time to settle on a Paul Revere and the Raiders show, he told me he couldn’t pay me. So I picked up my stuff and left. He told me that if I left I’d be a schlock for the rest of my life, and I said “Ed, wherever I work, whatever I do, if I earn it it’ll be mine and I’ll get it. I walked out of the office, and this is what a lucky mother-fucker I am. I had a copy of Billboard in my hand and the front page story was that the Family Dog in San Francisco was looking for tapes of bands. There was a band that I had been booking at fraternity houses called Eighth Penny Matter. I took a tape to San Francisco and I went into their offices the week before the Monterey Pop Festival. So I go in in my blue blazer and button-down blue shirt and pumpkin and blue tie, grey slacks and penny loafers with no socks (very U. of Penn.) and there are all these guys walking around with bear skin rugs for clothes. I went in to meet Chet Helms and he’s sitting on the floor in the lotus position with a blotter in front of him with a vase and flower. I played him and Bob Cohn the tape, and they liked it and invited me to the Avalon Ballroom that night. I never saw anything like it. It was like being dropped into Wild Kingdom. When I got home I started what developed into a habit. I put on Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco” and I played it over and over. I used to do that years later when a big show would come through, I play their music over and over and get pumped up for it.

So then, I found out that The Bird had gone out of business and I had the opportunity to bring shows there. So I called up San Francisco to talk to Bob (Cohen) and asked him if he would like to bring the Family Dog to Denver. He flew out the next day (as busy as he was) and this was in June, but by September 8, 1967 we opened with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Blue Cheer, and Eighth Penny Matter to pay them back for the memories.

We started doing a lot of shows with Family Dog booking the big acts and me booking the local talent. I went to buy radio time for one of the first shows, the Doors, and I was going to name my company Feline. You know, cat and dog? I wanted that association with Family Dog. But when the radio guy looked at the copy for the ad, he thought we had left off a “Y” and he added it in. It came out as Feyline Presents and I’m so superstitious, I never changed it. The Doors, of course sold out. See what I’m saying, it’s all bullshit. All the planning in the world couldn’t do that.

Marquee: You didn’t drive until 1979, at the age of 41. Tell me about that.

Fey: I had grown up in New York and Chicago so I didn’t need a car, but I was afraid. I didn’t think I could do it. I have the upmost confidence in what I do, but if I don’t think I can do it, I don’t even try. I’m very scared of failure. It’s kind of an asshole way to do things in life.

Marquee: How can you say you’re afraid of failure, when you’re a gambler and your business is a gamble. I mean I read a story about you and U2 walking through Vegas and you telling the guys in the band which tables to play and which ones to stay away from.

Fey: ’Cause I’m good at it and I’m lucky. I mean, how many people spend millions of dollars on horses and never succeed. I bought one horse (Reraise) and it won the Breeder’s Cup. I’ve had some bad luck too, though, but nothing compared to the good. You can’t have 35 incredible years and bitch about the three or four bad ones. Most of my bad luck, though, was brought on by my own carelessness with money. I could show you stacks of stocks that I have that are worthless. Not that they’ve gone down, but are truly worthless.

Marquee: You were in the Marines for two years, what did that do to shape who you are?

Fey: I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you if I hadn’t gone to the Marines. My father died the week before I graduated high school, so I couldn’t afford to go to college and so I joined the Marines. When I got out of there I knew ‘ain’t nothing going to happen to me.’ I had nowhere to go but up.

Marquee: What do you think of all the shake-ups going on right now in the business, locally?

Fey: I don’t get it. Brent (Fedrizzi), (Don) Strasburg, Bill Bass, Jesse Morale, Chuck Morris, they all worked for me. I have a pretty good alumni association. I don’t understand what’s going on with all of the changes, but it’s not up to me to understand. There must be something below the surface, though, because Clear Channel has an exclusive deal with the Pepsi Center, they have another four years on their Paramount deal, they have the Fillmore and if the Justice Department lets them buy House of Blues, they’ll have Fiddler’s Green too. AEG doesn’t have any real estate.

Marquee: You mentioned that in this day and age, you could have never been who you are. What do you mean by that?

Fey: Barry Fey couldn’t be Barry Fey these days. There isn’t a next Barry Fey. That time is done. Even if Clear Channel and AEG disappeared right now, a new promoter would have a hell of a time because the bands are used to the big money now. Ticket prices are absurd. People should stop going. That would help the revolution go the other way. It’s easy for me to say now, but I really don’t think I could charge those prices with a straight face. When we did the Stones in 1973, we charged $6.50 a ticket. With inflation and everything that today is $29.72. The Stones are charging $350. How do you get from $29 to $350? Greed. There is no high road anymore.

Marquee: Do you miss it?

Fey: No. Wait. Miss what it used to be or what’s going on now?

Marquee: Do you miss being in the scene?

Fey: No. I couldn’t stand being in the scene. It’s like if I designed the World Trade Center and someone goes and blows it up. I wouldn’t want to go back and stand there. In other words, they blew up my business. I helped build it, but it’s gone. If it were the way it used to be I’d love it, but it’s not and it’s really sad. That sounds like sour grapes. But it’s not. There’s just no memories anymore.

From the Barstool of the Publisher - November, 2006

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:51:23 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

Did you see that ad on the inside front cover?

If you’re a musician, you might want to go back and take a look at that because, while it may seem like the deadline is eons away, the truth is, it’s really not that far off.

What that deadline is for, is a songwriting contest that could get a musician or a full band into one of the sweetest studios around for enough time to record at least an EP — or one second of one song, if you record stuff the way Brian Wilson does.

This contest, brought to you by The Marquee, Coupe Studios and Mountain Smith, is a pretty damn cool thing.

Our thoughts in putting it together were that there are a ton of really talented people out there who we’re sure don’t have the spare cash that it takes to lay down for studio time.

So, we’re going to pick someone who we think deserves that, based on talent itself.

Quite frankly, we don’t care who you are or who you think you might be. We don’t care what you play, or what you look like. We care about your talent. We want to hear some type of demo of your work — and when we say “we” it’s a pretty cool list of people who will be judging your work.

We, of course, will have folks from The Marquee and from Coupe Studios, but we’re also going to have: Matt Fecher, the executive director of the South Park Music Festival; Ben DeSoto, a talent buyer who works with both the Hi-Dive and the Gothic Theatre; Andy Schneidkraut of Albums on the Hill; and Dawn Greaney of Twist and Shout, just to name a few.

On top of all that, the proceeds from this are going to a great organization, VH1’s Save the Music, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education in America’s public schools. The program helps by restoring music programs in cities across the country, and raising public awareness about the importance of music participation for our nation’s youth.

This is our way of giving back to the music scene that has been so good to us. We can’t wait to hear your tracks.

If you’ve got more questions, e-mail them to contests@marqueemag.com.

And, as always, we’ll see you at the shows.

Polytoxic takes one last lap around the stage with final Last Waltz performance

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:52:45 +0000

:: Polytoxic :: Cervante’s Masterpiece :: November 22 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Thirty years ago this month one of the most storied concerts in popular music history occurred in San Francisco.

The Band performed their final concert (with the original line-up) on Thanksgiving Day, 1976 at the famed Winterland. The evening featured dinner, ballroom dancing and nearly four hours of music from the guests of honor and several of their close friends.

The evening was documented by filmmaking genius Martin Scorsese and was released two years later as the concert film The Last Waltz. Scorsese managed to capture The Band in all their glory and the film has stood up to this day as one of the best concert films ever made.

Nearly a year-and-a-half ago Polytoxic took to the stage at Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey in Denver in an attempt to recreate the fabled evening. The production was such a huge success that they scheduled an encore performance a couple of months later on the night before Thanksgiving at Cervantes. “They packed in about 900 people that night and I think the official capacity there is 750,” said CR Gruver (keyboards) in a recent interview with The Marquee.

That second performance was heralded as 2005’s Best Local Concert of the Year by Westword.

Polytoxic was a part of the Denver music scene for two years until they recently disbanded, performing their final show at the new Soiled Dove Underground this past September. “It was a great show,” said Gruver. “A sold-out crowd in one of the best sounding rooms in town. It was a treat to play there for our last official show.”

Gruver has recently relocated to his fiancés home city of New Orleans and seems very excited about the musical possibilities the city offers. “I came down to New Orleans because it is probably one of the best music towns in the country. I want to try to meet some of the big hitters and just immerse myself in the music scene,” said Gruver. “Last night we went to see The Rebirth Brass Band and I got to hang out with Ivan Neville for a little while. It is an amazing opportunity for me down here.”

While Polytoxic no longer formally exists, Gruver does allow for the possibility that this year’s Thanksgiving performance many not in fact be Polytoxic’s final performance of The Last Waltz. “We have talked about doing it every year because I would love to be able to be in Denver for Thanksgiving and get to see old friends and stuff,” Gruver said. “But for now we are considering it ‘the last waltz’ for Polytoxic.”

In much the same fashion as the original event 30 years ago, Polytoxic has structured the evening to involve nearly 30 musicians in creating their version of the concert. “One of the show stoppers of the evening is Aaron Rose, who sings ‘Dry Your Eyes,’ the Neil Diamond song. We also have Jessica Goodkin, who sings that Van Morrison song ‘Caravan,’ which is phenomenal. Our friend Christy Chambers does Joni Mitchell’s ‘Coyote’ and Cheyenne Kowal from the Reals comes out and does ‘Evangeline.’ No one is better than the person before them and they are just stellar. It makes for a pretty amazing night,” said Gruver.

While Gruver does admit that they don’t play the songs in the same order as either the original concert or the film, they do cover most of the same material.

Polytoxic may not have the budget that Scorsese and The Band did, but Gruver promises they are going to dress the place up a bit. “Last year we had these huge velvet curtains that hung behind the stage and that gave it a little bit of a classy feel. We also had candelabras up on stage with real candles and real flame and everything. We try to be as authentic to the original event as we can afford to be,” he laughed.

The Last Waltz is a milestone in American musical history. The Band went out on top and they threw themselves one hell of a party. Scorsese did it justice, but there can be no substitute for seeing a concert in person. So, unless you can figure out a way to travel back in time to 1976, this re-creation of the evening will have to do.

:: Polytoxic ::

:: Cervante’s Masterpiece ::

:: November 22 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Band

• Little Feat

• CSN&Y

The Life There is embraces band members differences to create a fresh, unique sound

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:53:59 +0000

:: The Life There Is :: Hi-Dive :: November 3 ::

:: The Walnut Room :: November 14 ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: November 18 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 29 ::

By Marisa Beahm

Most bands consider bringing together like-minded musicians the best way to make music.

But the members of The Life There Is don’t buy into that. Instead of a group with identical musical palates, the innovative Boulder-based band is comprised of musicians with dissimilar tastes and backgrounds, which is their recipe for a fresh musical style.

The Life There Is generates a unique sound with an electronica foundation intermingled with subtle touches of pedal steel guitar and dark, emotive lyrics.

“We are trying to make something that’s not three years out of date. It comes down to everyone is different and has a different style,” said bassist and beat sampler Jim Cleveland in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We are not better than anybody by any means, but we aren’t following a formula. There are a lot of bands that are good in Denver. There are a lot of good artists, but there are some who are falling into patterns,” he said.

At first glance, it would seem difficult to blend band members’ individual influences and backgrounds into fluid songs. Vocalist and guitar player Eric Larson, from Atlanta, enjoys Jeff Buckley, Elliot Smith and Thom Yorke. Austin Keeble, the drummer, who is also from Atlanta, likes Mastodon, Gene Kruper and Ludacris. As if that were not enough of a musical mix, pedal steel guitar player Travis Rosenburg, of Nashville, draws influence from The Flaming Lips and classic country like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. And lastly, Cleveland, of Chicago, who juggles an MPC-2000 synthesizer, three keyboards and a bass on stage, enjoys Mike Patton and DJ Shadow.

But instead of colliding into a musical disaster, the opposite effect occurs. The music of The Life There Is is engaging, deliberate and introspective. They are unafraid to be dark and emphasize their lyrics through layers of electronic beats with dramatic pauses and stops in the music. This — in combination with the repetition of lyrics — leads to a hypnotic feel. The songs are full of multiple styles and often change tempos and lyrical feel within the same tune. Moreover, the percussionist’s additions to an electronic background gives the band an organic feel, since, “you can’t really rock out to a drum machine,” Cleveland said.

Like their dissimilar musical tastes, they all have different ways to describe The Life’s sound. Keeble jokes that they sound like Coldplay, which is far from the truth. Rosenburg calls it electronic honky-tonk, while Larson said it is “a touch of Elliot Smith and anger.” Cleveland sums it up as lots of different genres coming together. However, one consensus among the band is that music is used to explore the darker side of their personalities.

“There’s not an emotional pull in a band that I’ve seen in a long time, and we try to do that. We’re really not afraid to be sad or be dark,” Larson said. “We’re not talking Goth-dark. We’re different. We’re not white-belt, tight-pants, every poppy song.”

Their influences, Larson says, are death, nightmares, sex and broken hearts. Any element of their lives can be inspirational; hence, the band name: The Life There Is. And if you haven’t gathered, they’re also incredibly humorous despite their “dark” undercurrents. Their myspace page, in fact, says that they are influenced by “long walks on concrete, scabs, loose change and you.”

“It’s how we deal with the worst parts of our lives. We are funny people. We don’t walk around in black, but that is what our music is,” Cleveland said.

Larson and Cleveland have played together for two years since they met as employees at the Fox Theatre. Rosenberg, also a Fox employee, and Keeble joined within the last year. Their work at the Fox has taught them valuable lessons about performing, such as how to interact with audiences, how to get on and off stage and how to respect a venue.

Since the band learned those valuable lessons early on, at their shows The Life There Is can apply their energy towards the performance. On stage, the band takes themselves seriously, which is the opposite of their behavior off-stage, because they want to be respected by the audience. “We are not a gimmick band. Everyone has their hearts out there,” Larson said.

The Life There Is has yet to have any formal type of release, but plans to change that are in the works. The band released an informal EP shortly after forming, simply as a means to get some of their material out there. But in early December the band will return to the studio to lay down some new material, which they hope to release in a more formal setting in early 2007.

:: The Life There Is ::

:: Hi-Dive :: November 3 ::

:: The Walnut Room :: November 14 ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: November 18 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 29 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Radiohead

• Elliot Smith

• Aphex Twin

Sweet Sunny South coming over the mountains for Front Range gigs

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:54:31 +0000

:: Sweet Sunny South :: Rialto Theater :: November 17 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

The acoustic, old-time bluegrass band Sweet Sunny South will venture across the mountain passes from their home in Paonia to this side of the state in November. The group has had yet another great year, with a critically acclaimed CD release in June and now a showcase performance at the International Bluegrass Music Association convention in Nashville, under their belts.

Bill Powers, banjo and mandolin player for the band, explained that it was a great honor to be chosen for the very prestigious spot at the IBMAs and that the band had to do some deep breathing to get through it. “We were pretty nervous,” said Powers in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I talked with a couple of people who gave us advice to set our minds at ease: just smile and play. After that, we felt really relaxed. Another thing that really set us at ease was we played right after Jerry Douglas at the keynote address. It was just weird as hell to be waiting in the wings and say ‘hi’ to Jerry Douglas as he walked off the stage. We played a nice mellow set; there were a lot of people there due to the keynote address. It was nice seeing some familiar faces from the Colorado contingent, too.”

Getting selected to play as a showcase band was no slamdunk for the band, despite its growth since forming in 2002. “It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 applications that get sent in to try to grab a showcase slot,” Powers said. “We were one of the 13 that were chosen. Altogether, we played about four showcases and our best one was the California Bluegrass Association showcase that we did, with the most people there and there were promoters there looking for bands to play at their festivals next summer. We played fine and got good feedback from them. It’s so hard, you’re doing business stuff all day and you’re also trying to save your voice. Overall, it went really well. Getting invited was the biggest thing of all.”

In Sweet Sunny South, Powers is joined by Cory Obert, who saws on the old-time fiddle and sings high tenor. Rob Miller plays guitar and also sings lead and harmony, while bassist Shelley Gray also sings.

Powers and Miller write most of the songs for the group, which cites the influences of a range of musical performers including the traditional Stanley Brothers and Carter Family, as well as modern musicians such as The Freighthoppers and The Reeltime Travelers. But despite some of their more contemporary influences, Sweet Sunny South still eases in and out around a single microphone during their performances, in the style reminiscent of the old-time musicians that they admire.

With the band’s explosion in the bluegrass and festival scene, the members of Sweet Sunny South have found themselves struggling to keep it all together when it comes to family life, but they still say that the gift of being able to perform makes it worth it. “We were gone a lot this summer, away from the kids, who were cared for by my sister or a babysitter. It was a struggle that way — you really can’t do this sort of thing with kids,” said Powers. “It’s hard and there’s times when you get all this great stuff happening and you want to leave — you want to jump and you can’t. It makes us focus a little more on the things we can do and maybe approach the music in a little more of a mature way — by mature, I don’t mean other bands are immature, but we’re older and we have this life experience to approach things a little more realistically.”

Those life experiences, as well as the band’s straddling of both old and new styles, according to Powers, is one of the things that’s helping the band get noticed. “Our music stands out as a little bit of a different approach to bluegrass and old-time music. We have kind of one foot in old time and one foot in bluegrass. So we have this mix and we write a lot. We take these two influences that we have and kind of incorporate them. We just kind of do it however we feel it and whatever comes out of us. A lot of people say that it reminds them of the precursor to bluegrass music, which was just before there was really a name for it, where there were all kinds of instruments involved and it has a ’30s and ’40s kind of roadhouse music feel,” said Powers.

The band placed in the prestigious RockyGrass band contests in 2003 and 2004 and their initial CD release, Bell Creek Dance Club, was featured on “CPR Colorado Matters.” They released a subsequent recording, Wild-n-Swingin’, in 2005 and this summer Sweet Sunny South put out a live CD titled Live From The Radio Room.

Their upcoming show will feature a new project by former members of Hit and Run Bluegrass and a member of Open Road.

:: Sweet Sunny South ::

:: Rialto Theater :: November 17 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bill Monroe

• Ralph Stanley

• Uncle Earl

Sonnenblume’s members find a common love for space-rock sound

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:55:14 +0000

:: Sonnenblume :: Hi-Dive :: November 11 ::

By Tiffany Childs

Sonnenblume brings a certain something to the genre of space rock that few bands have — a chick that actually rocks.

Liz Forster, who plays bass and sings, met guitarist Todd Ayers 13 years ago when they both worked at Robb’s Music in Boulder. Forster ran into Ayers again at Immersive Studios years later. “I kept saying, you [Todd] and I should record something together, but he just brushed me off,” Forster said laughingly in a recent full-band interview with The Marquee. “Finally, he heard me singing on a mutual friend’s album and everything changed.”

They got together as a duo soon after.

Eventually, Forster and Ayers decided to move out of the studio and put together a live space-rock band. The only problem was finding a drummer. “I thought we knew all the drummers in town,” Forster said. “Luckily we didn’t, because Zack [Littlefield] came in and just kind of knew the sound and even our songs better than we did. He really added a lot to the band.”

Although the trio has just recently formed, the musicians themselves are no strangers to the scene. Forster has been a singer/songwriter since the ’90s, often working alone until joining Ayers. “In the ’90s, there weren’t a lot of options for girls other than being a singer/songwriter, unless you were Blondie,” said Forster. “Then I heard an album by Space Team Electra that completely changed my life.”

Oddly enough, her future partner Ayers was a founding member of Space Team Electra. In bands since college, Ayers played many genres, but was really interested in “bands with a dark, droney, powerfully dynamic kind of sound.” Influenced greatly by Twice Wilted — he played with the group in one of its later versions — Ayers formed bands such as Volplane and Space Team Electra, looking to create that textural background of sound that he so loved listening to.

Littlefield found himself in a similar space as well. “I’ve been involved in so many genres of music, from afro-cuban, which I studied for 10 years, to bluegrass, which I grew up with. I’ve always wanted to play in a band that played the kind of music I listened to,” he said. “The closest I came before Sonnenblume was with this band where we dressed as robots and threw toast at the audience. But, I’m doing it now and I haven’t played with anybody who has this unique kind of sound. I love it.”

That sound pulls from a musical background that ranges from jazz to funk to folk, a sound that is indeed unique. Sonnenblume is a darker, kind of melancholy music juxtaposed with an emotionally strong female voice. There is a possibility for it to be abrasive, but somehow Sonnenblume strikes a perfect balance. It is material that encourages the listener to contemplatively rock out.

Now that the band members have found each other they have some modest desires. “We’d like to take over the world,” Ayers proclaimed with a wry grin.

Actually, they seem decidedly down-to-earth as they talk about future plans. “We’re excited to gauge how our music is being perceived,” Littlefield said, with Ayers adding, “Our reward right now is just to be able to play music we enjoy playing for people who like to hear what we’re doing.” Forster further explained that there is an EP in the works. When pressed, she mentioned the goal is to have it out by the end of the year, but she stressed, “We are focused on putting out something that is good, not just getting something out there. We will be writing songs continuously, but with the medium changing we don’t feel albums are as necessary as they once were.”

Sonnenblume plans on recording their EP at The Rock Box which, fortunately, is located in Littlefield’s home, with Ayers producing most of it. As they see it, it’s a win-win situation. “We aren’t pressed for time this way, worrying about how much we’re spending every hour there and just trying to get it done,” Littlefield said.

:: Sonnenblume ::

:: Hi-Dive :: November 11 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sonic Youth

• Space Team Electra

• Bailterspace

Rachel Fuller’s ‘In the Attic’ satellite radio show on tour with the Who

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:56:17 +0000

By LJ Hammer

Some people know her as supermodel Jerry Hall’s catty best friend on “Kept” (you know, the VH-1 reality show where Mick Jagger’s ex spent a few months toying with 12 handsome young men who were competing for the opportunity to live the highlife as a “kept” man). Her fan base knows her as a talented pianist, vocalist, and composer. Sirius radio listeners, who are Who fans, know her as the Backstage B**ch on Sirius’ dedicated Who Channel. Others know her from her no-holds-barred online music chat show, “In The Attic.” Some know her from her lively blog. And finally, many folks know her as Pete Townshend’s long-time girlfriend and partner.

Wherever you might know her from, one thing is for sure – Rachel Fuller is savvy, she’s talented, she’s witty, and she’s a good bit of fun, whichever one of her always fashionable hats she might be wearing!

The Marquee had the pleasure of sitting down with Fuller in her (and Townshend’s) New York City hotel room in September, where they were home-based for the northeast leg of The Who’s U.S. tour. The Who will play through Colorado at the Pepsi Center on November 14th, with support from The Pretenders.

Foremost on Fuller’s mind was “In The Attic” (ITA) her informal music chat show that’s broadcast on the internet at www.intheattic.tv. Initially, it was something that Fuller and her college chum and fellow musician, Mikey Cuthbert, started doing a year ago out of Townshend’s home studio in London.

“We met in college together when we were like 15. He played guitar, and I played piano. We became friends. We hung out and jammed together. Then when we were about 17 or 18, he got kicked out of his house. He turned up on my doorstep with a black bag, and he came and lived in my attic,” said Fuller. (Hence, In The Attic.)

It wasn’t long before both Townshend and his incredibly talented brother Simon, fifteen years Pete’s junior, became ITA regulars.

Simon is not only the second guitarist and backing vocalist on tour with The Who, but is also a founding member of the band Casbah Club, along with Bruce Foxton of The Jam and Mark Brzezicki of Big Country.

In the early stages, watching an “In The Attic” webcast was like being a fly on Townshend and Fuller’s living room wall. The four of them would play all sorts of music, and they’d chat about everything from fashion tips (Fuller’s a big shopper) to music to gossip to Townshend telling gems of Who stories. Occasionally, they’d have guest musicians pop in, including Martha Wainwright, Foy Vance, Chris Difford, and Roger Daltrey.

However, what started in September of 2005 as an informal, once a week (or so) escapade, soon became a massive undertaking.

Over the summer, The Who embarked upon their most extensive European tour in over 25 years. At Townshend’s request, the “In The Attic” team took their show on the road, broadcasting 23 shows out of the back of a 34-foot Airstream caravan (we call them trailers, or RVs, here in the States).

“In Europe, we had the caravan, which was driveable, so every Who show, we would do (an ITA) show before. That went really well,” Fuller said.

In addition to the core team of Fuller, Cuthbert and the Townshend brothers, ITA webcast exclusive clips of the previous day’s Who show, and with so many festival dates, also had a steady stream of guests, including: artist Sir Peter Blake, The Editors, The Kooks, Boulder’s own Rose Hill Drive (twice!), Kazabian, The Eels, Shack, The Flaming Lips, and Tracey Ullman.

With a decision already made to discontinue the broadcasting of Who segments on ITA (long story about Townshend and Who frontman Roger Daltrey not seeing eye to eye), since coming to the States in September ITA has encountered some unexpected snags.

“Over here (in the U.S.), we couldn’t bring the caravan,” said Fuller. “Then we had this idea that we would do the show from our hotel room, but then we found out that you can’t do that. You can’t do webcasting or TV from hotels. It’s illegal. So I decided to set up the Attic Intravision site (www.intheattic.tv). We decided that even if we couldn’t do them live, we could do a few shows here in America and upload them directly on to the site.”

So far, there have been two ITA broadcasts from the States (with visits from David Bowie, Jack White’s Raconteurs, and The Flaming Lips), and two live Attic Jam concerts, one of which featured Rose Hill Drive. “They’re great,” Fuller said. “They’re really young, but they’re great guys.”

It will be interesting to see where ITA goes from here. In the meantime, Rachel’s been doing Barnes and Noble in-store appearances, accompanied by her “old man.”

And in order to gear up for the impending Who show at the Pepsi Center, Sirius 24/7 Who Channel, where Fuller serves as their official Backstage B**ch, offers a steady stream of Who, both well known and obscure, exclusive interviews and live concerts.

Ben Lee wakes up positive with success of his album at home and in the States

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:57:08 +0000

:: Ben Lee :: Fox Theatre :: November 9 ::

By Jonathan Keller

Ben Lee just wants to be known as an ordinary guy and that is what makes him quite unique. The 27-year-old even goes as far to call himself a “blue-collar kind of guy.” With songs off his most recent release Awake is the New Sleep (Newwest Records) currently finding increased airplay on Triple A Radio stations, climbing up the U.S. pop-charts and being used in Dell commercials, Lee is embracing his current stateside whirlwind of success with the humbleness and optimism of a seasoned veteran of the road — which he strangely is.

“I am in a situation where the album could be on the verge of breaking through or tailing off,” Lee said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Either way, I am just grateful for the experiences I have had. You have no real control over it so you might as well enjoy it when it comes.”

Even at his young age, Lee has already had the career that many musicians can only dream of. He has been making records and touring for over 12 years now.

Growing up in Sydney, Australia, he attended Jewish school and discovered music at an early age, recording songs in his room on his cassette player. As a teen, Lee was in a few bands but eventually released his first solo album, Grandpaw Wood, on the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label in 1994. With pop-chart success in Australia, he toured the United States for the first time when he was 15 and eventually made New York City his home at 18.

It was in New York City that he met and ended up having a six-year relationship with actress Claire Danes. The end of that relationship, coupled with the early death of his father and the bankruptcy of his record label, steered Lee toward a search for his own spirituality. This search eventually led him to an Indian spiritual teacher named Narayani Amma, in Tamil Nadu, India. His time spent in India, and what he learned there, has profoundly influenced Lee’s writing and musical approach. This is evident on Awake is the New Sleep, his most mature and optimistic release to date.

“I am fortunate that my music isn’t driven by alcoholism or drug addiction,” he explained. “When I am in a good place, my music is the truest. I now enjoy writing from a positive aspect and I think that shows on the last record. It is okay to be happy. I am fortunate that my music doesn’t come from angst. I want people to listen to my music and rejoice — my music is a kind of celebration.”

Awake is the New Sleep is one of those rare albums that afford an artist success in two distinct markets. For Lee, those markets are Australia and now the United States. Released over a year-and-a-half ago, the album has gone double-platinum in Lee’s homeland and won Lee the Best Male Artist and Best Single of the Year at the 2005 Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (Australia’s version of The Grammy Awards) last October.

“Winning the ARIA was one of the highlights of the past year,” Lee said. “In Australia, my music wasn’t really accepted in the beginning and wining the ARIA Award was a definite sense of acceptance. It really meant a lot.” Lee’s highlight of the awards show: kissing David Hasselhoff on the lips as he accepted an award.

With Awake is the New Sleep now taking off in the United States, Lee finds himself in a position where he is starting all over again in the record promotion juggernaut — more touring, more interviews, more pressure. Lee is quite fine with that, though, for he knows once it starts you should embrace it.

“I am friends with the guys in Maroon 5 and their record took over two years to take off,” Lee explained. “I have so much gratitude that I am in a place where people enjoy my music and I am sincerely grateful that it is having some success in the States. That is what you strive to do.”

Though the crest of the wave is riding high right now, Lee said that fans might have to wait for some time for his next album. “I already have about 42 songs written for the new record,” he said. “Of course, all those won’t make it on the next record. I think I am not yet ready for a double album. It will be a single disc. I do feel all this is building to the next record, which should be out sometime next year.”

With all the success in both Australia and now the United States, Lee has basically been living out of his tour bus for a year-and-a-half. He is currently planning on buying a house in Los Angles because “that is where the action is.” With an interest in acting — he appeared as the protagonist in the Australian film The Rage In Placid Lake —Los Angeles seems like the perfect place to “do it all.”

:: Ben Lee ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 9 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Ben Folds

• Bright Eyes

• Counting Crowes

Boulder’s most notorious bad ass, Jello Biafra, returns to Denver for spoken word show

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:58:40 +0000

:: Jello Biafra :: Gothic Theatre :: November 4 ::

By Karen Schneider

So many words, so little time. This seems a good way to define Jello Biafra, old school punk, writer, activist, and political poet. Oh, and he also runs one of the oldest independent underground record companies still around today. Biafra may be best known for his work with the Dead Kennedys, or his campaign for mayor of San Francisco in 1979, or even his run at President in 2000. Either way, the anomaly that is Jello Biafra demands to be heard.

Biafra’s roots run deep in Colorado. Born and raised in Boulder, the eclecticness of the town helped to fuel the wrath of his younger years.

“Boulder was actually a pretty interesting place to grow up, because the ‘Boulder bubble’ you talk about now was very different then,” Jello Biafra told The Marquee in a recent interview. “When I was just starting school, it was more of a sleepy mountain and college town, and then late ’60s early ’70s is when hippies swarmed into town by the thousands.”

The new visitors wreaking havoc on the town appealed to Jello, and he embraced the counter-culture.

“That was back when long hair really scared people and was actually dangerous, so of course I was fascinated by the whole thing.” Biafra said. “That was when hippie meant activist, anti-war and causing the right kind of trouble, so I was totally down.” But as the hippies transformed to new age yuppies and Jello graduated from high school, the town was becoming less and less appealing. After a stint with some friends as the road crew for original Colorado punk band The Ravers, Biafra moved west, soon to start The Dead Kennedys, and Alternative Tentacles Records.

Alternative Tentacles began as the label name for the Dead Kennedys debut single “California Uber Alles.” Since then, the label has grown through 27 years and released over 350 recordings, almost all of which are made available on vinyl. In addition to musical artists such as Butthole Surfers, Blowfly, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, and Lard, the label also features spoken word artists such as death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Angela Davis.

“I’ve never made a dime on Alternative Tentacles. I’ve actually lost a lot of money over the years.” said Biafra. “I could be stashing away money on the stock market and counting beans and wondering where my life went, but I think the payback is all these amazing releases we’ve had on the label and all the bands we’ve been able to help.”

Biafra is an active member of the Green Party. And although he has no plans to run for office in the near future, there is always a possibility.

“The campaign for mayor of San Francisco in 1979 was more or less on a spontaneous dare,” said Biafra. “And the Green Party nomination in 2000 was when some people at the New York State Green Convention threw my name in the hat for president and I got enough votes, so they asked me if I would run. I thought maybe if I left my name on the ballot it might inspire other people to get off their butts and register and show up and vote, and vote smart.”

Musically, Biafra has been playing with The Melvins, dubbed Jello Biafra With The Melvins, though often referred to as “The Jelvins.” They released their second album Sieg Howdy! in 2005, but have taken a short break from touring as The Melvins re-group, and as Jello launches his spoken word tour.

“Buzz (Osbourne, singer and guitarist for The Melvins) and I agreed it would just be taking on too much and would come off half-assed and not as tight and firey as it ought to be,” Biafra said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to pick that back up next year and finally do a Denver show.”

Jello recently finished up his eighth spoken word album In the Grip of Official Treason, released October 26. Along with live recordings from the tour that followed 2002’s release of Machine Gun in the Clown’s Hand, the album also includes performances from the Punk Voter Tour. To name a few, the subjects range from buried facts about the Iraq war, a visit to post-Katrina New Orleans, the Green Party, and voter fraud disease. Biafra also updates his classic “Die for Oil Sucker” and includes an expanded version of the Ministry song “Ass Clown.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I just finished this spoken word album and we are in what still passes for an election year in this country,” Biafra said. “I’m sticking with the Greens. I would rather vote for something or someone I want and not get it, than vote for something I don’t want and get it.”

:: Jello Biafra ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: November 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Henry Rollins

• Saul Williams

• Lenny Bruce

Panic! At The Disco blows up but still can’t get out of Fall Out Boy’s shadow

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:59:05 +0000

:: Panic! At The Disco :: Magness Arena :: November 28 ::

By Page Bayless

Love them or hate them, you can’t deny Panic! At the Disco of their big-deal status (or, should I say the biggest deal). Their debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, went platinum within a week of its release and has catapulted the foursome to an icon status that is unheard of from a band that has only been playing together for two years. After a sold-out North American tour and five MTV Video Music Award nominations, Panic! At The Disco has made quite a mark on the music scene. If you think otherwise, try listening to their hit song “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” without re-playing “the poor groom’s bride is a whore” in your head all day long … and liking it.

Straight out of a Las Vegas Catholic high school, Ryan Ross, Brandon Urie, Brent Wilson and Spencer Smith have skipped the more traditional steps common to most bands, and the public won’t let them forget it. Any press about Panic! immediately addresses their connection to Pete Wentz and Fall Out Boy. Taking a shot in the dark, the boys posted their music on Wentz’s Livejournal and were shocked at his almost immediate interest. The triumph that ensued has been exhausted in countless articles and is now an integral part of the band’s image. With good reason, too: such random luck in this business is unprecedented. Yet, as Panic!’s popularity swells, people will be forced to see them as unique and successful without the Fall Out Boy filter.

It is only normal that questions circulate when a suddenly successful band has had such a brief history together, but Panic! isn’t phased by the constant reminder that they had it easy. When the boys set out to make their album, playing shows along the way was a path they avoided. They chose to focus on one solid album, continuously reworking each song until they were satisfied.

Singer/keyboardist Brandon Urie has no regrets. “We are perfectionists,” Urie said in an interview with The Marquee. “The songs on the album are the only songs we’ve ever written and we’ve worked the hell out of them.” Urie is convinced that Panic! would have created the same album regardless of the band’s time together.

Amidst the chaos of the past year, the group’s goals have stayed genuine. At a time when instant fame is constantly creating yet another flash in the pan, Panic! At The Disco has proved it may have legitimate staying power. Urie, given the circumstances, is refreshingly down to earth: he finds their new-found fame “surreal and shocking.”

To many young musicians, the status that Panic! has reached is the end-all-be-all of musical success. Luckily, Urie and the other boys aren’t fooled by their explosive fame. They have made it clear that, regardless of what has happened or what the future holds, they will stick with what they know. “We’re going to keep writing music that’s interesting to us, that’s what got us started in the first place,” Urie said.

Keeping with the theme of new and interesting, Panic! At The Disco has also created a suitable aesthetic that coincides with their music, and somehow the eyeliner and skinny jeans just work. Their sense of style is characteristic of a Vegas show, yet Urie claims that “Vegas wasn’t huge” in determining that style. The simple notion of showmanship and a desire to give something extra to a live show is what inspires their look, he said.

In terms of raw talent and the execution of that talent, most performers can only emphasize one aspect, neglecting the other. Panic! At The Disco, however, has fused real talent with an attitude that each show is an occasion.

This type of “occasion” is exactly what has brought the band to the public’s attention. Their first music video, for “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” personified the ideal circus vibe the band communicates through their songs. Art director Shane C. Drake, who had previously worked with (you guessed it) Fall Out Boy, helped give Panic! an appropriate video that painted a perfect picture of the album. The boys and Drake met together and discussed options for the debut video. “He was drinking and we were just throwing out ideas, so many things popped up that we were really psyched about,” Urie said.

Panic! At The Disco has surpassed everyone’s expectations, whether they are under the shadow of Fall Out Boy or not. All things aside, the boys have a talent that will continue to be recognized and appreciated, whether or not Pete Wentz is holding their hands.

The band has a mindset that gets you far in this business and that is refreshing for such a young age: “It’s only the beginning for us, even if everything ends for us next year, success-wise,” Urie said.

:: Panic! At The Disco ::

:: Magness Arena :: November 28 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Fallout Boy

• Taking Back Sunday

• The Academy Is...

The Decemberists sign to Capitol and release the gifted Crane Wife

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:00:32 +0000

:: The Decemberists :: Paramount Theater :: November 14 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has recently had some significant and wonderful changes take place in his life. First, as 2005 drew to a close his band, The Decemberists, took the plunge and signed to Capitol Records. Then, in February of this year, Meloy’s long-time girl-friend, and the one responsible for The Decemberists album art, Carson Ellis gave birth to the couple’s first child, a healthy baby boy.

“It has irrevocably changed my life, but in a good way. It is really exciting and every day is brand new. There are always new and exciting and terrifying things to deal with, so I am really enjoying it so far,” said Meloy in a recent interview with The Marquee from his home in Portland, Oregon, as he geared up for his first major tour since he became a father. “We did a week and a half in Europe in the spring, and a couple of one-off shows but nothing you could really call a full-on tour since Henry was born.”

Meloy recently spawned another, somewhat less significant, creation. On October 3 The Decemberists unveiled their major label debut for Capitol, a masterpiece called The Crane Wife. The album once again features Meloy’s elegant wordsmithing as it musically showcases the maturity of the band. The experience begins with a sound Decemberists fans will recognize and builds to a three-song crescendo that is one part disco/funk, one part prog-rock and one part the gorgeous orchestral indie-rock that the band has become known for.

The powerful, nearly epic songs on this record highlight the fact that Meloy’s songwriting is clearly at the top of its game. He seems to have almost painted the word pictures that bring this album to life. Images such as “I tasted summer on your peppery skin” and “A gray sky, a bitter sting, a rain cloud, a crane on a wing” are not uncommon lines in these dark Victorian tales.

“Most of the songs on The Crane Wife were written while Carson was pregnant and while I was fully considering the implications of being a father. What came out was really dark for whatever reason,” chuckled Meloy. “I don’t really have any explanation for that.”

Technically speaking, the production value on the new record is excellent and the song list was put together flawlessly. The album lifts you up in strong arms and lets you down gently right where it wants you. From the bright and tinny opening notes of “The Crane Wife 3” through the final chorus of “Sons and Daughters,” which features the full company singing “Hear all the bombs, they fade away,” The Decemberists take you for an emotionally wrenching ride through an imaginary world inhabited by soldiers and sailors, bank robbers and fairy tale butchers. It is not a place for the faint of heart.

There has recently been buzz among long-time Decemberists fans that the band has “sold out.” While they have moved on and now find themselves on a major label, the majesty and passion that are conveyed in the presentation of this collection of songs simply could not have been made by a band attempting to placate a record executive. This is a record that reflects the maturity of the band both lyrically and musically. “We have really mined the talents of all the band members on this record,” said Meloy. “Capitol didn’t go after us because they expected us to be their next #1 hit machine. The conditions of us signing a major label contract were really that we retain all creative control over every aspect of the band. They have been very supportive of that.”

In fact, Meloy stressed that the support that Capitol has put behind The Decemberists enabled them to make The Crane Wife exactly the record they wanted it to be. “There were really no compromises that needed to be made. We had the freedom and, more importantly, the time to go back and scrap things and start again if we needed to. We were really able to take all the time we needed to make the record,” said Meloy.

The musical centerpiece of the album comes in the form of a 12-and-a-half-minute prog-rock suite of three songs called “The Island.” “The instrumental intro to ‘The Island’ had initially been written and I demoed it in a much heavier, electric, Sabbathy way. We recorded it that way and started working on overdubbing and when we listened to it we felt that where the rest of the song had a lot of life and spark to it, the intro felt so derivative that it had no soul. We tore it down and really had to trust our intuition as we went back in to the studio and recorded it acoustically and started building from there. Eventually we came up with what is on the album,” said Meloy.

Meloy went on to explain that the three songs that make up “The Island” are connected musically, but not thematically. “I think of it as three separate stories,” he said. “‘Come and See’ is a utopic vision of escapism; this island in the wild left to its own resources. ‘The Landlord’s Daughter’ is obviously a tale about rape and murder. I was following more traditional approaches to writing a folk ballad on that one. The third piece, ‘You’ll Not Feel The Drowning,’ was a line borrowed from In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, where a young boy is told to go to sleep as the ship he is sailing on is engulfed by a squall. The reason he is given is that if he is asleep he won’t feel the drowning.”

While Meloy obviously has an active imagination, he is not afraid to borrow from works of literature to jump start his creative flow. In Patagonia is not the only example of a literary inspiration found on the album. The title track itself is a reworking of a classic Japanese folk tale and Meloy isn’t afraid to admit that he finds inspiration in literature. Much has been made of the seafaring themes of many of The Decemberists songs. Meloy is quick to own up to the fact that “I didn’t have the opportunity to sail much as a child and I have gleaned much of my nautical vocabulary from Patrick O’Brien novels and other maritime tales.”

Meloy is obviously a craftsman who gives credit to his tools where it is due but on this album it becomes clear that without his band he would just be another songwriter, albeit a very good one. While The Decemberists fit into a very rare category musically, they also fit into another very rare category, a category that is defined by bands that rise to popularity simply because they are extremely talented and are hitting their creative stride as a unit, not as individuals. The nature of creativity almost dictates that this can’t last and that it must be cherished when it happens. The Decemberists are at that pinnacle right now. We would be fools not to stand up and take notice while they are in our midst.

:: The Decemberists ::

:: Paramount Theater :: November 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Yes

• Norfolk & Western

• Belle & Sebastian

CD Reviews - December - 2006

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:51:41 +0000

The Who

Endless Wire

Universal Republic Records

4 stars out of 5

Leave it to The Who to release a totally bewildering album for their first attempt at new material in 24 years. That’s not to say that Endless Wire is a bad album by any means, but it is not a comeback album in the same vein as Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation or AC/DC’s Back in Black. And it’s largely due to the fact that The Who haven’t written any new material in over a decade and the band has constantly toured on the strength of their hits and have never really faded from the public’s consciousness.

The million dollar question is why did The Who decide to release a new set of tunes now? Part of the answer is simply, as guitarist Pete Townshend has said many times, that the band hadn’t ever come up with anything they felt was up to par with their own legacy. However, considering the reflective nature of the Endless Wire portion of the album, the passing of bassist John Entwistle probably had something to do with it.

Endless Wire is really two albums. In addition to the first nine tracks that comprise Endless Wire, the album also contains the mini-opera “Wire and Glass.”

Among the highlights on the first part of the disc are the searing, instantly classic “It’s Not Enough” and “A Man in a Purple Dress” that pull no punches in telling-off the various authority figures that have criticized the band’s rock and roll lifestyle while hiding dark secrets of their own. While singer Roger Daltrey’s voice is as strong as always, it’s really the lyrics and songwriting of Townshend that propel The Who’s latest attempt into the 21st Century.

The “Wire and Glass” portion of the disk is rooted more in the Who’s early mod roots than Endless Wire. Songs like “We Got a Hit” and “Fragments of Fragments” are the kind of tunes that fans of past Who albums like By Numbers and Sell-Out have been waiting for.

— DJ Hippie

Jeff Tweedy

Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest

Northwest Records

4 out 0f 5 stars

Jeff Tweedy may well be the Bob Dylan of my generation, and his new DVD Sunken Treasure is an absolutely engrossing example of the man’s talents as a songwriter, his strength as an artist and his kindness as a human.

Filmed earlier this year, in the days leading up to the performance that Tweedy gave at the Boulder Theater in February, Sunken Treasure follows the Wilco front man around the Pacific Northwest as he tackles an assortment of songs from Wilco’s catalog, as well as songs that don’t fit into the band’s sonic folds — songs from his project Loose Fur and former band Uncle Tupelo.

Throughout it, Tweedy is wonderfully charming and hysterically self-deprecating as he humbly struggles to keep the crowd from talking during the quiet acoustic shows. Anyone who attended the Boulder Theater show will certainly remember the struggle he had there, and these shows aren’t much different. Tweedy is also heart-warmingly strong as he eschews repeated offers for drugs and alcohol, despite his well publicized stint in rehab the year before this tour.

This man is in his musical prime and thank God it’s being recorded.

This may be the best concert DVD I own.

— Brian F. Johnson

The Hot Iqs

Dangling Modifier

YawAct!on Records

4 out of 5 stars

Denver’s best indie rock band just upped the ante.

Having first seen the Hot IQs at a mock ’80s prom in a high school auditorium during the South Park Music Festival, one might see how the delirious joy that decade brings me could distract from actual quality. Fortunately, it did not. However, unfortunately for other local bands, the Hot IQs have taken the spotlight, having been awarded the #2 spot in the Denver Post’s Underground Music Poll, The Boulder Daily Camera’s Album of the Year for their 2004 debut, and The Rocky Mountain News named them the Best Band in Colorado.

Their newest album, Dangling Modifier, is nothing less than what you would expect. The songs are catchy, clever and deceptively poppy.

The Hot IQs are definitely going somewhere, but hopefully their upcoming tour this fall brings them back to Colorado as soon as possible. The Hot IQ’s Dangling Modifier finds the band at their fullest, catchiest and most overtly witty stage to date.

— Page Bayless

Phonograph

Arclight Records

4 out of 5 stars

Debut albums aren’t supposed to be this strong. This is the equivalent of a freshman acing a graduate level course. New York-based Phonograph, in its self-titled release, comes off as a blend between Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco, with the vocals of Tom Petty. Yes, that’s a big statement, and yes it’s true.

With an acoustic guitar as its centerpiece, the band weaves spacey sounds and electronic soundscapes in and out of the songs — but those songs are strong enough that they could easily stand on their own without the sonic assault.

Sometimes the Wilco influences are worn a bit too on-their-sleeves (the band has been befriended by Wilco bassist Jon Stirratt) and it does take some getting used to singer Matthew Welsh’s voice, which is so incredibly similar to Petty’s, but it’s also what will make this disc be played over and over. This is just their debut and I can’t wait for the sophomore release.

— Brian F. Johnson

Johnny Action Figure

Asks The Room To Please Stop Spinning

DRP Records

4 out of 5 stars

Why is it that bands never list themselves in the same genre that everyone else does? Jam bands, for instance, are famous for claiming to be “rock bands that jam.” I guess it’s time for pop rockers to start issuing the same kind of denial about their sound.

Johnny Action Figure’s newest CD, Asks The Room To Please Stop Spinning — the band’s first release in more than two years — is clearly a pop rock album with bright, up-tempo, melodic songs, but the accompanying press release claims the content is not pop rock. Whatever!

The Warped Tour veterans should stand behind their album for what it is because, truth be told, the album is a pretty darn good piece — one that tastefully nods to its influences from classic rock to indie pop, without getting hung up on the homage that they pay.

— Brian F. Johnson

Five Star Iris

Hooptyville Records

4 out of 5 stars

Five Star Iris’ self-titled debut album was produced by Grammy winning producer Ylvia Massey Shivy (Tool, R.E.M., Tom Petty and Johnny Cash). This kind of line-up almost has to create something good.

The Atlanta-based pop rock band has the potential to be something with enduring substance. Two of their new albums’ songs have already gained international recognition. “Let It Out” was the winner of the 2005 U.K. Songwriting contest in the rock/indie category and “Is There Something I Can Do” was a semi-finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition in the pop/rock category.

Five Star Iris’ contagious rock melodies and pop-inspired bridges have supported acts such as Switchfoot, Fuel, Collective Soul and Hinder. Whether you see MTV as good or bad, this group could very well be on its way to achieving a spot in the channel’s rotation.

— Page Bayless

Killfix

Independent

3 out of 5 stars

Killfix’s debut album isn’t nearly as intimidating as their name sounds. The foursome delivers thoughtful melodic rock and has shared a stage with bands such as Ranier Maria and The Album Leaf.

Personally, any kind of rock song that incorporates a violin works for me, but this album definitely has potential to agree with just about anyone.

Originally a recording project for singer/songwriter Tim Pourbaix and local musician Andrew Solanyk, Killfix never intended to become a full-fledged band. After the addition of two new members, Peter Glenn and Nate Marcy, the group shows that they have a handle on what it takes to make up a catchy, young-sounding tune.

At first listen I hear a mixture of mainstream pop and a very Northern California feel: it’s familiar but it still works. This local group has played numerous venues and is worth checking out.

— Page Bayless

The Pixies

loud QUIET loud: a film about The Pixies

MVD Visual

4 out of 5 stars

I wrote before, on these very pages, that I was not one of the people on this planet that thinks everything Frank Black (Charles Thompson) does is sheer genius. But the new loud QUIET loud film about the Pixies sold-out reunion tour may end up making me one of those people, after all.

While there is plenty of live footage, this DVD is not a concert DVD. It’s a true film about the band, a group of four of the world’s worst communicators, who inspired and transformed a generation of musicians with amazingly brilliant onstage connections. Despite their nearly 11 years apart, the group’s members still find themselves in uncomfortable positions based on years of tension, and now they couple it with one sober band member and one who is about to go off the deep end.

loud Quiet loud is an enthralling piece. If you’re a Pixies fan you need this DVD and if you’re even just slightly interested in them, you need this as well. It’ll take you from Pixies newbie to Pixies scholar in 85 minutes.

— Brian F. Johnson

B4MD

Before the Music Dies

Independent

4 out of 5 stars

There is only one problem with this DVD: The people who really, really NEED to see this film, probably never will.

Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, two men who had no industry contacts before starting this venture, do an incredible job getting in front of some of today’s heaviest hitters in music to tell the story of the music industry today, and its lust for commerce over content, and profits over prophets. They interview everyone from Bonnie Raitt and Dave Matthews to Les Paul and Elvis Costello.

For music fans the film is as sad as Terms of Endearment ever was, but it also shows some light at the end of the tunnel, by pointing out that alternative forms of media are flourishing and contain a wealth of opportunities for those not interested in the force-fed crap that is passed off as music in the mainstream world. Brilliant!

— Brian F. Johnson

Rolling Stones

Truth and Lies

Eagle Media

4 out of 5 stars

Truth and Lies could very well be one of the most pointless projects ever completed about the Rolling Stones. For more than an hour, a poor imitation of a BBC announcer drones on about how the Stones have been rock and roll’s bad boys for four decades. But the DVD doesn’t reveal anything that isn’t already known and hasn’t been talked about a million times. Yeah, we get it, Keith Richards got busted for drugs. So what? (There are a few minutes of rare footage that are worth seeing, but nothing overly spectacular.)

Save your cash on this one and go purchase another copy of Exile on Main Street instead.

— Brian F. Johnson

Hot Rize

Live at Irving Plaza 4.18.06

Universal Records South

4 out of 5 stars

Without Hot Rize there would probably never have been a Leftover Salmon or a Yonder Mountain String Band. Hot Rize was the pioneering bluegrass band that reached more impressive heights than these other pillars of Colorado bluegrass, and paved the way for thousands of pickers who followed.

The band went its separate ways in 1990 and since then has only performed a handful of special gigs, but in its first DVD — originally filmed in 1987, but just released last month — the four Hot Rize men, along with their oddly humored honky tonk alter-egos Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers, put on an amazing show the way bluegrass should be presented. The video also features some rare interview footage of the members, made particularly funny by the 1987 fashions. Long live the mullet and feathered blown-dry hair!

— Brian F. Johnson

Industry Profile: Peter Ore, One of Denver’s most independent talent buyers, joins Live Nation

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:52:18 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

Every semester, Peter Ore is invited to speak to students in the music and entertainment program at University of Colorado, Denver, and every year he tells them the same thing — quit school and get a job — any job — in the industry immediately.

It’s not that Ore is anti-school, or anti-UCD, but Ore, who graduated from college in 1994 with an English literature degree, knows the value of physically working in the industry because, quite simply, he’s done it.

Ore, who is now 34, started as a security guard at the Bluebird Theater and over a 10 year period worked himself up to one of the region’s top talent buyers for Nobody In Particular Presents (NiPP). Now, after the recent personnel changes that swept the Front Range music scene earlier this year, Ore has found himself as the top talent buyer in the Denver office of Live Nation. It’s an odd position for a man who dresses and talks like a lot of the kids who attend his shows (although his gray hair and goatee give him the appearance of being older), but it may be just the thing that the corporate giant needs to soften its reputation.

Ore, who has always been fiercely independent, is now under the corporate umbrella of Clear Channel, and while many would look at that as a sell-out position, he is, in fact, thrilled to have the resources he now has at his disposal. His do-it-yourself attitude and unwavering work ethic have combined over the last decade to put him at the top of the talent buying game, buying more shows annually than many of the region’s other buyers put together. Now that he has the full support of the nation’s largest promoter behind him, he feels that the future is limitless.

The following are excerpts from a conversation he and I shared over beverages at Denver’s Wazee Supper Club.

Marquee: What was the first concert you ever saw?

Ore: Duran Duran at the Forum in L.A. When I saw them they were like the biggest band out there and to me it was like the Beatles. You couldn’t have seen a bigger band right then.

Marquee: Do you remember the first album you every bought?

Ore: Fucking-A right, dude. It was a double-purchase of Foreigner 4 and Journey Escape on vinyl and I still have them.

Marquee: You worked your way up in this business. Tell me about that,

Ore: I was waiting tables in Boulder where I went to school and a friend told me to talk to a friend at the Bluebird Theater. So I walked in cold off the street and asked if they were hiring. They told me no, but handed me a blank piece of paper to fill out. When I started doing that I remembered that I had forgotten to tell her that I had worked security for Program Council and that I was a supervisor. I told her that and she said, ‘O.K. You’re hired.’ I went from having no job to getting hired. So I started as a door guy. I was working security at night and waiting tables during the day in Boulder. A job opened up at the NiPP offices to like cut flyers and go get the owner’s dry cleaning and stuff for like $6 an hour or whatever it was. And I took it figuring that this way I worked for the same company and it’s all in Denver. Subliminally, I knew that was where the action was.

Marquee: How did you start booking shows?

Ore: Well I was answering phones at NiPP and basically just being the office bitch and the guy who was doing local shows seemed burned out and I asked if I could do a couple shows, ’cause I was going to, like, 7 South and all those old clubs, like the Lions Lair back in the day when they had all the great shows. So I started booking all of these local shows. I was working in the office answering the phones and going to get the boss’s burrito and washing the car and booking the local shows and at night I’d work the bar. I didn’t care. I was 24 and I was working in a club and getting drunk every night. Literally, that stupidity got me to where I am today.

Marquee: Then when did you really start being a talent buyer full time?

Ore: I was doing all of the local booking and the shows were doing well — I had a good work ethic, I used to go out and handbill and promote all of my own shows to really make it happen — and I started to put together bigger ones and finally the owner was, like, ‘Here’s some other dates, see what else you can get.’ And the phone at the Bluebird would just ring, and I was the one answering it, so I’d get people calling me to do shows. My first national show was the band called Wormhole X — and by national I mean, not Denver. I don’t know if you’d really call them a national band. They were on Epitaph, I think, and I put them as the headliner and I was, like, “From California” on the poster. And then I started to pick up reggae shows or a blues thing and I was buying tighter than the owner, ’cause it wasn’t my money and I was so afraid to lose it. I remember when $1,000 was a big guarantee. I’m still a really tight buyer. That stuck with me. And I was doing better than the owner and he was getting interested in other things outside the club, so I ended up being the in-house talent buyer for the Bluebird.

Marquee: What was the first big show for you?

Ore: Well, my first sold out show was Cherry Poppin’ Daddys, Let’s Go Bowling and Real Big Fish. I remember the owner coming up and giving me a $100 bonus, and I felt like I had just won the lottery. It was so special.

Marquee: What has the move to Live Nation done for you?

Ore: Everyone keeps asking me that and how I’m going to survive in this corporate environment ’cause I’m not a corporate guy at all. But, at NiPP I had my legs cut out from under me at a certain point. I could only bring a band up to a certain point and then it was, like, ‘Hey you’re my friend and all, bro, but we gotta go play the Fillmore. Sorry.’ Now I can. I can take a band from 300 seats all the way to Red Rocks. But beyond that, it’s the professionalism of it all. My analogy is that at NiPP I was in my little foxhole with a tin pot on my head and little cap gun trying to fight the Third Panzer Division, and I did a great job on that there. But now I have my own tank division and I have air support and I have troops all over the country. I have the general in his office and forward observers. I got the whole thing, man.

Marquee: Why do you do what you do?

Ore: I’m not good at anything else. I got lucky, man, by stumbling into something like I did was totally an accident. I didn’t mean to be a talent buyer. I was just a dumb kid who wanted to get drunk and listen to music. But I’ve never taken it for granted. I’m the luckiest bastard on earth and I mean that whole heartedly.

The Marquee recaps the best shows of 2006

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:53:52 +0000

It’s always odd to write a column that recaps a year when that year has yet to end, but this issue is our last one of 2006 and so we must, despite what the calendar says at the time of this writing.

Once again, The Marquee has assembled a list of industry insiders to pick their Shows of the Year for this annual end-of-the-year feature.

The rules are the same as in years past. The show had to have taken place during 2006 (or on the 2005-2006 New Year) and it is required that the show be one which occurred on the Front Range — no votes for Bonnaroo, Vegoose or anything out of our territory allowed.

This year is one of the most diverse listings we’ve seen, and it’s no wonder. We are blessed with one of the best music scenes around. According to our counts from our calendar section, there were over 10,000 musical performances between Colorado Springs and Fort Collins this year. That’s an average of almost 30 shows a day! Where else does that happen? I bet even New York City would be impressed by those numbers.

Here’s what we and some of our friends thought were the highlights of 2006:

Brian F. Johnson — Editor-in-Chief — The Marquee

The Giraffes — June 23 — Larimer Lounge

If I had a couple thousand words I probably still wouldn’t be able to do this show justice. Better get started.

It was sheer mayhem from the second The Giraffes took the stage. Within minutes, the band and its gear was soaked with beer, spit and sweat. In a few more seconds the crowd was retaliated upon. And so it went for the night. Crowd throws beer, band catches it and spits it back, all the while performing one of the most incendiary sets of fantastically frantic rock and roll. Let’s get this straight. This was all in good fun. This wasn’t a display of angst, it was a cathartic purging of the soul. Everyone was enjoying it and there was no ego anywhere in the crowd or in front of the lights. Had there been it could have gotten as ugly as an acid trip in a third-world jail cell very quickly. I have never left a concert drenched in drink, with friends covered in puke from a random drunk and not been pissed off. This was the opposite. We wish we could have gotten more. The most rock and roll show of the year for sure.

Paul Epstein — Owner — Twist and Shout

Jeff Beck — Sept. 21 — Colorado Convention Center

With an ace band including the inhuman drumming of Zappa alumni Vinnie Colaiuta, and the sexy singing of Beth Hart, Beck delved deep into his catalog, pulling out nuggets from Truth, Blow By Blow, Wired and some inspired covers like “Over the Rainbow” and “A Day In The Life.”

Far from a tired oldies exercise, Beck proved his continued relevance and cemented his reputation as one of the all-time greats.

Peter Ore — Talent Buyer — Live Nation

Wolfmother — May 22 — Bluebird Theatre

Sometimes the perfect mix of weed, Amstel Light and shots of Jameson’s can create this beautiful bubble where, if you are lucky enough to get to that magical state of mind, you can enjoy a show as if God himself were playing on stage. That is what it felt like watching Wolfmother destroy the Bluebird Theatre with pure rock and roll fury. It was like watching a comet roar through your living room, knowing you'll never have a chance to see that comet burn so bright in such a small place ever again.

Matt LaBarge — Owner — Hi-Dive

Liars — June 13 — Hi-Dive

Two drummers. One seven foot mad genius. Caveman art rock that melted the collective face off the crowd. It was like Radiohead on acid - on acid. I love this job!

Jay Bianchi — Owner — Cervantes Masterpiece

Banyan — Feb 3 — Cervantes’ Masterpiece

Say what you want about Steve Kimock, but there is one thing that is undeniable: this guy can play the shit out of a guitar. There is a reason every member of the Grateful Dead has worked with him, including Jerry Garcia. This guy is really that good. Now when you put him with one of the most innovative drummers in the world, Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction, you get two players that push each other to the outer limits of sound. This show was a psychedelic mix of punk and hippie jam that was sure to leave even the most critical person a diehard fan. Steve stepped up and ripped it while Stephen Perkins provided a fierce tribal beat and Willie Waldman delivered a smooth skanking undercurrent of sound with his trumpet. Rob Wasserman created a huge bass beat that kept everything together. This concert was one of the first of this configuration and since then Perkins and Kimock have collaborated several more times, most notably at the Jammy Awards.

Don Strasburg — VP and Talent Buyer — AEG Live

Trey Anastasio — Oct. 23 - 24 — Fox Theatre

Man Trey tore it up! I felt that with Jeff Sipe on drums, Trey was able to mine his music in a manner more similar to Phish than I have seen from his solo work. With the smaller band and entourage he came to the Fox to have fun. It was a blast. Everyone was so comfortable, so many good old friends in the house.

It was a fun and memorable two nights.

Carrie Lombardi — Owner/Publicist — Madison House Publicity

Tom Petty — July 2 — Pepsi Center

Tom Petty’s performance at the Pepsi Center (with Pearl Jam) was a truly memorable one. I went there without any expectations, but I left a believer. With what seemed like little effort, Petty convinced me he is not only a talented musician (which is often enough for me), but that he is among a small group on this planet who are true rock stars. I mean, EVERY song was a hit, and EVERY person in the crowd knew EVERY word. And he pulled this off without becoming a novelty act. He was artistic, entertaining, and intriguing. He was the real deal, and totally relevant.

New Year’s Eve brings out Colorado’s best bands for shows

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:54:15 +0000

By Tiffany Childs

Christmas may be the biggest holiday of the year for the commerce-minded, suburban, mall going shopping zombies of the country, but true music freaks know that New Year’s Eve is, in fact, the holiest day of the year.

Promoters have always given audiences shows to rave about on Dec. 31, and this year is no exception.

The following are some of the examples of hot shows taking place on New Years Eve around Colorado’s Front Range, in no particular order. Check our full music calendar, which begins on page 32, for a full listing of shows.

Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots

Bluebird Theater

Often called the thinking man’s country music, Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots have been delighting audiences with personal tales of earthly anguish for years. Local photographer Gary Issacs once said that the band possesses “Edgar Allan Poe-meets-Tom Waits-meets-Jack Kerouac storytelling.” The band creates a rare sound through a combination of strings, violins, cellos and an upright bass, strengthened with vigorous drums. Voted Denver’s #1 Band by a Denver Post poll of more than 100 music industry professionals, Munly has been garnering a wealth of attention as purveyors of “The Denver Sound.” Munly is also well known in the Denver music scene for his roll in Slim Cessna’s Auto Club.

Rose Hill Drive

Boulder Theater

Rose Hill Drive rings in the New Year by playing a classic album of their choice in its entirety. Last year they performed an amazing rendition of Led Zeppelin I. This year they have their sites set on even more auspicious heights — Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, the classic live album that originally was performed by Hendrix, Buddy Miles and Billy Cox on New Year’s Eve 1969-1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City. There’s no doubt that Rose Hill will be able to pull this off, musically, the only question is whether or not the patriotic banner will hang from the balcony like it did during Hendrix’s performance.

Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Paramount Theatre

Big Head Todd and the Monsters are one of Colorado’s great musical success stories, and their New Year’s shows have become epic homecomings in recent years. This year, Big Head Todd is doing things a little different — opening for themselves. The band is going to play an acoustic set before coming back out for a full electric set. This ought to tide Denver fans over for some time, as the band has no plans (as of yet) to play another home-town show until after they return from their show in Hawaii this summer.

Yonder Mountain String Band

Fillmore Auditorium

YMSB has been a Fillmore staple for the past several years, and has written the book on high-octane jamgrass. Their newest album has the band adding drums into the mix to create a modern folk sound. For Yonder fans, New Years will be epic as the band caps its three-night run as the calendar flips to 2007. Never a band to miss an opportunity to have friends join them on stage, Yonder will most likely be having a slew of folks join their pick at the Fillmore, including Futureman from Bela Fleck and The Flecktones.

Dark Star Orchestra

Fox Theatre

New Year’s Eve Grateful Dead shows were almost always legendary performances, so who better to recreate them than the band that has fast become one of the best tribute bands in America today. The Grateful Dead were the best at what they did and Dark Star Orchestra is the best at what they do. We can’t have The Grateful Dead anymore (and we don’t really want “The Dead”), so Dark Star Orchestra might be the best we can hope for.

Kinetix

Gothic Theatre

Denver’s Kinetix has a philosophy which states “keep the beat up in your body.” Naming Stevie Wonder as a main influence in their music, this band crosses funk with pop and adds in a little rock to round it all out. Called “energy in motion,” the band members are all students of The Lamont School of Music. The band has just released a live CD recorded at both the Fox and Gothic theatres in 2006.

Shanti Groove

Trilogy Lounge

Shanti Groove is mountain grown grass grooves that fuse acoustic and electric lines and mix improvisational with traditional bluegrass. Cut from the same cloth as Leftover Salmon and Yonder Mountain, Shanti Groove’s performances are renowned for the vibe, intricate paraphrasing, funky percussion and powerful soundscapes.

Great American Taxi

Gold Hill Inn

The Lemonheads return revamped after 1O years, but future is uncertain

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:55:05 +0000

:: The Lemonheads :: Bluebird Theatre :: December 2 ::

By Matt Marty

Ten years after the last Lemonheads album, founding member and guitarist Evan Dando is at it again with a new self-titled album that is backed by a twenty-two date U.S. tour that features the latest line-up of the band, with drummer Bill Stevenson from Black Flag and Karl Alvarez from the Descendents on bass.

Starting back in 1986, The Lemonheads have been seen with more than ten different bass players and at least a dozen drummers, while Dando has remained the front man and brainchild of the band. Starting out on the Boston-based label Taang! Records, The Lemonheads first released the highly regarded EP Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners, which found an audience in college students. With the band gaining notoriety, Atlantic Records decided to sign them.

In 1992, The Lemonheads recorded the Simon and Garfunkel classic “Mrs. Robinson,” which appeared in Wayne’s World 2, sparking their success. The band’s first chart topping single came on the wings of 1993’s Come on Feel The Lemonheads, which was followed by numerous Dando meltdowns and 1996’s Car Button Cloth, the last CD Dando would do with The Lemonheads for ten years.

“I took a couple years off, but since 2000 I’ve been playing a lot of solo shows,” said Dando in a recent very begrudging interview with The Marquee.

The new self-titled CD is a treat for Lemonheads fans and features that classic Lemonhead sound that was so prevalent in the early ’90s. Backed by a strong supporting cast, Dando is still able to wed his eloquent voice to his classic pop/punk melodies in songs like “Pittsburgh” and “Poughkeepsie.” Though it seems that the foundation of Stevenson and Alvarez has solidified the band, said Dando, “Nothing is permanent.”

Behind this album lie some strong influences that contribute to the overall flow and structure. “The Buzz Cocks were influences and, of course, the Descendents,” said Dando. commenting on the latter, Alvarez’s and Stevenson’s band.

Promoting the new CD, The Lemonheads are gigging from Santa Ana, California to Boston, Massachusetts in a little less than a month. But as for the future, Dando said that it’s completely up in the air. “No idea,” he said.

Although Dando’s material may never rise above the cover The Lemonheads did of “Mrs. Robinson,” this self-titled album is a step in the right direction. It is well put together and shows where Dando is at this point in his life. The songs are heart wrenching, happy and melancholy, and together they form a great CD. As for the current band members surrounding Dando, they do a great job complimenting him and filling in where he falls down. For the sake of the material they are creating, it would be nice to see them stick together.

:: The Lemonheads ::

:: Bluebird Theatre :: December 2 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Beck

• Ben Kweller

• The Decemberists

Imogen Heap goes deep beyond her vocals

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:56:35 +0000

:: Imogen Heap :: Paramount Theater :: December 10 ::

By Marisa Beahm

Listen to any song by Imogen Heap and you will be immediately ensnared by her sultry, versatile voice. But to truly appreciate her artistry, it is essential to dig deeper than her captivating vocal qualities.

Heap is not only a one-woman band, but is also a songwriter, producer and technocrat. She is equipped with a computer, keyboard and her emotive, mysterious voice, which she layers like an instrument for her electro-alternative music. In the male-dominated industry of music sampling and production, she combines the best of both worlds: musical talent paired with technological prowess.

“People just ask me about singing, and that came much later,” Heap said. “I sang as a kid just for fun. I never wanted to be a pop star. I just played piano,” said Heap in an interview with The Marquee.

When she was young, Heap’s aspirations were never to be a famous songstress. Rather, she wanted to be a composer and director for a world-traveling orchestra. Now, as she recently wrapped up a European tour and began an American tour, she has hit two of her childhood marks: being a musician and traveling the world. Even without the orchestra, she can create any necessary accompaniment through her tech-savvy musicianship.

Heap entered the spotlight when she and Guy Sigsworth’s (manager of Madonna and Britney Spears) band Frou Frou caught the ear of Zach Braff. Braff selected their song “Let Go” for the Garden State Soundtrack, which claimed an Emmy Award in 2005. Heap also has had numerous songs selected for television soundtracks. With a willingness to experiment with textured beats and an adaptable voice, her computer editing skills allow her to explore and create new sounds.

“I find computers really freeing. Other people think they are anti-creative, because they are splicing, but it can become as natural as typing on the keyboard,” Heap said. “If you have an idea, you can chase something or almost improvise. Sometimes I get lost in it. It’s like when you’re driving home, and suddenly you’re there and you don’t’ remember it. You just get lost in it, like, ‘oh my gosh how did I get that sound?’”

Before she was sampling beats on her computer, Heap had been playing the piano for “as long as I can remember.” Her love for the piano was so great, she would not go on vacation without one or she’d be “very grumpy.” She also played the cello and clarinet.

Later, while attending boarding school, Heap dabbled on Atari computers. The computers were “insanely slow” and came equipped with a manual the size of “the biggest Bible with the smallest print,” said Heap. Despite having her patience tested by the technology, she built her songs, starting out with a piano, a double track and some “rubbish beat-boxing.”

Heap went on to study at the Brit Music School and signed her first contract at age 17 with Almo Sounds. Her first album came out in 1998, titled I Megaphone, which is an anagram of Imogen Heap. In 2001, she began working with Frou Frou and released Details the same year. One of her frustrations with the band was she would get recognized for her singing, but people would assume men had done the engineering, mixing or programming for the record, which was her doing.

Determined to receive the credit she was due, Heap started her own label, Megaphonics, where she could control the finances, writing and recording at her own studio. To pay for the label, she had to re-mortgage her home, which gave her the funding to proceed. Under the Megaphonics label, she released her first completely independent album, Speak for Yourself, in 2005.

“It is very difficult to write about heartfelt subjects. Trying to find something magical or in an unusual way is hard. I’ve had breakups. I’ve fallen in love. All songs are about one or the other. You’re either in love or out of it,” Heap said.

After this tour, Heap is already plotting her next move: composing a non-lyrical score for a film. “Not writing lyrics will be great. It’ll be like what I wanted to do when I was a kid,” she said. Luckily for fans who admire both her composing skills as well as her voice, she is sure that after the film project she’ll be “dying to write lyrics.”

:: Imogen Heap ::

:: Paramount Theater :: December 10 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Frou Frou

• Sufjan Stevens

• Kate Bush

’8Os icon Thomas Dolby reemerges from obscurity with a new plan for his music

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:57:40 +0000

:: Thomas Dolby :: Gothic Theatre :: December 3 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

“I was very frustrated with the music industry at the beginning of the ’90s,” said Thomas Dolby in a recent interview with The Marquee from his home as he prepared for his upcoming tour with fellow electronic music pioneer BT. “I was also conflicted because I never really saw myself as a mainstream artist and yet I’d had breakaway commercial success with ‘She Blinded Me with Science’ and a couple of other songs. However, those albums also contained some very quiet, personal, esoteric songs which were the ones that mattered more to me and I didn’t really know whether people had bought the records and were coming to see me because they had bought into the MTV hype or whether I’d made a connection with them with my more intimate material. What I was finding was that my record company didn’t really care. They just saw the public as units that would come out of the woodwork and buy the record provided they threw money at it in the form of satin tour jackets and the back page of Billboard. I couldn’t really live like that; I needed to know who my audience was.”

As a result, in 1992 after releasing Astronauts & Heretics, Dolby quietly stepped away from the music industry and ventured into the business world. “Because I had always been involved with technology I saw the internet not only as a way to get in touch directly with the audience but also as so much more of an interactive experience for the audience. You have this ability to feedback to the artist and so on. All this was a pipe dream in 1992, but the possibility was there and it was fascinating to me,” said Dolby.

“What I thought I would do is head out to Silicon Valley and try to accelerate the whole thing,” said Dolby. “It was tougher than I thought it would be.” The company he founded, Beatnik Inc. (formerly Headspace), focused on his goal of creating new types of musical experiences for audiences. After several years of struggling, wireless technology and MP3’s emerged as a logical medium to focus on, and in 2001 Beatnik finally hit pay dirt when their software got licensed by a majority of the world’s cell phone makers as the ring tone engine for their phones.

Needless to say, Dolby’s decision to return to performing and recording music came as a shock to many of his fans. “I think it really took them very much by surprise when I suddenly reappeared with tour, album, DVD, website, blog, forum, etc. They didn’t really know what hit them,” he said.

The beauty of his return lies in the fact that it has nothing to do with the money that he stands to make in the music industry. He clearly doesn’t need the money and has chosen to do this because he feels a need to create, and a need to share his music with fans, new and old alike.

The first step was to reconnect with his older fans, the ones who were with him throughout his first foray into the business. On November 21 he released a live retrospective of his career on both CD and DVD called The Sole Inhabitant. The CD was recorded earlier this year in Chicago and the DVD in Boston. “The project is made up of older songs that I have revitalized in the live setting before moving forward and doing new material,” said Dolby.

Dolby did hint at the fact that he was writing some new songs but a new record isn’t on the horizon until some time next year. Right now he is focusing on getting back in touch with his fanbase and reaching out to a new demographic.

Dolby’s love of the new and the old stretches beyond his fanbase and well into the actual process that he uses to create his music. “I’ve always had a bit of a fetish for old things and I buy old oscilloscopes off eBay for 40 or 50 bucks a pop. Then I have this guy in San Francisco who guts them for me and replaces the old parts with midi controllers,” he said. “So instead of using the shiny new knobs and sliders to control my stuff I’ve got these big rickety old devices and they look kind of fantastic. I’ve even got a head-mounted camera that shows the audience from my point of view as I twiddle the knobs on these things and the images are projected on a giant screen behind me.”

With a fantastic live show, revitalized songs and new ones in the works, Dolby’s true intentions seem crystal clear since he has reemerged into the music industry. “The nice thing about what I have done here is that it has shown me who my core audience really is, and to my delight they could care less about ‘She Blinded Me with Science’ and ‘Hyperactive.’ They enjoy them but that is not why they are coming to see me. They are coming because they have been in love with ‘Screen Kiss’ or ‘Budapest by Blimp’ or ‘Airwaves’ for 20 years and it is part of their lives. It is clear to me now that I did make a connection with a certain number of people. It was a subset of the people who bought the record when it was all over the radio and MTV but that’s okay. Now I know what I have to work with and what I have to build on.”

:: Thomas Dolby ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: December 3 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Soft Cell

• Devo

• BT

Son Volt’s Jay Farrar and Varnaline’s Parker team up for Gob Iron project

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:58:36 +0000

:: Gob Iron :: Fox Theatre :: December 6 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

It may be British slang for a harmonica, but on this side of the pond Gob Iron is Jay Farrar’s folk infused side project with Varnaline leader Anders Parker. “Anders had been on tour in England and his tour manager kept referring to his harmonica as a ‘Gob Iron,’” said Farrar, the Son Volt front man, from his home in St. Louis in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We decided it was the most ambiguous and most appropriate name for the project.”

The duo’s debut release, Death Songs for the Living, originated as a concept Farrar came up with for a Son Volt album. “This kind of project is something that I had always wanted to revisit, having done March 16-20 with Uncle Tupelo years ago. The initial idea was to have it be a Son Volt side project but that didn’t really work out. Anders and I had the time to do it, so it morphed into our project.”

When Farrar and Parker decided to go it alone they entered the studio with a batch of old school folk and blues songs by the likes of The Stanley Brothers, Stephen Foster and Rev. JM Gates. Five days later they emerged with all 19 tracks for their debut album recorded.

“We didn’t do a whole lot of planning or put a whole lot of forethought into it really,” said Farrar. “We both just kinda did our thing and both intuitively felt that adding some more contemporary elements to folk music was the way to go.”

The record’s instrumental tracks were almost an afterthought, according to Farrar, who admitted that those tracks were laid down on the last day in the studio and were basically the product of “organic jamming.” The short snippets of clean acoustic mountain music that appear on the record after each fully developed track serve their purpose very well as they transition the listener smoothly from one song to another.

“On the record I played piano, acoustic guitar, drums, bass, slide guitar and dulcimer,” said Farrar. On the road, he and Parker also play several instruments each and Gob Iron expands to a trio with the addition of Farrar’s long time touring buddy Marc Spencer on electric guitar.

Since Gob Iron has only one album at this point, both halves of the duo have been playing an acoustic set before taking the stage together to perform tracks from Death Songs. Uncle Tupelo fans may be a bit disappointed to learn that Farrar isn’t planning on breaking out any of that material in his set. “I am playing some songs from the new Son Volt album but I am primarily mining solo records,” he said. “I’m not going too far back, everything was released this millennium.”

Fan and critical response to the new project has so far been very positive, though Farrar did acknowledge that the first few shows were sparsely attended. “I think it has taken a while for people to wrestle the name to the ground, you know. We pretty much started touring right when the record came out but I think the name is starting to get out there by now,” he said.

The brief East Coast run was followed by a break and at this point Gob Iron has only a handful of dates on the schedule this year and two make-up shows in the New York area in January. “Whether Gob Iron continues beyond this stretch of dates remains to be seen,” said Farrar, who is looking forward to a March release of the new Son Volt record. As for Parker, he is touting his new solo album on this tour and has his own band to focus on.

Whether Gob Iron is a flash in the pan or a project that floats in out of our collective consciousness for years to come, now is the time to witness these two masters of alt-country mine the traditional folk cannon.

:: Gob Iron ::

:: Fox Theatre :: December 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Uncle Tupelo

• Bruce Springsteen

• Woody Guthrie

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead releases their most revealing album to date

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:59:14 +0000

:: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead :: Fox Theatre :: December 15 ::

By Tiffany Childs

The members of ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead are self-proclaimed liars. However, front man Conrad Keely (vocals/guitar/drums) assures people it is simply a form of entertainment. After all, the lies have been for the amusement of their audience, not a deception for personal gain.

The game, however, is about to change with the release of their new album on November 14. So Divided finally allows a glimpse of what is underneath all the smoke and mirrors and The Marquee recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jason Reece (vocals/guitar/drums) about what fans can expect to see.

“Musically, this album has a lot more keys and piano because Conrad has been focusing on learning that stuff,” Reece said from New York, where the band was preparing to play a record store show to celebrate the release. “It is more of Sonic Youth meets early Genesis,” he said. That’s quite a change for a band where four out of five members are drummers and previous albums have reflected that percussive drive.

In addition to the keys, Reece said that there are also new personal aspects on the record. “The lyrics on So Divided are closer to the heart,” said Reece. “Our other albums were more worldly, more abstract. They were about other people’s lives. This album came from a lot of Conrad’s experience. He was going through a lot and he just kind of had to get it out.”

Reece also said that the rest of the band — Doni Schroader (drums, piano), Danny Wood (bass) and Kevin Allen (guitar), were all supportive of Conrad taking on more lyrical control. “When someone has something to say, you support it because it’s heartfelt. You just have to trust that it’ll be good in the end,” Reece said.

It turned out to be a well-placed trust.

So Divided is layered, heavy and monumentally loud. It is filled with tender moments that rear up out of nowhere and slap you in the face. The album is reminiscent of a tumultuous love affair and makes you wonder what exactly Keely was going through when he penned particular words such as “All of you lovers who think you’re in love/I’ll put you out of your misery.” Above all, it is an album that begs to be listened to over and over again — if only as a frighteningly beautiful glimpse into the dangerous mind of a hyper-intellectual lyricist.

But through the changes the band is still staying true to its roots and not alienating its fans of old. Live audiences can still expect to see guitars thrown, drum kits smashed and onstage dance-offs. Reece was clear that Trail of Dead remains true to their original goal — entertaining the crowd. As he put it, “We want to take you on a journey, so we create songs that build momentum, songs that get our audiences worked up and don’t let them come down. The band thrives on the energy of the crowd. That is still the same with So Divided.”

So Divided represents the fifth collective work of Trail of Dead and Reece pointed out that it isn’t always easy agreeing with four other people about music. “Everyone has an opinion and it becomes a test of will at times, but it shouldn’t be easy to make an album or everyone would be doing it. Hardships create serious and substantial music and that’s what we use,” he said.

Entertainment is without a doubt the foremost thing on Trail of Dead’s minds. Even though they are celebrating the release of their latest album, they are hard at work on new projects. Creativity seems an innate characteristic of this band. “We are always ready to go with music,” Reece said. “We continue on even after a record is completed. We want to always be creative.”

Regarding what they want to create, the band has often proclaimed they want to make music that is violent yet beautiful. So Divided brings them one step closer to that goal.

:: ...And You Will Know Us by the

Trail of Dead ::

:: Fox Theatre :: December 15 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sonic Youth

• Jesus & Mary Chain

• The Decemberists

Snow Patrol roars into the states like a winter blizzard

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:00:38 +0000

:: Snow Patrol :: 93.3’s Not So Silent Ball :: Fillmore Auditorium :: December 5 ::

By Brian Kenney

Timing is everything. Elvis showed up at just the right time. The stars aligned, the world sighed, and we were just waiting for him. He had perfect timing. The Beatles, likewise. America was just waiting for the Liverpool lads to deplane on that fateful February day.

For Snow Patrol, they’ve never really changed their craft, but it seems like their timing wasn’t always aligned with fate. For more than a decade, the States were never really ready for them — until 2006.

Creeping in silently like a stealthy avalanche, Snow Patrol has taken the country by storm this year, gathering momentum on varying degrees of airplay, which since summer’s end has found the band in heavy radio rotation. From the hypnotic simplicity of “Chasing Cars” to the heavy erruption of “Hands Open,” 2006’s Eyes Open presents a textural opera based on the themes of loneliness, desolation and solitude. “I was quite an introspective kid,” said Gary Lightbody in a recent interview with The Marquee. The Snow Patrol vocalist, lyricist and founder said that the pensive and meditative nature of his music could have come from that introspection. “I wasn’t that sociable. I didn’t really get the kind of confidence I have now until I was in my late teens. So I spent a lot of the time reading poetry and literature.”

Ironically enough, Lightbody found company with other semi-introverts who shared the same musical appreciation and ambition: drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Mark McClelland. They formed the core of what was then called Polar Bear in Belfast, circa 1995, releasing a couple of minor league discs, before second guitarist Nathan Connolly came into the fold in 2001. (Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery also had a band named Polar Bear around the same time and with more clout than Lightbody’s band, the boys eventually became Snow Patrol.)

The band found humble success of a British nature with this combination and the release of Final Straw in 2004. Yet, with close to double-platinum status worldwide for Final Straw, Snow Patrol’s timing in the States was still years away.

On the cusp of what was to be a monumental 2005, Lightbody and original member McClelland’s relationship strained, with the latter departing in the early portion of the year, leaving Snow Patrol to add Paul Wilson on bass. After building upon the success of Final Straw, they were launched into higher rotation in heavier markets and, as a result, higher profile shows — the pinnacle being the opening slot for U2’s European jaunt on the Vertigo Tour. “When you see them [U2] projecting to every last person in the arena and connecting on that level so effortlessly, it’s amazing. And the thought crossed our minds that, hell, maybe we can do that! But they’ve been doing it for 25 years. So we have a lot to learn in that department and we’re having to learn it pretty fast,” Lightbody said.

Velocity is an apt term in describing what Snow Patrol has come upon in 2006. After a decade, things are happening pretty fast for the band. “Every day’s a school day. We still feel like a new band in terms of our enthusiasm and naïveté,” said Lightbody.

Lately, Snow Patrol are earning their own arena status. Having begun the year at mid-sized to large theaters, they will leave 2006 having played at a number of high profile festivals. In the coming year, they’ll play even larger venues, some of them arenas, before turning to the summer for another festival run. “Even though it’s been 10 years, the larger shows have kind of crept up on us and suddenly they’re here. And it’s not like we’re not prepared, and as a live band I think we’re pretty good,” Lightbody said, his Irish brogue overflowing with honesty. “But now the shows are no longer about a gig. It’s about just that: a show. And that’s the difference between a gig and a show. Now we’ve got to arrive in the mothership like Parliament Funkadelic,” he said with a laugh.

But even in front of 20,000 or more countless admirers (as it was when the band performed at Live 8, both in London and Edinburgh), solitude is a personal theme that preoccupies Lightbody. Perhaps solitude and introspection are what led to the departure of founding bassist McClelland early in 2005 as the band neared the recording session for Eyes Open. “I like to write the lyrics on my own and shut myself off from everything. Maybe that’s why my songs tend to be so emotional and relationship-based,” said Lightbody.

Nevertheless, said Lightbody, Eyes Open accomplished its goals of sounding bigger without sounding overproduced, even if its themes are minimalist. “[We wanted to] make a gigantic sounding record. And I think we achieved that,” he said.

But perhaps as a disillusioned teen who grows out of the angst that introversion breeds, the Eyes Open World Tour has turned Lightbody onto bigger themes. Perhaps it was the sobering effect of losing his voice so early on in the spring tour, having to cancel a handful of U.S. dates that the band was so primed to play. Perhaps it was their performance at Live 8. Hell, perhaps for Lightbody, it was turning 30. Nonetheless, he has a wider focus on his place in music.

“I’m not that political as a person, but it seems to be more difficult to keep it [politics] at a distance anymore, so I think the wider world will be incorporated into my lyrics in the future. And I don’t mean that they will become militant and political, but I’ll talk about relationships in a wider scope. It’s just hard to ignore what’s going on in our time,” he said.

Ultimately, maybe it’s a sense that without music Lightbody is but a shell of himself: “I don’t have kids…” he said pensively. “But the closest thing to probably having kids…is having records.”

:: Snow Patrol ::

:: 93.3’s Not So Silent Ball ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: December 5 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bloc Party

• The Fray

• U2

CD Reviews - January - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:50:46 +0000

Leftover Salmon

Years in Your Ears

Yellow Pine Pictures

OOOO out of OOOOO

It’s only been two years since the members of Leftover Salmon threw in the collective towel and decided, very amicably, to go their separate ways. But even though it’s been a short time, this DVD about the band is long overdue.

Years In Your Ears is a great documentary about the band that takes viewers from the band’s earliest beginnings up to their pinnacle. Chock full of hysterical interviews with Salmon fambly (sic) members and a who’s who of musicians, the DVD tells the tale as long as the story of the salmon returning to its home waters to spawn.

The list of those included on the DVD is too long to mention, but includes everyone from promoter Don Strasburg and Planet Bluegrass’ Craig Ferguson, to the band’s road manager Johnny Pfarr and former manager Michael Slingsby. On the musician side there are up-close interviews with everyone from John Cowan and Sam Bush to the members of Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident, Shanti Groove, and Larry Keel, among others.

The documentary truly draws back the curtain and lets viewers behind the scenes and on the bus of the band in its early days and shows how seemingly effortlessly the members of Leftover Salmon jibed and jived with the members of the musical community and its fans.

Throughout, little tid-bits are revealed that will make even the most unseasoned Salmon fans seem like experts. It’s revealed how the band’s album Bridges to Bert got its name; how the band itself got its name (on the way to their first gig); the origin of front man Vince Herman’s “FESTIVAL” cry (which, ironically, comes from an old Star Trek episode); and, the documentary of course spends a good deal of time talking about the band’s famed banjo player Mark Vann, who passed away before the group disbanded.

The film also has a somewhat religious overtone to it, in the way that it talks about folks, or in this case freaks, gathering for musical celebrations, and the way that not just Leftover fans but festivarians in general, take the music as seriously as Bible followers take their religion.

While Years In Your Ears does all of this flawlessly, there are a few problems with its mullet-headed fun. The only interviews with actual band members appear in the special features section of the DVD. Adding their commentary alongside the aforementioned laundry list of those interviewed could have certainly added some depth to the overall picture that the film paints.

The other main issue with the film is that for all of the focus on the band’s early days, there was little talk about the post-Vann days of the band, when a young picker named Noam Pikelny came in to fill the shoes left by Vann and blew fans’ minds with his laid-back, but incredibly refined and skilled banjo playing. There is also no mention of the band’s dissolve, and since it happened on what seemed to be such friendly terms, it seems like there certainly should have been some discussion of that, as well as what the members of the band are doing today with their new projects.

But, those points aside, Years In Your Ears is a great tribute to one of Colorado’s most spirited, unlikely and down-right fun success stories.

- Brian F. Johnson

Lecain

Suffocate Me

United Blood & Glory Records

OOOO out of OOOOO

“Suffocate Me” is the debut single from the recently formed LECAIN.

London-based front man Gérard LeCain spent time with endless garage bands before he eventually decided to work on his own music. After writing most of the songs for his first album at his home in Stockholm, Gérard moved to London, met up with guitarist Yannis Kontos, and sought out a “suitable-sounding” drummer and bassist.

The album, which will be released within the next year, may sound more like California than London, but adds a refreshing twist to its over-played MTV counterparts.

- Alex Samuel

The Soul of John Black

The Good Girl Blues

Cadabra

OOO out of OOOOO

If a red-wine-buzz could dance, The Soul of John Black would be the music playing. The band’s sultry album The Good Girl Blues features afro beats, smooth percussion and the seasoned soul of John ‘JB’ Bingham. JB has been all over the place: with Miles Davis in Paris, with Nikka Costa, with Bruce Hornsby and, believe it or not, with Eminem. JB extended beyond one-time-stints when he played guitar and keyboards for rock-funk-ska band Fishbone for eight years, contributing everything from production expertise to songs and background vocals.

The Good Girl Blues releases 12 tracks of bluesy bits like “Moanin’” or the Ben Harper-esque vintage infused “Deez Blues.”

- Alex Samuel

The Jimi Austin

East of Liam

Independent

OO1/2 out of OOOOO

Based out of Fort Collins, The Jimi Austin is an eclectic blend of sonically-focused rock and roll.

The foursome’s debut album East of Liam, sounds like sophomoric Pearl Jam mixed with the pop-rock style of MTV’s eyeliner clad bad boys, and that’s all a good thing. The album’s tenth track, “Paradiso,” rings of desperate angst while “Street Corner” distantly reiterates Linkin Park’s better days.

The foursome brags reviews like “one of the best up-and-coming bands in Northern Colorado,” and “the songs are fresh, original and very well crafted.” So while others may disagree, it seems safe to assume The Jimi Austin does better live than in the studio.

- Alex Samuel

Glen Phillips

Mr. Lemons

Umami Music

OOOO out of OOOOO

Glen Phillips’ quiet California voice, known to many from Toad the Wet Sprocket, is back and more personal than ever.

His new album Mr. Lemon was recorded with the goal of capturing the feel of a live performance in the studio. The songs, which were recorded with live lead vocals or were built up from solo vocals, captures the quiet heartbreak of Phillips.

The Santa Barbara-born musician recorded the album in Nashville, Tenn., and will release the record independently “as part of [his] decision to shift from the insanity of the record business to the manageability of a family business.”

The album slowly entrances its listeners with melancholy vocals and simple instrumentals that reflect echoes of Jeff Buckley on a windy day at the beach.

— Alex Samuel

Blackalicious

4/20 Live in Seattle

Black Mine

OOOOO out of OOOOO

It’s hard to imagine the level of energy that Blackalicious and guests packed into Seattle’s Showbox Theatre.

Rolling 1,200 fans deep, the 14-song set features mesmerizing guest appearances by Lateef, Pigeon John, LifeSavas and Fat Lip of Pharcyde that could never be captured without the high quality (HDV), albeit smoke-filled, visuals.

Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel build up the beat with the opening track “Alphabet Aerobics” and work the crowd to explosive levels with complex tracks like “First in Flight.”

When Gift of Gab tells the crowd to “put it up,” even though I’m watching this in a quiet coffee shop, I’m about ready to jump up and do it, and while my muscles tense to do so, the only thing that stops me is disturbing the other people around me, who are at least acting like they’re working.

4/20 Live in Seattle is Blackalicious’ first DVD and the elegantly entwined interview clips and concert stills are as if someone put a hip-hop filter on Scorcese’s or Pennebaker’s lens and somehow captured exactly Gab’s and Xcel’s psyches.

Now, do yourself a favor — put that holiday gift certificate from your aunt to good use and pick up a copy of this DVD.

— Alex Samuel

Dan Craig

Wirebird

Independent

OOO out of OOOOO

Denver-native Dan Craig began playing guitar in sixth grade and eventually recorded his debut album after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.

After returning to the mountains and spending a year in medical school, the sandpapered sweetness of Craig’s voice blended with melodic blues strumming in his newest album Wirebird.

Each of the album’s 12 tracks would fit perfectly beneath Zach Braff’s banter in any episode of “Scrubs” or on a coffee shop stage.

In fact, Craig finds his way to the stage almost every weekend with his new band the A-Tones or as a member of Denver’s pop collective, Nathan and Stephen.

Although repetitive at times, the innocence of Craig’s songwriting and the seasoned scratch of his voice form a timeless album appropriate for long drives or minor-meltdowns.

— Alex Samuel

Industry Profile: Airshow Mastering’s Chief engineer David Glasser turns the knobs for the best

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:51:10 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

It felt awfully odd pulling out my old brick of a cassette recorder in a room specially designed for mastering DVDs and Super Audio CDs, where surround sound speakers tower over the corners of the room. I was sitting down to interview one of the best pair of ears in Colorado — David Glasser, the founder and chief engineer at Airshow Mastering — and amidst some of the most technologically advanced audio mastering equipment, that old cassette recorder was like having a dinosaur walk into a modern-day science lab. It was almost comical.

But Glasser, isn’t afraid of dinosaurs. With over 30 years experience in audio engineering, a man who has mastered over 60 Grammy nominated records and is a three-time nominee and two-time Grammy winner himself, his calm and humble nature, not to mention his dry sense of humor, takes over the room.

Having grown up on the East Coast in the town of Amityville, N.Y. (the same one from the famed movie Amityville Horror), Glasser began his audio career with the Boston Symphony, followed by eight years of recording and production for National Public Radio. (Longtime NPR listeners have heard Glasser’s work on the new shows “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.”)

In 1987 Glasser started Airshow Mastering in Washington, D.C., to offer remote recording services for concerts, festivals and special events, but as the business grew, his desire to leave the East Coast also grew. A friend of his, Steve Szymanski, who is the vice president of Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, Colo., had suggested that Glasser check out Boulder, and after visiting the area he was sold. So in 1997 he moved Airshow to Colorado, while keeping a studio just outside the nation’s capitol in Springfield, Va.

The following are excerpts from my conversation with Glasser, inside that pristine room, Studio C, at Airshow’s Boulder facility.

Marquee: What was the first album you ever bought?

Glasser: Bought? I forget if it was the first Jimi Hendrix or the first Richie Havens record, but I bought them both at around the same time when they first came out. Wait. That’s not true, I had the Beatles before that, either the first or second Beatles album.

Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended?

Glasser: My first real concert I was too young to appreciate. I think I went with some youth group or something to see Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponies. But the first concert that really had a huge impact was a huge concert with the Chambers Brothers, and I was a huge Chambers Brothers fan, The Soft Machine, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and Jimi Hendrix in 1968. That was major.

Marquee: Explain to people who don’t know what mastering really is.

Glasser: It’s putting the finishing polish on the music and a pretty good analogy is like a colorist in film. It’s the person who has taken all of the film shot over, say, a six-month period in various lighting conditions and makes sure that it all looks like it belongs in the same movie. We do the same thing. We put the finishing polish on the sound to make sure that it is what the artist intended it to be, and that it all hangs together, no matter what kind of music it is.

Marquee: Why do you do what you do?

Glasser: I’m a big music fan and I get a lot of satisfaction out of that and plus, like all engineers, I like playing with the toys.

Marquee: There’s such a shift to MP3s and lower quality music going on right now, does that bother you and what if these rumblings that the CD is dead come true?

Glasser: It bothers me a little bit, and I think that goes for all of the guys who work here. We’re all about high quality and making things sound the best they can and when it gets down to an MP3, or satellite radio for that matter, it loses a lot of that vibe that the original had, but you can only worry about it so much. As for the physical product, I hope it doesn’t die. That’s just where I come from. I like the physical artifact. I’m a nut for box sets and you can’t get that experience in a download.

Marquee: What projects are you most proud of, is it the projects you were honored with Grammy’s for, or are there others?

Glasser: Of course I’m really proud of the Grammys but even if the Anthology of American Folk Music hadn’t won a Grammy I would still be very proud of it, because I’ve come to learn that that was a really important product when it came out originally in the ’50s and our version was, of course, the re-issue. So I’m really proud of that. (Glasser’s other Grammy was for Screamin’ and Hollering’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charlie Patton.) But I’m really thrilled to have worked on the Grateful Dead Movie, because I’ve been a Dead Head for forever. And I’ve loved working with artists who I’ve been a real fan of, like Peter Rowan or the Stanley Brothers. I’m just proud to have been associated with their projects.

Marquee: What other projects were a nice surprise for you?

Glasser: Most of the time it’s a surprise and that’s a nice thing. It’s so great when it happens. It’s happened locally with Buckskin Stallion. Troy’s (Schoenfelder) music just blew me away and I hadn’t had any expectations of what it was going to be. Uncle Earl, I mastered their first CD and it was a really big thrill and Arthur Lee Land was great too.

Marquee: What’s your feeling on the trend of commerce over content in mainstream music and using things like Autotune and stuff that allows people who maybe shouldn’t be making records to produce something.

Glasser: Well, I think it’s just one way of making records and a way of making music, but it’s not the only way and there’s a lot more people making their own music these days where you don’t have to have an old school recording studio and trained operators the way you used to. So more and more people are making music, which means that there’s more bad music, but there’s a lot more good music too and I think that’s a good thing. Surely it’s not the fault of the music that the music industry is where it is today. It’s the fault of the culture.

Marquee: With the ears that you have, can you actually enjoy other people’s work or are you always looking at it under the microscope for what could have been done sonically?

Glasser: You can listen at all different levels. So when I’m listening for musical enjoyment I try to turn off the analytical sonic thing. It’s not that hard. If it’s good music that’s going to come through no matter what, no matter how poorly or weirdly it’s recorded. I sort of came to appreciate that when I started working on all these archival things. They were from recordings made in the ’20s and ’30s on old 78s and some of them really sounded bad, but the music is so cool that you immediately learn to listen through all of the noise and the emotion still comes through.

From the barstool of the publisher - January, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:52:48 +0000

I’m so friggin’ happy to have My Morning Jacket on the cover of The Marquee again.

I still remember the day a friend handed me a copy of The Jacket’s debut full-length release CD Tennessee Fire. I thought they were great, but a little while later when they followed up with It Still Moves, I was blown away and hooked for good.

The first time I saw them live I was shocked and the second time I saw them live it was an epic experience. I personally think that people kick around the phrases “the next big thing” and “the best band out there” way too much, but when it comes to My Morning Jacket, I don’t think it can be overstated.

Since the last time we had them on the cover (October of 2005), the band’s popularity and exposure have increased 100-fold. Their sets at last summer’s festivals (Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, to name just two) were highlights of the summer concert scene, and their recent contribution to The Band tribute album Endless Highway is superb. (That CD isn’t due out until later this month, but trust me, you’re going to freak when you hear it.)

One of the things that make My Morning Jacket so incredibly impressive is something that was discussed in last month’s CD/DVD review section as part of the review on B4MD (Before the Music Dies) — an incredible documentary that gets up close and personal with some of the music industry’s heaviest hitters about the state and the fate of the music industry.

Interviewed in that documentary is Bruce Flohr, of ATO Records (which coincidentally is My Morning Jacket’s label), who talks in length about an artist, Doyle Bramhall II, who Flohr courted when he was with RCA, but was essentially cast aside by the major label. Bramhall has gone on to be recognized by a slew of iconic musicians, including Eric Clapton, and I think it’s a true testament that there are some positive things going on in the music industry these days, despite the overriding tone that it’s all commerce over content.

It all falls on us, the music freaks, to support artists like Bramhall, like the Jacket and others. If we, as consumers, continue to purchase crap, the industry will continue to produce it, but if we buy the good stuff — the real stuff — we’re going to be better off in the long run (and probably a lot more proud of our CD collections).

We’ll see you at the shows.

Johnny Cash’s band, the Tennessee Three still creating the sound of the Man in Black

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:53:36 +0000

:: The Tennessee Three :: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom :: January 26 ::

By Tiffany Childs

Johnny Cash’s music is as easily identifiable as Cash himself is famous, but he didn’t create that unique sound alone. Early in his career Cash made the significant decision that he was only going to work with one band and he stuck to that resolution until his retirement. The band, known as The Tennessee Three, has reinforced Johnny’s music over the past decades.

Although the bassist has changed throughout the years, two members of the band, W.S. Holland (drums) and Bob Wootton (guitar and vocals) were with Cash for most of his professional life. The two are continuing the Cash legacy by touring and performing the same kind of music Cash loved to play, and it’s a unique situation for the musicians and the fans. This is not a Cash tribute or cover band, this is a band made up by the men who are as integral to the music as Cash was. The Marquee recently had the honor of talking with them about the long road they have traveled and where that road may lead now that Mr. Cash is no longer with us.

W.S. Holland has an extensive, and rather impressive, roster of people he has played with. Holland began his career playing with Carl Perkins before he joined Cash in 1960. Along the way he toured with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison, in addition to Perkins and Cash when they traveled as a package.

During that time he was also the drummer for the “Million Dollar Quartet” session — which featured Cash, Perkins, Presley and Lewis in an impromptu jam session at Sun Records. Other highlights include playing on the Statler Brothers’ Flowers on the Wall and Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline. But Holland’s main work has always been with Cash.

Cash reportedly told Holland when they first met, “I want you to work with me every show I play for as long as I’m in the business.” And that is exactly what happened.

The other half of the long-standing duo, Bob Wootton, has a voice that is so eerily similar to Johnny Cash’s that even his own mother couldn’t tell the difference between the two. In fact, that’s the beginning of the story for Wootton. The guitarists’s mother heard Johnny Cash on the radio and called Wootton into the room because she thought it was him singing. After hearing that song, Wootton become a fan and promptly learned all of Cash’s songs.

Wootton’s studying paid off in 1968 when Cash’s regular guitarist missed a flight, and therefore a show. June Carter requested that Wootton play with Cash, and Wootton’s years of practicing allowed him to join the band seamlessly. From that night forward Wootton has been a member of The Tennessee Three and some even argue that he helped keep the momentum of Johnny Cash going when he became a part of the band.

Wootton had often served as lead guitarist for Cash, but he was also the vocal accompaniment. His similarity to Cash’s singing style continues to this day, creating an uncanny feeling that you are listening to the Man in Black himself.

And that is the heart of the appeal of The Tennessee Three. “You can expect to see the same thing you would’ve seen at a Johnny Cash show in the past because we’ve been with him all these years. And we are very fortunate that Bob’s voice is so similar,” Holland said.

Wootton, Holland and Cash were all “in it for the fun” when they began playing together. Holland insisted, “No one thought they would make it, we didn’t think any of us would. So when Johnny did, nothing really changed.” Wootton and Holland never felt like they were working for someone, but like they were just part of a family. That closeness provides their ability to continue playing shows that attract eager fans wanting to hear the sound of Johnny Cash.

Through it all, they supported and never worried about not being in the limelight or sharing the attention that Cash was showered with. “No one will ever be in the limelight the way John was. We’ve always been the backup band and that’s all we want to be,” Holland said.

The Tennessee Three remain true to their roots, performing original songs as well as new ones from the recently released album, The Sound Must Go On. They also reportedly throw in a gospel song or two, just as Cash did in his day.

Although the album was recorded as a bit of a tribute, that wasn’t the only meaning behind The Sound Must Go On. As Holland said, “This isn’t a tribute, necessarily. Some people see it that way and that’s fine, but we are just doing what we’ve always done, playing music.”

:: The Tennessee Three ::

:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom ::

:: January 26 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Johnny Cash

• Merle Haggard

• Waylon Jennings

Joseph Israel records new album at famed Bob Marley studios in Jamaica

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:54:08 +0000

:: Joseph Israel :: Bluebird Theater :: January 15 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: January 18 ::

By Neil McIntyre

Being a red-haired white man from Tulsa, Oklahoma hasn’t stopped Joseph Israel from performing his own brand of roots reggae. The way he sees it, looks shouldn’t stop people from hearing him out.

Judging this book by its cover could lead people to missing out on one of reggae’s next big acts.

Israel has the tone, musicianship and lyrical quality it takes to be embraced by the world of the Rasta. His new album Gone are the Days is due out in March on Universal/NewDoor Records and was recorded partially at Bob Marley’s legendary studio in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuff Gong. Additionally, Israel’s new album features a host of Jamaica’s greatest session musicians including saxophonist Dean Fraser, bassist Chris Meredith, lead guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, rhythm guitarist Ian ‘Breezy’ Coleman, drummer Wilburn ‘Squidley’ Cole, keyboardist Paul ‘Scooby’ Smith, pianists Franklyn ‘Bubbler’ Waul and Paul ‘Wrong Move’ Crossdale, and percussionist Uzziah ‘Sticky’ Thompson. And reggae greats Luciano, his accompanist Rochelle Bradshaw and Mikey General all sit in on a track.

After making numerous trips to “Jam Rock” throughout his youth, Israel amassed a great deal of spiritual knowledge and essential organic flavors. “That’s what really brought everyone together, that’s why all those guys wanted to work with me. They heard a message. My first day recording at Tuff Gong just a couple of people were in there and I was laying down the rhythms. By the time the day was over the place was full with like 200 people watching,” Israel said in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Although Israel is not a Rastafarian, he does study their teachings — and the kid has done his homework. A conversation with Israel constantly alternates between dialogue and quotes from his readings. While many of his reggae counterparts are caught up in “slackness” and content to move the dance floor, Israel is not content with just amusing his audiences, he plans to deliver a serious helping of message.

“My main mission is to let the people know that there truly is a creator, you know, and it’s the time for us to come together through the message of the scriptures. Not the message of religion but really just the message of the scriptures in the Bible. The creator truly is a God of love, a God of justice, a God of wisdom and of course all-powerful so, people who have been outcast or feel like they have been outcast by religion or different philosophies, all the confusion of the world, come about through us misunderstanding each other. Whether it’s religion or politics or all these different divisions on Earth. But, they (the scriptures) say that there is a true God that really isn’t a part of any of these ways of man that we all have inherited. He is really there for all of us and he wants us all to turn our mind to Him so that we start living the right way. It’s the awakening time,” said Israel.

On the title track of Gone are the Days, Israel sings about saying goodbye to the days of slumber and hello to something new: “The ways of this world are coming to an end; the ways of selfishness, the ways of warfare. The rising of living and loving your neighbor as you love yourself — that truly is coming about. Even though right now it seems that the dark forces are controlling most things, we know in the end good will overcome evil.”

It was through sharing readings of scripture that Israel hooked up with Luciano on a more personal level. The song they co-wrote, “Ruff Times” is by far one of Israel’s hottest efforts. Later, Israel toured extensively with Luciano and even opened for him here in Colorado. “Colorado is a great place for reggae music. Traveling there as a youth, you know, when I was like 18 or 19, I saw so many reggae shows, Reggae on the Rocks, I saw Burning Spear at the Boulder Theater. I always loved the vibes. Colorado is a nice free place, you know, it feels freed up when you’re there,” said Israel.

Continued study and some good radio airplay on the isle eventually led to Israel working along-side the first name in reggae: the Marleys. In fact, he recently did an acoustic set before Ziggy while on his U.S tour and his new touring band features Love Letta, a singer in Damien Marley’s group. “My producer played bass with Ziggy (Marley) for like twenty years. He plays like four bass lines on The MisEducation of Lauryn Hill. He’s an incredible musical genius. Our drummer, Marlon Davis, out of Little Rock, Ark., brings an R&B/ Gospel heritage. He’s bringing a new little vibe. Also, we have, from Arkansas, Matt Smith, a great guitar player. We’ve got a tough little package of talented people. It’s the greatest of joys to be with these people, believe me. The unity and love you feel from the album, it is from the musicians and we’re really going to come out and rock Colorado.

:: Joseph Israel ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: January 15 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: January 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Steel Pulse

• Matisyahu

• Ziggy Marley

Storytyme re-discovers itself as a rock band, records new album in Super Audio

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:55:43 +0000

::Storytyme :: Fox Theatre :: January 6 ::

By Tiffany Childs

When a band gets together at the ages of 8, 10 and 12, you’d hardly expect them to last. In the case of Storytyme you’d be wrong.

Pete (guitar/vocals), Phil (bass) and Tony Lewis (drums/vocals) have been playing together since they received their first instruments as childhood Christmas gifts. Although the three still possess a child-like love for music, their sound has grown and matured along with the brothers over the years.

In those early days, the band wrote lyrics for songs and they would develop the music later. “In a way, we were always just telling a story first — stories that happened in our lives. The music came after the words,” Pete Lewis revealed in a recent interview with The Marquee. That approach to songwriting is what eventually inspired the band’s name, Storytyme.

This may seem a little surprising for a band that classifies itself as “reborn retro rock,” citing groups such as AC/DC and Yes as main influences, rather than typical singer/songwriter-type storytellers. But while the band members do admit their music has been pretty varied previously, there is, of course, a story to tell.

It seems there were two parts to the Storytyme of the past — the lyrical, yarn-weaving element that focused on a variety of energy levels, versus the hard rocking, high intensity side. The dispute has finally been settled. Rock won and the brothers now talk about the exciting future in front of them.

First up is a new album. Scheduled for release in spring 2007, this may be the thing that excites Tony Lewis, who is also a sound engineer for IMMERSIVETM Studios in Boulder, the most. The band is branching out of traditional recording and using Sony Super Audio to record this time around. “We want the sound to be true on the recording and this is the best there is,” Tony said.

The brothers have planned a three-day live recording session where they will all play together in one room to capture more of the rawness associated with a live show. Normally, bands are recorded one instrument at a time, but Storytyme wanted to give their fans something closer to an authentic performance.

Not only will the actual sound be different, but the brothers are also using more guitar-driven hooks and choruses on this record. Pete has been writing more and more music-based songs and leaving the lyrics for later. This has created the sound the brothers have been looking for recently. “In past shows we have gone from high to low energy and back again, but now the show is straight rock. We’ve noticed the high energy songs are the ones that get the people going the most and keep the crowd’s attention, so that’s what this album is comprised of mostly,” Phil said.

The local trio has also recently focused on creating a big push with their manager Frank Sherfey of Dragons Tale Music, to “get their name out there” using multiple promotional tools. This has included everything from television appearances to agreeing to let a Marquee writer into their studio during recording. Based on the fullness of their touring schedule, whatever they are doing seems to be working.

As for that touring schedule, Storytyme is planning to kickoff a west coast tour at the beginning of the year in southern California in conjunction with the release of the album. That tour will be quickly followed with excursions to the Southwest and Midwest and Storytyme is hopeful they will receive an invitation to the famed South By Southwest Festival.

A highlight of their upcoming tours is a project Storytyme is referring to as “A Rock and Roll Story: An Insider’s Look at Today’s Music Industry.” This event is a two-day workshop at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, British Columbia, where the band wraps up their West Coast tour. Their plan is to “educate young musicians so they can learn from the mistakes that have already been made and move forward quicker in their careers,” Tony said.

This positive, do-good outlook is a central characteristic of the band. They seem to be naturally optimistic and good-natured people that like to inspire their audiences to follow their dreams.

Although it is easy to identify the personality of the band, it remains hard to classify the music Storytyme is playing. Regardless of the rock genre that they place their music in, it is easy to hear that it flows from the hearts of these three musicians to their fans in a move more spiritual than rock usually allows. But, the brothers said, if fans promise to bring their dancing shoes, they would promise to give the crowds a reason to use them.

::Storytyme ::

:: Fox Theatre :: January 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Dire Straights

• Yes

• The Doors

moe. takes its place as the elder statesmen of the jamband scene, releases new CD, The Conch

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:56:14 +0000

:: moe. :: Twist and Shout :: January 24 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: January 25 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: January 26 ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: January 27 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

True to jamband form, upstate New York’s moe. toured incessantly throughout 2006. They bounced across the country, road testing new material and hammering songs into shape for their eighth studio release, The Conch, that will hit shelves on Jan. 23.

The Conch is a 17-track offering that includes 13 fully-developed songs and four short snippets or interludes. “The process of recording stretched out over the course of a year, as we were extremely busy, recording, working on the DVD, playing live and about 10 other things,” said Chuck Garvey (vocals, guitar, keyboards) in a recent interview with The Marquee. The result is a solid album that subtly discloses the maturity of the band and their rare ability to create intense hook-laden music as effortlessly in the studio as they do on stage.

Fortunately for fans, 2007 is looking to be another busy year for the five boys in moe. The festivities begin this month in Miami, Fla., when they board Norwegian Cruiselines’ newest ship The Jewel and throw a seven-night party on the high seas for their fans. The cruise will feature performances by moe. each night and Garvey even hinted that there may be a private show on a beach during the adventure.

In addition to their packed touring schedule, each year moe. ambitiously hosts two full-fledged festivals in upstate New York. Their winter festival, snoe.down is held in Lake Placid, New York and even featured an outdoor performance last year at the foot of Whiteface Mountain. “I am not sure we are going to do that again. It was fun but it got down to almost zero that day. While we were bundled up and fueled by hot coffee and a touch of whiskey we still had to keep warm by jumping around as much as we could,” said Garvey. “Kudos to the crowd of almost 2,000 that stuck with us for the entire set.”

With Phish calling it quits in 2004 and the recent news that The String Cheese Incident is only going to be around for a couple more months, moe. is advancing into a position as one of elder statesmen of the scene. Their festivals foster musical development within the scene and give fans the opportunity to get their moe. fix while being exposed to some of the best new bands out there. “We have invited bands like Dread Clampett, Tea Leaf Green, and Toubab Crewe and all of them have played the second stage at our festivals and made big impressions,” Garvey said.

All of the touring, festivals and recording has unfortunately had a physical effect on the band recently. “Al [Schnier] (vocals, guitar) had to take some time off from playing guitar due to a pretty severe bout with tendonitis a few months back,” said Garvey. “That caused me to play a little bigger role on the guitar lately, even though we had guests sitting in with us to fill the void. As a result, I am now the one battling the tendonitis. I have been going through physical therapy and other treatments to try to deal with the problem. Fortunately, Al seems to be doing much better and will be able to play on the upcoming tour.”

In April of 2005, before the battles with tendonitis, moe. held a two-night run at The Fillmore in Denver and recorded the second night for broadcast on HDNet as part of their “Sunday Night Concert Series.” By many accounts the show turned out to be one of the best of the year and on Oct. 3, 2006 the band released moe.: Live at The Fillmore on DVD for the world to experience.

When moe. pulls into Colorado this time they will be fresh from their seven-night Carribean cruise and ready to launch the record release tour in support The Conch. The Colorado run is booked in progressively larger venues from night to night. “We call it ‘the evolution,’” said Garvey. “We start off in a small venue and work our way up. We did it once in Atlanta and wanted to do it again. Colorado fit the model perfectly with the range of venue sizes available to us.” The band will start their run at Twist and Shout in Denver and then head to Boulder for a night at the Fox Theater, before returning to Denver for shows at The Gothic and then finally at The Fillmore with Jeff Austin of Yonder Mountain String Band, to round out the four nights. “It’s fun because you get familiar with the faces up front over the run. The hardcore fans come out all four nights and that leads to a really good vibe in the venues.”

While the vibe in the venue is critical to their fiery performances, without a good vibe on stage none of this would be possible. In their 16 year history, moe.’s line-up has remained largely the same and they have all managed to remain friends. Garvey is quick to emphasize that he and his bandmates are still close friends after all these years of touring and playing together. “We recognize that we have it pretty good. Doing something this cool with your friends is a really fun way to go through life.”

:: moe. ::

:: Twist and Shout :: January 24 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: January 25 ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: January 26 ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: January 27 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Phish

• Umphrey’s McGee

• The Disco Biscuits

Actor Jeff Daniels steps out from behind the camera to pursue singing/songwriting

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:57:56 +0000

:: Jeff Daniels :: Soiled Dove Underground :: January 6 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

It’s kind of sad, actually. Jeff Daniels is an amazing actor. He’s starred in such legendary films as The Purple Rose of Cairo, Terms of Endearment, Gettysburg and Good Night and Good Luck. But to many people of my generation he’ll be best remembered for his unfortunate bathroom scene in Dumb and Dumber, the comedy film that took all of his serious acting endeavors and tossed them out the window for the sake of hysterical bathroom humor and stupid one-liners.

Now, on top of that, he’s doing something that he says makes him more like William Shatner, of all people — performing songs on stage.

Daniels is a small-town man, who long ago decided to pass by the proverbial Hollywood or New York residences, so that he could live and raise his family in the small town of Chelsea, Mich. There he started a non-profit arts organization, The Purple Rose Theater, named after one of his biggest movie roles.

Five years ago when the theater was doing its annual fund raiser, someone literally pushed Daniels out on stage with a guitar, and what had been a hobby of his for 30 years turned into the newest phase of his performing career. Since then, Daniels has seriously cut his chops on guitar and has begun touring as much as his acting schedule allows, which these days is quite a bit.

“”I just got off the road,” he said in a recent interview with The Marquee, calling from his Michigan home. “I’ve been everywhere since August. I called it the ‘kind of consecutive long weekends tour,’ but it’s kind of the only way I can do it because of the movies. I put together dates when I can fly in on Saturday, do the date and then fly back to wherever I’m shooting on Sunday, and I’ve been able to play about 30 dates over three or four months.”

Despite Daniels’ laundry list of acting credentials, he said that getting on stage was a big struggle for him at first, and one that he is just now coming to terms with. “Oh, it was terrifying at first,” he said. “Not now, I just finished playing near Cincinnati on Saturday and literally before the show there was not a nerve in my body about it anymore. I just enjoy it. It’s the actor that walks out on the Broadway stage now and I’ve played enough to beat the fear, but initially walking out there was terrifying. It’s just unfamiliar territory. You’re on stage and that’s similar but everything else about it is different and, oh by the way ‘Go to the F. Go to the F. GO TO THE F! No, that was an Am. Do you think they heard it? No, I don’t think so. You’re in G now, and what’s the lyric?’”

Daniels was admittedly a five-chord guitar player for years, but in the last five years he has studied the instrument and developed some pretty slick riffs for a singer/songwriter.

His style, as he describes it, is if “Loudon Wainwright and Stevie Goodman had a baby and was related to Christine Lavin. But I’m also a guy who wants to grow up and be Kelly Joe Phelps,” he laughed.

Daniels humor shines through quite a bit in his songs which, in general, are very personal stories of his life. The first track off his disc Live and Unplugged: To Benefit the Purple Rose Theatre is titled “If William Shatner Can, I can Too,” and it’s a very dry, semi-self deprecating song about actors who also play music. In it he pokes fun at Captain Kirk, but also at Russell Crowe, Kathie Lee Gifford, Billy Bob Thorton and Adam Sandler, among others.

But there is also a serious side to Daniels’ yarns, tracks like “Momma Never Left Her Oldest Boy Alone” and “Kathy” show a serious side of the artist and are like diary pages peering into his life.

These days, when writing, Daniels is drawing on five years of experience of figuring out what works and what doesn’t on stage. “I’m getting more aware of what works and what doesn’t. Not completely, but I kind of know early on in the songwriting process now if this isn’t that funny, or interesting or that I need to make this very specific personal song a little more universal somehow. You know, find the metaphor, Jeff. Now I write more specifically for shows and not always, but generally, early on in the writing process I know if this song will travel, and if it can’t, I know what to do to make it do so, or otherwise just finish it up and throw it in the notebooks with the other diary songs,” Daniels said.

While songwriting probably won’t ever replace Daniels’ main career, he said he’s really finding his stride with it and enjoying it more and more. “It’s the purest creative thing that I do. When you walk on stage with your material and you have 75 to 90 minutes staring at you, it’s all the blame, all the glory,” he said. “There’s no band to hide behind. It’s live. It’s different than movies. There is a challenge in that every time and I’ve really been fascinated by the power of songs and the power of stories. It’s all about coming out there and grabbing the audience by the lapels at minute one and not letting them go until minute 90.”

:: Jeff Daniels ::

:: Soiled Dove Underground :: January 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Kelly Joe Phelps

• Loudon Wainwright

• Stevie Goodman

Leftover Salmon’s Drew Emmitt takes another Freedom Ride across Colorado

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:58:42 +0000

:: Drew Emmitt Band :: Stage Stop Inn :: January 25 ::

:: 8150 :: January 26 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

Long known around these parts as the lead vocalist and dynamic mandolin player for jamgrass mainstays Leftover Salmon, Drew Emmitt has forged his own path since the dissolution of that band in 2004. Now touring regularly with the Drew Emmitt Band, the master of all things strings, has proven he’s got the meddle to go at it on his own.

While Emmitt sticks predominantly with the mandolin and guitar, he is also a competent player of the banjo, fiddle, harmonica, and flute. The Marquee caught up with him high on a mountaintop in his hometown of Crested Butte, Colo., to talk about the mandolin and the music that is so much a part of him.

“I was playing bluegrass banjo and it wasn't quite suiting me,” said Emmitt, “so I picked up the mandolin and it just clicked with me right away.” This should come as no surprise to his fans, as his contemporary-sounding, energy-driven mando licks seem very much unique unto him. While he cites influences such as New Grass Revival, Hot Rize, Little Feat, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and Bill Monroe, it is primarily his own voice that dictates his music. “I think that everybody who’s an artist is just putting together their influences and making their own sound out of it,” he said.

Emmitt put together his first bluegrass outfit, the Left Hand String Band, in 1984. Six years later he joined forces with Vince Herman to create Leftover Salmon, a band that was unprecedented in its influence in putting Colorado on the acoustic music map.

Emmitt’s first solo release, 2002’s Freedom Ride, featured bluegrass luminaries Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Ronnie McCoury, Vassar Clements, Stuart Duncan, Randy Scruggs, Vince Herman, Greg Garrison, and John Cowan. The album includes Leftover Salmon classics (“Lonesome Road,” “Bend in the River”), beautifully penned originals (“Paving Eisenhower”), and some choice covers (Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue,” Peter Rowan’s “Rainmaker,” J.J. Cale’s “If You’re Ever in Oklahoma,” and one of Bill Monroe’s favorite covers, Joel Price’s “Memories of Mother and Dad”).

A follow-up album, Across the Bridge, was released in 2005. In addition to Emmitt and his band, the album features Del and Ronnie McCoury, Jim Lauderdale (with whom Emmitt wrote a few songs), Stuart Duncan, Sam Bush, and John Cowan.

The Drew Emmitt Band currently consists of Emmitt on mandolin, guitar, and vocals, Greg Garrison on bass, Tyler Grant on guitar, and Steven Sandifer on drums. Jeff Sipe can occasionally be spotted on the drums as well, when he’s not on the road with former Phish frontman, Trey Anastasio.

Always advocating adventurousness in his music, Emmitt has recently added the electric guitar to his repertoire in a more prominent way than in years past. The merging of electric and acoustic instrumentation has encouraged the natural expansion of bluegrass music into the arenas of rock and jazz.

“We’re doing everything, both the bluegrass stuff and the more rockin’ stuff,” said Emmitt. “I just got to the place where, for the kind of venues we were (playing) especially, it made sense to bring out the electric guitars and amps and play a wider variety of music. We can still have our bluegrass roots, but when we’re in a crowded bar at midnight and people want to go nuts, we can do that, too.”

:: Drew Emmitt Band ::

:: Stage Stop Inn :: January 25 ::

:: 8150 :: January 26 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Leftover Salmon

• New Grass Revival

• Left Hand String Band

Quietdrive edge into crowded pop/punk scene through a hardcore DIY work ethic

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:59:22 +0000

:: Quietdrive :: Gothic Theatre :: January 16 ::

:: The Black Sheep :: January 17 ::

By Brian Kenney

The promotional aspect of the music industry is a strange one. Certainly, you have to play your gigs, stop by junkets and do your interviews. But it’s also about merchandising: the discs, posters, stickers, t-shirts. For Minneapolis’ Quietdrive, those t-shirts can end up in some very strange places — such as on both sides of the war in Iraq, where a Quietdrive t-shirt showed up on a captured Iraqi rebel. “We had some friends fighting over in Iraq [and] we wanted to support them,” recalled Quietdrive bassist Droo Hastings during a recent interview with The Marquee. “So we sent them a bunch of Quietdrive t-shirts and discs. But their truck got raided and a bunch of stuff [got] stolen.”

Last he heard, the shirt turned up on an Iraqi rebel who was in bad shape to say the least. “It’s a gruesome story,” Hasting concluded.

“Ironic” is a good word to describe this young pop/punk Minnesota quintet, which in addition to Hastings also includes vocalist Kevin Truckenmiller, drummer Brandon Lanier, and guitarists Justin Bonhiver and Matt Kirby. Signed to Epic (Sony BMG) in 2004, they soon entered the studio with producer Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, Pink, Pete Yorn, Hot Hot Heat) and left with their major-label debut LP, When All That’s Left Is You, a pop/punk, melodramatic, catchy, young male vs. the rest of the world exploration that draws off a palette of everything from The Dismemberment Plan and O.A.R to 311 and Taking Back Sunday.

Not bad for a job right out of college. But that was just the beginning of Quietdrive’s job.

While irony and coincidence keep this young act in a constant state of “Where’s Waldo” with their shirts, promotion is a major part of the game — a game they play well and one that has served them well in the age of technology. They went out and made their own luck: MySpace style.

They pounded the proverbial cyber pavement with the work ethic of a hacker, an ethic which got the Minneapolis band close to a half-million hits on their radio-friendly MySpace singles “Rise from the Ashes” and “Take a Drink.” It also garnered the attention of Dateline NBC, who was doing a story called “And The Band Played On,” focusing on MySpace acts who profited from promoting to the MySpace generation. “We started using MySpace right before we were signed,” Truckenmiller told NBC. “I signed up and I didn’t really know what it was, but I knew that you could post your music on it. I was like, ‘This is kind of a cool way for us to get our music across and to connect with people.’”

“We kind of made it a part of a daily routine,” guitarist Kirby added. “We would spend a couple of hours branching out to people that we couldn’t branch out to just out of Minneapolis or places or shows that we’d be on tour with, because we never really went far out of the region.”

But the MySpace sword is double-edged, and a band, or at least a band worth its salt, can’t exist solely in cyberspace. Quietdrive knew this. Epic knew this. And Epic delayed the release of When All That’s Left Is You, although recorded and in the can by the end of 2005, for the better part of 2006 in favor of road exposure. “We were very green when we first signed and needed to get some shows under out belts before we learned the ropes,” Hastings said. “Coming into this, we didn’t have much of a tour history so we had to be careful of when we released. I guess it was an issue of time. It’s such a competitive industry and from the record label’s perspective and from our perspective, we didn’t want a fourth quarter release where you’re up against the Green Days and U2s and you get swept under the rug.”

The band has avoided getting swept under because of its inherited work ethic: the same Minneapolis code rich in rock lore that produced such acts as Soul Asylum, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and, more recently, Motion City Soundtrack. So with the disc dropping in May of 2006 and some airplay surrounding their sly cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” they hit the road touring with acts such as Houston Calls and White Light Riot, and in early 2007, they’ll kick it with Bowling for Soup and Cartel “We look at things differently from a band from the coast. We’re from the middle of the country so we have some catching up to do as far as learning what it’s like to function in a New York or an L.A. — not that Minneapolis is small, but it gives us perspective.”

:: Quietdrive ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: January 16 ::

:: The Black Sheep :: January 17 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Dashboard Confessional

• Bayside

• Taking Back Sunday

My Morning Jacket continues its rise to be the world’s best live band

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:00:42 +0000

:: My Morning Jacket :: Ogden Theatre :: January 12 and 13 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

What do The Boston Pops, Cameron Crowe, Pink Floyd lighting designer Mark Brickman and Levon Helm of the Band all have in common? The answer is that they have all recently worked with Kentucky rock outfit My Morning Jacket.

Since the release of their fourth studio effort Z in October of 2005 the band has exploded into the collective consciousness of rock fans across the county. Their shows have been selling out nearly every night and the palpable energy in the room erupts when they take the stage.

“We have had a lot of good things happen to us in the last year and we feel really blessed about it,” said the Jacket’s drummer, Patrick Hallahan, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “But I have to say that working with the Boston Pops was one of the best experiences.”

Hallahan seemed almost star-struck as he recounted the experience. “Getting that call was insane. We have always dreamed about getting the chance to play in front of a full symphony orchestra,” he said. “And to have not just any orchestra, but the Boston Pops call you, was an incredible feeling.” Unfortunately for their fans, the concerts were not professionally recorded so only fans who were lucky enough to have been in Symphony Hall in Boston on one of those two evenings have any idea about the true majesty of the experience.

Shortly before the call that invited them to share the stage with The Pops, Hallahan and his band-mates had received another, very flattering, phone call. They were invited to contribute a song to Endless Highway: The Music of The Band, a tribute album that is due out Jan. 30 on 429 Records. My Morning Jacket has the distinction of being the only band that was able to take advantage of an offer to record their contribution in the studio of legendary Band drummer, Levon Helm. “There are very few people in this world that I get all giggly and star-struck over and Levon Helm is on the top of the pile with maybe three others,” said Hallahan. “He wasn’t involved with the actual recording at all, but it was just so incredible to be up there and get a chance to talk to him and have all the stories about how great a guy he is be backed up by his actions. It was amazing.”

To make the situation that much more amazing, they were able to record one of The Band’s most heartfelt and poignant ballads, “It Makes No Difference.” “The song is just so incredible,” Hallahan gushed. “It is such a sad love song and it was one of the first songs of theirs that we all collectively fell in love with. It made such perfect sense for us to record it for that project,” he said.

Joining My Morning Jacket on the tribute are some of the best in the business. Bruce Hornsby, Rosanne Cash, John Hiatt, Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers Band all paid their respects The Band’s legacy and contributed their own versions of some of the most influential songs in American musical history.

While they did play their cover of “It Makes No Difference” a couple of times in concert, Hallahan confesses that they have a tendency to focus on their own material when playing live. “Covers are fun and we’ll pull one out if it is the appropriate time, but we played a lot more when we didn’t have as much of a catalog to choose from.”

Their most recent project Okonokos is an epic live album released on both CD and DVD that features My Morning Jacket reaching back into their catalog and showcasing 21 original songs. Recorded in front of a packed house at The Fillmore in San Francisco amid an elaborate set decorated to look like a remote forest location, Okonokos captures the ferocious raw energy of the Jacket in their natural element.

It is obvious when watching Okonokos that this is a band that has come of age in the last couple of years. They recognized the significance of putting out a live DVD and they pulled out all the stops and put on the performance of their lives when it counted. For support, they enlisted an A-List crew that included Mark Brickman, legendary lighting designer for Pink Floyd. “Brickman was only working with us for the filming of the DVD but his good friend and protégé Marc Janowitz is working with us now. Basically, Mark Brickman appointed our lighting director and that is a true honor.”

Janowitz was named “Lighting Director of the Year” in 2004 by ED Magazine and by all accounts has added an incredible visual element to My Morning Jacket’s live performances. “This is the first time we have gone out on tour and had a light show that really affects our heads,” Hallahan said. “Sometimes I get so caught up in the lights that I forget where I am and that has been an amazing twist of events.”

In another amazing twist of events for the Jacket last year, the boys were offered their silver screen debut by one of the most respected directors in Hollywood. Director Cameron Crowe “was searching for a band from Kentucky to play [pause] a band from Kentucky in his Elizabethtown project,” chuckled Hallahan. “Fortunately for us we were playing at the Troubadour in LA around the time he was thinking about this and he and some of his staff came out to see us play. After the show he approached us and we hit it off right away.”

It wasn’t long before Cameron was being led around rural Kentucky by this group of long haired rock and rollers. “He flew out to Kentucky and stayed here for a while and we showed him what it was like to be a Kentuckian; everything from Bourbon tastings to Bar-B-Qs to long walks in dark cemeteries. We were really just trying to give him a sense of the culture more than anything.”

When it came to begin filming, Crowe shared his vision for the movies climactic scene and revealed that it focused on My Morning Jacket playing the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird.” “At first we were a little apprehensive as that could be the nail in the coffin for our musical career,” Hallahan admitted. “However, once we read the script and saw how it fit into the movie, it was a no-brainer.”

From Crowe to The Boston Pops, the Kentucky boys have certainly made their mark on several echelons of American culture recently. It seems in many ways that they have gone from being merely a rock band to being a cultural phenomenon whose star is still rising. It won’t be long before My Morning Jacket will be listed right alongside the people they considered their influences and idols.

:: My Morning Jacket ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: January 12 and 13 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Wolf Parade

• Drive-By Truckers

• The Band

CD Reviews - February - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:49:21 +0000

The Show I’ll Never Forget

Edited by Sean Manning

DeCapo Press

3.5 out of 5

If there is one thing that truly keeps the wheels of the music business turning and allows for the skullduggery that takes place in the form of astronomical ticket prices and seven dollar beers, it’s the passion that the fans have for live music.

It’s this passion that is celebrated in the book The Show I’ll Never Forget. While the book is laid out in the format of short essays on particular shows, it is far from the typical recounting of set lists and drum solos that permeates many music magazines. Instead, the book aims, at most times successfully, to explore the power of music as a social interaction on a visceral and personal level. This is highlighted by a review of a junior high benefit concert, featuring no one you would have heard of, appearing alongside reviews of mega-famous bands like The Rolling Stones and Queen.

Many of the essays are highly personal and moving, focusing more on the human condition than the spectacle of musical grandeur.

While none of the writers presented in the book are particularly well known, the experiences they relate will surely strike a universal chord with anyone who has looked at music as more that just a pleasant distraction.

“American Bandstand” host Dick Clark once told his audience that “Music is the soundtrack of your life,” and The Show I’ll Never Forget proves his theory in spades.

— DJ Hippie

Funkiphino

Rise Above

Hi-Phi Records

4 out of 5

Funkiphino’s newest effort may well be one of the most professional CDs produced in Colorado over the last few years.

The Boulder-based funk outfit, which has always strived to up the ante of their presentation, be it live or in the studio, has crafted a near-flawless disc that not only showcases their talent, but also gives a nod to their inspirations.

Beyond simply nodding to those inspirations, the band is also joined by some, including Francis “Rocco” Prestia and Stephen “Doc” Kupka of Tower of Power and members of the San Francisco Symphony and Opera. There are also some local guests, including Hazel Miller, Yo Flaco!’s Neil McIntyre and members of Soul School.

Funkiphino recorded the album in their hometown as well as in Los Angeles and at George Lucas’ legendary Skywalker Sound in Marin County, Calif.

The 12-song arrangement is the band’s second full release and it took some time to get it done, but it’s clear that the time spent was worth it. The band teamed up with Grammy-winning producer Matt Sandowski, who collaborated with band leader and keyboardist Chris Fischer. Airshow Mastering’s David Glasser mastered the album.

This is not an album that should be played on crappy computer speakers. This piece yearns to be played on a big stereo with the listener stuffed into a sofa that will allow them to soak up the sound.

— Brian F. Johnson

Alabama Thunderpussy

Open Fire

Relapse Records

3.5 out of 5

I don’t know when or how it happened, but Alabama Thunderpussy has arrived. Their newest album is exactly what a metal release should be — dirty, kick ass rock. But even in that, there are delicacies that are amazingly well crafted. For a band that once seemed like a novelty act, Open Fire shows that their 10 years together have taught them more than enough to earn their master’s degree in metal.

— Brian F. Johnson

Kim Taylor

I Feel Like a Fading Light

Independent

4 out of 5

I hate it when reviewers make up terms to describe music, but whoever thought up “narcotic pop” hit the nail on the head for Kim Taylor’s latest effort I Feel Like a Fading Light.

This is an album that is soft and subtle in the vein of Josh Ritter. It’s essentially a singer/songwriter album, but it sounds like so much more, as the depth of Taylor’s songs fill the recording with a relaxed passion that is utterly contagious.

— Brian F. Johnson

Industry Profile: Bianchi expands his independent empire to include Oriental Theatre in his ‘masterful’ vibe

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:50:49 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

The car thermometer read 19 degrees as I climbed out onto Welton Street in Denver and prepared to enter the offices of what I refer to as “The Bianchi Empire.” Those offices are located inside Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom, and the man I was getting ready to sit down with, Jay Bianchi, heads up Cervantes’ as well as three other clubs — Sancho’s Broken Arrow, Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey and, of course, Quixote’s True Blue — that he co-owns with his brother, Phil.

The thermometer reading hadn’t phased Bianchi one bit, as he was dressed in his typical “uniform” of shorts, sandals and a hoodie sweatshirt; but, Bianchi isn’t the kind of guy who has ever subscribed to conventional wisdom.

For more than 10 years now, Bianchi and his independent “empire” of clubs have battled it out with the big boys, and he’s eeked out a living while creating a nearly unparalleled vibe in the music community for up-and-coming bands.

During the jam band explosion of the late 1990s and the first few years of this decade, Bianchi hosted bands that turned into mega jam band stars, booked legendary performers into his small clubs, and nurtured a scene around a hippie vibe that was so open, his patrons didn’t even balk when he branched out and put other genres of music on his stages.

A few months ago, on these very pages, legendary concert promoter Barry Fey said that there would never be another independent talent buyer like himself because of the changes in the industry since his hey day of the late ’60s and early ’70s — and he was right in saying that. But Bianchi is as close as one can get to that level, ferociously independent, in love with the music and probably on par with Fey in terms of their mutual adoration and respect for their audiences.

The following are excerpts from my conversation with Bianchi:

Marquee: What was the first album you ever bought?

Bianchi: The first one was probably from the record of the month club, but the first one I really remember buying was AC/DC Back in Black, and I remember listening to it over and over.

Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended?

Bianchi: The Rolling Stones, Oct. 4, 1981 at Folsom Field in Boulder. We (my brother Phil and I) asked my mom and she talked to my dad who said, ‘Yeah. They have to go. You gotta make sure they go. This might be their last tour,’ Which, of course, it wasn’t.

Marquee: The Grateful Dead is so obviously such a big part of your life and your clubs. When and how did you get into them?

Bianchi: The first time I saw them was in 1985 at Red Rocks. Someone had told me the year before at an Aerosmith concert that if I saw one concert it had to be the Grateful Dead, and within and hour that guy got kicked out for being too drunk.

Marquee: Were you hooked right away?

Bianchi: Not really. I was hooked on concerts right then, but not really the Dead. My brother told me that I had to go to school on the East Coast so that I could see more Dead shows and I said, ‘O.K. I’ll do that. I’m pretty smart and can get into any school I want.’ So I went to Rochester and I planned my orientation around one Dead show on July 4. The Grateful Dead are the ultimate college band. At the time, R.E.M. was on the cover of Rolling Stone as the ultimate college band, but once I got into school I realized the Grateful Dead was really the ultimate, no matter what the flavor of the month was. Still, I didn’t consider myself a Dead Head. I didn’t like the stigma, but that’s what I was doing with my free time. I kept on avoiding the terminology and all of that until Jerry Garcia died. I was pretty literate in all music; more of a ‘music file,’ where I was specializing in the Dead. After he died I was kind of forced to admit that I was a Dead Head. It’s kind of hard to say you’re a Dead Head when you’re applying to medical schools.

Marquee: You went to med school?

Bianchi: I got into medical school, but I decided not to go. I decided to get my masters in literature. With med school it seems like if you go there you get into so much debt that you don’t have any choice whatsoever to do anything else. So I got into CU Boulder’s masters of literature program.

Marquee: The jam scene has seemingly diminished in recent years. Do you see that, and how do you continue when it’s such a big part of your business?

Bianchi: I don’t know if it’s diminished. A couple of bands got a lot bigger and it can hurt business as the little guys graduate and get bigger, but I think that it just makes us need to find inventive ways to recreate that situation. There’s always another band out there. But, I think that it’s more and more difficult for new bands to emerge because no one wants to try anything new. The only time they did was when they were forced to because of Jerry’s death and the Grateful Dead’s demise.

Marquee: You’ve been a successful independent guy for a while now. Do you have any aspirations to go into the corporate realm of talent buying or promotion.

Bianchi: I don’t know. I’ve gone against the grain for so long and sometimes that sucks, but I almost think it would be unrewarding to go that way. I guess the journey is the prize. No one celebrates having Phil Lesh at the Fillmore, he plays there all the time, everyone plays there. But when we get a big act like that it’s a celebration. (Phil Lesh and Ryan Adams played a surprise set at Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey in 2006.) I love this so much that I don’t feel like it’s a job. It’s like an extended hobby and I’d be afraid that it would turn into a job there.

Marquee: What’s your next step for your business?

Bianchi: Well, a few weeks ago I was approached by the Oriental Theatre. They wanted to share some shows, but I had said no. Finally, they said they were going to need some help, so I said I’d throw my full force in if I could have a stake in it. They have a great neighborhood, a great theatre and a great staff that’s able get things done. They have a community, is what they have. So this puts us in there too and gives us some more flexibility in our shows and scheduling.

From the Barstool of the publisher - February, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:51:58 +0000

In my Industry Profile interview this month with Jay Bianchi, the club owner pointed out a very valid point about the state of the music business these days that has to do with music fans. Bianchi said that people are very unwilling to try something new these days.

He was talking about the jam scene specifically and said that the last great open-minded era came and went with the passing of Jerry Garcia when people were “forced” to look elsewhere.

Bianchi is right in many regards, but I also think that it’s a trend brought on by the reality that we’re so inundated with so many different options. We, as music fans, are a little wary to open up to something new, and at the same time, when we are open, finding a direction can be a huge task.

Just off the top of my head I can think of a half dozen choices of where to go looking for new music on-line alone. Myspace, Youtube, Limewire, the iTunes store, podcasts and everything else are all there as tools for those searching for the sound — whatever sound they want.

It’s a blessing and a curse, and our short attention span life styles don’t help.

I know that many times I’ve gone on-line looking for a particular band’s song and within minutes I’m so lost in pursuit of other artists entirely that I can’t even absorb what’s in front of me.

This isn’t a problem where a finger can be pointed to place blame, but it’s something that artists really need to be aware of in this day and age more than ever.

If I visit an artist’s site and within seconds have clicked over to someone else’s, that speaks volumes about the things, or lack thereof, that the first band I was looking at has to offer.

Simply put, bands need to step up and put forth professional presentations that keep people interested. And, that doesn’t just mean on-line, but on their albums and in their live shows too.

If I’m seeing a band at a bar, and there’s another band right down the street, you can bet that if the first band sucks, I’m going to go check out the other folks.

So while we have to open our minds a bit more, bands have to do their part too, otherwise we’ll just end up listening to the crap that’s spoonfed to us through mainstream outlets, and I will kill myself before I listen to the next American Idol.

We’ll see you at the shows.

Assembly of Dust and HonkyTonk Homeslice team up for series of shows

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:52:28 +0000

:: Assembly of Dust / Honkytonk Homeslice :: Aggie Theatre :: February 22 ::

::: Cervantes’ Masterpiece :: February 23 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 24 ::

:: (HTHS only) Stage Stop :: February 25 ::

By Tim Dwenger

“I met Reid at High Sierra back in ’95 or ’96 and we hit it off because we were both the singer/ songwriters of our bands. I grabbed him at one point and we went to a quiet spot and hung out with our guitars and traded original songs back and forth,” said Billy Nershi in a recent interview with The Marquee.

“Yeah, we spent several hours just trading songs in the campground. It sounds almost like it was scripted but it did really happen,” Reid Genauer said a short time later in a separate interview.

These two musicians have covered a lot of ground since they first crossed paths in the mid ’90s. At the time, Genauer was with Strangefolk, and Nershi’s String Cheese Incident was just picking up momentum.

Fast forward to today and things have changed a bit. Genauer left Strangefolk in 2000 to pursue his MBA at Cornell University and since graduation has been focusing on his new project, The Assembly of Dust. On the other hand, Nershi is also about to reinvent himself, having recently made it public that he is leaving SCI in the fall to pursue his side project, Honkytonk Homeslice, full time. What hasn’t changed over the years is that these two songsmiths are still at the top of their games and are still trading compliments.

When asked about Reid’s latest album, Recollection, Nershi responded with an enthusiastic, “It’s great! I’ve got a copy in my car stereo right now and I plan on spinning it for a while.” Similarly, Genauer discussed his respect for Nershi and HTHS. “At the F.O.N.K. Festival this past summer, we went on right after Billy and his band. I had just watched their set from the grass and really enjoyed it and I asked him to sit in for a song with us. He did, and we had a blast,” said Genauer. “When we finished that song he said he was taking off and we said our goodbyes, but when we were through with our set he was still there and we hung out for a while.”

It was that conversation that sparked the idea for this winter’s tour. Their two bands share a mutual admiration and fondness for Americana that lends itself perfectly to the format of the tour. The first two sets will allow each band to showcase their own sound and the third set will be a collaboration between the two groups. “We will probably do a few of our songs and a few of theirs,” said Genauer. “But there will be a healthy number of mutually agreeable covers thrown in there too.”

Though Nershi and Genauer haven’t been in touch in several years, this tour will not be the first time they have shared the stage for a paying audience. Back in the summer of 1998, SCI was on the road with moe. for the Hoodoo Bash tour and Strangefolk joined up for several dates. While Nershi and Genauer only jammed together a few times that summer it was enough to peak their interest in a second shot at the collaboration.

While they are clearly looking forward to hitting the road together, both bands have been concentrating their efforts internally over the last year. Understanding the need to come together musically in order to produce a quality product, Nershi and Genauer sequestered their respective bands in rural environments to record last summer. The results, while very different, share the common denominator of American roots music.

Over the course of a couple of months in 2006, the five men of Assembly of Dust retreated to Maine to create their newest record Recollection. Holed up in a studio with their buddy Josh Pryor playing the role of engineer and co-producer, the band recorded a very rootsy album that conjures up images of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and the rest of The Band. “I am thrilled with the album,” said Genauer. “I am proud of the songcraft, and thrilled with the production value. It really feels like a succinct and purposeful artistic statement to me.”

In a similarly laid back situation 1,600 miles away, Nershi, his wife Jillian and multi-instrumentalist and singer Scott Law were bunkered in high up in Nederland, Colo. recording their debut studio effort in the hospitable environment of the Nershi’s home. “We just added a studio onto our house. In fact, the day that people started arriving I was breaking down the tile saw in the upstairs bathroom. We had literally just finished the addition and everybody showed up. We had one day to hang out and get reacquainted before we started recording,” Nershi remembered.

It will be a similar situation when HTHS hits the road with Genauer and his Assembly of Dust this month. They will jump right into things on the first night and hammer out the set of collaborations over the course of the seven-night tour. Nershi is confident that by the time they reach Colorado for the final three dates everything will be running smoothly. “Touring together gives us a chance to work out tunes together and create a sound that neither band could achieve individually,” he said. “We’ll do a little homework in advance but most of the music is learned in sound checks or during after-show jam sessions.”

“It shouldn’t be much of a challenge,” agreed Genauer. “We are philosophically coming from the same place as musicians.”

:: Assembly of Dust / Honkytonk Homeslice :: ::Aggie Theatre :: February 22::

:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece :: February 23 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: February 24 ::

:: (HTHS only) Stage Stop :: February 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Band

• Crosby, Stills and Nash

• Railroad Earth

Blue October nears platinum with Foiled after being dropped from Universal

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:53:57 +0000

:: Blue October :: Ogden Theatre :: February 17 ::

By Brian Kenney

It’s nice to hear when a band lands on its feet. With all the cynicism in the entertainment industry, be it reality television or celebrity break-ups, it’s nice to hear that good guys finish first once in a while. Such is the case for Houston’s Blue October.

Anyone who has heard their heavily-rotated single “Hate Me” would dare call them anything like “feel-good,” yet they are a success story built on perseverance over adversity and grace under pressure. And they’re taking none of it for granted.

“It’s like someone dangles that carrot in front of the rabbit and then yanks it away from you,” said bassist Matt Noveskey in a recent interview with The Marquee. Noveskey was talking about the band’s whirlwind romance with Universal Records, which saw the group storming out of Texas, releasing a well-balanced debut (1998’s The Answers) before being signed for their major-label debut Consent to Treatment (2000). But with little-to-no airplay and few units moved, Blue October were subsequently dropped for their follow-up.

For Noveskey and the rest of Blue October, guitarist CB Hudson, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye and brothers drummer Jeremy and vocalist/lyrist Justin Furstenfeld, Universal’s dismissal was like a hit upside the head with a tire iron. For most young bands without the wherewithal, this would have taken the steam out of their sails; they would have folded camp, rolled out and be teaching Guitar 101 at the local music shop.

“We were young when we got signed in ’99 and as a band, we tried our hardest,” Noveskey said. “It’s hard on you emotionally when you get out there and bust your ass and work and work and you get road blocks thrown at you constantly. And the next thing you know we’re dropped.” Noveskey knew the band had much more resolve than Universal was accrediting them, and after taking a break from the band in 2002, citing personal and health reasons, he returned for what might be called one of the more surprising and well-deserved rebounds in recent indie rock: the writing, recording and release of the now-platinum disc Foiled.

Few recent records have attracted as much attention as Foiled, which, with the lead singles “Hate Me” and “Into the Ocean,” deal full-on with the psychosis and neurosis of vocalist Furstenfeld’s life with honest and self-effacing intensity. It makes Walk the Line look like Singin’ in the Rain.

Furstenfeld, raised on a steady diet of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, but with a Johnny Cash visceral intensity for confession, was born for the role of tragic antihero. His split personality adds a fourth dimension to this record as he exorcises his personal demons through his lyrics. He joins the hierarchy of classic front men who have put their catharsis on display: Morrison, Cash, and more recently Vedder and Cobain. “Justin’s a songwriting machine. There’s no rhyme or reason to when or where he’s going to write. He can be in an airport and come out of the bathroom with lyrics written on toilet paper,” said Noveskey.

Furstenfeld is more than genuine and like the primeval front men before him, the purging and seething vocalist is spiritually and mentally spent at the end of a 95-minute show. “It’s very exhausting. Just last night, as soon as the show is over, I’m looking over at Justin and we are just wiped out! We give so much every night,” Noveskey said.

After almost a decade of simmering eminence, Noveskey couldn’t have guessed their success during the recording of Foiled. “I wouldn’t say that we’re skeptics. But the situations we’ve gone through (in the past) where we’ve said, “This album’s gonna blow up” like we said when our first album came out, and it didn’t make a spark. So now we don’t go into the studio thinking everything we do is magic. Ultimately that’s why it took us so long to make this album. We weren’t gonna settle. (But we agreed) to keep our expectations low so you don’t get disappointed but let’s just give 100 percent. The bonus is that we’ve now sold close to platinum,” Noveskey said.

It’s this objective, this determination, this resolve that made Blue October not only lick their wounds, but harbor no ill will toward Universal after being dropped. This same label gave the band a second life with Foiled, to the point that if the Grammys issued a “comeback of the year” award, Blue October would win by a landslide. “This is what we do. We’re lifers. It’s not like some of us are into computers or successful with the stock market, so when the opportunity came back around, we were able to handle it a lot better than six or seven years ago. Now we’re more of a family.”

:: Blue October ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: February 17 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Nine Inch Nails

• Depeche Mode

• Incubus

Steep Canyon Rangers return to Colorado for Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:54:21 +0000

:: Steep Canyon Rangers :: Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival :: February 18 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

The Steep Canyon Rangers play to audiences worldwide and yet they always love returning to Colorado. The summertime bluegrass offerings here are well known, but it’s the smaller gems like the Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival, now in its 22nd year, that hold a special place in every bluegrass afficionado's heart and keep bands like North Carolina’s Steep Canyon Rangers coming back.

This will be the band’s third appearance at the festival; they share the bill this year with bands like The Dillards, Stairwell Sisters, and the Larry Stephenson Band, among many others.

Consisting of Woody Platt (guitar/lead vocals), Mike Guggino (mandolin/harmony vocals), Charles Humphrey (bass/harmony vocals), Nicky Sanders (fiddle/harmony vocals), and Graham Sharp (banjo/lead and harmony vocals), the Steep Canyon Rangers have gained some momentum since being awarded the IBMA’s Emerging Artist of the Year award for 2006.

The Marquee caught up with Humphrey recently as he and his bandmates traversed the country, trying to keep up with the demand for their live show.

“We have a really busy schedule,” said Humphrey, referring to the 120-plus shows that the band plays on average in a year. “Every time we have a bit of success, it picks up our schedule, but we feel like we need to take advantage of the opportunity to play more when it presents itself. And it’s just a great honor to be recognized by the bluegrass community,” he said.

Since winning the award in September, Steep Canyon Rangers have booked shows from as close as their native North Carolina-based Merlefest to as far as Ireland. And it’s not just the bluegrass crowds that are listening. While the Rangers’ music is clearly bluegrass at its roots, the attentive listener will also hear elements of honky tonk, blues, western, and swing. As a result, the band plays clubs, jam festivals and Americana festivals, in addition to being a mainstay on the traditional bluegrass circuit. “We do a little bit of everything,” said Humphrey.

The Steep Canyon Rangers recently finished recording their follow-up album to 2005’s wildly successful One Dime at a Time, the title track of which went to number one on Bluegrass Unlimited’s National Survey. The upcoming new album, still untitled as of press time, contains mostly original material, much like the previous three (2002’s Mr. Taylor’s New Home, 2004’s Steep Canyon Rangers, and 2005’s One Dime at a Time).

“We play original music in a traditional style,” said Humphrey. The band’s stellar songwriting (for which all the members take some credit) pieces together the present and the past and lays it all over music that can be both intense and melodic. The unique sound captures the imagination of both bluegrass stalwarts and the next generation of genre-bending fans.

That flexibility allows the band to play a number of different venues and attract different types of fans. “We play a lot of different types of venues,” said Humphrey, “but we love Colorado. There are lots of bluegrass lovers in Colorado, lots of pickin’, and lots of good bands. Any excuse to get to Colorado is a good one.” The Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival is just such an excuse.

Located at the Northglenn Ramada Plaza just outside of metro Denver, the festival takes place from February 16th through the 18th.

:: Steep Canyon Rangers :: Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival :: February 18 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bill Monroe

• Del McCoury Band

• Yonder Mountain String Band

Everclear revamps line-up and returns to the road in dramatic fashion

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:55:19 +0000

:: Everclear :: Gothic Theatre :: February 7 ::

By Brian Kenney

Everclear’s Art Alexakis believes he has written the perfect break-up song with “Hater.” Not exactly the most attractive quality to lead promotion on your latest disc, but, then again, if your latest disc is entitled Welcome to the Drama Club, it might just be apropos.

“A lot of living went into this album,” Alexakis said dryly in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Certainly an understatement for the founder/lyricist/vocalist/producer of Everclear, the seminal band who, along with the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and The Meat Puppets, engineered and forged the burgeoning late ’80s and early ’90s Left Coast genre known as “cow punk.”

Now, a decade-and-a-half removed from the country punk revolution, Drama Club still echoes elements of the movement but more so with an older and wiser Alexakis — wiser, in respect that Everclear’s central figure is deeply concerned with political matters; older, in respect that at 45 years old Alexakis still croons like a misanthropic adolescent in search of a moral compass.

Welcome to the Drama Club marks a number of departures for Alexakis. The disc is his first without the backing of Capitol Records and his first without the textbook Everclear: the inceptive trio of Alexakis, bassist Craig Montoya and drummer Greg Eklund. Upon Montoya’s and Eklund’s departures in 2003, word circulated that the group had disbanded. “People had the idea that we broke up,” Alexakis said. “We never broke up. I wanted to go one direction, and the other guys wanted to go in two different directions. If you listen to their bands, they sound nothing like Everclear.”

Montoya and Eklund eventually landed on their feet respectively. Eklund pulled a Dave Grohl, going from drum kit to guitarist/vocalist with the The Oohlas, and Montoya is now with Tri-polar.

Alexakis, on the other hand, found himself in personal and financial ruin; a close to three million dollar debt forced him to file Chapter 11. He also filed for divorce from his third wife. “I can’t tell you how many changes I’ve been through,” he confessed. “Sometimes getting your ass kicked emotionally will do that to you, especially when it was needed.” Yet Alexakis stoically insists that the indie-released Drama Club (Eleven Seven Music) should not be called a “comeback“ album.

One of the biggest changes for Alexakis is his re-vamped band, far away from the paired-down, nominal trio he was used to working with. Building up to a five-piece with Portland and Seattle locals, he enlisted bassist Sam Hudson, guitarist Dave French, former Everclear drum tech Brett Snyder and keyboardist Josh Crawley.

The chemistry that Alexakis hungered for paid off with a slightly retro sound on Drama Club, an Alexakis-produced disc that blends early cow punk of the Petty knockoff “Under the Western Stars” with a keyboard heavy blues swing, “A Shameless Use of Charm,” and the power pop of recent Everclear, “Shine” and “Hater,” an anthem for the he-man woman hater club. “Some people write love songs, some people write happy songs but I’ve written what I think is the ultimate break-up song,” said Alexakis.

Welcome to the Drama Club’s first single is the comfortable, approachable “Glorious,” but it was the disc’s first video for “Hater” which garnered Alexakis a well-publicized confrontation with the conservative front.

The clip opens with a smoking, drinking and race-track gambling “hater” in the form of Jesus, sauntering his way through a day filled with a wooden crucifix workout, drunk driving his VW bus, and presenting communion to local prostitutes by pulling the consecrated Eucharist wafers out of the front of his pants. The campy video is so obviously over-the-top as satire, personifying Alexakis’ wry sense of humor at its best. It’s more than obvious that the video Jesus is an antithesis to the biblical figure but that still didn’t stop conservatives from salivating. They released the dogs and sent their holiest of holes: Bill O’Reilly. “Did you see me on O’Reilly?” asked Alexakis still licking his chops from taking on the conservative figurehead of “The O’Reilly Factor” on an episode that aired in August, 2006.

“He’s like a bitchy old woman,” Alexakis laughed, still trying to balance the irony of his toe-to-toe battle with O’Reilly. “He’s like trying to talk politics or religion with your grandma. You’re not going to win. You’re not going to change his mind. So don’t go there.”

With a new lease on life and a new disc and tour to promote, Alexakis, now on the indie label Eleven Seven Music, has recently embraced online promotion. “It facilitates the old school mentality of one show at a time. That’s how we broke back in the day and that’s how we’re breaking again,” he said.

But while the online era of myspace and youtube has helped this latest phase of Everclear, Alexakis said that it still all comes back to the music. “At the end of the day, if you don’t have songs you don’t have anything,” he said.

:: Everclear :: Gothic Theatre :: February 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Dinosaur Jr.

• Screaming Trees

• The Gun Club

John Lee Hooker, Jr. puts the life of the blues behind him and focuses on inspirational themes

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:56:55 +0000

:: John Lee Hooker, Jr. :: Samana Lounge (Vail) :: February 21 ::

:: The Goat Tavern (Keystone) :: February 22 ::

:: The Little Bear :: February 23 and 24 ::

By Neil McIntyre

“That’s what it’s about, sharing love — loving people even when they’re on the ground,” said John Lee Hooker, Jr. in a recent interview with The Marquee. This mantra has been the basis for the powerful bluesman’s career and it seems to be working. After all, he learned the lesson from none other than his father, blues legend John Lee Hooker.

“It feels good to know all that he has done throughout the world. It’s great,” said Junior in a phone conversation from his California home. Junior is busy carrying on the tradition his father created. Being the son of a musical legend is no easy task. Big expectations follow Hooker everywhere he goes and many people feel he has impossibly large shoes to fill, but he is approaching that in a unique way that allows him to eschew some of that pressure. “I’m not trying to fill (my father’s shoes). I’m just trying to walk behind them,” he said with a laugh that speaks to his easy demeanor.

When most people think about blues music they think about pain and suffering. Often a blues musician is seen as the victim of the hard-knock life that has been the inspiration to sing and share his or her misery. But many a talented blues musician find themselves uplifting their audience, and that is where Junior finds his comfort zone, even though he too struggled with demons for the better part of two decades, going through his own battles with drugs, alcohol, divorce and incarceration, all of which could have brought his once-promising career to a screeching halt.

Junior was his father’s prodigy early on, even performing with his father in the early 1970s as a teenager. But it took Junior living out the aforementioned hard-knock life to appreciate and understand how to make something meaningful of his talent and the lessons his dad taught him on stage and off.

John Lee Hooker, Sr. was known to perform inspirational miracles, captivating his audiences and transporting them other places. The master of the sexual innuendo, Senior, who was thought of as racy for his time, was clever and subtle by today’s standards.

These signature analogies and similes became the standard for future blues writers. In this work-a-day world it’s been said that we all have our own proverbial cotton field somewhere — our cubicle has become our crucible and our master the all-mighty-dollar; we all need a songster to spin a song for us, to poke fun at the boss man to get us through the day’s work.

John Lee Hooker, Jr. might just be this super-hero we need to save the day. When one talks to Junior they can immediately sense that his father’s dedication to traditional blues continues in his son’s heart. “He raised me from a baby ... I traveled with him, performed in his band and everything,” he said with boyish enthusiasm. Many children of musicians, much less bluesman, do not have the luxury of knowing their fathers, nor the joy of spending time with them to help pass on the family trade. This fact is not lost on Junior, he appreciates everything his dad taught him and the time they spent together. When some second generation musicians seek to distance themselves from their roots and carve a niche of their own, Junior is content to be a chip off the old block. “My father told me to work hard, be honest, dare to be different and love all people,” he said.

Working hard has been exactly what Junior has been up to lately. With a new CD, Cold as Ice, Junior has been touring relentlessly.

Cold as Ice follows on the heals of Junior’s 2004 debut, Blues with a Vengeance, which earned him rave reviews. That debut album won not only the W.C. Handy Award for best new artist debut and the California Music Award for outstanding Blues Album of the year, but also a Grammy nomination.

Taking his father’s advice to dare to be different, Junior incorporates funk and R&B into his music to keep the dance floor moving. And being honest in his love for all people is reflected in his no nonsense approach to his trade. Junior gives it to his listeners as-is, with an amazing ability to connect with his audience and with today’s aspiring artist.

“We’ve got some great musicians out there. Send a message to all aspiring musicians and entertainers to work hard, dare to be different, look at your roots — the B.B. Kings the John Lee Hookers, the Buddy Guys, Elmore James — study them, do your homework, then put that homework to use. Go out in the field and work hard, you might sing in front of two or three people and that’s okay. It’s not about the crowd (size). It’s about influencing people with the love of music and certainly it will grow at some point. Work to show people love through your music,” he said.

:: John Lee Hooker, Jr. ::

:: Samana Lounge (Vail) :: February 21 ::

:: The Goat Tavern (Keystone) :: February 22 ::

:: The Little Bear :: February 23 and 24 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• John Lee Hooker, Sr.

• Keb Mo

• Corey Harris

Glen Phillips steps away from his early fame and into a new comfort zone

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:57:49 +0000

:: Glen Phillips :: Soiled Dove Underground :: February 13 ::

By Monica Banks

For many, a high school band is an extra curricular activity that gets left behind after a high school diploma is earned. However, for Glen Phillips and his high school band Toad the Wet Sprocket, the 12-year run was just the beginning of a new direction — a direction that now finds Phillips fiercely independent, focused and as inspirational as he is prolific.

Phillips is inspired by other musicians and is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve or try something different. Last summer he was able to again tap into the muse he shared with his old companions in Toad, as they toured around the country playing 36 shows. However, for Phillips, this tour did not mark a re-launch of his Toad career.

After exploring the pop world, Phillips returned to his singer/songwriter roots for his 2006 release Mr. Lemons, the third studio album of his solo career. “It’s stripped down and modest, with less pop flavor,” Phillips said in a recent interview with The Marquee. Teaming up producer Neilson Hubbard and engineer/mixer Andy Hunt, Phillips married his voice perfectly with the music to create an insightful production of harmonious acoustics. With up-beat love songs like “Everything But You,” a track dedicated solely to Phillips grateful adoration, “Thank You,” and the evolutionary “The Next Day,” Mr. Lemons is introspective and lively. “I like making things with a lot of sound in them,” Phillips said in regards to the album.

The release, which also features guest vocalists Kim Richey and Garrison Starr, was recorded in Nashville, Tenn., and marked Phillips’ return to independence. He released Mr. Lemons on Umami Records/bigHelium, and claims (maybe jokingly) that Mr. Lemons is “named after a studio named after a deceased cat.”

Having traded a college education for a guitar and the road, Phillips relished and suffered the success of Toad the Wet Sprocket, which sold more than three million albums and had a handful of radio hits, including “Walk on the Ocean.” The band spent its time traveling and offering music wherever and whenever, living the lives of road-warrior musicians. When Toad called it quits in 1998 “for all of the usual reasons” there was no question of whether or not Phillips would continue on in his musical life. “You stick with what you know and this is what I do,” Phillips said. “I get to play music for people. It’s a gift and I’m really grateful for it.”

While the success of Toad was an inspiring adventure, Phillips, now married with three daughters, has put his rock-star costume in the closet. “It’s a blue collar job,” Phillips said.

In the aftermath of Toad, Phillips is trying to re-focus his energy back into the creative side of the business. “I got lost there for a while,” he said, referring to the business side of the industry. Phillips continued to explain that is part of the reason that he released Mr. Lemons independently. “I am releasing my new record independently as part of a decision to shift from the insanity of the record business to the manageability of a family business,” he said.

That family business theme took another step forward this past fall. Beginning in September of 2006, Phillips and his family were scheduled to spend nine months living and traveling in a motor home. “Laurel and I will home-school the children and I will use the opportunity to play club residencies, home concerts and festivals across Europe,” he said at the time. “Much delicious food will be cooked and consumed. Art and music will be created. Fine friends will be made. Mirth will ensue.”

Unfortunately, a family emergency cut that trip short, but if nothing else, it planted the seed for a readjustment in Phillips’ life and career. As he wrote on the page that was to be his European travel blog, “I had a brief moment of mainstream success as a young man which I am still in the process of recovering from … I’m trying to learn how to make music for a living without it being at the expense of my family and community.”

While some would like to see Phillips playing more shows and producing more for radio play, he has other plans. “I realized that I don’t have to want that,” Phillips said.

With side projects like Mutual Admiration Society (Phillips in cahoots with Nickel Creek), it’s hard for fans to not demand more from the former Toad, but he is looking at this phase of his life as he has the rest of his life in music — developing a sustainable career rather than a big-hit money grab that leaves him well off, but unemployed for life. Taking example from heroes like Greg Brown, Phillips is looking to produce “quiet prosperity” that keeps coming year after year. “The success is completely internal,” said Phillips. “It means liking what you do and being proud of it.”

:: Glen Phillips ::

:: Soiled Dove Underground ::

:: February 13 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Toad the Wet Sprocket

• Greg Brown

• Gin Blossoms

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones notch another Grammy nod with Hidden land

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:58:04 +0000

:: Béla Fleck and The Flecktones :: Paramount Theatre :: February 12 ::

By Jonathan Keller

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is one of those gifted musicians who would have been a virtuoso of any instrument he would have chosen to play. Named after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and Czech composers Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, Fleck has created his own musical legacy through his solo work, the bluegrass band New Grass Revival and most notably Béla Fleck and The Flecktones. Along the way, Fleck happened to completely revolutionize his instrument of choice, the banjo.

Fleck, who has been nominated in more Grammy categories than any other artist in history, is very serious when it comes to music but takes critical success in stride, as he explained in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Having released their twelfth album, The Hidden Land, late last year, Fleck and his band, The Flecktones, will be coming through Denver in support of this newest Grammy-nominated album. “You know, the Grammy’s are fun and all, but in all honesty I don’t believe most people who vote for the Grammy’s have even heard our record,” Fleck said laughing. “It is more about how you are perceived by the industry than what you have actually put on to tape.”

Fleck has spent his life changing the way people perceive the banjo. Having grown up in New York, he first became enamored with the instrument after hearing the theme song of the television show The Beverly Hillbillies as a youngster. The theme song, which was played by Earl Scruggs, literally changed Fleck’s life.

“I know some people could be drawn away from the initial sound of the banjo and I could have been one of them having grown up in New York, but it just struck a chord in me,” Fleck said.

Fleck had the modest beginnings of any classically trained musician, attending New York City’s High School of Music & Arts. Even though his grandfather had bought him a banjo when he was 15 years old, Fleck tested into the school on guitar, playing The Beatles’ song “Dear Prudence.” He said it was the one song he could fingerpick well. However, the school didn’t offer guitar or banjo as primary instruments, so Fleck reluctantly opted to play the French horn and study voice instead.

“My Mom wouldn't buy me one (a French horn) until she knew I was serious about it either,” he explained. “I tried playing the thing and I couldn't even play an F on it. So I did some singing too. I sang as a tenor, which was out of my range, but the main influence of the school was being around so many great artistic people. I did most of my music outside of school with friends and other classmates. I was playing banjo quite a lot, but most of it was outside of school in various projects and such.”

After graduation Fleck moved to Boston, where he continued his banjo study, eventually releasing his first album, Crossing The Tracks, in 1979.

By 1981 Fleck was asked by Sam Bush to join New Grass Revival. He did join and spent the next nine years with the progressive bluegrass band, recording five albums. During that time Fleck still continued to craft solo projects and fill guest spots on other musician’s albums, all the while still having a unique vision to create his own band. As fate would have it, his next band, Béla Fleck and The Flecktones, would be seeded by a telephone conversation with bassist Victor Wooten.

“He played the bass over the phone and I was blown away,” Fleck said. “At the time, though, I was thinking about starting a band. I had so many ups and downs with starting my own band and I had decided to stay with New Grass Revival, which I loved. But I think what sealed the deal was Victor and I finally got together and played. My brain started ticking after we played and a whole world of ideas starting popping into my head.”

Rounding out the group was Victor’s brother, Roy “Future Man” Wooten, who plays synthesizer-based percussion and harmonica player Howard Levy. Levy eventually left the group in 1992 and saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined in 1998 with the album Left of Cool. This has been the line-up that has reached more than 500,000 fans a year on tour for the last six years and is also featured on their latest release, The Hidden Land. The album is a step forward for the group as it draws much more structure from classical and jazz elements than previous albums.

“I knew more about what I wanted the record not to be than what I wanted it to be,” Fleck said. “I really wanted to move away from things that are catchy and poppy. For me, the record had to have more depth and move us forward as band. Rather than having blistering solos, for example, I really wanted to go after melody and harmony. I wanted to create a complicated piece of music that would challenge the listener.”

The Hidden Land beautifully showcases each band member's uncanny musical ability while still conveying the live energy the band is known for in its concerts.

:: Béla Fleck and The Flecktones ::

:: Paramount Theatre :: February 12 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Tony Trishka

• Bruce Hornsby

• Jaco Pastorius

Lovett, Hiatt, Clark and Ely team up for another magical songwriters tour

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:59:25 +0000

:: Songwriters Tour :: feat. Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Joe Ely and Guy Clark :: Paramount Theatre :: February 9 ::

By Tim Dwenger

When one thinks of The Four Horsemen, it isn’t usually an image of four iconic singer/songwriters sharing a stage that pops to mind. Yet that is exactly what Joe Ely is calling this winter’s tour with fellow Texans, Lyle Lovett and Guy Clark, and Indiana native John Hiatt.

Each of the songwriters has led a storied career and the tour offers a rare opportunity to see four musicians of this caliber perform together in a songwriters circle as colleagues and friends.

“Every night is different so it is really entertaining, no matter what happens,” Ely said from backstage at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland during a recent interview with The Marquee. “We don’t have a setlist or anything. What you play kind of depends on what the person before you plays. Like when Guy Clark plays a song about a Dallas whore at a funeral, I just can’t hardly top that and I just have to go off on some other subject. Other nights we’ll get on a theme. One time it was a dog theme, and the other night it was women’s first names. You just never know what’ll happen.”

The first time the songwriters came together in this format was back in “1989 or 1990” when the head of the Country Music Foundation, Bill Ivey, “asked me to put together a group of songwriters from diverse backgrounds and singin’ styles,” Ely said. “We played a couple of shows in New York at the old Bottom Line and enjoyed it so much, we just kept it going. It’s been more than fifteen years now that we’ve been doing these tours.”

“It is the simplest of set-ups, just four mics and four guitars. No fancy lights or set, it’s just us,” Ely said. “Not only is it fun doin’ it on stage, but I know that when I get home I go straight to the studio and start working on songs. Hearing everybody play songs written in their own styles opens me up and helps me to structure my songs differently. There are so many ways a song can be written and it helps to see that when I get together with all these great songwriters.”

While his tourmates John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett have enjoyed their share of success and fame, Guy Clark and Ely have remained largely under the radar of most casual music fans, and this is a true shame. Clark has penned songs recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash, Steve Earle and Jimmy Buffett, and his most recent album, Workbench Songs, has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Ely, on the other hand, has strayed a little bit farther into the rock and roll world and has shared more than just the stage with bands like The Clash and Bruce Springsteen.

In a 2000 interview with the Austin Chronicle, Ely said that meeting The Clash (which he admitted he “didn’t know from Adam”) was “like the West Texas hellraisers meet the London hellraisers. We were from different worlds, but it was like, ‘All right! Let’s hang out some more!’”

Ely has stayed true to his hellraising roots, and nearly 30 years later he will be celebrating his 60th birthday on February 9 when The Four Horsemen Tour rolls into Denver. “I’ve already called the bail bondsman and told him to be ready to post bond that night so we can have a big party and not worry about having the money to get me out of jail.”

It is clear that Ely is approaching the next decade of his life with all the passion and fire in his belly that he approached his earlier days, tearing up London with Mick Jones and Joe Strummer. He has recently started his own record label, called Rack ’Em Records, and seems to be out to prove a point with four releases planned in the next three months. “I have kind of been working at record companies’ paces over the years and recently I just thought, ‘I don’t want to go through this, I’ll just put out records myself and work at my own pace,’” said Ely.

The first two, Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch and Silver City, are collections of songs that he culled from “literally mountains” of old notebooks full of lyrics. Rattlesnake Gulch is a full band project, while Silver City focuses on Ely and his acoustic guitar and harmonica. Ely’s songwriting shines on both albums, with musical styles ranging from honkytonk to folk to straight-up rock and roll.

These four horsemen may not be foreshadowing a coming apocalypse, but missing this concert may, to some, actually seem like the end of the world.

:: Songwriters Tour ::

:: feat. Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Joe Ely and Guy Clark ::

:: Paramount Theatre :: February 9 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Lyle Lovett

• Townes Van Zandt

• Kris Kristofferson

Will Hoge champions independent rock and roll spirit in a classic package

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:00:44 +0000

:: Will Hoge :: Trilogy :: February 2 ::

:: Sherpa and Yeti's (Breck.) :: February 3 ::

:: Belly Up (Aspen) :: February 5 ::

By Emily H. Lanigan

For those who think that the commerce-over-content side of music is winning the battle in the music business, a new warrior has arrived that is to real music what William Wallace (Braveheart) was to the 13th Century Scots.

Since 1999, troubadour Will Hoge has been roaming the country, bringing back good old fashioned rock and roll. Raised on such heroes as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding and James Brown, Hoge brings to the stage a sonic blitzkrieg reminiscent of his idols. 2006 saw Hoge release his fourth studio album, The Man Who Killed Love, and play hundreds of dates all over the country, including close to a dozen in Colorado.

The last time The Marquee caught up with the Nashville-based rocker, in July of 2006, he claimed to be living the dream. But Hoge didn’t hang his hat on that for long. He’s continued to soldier on, touring at a near-furious pace, and he plans to release both a live album and a studio album in 2007. “The year ended on a high note,” he told The Marquee in a recent interview, in his polite and subtle southern drawl. “It’s the busiest year we’ve had and one of the more creative years we’ve had. But we’ll probably be even busier this year.”

Beneath that optimism however, Hoge is still reeling from the sting felt after the loss of a friend and mentor who shared his vision for music. After an injury sustained at a Rolling Stones concert in October and a subsequent coma, Atlantic Records founder and consummate music lover Ahmet Ertegun died at the age of 83 in December. During his short tenure at Atlantic, Hoge was able to meet Ertegun, a man that he felt was “the only link between greatness and Atlantic Records at this point.”

The loss of Ertegun has once again crushed Hoge’s faith in the music business — a faith that was never too strong to begin with. “(Ertegun) was one of the few people that we met at Atlantic that was somebody that we respected. He seemed to understand what we were tying to do on a whole other level that nobody else at the label seemed to understand,” said Hoge.

But in his warrior-like spirit, Hoge and his band are forging ahead, despite the loss. After a short break at the beginning of January, Hoge and company are back on the warpath. “We’ve had more time off than we’re used to and you kind of loosen up and so we’ve been working on that. And we’ve been trying to challenge ourselves to keep ourselves on our toes,” he said. The band is even working some new cover songs into their show. “Today we worked on ‘Oh La La’ by The Faces and on ‘Simple Man’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Everything went okay. and we’re trying to get them ready for the show,” said Hoge.

Pulling out the big guns, Hoge plans to cover more ground than usual on this tour. “This tour takes us back to the West Coast, which we haven’t played so often. So we’re hoping that people there like us more and more. When we’ve been able to tour out there we’ve loved it and hopefully we’ll get out there more than once this year,” said Hoge.

The upcoming live album, which will be titled Again Somewhere Tomorrow, is set for release on February 20th. “We recorded two nights in Nashville and culled it down to the best songs of the two nights,” said Hoge. “It’s mostly stuff from the first three records and two songs never on record before.”

As for the new studio album, Hoge said that it’s something that has been in the making for some time. “We went into the studio in January of last year and started working on this record. We did that real quick in five or six days and never finished it. Now we’re going back in,” he said.

The album will consist mostly of songs that Hoge fans have yet to hear. “A couple of the songs we’ve been playing live and some we’ve been just trying to work into the set,” Hoge said.

:: Will Hoge ::

:: Trilogy :: February 2 ::

:: Sherpa and Yeti's (Breck.) :: February 3 ::

:: Belly Up (Aspen) :: February 5 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Black Crowes

• Doyle Bramhall II

• Bruce Springsteen

Cd Reviews - March - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:45:50 +0000

John Mellencamp

Freedom’s Road

Universal Records

5 out of 5

I’m going to start this review by saying that no other album has a chance of competing with Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy as the best album of 2007, if it’s actually ever released, except for Freedom’s Road. If you know me personally you will understand the weight that this statement holds. Mellencamp’s new album is easily his most important work since 1985’s Scarecrow.

Just like the small, farming-town tales of triumph and tragedy found on Scarecrow, Freedom’s Road is a brilliant collection of songs that sums up what I currently feel as an American as opposed to the values of the “redneck agenda” that Green Day railed against on American Idiot.

Songs like “The Americans,” “Heaven is a Lonely Place,” and even the already overplayed “Our Country” find Mellencamp expressing a message of unity and tolerance with an almost saint-like conviction.

While Mellencamp’s opinions are abundantly clear in every song, he manages to avoid being overly critical and refrains from sounding drunk on personal politics.

With Freedom’s Road, Mellencamp once again firmly places himself in the highest echelon of American songwriters. Freedom’s Road is the soundtrack for the beliefs of the post-911 counterculture, and is a stark tribute to the true meanings of freedom and the road we must walk to reach it.

— DJ Hippie

Boulder Acoustic Society

NOW

Independent

3.5 out of 5

Violinist Darol Anger claims the Boulder Acoustic Society is “the future of string band music,” but a good part of their newest CD, NOW, is made up of jazzy standards, old-time traditionals, and only a few new, original tracks.

That being said, what is presented on NOW is a carefully crafted album that has earned them much-deserved attention, beyond that which they have already notched on their belt. (Boulder Acoustic Society took second place at 2006’s Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition, and has received national airplay from their two previous albums.)

Produced by Greg Schochet, mixed by James Tuttle and mastered by Airshow Mastering’s David Glasser, NOW is the type of album that old-time traditional artists would have made had today’s technology been available back then. It’s crisp, refined and gives brilliant credit to the instrumentation, all without sounding too slick or produced.

The light, bouncy tracks simultaneously pay homage to American roots music, while also kicking sand in its face by boldly saying, “This is how we roll in Boulder.”

The band’s presentation is immaculate but loose, and it comes across as fun for listeners. It’s rawness refined and it’s damn good.

:: Boulder Acoustic Society ::

:: Swallow Hill :: March 2 ::

:: Avogadro’s Number :: March 3 ::

:: Sunset Event Center :: March 9 ::

:: Michelangelo’s :: March 23 ::

— Brian F. Johnson

Ted Russell Kamp

Divisadero

Poetry of the Moment Records

3.5 out of 5

Shooter Jennings better step it up, or the bass player from his band The .357’s is gonna whoop his ass. That bass player, Ted Russell Kamp, just released his third album in under two years. divisadero takes listeners on a trip from hellraising nights to hung-over mornings. It’s a solid country record disguised as a singer/songwriter album, disguised as a rock record, but any way it’s disguised it’s worth it.

The One AM Radio

this too will pass

Dangerbird Records

4 out of 5

Hrishikesh Hirway, the mastermind behind The One AM Radio, may have finally done it.

this too will pass follows Hirway through several relationships and residences, as countless other albums have followed other artists, but Hirway does this without the album sounding like a brooding collection of tracks to slit your wrists to.

:: The One AM Radio :: The Thin Man :: March 22 ::

New Amsterdams

Story Like A Scar

Vagrant Records

4 out of 5

Maybe it has something to do with the long days that come with putting this publication out each month, but I just love marathon recording sessions. The New Amsterdams’ latest release Story Like a Scar is a product of such sessions. Recorded in six 14-hour days with producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Elvis Costello), the album gives nods to Amsterdams’ lyricist Matt Pryor’s Kansas home, with typical themes of being away from home and finding yourself working their way into the songs.

Those influences could have made Story Like a Scar a trite, been-there, done-that album, but Pryor’s unique take on those situations, and the accompanying roots-based musicianship not only saves the album but elevates it immensely. The instrumentation, which includes banjo, harmonica, stand-up bass and lap steel, would lead one to believe that the record has a country feel, but the melodies and the delivery is anything but. In fact, to be honest, had those instruments not been pointed out, I would have missed them. This album has texture galore without being over the top.

Aesop Rock

All Day

Nike + Original Run

3.5 out of 5

If those few days of spring-like weather last month weren’t enough to get the running shoes out of the closet, Aesop Rock’s All Day, commissioned by Nike as part of it’s Original Run Series, will certainly help.

The 45-minute track was created specifically with runners in mind, while still being all Aesop Rock. With continually changing musical landscapes, All Day may be the best running companion since the black lab.

Ben Long

Still Alive

Noise Buffet Records

4 out of 5

Denver-based Ben Long might have produced the most pro album ever made in someone’s kitchen. Still Alive is a great alt-country, singer/songwriter album featuring a whole host of Front Range guests. Long claims to have made the album the new-fashioned way, with Pro Tools and self-motivation, but the production quality is really well done, despite the do-it-yourself approach.

Some of the songs on this album, Long said, have taken him nine years to finish! It’s about time, and it was worth the wait.

The Greencards

Viridian

Dualtone

4 out of 5

Americana bands are supposed to be, first and foremost, American, but no one told The Greencards that. The three-piece outfit, with a line-up that is one-third English and two-thirds Australian, formed in Austin and has relocated to Nashville — all the things an American Americana band should do. But, regardless of their native roots, The Greencards’ new release Viridian is 100 percent American roots music bliss. It’s no wonder, this is a band that cut its chops on tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, during their summer of 2005 tour of minor league baseball parks. Viridian is rock and roll and bluegrass forged like iron into an impeccable, very fun and listenable package.

Bayside

The Walking Wounded

Victory Records

Sub-par, run of the mill indie-rock custom crafted for the mall-shopping teenage crowd.

Black Lips

Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo

Vice Records

Raw and unrefined, but kick-ass psychedelic garage rock, live from seedy Tijuana.

Hobex

Enlightened Soul

Phrex Records

Decent, even strong at points, but it does little to set itself apart from other jammy releases.

Bob Dylan

Don’t Look Back

Pennebaker Films

A bold look at Dylan’s early years is re-released in a lavish box that includes a book and a new documentary on Dylan’s 1965 tour of England.

Megadeth

That One Night

Image Entertainment

I love metal, but metal bands are boring to watch at home; stick with Cops instead, or at least VH-1 Classics’ documentary, The History of Metal.

Barry White

Let the Music Play

Eagle Vision

This arrived on Valentine’s Day and I made love to myself all night because of it. A great look at the Sultan of Seduction, Barry White.

Industry Profile: Caprio set to take Fox Theatre through its 15th anniversary

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:50:41 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

As Fox Theatre general manager John Caprio walked down 13th Street on The Hill in Boulder, with his ever-present smile gleaming in the sunlight, he stopped and shook hands with a local beat cop, calling her by first name and asking her personal questions very unlike the way most people speak to the police.

Caprio was sort of playing his role as the face of the Fox, but it was evident, even in the very short exchange, that whether he was the GM at the Fox or not, he would have been happy to talk with the woman. It’s what he does, after all, and he loves it.

In October of 1999, during a trip around the country with his then-girlfriend and now fiance, Caprio stood inside the Fox Theatre for the first time. It was his first night in Boulder and he was floored to be standing in the theatre that, as an East Coaster, he had only heard about through concert lore.

He turned to Sonya that night and said, “If I could ever work here that’d be the coolest thing.”

Since then, Caprio, who left his marketing and publicity career to take the post as the Fox’s box office manager, has climbed the ranks of the legendary rock club. He moved from box office manager to publicist, then to assistant general manager, and now holds the seat of the GM.

As GM, he does what all the previous managers before him have done — man the helm, essentially — but Caprio’s exuberance for his job, and his humble kindness as a person is evident to everyone who enters the doors, be they a nationally touring act, a local opener, an employee, or a fan.

Caprio took over the GM position in August of 2004 and is getting set to take the Fox into its 15th anniversary this month, which a series of shows by top performers, many of whom have long-lasting ties with the club. (The Funky Meters, who played the Fox in 1992 and were the first band to ever be paid by the Fox for a performance, will return on March 8 and 9 to help celebrate the anniversary of the club.

Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended?

Caprio: The Monkees. My parents took me on one of their reunion tours. I was, like, 11 years old then, and it was at the South Shore Music Tent in Boston.

Marquee: What was the first album you ever bought?

Caprio: (Michael Jackson’s )Thriller. I had the jacket and the whole nine yards.

Marquee: What band was it that really got you into music, or can you even narrow it down?

Caprio: Mid-to late-’80s hip-hop. Break-dancing stuff like Run-DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J. You gotta remember where I came from. That was the big thing. I’m from Revere, Mass., a sort of Italian suburb right outside of Boston, 10 minutes from the Logan Airport and 15 minutes from the Boston Garden. At like 14, 15, 16 years old this music had a purpose and a point to us.

Marquee: What role do you play as GM?

Caprio: I’m the face of the Fox to all the employees and I make sure the departments are running in line, but on the outside it’s working with neighboring businesses and city council and things like that. If someone has an issue I’m the guy they want to talk to.

Marquee: So you don’t book any of the music?

Caprio: No. Eric and Sarah (talent buyer Eric Pirritt and assistant talent buyer Sarah Finger) make my job a lot easier.

Marquee: What’s the best part of your job?

Caprio: I love my job. I love going to work every day and being psyched about it. At first, I just wanted to hang out and see shows here, but to work here is amazing. The best part is making people happy, all around. Bands come in and they have a great experience, and that starts with our production staff, and if they have a great show then the fans are happy and have a good time and it’s a cycle. My goal is for everyone to have a “top show” memory from the Fox, and that’s part of the legacy I’ve been entrusted with.

Marquee: You talk about the legacy of the Fox a lot, what do you mean?

Caprio: Well there’s a lot of history here. I mean everyone has played here before they got big. Radiohead, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Widespread Panic, Phish, Dave Matthews, all played here. But beyond just that, it’s honoring the ghost of Dicke. Richard “Dicke” Sidman (who passed away in 1995) started the Fox with Don (Strasburg) and James (Hambleton) in 1992. Dicke had given his life to music and the Fox was his vision. We’re just lucky we’ve carried it through for 15 years. Dicke’s motto was “don’t panic” and it’s something I try to do everyday, which isn’t easy when you have someone calling and cancelling with no notice.

Marquee: What are the best shows you’ve seen at the Fox?

Caprio: David Byrne, who played R&R with Russell Crowe’s band opening, Snoop Dogg in 2001, The Strokes and Ween. I asked Sonya to marry me on stage at the Ween show. We get married on Father’s Day weekend this summer.

From the Barstool of the Publisher - March, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:51:49 +0000

You know, a lot of bad things can be said about bands and the music industry these days, but at least it’s all predictable.

It goes like this. A band no one has heard of breaks onto the scene with a crappy, but well-received song. They tour, record a new album (usually not as good as the first), they tour again and then fade into obscurity. It may not be the best scenario ever, but at least it’s reliable.

But in addition to that cycle, these days it seems like ’80s rock giants (see also, ‘has beens’) are about as reliable as an Amtrack train with a crack- smoking conductor.

Let’s not even get started on the whole litany of lies we’ve heard about “Guns N Roses” (I use quotes around that band name, ’cause it’s really just Axl and a bunch of guys we don’t know. Chinese Democracy was supposed to be released about 400 times by now and it’s still not out, despite a highly publicized release late last year that said it would be out by the end of 2006.

Now Van Halen is pulling the same crap. A few weeks ago you couldn’t swing an unemployed drummer without hearing a news story about the original VH boys “reuniting” (I use quotes around that because bassist Michael Anthony is out, but Eddie Van Halen’s 15-year-old son, Woflgang, is in, and while Anthony wasn’t the best bass player in the world, his harmonies were/are part of VH’s signature sound. I squirm at the thought of “Dance the Night Away” being sung by a prepubescent).

But now, a story this week in Pollstar said that chances of the reunion actually happening are about as good as Diamond Dave saying “No thanks” to a rail of blow backstage before a show. (Legal note: Pollstar didn’t actually say that, or refer to drug use by David Lee Roth in any way, shape or form; that was my embellishment, but the article did say that the tour was “postponed” with no sure plans of it happening.)

Either way, it’s sad that all of these once-great rock bands come across as unreliable morons who can’t seem to get their act together. Was there some kind of regression since their last hits, or have they just whacked out their minds over the years?

It takes all the fun out of it. I was kind of looking forward to seeing Van Halen, but now, even if they do get back together, the only real reason to plunk down what will probably be a very steep ticket price to see them is the Evel Knievel factor — will tonight be the show where they self destruct?

Can’t they just go back to being predictable, or is this indecisiveness the new reliable?

I’ll see you at the shows.

Coles Whalen hits the road and gets set to release new CD at the famed SxSW

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:52:21 +0000

:: Coles Whalen :: Soiled Dove :: March 4 ::

::  The Fox Theatre :: March 24 ::

:: The Aggie Theater :: March 25 ::

By Tiffany Childs

After two years of touring across the country in a truck and camper, Coles Whalen decided she wanted a hometown to return to. Lucky for Colorado, she chose Denver.

Coles grew up in music. She began performing in front of audiences at the age of seven and never looked back. Performing mostly jazz, Whalen ended up with a scholarship to the vocal jazz program at the University of Southern California her freshman year.

She didn’t stay in jazz for long. While Coles told The Marquee in a recent interview, that she appreciated the training in that program, she switched the following year to a music industry business curriculum. “I felt that there was more inside of me than singing other people’s songs,” said Whalen. Indeed there was.

Coles started a rock band during that time – called Whalen, a band that enjoyed residency at the famed Viper Room — but Coles eventually broke up the band out of creative frustration. She wasn’t playing her guitar and she felt that her voice, which is suited for an intimate setting, was being lost in the noise.

“I kind of just went underground and regrouped,” Whalen said. She came out with a folksy, acoustic album and decided to take it on tour. In Whalen’s opinion, “Nothing makes you better than being in front of an audience.”

After more than 200 performances, Coles finally stopped to record a second album. As part of her loyalty to locals, Coles has partnered with local company Mania TV to do a show that will air in April about what happens to a single girl on the road as a musician. The filming of those episodes will kick off at the Soiled Dove. A camera crew will follow Whalen throughout the West Coast tour that ends with a grand finale at South by Southwest.

This is Whalen’s first appearance at South by Southwest and she’ll be doing it in style. Not only will she have the film crew, her CD — Nothing is too Much — is scheduled to be released there and her label, Iconic Records, will feature her in a showcase.

She plans on having a Denver CD release party upon her return from the road.

:: Coles Whalen ::

:: Soiled Dove :: March 4 ::

:: The Fox Theatre :: March 24 ::

:: The Aggie Theater :: March 25 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Indigo Girls

• Nina Gordon

• Norah Jones

Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies staying on the road and hopefully out of jail

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:53:33 +0000

:: Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies :: Bender’s Tavern :: March 21 ::

By Monica Banks

Most people use the highway as a means to an end, but Bob Wayne can comfortably call it home. For two years, Wayne has been living on a John Deer bus and ignoring speed limit signs across the country. While Wayne usually tells his story through his songs, he recently took the time to explain a few things to The Marquee in normal words.

Wayne began his music career at the bottom. He started out as a roadie for his friends’ band Zeke. From there, he perfected his roadie talents and went to work for Hank Williams III. One day, Wayne was playing a guitar around the trailer and then things took off. He was told that within a year he would be on stage. “I didn’t really believe it at first,” he said.

The music moved fast, from stacking guitars and loading gear to opening sold out shows for Hank III. “It was crazy,” said Wayne.

When he first started playing, Wayne was burning CD’s from the bus before a show and selling out afterwards. Now he is on the road with his own band, The Outlaw Carnies, an eclectic mix of pickers and talented players.

The Outlaw Carnies have a revolving network of musicians, which is usually based on availability and talent. “I have an A team, a B team and a C team,” Wayne said. Often on the A team is Andy Gibson, from Hank III. Gibson has been playing with Wayne since the beginning and whenever he isn’t on the road with Hank III, he can be found picking with The Outlaw Carnies.

Most of the Carnies come from Nashville. “I’m pretty hooked into that scene, there are a lot of good pickers down there,” Wayne said. His first two records were recorded in Nashville, and a third album is on its way from Seattle. Wayne’s music is often classified as outlaw or alternative country, rougher lyrics and a rowdier twist to the old school honky-tonk style.

Wayne first picked up the guitar when he was eight. His first songs were “Tear in My Beer” and “Hey Good Lookin.’” His mother was in a cover band and his grandfather was an organist who played with Bing Crosby. Wayne grew up in Richland, Wash., the home of the Manhattan Project, the nuclear weapons development project, all of which, he said, contributed to his take on life and his music. “I’m just living hard and fast, waiting for the cancer to set in,” Wayne said.

Wayne got serious about music when he turned 15. At that time, Wayne stole a car, dropped out of high school and moved with his girlfriend to Santa Cruz, Calif. Wayne has since been court ordered to receive his G.E.D., but has not attended college.

Today, Wayne is concentrating on his music and touring whenever he can. “I live life on the road — have for the past two years. I live more like a trucker really,” he said.

Today Wayne can’t recall just how many times he has been arrested, but one of his favorites is when he was at a party with some friends in the desert. He saw a few of his friends walking down the path with a flashlight in hand. Wayne, ever the man for a practical joke, quickly jumped out of sight, hiding in the bushes. His friends came up and he jumped out, yelling “FREEZE!” However, Wayne was the one who was surprised when he found out that the men were police officers and not his friends.

But, while Wayne has had a hard-livin’ life on the run and on the road, he wasn’t always an outlaw-country man, even though he had a lot of tendencies throughout. He has a delicate, story-telling side too. He first discovered this inclination after buying the Melvins album The Crybaby, which features Hank III on “Ramblin’ Man” and “Okie From Muskogee.” After hearing that album, Wayne began writing his own ballads, comprised of a mixture of his own adventures and some tall tales. “My songs explain a lot about me,” Wayne said. He still indulges in the Melvins, but his own music has been more influenced by the great storytellers: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and David Allen Cole.

With a music career on track, Wayne has put aside his jailhouse days and is now concentrating on the music. “You can’t play a show when you’re in jail,” he said. However, Wayne has been in jail enough to tell the tales. “I tell stories, I am a storyteller. Sometimes it’s about hooking up with the devil at 5:00 in the morning, other times it could be robbing a bank. Every song is a different story.”

:: Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies ::

:: Bender’s Tavern :: March 21 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• G.G. Allin

• Johnny Cash

• Hank Williams III

Tishamingo locks themselves away and emerge from exile with a new album called The Point

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:54:06 +0000

:: Tishamingo ::Gothic Theatre :: March 6 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: March 7 ::

By Marisa Beahm

With their explosive rock and roll, it’s difficult to imagine that extroverted Southern rockers, Tishamingo started their music in a secluded farmhouse five years ago. But that’s exactly what they did, and recently the band isolated themselves once again to create their most powerful album to date, The Point.

The Georgia-based foursome were living in a farmhouse outside of Athens for two years when their band first got serious. It was during this time that Tishamingo played music full-time and synced both their lives and their sound. Living communally prepared them for life on the road together: a crucial skill, since they have played over 500 live shows in the last five years.

“It was a good time to live together on a farm in the middle of nowhere, no distractions,” said band member Cameron Williams in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We did it all for the music. It took all those years of being together back at the farmhouse and on the road together to end up where we are now.”

And, the band couldn’t be prouder of their current milestone, recently releasing their third album, The Point. The album boasts Tishamingo’s electric guitar-driven rock and roll, flooded with classic rock influences, complete with strong, gritty vocals. John Kurzweg, who is known for his work with Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters, produced The Point. Having Kurzweg as a producer was a “dream come true,” said Williams, who met Kurzweg in his home town of Tallahassee, Fla.

To write the music for The Point, Tishamingo used their tried and true method of shutting out the world. The band, which is Williams on guitar and vocals, Richard Proctor on drums, Chuck Thomas on bass and Jess Franklin on guitars, keys, organ and vocals, went to Alligator Point, Fla. to write at a secluded beach house. When it was time to record, they stayed at Kurweg’s property in Santa Fe, where they lived communally again. The group took turns cooking and sharing their meals during the two months of recording. The experience was “like going to summer camp. When we all left it was such a bummer,” Williams said.

The “summer camp” sessions led to their most focused album yet. Accurately named The Point, the album gets to the core of Tishamingo’s style, establishing them as much more than a classic rock cover band. Beyond rock, the album contains elements of blues and folk, capturing sounds from different genres. Classic rock influences come through the music, including ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman brothers. Franklin compliments Tishamingo’s guitar and vocally driven sound on electric piano. With vocals led by Williams, whose voice is reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the band captures the necessary coarseness of Southern rock, but is diverse enough to switch to slower melodies, such as “Mitchell,” which examines spirituality. Another gem on the album is a vigorous cover of The Band’s “Chest Fever,” which is a tribute sure to make the rock legends proud.

While Tishamingo has been characterized as a jam band, this new album sways from that label. While The Point boasts some strong guitar solos, especially in “Tennessee,” it lacks the longer noodling solos associated with the jam scene. “We don’t necessarily feel like we have to jam out every song,” Williams said.

To promote the album, Tishamingo will hit the road, familiar territory for the constantly touring group. The band, who snagged their name from a town featured in O Brother Where Art Thou, have garnered a large fan base, especially by playing larger gigs like Bonnaroo and partying on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Gimmie Three Days Cruise. “That’s all we do, is travel and play,” Williams said.

:: Tishamingo ::

::Gothic Theatre :: March 6 ::

:: Aggie Theatre :: March 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Lynyrd Skynyrd

• Stevie Ray Vaughan

• The Allman Brothers

Midlake signs with U.K. label Bella Union and releases The Trials of Van Occupanther

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:55:22 +0000

:: Midlake :: Hi-Dive :: March 10 ::

By Page Bayless

For anyone who has ever said they’re sorry to me for being from Texas, you had better look up Midlake. Yes, friends, that’s right: Denton, Texas, just north of Dallas/Fort Worth. There, at the University of North Texas, five jazz musicians came together to form the band Midlake and, fortunately, for all of you gagging at the thought of boots and spurs, this is the kind of band that won’t be making an appearance at the Grizzly Rose.

Currently on their U.S. tour, Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith was kind enough to step aside from a soundcheck and exchange various “y’alls” with me.

Smith has a refreshingly innocent take on the development of the band as they moved stylistically from jazz to rock, signed with the U.K.-based label Bella Union and released their sophomore album. But, had he been some run-of-the-mill indie tool, the fact that we both grew up in Houston could have very well been his only redeeming factor. Luckily, I don’t have to be biased in favor of our shared hometown because he (and the rest of Midlake from what it sounds like) is pretty legit.

What you hear from Midlake comes from a process of trial and error in finding a sound that successfully translates from jazz to rock. “If you listen to the history of the band you can see this huge evolution from being an acid jazz funk band to a drum and bass kind of thing,” Smith said in his interview with The Marquee.

Lead singer/songwriter Tim Smith, who was at first “very, very, very nervous” to take the position, is the perfect vehicle for communicating a unique sound reminiscent of influences such as Radiohead, The Flaming Lips and Grandaddy.

The drummer Smith describes Midlake’s pursuit of a label quite eloquently. In the midst of what could have very well turned into an “I Have A Dream”-moment, a slight pause and a chuckle delivered a very appropriate “… actually, I don’t know what I’m talking about, its probably really rare and really difficult, I guess. This whole thing is about chance,” he said. Touche.

After sending Bella Union the demos from their first album, the label was very clear about their intentions, coming in the form of a simple e-mail response with six magical words: “I want to have Midlake’s babies.”

As do I.

After completing two European tours, Midlake wasn’t fully satisfied. “The first album was a stepping stone but certainty didn’t go as well as we all had hoped,” Smith said.

Their newest release, The Trials of Van Occupanther, follows a more ideal path in its success, as it is consistently attracting a bigger and bigger fan base. This album gently veers stylistically in the direction of an early ’70s vibe, sans lava lamps: think Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.

The obscure album title and accompanying album art were all part of the creative process for the band as they recorded. Singer Tim Smith found an ad in a magazine of people in “equestrian garb” and with every song he wrote he promptly declared, “If it doesn’t look like this picture then I don’t want it on the album.” In addition, various pictures made their way onto the wall during recording. Thus, a golden body suit and paper mache panther mask made their way to the cover of the album.

The relationship between music and narrative communicates as a kind of contented ambiguity. Much like the band itself, it floats in a genuine place that many groups similar to Midlake can’t seem to find — Texans or not.

:: Midlake ::

:: Hi-Dive :: March 10 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Radiohead

• Flaming Lips

• Grandaddy

Sebadoh puts the past behind and reforms

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:56:31 +0000

:: Sebadoh :: Fox Theatre :: March 17 ::

By Tim Dwenger

In late 2006, Lou Barlow, prolific musician and founding member of several influential bands including Dinosaur Jr., announced the reunion of the original line-up of Sebadoh. To truly understand the significance of the reunion of the original line-up, it is critical to understand something about the history of this seminal indie-rock band.

The project rose out of the ashes of the original Dinosaur Jr. in 1989, when bassist Lou Barlow was plucked from the brink of depression by experimental recording partner Eric Gaffney. “I was sorta heartbroken, having been just kicked out of Dinosaur and he was like, ‘Fuck it, let’s just do this, I know this kid who plays drums and he’s awesome, I’m gonna bring him down,’” said Barlow in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Turns out he was pretty awesome and we ended up getting the band together really quickly.”

The other “kid” that Gaffney had brought down to the practice space was Jason Lowenstein, a brilliant musician who turned out, over time, to be more of Barlow’s musical partner in life than Gaffney. “When things finally came together with Sebadoh all I wanted to do was tour, constantly. I knew it was critical to our success, having done it once already with Dinosaur. Unfortunately, Eric simply wasn’t comfortable touring and he ended up taking more of a Brian Wilson role in the band. In the end we couldn’t really abide by that so he left the band,” Barlow said.

Gaffney wasn’t the only one in the band that seemed a bit unbalanced at the time. Barlow himself was on his way to developing a reputation for freaking out on stage. “It wasn’t like the longer the tour was the more I’d freak out. You could catch a freak-out within the first week of a tour depending on what happened that day,” admitted Barlow. “I played a show at the Fox in Boulder years ago and we went to this place beforehand and it was like ‘woohoo, free Margaritas.’ Anyway, I drank way too many, they were way too strong, and tequila has a way of obliterating all sorts of technical know-how and coordination for me. I was basically incapacitated and had a meltdown on stage because I was too drunk.”

Sure, there were other Barlow freak-outs over the years, but they eventually took a back seat to the music as the band began to veer toward the mainstream. “When Eric quit the band he took a huge chunk of the band’s sound and personality with him and we felt we really had to go in another direction,” Barlow said. “I had recently rediscovered playing guitar in a standard tuning and all these songs just exploded from me in about two years. I actually ended up writing some pretty good pop songs. When I look back on it now it really looks like a streamlining of the sound but it was something new to me at that point.”

That streamlining of Sebadoh’s sound is what brought them their biggest success. With the release of Bakesale in 1994, mainstream music fans began to get wind of Barlow and his band. Songs like “Got It” and “Skull” received massive attention, revealed the softer side of the band and demonstrated to the world that Lou Barlow was much more than an indie-rock noise maker.

Riding that wave of success, Sebadoh carried on strong throughout the ’90s, before going on hiatus in 2000 so Barlow could concentrate on his side project, Folk Implosion. Barlow and Lowenstein have staged a couple of Sebadoh tours since 2000 but it wasn’t until late last year that Eric Gaffney agreed to return to the fold.

“I had been locked in an e-mail war with Eric for about four years, hashing out the details of the Sebadoh III re-issue and other things. We used to write really long letters back and forth and now with the advent of e-mail is just so much quicker,” Barlow laughed. “We just work well in writing. It took us four years on e-mail, so on paper it probably would have never happened.”

The week before Thanksgiving of last year, Sebadoh got together in an L.A. practice space and after just one week Barlow felt the chemistry falling back into place. “It’s kinda funny because it just immediately makes sense. The three of us hadn’t actually been in a room together in, God knows, 15 years? And when we all started playing we realized that, musically, we haven’t really changed. We still play in the same style that we used to and we tap into each other really quickly, it is just a good feeling,” said Barlow.

While the music still flows organically, the band has matured and has strayed from their adolescent ways. “It’s a little different than drinkin’ a bunch of beer, trollin’ around for a diner or trying to score weed, living that life that you lead when you are in your early twenties. These days, we practice for a while and have a really good time and then we come back to my house and my baby’s here and we all sit down and have a nice dinner.”

In many ways, the fits and starts of the Sebadoh story reflect the maturation process of its members. Barlow skirts around the issue of whether or not everyone in the band has matured to the same point and breaks into laughter when asked if there is still one guy in the band who is tied to some of the vestiges of his early 20’s lifestyle. For the time being, a chuckled “we’ll see” is all he is prepared to reveal, but he is quick to admit that, “This never could have happened unless all that time had passed.”

:: Sebadoh ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 17 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Pavement

• The Pixies

• Sonic Youth

Wilco’s Glenn Kotche explores negative rhythm with solo album Mobile

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:57:02 +0000

:: Glenn Kotche :: Larimer Lounge :: March 3 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche had just gone back into his New York home after his third trip outside that day to shovel snow. He was just as ‘over winter’ as everyone is when February begins to draw to a close, but Kotche is a bit of a glutton and was getting ready to set out on a solo tour the next day that would take him from New York to Montana, to Washington state and, eventually, Colorado — and this wasn’t some plush tour bus kind of tour that he does with Wilco, this was a load-up-the-car-and-drive kind of tour.

Kotche was hitting the road to tour in support of his solo album Mobile, which was released nearly a year ago, but one that he has had little time to perform for live audiences.

“Wilco keeps me busy,” he told The Marquee, still breathing heavily from shoveling. “I haven’t had much chance to tour since Mobile came out. I did an East Coast jaunt and a few Midwest dates opening for Jeff (Tweedy), but that was actually before the album came out. So I had some time off now and I decided to utilize it and get out and play some shows. It’s kind of the Wilco mentality anyway. We tour constantly and it has nothing to do with whether a record is out or not. We just want people to hear the music.”

That music, as it pertains to his newest release, is a rhythmic analysis of a series of questions, Kotche explained. “Whenever I make a solo record I’m trying to pursue some sort of rhythmic question that I’m interested in. As a drummer, I’m rhythmically obsessed and whenever I get an idea that I want to explore and dig a little deeper, I make a record to do that,” he said.

Kotche had a few questions in mind for Mobile, which, in part, was named after the work of Alexander Calder, a famous sculptor who specialized in mobiles. “With Mobile I had a few ideas. I wanted to pursue concepts of negative rhythm, and rhythmically stretching something. So where the other two records (Kotche has two previous solo releases) are a little bit more experimental, this one definitely has some strong concepts behind it and it’s probably more listener friendly, even though it’s still all percussion,” said Kotche.

Kotche explained that in Wilco he has vast amounts of freedom, but he said he is also limited by the very nature of the music, and thus Mobile and this tour gives him the chance to explore more. “I have a lot of freedom in Wilco, but Wilco, to me, is about Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics. Primarily, that’s what people are relating to, whether they love the music or not. So when I’m playing with Wilco, I’m trying to illustrate that the best way I can, whether it’s supporting those lyrics or taking them out of context and providing chaos behind them. But with my solo stuff it’s a chance for me to explore in ways that probably wouldn’t be appropriate in Wilco. It’s fun being in a band, but I also learn a lot from doing the solo thing and I can take that back and be a better part of that band than I was previously,” he said.

On the day that Kotche spoke with The Marquee, Wilco’s new album Sky Blue Sky, due out in May, was being mastered. He said that the album was recorded very organically, with the band set up in a circle. “It’s an unusual way to record these days, unfortunately, but it was really great to do it like that,” he said.

Kotche said that Wilco, who will be playing Australia and Europe in the spring, will do an “extensive summer tour” of the States. “We’ll be touring from the beginning of May until, basically, forever,” he joked.

:: Glenn Kotche ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: March 3 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Steve Reich

• Ed Blackwell

• Wilco

The Tragically Hip hit the states with their ‘Great Canadian Album’ World Container

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:58:08 +0000

:: The Tragically Hip :: Gothic Theatre :: March 19 ::

By Brian Kenney

So what’s so special about being Canadian? In essence, things seem to be a bit simpler with our northern neighbors. And that’s not being diminutive. Beer, hockey, small-town life, oh and the Tragically Hip. In a country that prides itself on a low-key, simple existence, the only thing that may exist on a monumental level is the Hip’s popularity.

Appearing on the scene in 1986, at the height of Bon Jovi hysteria, the Hip composed simple odes of humble, Canadian life inspired by the folk of Gordon Lightfoot, the slide guitar harmonies of the Eagles, the cerebral lyrics of REM, with an indie splash of the Replacements. The tight-knit Kingston, Ontario quintet had a simple sound and a simple formula: play music and earn enough to support your habit, and don’t have expectations outside of your means.

“We’ve always approached our career by keeping our eyes on the not-too-distant horizon: one record at a time and one tour at a time,” bassist and founding member Gord Sinclair told The Marquee in an interview that traced the Hip’s foundations and earliest inclinations through their 11th and most recent studio release World Container.

The Tragically Hip, bassist Sinclair, drummer Johnny Fay, guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, and vocalist/lyricist Gordon Downie, have made a career of lyrically and sonically representing the simplified essence of folk life. Throughout 20-odd years of making music, they have amassed accolades worthy of the title of Canadian ambassadors of music; in addition to 14 Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammys), with World Container nominated for four more. They have a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2005 were presented with an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Conservatory of Music.

All the while, they have maintained a musical compass, kept a pulse on their fan base, and preserved themselves as a unit, and let’s face it, even the most steadfast of accomplished bands (Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam) have found that difficult. “We’ve grown up doing this. From wide-eyed university kids to family members with responsibilities. And while our outlook on the whole thing has changed, we’ve maintained this family sense, which is predicated on mutual respect,” Sinclair said. “Early in our career we had a ‘very Canadian’ meeting where we decided to share equally everything that happened to us: monetary credits, writing credits. So as to eliminate all the things that break up bands.”

For years, at least on American soil, they have been flying under the radar, finding fan-friendly pockets in upstate New York, Chicago, Ohio, and Colorado, as Canada’s answer to REM. Their allure as Canada’s best export since Wayne Gretzky is, in part, due to the theatrics of their expressive, eclectic, glassy-eyed lead singer Gordon Downie.

Downie is drop-dead captivating in his ability to literally improvise during live performances. He possesses a penchant for stage presence that puts him in the elitist of elite company of front men, strategically and subliminally weaving long-winded improvised narratives of stranded sailors, or tales of machine gun-toting rumrunners, or anecdotes of killer whale attacks. “Way back, when we were a bar band, we’d play B-side covers with great structure and riffs and Gordie would remember the first verse and the chorus and then he’d forget and make the rest up. It became fun that way,” Sinclair said of his enigmatic lead singer.

Some of those improvs became the foundation for World Container. Upon hearing that the Hip were nearing the studio again, a fellow Canadian appeared on their radar. Enter Bob Rock, renowned for producing industry heavy-hitters across genres (Mötley Crüe, Metallica, Cher). To say that Rock was courting the Hip is an understatement, for he admitted that when he met Downie he had “visions of the making the ‘Great Canadian Album.’”

Rock considered the relaxed vibe of the Hip a pleasure to work with. “Bob very quickly shared his passion for the project. He’s an infectious music guy. He’s like a walking musical encyclopedia,” Sinclair said.

The result, World Container, is an approachable and well-balanced disc, from the Snow Patrol-esque “In View” to the Beatles-inspired crybaby wah wah of Downie’s vocals in “Fly,” to the piano-driven “Pretend,” which could be Downie’s version of Carole King’s “Home Again.”

“I am very proud of this record,” Rock recalled when World Container was in the can. “Now, did I make ‘The Great Canadian Album?’ Time will tell,” he answered himself. “I will always call it ‘my Great Canadian album.”

:: The Tragically Hip ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: March 19 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• REM

• Broken Social Scene

• Dave Matthews Band

Robert Randolph and the Family band maintain humbleness despite blow up

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:59:49 +0000

:: Robert Randolph and the Family Band :: Fox Theatre :: March 3 and 4 ::

By Brian Kenney

It’s not really about how good you play guitar, it’s about how you play guitar. It’s about the passion, it’s about the phrasing, it’s about personifying an inanimate object and making that thing stand up and command a presence as if it was a preacher. It’s about making that guitar tell a story.

This is how Robert Randolph approaches his art, and this is how he approached his latest disc Colorblind. This is also how he approached recording with his boyhood hero, Eric Clapton.

His weapon is not the usual six string slung-over-the-shoulder Strat or Les Paul, but the pedal steel guitar…all 10 or 12, or in his case, 13 strings of it. For Randolph, playing the pedal steel has not been a puzzling, mystifying endeavor as it has been for so many who have placed the perplexing steel lap jack over their knees. It has been a family endeavor and a spiritual one.

“I just wanted to be a player in church,” Randolph said of the spiritual roots of playing the pedal steel, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Our church, the House of God [Orange, New Jersey] is where I grew up watching guys play the pedal steel guitar. Then when I started to play the bars, I started to meet some people.”

Randolph’s location in the Grammy-worthy hierarchy was secured long before he stepped onto the stage of last year’s Grammys for a show-stealing Sly and the Family Stone tribute, flanked by Sly, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, and Black Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am, among others.

His location was etched in stone long before Clapton requested to sit in and record new tracks for his latest offering Colorblind and long before Grammy nominations; before he received tour invites from Santana, the Allman Brothers, and last year the Black Crowes and Dave Matthews; before his collaborations with John Medeski and the North Mississippi All Stars; and, of course, before his yearly sets at Bonnaroo.

Yes, before all of this, there was “The March.”

“Y’all ready for ‘The March?’” Randolph asks on Live at the Wetlands, before breaking into a quick-picking rollicking soul jam so identifiable with this lap pedal steel prodigy, that it set the tone for his career. “The March” is both identifiable and immediate — and immediate is a word so identifiable with Randolph.

Early on, he heard Stevie Ray Vaughan and his interest was immediately peaked. Born into a musical North Jersey family (cousins Danyel Morgan [bass/vocals], Marcus Randolph [drums], and Long Islander Jason Crosby [Hammond B-3 organ, piano] round out the rest of the Family Band), Randolph’s interest in the pedal steel had humble but spiritual beginnings

Word spread quickly, especially in the clubs of Manhattan where Randolph, along with early interpretations of the Family Band, had some of his first gigs; where industry folk galore lined up to meet, see and witness Randolph, who many in the industry called a “prodigy” of a lost art. Soon enough, Robert Randolph & The Family Band: Live at the Wetlands catapulted this unassuming North Jersey-born player into a limelight that in the past stood reserved for the likes of Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

An immediate impact in music followed, with musicians literally pouring out of the woodwork to play with him. Dave Matthews was an early supporter. “When I first saw Robert, what struck me was this beautiful sincerity in what he’s doing,” Matthews has said on his website.

The singer/songwriter was among the most recent guests on Randolph’s latest disc Colorblind. “We only had three guests (on Colorblind), Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews and Leela James,” said Randolph. “It’s like when Duane Allman came out. When he first appeared, everyone wanted to play with him. Santana and [Steven] Tyler wanted to do something [with me], but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work.”

He didn’t exactly turn down Tyler and Santana, but instead he — and Colorblind producer Tommy Sims — opted to save those rough drafts for a rainy day. “Sometimes it works right away and sometimes you save those songs for later down the road. If I could, I’d have put out a double album,” Randolph said.

The legendary Sims had a big part in shaping Colorblind, which features Clapton on a cover of the Byrds’ “Jesus Is Just Alright With Me” and Matthews on a tune entitled “Love Is the Only Way.”

While he humbly recognizes his popularity growing, and he is aware of the clout of the artists who desire to work with him, Randolph isn't caught up in the hoopla that goes with it, and part of that could be because he never saw a concert until relatively recently. “I’d never been to a concert before the year 2000. So I have no great concert memories or a memorable show that inspired me. I watched all the old guys on lap pedal steel play and I can tell you a hundred stories of those guys bringing the house down,” he said.

:: Robert Randolph and the Family Band ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 3 and 4 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Eric Clapton

• Stevie Ray Vaughan

• Jimi Hendrix

TV on the Radio eliminates static and maintains innovative edge

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:00:50 +0000

:: TV on the Radio :: Ogden Theatre :: March 20 ::

By Gina Pantone

There remain very few musical acts that can maintain a concurrent level of success and innovation in an industry so crippled and corrupted by the dollar. The will to be famous often supercedes the drive to be important, to have a purpose, and to possess a true passion for the craft of musicianship.

But critically acclaimed sonic innovators TV on the Radio seem to be doing everything right — from musical trend-setting to their laissez-faire attitude, to even their location (the north side of Brooklyn, NY, known as Williamsburg). Their second LP, the facetiously titled Return to Cookie Mountain, gained massive attention and accolades. While some critics find it a step backward in the band’s experimental stratosphere, others have it pegged as brilliant. Regardless, Cookie Mountain is more than just a sophomore effort — it’s literally a structure of sweet sonic proportions.

“A truck full of chickens fell over in front of my house and they all came running into my front yard,” singer Tunde Adebimpe recalled in a technologically-turbulent cell phone conversation with The Marquee. “There will probably be a song about it. It wouldn’t be very good and no one would care about it, but it would be valid as an experience that I had.” This tale seems to encapsulate Adebimpe’s perception of their music. Inspiration doesn’t have to come in the form of epiphany. Randomness can be just as valid of a muse, though the mood of their lyrics often revolves around politically-oriented chaos.

“You take your paranoia, your fear, and (you) channel that situation and turn it into words on a page so you can understand it for yourself,” Adebimpe said. “You can show it to someone else and help them understand it, and get different ideas going. It helps to not be so disengaged and disenchanted with the situation.”

Listening to their sound solidifies this laid-back mantra. Sometimes their soulful harmonies and spacey grooves give off the impression that TV on the Radio is really just five men looking to jam out in a basement or subway (in fact, bassist Gerard Smith was recruited from frequently playing Adebimpe’s Manhattan subway platform). This is not to say that their sound is amateurish or haphazard — it’s quite the opposite, in fact. It’s more about a vibe. Their intricate melodic layers (note guitarist Kyp Malone’s stratospheric falsettos) and investigative song structure is what makes them unique — in addition to their lack of the superior attitude that often fogs the perception of many such critical darlings.

“I’m regularly amazed and thankful to be making music that’s not easy to categorize in the world,” Adebimpe said. “We kind of have a job doing it right now, which is the most anyone can ask for.”

TV on the Radio has built their career on complete artistic control — a power incredibly difficult to obtain. Their long stint with Chicago independent label Touch and Go came to an abrupt and controversial end when Interscope Records took an interest — leaving many fans disillusioned. Although band co-founder and producer David Sitek has recently expressed animosity in the press over the situation, Adebimpe clarified the situation. “When we were signed to [Touch and Go], we were told, in essence, that any time we wanted to move to another label that it would be fine and amicable. When that time came and it was a reality... I have a lot of weird feelings about it. I feel no ill will towards anyone at that company. I feel like it’s a lesson for me about art being handled by people who handle business. You’re not really feeling the same thing. Hopefully, you’re on the same path, but you’re not doing the same things for the same reasons. I don’t know. It just got really hairy for a while,” he said.

Regardless of the often-dreaded transition from indie to major label, TV on the Radio has still maintained their sharp creative edge. An internet ad campaign that surrounded Return to Cookie Mountain depicts child actor Brandon Ratcliff (Me and You and Everyone We Know) as “Mr. President” — an 8 year-old commander-in-chief of an unknown organization or government. In the piece, he fires the band, as well as everyone in the surrounding area at will, and advocates veggie dogs to the soundtrack of the album while dressed in a tiny business suit. Is it a satire depicting their administration changes? Is it spreading awareness for meat substitutes? The message is not clear, but Adebimpe is clearly to blame.

“That was mine,” Adebimpe said. “It is sort of odd to be involved in the marketing of your own record. They suggested that it be a ‘viral’ campaign. It’s when you start inundating people’s computers with ‘oh my God, this record is coming out in two months’ and you can’t check your email without knowing it. When I asked what would go into a campaign like that, they responded with ‘anything’ — as long as it was seven minutes worth of content. I just thought, ‘Well, I’ll just make three short films.’ Then there was my friend Suzi Yoonessi, who also was the assistant producer on Me and You and Everyone We Know, which Brandon Ratcliff was in. I had already written a skit out that starred a president, it doesn’t have to be of a record label or a country — it’s not really clear. He’s just ‘Mr. President.’ He’s in charge. He’s not really qualified to be in charge, but he is anyway. We sent [Ratcliff] a script and he was really into it, and we were really flattered to get to work with him. He’s an awesome human being,” Adebimpe said.

Return to Cookie Mountain seems to encapsulate a different mindset than the band’s debut, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. It’s more upbeat and full-bodied, with the notable addition of Smith and drummer Jaleel Bunton. Unfortunately, their trademark foreboding moments are few and far between, though the lyrics remain just as haunting (notably in “Wash the Day Away”). The record is melodic and cohesive, proving that adding more compositional structure need not have a predictable outcome.

Whatever the final ruling, Return to Cookie Mountain is undoubtedly a triumph. “I think it is possible to be a success and stick to what you’re doing,” Adebimpe said. “Some cases it just goes that way, that you’re happy with what you’re doing and it’s working out, but in other cases it’s the opposite. You just have to remember what the important thing is about it, and also what your definition of success actually is.”

:: TV on the Radio ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: March 20 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Bloc Party

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

• Modest Mouse

CD Reviews - April - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:49:36 +0000

Kings of Leon

Because of the Times

RCA Records

4.5 out of 5

This is what a follow-up album should be.

Kings of Leon’s newest release Because of the Times, according to the band, takes what people expect from their sound and “throws them for a loop.”

But the truth is, that Because of the Times actually throws no loops but continues doing what Kings of Leon have become known for — but that’s not a bad thing.

In the press release that accompanied the CD — the band’s third full LP — it states “It would have been easy for Kings of Leon to make Aha Shake Heartbreak Part II and call it a day ... But instead of resting on their rep, the guys chose to challenge themselves.”

Yes, there are differences between Aha and Because of the Times. Yes, the new album shows some growth, but, no, it doesn’t take the band out of its comfort zone.

Because of the Times is just as full of fuzzed-out rock anthems as its predecessors and, again, that is a very good thing.

Kings of Leon have found the proper formula for the modern version of late-’70s-era rock/punk and it would had been a shame if they had changed it up too much.

If Aha Shake Heartbreak got stuck in your CD player for as long as it did ours, then Because of the Times is going to be your summer album of choice. It’s excellent and moving but, alas, it is not a heavy departure for the band.

— Brian F. Johnson

Storytyme

Patchwork Quilt

Independent

3.5 out of 5

Boulder-based retro rockers Storytyme restructured their sound in the last year and their first release since the revamp, Patchwork Quilt, is an over-the-top example of their growth.

Recorded in Sony Super Audio, the album pops with their new rock sounds and vocals reminiscent of The Cult.

The production of the album is incredibly strong, but it also should be, as drummer Tony Lewis is a sound engineer at IMMERSIVETM Studios in Boulder, where the album was recorded. Adding to that production quality is the fact that the band recorded much of the album live (not in concert, but together, without isolating different instruments, which is the “standard” way albums are recorded).

In addition to the previously mentioned Cult reference, the band’s sound weaves from almost jammy (more in the Gomez-like pop sense of the word) with the song “Walkin’ Upstream”, to the KBCO-esque pop-rock sound of “Good Look Around.”

If ever there was a band that is setting itself up for radio play, Storytyme is definitely it, but it may be their follow-up to Patchwork that will get them there.

While Patchwork Quilt is the band’s best effort to date, some of the tracks seem to struggle with an identity crisis. Their desire to be all things to all fans leaves them straddling jam, pop and rock genres and while they nail it on some tracks, others leave you wondering what kind of band you’re listening to.

— Brian F. Johnson

Wendy Woo Trio

Luxury

Independent

3.5 out of 5

Wendy Woo has released six, count ’em six, CDs since 1997, but the most recent release from the Woo camp is a debut for her newest project, the Wendy Woo Trio.

With a fuller, darker and edgier sound than her previous solo releases, Luxury shines with power-pop collaborations and shows a different side of Woo, the mother-to-be, who has grown into one of the Front Range’s dearest sweethearts.

Heavy subject matter abounds on the new CD, with songs that touch on the dangers of wealth, and the abuses in Darfur, but Woo’s lighter side is also prevalent with feel-good tracks that see the collective glass as more-than-half-full.

Joined by multi-instrumentalists Mitch DeZwarte (Ten Tiers) and Chris Maestas (Mean Old Man), Woo’s normally stripped-down sound becomes thick on Luxury without taking away from the singer/songwriter sound she has become known for. It’s not like the Trio has completely transformed her sound, but it has added a depth that has been lacking in some of her previous work.

Bassnectar

Underground Communication

OM Records

3.5 out of 5

Following on the heals of 2005’s double-disc release Mesmerizing the Ultra, Bassnectar’s new release Underground Communication takes another step toward his “modern listening music” genre.

Underground Communication explores hip-hop with scores of MCs atop a heavy, driving range of tempo and throbbing bass lines.

The album is listener friendly and accessible art for the ears, steeped in the hip-hop/dancehall fun.

El-P

I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

Definitive Jux

3 out of 5

The guest artists alone are reason enough to pick up this album, but luckily the spots without the appearances by Trent Reznor, Mars Volta, Cat Power and Aesop Rock, to name a few, are as strong as the guest list.

I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, El-P’s first album in four years, is an urgent documentary about today’s world and represents the struggle faced by those living in a rapidly changing society.

It’s pretty heavy stuff, not light background stuff, but worth every beat.

The Stinos

Alchemy & Apathy

Independent

3 out of 5

The Denver-based quartet known as The Stinos have released an incredibly strong debut with Alchemy & Apathy. The pop-rock group says that they’re a blend of Matchbox 20 and Sublime, and this first CD certainly showcases that comparison.

With catchy, radio-friendly driving songs and ska-laden stompers, the band comes across as mature beyond its years, partially due to the traditional training and street performing roots of its members.

Michael Cole

All My Words

Independent

2 out of 5

Lyrically, Michael Cole’s debut album All My Words is a great snapshot of today’s world, as the tracks take on relevant and important issues facing society, but something is lacking in the overall presentation of the songs.

It’s a decent singer/songwriter album, but it fails to deliver any punch, except through the vocals. Musically, the songs run into one another with little variety in range or color. That lack of variety translates to the later tracks feeling stale. Again, it’s not bad, but something needs to be done to up the passion and depth.

Dinosaur, Jr.

Live in the Middle East

Image Entertainment

4 out of 5

The lords of loud, Dinosaur, Jr. are getting set to release their first album with the original line-up in more than 15 years, and as a little taste of things to come, the consummate post-punk trio has released its first DVD, Live in the Middle East. The DVD, which was filmed at Boston’s Middle East and New York’s Iriving Plaza, showcases the band during its December, 2005 tour, with material coming from all three Dino albums.

Special features include interviews with a slew of who’s who, but the magic of this DVD is that even if you turn your volume down low, it’ll still blow you off the couch. It’s like you’re sitting right in front of J. Mascis’ Marshall stack.

The Exies

A Modern Way of Living with the Truth

Eleven Seven Music

An unsettling blast of alt-rock with a sacrilegious cover version of The Talking Heads staple “Once in a Lifetime.”

Run-DMC

Live at Montreux 2001 DVD

Eagle Eye Media

Recorded shortly before the murder of Jam-Master Jay, this concert firmly cements Run-DMC as the “Godfathers of Rap.”

Mullets Rock

Mullets in Love

Legacy Records

An 18 track collection of ’70s and ’80s “love songs” as diverse as Bonnie Tyler’s tear-jerker “Total Eclipse of the Heart” to Ted Nugent’s ode to trim “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang.”

Akimbo

Harshing Your Mellow

Alternative Tentacles

It’s exactly what you’d expect from the title. Akimbo’s re-release of it’s 2001 album, from the label founded by Boulder’s own Jello Biafra, is an over-the-top assault of powertrio hard rock, a collision of guitar, bass and drums with equally raucous vocals.

James Apollo

Hide Your Heart in a Hive

No Alternative Records

Wow! This is pretty heavy stuff. With a twisted take on American roots music, James Apollo’s newest CD is a boozy, haunting, Tom Waits-esque time machine to the past, when songs dripped in emotion and depth.

Ian Hunter

Shrunken Heads

Yep Roc Records

The same guy who brought us “All the Young Dudes” now brings us an awesome collection of tracks that have one foot in the singer/songwriter genre and the other in rock and roll. There’s cool guests too.

Industry Profile: Peter Fiori amps up Sweetwave Audio, looks toward festivals

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:50:06 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

When Peter Fiori was just 14 years old, he borrowed money from his father to purchase a small Peavey mixing console. He didn’t know it then, but he had just made the first step in a career that now, more than 20 years later, is flourishing.

Fiori’s quest for sound ushered him through the doors of more than 100 Grateful Dead shows and eventually to Colorado, where he has played in several bands, most notably Runaway Truck Ramp, which garnered moderate success in the mid- to late-1990s. But realizing that it’s difficult, at best, for a local musician to “pay rent” by performing local gigs, Fiori continued his sound engineering and business and last year, officially incorporated Sweetwave Audio, a pro audio equipment sales and rental business, that also offers installations, event production, backline, sound reinforcement and recording.

Fiori has moved the business out of his garage and into a Louisville shop where he now has a showroom and a 6,000 square foot warehouse, and while Sweetwave had no employees last year, this year sees the business employing five people.

Marquee: What was the first album you ever purchased?

Fiori: The Eagles, The Long Run. I was born in 1966. (laughing)

Marquee: What was your first concert?

Fiori: The Eagles in Washington D.C., during their tour for The Long Run.

Marquee: When did Sweetwave Audio begin?

Fiori: Technically, it started in April of last year, but I’ve been doing sound for 20 years. My previous company was Moss Man Sound. I started doing installs and realized that I needed to create a market beyond just the local market and that’s what we are. We are an online store with a local showroom. We do installs and we work with some venues, but venues can’t typically afford the installs of the caliber P.A.s we offer. Our flagship speakers are Meyers Laboratories (Meyers Sound). That’s the feather in our cap. It’s what I bonded with after seeing over 100 Grateful Dead shows and listening to Meyers Sound throughout the ’80s and thinking that this is the best sound I’ve ever heard.

Marquee: What was the impetus for Sweetwave, though?

Fiori: I’ve always done sound. It came out of a necessity, but also a true love. I loved being at shows and it’s why I went to school for it. I was actually a studio engineer for a while. I’ve built probably 8 to 10 recording studios in the last 15 years. I built one in Ned (Nederland, Colo.), thinking that I was going to supplement my income, but it’s too hard and there’s too much competition. Right now there is a ridiculous amount of competition and now that we’ve entered the digital age, people can make a recording of the quality that used to cost a hundred dollars an hour. Now you can spend a few grand and have the same quality in your basement. There have been very big studios going up and going down because of this.

Marquee: What’s the next phase or goal for Sweetwave Audio?

Fiori: We want to buy out Guitar Center. (laughing) Sweetwave is a dual company. I want the production side to pick up and start doing more festivals and I also really enjoy the idea of setting up good sounding P.A.s in smaller clubs and smaller theaters, so that people have better audio. My goal is to have sweetwaveaudio.com be a self-sustaining entity so I can focus more on the production side. We did High Sierra last year and I would like to be doing about 15 festivals a year, where we actually produce the festival. But the most immediate goal is to create the local market. We’ve got everything from $10,000 pre amps to $200 pre amps and people can come in here and demo all of them.

From the Barstool of the Publisher - April, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:51:51 +0000

Now, see? That’s how you do it. It’s not that hard. You don’t have to get your panties in a bunch.

Last month, as Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche was in town to perform a solo show at Larimer Lounge in Denver (which, by the way, was awesome), Wilco’s new album Sky Blue Sky “leaked” over the internet but, unlike many of their cry-baby peers, the band didn’t flip out. They’re not going to sue people. They’re not screaming about the potential lost sales — in fact, they’re embracing it.

Wilco head-honcho Jeff Tweedy told Billboard the following day that while the leak may have some financial impact, the main thing is people are listening to the band’s tracks. “We feel very proud of our record and we want people to hear it. Ultimately, that’s the goal,” Tweedy told Billboard.

Wilco bassist John Stirratt concurred with Tweedy, telling Billboard, “Frankly, I would like to have people get a head start on knowing the material before we come to whatever town they live in.”

Then, in a move that epitomizes Wilco’s non-chalance toward the whole issue, the band decided to offer the album as a stream on its website. Now, anyone with an internet connection can hear the album, and from the wealth of reviews, blogs and forum discussions about Sky Blue Sky, it looks like people are checking out the album with incredible fervor.

While there are probably bean counters out there who will disagree, I think that this is the business model that is eventually going to be taken on by more and more acts, and their labels. (And, even if the bean counters do disagree, I don’t really care, because people who deal with numbers for a living are probably mental anyway.)

True, the first week’s sales of Sky Blue Sky, when it eventually does come out on May 15, will probably be diminished by the leak, but as the band launches its summer tour, my theory is that more and more people will be likely to purchase Wilco tickets, buy T-shirts and buy the full release, in addition to their downloaded copy.

I want to see more bands and labels start doing this, and maybe even improve on the idea. Leak the albums early, but then make the lyrics and a promo DVD available with the purchase of the album. Essentially give people a reason to buy it, beyond just the sounds. Make it fun!

It’s the nature of the business these days and record labels can continue to get their asses kicked and cry about it, or they can start changing the way they do business.

We’ll see you at the shows.

Synthetic Elements shed their shirts

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:52:23 +0000

:: Synthetic Elements :: Hodi’s Half Note :: April 24 ::

:: KBPI Uncle Nasty’s Show :: April 26 ::

:: The Marquis Theater :: April 28 ::

By Tiffany Childs

If appreciating other styles of music is what makes a band good, then Synthetic Elements has the potential to be one of the best bands around.

Formed in 2001, this punk-ska band began on a snowy day when two of the original members were forced to stay indoors. They picked up some instruments in a garage and, as an afterthought, invited a few friends over. The quintet began to reproduce their favorite artists’ songs. Six years later, Synthetic Elements has cited influences ranging from classic rock to country to heavy metal (they even mentioned Journey) and their self-taught musical training since that cold winter day has been extensive, to say the least.

It has also been a musical career that has been moving at a sprint since the beginning. Signed to play a show before any members really knew their instruments, the band has been pressed to take each step further and faster than usual. With five independently recorded and released albums in as many years, as well as the majority of those years spent on tour, you have to wonder how Synthetic Elements finds the time to do it all.

It’s a candid, do-it-yourself attitude that seems to have pushed Synthetic Elements to this musical dedication that is rarely seen in a band so young. Coming off of a two-year tour for a well needed rest, Synthetic Elements returned to Denver last summer to write and record their fifth release in their privately owned studio. The Marquee recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Blecha (trumpet, guitar, keyboard, vocals) and Kyle Hernandez (bass guitar) about how their dedication and influences will be reflected in their upcoming CD release, Shirt off My Back.

During the tour, the band lost a trombone player and this album definitely reflects that change. Horns are a traditional staple of punk-ska and Synthetic Elements found themselves in unfamiliar territory. “We kind of had to scramble to find new ways to play our music,” Blecha said of the loss. Hernandez added, “We also lost some of our ska feel because we didn’t have the horns. So, when we were writing our new stuff it was a little edgier than in the past.”

Edgy certainly defines some of the music found on Shirt off My Back, but there are also some reggae tunes and with the addition of a new trombone/accordion/washboard player – Johnson (no other name would be given) – their traditional ska sound has returned for a few songs as well.

For the new album, Synthetic Elements also invited in outside talent — a first for the band. They decided early on to work with L.A.’s Chris Murray, formerly of King Apparatus. Considered one of ska’s most influential songwriters, Murray helped Synthetic Elements focus on their lyrics rather than just the music this time around, as well as providing the underlying reggae influence. “This album is definitely more lyrically driven than anything we’ve done in the past,” Blecha said.

:: Synthetic Elements ::

:: Hodi’s Half Note :: April 24 ::

:: KBPI Uncle Nasty’s Show :: April 26 ::

:: The Marquis Theater :: April 28 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Less than Jake

• Goldfinger

• Against Me

Hawaiian supergroup Hapa returns

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:53:26 +0000

:: Hapa :: Boulder Theater :: April 7 ::

By Karen Schneider

Aloha! The dynamic Hawaiian super group HAPA (Barry Flannagan and Nathan Aweau) continues to be as dazzling as their homeland. After bringing home four Na Hoku Hanohano awards (including Album Of The Year and Contemporary Hawaiian Album Of The Year) for their breakthrough album Maui, HAPA returns to Boulder for their third annual spring luau.

“We have a really nice following in Boulder. I think it will be a great, really hang loose night.” Barry Flannagan told The Marquee in a recent interview.

Flannagan’s roots run deep in Boulder. After all, it was in Boulder that he was first introduced to his love of Hawaiian music. Rae Dryzmala, a good friend of Flannagan, introduced him to the slack key mastery of Gabby Pahinui, and Flannagan has been hooked on the islands ever since. Soon after his introduction to the music, Flannagan made the move to Hawaii to begin his journey into Hawaiian music.

HAPA’s newest release It’s A Slack Key World is a self-produced compilation with solo music from both Flannagan and Aweau, and featuring guest artists such as Gaylord Holomalia and Ernie Cruz Jr.

“Slack key records are really the only thing that seem to be noticed by the Grammy foundation, concerning Hawaiian music,” Flannagan joked. “So we figure that we’ll put one out every couple of years. We got help from Pat Simmons (Doobie Brothers) and his son.”

Also recently released was HAPA Maui, the pair’s first DVD project, hosted by Peter Fonda and originally aired as a local Hawaii PBS special.

Some unique features of HAPA’s live shows are chanter, hula teacher, storyteller and (most importantly) jokester Charles Ku’upu and, of course, the hula dancers. The band travels with two professional full-time hula dancers, former and now returning HAPA dancer Naomi Pi‘ilaniho‘omalamalamaokalani Klein, and 2002 Miss Aloha Hula winner Malia Ann Kawailanamalie Petersen.

In addition to the Hawaiian theatrics, Flannagan said that family is a central theme in Hapa shows.

“It’s hard for me to think of people as fans,” Flannagan said. “We tend to have a lot of personal relationships. Every city, one of us either has a family member or somebody that they are really close to. That really kind of sets the stage every time we play.”

This year’s spring show will be especially meaningful for Flannagan. After living in Hawaii for many years, the friend that first introduced him to Hawaiian slack key music has moved back to Boulder. Now, Flannagan will be performing that same kind of Hawaiian music before said friend, just a few blocks away from where he heard it for the very first time.

This year’s luau will also include leis available from Little Grass Shack, which can be pre-ordered at www.spreadingaloha.com, or they can be purchased at the Theater on the night of the show.

:: Hapa ::

:: Boulder Theater ::

:: April 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Gabby Pahinui

• IZ

• Hawaiian Style Band

Seepeoples spotlight “the Horror” of today with Apocalypse Cow, Vol. 1

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:54:53 +0000

:: SeepeopleS :: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: April 13 ::

:: Finnegan’s Wake :: April 14 ::

By Monica Banks

As far as the eye can see, these peeps are rocking. There is no one word to describe the sound of Massachusetts-spawned SeepeopleS, but its members say they are all about the rock. “We’re definitely a rock band,” said front man Will Bradford in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Each member adds their own flavor. Bradford is a reggae man, while the drummer swears by Zappa and the other two graduated from Berklee College of Music. With influences ranging from Radiohead, The Beta Band, Wilco and more, SeepeopleS has a resulting eclectic sound, firmly planted in rock but ready, willing and able to go beyond that foundation.

From the start, SeepeopleS has always brought their political activism into their music. Nonetheless, just as fans began to expect this kind of message, they’ve gone and switched things up again. Bradford is still writing the lyrics, but this time with a different feeling. “I think it’s kind of about the end of the world,” Bradford said. Now 28, Bradford began writing the songs for Apocalypse Cow Vol. 1 four years ago when his son Liam — “a true rocker,” in the words of his father — was born. “It was a new beginning,” said Bradford. “Beginnings and ends make you see the world for the first time all over again.” He began to look at the world through the eyes of his son. “Everything is so new and you see things that frighten and upset you,” Bradford said.

From rock anthems to introspective ballads, Apocalypse Cow takes its listeners on an adamant musical journey. One thing — in fact the only thing — that has remained the same throughout the expeditions of the SeepeopleS, is Bradford’s voice. He has been and remains the official songwriter of the group.

SeepeopleS have always had a meaningful repertoire of lyrics. “We sing lots about struggle. We’re always broke and there are lots of people who connect with that,” Bradford said. “We sing about the personal struggle you experience in this world.”

Bradford’s musical path began in his rebellious teenage years when he picked up the guitar to get back at his parents. Today he is a multi-instrumentalist, but the guitar still occupies most of his rocking. “Pink Floyd and The Beatles are a major part of my musical direction,” Bradford said. After high school, Bradford enrolled in Boston University for a few weeks before realizing that wasn’t the path for him.

In 2000 Bradford and crew started up SeepeopleS, from Allston, Mass. The band grew out of Cosmic Dilemma, a band that split over a sour record contract. Bradford, drummer Tim Hanley and bassist Dan Intgenthron finished Cosmic-D’s final tour dates.

Although the band officially started in Allston, there is no single hometown city. Bradford still resides in the Boston area but other members live in Chicago, Detroit and Asheville, NC. “Mostly, we live out of the van,” Bradford said.

SeepeopleS have now produced three albums; Apocalypse Cow Vol. 1 is the newest direction the band has embarked on. “It’s more about society and civilization, more personal to myself,” Bradford said.

The first album was produced in 2002. For the Good of the Nation featured one of Bradford’s great musical influences, Dana Colley, former sax player for Morphine. In the aftermath, there was a split and that same year both Tim Haney (drums) and Dan Ingenthron (bass) left SeepeopleS for personal reasons. However the band came back together in 2004 to release Corn Syrup Conspiracy. Today, SeepeopleS have added Peter Keys to the lineup.

“Every record is different, the last one (Corn Syrup) is an experience in electronic and techno,” Bradford said. “It was more polished, less rock.” Listening to Apocalypse Cow one gets the impression of their politics, but Corn Syrup and Good of the Nation take freedom of expression to another level.

:: SeepeopleS ::

:: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: April 13 ::

:: Finnegan’s Wake :: April 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Radiohead

• Beta Band

• Frank Zappa

Me Llamo Rosa prepares to release first full-length album this year

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:55:00 +0000

:: Me Llamo Rosa :: Guitar Cellar :: April 4 ::

:: The Marquis Theater :: April 11 ::

:: The Meadowlark :: April 20 ::

By Brian Kenney

From the campus that gave us Robert Redford, the Ugg boot fashion “movement” and countless appearances on top ten lists of best party schools, comes Me Llamo Rosa, a multi-faceted, multi-instrumental sextet composed of current and former CU Boulder students. Navigating various genres from indie-punk to honky-tonk/alternative country, Me Llamo Rosa is part Ryan Adams, part Billy Corgan and at darker, haunting, more lyrically intense times, The eels and Wilco.

The hyper-talented outfit’s first two EPs — the six-song The Baltic is Dead and the four-song The Social Genius — have garnered the attention of both local and national acts as Me Llamo Rosa has shared the stage with mewithoutYou and Tokyo Police Club even before the release of their first full-length album. “Any club or bar that has bobbing heads and tapping toes makes for a great MLR atmosphere,” said lead singer/lyricist Jamie Gowdy in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Coming together in early 2006, MLR are far and away more mature than their age suggests. Their versatility, at once as eclectic as Arcade Fire but also as existential as The Shins, is their most pliable attribute; an attribute which will be fully embraced with the forthcoming full-length effort they are gearing up to record.

“The way I see it, every song on a full-length represents a different type of artist (i.e. painter, photographer, sculptor, etc.) These artists come together to work on the same piece of art, and portray the same overall message of the piece in their own unique ways. When the work is done, it may not be the most earth shattering piece of art ever created, but you know it’s gonna be damn interesting to look at,” Gowdy said.

Rosa’s songs paint an unlikely musical pastiche: bass-heavy garage grunge, lighter blues, piano-orchestrated arrangements with jangling guitars, arpeggio chords, and murmured vocals. This is not to say that the band has yet to define their “sound,” but the raw EPs are more of a bob and weave nod to their influences.

Rosa seduces listeners with a seasoned innocence; a flamenco dancer demeanor and attitude. They virtually overflow with personality. Their tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek website’s slug-line aptly describes their satirical preoccupations and assured ambitions: If Audrey Hepburn were alive today, she would have dated and been dumped by every member in Me Llamo Rosa. Gowdy likens it to varying degrees of evening cordials. “On weekdays, Rosa would be a small army of Amaretto Sours. On weekends, Rosa is the empty bottle at the foot of the bed.”

At present, Rosa, as a live act, finds itself more than just a blip on the Front Range radar. Rosa’s jammier numbers, such as “If John Wayne Carried a Messenger Bag,” showcase the orchestrated play between Scott Burke’s edgy piano-driven melodies and Gowdy’s spinster lyrics, which are book-ended by Dan Sullivan’s and John Lansing’s dueling guitars. These collective arrangements helped edge MLR into the Denver Post’s “Talent Beyond the Top Ten” listing of local underground acts, where they found themselves in the top 125 among other acts such as local heavyweights CAT-A-TAC, Laylights, and The Photo Atlas.

But it’s Gowdy’s enigmatic rants which trademark their live act, with simultaneously introspective and extroverted themes. “[Our songs are] based on noir-esque scenes I see in my head. I will create a character, and try to move through their trials and motivations throughout the course of a song. I’m an English major and have had a constant flow of reading and writing prose and poetry for the last four years. It all comes back to Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”

If there is such thing as a “Denver Sound,” then Me Llamo Rosa may just be it. As the Front Range watches Devotchka, The Hot IQ’s and The Photo Atlas go national, Denver is making a case that the Mile High City is a burgeoning music scene above and beyond overgrown bluegrass.

:: Me Llamo Rosa ::

:: Guitar Cellar :: April 4 ::

:: The Marquis Theater :: April 11 :

:: The Meadowlark :: April 20 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• mewithoutYou

• R.E.M

• Smashing Pumpkins

Magnolia Electric Co. releases follow-up to What Comes After The Blues

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:56:59 +0000

:: Magnolia Electric Co. :: Fox Theatre :: April 7 ::

By Cornelia Kane

The Magnolia Electric Co. doesn’t really dabble in being a utility provider, but it has become known as the go-to power plant of powerfully tragic, indie folk rock goodness.

The Magnolia Electric Co. is better known as the brainchild of singer/songwriter Jason Molina, who has been recording and touring for the last decade or so both as a solo artist and with an ever-changing band, mostly under the name Songs: Ohia.

Originally from Ohio, Molina is a true iconoclast, who self-recorded and released numerous albums and EPs before being the first artist signed to the now well-known and respected independent label Secretly Canadian.

In a recent interview with The Marquee, Molina told the story of how he came together with the owners of the label. “They said, ‘Hey, we’re going to start this label and we want our first release to be something of yours.’ So, two of the guys flew half-way across the country to see me play some gig. After the show I presented them with an entire finished album, a seven-inch. I figured that if they came that far to see me play, they must really be serious. I felt I should contribute something too,” he said.

Molina has remained true to his roots and has released over 20 full-length albums, EPs and singles on the label since 1997. “Being on an independent matters utterly to me. I’ve been with Secretly Canadian since the beginning. It’s been 10 years now and I know they truly love the music. Of course there’s a business aspect too, but they definitely always put the artist first, before the dollar sign,” Molina said.

With an esoteric voice that has been compared to Neil Young, a store of dreamy, melancholy melodies and lyrics ready to make listeners hum and cry into their beer at the same time, Molina has perfected the art of the sad song that is still somehow catchy. His trademark lo-fi recording style gives his albums an old-fashioned ambience.

In the early days when Molina was self-releasing cassette recordings, he gave each project a new name that contained a reference to the songs on the tape. Some typically cryptic examples include Songs: Radix and Songs: Unitas (all of the recordings started with the “Songs:” prefix). Several early sessions were recorded with a ukulele and vocals. The Ohia is a Hawaiian tree and Molina is from Ohio and somehow the connection was made and Songs: Ohia became the title of a series of early recordings, and eventually the permanent stage name for Molina and the rotating cast of musicians that made up the various incarnations of his band.

Then in 2003, Songs: Ohia released an album titled Magnolia Electric Co. that struck many listeners as a fairly drastic departure from the decidedly lo-fi sound of much of the Songs: Ohia catalog. The album was recorded by Steve Albini (producer of Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey) with a full band and a female backup vocalist and the result was a much fuller, richer sound. The album also did not contain the name Songs: Ohia anywhere in the packaging, and though it is officially still counted as a Songs: Ohia release, Molina officially changed the name of the band to Magnolia Electric Co. for the next album, 2005’s What Comes After the Blues. After a live album and an EP, the newly incarnated Magnolia Electric Co. now has a new full-length and is embarking on an ambitious tour in support of it.

“It was hard work!” Molina said of the latest album, 2007’s full-length Fading Trails. The album was recorded in several sessions at different locations with different producers, including the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago and Sound of Music Studios in Richmond, Va., with David Lowery (ex-frontman of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, now turned producer).

“I write the lyrics and the music; the skeleton of the song, then I bring it to the whole band and we work on the mechanical arrangement,” Molina said, referring to the fact the he is, in fact, the principal and only songwriter in the band.

Over the years, Molina has stayed busy in between Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. gigs, collaborating on albums with artists such as Will Oldham (better known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and releasing a split EP with My Morning Jacket, as well as releasing solo albums and displaying his own visual art.

Molina recently returned from a month-long solo tour of Europe and immediately hit the road for a string of dates with ex-Uncle Tupelo front man Jay Farrar’s band Son Volt. The mellow alt-country of Son Volt seems a fitting compliment to the Magnolia Electric Co.’s brand of plaintive, gothic-folk lullabies, but Molina isn’t even sure whose idea the tour was. “It was never a sit-down meeting,” he says in a puzzled tone. “We were honored to be asked.”

:: Magnolia Electric Co. ::

:: Fox Theatre :: April 7 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• James McMurtry

• Iron & Wine

• Guided By Voices

The Moog emerges from Hungary’s first MTV Generation

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:57:40 +0000

::The Moog :: Bender’s Tavern :: April 6 ::

By Alex Samuel

If you’re looking for an album to sandwich between The Hives and The (International) Noise Conspiracy at your next indie-rock dance party, or for another way to prove that you are, in fact, worldly, check out Budapest-born The Moog’s debut album Sold for Tomorrow.

Discovered by MuSick Recordings through their MySpace page, The Moog is the first Hungarian rock band to be signed by an American label. This disco-drum heavy, slide-guitar-centric mess of great hair and timeless rock sounds more like a California quintet than a Hungarian import.

“We are the first generation in Hungary who where able to watch MTV since we were kids,” said Moog lead singer and keyboardist Tonyo. “Maybe that’s why we are one of the first Hungarian bands who can be known internationally. Internet was a great help because we can stay up-to-date by watching online magazines and seeing new bands.”

MTV-saturated classmates Tonyo, Gergo (drums) and Adi (guitar) met up with Csabi (bass) at a bar and realized they all had a passion for the same type of music: American and English rock, a rarity in Hungary. Eventually, Miguel (guitar) joined the quartet and took the music to a new level. When MuSick Recordings signed The Moog, it opened endless opportunities.

“It’s great. It’s real strange at first. Great because we have much bigger opportunities,” said Tonyo. “If we had a Hungary label, we would suck. It’s great that we can see the world and meet many good people who we would never meet otherwise.”

According to Gergo and Tonyo, the Moog’s influences range from The Beatles and The Beach Boys, to The Kinks, Blondie, Blur and The Strokes, but not Hungarian music — and it shows.

The band’s debut album Sold for Tomorrow, which drips with steamy dance-worthy influences from here and across the pond, was recorded in Hungary and mixed in L.A. by Nirvana-producer Jack Endino. Sold for Tomorrow features songs like “I Like You,” that will stick in your head for days.

And while The Moog’s vintage cool sound comes from old-school influences, there is also credit due to the band members’ awareness of music today, and their desire to not be yet another cookie-cutter act churned out by the industry.

“I think it’s becoming too hip,” said Tonyo. “It’s fun to listen, but most of these bands are not original. They can’t find their own way. They just copy each other and it’s funny for me. They don’t have real songs. They just do this hip music.”

::The Moog ::

:: Bender’s Tavern :: April 6 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Beatles

• The Strokes

• The Ramones

Greyboy Allstars reform and explore What Happened to TV? with DJ Greyboy

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:58:49 +0000

:: Greyboy Allstars :: co-headline w/ Medeski, Martin & Wood :: Fillmore Auditorium :: April 13 and 14 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

What Happened to TV? is the album that hits the street this month from the reunited Greyboy Allstars, but the better question is, ‘What Happened to The Greyboy Allstars?’ After dominating the jam-jazz scene of the ’90s, the band parted ways in late 1999 to allow its members to take the creative steps necessary to stay musically fresh.

“We just sort of stopped ... everyone started getting involved in other things. We just want it to be the right thing, and it wasn’t at that time,” said Allstars Hammond B-3 genius Robert Walter in a recent interview with The Marquee.

“About two years ago we started getting these offers to play these ‘reunion’ gigs,” Walter said. “We got together and it took us about two days to get back to feeling like a band, which is pretty quick. We decided to do some of the gigs and it was fun and we were all like, ‘Wow, we can play together again, it feels good and the music sounds great,’ but it didn’t last long.”

After playing a few festivals and a couple of these ‘reunion’ runs, the band began to feel that they were turning into “some kinda nostalgia thing for the ’90s,” Walter said. “The novelty of it wore off pretty quickly and we all got to the point where we said, ‘We don’t want to do this anymore until we have some new material and we get back in the shed together and start writing and feeling creative together as a band, rather than just playing a gig.’”

In the spring of 2006 all five original members got together with the band’s namesake, DJ Greyboy, to record at guitarist Elgin Park’s home studio. Walter, sax-man Karl Denson, bass player Chris Stillwell and drummer Zak Najor joined Park at his home and got to work putting pen to paper and music to tape.

“All the songs on the record are original Greyboy Allstars compositions,” said Walter. “We wrote them all together in the studio, rather than taking people’s various songs they had from other projects. We just wanted everyone in the band to feel really invested in the music.”

The band made the decision to bring DJ Greyboy back into the mix for the first time as a producer since their 1995 breakthrough, West Coast Boogaloo, to keep them in check. “We worked with Grey [DJ Greyboy] again on this record because we really wanted to stick to the root of what the Allstars music is about. It’s supposed to be danceable and have space in it and not be overly musical. We are all fairly accomplished musicians with an affinity for jazz, and if left to our own devices it is tempting to play a lot of notes and put a lot of fancy stuff in there and Grey really keeps us rooted.”

The resulting collection of 11 tracks showcases the Boogaloo sound that Allstars fans have been jonesing for since the release of A Town Called Earth nearly 10 years ago. Their tasty blend of funk, jazz and soul, dusted with subtle touches of hip-hop, is back with all the passion of their earlier efforts.

“The title track on this record really captures the band in our live mode at its best; it is the kind of track that sounds like it does because of the way we are playing the parts and the feel with which we are playing the parts,” Walter said. “You couldn’t just play the parts note-for-note and have it sound like that. There is just something very elusive about the way that track grooves.”

One critical part to keeping that track grooving the way it did in the studio has unfortunately stepped aside to make way for new blood. As half of the powerhouse rhythm section that reeled in the sound of the Allstars, Zak Najor’s contributions to the sound are undeniable, but the rigors of the road simply aren’t part of his future.

“Zak is not touring with us anymore, he is on the album and he is a big part of the album, but he just doesn’t want to go on the road at all,” Walter revealed. “So we have a new drummer, Eric Kalb, who is quickly becoming a real part of the group and will probably end up being on the next recordings.”

Kalb’s name has been around the scene for years. He was the original drummer for Deep Banana Blackout and he has worked with John Scofield and others, but as Walter mentioned, it isn’t easy to be the new guy. “He is stepping into a situation with 10 years of history and baggage, for lack of a better term, but he is a tremendous talent and we are musically gelling already after only a couple of shows. I think it will get to that bizarre telepathic place real quick once we really get out in a bus,” said Walter.

If What Happened to TV? is any indication of what’s possible if the Allstars can reach those ‘bizarre telepathic’ places even for a few moments on the road this spring, it will be clear that what happened to The Greyboy Allstars was nothing more than what happens to so many of us: They just needed to time to mature before realizing their full potential.

:: Greyboy Allstars ::

:: co-headline w/ Medeski, Martin & Wood ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium ::

:: April 13 and 14 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Soulive

• The New Mastersounds

• Galactic

What Made Milwaukee Famous keeps winning despite Trying to Never Catch Up

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:59:01 +0000

:: What Made Milwaukee Famous :: Hi-Dive :: April 24 ::

By Tiffany Childs

The music world would surely be a better place if all classified ads turned out as well as the one placed four years ago by Michael Kingcaid of What Made Milwaukee Famous. Kingcaid’s vision and the Austin Chronicle can be credited with bringing What Made Milwaukee Famous together, but it’s their dedication to giving something to everyone that is making them everyone’s new favorite band.

Although the name does indeed mention the city of Milwaukee, it is not because the band has any connection to it. It’s actually a subtle reference to Schlitz beer and, more importantly, a song by Jerry Lee Lewis. That should give the potential listener some idea of the rollicking ride the debut release from What Made Milwaukee Famous entails.

The CD, Trying Never to Catch Up, takes listeners on a wild journey from start to finish, blowing through genres and emotions like a freight train running late on an express route. It isn’t always a conscious act, though. “We all come from different backgrounds, punk, garage rock, jazz, indie, even latin. We try to embody everything we enjoy and whatever happens happens,” said Kingcaid in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Whatever is happening is apparently a good thing. What Made Milwaukee Famous — an Austin-based quartet featuring Kingcaid (vocal/ guitar/keyboard), Drew Patrizi (keyboards/vocals/ guitar), John Farmer (bass/vocals) and Jeremy Bruch (drums/vocals) — already has a sizeable following from playing the infamous South by Southwest Festival four years in a row. They’ve also been placed on both Billboard and Rolling Stone’s bands-to-watch lists, performed as an unsigned act for Austin City Limits with Franz Ferdinand, and appeared on Steve Lamacq’s music show on the BBC.

Part of the reason the group is so appealing is that, quite frankly, they try to be. “We don’t pander to one particular type of listener because we don’t see a reason to alienate a genre. Good music is good music,” Kingcaid said about the diverse sources of fans and praise What Made Milwaukee Famous receives. The result of their non-favoring ways is a CD full of quirky and traditional, gentle and boisterous, insightful and aloof styles of music.

Although it seems the band would become too contradictory, everything comes out perfect in its own way. Barsuk Records thought so, too, when they picked up What Made Milwaukee Famous last year. The band had self-released their debut CD in 2004 and were shopping it around when the label took notice. After cutting a few songs and adding four new ones to “improve the flow and keep it fresh for old fans,” according to Kingcaid, Barsuk released Trying Never to Catch Up last August.

Garnering praise from all corners of the States, What Made Milwaukee Famous hit the road on a practically full-time tour in support of the release and found out that there truly is no rest for the weary or at least the well-received weary. After touring for months, the members of What Made Milwaukee Famous found themselves driving for 11 hours from Lawrence, Kan., to Austin, Texas, and setting up for South by Southwest to immediately play a packed schedule all week with barely a breath in between.

Poised to return to the road, Kingcaid told The Marquee that it is all worth it. “We’re tired, but excited. It’s awesome to play in different towns and see new fans,” he said. As a bonus, they’ll be spending some of this tour with fellow label mate Aqueduct, which is preferable to the band. “It’s a hell of a lot cooler to play with one act,” Kingcaid believes, “rather than not knowing who you’re sharing the bill with.”

Their live performance has turned out to be as well received as the album. What Made Milwaukee Famous has been amassing fans far and wide and generating rumors that they have the ability to fuel any crowd into a dancing, singing madhouse.

As Barsuk Records says, “Austin, Texas loves What Made Milwaukee Famous. Now it’s time for the rest of the world to catch up.”

If you’re still behind, Kingcaid offers this advice, “Buy the CD and listen. Then come to our show. You won’t hate us, that I can promise. And you might even find that you love us.”

:: What Made Milwaukee Famous ::

:: Hi-Dive :: April 24 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• The Shins

• The Wrens

• Namelessnumberheadman

Iggy Pop and the Stooges show their ‘Lust for Life’ with The Weirdness

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:00:00 +0000

:: Iggy Pop and the Stooges :: Fillmore Auditorium :: April 17 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

“I remember playing one night and looking up from my guitar and going, ‘Ut-oh, where’d he go?’ I followed the crowd’s eyes and looked up to see Iggy [Pop] climbing the P.A. tower more than 25 feet off the ground. That is the fun of the whole thing, I enjoy watching it because every night is different,” said Ron Asheton, legendary guitarist for punk rock icons The Stooges, when he sat down with The Marquee hot on the heels of The Stooges first-ever SxSW appearance. He talked about his band’s recent album, The Weirdness, and even gave us some insight into the weirdness that is Iggy Pop.

“If anything, Iggy’s stage show now is better than it was back in the day because he is more in control of himself. He is still full of his trademark spontaneity and we never know what he is going to do,” Asheton said. “Even I have to stay on my toes. I was hit by the microphone stand at least 4 times last year, I just can’t always watch what he’s doing up there. Just this week, I’ve had the mic stand fly right in front of my face and I’ve nearly been hit by the cord as he whips it around the stage. It gets pretty dangerous up there and I don’t even get hazard pay for it!”

Pop, heralded by some to be the inventor of the “Stage Dive,” hasn’t lost the passion for his creation and, though he is pushing 60 years old, still hurls himself into the crowd on a regular basis. “I love looking at the faces in the audience when he dives in there or when he is close to them. They are just awestruck,” said Asheton. “The music is driving and everything is really rocking and then he is just right in your face, it’s awesome!”

While he was quick to state that he didn’t want to “blow the Iggy myth,” he felt he had to be honest about the fact that Pop isn’t the wild man off the stage that he used to be and they are all having a much better time because of it. “After a show he might have a glass of wine or something, but even two glasses is a big night out for him these days. All the days of drugs and crazy drinking are gone for him and he even stopped smoking cigarettes 10 years ago,” said Asheton.

The lack of drama, coupled with the wild stage show that fans expect, have helped The Stooges to realize a popularity that they never were able to achieve in the late ’60s and early ’70s, when they last recorded and toured together.

Asheton described The Stooges current operation as “a well-oiled machine,” and went on to say that “everyone on the crew is great and we all love getting together and seeing each other. It is really just a hell of a lot of fun for all of us right now.”

Asheton and his brother Scott (drums) reunited with Pop nearly four years ago when they agreed to appear on Pop’s album Skull Ring. The group hit their stride quickly and was soon doing shows as The Stooges for the first time since 1974. With the drugs and bad blood behind them, their focus turned toward making new music.

“When we weren’t playing shows we would take time out and get together and write songs. By the time we got into the studio to record The Weirdness, we had 42 new songs to choose from,” Asheton said. “We were really very well prepared to record this album. I think the most we did was five takes of a song.”

The Weirdness was produced and recorded by influential audio engineer Steve Albini in his studio just outside of Chicago. “Every day we went into the studio we did two songs and we did them live. Drums, bass, guitar and Iggy’s vocals were all recorded live,” Asheton remembered. “I hate playing the tracks without vocals; I really just don’t get my teeth into them. When my brother and I first asked Iggy to sing live with us he said, ‘Well, you know, maybe I will try to save my voice and do some to keep, but maybe I’ll talk through some also.’ It wound up working so well that he just did them all live and we were able to keep about 95 percent of the vocals he did during those sessions.”

In what was probably the biggest change in the recording process since The Stooges last recorded an album together, Albini was able to do rough mixes of the day’s takes before the band even left the studio in the evening. “Everyday when we walked out of there we had two songs that we could listen to in the van on the way back into the city,” Asheton said. “I remember back in the ’60s recording a track and not getting to hear anything for weeks or even months after the sessions were over.”

Now that the sessions are over and the album is on the street, the band is running themselves ragged on the promotional circuit. TV shows in France, a private live taping for an April Yahoo! broadcast, the upcoming U.S. Tour and, of course, the appearance at SxSW, where they played two shows and did countless hours of interviews.

“The coolest thing about SxSW was that we were doing an interview with Steve Jones on his radio show and Pete Townshend showed up. We got to meet Pete Townshend,” Asheton beamed. “He sat down and talked with us for a while and he had nothing but good things to say about our band. It was really a lot of fun.”

While meeting Townshend was a highlight for Asheton and the band, there were a couple of highlights for Stooges fans who made it to Austin. A festival-headlining set at Stubb’s Bar-B-Que was preceded by a rare in-store performance by the band. “We played at Waterloo Records on this tiny little stage and so many people showed up that the police had to come and chase people away,” Asheton said.

While they have been back together since 2003, The Stooges have shied stayed away from playing a full tour of the United States until this spring. “We have been getting warmed up for the U.S. dates by playing all over the world. We want to be well oiled when we hit the States,” said Asheton. “The crowds everywhere have been great. They know the words to the songs, and even sing along to some of the new songs and that is what really kicks us up a notch as a band. When the crowd is going, we get going even harder.”

:: Iggy Pop and the Stooges ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: April 17 ::

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• MC5

• The Ramones

• Black Flag

SXSW is more than a music fest to Colorado participants

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:01:30 +0000

By Jeffrey V. Smith

Any music fan that looks past what big record companies and mainstream media are spoon feeding the masses, likely knows about the music industry’s annual spring trek to Austin, TX known as South by Southwest (SXSW). But, to any musician, record label, publicist, talent buyer or business owner who has participated in the event, it’s much more than what you read in the previews and reviews. Music blogs and websites endlessly rant and rave about the event while making myriad predictions, must-see lists and trumpeting newly discovered buzz-bands. Music rags of all types and sizes, and even non-music publications like People, US and Time, showcase the event and relay to the rest of the world what transpired. Major entertainment television shows, such as the Tonight Show, and cable programming created to exclusively deliver content about SXSW also add to the abundance of coverage. Even the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News devote a large amount of ink to the event. Everyone, it seems, wants to get in on the action and the number of media outlets in attendance grows annually. The media attention, and the fact most anyone involved in the music industry is in attendance, helps turn what happens at SXSW into a map of the American music landscape for the remainder of the year. By now you’ve likely heard buzz about bands from this year’s event such as The Fratellis, Amy Winehouse, Bloc Party, The Good, the Bad and the Queen and Peter, Bjorn and John. Perhaps you’ve heard that Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello hosted a solo set that ultimately included Les Claypool, Slash, Perry Farrell and others or that Pete Townshend was a surprise guest during a showcase of up-and-coming fellow British musician Mika. If not, then you’re not paying attention. It’s easy to understand how the 2007 festival that officially included over 1,400 emerging and world-renown acts in more than 70 venues along with a conference with speakers such as David Byrne, Pete Townshend and Iggy Pop attracts so much attention and a large number of attendees. Ultimately, however, SXSW is more than just experiencing future stars or legendary acts in a small, sweaty bar. To the bands and entrepreneurs who service the industry, writers and reporters who cover it and the venue owners who hope to book the next big thing, the event can help make or break a career. This year, a handful of Colorado-based bands made the trip in hopes of being discovered, or at least having a good time amidst the musical chaos. The Photo Atlas, Hot IQs, Signal to Noise and Uncle Earl were all officially invited to participate in SXSW showcases this year as was former Denver-based act Apples in Stereo. Many more locals including 29th St. Disciples, Abinitio, Avision Red, Black Lamb, Cherry Bomb Suicide, Comstock Lie, DDC, Drag the River, Front Side Five, Gregory Alan Isakov & the Freight, Hemi Cuda, Hoss, Laylights, Lyin' Bitch & the Restraining Orders, Machine Gun Blues, Moore, Angie Stevens, Tard, the Trampolines, Under the Drone, Valiomierda, Weather the Storm and Coles Whalen, made the trip to play unofficial sets at industry parties and other random settings during the event. From the band’s perspective, doing SXSW is an ordeal. Austin’s infamous, bar-lined Sixth Street is closed to traffic for four days which makes finding parking and equipment load-in difficult at best. Official bands are paid very little while unofficial bands would be lucky to get a meal out of the gig. According to many acts, one of the worst things about playing the festival is doing just that. All but the biggest names, and sometimes even them, have sets in venues that are filled beyond capacity with an impossible number of acts to fill the available time. Bands are hustled on and off a stage barely large enough for a solo act as quickly as possible despite equipment being stacked in a corner with six other band’s gear and bouncer who cards you every time you pass by. It’s an ordeal to say the least. So, why do they do it and in increasingly larger numbers ever year? According to Lyons-based musician KC Groves, who attended this year’s festival for the second time with her band Uncle Earl, “SXSW is the quintessential see and be seen scene.” She explained that for the band it is all about exposure no matter the conditions. “I know for us in particular, the purpose is to play in front of a different audience and hopefully in front of some industry folks,” Groves said. Other acts, such as Fort Collins’ Drag the River are more into having an “excuse to party down and see a lot of bands and miss more,” according to guitarist Jon Snodgrass. Ultimately, bands hope to get something in return for their efforts such as getting the attention of a record company, radio station or journalist. Those results, however, may not be seen right away and bands have to live on the hope that they made an impression. It’s a gamble, but one that could really pay off in the long run. “I think with any showcase, the results are indirect and not immediate,” Groves said. “Many times, someone will see a showcase and years later, after keeping their eye on a band, either sign them or invite them to play a big festival or something like that. The music business requires so much tenacity, patience, and faith,” she added. Things are a bit different for SXSW participants like Matt Fecher, an independent music promoter who debuts his Monolith festival at Red Rocks in September. To him, SXSW means “non-stop music, BBQ, friends and beer. It's like Christmas for music people.” He helped organize an unofficial day party to help promote his new Colorado festival and boost the Denver music scene by showcasing a handful of local bands. “Our party started out as a way to give some Colorado bands an extra push,” Fecher said. “Then it turned into an all-day blowout with some of our favorite indie bands. There's always a lot going on at SXSW, so anything you can do to make a show stand out helps.” Having an event at SXSW, even if the scene is over-saturated with parties and showcases and an amazing number of musicians can really raise a band’s or region’s profile. Colorado’s indie scene has been well represented at the event in recent years thanks to local acts being invited or participating on their own and day parties thrown by Fecher and the Larimer Lounge among others. “Good things are already happening from SXSW this year,” Fecher explained. According to the promoter, Machine Gun Blues was invited to play an ASCAP/Sire Records showcase in Chicago directly due to their performance at his event. “Anytime you have every person from the music industry in one place, it's always a benefit to Colorado to have a presence there. You'll hear a lot now that Denver has a lot going on when you talk to people outside of Colorado. Every little bit helps,” he said. It also helps that local Colorado labels like Hometapes and Morning After Records are represented and send their acts to SXSW for exposure and to give props to the local music industry. Beyond the music, “the main benefit of attending SXSW is maintaining and growing your relationships with other music folks,” Fecher explained. This is true for anyone involved in the music industry who attends the event. Mark Ross, founder and director of Rock the Earth, an environmental non-profit rooted in the music industry has found SXSW to be an “invaluable experience” for the past four years. “Not only does it give me an opportunity to check out the newest bands that might make for potential partners with our organization, but it also allows me to meet managers, publicists, media and other businesses connected to the industry who also might partner with Rock the Earth." According to Ross, who calls the event a “music Mecca,” he gains at least one positive, beneficial relationship with each visit. “I'm optimistic that many good connections were made and relationships started at SXSW 2007,” he said. To the many people who attend, just one connection could become invaluable and makes the visit well worth any hassle or expense. While SXSW continues to do its job of annually showcasing the best musicians from around the country and around the globe to American music fans and industry insiders, it’s also much more. It’s the best way to network and reach out to as many people as possible to help a career or business reach the next level. Simply put, for many it’s the most important thing they can do. For the rest, its simply the best music festival in the country.

This Month in Music History - May

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:02:11 +0000

This Month in music history May 1 • 1967: Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu May 2 • 1980: Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” is banned by the South African government May 3 • 1928: James Brown is born May 4 • 1970: Four students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State are shot by National Guardsmen May 7 • 1946: Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead is born May 8 • 1955: Alex Van Halen of Van Halen is born May 10 • 1957: Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols is born John Simon Beverly May 13 • 1966: Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish is born • 1950: Stevie Wonder is born May 14 • 1998: Frank Sinatra dies in Los Angeles • 1952: David Byrne of The Talking Heads is born May 15 • 1945: The first U.S. album chart is introduced May 16 • 1966: The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds May 17 • 1980: Kiss drummer Peter Criss leaves the band for a solo career May 19 • 1945: Pete Townshend of The Who is born May 20 • 1972: Busta Rhymes is born • 1944: Joe Cocker is born May 22 • 1979: Cheap Trick’s album Live at Budokan goes platinum • 1975: “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels raises his previous cash offer to The Beatles to reunite and appear on the show. • 1959: Morrissey is born Stephen Patrick Morrissey in Manchester, England May 24 • 1969: Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes is born • 1941: Bob Dylan is born May 26 • 1994: Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson marry • 1926: Miles Davis is born May 31 • 1948: John Bonham of Led Zeppelin is born Complied from the archives of Rock & Roll Library www.rocklibrary.com

CD Reviews - May - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:03:34 +0000

A Vulgar Display of Power Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa by Chris A. MJS Music Publications 4.5 out of 5 As humans, we are all naturally curious about death. That fact is made evident by the high ratings of television shows like “Law and Order” and “CSI.” Personally, I like to think that the majority of us watch these shows to gain a better understanding of the world around us and help cope with the fact that some people are just off their fucking rockers. One of those people was obviously Nathan Gale, who tragically took the lives of four people and changed the lives of many others on Dec. 8, 2004. As many music fans know, one of the lives lost belonged to “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, who was a hero to millions after rising to fame with the band Pantera. Chris A.’s new book A Vulgar Display of Power attempts to shed some light on the tragic events of that night and overwhelmingly succeeds. A Vulgar Display of Power is an objective and powerful look at the events that unfolded at the Alrosa Villa concert venue as well as the events that led up to them. The book is well thought out and contains a host of pictures, as well as revealing interviews with those who were involved. The book also includes a foreword from police officer James Niggemeyer, who heroically stopped Gale’s rampage before he could kill anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you were a fan of “Dimebag” Darrell or not, either way this book is an eye-opening, heartfelt read about one of the most significant and disturbing events in the recent history of rock and roll.

—DJ Hippie

Megadeth United Abominations Roadrunner Records Megadeth takes on the United Nations and shows more balls and brains than most politicians. Additionally, according to the band, the drum kit used on the recording of this album was formerly owned by the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Pretty sweet! 4 out of 5 Spyz Big C Independent When most musicians have something personal strike them, they write a song. Guitarist Jon Henderson wrote a whole album. His battle with cancer is the subject of Big C, and the proceeds are going to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center. It’s a good album and a great cause. 3.5 out of 5 Ozomatli Don’t Mess with the Dragon Concord Records After 12 years together, Ozomatli continues to keep things fresh for its band members and Don’t Mess with the Dragon is the epitome of that. It’s one of the band’s most polished and joyous records to date, with what they call “more of a personal responsibility.” 4 out of 5 Frank Zappa Classic Albums - DVD Eagle Vision This is too much fun. Zappa’s best and most well known albums, Apostrophe(’) and Over-nite Sensation dissected, relived and replayed with friends, family and band members discussing the mad scientist of rock and roll. Awesome! 4.5 out of 5

From the Barstool of the Publisher - May, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:04:31 +0000

Summer is upon us. (Yes, I know that it snowed just a few days ago but I’m in denial about that, and denial is a very wonderful place.) This month’s Festival Guide solidifies that soon we’ll be leaving our dark, dank clubs behind for the comfort and fresh air of our favorite outdoor venues. One of the most exciting things about that, in addition to the simple fact that it’s much cooler to see a show under the stars than under fuzzy sound insulated ceilings, is that this year’s festival schedule is beginning to show more diversity than it has in years. With such a heavy focus on bluegrass and jam events over the last few years, some of the other genres have been left out, and it looks like the pendulum is finally starting (just barely starting) to swing the other way. Case in point is Monolith. The Denver Post has already said that the festival will be the coolest thing to hit Red Rocks in years and there hasn’t even been an announcement about the line-up yet. I have some insider information that I’m not allowed to share, but rest assured if only 10 percent of it actually comes to fruition, the festival is going to be amazing beyond words. Even the festivals that have long been the jam-based lords of summer camp are shifting their line-ups. Bonnaroo has The Police, The White Stripes and Wolfmother on their bill. Even the Lawrence, Kans. equivalent of the ’Roo, Wakarusa, has Son Volt and Martin Sexton on its roster (granted they also have Yonder Mountain String Band and Widespread Panic). But the fact that these bastions of jam are including other acts makes it safe to theorize that future years are going to bring even more diversity to the festival scene. It’s not that I’m championing one type of music over another here, but the lack of diversity in recent years has made some festivals suffer and, more importantly, made some fans slow down their own concert attendance schedules. That could be why people are wetting themselves over Monolith even before a band has been announced. It’s just something new and that’s desperately needed. Kudos to the promoters for taking a step toward that all-too-scary precipice of the unknown. I hope to hell that it pays off, and I’m pretty certain it will. As for the good old tried and true festivals, the great thing about them is that most have been around long enough to iron out any kinks and dial in their line-ups so that even if it is the same acts, the event goes off with flawless precision. It’s going to be one hell of a summer! We’ll see you at the shows.

North fork Bluegrass keeps festival intimate

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:05:03 +0000

By Heather M. Jarvis

northforkbluegrass.com June 8-10 Hotchkiss, Colo. In a small valley surrounded by mountains, this festival in Hotchkiss, Colo. is for all those looking for a laid-back weekend with an old-school western feel. Combining bluegrass, folk and acoustic blues, its music has something for everyone, along with a relaxed atmosphere that allows for the whole family. Its adult-sized “Sandbox” event center is the perfect playground for all those big kids looking to groove out to some impromptu jams, and with indoor and outdoor stages, festivarians will be covered, literally. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Hotchkiss, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 4 hours, 35 minutes Total Est. Distance: 236.5 miles ALONG THE WAY: The three towns in the valley next to Mount Lamborn and Landsend Peak are filled with wineries, orchards and organic farms. Traveling won’t be a problem to get to the wine tasting in the new and improved Beer and Wine Garden, located right in Hotchkiss. PRICE: $$$ CAMPING: Yes

South Park is country’s highest festival

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:06:07 +0000

By Molly Chappell

southparkmusictour.com June 21-24 Fairplay, Colo. The South Park Music Tour and Music Industry Conference is the “highest independent music festival,” that literally takes over the sleepy town of Fairplay, Colo. with 5,000 fans, and best of all it’s free. The festival hosts more than 50 bands representing numerous genres, including emo, jazz, grass, metal, hip-hop, indie, and good old rock and roll, on nine stages. Whether you are five or 50, you’ll be able to find something fun from the more than 30 juried artists, crafts food and other vendors. The four-day event also hosts a conference on Friday, including panelists Shaun Agnew from Blue Metallic Entertainment and Maria Gonzales from Warner Brothers Entertainment as they address topics that will help bands to succeed, such as “How to create a performance agreement” or “Your band is your business.” Hosted by McGoon Productions, the aim of the festival is to help artists connect with labels and develop a larger fan base. It’s a great way to find out who the up-and-coming artists are and you’ll be able to say that you saw them before they hit the main stage! TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Fairplay, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes Total Est. Distance: 86 miles ALONG THE WAY: Although you won’t actually run into Kenny or Cartman from “Southpark,” you’ll be able to see the town the cartoon was born from. Fairplay is the “headquarters” of the Pike National Forest, where you can hike, camp, bike, etc. In Fairplay, you are surrounded by 14,000 ft. mountains that will just beg you to explore them. There is also a free shuttle between Breckenridge and South Park. In Breckenridge you can stop in and grab a beer at the Breckenridge Brewery, snarf down food at the Breck Burger Bar, or stop by and see some music at Sherpa and Yeti’s. PRICES: $ CAMPING: Nearby on National Forest land

Poudre River Festival brings Reggae to Mish

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:07:17 +0000

By Bo Winter

zionway.net July 21 Mishawaka Amphitheatre - Bellvue, Colo. From the outside, as you swerve passed on the canyon road, the Mishawaka Inn looks like a normal little mountain bar. But inside, it’s like pulling back the curtain to reveal the great and powerful Oz, or in this case, Mishawaka Amphitheatre. Out in the backyard of this quaint bar is a rustic mountain stage located on the banks of the Poudre River. This year, the second annual Poudre River World Music Fest will take over that awesome little stage with a full day of reggae and world music. Many of the acts are regional musicians, but getting them all in one place makes this a special day for the local reggae community. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Bellvue, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 1 hour, 18 minutes Total Est. Distance: 70.79 miles ALONG THE WAY: The Mish is located about 20 minutes from Fort Collins up the Poudre Canyon. Be prepared if you want to stay up in the canyon to have everything you need, as the little general store on the way to the Mish usually doesn’t help that much. What the canyon lacks in amenities however, it makes up for in outdoor recreation activities, so bring hiking boots, kayaks and fishing rods. PRICES: $$ CAMPING: Nearby on National Forest land

RockyGrass is the traditional bluegrass fest

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:08:14 +0000

By Kathy Foster-Patton

bluegrass.com July 27-29 Planet Bluegrass Ranch - Lyons, Colo. The pickers start arriving in town a week before for the RockyGrass Academy, in anticipation of the opportunities to play prior to the start of the festival. Organized by the same folks who put on Telluride Bluegrass, RockyGrass is the traditional festival, whereas Telluride stretches the boundaries. In addition to staples such as Sam Bush, Peter Rowan and Del McCoury, the upcoming line-up includes hot newcomers such as The Biscuit Burners and Bearfoot Bluegrass. TRAVEL TIME, ALONG THE WAY, PRICE, CAMPING: (see above in Folks Festival)

Folks Festival is the antithesis of mega fests

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:09:24 +0000

By Timothy Dwenger

bluegrass.com Aug. 17-19 Planet Bluegrass Ranch - Lyons, Colo. Set in the beautiful town of Lyons, Colo., this festival is the perfect compliment to a summer afternoon. Along the St. Vrain River, Planet Bluegrass Ranch is an oasis nestled among the majestic red rock formations that dominate the Lyons landscape. The Festival, now in its 18th year, brings together some of the most recognized names in the folk world with some bright new up-and-comers. The folk genre is broad and the organizers are more than willing to push the boundaries of the genre when booking acts. Rest assured that there will be a healthy dose of old favorites, but if you are a music lover who can’t wait to find a new act to sink your teeth into, you won’t be disappointed. Like Planet Bluegrass’s marquee festival in Telluride, the on-site camping may be close quarters but it fosters new friendships, jam sessions and more than a few good laughs. For those who shy away from big crowds, the relatively low capacity of the Ranch allows this to be one of the most intimate feeling festivals around. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Lyons, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 55 minutes Total Est. Distance: 49 miles ALONG THE WAY: In Lyons, the Planet Bluegrass Ranch reigns supreme, but just down the road is Oskar Blues, THE music venue of Lyons. With a flare for blues and cajun, Oskar Blues is a great after-festival spot, before the camp-side picks get going. The venue always has special guests on festival weekends, and it’s never known who from RockyGrass’ main stage will show up at the club, post-festival. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: Yes

Reggae on the Rocks Continues its long run

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:10:32 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

billbassconcerts.com Aug. 18-19 Red Rocks Amphitheatre - Morrison, Colo. Reggae On The Rocks is one of the longest-running shows at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre. This year’s two-day bash will carry on the tradition set years ago of bringing all things reggae to Morrison. From traditional reggae to today’s modern take on the genre, the promoters have put together the best of the best for the show and anyone with Rasta leanings is going to be psyched. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Morrison, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 22 minutes Total Est. Distance: 15 miles ALONG THE WAY: It’s not actually along the way, it’s right there under your nose. During a set break, check out the Red Rocks Visitor Center and the amazing displays that chronicle the history of the venue and the artists who have played there. It’s awesome. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: No.

High Sierra awash with Colorado artists

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:11:04 +0000

By Monica Banks

highsierramusic.com July 5-8 Quincy, Calif. High Sierra began in 1991 with one stage and 20 artists. This grassroots festival has now grown to five stages with over 75 artists. This summer’s promising line-up features the much anticipated Leftover Salmon reunion, along with other hometown acts such as Yonder Mountain String Band, Zilla, Great American Taxi and Phix. The promoters say, “Go for the music and stay for the fun, you can even bring the kids.” On site you’ll find the fun-filled Kidzone, arts and crafts, microbrews, yoga, pilates, dance classes and much more. If you are looking for a more intimate setting, check out the Artist Playshops or get an education on the business in the Music Biz Playshop. Whatever it is you decided to do, be sure to pack your costumes for the daily parades hosted by Third Planet Ceremonial Celebrations. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Quincy, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 16 hours, 11 minutes Total Est. Distance: 1,129.10 miles ALONG THE WAY: Quincy, Calif. is kind of out in the sticks, so come prepared. However, that isolation also brings some amazing scenery. Just up the road from Quincy is Lake Almanor and the Canyon Dam. The Feather River is also beautiful. The trip from Colorado takes you through Reno, so if you’re feeling lucky, you can always stop and roll the dice. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: Yes $$$.

Blues & Brews serves up suds with tasty tunes

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:12:07 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

tellurideblues.com Sept. 14-16 Telluride, Colo. Everyone in Colorado with even a cursory interest in music knows about Telluride Bluegrass in June, but Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, now in its 14th year, is giving folks a reason to visit T-ride just as the leaves begin to change colors and before the snow falls. Held in Town Park, where its banjo-laden big brother sets up shop earlier in the summer, Blues & Brews is the anti-bluegrass festival, but still brings the free spirit that has long made the town the perfect setting for a festival. Blues & Brews features three days of world-renowned musicians, late night jams in the local juke joints, 50 choice microbreweries serving up their handcrafted “cream of the barrel” during Saturday’s Grand Tasting, the Rainbow Kids area, free Acoustic Artist Series, Blues For Breakfast, and the Telluride Acoustic Blues Camp. Though it has “Blues” in its name, the line-up can range anywhere from traditional blues to rock and roll. The only downside to Telluride can be the cost of lodging, if you’re not down for the whole camping thing. Being a resort town, those with the rooms know they can charge top dollar, but deals are offered early on. With a little planning and calling around, affordable lodging is possible, but don’t wait until the last minute. If you do, you’ll pay a lot and you won’t be as close to the festival as you want to be. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Telluride, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 6 hours, 9 minutes Total Est. Distance: 331.25 miles ALONG THE WAY: The drive to Telluride can sometimes seem to take forever, but the drive through Glenwood Canyon makes it all worthwhile. It begs to be driven in a top-down convertible with music cranking. But, resist the temptation to speed until after you've gone through the speed traps. State Troopers are often camped out along the road pulling people over in packs, so take it easy. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: Limited on-site camping $$

Blues & Brews serves up suds with tasty tunes

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:12:07 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

Wakarusa still growing like a giant weed

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:13:52 +0000

By Monica Banks

wakarusa.com June 7-10 Lawrence, Kansas Wakarusa is a Native American term meaning “ass-deep,” somewhat unfitting seeing that this festival puts any patron way over their head in music. The Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival is a four-day party in the heart of the Midwest. Born in 2004, the festival originally featured over 70 artists in a diverse and eclectic line-up. In 2005 Wakarusa returned and quickly established itself as a premiere, grassroots event in the nationwide outdoor music scene. Last year the event featured over 80 artists, five stages and over four days of non-stop music and entertainment. This year’s throw-down is looking more and more like the highlight of the summer. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Lawrence, Kans.) Total Est. Time: 8 hours, 14 minutes Total Est. Distance: 566 miles ALONG THE WAY: Not far from Lawrence is Bonner Springs, Kans., a town that might otherwise forever be as obscure as dozens of other heartland towns, except for the fact that Bonner Springs High School was the home of Gene Clark, one of the founders of The Byrds. It may not be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but since it’s only half an hour away from Lawrence, it’s worth a side-trip for a snapshot. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: Yes

Two-day indie rock fest debuts at Red Rocks

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:14:27 +0000

By Jeffrey V. Smith

monolithfestival.com September 14-15 Red Rocks Amphitheatre - Morrison, Colo. In an attempt to create a Colorado-based destination festival in the spirit of Coachella, Bumbershoot and Sasquatch!, the two-day Monolith Festival is debuting in September amidst the unparalleled majesty of Red Rocks Amphitheatre. According to the event’s founder and producer Matt Fecher, a seasoned festival producer who is also responsible for creating the acclaimed South Park Music Festival, “The cool thing about Monolith is that while we'll still have our big headliners, we’re going to give independent artists and unsigned bands a huge spotlight.” The event, one of the largest ever staged at Red Rocks, will transform the venue into “a mecca of live music” featuring over 70 of the world’s top emerging artists, a welcome addition to Colorado’s festival scene. In addition to the main stage, four additional stages will be added to accommodate an ambitious schedule of bands. Although the event is still booking acts and a line-up has yet to be announced, it promises to be exciting and unlike anything previously held at Red Rocks. Watch for the first round of artist announcements to be posted on the festival’s website sometime in May. Ticket options, when they go on sale, include a VIP ticket package that provides access to a special lounge area, kick-off party, special VIP events, brunch, after-parties and seats in the first three rows. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Morrison, Colo.) Total Est. Time: 22 minutes Total Est. Distance: 15 miles ALONG THE WAY: The closest amenities to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Park are located in the town of Morrison. Funky, mountain-town bars, restaurants and bed and breakfasts are located in the small town. For more selection, visit nearby Golden’s Main Street or simply prepare at home for the short drive. Once on the venue’s grounds it is difficult to get to any businesses except the park's gift shop, so plan ahead. PRICES: $$ CAMPING: No camping within Red Rocks Park. Camping can be found nearby in private RV and camp parks, state parks and national forests. Visit the Monolith website for options close to the venue.

Telluride Bluegrass keeps it eclectic in 34th year

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:15:07 +0000

By Kathy Foster-Patton

bluegrass.com June 21-24 Telluride, Co. This marks the 34th year of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and, as usual, the musical lineup is an eclectic one. Planet Bluegrass organizers are known for leaning away from more traditional bluegrass-style music with this festival and reaching farther afield to attract music fans looking for something a little different — like The Counting Crows or Los Lobos. Chris Thile & The How To Grow A Band is another such example on this June’s line-up. For the younger, jamgrass set, there is Yonder Mountain String Band and Nashville’s current “it” band, The Infamous Stringdusters. Don’t think that traditional bluegrass is not in attendance — at what other festival could the ticket holders hear a house band such as the star-studded one at Telluride — with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Myer, Darol Anger, and Bryan Sutton. As the multitude of repeat festival attendees know, Telluride also offers one of the most gorgeous backdrops in the country for a music festival. Although the space is limited, the intimate surroundings foster camaraderie in the camping areas and fun picking is to be had throughout the event. TRAVEL TIME: (As calculated by mapquest.com from Denver, Colo. to Telluride, Colo.). Total Est. Time: 6 hours, 9 minutes Total Est. Distance: 331.25 miles ALONG THE WAY: Once in Telluride, trips via gondola over to Mountain Village provide some of the most spectacular views of the Telluride Box Canyon. A hike to Bridal Veil Falls, the highest cascade in Colorado, is also a must. PRICES: $$$ CAMPING: Limited on-site

Festival season shaping up to be best ever

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:16:45 +0000

The modern-day music festival was born in 1969 when two hippies from New York lost their financial shirts by putting on Woodstock. Though Woodstock ’69 was a disaster from a dollars-and-cents standpoint, it became crystal clear to promoters that the idea itself — packaging bands together for an all-day or all-weekend event — made good sense. In today’s musical world, where concert goers have a wealth of choices, the festival format makes more sense than ever. It gives ticket holders a chance to get major bang per buck and, while the planning may take a bit more time for the promoter, it helps them as well since they can put their eggs all in one basket. All of that aside, the festival format, at its core, is simply fun. It’s a chance to shed the every-day world and live for a day or a weekend in a musical utopia with anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand like-minded musical freaks. One of the best parts about a festival is the music it can expose listeners to. While you may choose to attend based on a headlining act, the “filler” sets from up-and-coming acts can be highlights as bands transform from simply a name on the list to tangible success stories. In recent years many festivals have taken on the format of industry conference and festival. It’s another smart move, as it gives industry personnel an excuse to attend (“I have to speak on the such and such panel”) and it helps create buzz. When someone in the office of a music magazine or publicity firm makes plans to head to a festival, that word of mouth is golden. Plus having those auto-responses on your e-mail while you are there lets everyone know you’re having a good time while they’re working. Whether you’re in the industry or not, those conferences can be almost as interesting as the bands themselves. Conferences also give artists the chance to interact with industry decision makers. While last year’s festival guide looked at events all over the country and even the world, this year’s guide is a bitmore focused, highlighting festivals within a day’s drive of Denver. Most of these are in our backyard, but a few will necessitate a coffee-infused cruise for 12 hours or more. Note: All travel times and distances are calculated from Denver, using mapquest.com. Price is marked by a dollar sign ($) with $ being a free or inexpensive ticket and $$$$$ being the most expensive. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you at the festivals.

Industry Profile: Reason to Rhyme establishes itself as source for thematic music

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:17:48 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

When people think of certain TV shows, like Cheers or All In The Family, the musical introductions are as much a part of that fabric that made them staples of our culture as the characters or the locations of the programs. Those theme songs are a multi-billion dollar part of the music industry — a cut-throat, quick-turnaround element that few performing musicians know anything about, or, more importantly, how to tap into it. For years the only musicians who did tap into it were the ones who lived in Hollywood and specialized in that arena. But now, with the proliferation of the internet and FTP technologies, musicians don’t have to be within the Hollywood circle anymore. Local musician Bryan Wagstaff — who has played keyboards with Ash Ganley, Skye Downing and numerous others — along with a few business partners and some key contacts in the L.A. scene, has launched Reason to Rhyme Music, a Colorado-based music publishing company which seeks to write their own material for the small and big screen, while also helping local musicians get their songs in front of the music directors who choose tracks for TV and film. Marquee: What was the first album you ever purchased? Wagstaff: Journey’s Greatest Hits. Marquee: What was your first concert? Wagstaff: I knew you were going to ask that. (laughing) Shaun Cassidy at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. Editor’s note: As embarrassing as those answers might be for Wagstaff, truth be told they are the exact opposite of this writer’s firsts. I owned Shaun Cassidy’s self-titled album in 1977 and my first concert was Journey in 1987. Marquee: How did Reason to Rhyme Music get its start? Wagstaff: Well, in college at USC in L.A. I formed a band called Jonas with Reid Miller, that later featured Darren Pujalet, who plays in Particle now. Jonas was an all-original band and Reason to Rhyme Music was the publishing arm of myself and Reid, my current business partner ... So it’s gone from Jonas, the live band, to Reason to Rhyme Music going as the full songwriting arm of things. Marquee: So this isn’t a brand new project? Wagstaff: No. With our contacts in L.A., including Jeff Jones, who is a monster composer there, we’ve already placed, last year, two songs in independent films and signed a publishing deal for two of our songs with a music library that is shopping it in L.A. Jeff also took our old Jonas EP and gave it to one of his music directors and got one song “Beat the World” placed on Sunday and Monday Night Football for the NFL. Marquee: That’s huge! Wagstaff: That’s when we got our first taste of slipper money, as they call it in the industry. It’s where you put your slippers on and go to the mailbox and there’s a check from BMI. From that day on I was determined. I wanted more of those royalty dollars. Marquee: So you’re already engrained in this? Wagstaff: Oh yeah. When Jonas hung it up in 2001, I came to Boulder and realized we could do this from here. Our friend Jeremy Pollack owns an entertainment company for film and he’s been our lyricist for quite a long time — he’s our Bernie Taupin — and we’ve been working with him to develop thematic songs for some pilots that he’s working on. Marquee: So you’re writing songs for specific projects as opposed to getting songs you’ve already written placed? Wagstaff: We’re doing both. Our forte lies in thematic music rather than the entire score. We specialize in creating unique theme songs, be it 25, 30 seconds with proper exposition that fulfills the need of the required moment. The other part will be developing a music library with our stuff and combining that with new talented writers we’re soliciting and established writers with great songs. Marquee: When you talk about new talent, are you talking about local musicians? Wagstaff: Absolutely. You know this area is just saturated with some really great musicians and we all kind of know each other. I think there’s only like three degrees of separation in the Colorado music scene. But, a lot of these musicians don’t know, or don’t have the business savvy to get their stuff in front of the right people. So between the team we have, of myself, Reid and Jeremy and session players in the Denver/Boulder area, coupled with the contacts we have in L.A. and the ability to sign local talent for single song agreements, we’re set up where if we get a call on a project we can turn it around and whip out a broadcast-ready track in 24 to 48 hours. Marquee: That fast? Wagstaff: The thing about this part of the industry is that when they want something, they want it yesterday. When they’re on a post production deadline and can’t afford the $25,000 it would take for a Bon Jovi track, they need us to turn something out in a day. Who needs sleep? Michael Schwartz of Deliberative Designs, who designed Coupe Studios and had his hand in Immersive Studios, designed and helped me construct a completely decoupled and isolated sound room in the unfinished portion of my basement, so we’re ready for the phone to ring. Marquee: Tell me about this other project you’re working on with Reason to Rhyme Music. Wagstaff: We want to put together a holiday album with local artists and have a portion of the proceeds going to Hurricane Katrina victims. You know, it’s kind of fallen by the wayside in the news, but things are still really messed up down there. But we want to record public domain holiday songs with artists doing their own versions and have that real philanthropic element to it. Marquee: What’s the ultimate goal for Reason to Rhyme Music. Wagstaff: Well, we want to tap into the film industry in Colorado and help get local musicians involved in it as well. But the real dream is to win a Grammy for the Best Original Song in a Motion Picture. That’s where we’re heading.

Junior Boys embark on second tour and come to terms with being on the road

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:18:52 +0000

:: Junior Boys :: Hi-Dive :: May 1 ::

By Marisa Beahm

Many budding musicians dream of stardom before they even strike their first chord. A desire to act out the rock star cliché in front of screaming fans is their impetus to enter the music scene. But, this is a far cry from what inspired the experimental electronic-pop duo Junior Boys to produce their music. Their impetus was much simpler: they wanted to create forward-thinking, boundary-pushing music; touring and stardom were merely afterthoughts. In fact, it wasn’t until after they finished their first album, Last Exit, that they realized they would have to go on tour. “I do enjoy [touring], but I’d much prefer recording and writing music than performing,” said Matt Didemus, one half of Junior Boys, in a recent interview with The Marquee. “When we first started the band and started recording, we didn’t intend on performing it live. We did it for the sake of making an album. Then we realized that, ‘oh, we are going to have to play shows.’” Even though touring initially took them by surprise, the Junior Boys are back on the road once again to promote their latest album This Is Goodbye; and this time, they’re primed for it. On the first tour, the band, from Hamilton, Ontario, faced the challenge of making a technologically-driven act interesting for audiences. In the past, they used visual presentations to complement the music, but for the new tour, they decided to add a live drummer, Dave Foster, to the mix. The live percussion will add an energetic dynamic to the show, which already includes Jeremy Greenspan on guitar and vocals, along with Didemus, who plays synthesizer and does what he calls “laptop stuff.” Even with a rigorous tour schedule, their priority is still on crafting their musical creations, not the glitz and glamour of the stage. Their unostentatious nature is reflected in other aspects of the band, such as the how they chose their name. Junior Boys was discovered in a high school yearbook, where it was used to describe activities, like junior boys football. This title struck the musicians as silly, since it had a boy band connotation, which is the converse of their group. “Naming a band is a difficult thing. You can end up sounding pretentious really easily. [Junior Boys] sounded vaguely boy-bandish, so we took it,” Didemus said. Junior Boys was formed in 1999 by Greenspan and another friend, Johnny Dark. After Dark left to pursue other interests, Didemus, who already helped the group record and produce their songs, joined the band. The current members of the group have known each other since the ninth grade, where they grew up listening to electronic and dance music. While Junior Boys is sometimes compared to experimental groups like Depeche Mode, they are able to draw from these influences without mirroring them. “We get compared to early 1980s stuff. I don’t really think we are like a retro band,” Didemus said. “We don’t wish we were making music in the 1980s. What was good then, was people were using these new technologies, but still densely rooted in pop framework.” Junior Boys use inventive sounds to push musical boundaries, but they make sure their final products are not too obtuse, so they have a wider appeal, or are “something your mom can get into too,” according to Didemus. Junior Boys can make even the novice electronic listener gain appreciation for synthesizers and computer-generated beats. Many of their songs follow a loose formula: they begin with rudimentary rhythms, which are gradually layered with inventive beats, instruments and Greenspan’s soothing vocals, which results in an emotive collaboration of sound. As the title, This Is Goodbye suggests, their newest album’s songs shed light on feelings of nostalgia during times of transition, both emotional and physical. The lyrics ruminate over topics like tourist towns and the fear of being forgotten. To tie the record together both thematically and lyrically, they covered “When No One Cares” by Frank Sinatra, which mimics the melancholic feel of the rest of the album. “We both liked that relaxed quality of the singing, the crooner music,” Didemus said. “There is this weird connection between crooner music and electronic music. They have these weird sort of 1950s/1940s sound to their singers. We wanted in some ways to make that connection ever stronger.” Pulling Sinatra into the realm of electronic music exemplifies the boundless approach that Junior Boys takes to their songwriting. By focusing on musicality rather than pyrotechnics at their shows, Junior Boys’ serious commitment to innovation is clear. This is enough for them to keep gaining new fans and keep them touring for a long time to come. :: Junior Boys :: :: Hi-Dive :: May 1 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • TV on the Radio • Mr. Fingers • LCD Soundsystems

Miguel Migs touring with Shaw and Fuller in support of recent release Those Things

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:19:22 +0000

:: Miguel Migs :: The Shelter (Denver) :: May 4 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

San Francisco has long been thought of as one of the cities at the forefront of the world’s music scene. In the 1960s, the Bay Area exploded with the music that fed the counterculture movement. Bands like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and The Holding Company were thriving in the community and their music was spreading across the country like wildfire. Today, the music-friendly culture of the city has proven a fertile breeding ground for a totally different style of music — electronic. The active club scene in the city has propelled the careers of several world class DJs, including Miguel Migs (aka Pedalpusher). Migs started his musical journey just south of San Francisco in the surf town of Santa Cruz as the lead guitarist and songwriter for local dub/reggae band Zion Sounds. When Zion Sounds dissolved in the late ’80s, Migs turned his focus to electronic music. “The fact that you can be one guy in a studio with a keyboard and some equipment and be able to make music that moves dance floors across the globe is fascinating to me,” said Migs in a recent interview with The Marquee. “I have the freedom to incorporate all sorts of different elements and styles rather than only drums, guitar and bass.” The influence of being in a band during his teenage years still shows up prominently in his sound today. “I incorporate a lot of live instrumentation into my music. I combine the best of both worlds. I always bring in live percussion, live guitars, live bass and live horns and have fun with combining all those different elements into a track,” Migs said. The result is a very deep, organic sound that throbs with sensuality and churns dance floors around the world into a sweaty cauldron of bodies. Migs has had the opportunity to tour the world promoting his music and is thrilled with the response everywhere he goes. “It is kinda cool to know that this kind of music is so big, not in the commercial sense necessarily, but it has such a strong global following,” Migs said. “There are people that buy my CDs in Moscow, South Africa, Japan, Australia and Iceland and it is an amazing feeling when I am playing to a crowd in a city I have never heard of and people are singing along with the songs. It is pretty intense.” Currently, Migs is touring in support of his recently released artist album Those Things that he put out in March on his own Salted Music label. The album, which he says is “electronic music inspired by old soul, funk, reggae and hip-hop,” features several vocalists from different genres contributing to the tracks. The world of funk is represented by Fred Ross of Sly and The Family Stone, and Migs returned to his reggae roots, getting to work with Junior Reid of Black Uhuru. “I have been a fan of Junior Reid’s work since I was a kid and I was at one of his shows when I noticed a good friend of mine was playing bass in his band. I called my friend the next day and asked if Junior was in town because I wanted to see if he would be interested in working with me on a song for my album,” said Migs. “My friend put us in touch, we talked, and I played Junior some of my music. He liked it and agreed to come into the studio with me to record. We started fresh with a track I had put together and he just started free-styling in the studio. I kind of pieced together his vocals from the various takes and free-styling ideas. It was a bit of an editing nightmare but it came out well in the end.” Longtime Migs collaborator Lisa Shaw also contributed to several tracks on Those Things and will be joining Migs on the road this spring. “She is such a phenomenal singer and performer that she brings a lot to the set,” Migs explained. “The gigs will be mostly DJ oriented but I am bringing Lisa [Shaw] and Tim Fuller along to add a live element to the event that satisfies the audiences’ desire to see some sort of performance.” While he is publicly focusing on the DJ angle right now, Migs disclosed that he also is in the midst of putting a live band together that he hopes to have ready for some appearances this summer. “We are going to play most of the songs on the album with the new band,” Migs said. “Most of the tracks have a lot of live instrumentation anyway so it isn’t that hard to imagine those songs being performed by a live band.” With his DJ tour, the live band and his record label, Migs keeps himself extremely busy and yet still finds time to remix songs for very noteworthy artists from Macy Gray to Lionel Ritchie to Britney Spears. He is prolifically creative and one of the most organic electronic music artists to come out of a city that is ripe with talent. :: Miguel Migs :: :: The Shelter (Denver) :: May 4 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Mark Farina • Blue Six • Jamiroquai

Bassnectar hell bent on pulverizing audiences with mega-low frequency waves

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:20:56 +0000

:: Bassnectar :: Hodi’s Half Note :: May 2 ::
 ::Bluebird Theater :: May 3 ::
 :: Fox Theatre :: May 5 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

For nearly a decade now, Lorin Ashton (a.k.a. Bassnectar) has been coming of age on the West Coast underground scene. Weaving in and out of genres with force, volume and intent, Bassnectar’s beats are infectious and fresh, as well as a platform for political awareness and social change. Both his passion and his skills have brought together fans all over the musical map. He is a product of Burning Man, of San Francisco underground hip-hop, of the hippie jamband scene, and of rave culture. He mixes all of these sounds kaleidoscopically, with a whole lot of low, deep, nasty bass lines thrown into the mix. Ashton explained his love of the bass to The Marquee as he traveled through Canada. “Well for one, it’s a pretty new thing for humans, being able to control frequencies that oscillate so low. Until just recently, I’d bet you could only feel true sub-throbbage during an earthquake or thunderstorm, or a heartbeat in the womb maybe, I don’t know. To pulverize a mob of people with mega-low frequency waves of energy is extremely overwhelming, and to BE pulverized by it is extremely addicting,” he said. Bassnectar’s first album, 2005’s double-disc debut Mesmerizing the Ultra, first demonstrated his mix of styles with focus on bass-heavy breakbeat, alternative media, and social responsibility. It featured collaborations with artists such as Michael Franti and Spearhead, STS9, Buckethead, SCI’s Michael Kang, Heavyweight Dub Champion, KRS One, and breakbeat pioneer Freq Nasty. It also sampled vocal tracks from left wing heavy hitters Noam Chomsky and Michael Ruppert. His eagerly awaited second album, 2007’s Underground Communication, is again bass-centric, with lots of hop and lots of slow, heavy breaks. This tempo supports MCs and poets and again spotlights the artists’ social activism, and is more song-based and lyrical than the first album. The title of the album itself invokes grassroots networking and indie media in the face of today’s biased news outlets and possible privatization of the internet, one of the last bastions of free speech. Regarding his albums, Bassnectar said listeners can expect “very heavy production, lots of deep, massive bass lines, swatting beats and mashing percussion with loads of intentional vocals (rhythm and information) and plenty of sweeping melodic fun and games. They can expect me to play with the tender balances of the bestial and the perverse versus the angelic and the gorgeous … if I don’t feel like using the word ‘freakbeat’ then I usually call it ‘omnitempomaximalism.’ Live performance, on the other hand, is completely free-form.” In addition to his innovative blend of modern music, Bassnectar often mixes in sounds from bygone times. “I love Balkan gypsy music, rare international sounds, antique moments in time, oddball Romanian folk jams, and all sorts of other music from previous eras that is not only JUST as good as when it was first created but it ALSO invokes nostalgia for an incredible double penetration of the psyche,” he said. Bassnectar deems Colorado one of his favorite places to play, and looks forward to returning this month. “It’s like the gigantic scene of jambands just ripped open to embrace the wobbliest of bass line music,” he said, “but they still give full freedom of expression, so now it’s just completely off the goddamn chain.” :: Bassnectar :: :: Hodi’s Half Note :: May 2 :: ::Bluebird Theater :: May 3 :: :: Fox Theatre :: May 5 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Mark Farina • Blue Six • Jamiroquai

RJD2 changes up his sounds, adds live instruments and tours with a full band

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:21:35 +0000

:: RJD2 :: Boulder Theater :: May 9 ::
 :: Bluebird Theater :: May 10 ::

By Tiffany Childs

It’s not too often that you see a hip-hop artist who began his career as a DJ touring with a full band. Then again, RJD2 is an artist that doesn’t like to rely on the same old boring routine. Following the success of his two past releases — 2002’s Dead Ringer, and 2004’s Since We Last Spoke — RJD2 made what may have been the least expected move he could make. He left the label Definitive Jux and moved to a new label and genre. “After my first two records I wanted to find a way to not rely on samples,” RJD2 told The Marquee in a recent interview. “This release is a result of that desire.” On the newly released The Third Hand, RJD2 has moved his music into more of a garage-y pop style, using “vocal harmonies, some bad-ass guitar tones, very slight riffage, just enough piano and some tough-ass drums” to round out his sampler/sequencer stylings of the past. For fans, that may seem a little off-putting, as it appears to discard everything they know and love about him as a hip-hop artist. However, according to RJ, that’s simply not true. “This album is a continuation of what I was doing before. The music is still the same. I’m just using different tools,” he said. The tools are in fact quite a significant change from what RJD2 normally delivers. The most obvious variation is the use of live instruments. Although RJD2 is currently touring with a band to reproduce the sounds on the record, he actually plays all the instruments on the album himself. Fortunately for old supporters, RJD2 somehow manages to remains true to his soul even with the addition of live instruments, the new label and the change of genres. In fact, RJ contends that all of those elements have fueled his already undying craving as a life-long student of music. “Music is more exciting than it’s ever been to me. I’ve learned more about music, in a general sense, in the last two years than I have in a long, long time,” he said. As for the label change, RJ insists there are no hard feelings, “Leaving Jux was a hard decision for me to make…but for the folks who follow that sort of thing, I think it will make sense when you hear the new record. They (Jux) are a powerhouse within their arena, but I feel like I’m playing a different game now.” The game that RJD2 is playing seems to be an adventurous one. Not many artists are daring enough to so thoroughly change their sound and risk alienating their existing fan base. RJ doesn’t seem too worried about that. “I don’t want to undermine the listener by assuming they don’t want to hear anything new. That seems semi-presumptuous and wrong,” he said. Judging by the response to his current tour and album, RJD2 got it right. From D.C. to North Carolina to Chicago, fans new and old have been turning up in masses, proving that RJ has an irresistible style, clever lyrics and incredible staying power. After working hard to put serious hip-hop credibility under his belt, RJD2 is moving on to challenge the pop arena. And he is inviting everyone to see how he measures up. “We have a good line-up that shouldn’t be missed, but you have to decide for yourself if you like what I’m doing,” he said. :: RJD2 :: :: Boulder Theater :: May 9 :: :: Bluebird Theater :: May 10 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Z-Trip • DJ Shadow • Jurassic 5

Tapes ’N Tapes just tour ‘n tour getting ready for new album this summer

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:22:20 +0000

:: Tapes ‘n Tapes :: Bluebird Theater :: May 9 ::

By Tiffany Childs

Tapes ‘n Tapes is a band that prefers to take its songs onto the road before taking them into the studio. And while some fans may be impatient to get new music immediately, it seems hard to argue with their methods when looking at the success of their last recording. That album, The Loon, received accolades from critics around the world, including a Best New Music commendation from Pitchfork Media. Four members, each who take nicknames after words in the band’s name, make up the promising young group known as Tapes ‘n Tapes. If you’re wondering how four people can be named after three words (or, more exactly, a letter and one word repeated twice), the answer is simple. Two of the members, Matt Kretzman (keyboards/ multi-instrumentalist) and Erik Appelwick (bass) share the “‘n,” while Josh Grier (guitar/vocals) and Jeremy Hanson (drums) round out the band, serving as ‘Tape 1’ and ‘Tape 2’ respectively. It’s convoluted, but it’s how they see it. But being convoluted works for Tapes ‘n Tapes. Drawing on influences much more individually driven than their nicknames, the band creates music that varies so drastically in tempo and style that it falls in the grayish genre known simply as “alt-pop.” “Our songs on [The Loon] grew and matured from touring,” said Kretzman in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We want to do that again before recording our new album this summer. The new songs are still pop, but the sound is a little bit different. We are trying to progress beyond The Loon. When we did our first recording we didn’t really know what we were doing. The following release was infinitely better and we hope the same will be able to be said about the next one and so on.” It turns out that the progression experienced from the band’s first release to its second, in addition to the touring, was also the result of lots of time spent in the band’s practice studio, otherwise known as Matt’s basement. “We all get down there and mess around. You just kind of do what you think sounds good and all the ears in the room come together to decide what sounds best,” Kretzman said. Those eight ears seem to know a good thing when they hear it. “Insistor,” a song from The Loon, is featured in MLB 2007 for Playstation and Xbox this year. An element of that deal has Tapes ‘n Tapes partnering with the company for their tour. As part of a promotional release, fans at their shows will be able to play the games, even though the band doesn’t really see itself as gamers. “No, not really. I mean we occasionally play Guitar Hero, but Josh usually wins. He owns the game so he kind of has a competitive advantage,” Kretzman said. Tapes ‘n Tapes is also enjoying great success outside of the gaming world. Bloggers and word-of-mouth have ballooned this group’s reputation to epic proportions within the indie music scene in an extremely short amount of time. In addition to the public sphere, the band has captured the attention of the music industry. Last year they were invited to play at CMJ and this year they’ll be playing the infamous Coachella in California. While CMJ can be erratic in giving attention to those who deserve it, the festival provided great exposure for this particular band. Playing at the Bowery Ballroom, one of the bigger venues included in CMJ, Tapes ‘n Tapes wowed a crowd of new and old fans alike. You might think playing at CMJ could have been stressful for Tapes ‘n Tapes because they’ve often been compared to bands like The Pixies and Pavement and that’s a lot to live up to. If they had been trying to live up to that reputation and emanate those bands, that may have been the case. Fortunately, they didn’t try. “We love these bands and it’s great to be compared to them, but there isn’t one band that dominates our sound,” Kretzman said. It may be true that there isn’t one band or artist that dominates the sound of Tapes n’ Tapes, but their sound is one that is starting to dominate pop. Rivaling alt-pop acts such as The Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, this seems to be the beginning of a big thing for Tapes n’ Tapes. :: Tapes ‘n Tapes :: :: Bluebird Theater :: May 9 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Pixies • Pavement • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Kings of Leon adjust their crowns as rock’s new royalty with Because of the Times

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:23:03 +0000

:: Kings of Leon :: Ogden Theatre :: May 5 ::

By Cornelia Kane

The Kings of Leon have the perfect backstory for rock and roll royalty. It includes mystery, intrigue, family drama and religion. The band consists of three brothers, Nathan (drums), Caleb (vocals) and Jared Followill (bass), and is rounded out by their cousin Matthew Followill (guitar). By now, many know the King’s story, but for those who don’t, here’s the quick rundown: The brothers were raised religiously by a traveling preacher and his wife in the Deep South, and were not introduced to rock and roll until they were young men, following the separation of their parents. The Nashville-based band found their way onto the charts in 2003 with their first full-length album, the riotous Youth and Young Manhood, recorded when bassist and baby brother Jared was still only 17. The album was received with critical acclaim and led to gigs opening for the Strokes and U2. That was followed by 2005’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, and now all grown up, just last month, the band released their third album on RCA, aptly titled Because of the Times. They are now in the middle of a seemingly never-ending tour, which drummer Nathan Followill was able to take some time away from to talk to The Marquee from England, where the weather gods seemed to be smiling on the band and the country known mostly for The Beatles and cloudy skies. “The weather here is amazing. We haven’t had one cloudy day in, like, a week-and-a-half. Just blue skies and sunshine. It’s like the Lord opens up the heavens and shines down on us while we’re over here. Is this interview for the Weather Channel?” he asked, laughingly. In addition to the weather, Followill said that touring Europe is different than the States. “We love touring in the U.K. just because the fans are so crazy. I love playing in Spain and Italy just because the scenery and the weather makes it super-duper nice, but I think we like touring in America a lot just because of the comfort level. You know, being able to eat whatever you want 24 hours a day as opposed to finding one gas station that’s open and the only sandwiches they have are prawn and mayonnaise, which isn’t too tasty after about 14 beers,” he said. While their early efforts were a kind of decidedly raunchy countrified rock, with mostly fast-paced songs that contain a kind of raw, frenetic energy in the vocals and playing, the new album is slowed down by comparison and more polished. Caleb’s vocals, usually known for being slightly slurry and half-shrieked, come through clean and almost sweet like a lullaby on some tracks, while the whole production has been cleaned up and the music has become more refined. “Musically, like a Joy Division, or a young U2?” Nathan said of the direction on Because of the Times. “We like everything, though. I love Townes Van Zandt just as much as I like Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. We just love all kinds of music because the way we grew up we didn’t get to listen to music, so in the last five years we’ve gotten to catch up on the last 30 years of music that’s been made. So, I just heard of this band called The Beatles, I think they’re going to be huge. I think they’re going to sell quite a bit of records.” Although the Kings’ latest album just came out last month, Nathan said the band is already working on new material. “The record was done probably last summer, but record labels have a system of which quarter you release which record in, so you have a better chance of selling records. I guess, and we didn’t want to compete with Beyonce and Justin Timberlake, so we waited until we could compete with David Hasselhoff and whoever else put out a record when we did.” Regardless, new tracks are already beginning to surface from the Kings during their soundchecks. “We have about three or four songs we’re working on now. All of our songs, we work them up in soundcheck. Like, the whole last record was written in soundchecks. Because you just get so bored you don’t want to play a song in soundcheck that you’ve already played 50 times and you’re going to have to play it that night, too. So, we try to take that as a time to work on ideas. Then, before you know it, 10 soundchecks later we’ve got a song together.” And, while the band shares writing duties musically, the lyrics are less of a collective effort. But as Nathan pointed out, he does pull his own weight from time to time. “Caleb does the lyrics 99.8% of the time. I’m always good for a .2% every now and then.” Oddly enough, when Caleb and Nathan first started writing songs, they had no thoughts of actually playing them themselves. “We had no idea we were going to do the band thing, but once we realized that we could write a decent song, then we just started playing around with the idea of starting to play. But, we had gotten the record deal before anything had really happened and the label was going to help us put our band together,” said Nathan. When the boy’s parents divorced, Nathan and Caleb moved to Nashville with their mother, while their father moved to Oklahoma City. Eventually, the brothers began writing “cheesey country songs” for publishing deals, but soon found that putting their name on something they weren’t proud of didn’t suit them. “So we changed our way of thinking and started writing songs that we would want to sing and play. The next thing we know, we got an interview with an attorney, who introduced us to a publisher, who introduced us to a manager, who introduced us to a label. That all happened within a span of maybe five months. We basically went from working at Abercrombie to having a record deal,” said Nathan. With the label pushing to make the Followill brothers a cookie-cutter band, the boys pushed back ferociously and patched together their family band, despite the fact that few had any real chops on their instruments. “They said they’d see us in one month and we locked ourselves in the basement with the Led Zeppelin box set that the label had given us and Jared became a madman and played the bass 24 hours a day and Matt played guitar 24 hours a day and when they came down a month later we played for them and kicked their ass, and they apologized and said they would never question us again,” Nathan said. With a new album out, one might hope that it’s time for the band to kick back a little, but the fact is that while many bands claim to be road weary, their schedules are but a weekend jaunt compared to the Kings’ mind-numbing whirlwind schedule. “We’re about to start a two-and-a-half month American tour. Then we’ll come back over here for festival season, then to America for fall tour, back over here for winter tour, then Christmas, then Australia for the Big Day Out Festival, Japan, then South America, and then we go do another record. So, we’re not going to get to sleep in our beds very much over the next year,” laughed Nathan. :: Kings of Leon :: :: Ogden Theatre :: May 5 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Strokes • Raconteurs • Kaiser Chiefs

The Killers continue their reign as one of the world’s biggest ‘indie’ bands

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:24:18 +0000

:: The Killers :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: May 17::

By Timothy Dwenger

The Killers have been clawing their way up through the ranks of today's musical elite for the better part of five years now. Their humble beginnings in Las Vegas have given way to plush tour buses, sold-out arenas and invitations to participate in some of the highest profile musical projects of our time. Their up-tempo, hook-driven, melodic style is tailor made for huge stadium shows and modern rock radio. With their sophomore album, Sam's Town, having already sold nearly 3 million copies and their debut Hot Fuss soaring over 5 million, The Killers are well on their way to realizing their dreams of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. The Killers machine may be a musical juggernaut that is rolling downhill right now, but it isn’t all champagne and massages for the men who make the music. “We just finished sound check and are scheduled to go in a couple of hours,” said bassist Mark Stoermer in a recent interview with The Marquee from backstage at The Hard Rock Café in Hollywood, Florida. The Florida show is just another night of a seemingly endless road trip. Stoermer has been on the road with bandmates Brandon Flowers (vocals), Dave Keuning (guitar) and Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. (drums) for eight months solid and their schedule shows no signs of easing up with a slew of shows planned well into the summer. “I think being stuck together as much as we are would be tough for any group of people,” Stoermer admits. “We have our ups and our downs, like a family would. However, if we have a bad day at this point we get over it pretty quickly because we know we are stuck together anyway. It’s rare that an argument or a fight will be a big deal a couple of days later.” While all this time on the road is tough on the individuals, it has allowed them to become a much better band. “The shows are better than they were for the first album,” Stoermer said. “We are a better live band and we are more comfortable on stage.” The Killers meteoric rise to fame started just five years ago when Flowers and Keuning would gig on the small dark stage of a transvestite club on the seedier side of Sin City when they weren’t working their day jobs. They were playing with a drummer and bassist but it was clear the line-up wasn’t gelling as a band and things were about to change. “Dave and Brandon had a demo floating around Las Vegas and a good friend of mine got hold of it. I immediately thought it was amazing, as it had an early version of ‘Mr. Brightside’ on it. It was a really bad version but I could hear the genius in it. I went to see them, became a fan and started hanging out with Dave a lot,” Stoermer remembered. “I had told them that I played bass and it wasn’t long before I got a call from Dave telling me they had gotten rid of their bass player and their drummer. They were pretty sure Ronnie was going to join on the drums and I knew that if Ronnie played drums and I played bass this would be an amazing band.” It turns out that Stoermer was right. He and Vannucci are still side-by-side, holding down the low end of the sound and “Mr. Brightside” became one of the biggest hits of 2004. Fortunately, The Killers have left the seedy side of Vegas in their wake and while most of their stateside shows are now selling out, the band is even more popular in Europe and other parts of the world. “We had never to been to Mexico ‘til December of last year when we went down there and played to a sold-out 18,000 seat arena and the crowd was amazing,” Stoermer said. “We have crazy crowds in Europe but I think that it was even crazier in Mexico, where everyone was singing every word to every song. It was probably the best crowd reaction we have had anywhere we have played. It was kind of overwhelming, to be honest.” Though the Mexico City gig is high on the list, Stoermer said The Killers invitation to join the bill on the London stage of Live 8, in July of 2005, is on the top of his list of memorable concerts. “Even though it was only one song, we got to share the stage with U2, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, and The Who. To be there with so many of our heroes all in one day was amazing,” he said. Several of the band’s other heroes, such as Elton John, David Bowie and Morrisey, have showered praise on The Killers and even Bono has gotten hooked. In November of 2005 he invited Flowers to sing a duet of “In a Little While” with him when U2 played the MGM Grand in The Killer’s hometown. More recently, The Killers have been invited by the BBC to participate in a radio special honoring the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. While Stoermer admits it is an honor to be included in the project alongside bands such as Oasis, The Kaiser Chiefs and Travis, he is quick to add that The Killers’ participation is not yet confirmed. “The people who are organizing this thing haven’t gotten back to us, and we aren’t even sure what it is. We just know there is a radio show involved and we are trying to get more information,” Stoermer said. “Out of the songs we were told were left, we were going to try to learn ‘Fixing A Hole,’ because all the songs are great and we thought that would suit us the best. So, if we end up doing it, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the one we do, but as I said, it isn’t confirmed yet and it might not happen.” If it does happen, Stoermer will be one of the happiest members of the group as he been a life-long Beatles fan. In fact, when the subject of playing at Red Rocks came up, he was quick to mention that it was an honor to play the fabled venue for a variety of reasons, including that it was one of the relatively few places in the U.S. where The Beatles played. So far in their young career, The Killers have had quite a run and they seem to have the drive, dedication and devotion to their craft that it will take to succeed in the long term. They may not have the soul of, say, Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin, but these young men are certainly soldiering on toward rock and roll greatness. :: The Killers :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: May 17:: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Oasis • New Order • The Bravery

CD Reviews - June - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:59:17 +0000

Warren Zevon

Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings

Ammal/New West Records

4 out of 5 stars

In a world where everything is marketed to death, including death itself, Warren Zevon's posthumous release Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings stands apart, not only as a monument to the man and his work, but as a monument to those who have an intellect developed enough to “get” his music in its raw form. Ultimately, this double disc set allows the listener to enjoy the simplistic beauty of a legendary songwriter’s relationship with his art, and to hear the artist’s true opinion on many subjects in his own words.

The music on the first CD shows Zevon spinning tales of empty L.A. streets, old habits that die hard, old broken down cars, and broken down people, in unpolished splendor which lends itself to the earnestness of his compositions. These songs give the listener a peek inside the writings of a man that had not yet been “discovered” by a wide audience, as most of these recordings were made prior to 1976.

Disc 2 contains three songs interspersed with an interview made back in Austin, Texas, when Zevon was 53. In the interview, which happened only a few years before he passed away, he discusses with his sardonic wit and charm, a full spectrum of topics including how he came to music and his opinion of himself musically, his career path, his relationships with other famed personalities such as Igor Stravinsky, writing symphonic music, and his acceptance of his own mortality “I think you have to spend a fair amount of time realizing that you will be [dead] so that you will remember to enjoy everything you possibly can every minute you’re not [dead]. You always wanna try and tell younger people that, which is very difficult ’cause they don’t really hear it because they feel that life has been imposed on them...and of course, they’re absolutely correct.”

There is the saying “a good song is a good song is a good song.” While some of the tunes on this release do not have the production luster that a modern day L.A. or Nashville record might, the songs are real and very in touch with the human spirit defined by Zevon. This record may not be a diamond in the rough, but it is a rough diamond that stands up against a world of polished glass which has become the majority of mainstream music in this plastic pop-culture.

— Chibo Acevedo

Cat-a-Tac

Past Lies and Former Lives

Needlepoint Records

3.5 out of 5 stars

Past Lies and Former Lives marks the first full-length release for Denver-based indie band Cat-A-Tac. While the album is similar in style to the group’s preceding EP, you can hear the growth of the band, both creatively and technically throughout the 12 tracks and they certainly have grown a lot since their debut.

The first song, “Needles and Pins,” immediately strikes a pleasing discord in your body, somehow meshing dark vocals with cheery beats into a fresh, fuzzy distorted sound that lasts throughout the album. It is a sound however, that leaves you unsure if you should get out on the dance floor or get another beer to drown your sorrows at what the world has become.

Switching tempos and style basically from song to song, Past Lies and Former Lives is a testament to what can happen in a band with two songwriters pulling the reins in different directions. At times the result is a little dysfunctional, but it’s always entertaining.

— Tiffany Childs

Golden Smog

Blood on the Slacks

Lost Highway

4 out of 5 stars

The Soul Asylum/Jayhawks supergroup set out to make an EP follow-up to its 2006 release Another Fine Day, but ended up with an eight-track mini-album that features six original tracks, an amazing version of David Bowie’s “Starman” and a cover of Dinosaur Jr.’s “Tarpit.”

From sing-songy anthems like “Can’t Even Tie Your Own Shoes” to the brooding “Scotch on Ice,” the celebrated musical collective could be The Faces of our era — an amazing supergroup that we should all know, but remains hidden in obscurity.

— Brian F. Johnson

Great American Taxi

Streets of Gold

Independent

4 out of 5 stars

I love this band. There I said it. My bias is in the open. That being said, Great American Taxi’s first full-length is, for sure, a ride. In a Burrito Brother’s style of country, rock and Americana, the Taxi lays down amazing work with only a tip-toe still touching its original jammy roots. The songwriting of Herman, Hamer and Staehly is strong and inspiring and the album begs to be played in a top-down convertible on the highway.

— Brian F. Johnson

Ekoostik Hookah

Under Full Sail: It All Comes Together

Independent

2.5 out of 5 stars

Ekoostik Hookah’s new studio/live double LP Under Full Sail: It All Comes Together is a revisit to their first basement recording made 14 years ago, with new interpretations by the band and a reconnection with original guitarist John Mullins. A true gem for fans of the debut release, the new version boasts three newly arranged tunes from the original LP and captures the somewhat Americana-jamband’s live energy with all the aural pleasure of a professional sound system.

— Chibo Acevedo

The Basement

Illicit Hugs and Playground Thugs

Zealous Records

3.5 out of 5

I’ve checked it and double-checked it, but I still don’t believe that these guys are from Ireland.

Illicit Hugs was recorded in Liverpool, but the sound is true Nashville with hints of post-punk era Minneapolis throughout.

Last month marked their first dates in the U.S. and it’s a pretty safe bet that The Basement will sit atop the penthouse suite before long.

— Brian F. Johnson

QUICK SPINS

Doro

Twenty Years: Warrior Soul

Locomotive Records

Doro Pesch was the original M.I.L.F. for many a pimple-faced metal fan during her years fronting Warlock. This two DVD set documents the rise to fame of the original metal mistress.

3 out of 5 stars

Burning Brides

Hang Love

EMI Records

There’s nothing like an angry band with an education. On their new CD The Burning Brides wax philosophical about the world and kick musical ass at the same time.

3 out of 5 stars

Spyro Gyra

Good to Go-Go

Heads Up Records

More likely to be heard in an elevator than blasting from an Escalade, this slice of hip-jazz is sure to gain the three-decade-old band some new fans while staying true to older fans.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Derren Raser Band

King of I’ll Tell You Next Week

Independent

When a press kit is bold enough to call someone “Simon and Garfunkel meets The Shins,” my first response is “yeah, right.” But this indie release is really good. Maybe not that good, but definitely worth checking out for fans of the aforementioned.

4 out of 5 stars

This Month in Music History - June

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:30:29 +0000

June 1

• 1969: During their bed-in, John Lennon and Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance”

• 1967: The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the U.S.

• 1947: Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood is born

June 2

• 1941: Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is born

June 5

• 1971: Grand Funk Railroad sell out Shea Stadium in 72 hours (less time than The Beatles)

June 7

• 1993: Prince celebrates his birthday by changing his name to a symbol

• 1946: Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzman is born

June 9

• 1915: Les Paul is born

June 11

• 1969: David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is released to coincide with the first lunar landing

June 14

• 1961: Boy George is born George O’Dowd

June 15

• 1937: Waylon Jennings is born

June 16

• 1971: Rapper Tupac Shakur is born Lesane Parish Crooks

• 1967: Rock’s first major festival, The Monterey International Pop Festival, takes place, with Jimi Hendrix, Mamas and The Papas, The Who, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane

June 18

• 1942: Paul McCartney is born

June 20

• 1980: Billy Joel scores his first #1 hit with “It’s Still Rock & Roll”

• 1955: Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony is born

• 1942: Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is born

June 22

• 1936: Kris Kristofferson is born

June 24

• 1942: Mick Fleetwood is born

June 25

• 1984: Prince’s album Purple Rain sets a record when 1.3 million copies are sold in one day

June 27

• 1971: New York’s Fillmore East, the heralded rock venue, is closed

June 30

• 1975: Cher marries Gregg Allman only four days after divorcing Sonny Bono

Industry Profile: Live music painter Scramble Campbell sets palette for summer

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:15:43 +0000

Brian F. Johnson

Over the last several years when the house lights have dimmed at area venues, a small headlamp has come on: affixed to the hat of Keith “Scramble” Campbell. As the notes fly from the P.A., paint and brush strokes fly across his canvases and the result is some of the most unique portraits of live music ever created.

With the eye of a live photographer and the creative freedom that only a painter can capture, Campbell has churned out hundreds of paintings a year in a style that gives nods to his artistic heroes, Salvador Dali and Keith Herring, but simultaneously remains entirely Scramble.

His artwork hangs in the homes of some of the artists he’s painted (most notably Bob Weir and the members of String Cheese Incident). His art has gained enough attention that the green room at Boulder’s Fox Theatre is completely dedicated to his work and this summer will mark Campbell’s fourth art opening and show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s Visitor Center.

Originally from Florida, the ‘plein air’ style painter relocated permanently to Colorado in 2004 and has since made Red Rocks and the other famed theaters of the area his studio.

Marquee: What was the first concert you ever painted?

Scramble: Refried Confusion, an Orlando jam band at the Chicken Ranch in Orlando, Fla.

Marquee: What was the first album you ever purchased?

Campbell: K.I.S.S. Alive in 1975. I was 13 at the time [he’s now 42]. I had all of the blacklight posters and stuff and I actually did a bunch of charcoal drawing of all of the K.I.S.S. members when they did their solo albums. I guess I was part of the demise of K.I.S.S.; when 13-year-olds started going to see them, that was kind of the end.

Marquee: How did you get into painting live performances?

Campbell: Well, I started going to concerts and I was pre-drawing the bands. I saw The Ramones, Iggy Pop, INXS and the B-52s and people like that. So I’d do these drawings ahead of time and take them to the shows and get the bands to sign

them. I was doing this kind of surreal artwork at the time and trying to get into all of these art shows and I got rejected from every single one. Then in the early ’90s (when the rave scene was really big in Florida) I started doing paintings inside nightclubs. In 1991 I answered an ad by Perry Ferrell, who was showing 12 artists per stop on the 1991 Lollapalooza tour and that’s when I showed my surreal painting and I got a good reception from the crowd. So I decided to skip the art world and go into the music scene.

Marquee: When did the light bulb go off that you wanted to do this full time?

Campbell: The light bulb really went off when I bought a ticket to Jazz Fest and went to see Phish. They had been on hiatus, so I really wanted to paint them. And I got up to the gate with all of my shit and I thought, “Wow, if I can get away with this here I can do this anywhere.” You know, I don’t have any special passes for what I do.

Marquee: Who have you painted the most?

Campbell: Well, just last week I did my twelfth year in a row of Jazz Fest. I’ve done 139 pieces there inside the fairgrounds. That doesn’t count the late-night shows. And I’ve painted String Cheese Incident over 140 times.

Marquee: You used to tour around the country every summer, but you’re pretty stationary these days. Why?

Campbell: Because Red Rocks is right here. It’s bar none the best music venue in the country that I’ve ever been to — no question. I toured every summer since 1996, but these last three summers I haven’t. Why tour, when you have the best right here? When someone steps up to the plate to play on that stage they’re going to give the best show that they have and night after night when you go there you don’t get a bad one — well, sometimes the weather, but I’ve painted in the rain and it’s turned out OK.

Marquee: What are you doing at Red Rocks this year?

Campbell: Well, I just painted Red Rocks’ opening night of Bjork. But on May 31, to start the summer, I’m doing an opening at the Stone Street Gallery at the historic Cliff House Lodge. It’s a gallery inside the lobby of this bed and breakfast that has cottages around it. Michael Weintrob, the photographer, will be bringing in some photos too, just to start off the Red Rocks season. Then, from Aug. 9 to the 18th, at the Red Rocks Visitor Center, I’ll be doing a one-man show, called “Scrambling the Rocks.” The opening coincides with the last run of S.C.I. shows there, so it’s nice to kind of celebrate them on their last shows.

From The Barstool Of The Publisher - June, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:29:46 +0000

I remember when I was 16 years old, begging my parents to let my friends and I camp out at the mall on a Friday night so that we’d be first in line for concert tickets on Saturday morning. This was long before the internet made ticket buying what it is today. We froze our asses off that night but we were first in line for what we thought was the concert event of the decade — Journey.

At 10 a.m., when the sports store that housed the Ticketmaster outlet opened, we proudly approached the counter expecting to walk out with the front row seats we thought we had earned that night in the cold.

But alas, we ended up with nose bleed seats, tucked so far up and back from the stage that we could almost touch the commemorative banners that hang from the rafters of the Philadelphia Spectrum. We had gotten shafted.

With today’s proliferation of internet ticket buying, you’d think that those circumstances wouldn’t happen any more. The number one fan, who is at his computer when tickets go on sale should get the best seats, right? But the fact is that it happens more these days than it used to, and while I’d love to point my fingers at Ticketmaster, the reality is that it’s not their fault. It’s simply a matter of supply and demand.

We get a ton of e-mails here after each big show sells out. People complain that they had all of their info ready to go, were in front of a high speed connection and had two phones going, but still couldn’t get through.

Let me first of all say that I feel your pain. I really do. But what people need to realize (in the case of this month’s biggest concert, The Police) is that probably 50,000 to 100,000 people were vying for those 16,000 tickets. So there’s going to be disappointed people. I’m not defending Ticketmaster, but they’re not out to screw people here in this situation. If they could sell a ticket to everyone who wanted one, I’m sure they would. Hell, it’s in their best interest.

As I talked to some of the local promoters about this situation, they all said the same thing, that the best thing someone can do to better their chances is to be prepared. Be the guy who is in front of the computer at 9:45 a.m. when tickets go on sale at 10. Have your account info already in the computer and ready to go. Have the phone number on speed dial. One promoter also suggested signing up with band fan clubs and local radio stations, which in many cases will give you access to a pre-sale of the tickets.

Sometimes you’re going to get lucky. Sometimes you’re going to get screwed, but when you do, if you want to blame someone, blame the 49,999 other people who were trying to get tickets at the same time. Then thank your lucky stars that you weren’t disappointed over tickets for fucking Journey, and that at least you didn’t have to sleep out at the mall.

We’ll see you at the shows (if you can get tickets, that is).

Suggestions from the pros:

More tips on getting tickets to the shows you want.

Tips from the pros:

In talking with local promoters, several tips came up that can help people better their chances for acquiring tickets to the big, fast sell-out shows.

1. Have your Ticketmaster account set up BEFORE the on-sale date. It’s free to set it up and it will save you the valuable time of typing in your address and credit card number when it matters.

2. Sign up for radio station and band fan clubs. In some cases, these clubs will give you access to a pre-sale, improving your chances even before the general public has the chance to buy tickets. (Note: being a fan club member doesn’t guarantee you tickets and some fan clubs for big bands can cost big money to join. Be wary of that and don’t go with the assumption that it will automatically mean a ticket, or a good ticket at that.)

3. If you don’t get the ticket you want, keep checking back. Often times the band or the promoter will release additional tickets (sometimes as last-minute as the day of the show). So even on the morning of that mega sold-out show, take five minutes to check out Ticketmaster and you may get lucky.

4. Play by the rules: don’t try to cheat the system. There used to be this old-school trick for getting tickets. When tickets went on sale in Colorado, you’d call a Ticketmaster in rural North Dakota, where the phone lines weren’t plugged. According to Ticketmaster this trick no longer works, as call centers have been centralized. (In fact, when you call Colorado Ticketmaster, you’re actually talking to people in Texas, even though you dialed area code 303.) So don’t waste valuable time trying to get through to that Ticketmaster in Sheboygan, Wisc.

5. Work with your friends. If you’re going with a group of friends, up your chances by having everyone try at the same time. This is particularly helpful on multiple-night runs. If you’re hoping for tickets to Friday and Saturday for you and your friends, have one person work on Friday night while the other tries to buy Saturday.

6. Don’t hang up and don’t click “Buy” more than once. A Ticketmaster representative said that it’s staggering, the amount of people who lose their place in line on the phone and on the internet by making simple mistakes. After you’ve clicked “Buy,” just wait. It may be frustratingly long, and you may not even get the tickets you just clicked “Buy” for, but if you click it more than once it moves you to the back of the line. Same goes for the phone lines. If you hang up and try again, you just lost your spot. There’s no “holdsies” here.

Rocco DeLuca sheds Hollywood connection but continues on Sutherland’s label

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:30:45 +0000

:: Rocco Deluca :: supporting John Mayer and Ben Folds :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: June 15 ::

By Brian Kenney

Hollywood and rock and roll have long had a suspect relationship. A tumultuous marriage between entertainment and business. The connection can generate instant entertainment credibility. But when Hollywood is in the business of making music, that is to say, in music for the sake of making business, well, that’s something else entirely.

Such is the case for Long Beach, Calif., singer/songwriter Rocco Deluca. Having lived his whole life in the L.A. area, Deluca has long known both the ins and outs of the music industry and the walk and talk of Hollywood.

“Put in the right time and energy, film and music work together,” Deluca said of the concert film released last year, I Trust You to Kill Me. This is also the title for Deluca’s 2006 debut disc on the Kiefer Sutherland-owned label Ironworks. “It’s a film about struggling,” said Deluca of the rockumentary which chronicles not only Deluca and his band The Burden on their first-ever European jaunt, but also Sutherland’s struggles as their tour manager.

The soft-spoken Deluca has mixed feelings about the finished product of the film, which shows his band’s low points and growing pains. It also showcases their tour manager, Sutherland, in comprising and embarrassing situations; all as Deluca attempts to forge an identity with a fresh audience. “It’s a film about struggling, which is still hard for me to witness,” he said.

Hard to witness because Deluca was trying to shed the “just another acoustic songwriter” image. In the current renaissance of singer/songwriters, Deluca wants to stand alone among the growing myriad of Jack Johnson wannabes. And he does. He doesn’t craft songs as “cute” as Johnson, which is a credit to his songwriting. He’s got the lyrics of Bernie Taupin and a softly sour voice reminiscent of Chris Cornell in his heyday of Soundgarden. But it’s the hauntingly soulful and whining melodies from the slide of his Dobro that remind us why we miss Jeff Buckley so much. As a result, the early slings and arrows that the film portrays are tough for the young Deluca to handle.

There’s no doubt that a sense of self is what attracted Sutherland and Ironworks partner Jude Cole to Deluca during the singer’s demo days, when he was honing his skills playing around Los Angeles, ultimately lining up a weekly residency gig at the Gypsy Room. Sutherland and Cole approached him and ultimately signed Deluca as Ironworks’ inaugural artist in 2005, as a result of Sutherland’s tenacity.

Accompanied by The Burden — bassist Dave Beste, drummer Ryan Carman, and multi-instrumentalist/percussionist Greg Velasquez — Deluca, with producer Cole at the helm, masterfully crafted I Trust You to Kill Me, a Radiohead-meets-Gomez record by way of Keb’ Mo’ and Paolo Nutini.

While much has been made of Deluca as a Dobro player, it isn’t the resonating guitar that he wants to be known for. In fact, it’s one of a myriad of instruments that Deluca has grown up playing. His father was a touring guitar player with some early blues artists, among them Bo Diddley. “It’s hilarious that they’re calling me this great Dobro player. [But] I’ve never really sat down and learned theory; I’m not very technical about it, really. It’s flattering. I started playing the banjo and just stole all those tunings for the Dobro,” Deluca said.

It’s the sensitivities, the croon of the Dobro that makes its sound so haunting. There’s a certain vulnerability in its whining twang, vulnerability echoed in Deluca’s songs; a vulnerability he confesses is his most positive attribute. “I’ve always been drawn to the more dopey, rough-around-the-edges people. I’ve always been drawn to the [singers] who can barely make it through the song,” he said.

While Deluca is so involved in his art, he must also consider the business side and the Kiefer factor. Early on, Sutherland served as Deluca’s tour manager. This worked in a number of ways: it worked to fuel interest in Sutherland’s business venture as Deluca was one of the “24” stars, and one of Ironworks’ investments. It also served as conversation fodder for the film version of I Trust You to Kill Me, where Sutherland provided countless youtube minutes as a bumbling tour manager who lasted all of 10 days before firing himself.

So while Sutherland has stepped back from tour managing duties, Deluca is still a part of the label that helped draw massive attention his way —good and bad — and Deluca said that he’s just happy to be focusing on his music again. “Just recording and doing artistic things are a creative time,” he said of his excitement over the initial Ironworks’ relationship. “We were just seeing where it went. We just wanted to make something that mattered. For me it was a bit of a distraction. Just like any artist, the promotion of an album is not the making of a record. The campaign is a lot different than pure creation.”

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Jeff Buckley

• Johnny Cash

• Led Zeppelin

Susan Tedeschi and husband Derek Trucks set out on Soul Stew Revival Tour

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:45:54 +0000

:: Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks’ Soul Stew Revival :: Paramount Theatre :: June 9 ::

By Ryan Lappi

When talking to Susan Tedeschi, it’s easy to assume that she knows her place in American musical history. Steeped in blues, soul and rock traditions, the gifted vocalist can speak of musicians of the last century like they are part of her own family. Bessie Smith, Delaney and Bonnie, King Curtis, Bernard Purdie, Skip James, and Derek and the Dominos are just a few of the characters that can permeate her conversations about music on any given day, and they are described with such clarity and familiarity that they could be sitting around her dinner table. Of course, not only has she contributed to this musical legacy, but she’s married into a new one in the making.

This summer marks the first time that Tedeschi will tour with her husband, acclaimed “guitar god” Derek Trucks, in the aptly-named Soul Stew Revival. Already a well-seasoned veteran at the age of 27, Trucks is best known for his virtuosic axe skills in the Allman Brothers Band and for pairing up with Eric Clapton on a high-profile world tour last year.

However, Soul Stew Revival promises a much more intimate occasion, showcasing the sultry, soulful voice of Tedeschi, along with the familiar faces of Trucks’ own band: Todd Smallie (bass), Yonrico Scott (drums), Kofi Burbridge (keys & flute), Mike Mattison (vocals), and Count M’Butu (percussion). Also featured is saxophonist Ron Holloway from Tedeschi’s touring outfit. Given that each musician has experience playing in the Trucks/Tedeschi family, the band is guaranteed to deliver a “revival” that is both recognizable and freshly spontaneous.

In a recent conversation with The Marquee, Tedeschi expanded on the idea: “We’re gonna do a lot of different types of layering. We’re not going to have just a full band the whole time. We’ll do some sit down old-timey blues and folk, rootsy kind of stuff, maybe some piano tunes broken down with a couple of singers, and then we’ll have some songs that are full band and full blues or full rock. It’s a revival in the old sense where it’s sort of like a family gathering. We’re getting together and we’re trying to revive old music,” she said.

The band also promises plenty of new material and a fresh musical perspective on a variety of tunes that should be familiar to fans of both Trucks’ and Tedeschi’s individual bands. And while bridging the personnel of these two bands — along with creative ideas of two larger-than-life bandleaders — may seem a bit daunting, Tedeschi recognizes that everyone is linked by a common thread: Derek. “To be honest, he becomes the leader,” she confessed. “He knows everybody’s personalities so well and how to deal with people. He knows how to play every role. And actually, everybody works really hard together, so it’s not like only one person’s in charge. Everyone has a lot of creative input.”

Soul Stew Revival will also debut a new member of the Trucks family, Derek’s younger brother, drummer Duane, who just recently graduated from high school. “He’s young,” Tedeschi said, “but he’s doing a great job and now people are starting to realize it. At thirteen and fourteen he was playing Miles and Coltrane, and he’s really into a lot of the old drummers like Max Roach to Art Blakey to Elvin Jones and all those guys. He’s really kind of a jazz head on one level, but he’s very good at adapting; he’s very versatile.”

With such a colorful cast of characters, Soul Stew Revival is sure to dish out some of the finest roots music around. Consider it the Trucks Family Recipe, extra spice for soul-food 100 years in the making. And everyone’s invited to the feast.

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Allman Brothers

• Bonnie Raitt

• Gov’t Mule

Richmond Fontaine continue their role as one of the best bands you’ve never heard

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:57:24 +0000

:: Marquee Magzine and Radio 1190 presents :: Richmond Fontaine :: supporting Slim Cessna’s Auto Club :: Bluebird Theater :: June 30 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Since 1994, Richmond Fontaine has released 10 albums, most to tremendous, rave reviews. The band is a critical superstar and they’ve caught on big in Europe. But while reviews use the terms “masterpiece,” “mind-blowing” and “absolute perfection” when describing the Portland, Ore.-based band, the truth is that most folks still don’t know the group. A perfect example is a headline that ran in Uncut Magazine, that stated, “They’ve just released one of the albums of the year, but who the hell are Richmond Fontaine.”

Who they are is easy, but conveying the power of what they do is nearly impossible. The band started when lead singer/guitarist Willy Vlautin met bassist Dave Harding at the Portland Meadows horse track, a place where, to this day, Vlautin gets a lot of writing done because, as he said, “It’s like being in a library, but once in a while you can bet on horses and look around and see all the interesting guys.” Harding and Vlautin found that they had a mutual love for the music of Hüsker Dü, Willie Nelson, X, The Blasters and The Replacements. They brought on a pedal steel player and a drummer and named the band after an American expatriate that Harding had met while hitchhiking through Mexico.

With a library of dark songs and sad, down-on-their-luck characters that make much of Tom Waits’ material look merry, Richmond Fontaine remains an exit or two away from the main cities on the map of success, and it seems like it’s just the way they want it. “Our music is pretty dark and moody and always has been, so I can’t see us ever being a real huge mass market band. I just don’t think it’s in the cards for the sorta stuff we do. We all know that and have known it from the beginning. I think that’s why we’ve always done things at our own speed. We tour when we want to, stay home when we want to,” said Vlautin in a recent interview with The Marquee.

The band’s latest album, Thirteen Cities, is like the albums that have preceeded it from Richmond Fontaine, a heartbreaking collection of stories about people who seem to make the wrong decisions no matter how hard they try to make their luck turn around. It’s a theme that is echoed in Vlautin’s other creative outlet, his fiction writing. In addition to releasing Thirteen Cities this year, Vlautin has also published The Motel Life, his first novel, which has been compared to the works of Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver.

“I started writing songs when I was 13 or 14. I have always been a fan of short stories and novels, even at that age, but I never thought I’d get one published. I had a hard time in school, I had a hard time in English so I just thought I’d be in a band. Anyone can be in a band, and so I joined one. But my heart has always been with writing. That’s why I think my songs are so story oriented, and in the end the two have really helped each other. When I’m writing bad songs I think of myself as a writer and when I’m writing bad fiction I think of myself as a musician. It sorta takes the pressure off,” he said.

Taking the pressure off is a theme that the band itself experimented with on the new album. Having formed in Portland, the majority of their recordings have been made there. But for this CD the band traveled to Tucson, Ariz., where they rented a house and lived together while working with their long-time friend and producer JD Foster, at Wavelab Studios. “We aren’t and never have been a real confident band. That’s why JD has been so great. He sorta gives us the confidence to do what we want to do. He’s a lot of the reason the music sounds so great. We’ll come up with things and he’ll be supportive and tell us to try it,” Vlautin said.

The temporary move to Tucson also provided the band with the chance to be joined on the album by Howe Gelb of Giant Sand and a couple members of Calexico, which, Vlautin said, “made my year.”

When Vlautin says things like “it made my year,” there’s a sincerity and humbleness to the man that is as genuine as his characters’ desire to be the good people they want so desperately to be, even when they’re fucking up. In his early days of touring, Vlautin used to send his grandmother a post card from every town he visited, and it’s that bittersweet, aw-shucks type of attitude that makes his stories, both musical and on the pages of his novel, the stuff of which American legends are made.

Indigo Girls find a new home with Hollywood Records after almost 20 years with Epic

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:58:04 +0000

:: Indigo Girls :: Chautauqua Auditorium :: June 20 and 21 ::

By LJ Hammer

In the early days of rock and roll, nobody imagined a career lasting longer than a few years. Now, there are “young” bands like Indigo Girls who have been touring and making records for 20 years.

This career span has become a challenge for record companies. How do you market a veteran band’s new album? This challenge was a large part of what led to Indigo Girls parting ways with Epic Records. After close to two decades, Epic had lost its enthusiasm for marketing the Indigo Girls’ exceptionally literate lyrics and soaring harmonies.

Enter Hollywood Records, home of Despite Our Differences, Indigo Girls’ latest, featuring guest appearances by Pink and Brandi Carlile. “The people there [at Hollywood Records] are great,” said Indigo Girl Amy Ray in a recent interview with The Marquee. “They are really supportive. What doesn’t work for me is that major labels are still working too much in a traditional infrastructure. They haven’t really figured out how to make the leap to what is probably going to be the domain of indie musicians and DIY [labels]. I think all of these labels are learning to evolve and revolutionize themselves. The ones that are able to do it are the ones that will survive and the ones that can’t, won’t.”

In addition to her Indigo Girls career, her solo career and her work as a political/social activist, Ray is also the founder of the not-for-profit Daemon Records. “The genesis of Daemon Records arose from my own frustrations with the music industry,” Ray writes on the Daemon website. “While reaping the benefits of a major label deal, I realized that all around me ‘music’ was getting lost among the checkbooks, executives, and mountains of paperwork that are all such a primary part of any major label. I watched while so many musicians that had inspired and influenced my fortunate career went unrecognized. As an Indigo Girl, I enjoyed being part of the indie scene and I wanted to remain supportive and open to the underground. I decided to stop complaining about the evils of the music business and do my part to support the arts.”

As with all record labels, Daemon is facing a rapidly changing landscape, but is prolific in its releases centered around Ray’s solo work. “We put out an Amy Ray live record. We did a handmade cover version. Then we put it on iTunes. Now Amazon’s going to do a commercial version. My solo DVD will go out on Daemon,” Ray said.

“I need to get a little more financially stable with the label. Right now, we’re cleaning house and catching up on our accounting and paying artists royalties. It feels good. When we get caught up and stable, then I’ll put out somebody [else's’] record,” said Ray.

While they’ve released consistently strong studio albums over the years, the heart of the Indigo Girls fan base has always been their live audience. Through the ’90s, they would often alternate between touring as a duo and touring with a full band. In recent years, however, the band shows have become few and far between. “A lot of it’s economics for us, unfortunately,” Ray said. “We would have to charge so much to afford the band at this point. We just aren’t willing to do that.”

On the solo front, Ray is currently working with a woman she calls “a great editor” on a solo DVD. “It’s basically covering tours I’ve done with The Butchies and tours I’ve done with The Volunteers over the last seven years,” said Ray.

Also on the solo front, Ray has started working with Melissa York, the drummer from The Butchies. The two have started to rough out songs for a new solo album. Then, after the first of next year, it’ll be time to start on a new Indigo Girls album.

As an artist who writes for both solo projects and the Indigo Girls, Ray said that while it may appear to be confusing which song goes where, that the songs actually dictate their home on their own. “These days, my internal meter has something to do with harmony, almost hearing Emily [Sailers] in the back of my mind helps me know it’s an Indigo Girls song. I enjoy doing acoustic music with Emily, a lot. Even though we do some electric songs of mine, I’m always trying to stay in the acoustic vein with her, because I really enjoy what it brings out in us,” she said.

While Ray’s work may be forever classified in the singer/songwriter realm, she said that she would welcome the opportunity to work with artists far outside of her normal comfort zone. “I would really, really love to do a song with Outkast, with Andre specifically. I just love what he does with music. It would be a very unusual match, but that’s what I’d want to do. I’m a big fan of his work, his arrangement, and his production,” she said.

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Brandi Carlile

• Michelle Malone

• Shawn Colvin

Bloc Party explores the Noises of a City with a deviation on its sophomore release

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:59:42 +0000

:: Bloc Party :: Ogden Theatre :: June 12 ::

By Tiffany Childs

On their newest release, A Weekend in the City, Bloc Party has put down their guitars, so to speak, and picked up some new instruments. Relying on computers, keyboards, extra drums and even the sound of birds in empty courtyards, this album finds the Party moving into a natural, more melodic space. The result is a style that branches out in a very promising way from the dancy pop sound fans have come to expect from the London-based band.

Incorporating these new sounds, as well as stringed instruments for the first time, makes A Weekend in the City very different from Bloc Party’s previous album, Silent Alarm, but their fans haven’t seemed to notice. Or maybe the record is good enough that the band’s followers just don’t care. The album debuted in the top 10 in at least 10 countries and at the Number 12 spot here in the U.S.

The Marquee recently had the pleasure of speaking with Gordon Moakes – bassist – about the sound of the new release and how it manages to still be Bloc Party and yet be so distinct.

Initially inspired by bands that make “crazy noise rock” such as Sonic Youth, Moakes expressed that Bloc Party wanted to streamline that influence into more modern sounding music this time around. “We are doing similar things, but we are trying to get away from the post-punk guitar sound,” Moakes said of the new release. “We feel that guitar rock is backwards looking. We want to make music that is free of a lot of our past influences so that we can make music that is right now. The tools we have to make music weren’t available five years ago and we want to take advantage of that.”

Those tools have the band creating music that is, at times, almost robotic. That, according to the band, is right on. Using sampling, glitches and synthesizers integrated with traditional instruments to create a wholly new, unique sound was Bloc Party’s goal all along.

Creating a brand new sound with your second release, especially one as highly anticipated as Bloc Party’s, may be a lofty goal, but it is one that the band seems to have attained with success. Although there are times when the parts of A Weekend in the City don’t appear to fit together, those parts eventually work in a weird, otherworldly way, creating a brilliant follow-up to their first record.

Originating in lead singer Kele Okereke’s interest in “the living noise of a metropolis,” Weekend is comprised of songs that try to express everything you can experience from a Friday night until Sunday morning in an urban setting. The ups, the downs, the mundane, the drugs, the affairs, all the things you brag about to your buddies and the ones you could never mention to another person, are neatly wrapped up in tight beats and emotional lyrics for each listener’s hedonistic enjoyment.

Of course, partying isn’t the total focus of the album – Bloc Party has been known to be “bookish” and without the typical rock band hard partying attitude. The song “Where is Home?” looks at the topics of racism and death, while “Hunting for Witches” speaks to the post 9/11 and 7/7 polarization that has occurred.

While the album’s lyrics are a welcome relief from the angst-y pop played all over American airwaves, the kind of honesty that Bloc Party expresses in their songs can be almost frightening in its intensity. Even as the band manages to border the dance-rock groove that made Bloc Party well loved, they have also embraced a darker, more expansive sound. Weekend sees the band – rounded out by Russell Lissack (guitar) and Matt Tong (drums) – driving the listener to examine life without the complacency we’ve become used to.

Live, the band remains the same, playing with a ferocious energy that Moakes says they “stack upon one another like building blocks” and putting all of their effort into working up the crowd. That effort has paid off. Bloc Party continues to sell out venues around the world. And rightly so. With their sophomore release, it seems that Bloc Party has grown into an exhilarating example of what music should be like.

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Gang of Four

• Sonic Youth

• Joy Division

The Police put ego and fighting aside to reform for massive summer tour

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:00:30 +0000

:: The Police :: Pepsi Center :: June 9 and 10 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

It isn’t often that the cry “The Police are coming” generates as much excitement as it did in January of this year when Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland announced the much anticipated reunion tour of The Police. The tour — the band’s first since the globetrotting Synchronicity publicity caravan came to a halt in March of 1984 — has sold out within minutes in many markets and is sure to be one of the highest grossing tours of the year.

Known for fierce fighting and massive egos, many thought that a Police reunion was something that would never materialize. In fact, Sting’s infamous quote, “If I ever reformed the Police, I’d be certified insane,” ranks right up there with Don Henley saying The Eagles would get back together “when hell freezes over.” Apparently hell froze over back in 1994, and now it seems Sting has been fitted for a straitjacket.

While the legacy of The Police has always remained strong, the members have, until recent years, been very quiet about the band. In the last two years, both guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland have broken the silence about the band’s tumultuous history and The Police have bubbled to the surface again.

Summers has recently published two books. In 2006 his memoir One Train Later hit shelves and his most recent, a collection of photographs entitled I’ll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83, dropped in March of this year. Copeland chose another medium to share his thoughts, and his documentary film Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in January of 2006.

The Marquee recently caught up with Stewart Copeland in Vancouver Canada, while the band was rehearsing for their world tour. Copeland was able to shed some light on the current state of The Police and what led to the reformation of one of the most popular bands of the last 30 years.

“In the dark canyons of Sting’s mind a creature arose from the slime. It was the monster known as The Police,” Copeland said. “What caused this arousal? No one knows. It may have been the noise made by my little film about the group; it may have been Andy’s book. One day, Andy and I were in a meeting with the record company to discuss the Police catalogue and the phone rang. It was Sting, with a proposal that we light up the band again for a full world tour. We said ‘yes.’”

In a March interview with London’s Sunday Times, Sting shared his side of the story when he discussed what drove him to make that phone call. “I meant it when I said it would be a sign of insanity if it ever came back. I said that every day before I made the decision to get back together. But one day I just woke up and thought, ‘Let’s do that.’ My instinct said this is what you should do. My instincts have nothing to do with logic. The logic of leaving the band when it was the most successful band in the world was odd,” said Sting in March.

Finally, more than 20 years after their abrupt departure from the world’s stage, these three men returned as The Police with a single song performance that kicked off the 2007 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. “We’re The Police, and we’re back,” was all Sting said before the trio launched into “Roxanne,” the single that broke the band in the United States nearly 30 years ago.

“The first seconds of any show are all music,” said Copeland, recalling that night in LA. “After a few moments, when the engine is running, it is possible to look up. What we saw was a large crowd of our flinty eyed peers, but their eyes were full of tears, their arms upraised. There was a wave of emotion in the cavernous arena.”

This “wave of emotion” will be sweeping around the globe with the band as they plan to play nearly every major market on the planet. While there has been some skepticism as to whether the band will live up to their legacy, Copeland is supremely confident. “This has always been a band that rose to the occasion,” he said. “We feel so human in rehearsals, but when we get in front of an audience, we are overcome by the voodoo of it all. Something much larger than ourselves rises up among us and we become servants of this greater entity.”

One of the things that may keep Copeland’s confidence up is the fact that The Police aren’t writing any new songs at this point. For now, as they prepare to hit the road, all three are holed up together in Vancouver, focusing on relearning the songs that made them the household name they are. “We have so much to do rebuilding our group consciousness and we have so much great material to play, that new stuff just doesn’t seem to be part of the program,” he said.

In his Sunday Times interview, Sting echoed Copeland’s thoughts when he said, “There is a lot of work to be done. I have developed a lot of these songs as a solo performer, so they are very different. There are rhythmical and structural differences I’ve woven in and haven’t shared with the others, and they were like, ‘What’s this?’ They said they want to do it the way it was in 1982. I said I want it to represent who we are now as musicians. We had a negotiation about the way to keep things fresh and also respect what we did before. And that’s ongoing and I think it’s exciting. We never really wrote songs together, that was part of the problem. I wrote in isolation — brought them a finished product. When you start a band, your roles aren’t defined but they get defined pretty quickly, causing all kinds of machinations and alliances, but it’s hard. I’m a singer/songwriter. Stewart’s a great drummer, and Andy is a great guitarist. Within those roles we can move forward, but at first it was difficult.”

It is clear that while they have respect for each other, the members of The Police do not have the best of relationships. “We drive each other nuts, but we all know that we are good for each other,” said Copeland, before going on to confess that “the rehearsals have been brutally cheerful. We all love to work. We don’t waste a minute; we don’t deviate. We don’t even jam because there is so much to do.”

It is that work ethic that has kept these men extremely busy in their years apart. While Sting has been the most commercially successful of the trio, with albums like The Soul Cages, Ten Summoner’s Tales, and Brand New Day, both Summers and Copeland have been prolifically creative in their own right. Aside from being a father to seven children, Copeland has managed to score more than 40 films for iconic directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone and John Hughes, and form a power trio with Trey Anastasio (Phish) and Les Claypool (Primus) that they dubbed Oysterhead.

Copeland counts his participation in Oysterhead as the one project that stands out the most to him in his musical life outside The Police. “Oysterhead is the opposite of The Police. The Police experience is about singing along with tightly crafted music that you know. Oysterhead is about a wild adventure into the unknown. Anything can happen at an Oysterhead show,” Copeland said.

While Oysterhead has been dormant since their 2006 performance at The Bonnaroo Music Festival, Copeland has stated that he would like to do something with the band every couple of years. While jamband fans wait with bated breath, Copeland seems comfortable in his familiar place behind the kit of the band that he started in 1977, resurrecting the tightly crafted music of The Police.

As their tour begins its way around the globe, the group signed on for support duties on the U.S. leg is the little-known British band Fiction Plane. Joe Sumner, the front man for the quartet, is the son of Gordon Sumner, better known to Police fans and the rest of the world as Sting. “You probably think this is nepotism,” Sting told the Sunday Times. “He is aware of this and it is a huge problem for him. He says he doesn’t want to be associated with me. But this is a huge opportunity for him to shine.”

Apparently, despite his aversion to a helping hand, the offer from Dad was too good to pass up. This summer, arenas full of flinty (and not so flinty) eyed Police fans will have an opportunity to see if Joe is following in his father’s footsteps and cranking out infectious pop tunes that will stand the test of time.

Spectate if you Gravitate:

• Sting

• The Cars

• Genesis

Ryan Montbleau Band breaks out of Boston and prepares sophomore release

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:01:51 +0000

:: Ryan Montbleau Band :: Southern Sun Pub & Brewery :: July 2 ::
 :: Quixote’s True Blue :: July 10 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

Ryan Montbleau is the kind of talent that doesn’t come around too often, and his insightful lyrics and dynamic guitar style make the kind of impression that one will not soon forget. From playing bar gigs and coffeehouses in his native Boston just a few years ago, Montbleau and his band have spread his gospel and grown his fan base grassroots-style, without the benefit of a slick marketing campaign or major label support. Touring relentlessly for the past few years, the Ryan Montbleau Band has begun generating the kind of buzz that only surrounds a talented artist on the verge. The Marquee recently talked with Montbleau about his early musical years, the growth of his band, and taking the show on the road. Given an electric guitar at the age of nine, Montbleau didn’t come to appreciate the instrument until he picked up an acoustic in college. Now, he never seems as at home as he does with a guitar in front of a microphone. “To this day,” he said, “when I walk into someone’s house and there’s a guitar sitting there, it just makes me feel better.” Montbleau originally formed a band called Palabra with drummer James Cohen, which was “really just the beginning of what we’re doing now,” he said. The line-up has shifted somewhat over the years (including two years that Montbleau played solo gigs) and has come to include Matt Giannaros on acoustic and upright bass, Laurence Scudder on viola, and Jason Cohen on piano, organ and clarinet, in addition to Cohen and Montbleau. “I love all these guys, and when we’re on the road I want to punch them in the face everyday,” Montbleau said. “But that’s family! It’s all love. I learn from them every day.” Something of a Martin Sexton by way of Van Morrison and Stevie Wonder, Montbleau’s music is difficult to define. His percussive finger-picking guitar style combines with his soulful voice and inspired lyrical content to create a sound that is both classic and contemporary — both unleashed and refined. The band’s first album, One Fine Color, was released on Valentine’s Day, 2006. It is an impressive debut that shows a cohesive vision rarely seen among young artists today. Full of deft lyrics, the album has sold well both at home and abroad. It has gotten the attention of the music industry, which widely regards him as one of the top artists to come out of the Northeast in recent years. Montbleau was recently nominated for the 19th Annual Boston Music Awards in the Outstanding Male Singer/Songwriter category. But Montbleau pays little attention to the industry hype, preferring instead to focus on his craft and win the hearts of new fans one gig at a time. He is looking forward to returning to Colorado, a stop that proved a challenge on the last tour. “I went to Colorado for the first time five years ago as merch guy/opener for Mountain of Venus. I was so blown away by the beauty of everything and just the friendly scene. I thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna be huge here!’ So I booked myself a tour the next summer and went out there again. This time, I couldn’t get into the better venues that [Mountain of Venus] were getting into. So I played a seafood restaurant in the suburbs of Denver in a mall parking lot. And my van broke down a few times and I got stranded for a bit with no gigs. Then I got appendicitis,” he laughed. But those trials and tribulations are behind him now, he hopes. The Ryan Montbleau Band is now at work recording their second album in Woodstock, N.Y., preparing for its release in October. “I still really believe we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what we can do musically,” said Montbleau. “Much work to do. But I don’t have an appendix to worry about anymore, so here I come, Colorado! Get ready.” :: Ryan Montbleau Band :: :: Southern Sun Pub & Brewery :: July 2 :: :: Quixote’s True Blue :: July 10 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Martin Sexton • Ray LaMontagne • Ben Harper

James McMurtry gets mileage out of politics in his outlaw-style country rock

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:02:20 +0000

:: James McMurtry :: Bluebird Theater :: July 13 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Last summer, as my father and I drove through North Carolina on a weekend getaway, the old man posed a question that neither he nor I have quite been able to answer yet. We had been listening to my iPod when John Prine’s “Some Humans Ain’t Human” came on. For those who don’t know the tune, Prine does a little rant in mid-song that talks about “a cowboy from Texas who starts his own war in Iraq.” My dad’s query was simple, “Where are all of the protest songs?” The only answer we’ve been able to come up with is that there really aren’t any. Sure, almost every artist on stage these days can be assured some applause by throwing a dagger at President Bush, but it almost feels as trite as a band playing the Fillmore in Denver mentioning Colfax Ave., just to get that recognition cheer. James McMurtry has another take on it. “There aren’t any, because there’s no draft. There’s a war going on right now and some songwriters try to touch on it without getting on too big a soap box. I try to mention it in a couple songs because it’s our landscape right now, but what I don’t like is that politics seems to be ignored by music right now,” McMurtry said in a recent interview with The Marquee. McMurtry knows first-hand what a political song can do to an artist’s career. In 2004, just before the election, he digitally released “We Can’t Make It Here,” when Bush’s popularity was still relatively high. The song, which starts off with a commentary of a Vietnam war veteran begging on a street corner and the statement, “and there’s more come back from the Mid-East war,” goes on to talk about the blight on blue-collar America, as jobs continue to be outsourced and local economies suffer because of it. The song was first played in an acoustic version on a station in McMurtry’s home town of Austin, Texas. “They spun it during the morning drive time and I had some nasty e-mails on my website before I even got home,” he said. “Now, I tend to get a lot more positive feedback because Bush’s approval rating is so low — it equaled out pretty fast.” Still, McMurtry acknowledges that he’s gotten more mileage and attention out of the song than he has from many of his previous albums, and it’s not from lack of good albums before. The self-taught guitarist has been making music for more than 20 years. Born in Fort Worth, Texas to the famed novelist/screenwriter Larry McMurtry, who penned Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment and, most recently, Brokeback Mountain, McMurtry was raised in Virginia. He was first drawn to music after his mother took him to see Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash live. While his father was working on the film Falling From Grace, he passed on his son’s demo to John Mellencamp, in hopes that Mellencamp might like one of his songs enough to record it. Instead, Mellencamp ended up producing McMurtry’s Columbia Records debut, Too Long In The Wasteland. He went on to make a couple more albums for Columbia before switching to Sugar Hill Records and eventually landing at Compadre Records. His discography has been praised heavily by critics, and he’s been called one of the strongest songwriters of his generation. Despite the critical acclaim, it’s the political comments that McMurtry gets the most attention for, and a vast majority of his songs aren’t politically based. Most are character-driven songs, Middle America tales ranging from inspirational anthems to down-and-out life portraits. But, in one of his better-known songs, “Levelland,” he used to do a live rant about Mr. Bush’s pronunciation of ‘nuclear.’ “A woman in Plano, Texas, got really mad and started dancing around with a sign at my shows that said ‘Keep Politics Out Of Music.’ So I guess she’s not going to listen to Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan. I don’t think that she was against politics in music, I think that it was that she just didn’t like my politics,” McMurtry said. But even those cases don’t give McMurtry any cause to change the way he does things. “I don’t really care how they take it. In some cases, if they get pissed off that just means that they heard it. And what do people get the maddest about? They’re not really touchy about the bullshit. They’re really touchy about the truth,” he said. As The Marquee caught up with McMurtry, he was, quite literally, in the studio working on the follow-up to his 2004 release Childish Things. The new album, which he said takes a different approach for him since it’s not as guitar focused as his previous albums, is not yet titled, and McMurtry said that he hopes to have it out in January of 2008. :: James McMurtry :: :: Bluebird Theater :: July 13 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Steve Earle • Robert Earl Keen • John Mellencamp

Tokyo Police Club continue to arrest festival fans despite short tenure and lack of album

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:05:56 +0000

:: Tokyo Police Club :: Larimer Lounge :: July 21 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

With one EP and scarcely 16 minutes of music released in their brief 18-month lifespan, Tokyo Police club have become a sensation of sorts. They have played Coachella, traveled across the Pacific to play a gig in their namesake city in Japan, and just days after, The Marquee caught up with keyboard player Graham Wright, right before the band took the stage at the legendary Glastonbury Festival in England. “We’ve been asked to play a few festivals this year, we’re doing a bunch in the U.K. and we’ve done Coachella and Sasquatch already. Coachella was the first one that we got the offer for and that was just incredible,” Wright said. “It is just one of those big things that you hear about when you’re a kid and you think, ‘Wouldn’t that be cool if we could drive out to California and go to Coachella.’ Obviously, to be asked to play it was really flattering. Then to be asked to play Glastonbury, which is sort of the great-grandfather of every festival, particularly for people like us who grew up on Radiohead and hearing about the legendary Glastonbury performances by bands that we just loved, is pretty indescribable.” While Glastonbury and the other festivals TPC will be playing this summer will expose the young Canadian band to hundreds of thousands of new ears, they owe the most to the very first festival they ever played, Pop Montreal. “Pop Montreal is pretty different from Glastonbury in that it is more like South By Southwest. It is a whole bunch of club shows all happening at the same time,” Wright said. “It really isn’t an exaggeration to say that we wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for Pop Montreal. At that time, we had really finished with the band and as far as we were concerned we were just doing it for fun. Everyone was going off to University or a job and we had decided we would get together again later have some more fun, but that’s about it. Being asked to play that festival gave us a reminder of how much we loved it and it came at the right time, it gave us a kick and the motivation to try it out for real.” It wasn’t long after Pop Montreal that the band entered the studio to try their hand at recording some of their songs. The result, their debut EP A Lesson In Crime, clocks in at 16:19, which is shorter than some singles out there today. However, the EP sports 7 songs, the longest of which runs a scant 2 minutes and 49 seconds. Despite its brevity, A Lesson in Crime gives a tantalizing taste of what this young band is capable of. “Since we finished the tour with the Cold War Kids a couple of months ago, we’ve been writing,” Wright revealed. “We have this garage in Toronto that we share with another band and we’ve been going in every day. It’s hot and smelly because of us, but we’ve been working on stuff really intensely and we have seven new songs that we are going to play on tour this summer.” While they just recently moved out of their suburban childhood homes, the whirlwind of their ride hasn’t given these early-20-somethings too much time to spend in their new urban digs. “No one except for the four of us have been there every day from the get-go. In the van, playing shows, recording, doing interviews or whatever,” said Wright. “It doesn’t feel like one day I stepped out, shielded my eyes against the glare and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve made it,’ because we’ve been working as hard as we can for this and we can see that it is paying off. But we have also been able to see every little step it has taken to get here.” When festival season draws to a close and things slow down a bit, Wright and his bandmates Dave Monks (bass/vocals), Josh Hook (guitar) and Greg Alsop (drums) will get to really experience living on their own as they go back into the studio to work on their debut LP. Wright admitted that while he was initially skeptical of what their second shot at songwriting would yield, he is thrilled with the first seven songs they have ‘demoed’ for the album. With the LP slated for a February 2008 release, fans may be disappointed to find out that they will have to wait for some time to be able to take these songs home with them. Until then, they will have to be satisfied with catching these youngsters as they tear it up in clubs across Europe and North America this summer. :: Tokyo Police Club :: :: Larimer Lounge :: :: July 21 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Wolf Parade • Arctic Monkeys • TV on The Radio

Page McConnell gets comfortable with his first post-Phish project

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:08:27 +0000

:: Page McConnell :: Fox Theatre :: July 16 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

It has been nearly three years since four of Vermont’s most famous musicians took their final bow on the stage of their final festival, Coventry. Those four men have gone their own ways and are now seeking new musical identities. Page McConnell, possibly better known as “The Chairman of the Boards,” has finally broken his silence with a self-titled solo album rather than in the form of his hiatus project, Vida Blue. After that final bow three years ago, McConnell more or less went home and said, ‘now what?’ “As a member of Phish for so many years that kind of became my identity, even to myself to a degree,” McConnell said, speaking with The Marquee while getting ready to head out on the road for the first time in several years. “I don’t think I even realized how much that was the case until some time had passed and Phish wasn’t around and it was just me. At that point in my life, to have everything completely cleared off the table and to have a blank slate in front of me isn’t an opportunity that everybody has and I wanted to make sure that I appreciated that. “Fortunately I wasn’t in a situation where I had to run off and put together Vida Blue and hit the road again. What if I wanted to switch careers entirely and look at some other profession? I didn’t do it, but it was important to just acknowledge it and to spend some time realizing that I was at one of those points in my life that maybe comes along only once, where I had the ability to look around and say, ‘What is it that I want to be doing now?’” said McConnell. As he ruminated over these thoughts, McConnell began to toy with writing songs again. “As much as I enjoyed Vida Blue — and maybe someday I will get that together again — this (self -titled) album was really more about me in my own home studio writing. That is really where it all came from,” he said. “I wanted to do something different; I wanted to be comfortable in my own place.” Though he seems to have gotten comfortable, the songwriting process has never been easy for McConnell, who wrote his senior thesis on “The Art of Improvisation.” “It took me a long time to write the songs for this album ’cause I am just kind of a slow writer. Each song on the record was really a labor of love and just kind of plugging away at it and working and reworking the lyrics until I got something that I was happy with. If I didn’t have the time that I had over the past two years making this record it probably wouldn’t have happened like this. It was something I was doing for myself and I wrote more songs for this album than I’d written in my life collectively up to this point.” The album is much more of a singer/songwriter project than some might have expected from the architect of some brilliant 10-plus minute piano solos, but it still retains McConnell’s signature vocal quality. Old fans will be calmed and new will be welcomed by the personal quality that saturates his high tenor. While this very welcoming voice appears on eight of the album’s nine tracks, the one instrumental piece, “Back in the Basement,” which McConnell testifies was written “within hours of the recording session,” has been counted by many as their favorite track on the record. Joining McConnell on “Back In the Basement” and two other tracks on the album is legendary session drummer, and Beatle chum, Jim Keltner. “I’d always liked his playing a lot and basically made a call and he decided to help me out,” McConnell remembered. “It was a huge thrill.” In addition to Keltner, each of McConnell’s three former bandmates makes an appearance on the album, though he is quick to point out that “none of them were in the same room at the same time.” “Their playing is so unique and great and recognizable that their contribution to the album is immense, but they were involved for a relatively short time in comparison to the 18 months I spent on the project,” said McConnell. Anastasio visited the studio for about 90 minutes with his guitar and laid down a solo, Mike Gordon added his bobbing baselines to three tracks and John Fishman’s distinctive drums are audible on six. While no one knows where any of these three may show up on tour, none will be officially joining The Chairman’s band on the road this summer. “It will be a five piece band including myself,” said McConnell. “Adam Zimmon, a friend that I met playing with the Spam All-Stars, is playing guitar. Gabe Jarrett is playing drums, Rob O’Dea is playing bass and Jared Slomoff, who co-produced and engineered the album with me, is playing keyboards and singing.” “We are a very young band, we’ve only been together for a couple of months, and the responsibility of entertaining for two sets is ... well ... daunting.” When the band first hit the road this spring they drew almost completely from the new record. Though the sets on this summer’s tour will focus on McConnell’s new album, he and his band have been able to work a few covers and old favorites into the set and presumably more will rear their heads as the band logs more miles. “We’ve expanded the repertoire considerably since our first shows and while we will focus on the album because that is what I am heading out to promote right now, we will make every show different.” While the shows will not be a trip down a musical memory lane for Phish fans, McConnell has thankfully decided to do his best to ensure that many new musical memories are made. “I’ve really enjoyed myself over the last couple of years and grown comfortable with where I am and I’m happy about this project and where I landed.” :: Page McConnell :: :: Fox Theatre :: July 16 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • ALO • Bruce Hornsby • moe.

Leftover Salmon reunite at their spawning grounds for festival dates

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:10:34 +0000

:: Leftover Salmon :: with moe. ::
 :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 28 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

When the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31, 2004, and the calendar flipped to 2005, Leftover Salmon was at home — on stage, playing to a sold-out crowd at Boulder’s Fox Theatre. Three hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, the band played their final song (“Pasta on the Mountain,” with a medley in the middle that included “Free Bird,” “Third Stone” and “The Star Spangled Banner”) and called it a night, and with that, also called it a wrap. After 15 years as a band, to the very day (their first gig was on New Year’s Eve in 1989 at The Eldo in Crested Butte, Colo.), the machine had outgrown the band and the incessant touring needed to feed that machine had gone beyond the band members’ threshold. Leftover Salmon never claimed they were breaking up, but the “indefinite hiatus” label was cast upon them, and with members swimming off to pursue solo projects and spend time with their families, it looked like it’d be a very long time before they’d be onstage again. But the summer of 2007 has seen a re-emergence, as the band members once again have reunited at their spawning grounds, and will collectively call out their patented “FESTIVAL!” cry for the first time in years. Drew Emmitt, who during the break has put his full effort into his solo project, Freedom Ride, said in an interview with The Marquee just before Leftover headed to the famed grounds of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival to play the first of the reunion dates, that he’s at least partially responsible for the reunion shows. “I was hanging out at home one day, in a really good mood and I decided to call our old manager, John Joy, to see what the interest was in reforming. John called back within an hour and had all sorts of different offers for festivals,” Emmitt said. That interest ultimately lead to five shows being booked throughout the summer, although Emmitt said that there were many other offers they simply couldn’t make happen. In addition to the gig they played late last month as this issue was going to press, at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Leftover Salmon will be playing the High Sierra Music Festival in California in early July, the All Good Festival in West Virginia in mid July, Red Rocks later this month, and they will cap their summer with a show at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival on Labor Day weekend. Taking into account the aforementioned machine, Emmitt said that these shows will be easy, fly-in shows for the band, and that their bus — the esteemed but dilapidated “Bridgette” — will remain parked in the field where she’s been resting, near Rollinsville, Colo. “It’s just the six of us,” Emmitt said. “We have no road manager, no sound man. There’s no machine involved.” Apparently, according to both Emmitt and fellow front man Vince Herman, there’s such a low level of stress about the gigs, that the band hasn’t even rehearsed. Just before Herman pointed his ride toward Telluride, he told The Marquee, “We might get together in a room and talk about it for a while before we go on, but we won’t be doing a rehearsal.” Emmitt concurred, saying, “Everyone knows all the material, so there’s no need to worry. It’s how we always did it.” How they always did it was pure magic for the “polyethnic cajun slamgrass” band. With Herman and Emmitt trading duties up front on guitar and mandolin, respectively, Leftover Salmon was a free-form whirlwind that could be delicate and tight in one song, and loud, full on electric assault on the next. Much of that magic, in the early years, was credited toward banjo player Mark Vann, who not only was a major force in the band, but also helped to revolutionize the role of the banjo in modern jamgrass. Vann passed way in 2002 at 39, after a battle with cancer. With Noam Pikelny in Vann’s place, Leftover continued. Emmitt told The Marquee in 2004, that the band maybe should have taken their break after Vann’s passing, but so many people were involved in the day-to-day operations of the band that it wouldn’t have been plausible. Eventually, however, all the strains took their toll on the band. “We were touring too much,” Emmitt said. “Touring all the time is not a good thing to do. There comes a point when you have to stop and create the demand, or we were just gonna go straight into the ground. Guarantees go down, crowds go down. There are so many bands on the road trying to do the same thing that eventually it becomes harder to go to the same markets over and over. But now, after a break, we can come back and be celebrated. This is going to be really fresh and you can’t manufacture freshness.” Both Emmitt and Herman also make no bones about the fact that from a financial standpoint, the reunion makes sense, and will help to continue the work they’ve been doing with their solo projects. “It’s going to enrich everyone’s solo careers, and help us put a little money in the bank. It’ll take the financial pressure off everyone,” Emmitt said. In addition to the financial rewards, Herman said that he thinks it’s going to bode well for his current project, Great American Taxi, which just released an amazing first album, Streets of Gold, earlier this summer. “The focus and energy for me is still on Taxi. It just feels real good with Taxi. I’m loving it and I’m hoping that people who are drawn back into the Leftover Salmon thing will inquire about Taxi. In the end it’s going to be good for that band,” said Herman. :: Leftover Salmon :: :: with moe. :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: July 28 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • New Grass Revival • Yonder Mountain String Band • Great American Taxi

Packway Handle Band helps to send off brother and Boulder’s musical mayor

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:27:40 +0000

:: Packway Handle Band ::
 :: Avogadro’s Number :: July 26 ::
 :: Oskar Blues :: July 28 ::
 :: BB’s on Pearl :: July 29 ::
 :: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: July 29 ::

By Tiffany Childs

Packway Handle Band is a bluegrass five-piece that calls Athens, Georgia home. That is why it’s a bit odd that their honorary sixth member lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. The sixth member in question is none other than Doug Baker, who has been an integral part of the Colorado music scene for the past few years. Working as the box office manager for the Fox Theatre in Boulder, he has become known as one of the biggest enthusiasts of music in our area. His brother, Tom Baker – banjo/vocals - is Doug’s connection to Packway Handle Band. “The genesis of the band was in Athens and Doug just happened to be visiting during the formation,” Tom Baker told The Marquee in a recent interview. “He comes down pretty often and we are able to work together during those times.” Packway Handle Band — rounded out by Josh Erwin (guitar/vocals), Andrew Heaton (fiddle/ vocals), Michael Paynter (mandolin/vocals) and Zach McCoy (bass) — is a group whose roots began with an interest in vocal harmonizing, which is why Doug’s efforts are so appreciated by the quintet. “Doug’s biggest influence is with our harmonies,” Baker mentioned. “We sing four-part harmony a lot and Doug will sneak into the thick of that and contribute a fifth harmony that we didn’t think was possible. We’ve even rearranged a few songs because of his input at times.” With a recent release, Live in 2006: EP Extreme, under their belt, Packway Handle has been touring fairly frequently. While Colorado tends to be relatively receptive to bluegrass music, unfortunately, people are often a bit skeptical when they hear the term bluegrass. Tom assured The Marquee that they shouldn’t be, as far as The Packway Handle Band is concerned. Although they are ‘technically’ classified as a bluegrass group, they don’t really think of themselves as traditional bluegrass. All of the members come from different musical backgrounds and most actually played rock and roll in their previous projects. They simply believe, like many artists, that good music is good music. “We do a lot of weird covers like the Violent Femmes or INXS, influenced from our past. We want to be eclectic and entertaining … a bit of a freak show, if you know what I mean,” Baker said about their performances. “I mean “Nine Pound Hammer” is enjoyable, but you can only take it for so long.” That peculiar stage presence, coupled with the lyrics on many of their new songs such as “Earl the Duck” — a song about ducks and gender confusion — should make even the biggest skeptic a little curious to see what this band is all about. When the band isn’t touring, the five-piece has been furiously working on two more new releases, one slotted for the fall of this year and the following one coming next spring, if everything stays on track. Packway Handle Band’s main songwriter is so prolific that these songs have been written long ago. It’s just a matter of the group finding the time to get into the studio and record. As for the material, Baker told us that it was increasingly progressive and may not even be classified as bluegrass on these albums. Doug Baker is a man who doesn’t really mind how the music is classified. He simply enjoys being a part of it. Enough so that he has been called the Musical Mayor of Boulder in the past. Sadly, it is a title Doug has relinquished. In a few short weeks, he will be moving to the Northeast. Doug, who recently hosted a farewell concert at the Fox Theatre, complete with nearly two dozen pickers on stage, plans to return to Colorado briefly to play with Packway Handle for their July shows before returning to the Boston area. As an unusual bonus, or perhaps a parting gift, Baker will not only be singing, but also plans on standing in for the guitarist who won’t be able to make it to Packway Handle Band’s Colorado shows in July. :: Packway Handle Band :: :: Avogadro’s Number :: July 26 :: :: Oskar Blues :: July 28 :: :: BB’s on Pearl :: July 29 :: :: Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey :: July 29 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Yonder Mountain String Band • Hackensaw Boys • Hot Rize

This Month in Music History - August

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:38:13 +0000

This Month in Music History August 1 1981: MTV is seen in 2.1 million homes during its first day on the air 1942: Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead is born Jerome John Garcia August 3 1968: Over 100,000 people attend the first Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California August 4 1958: Billboard Magazine debuts its “Hot 100” record list August 6 1973: Stevie Wonder’s car collides with a logging truck in North Carolina. (Wonder was not driving.)Wonder slips into a four-day coma and permanently loses his sense of smell. August 7 1987: Ozzy Osbourne is found “not responsible” for the suicide death of a fan whose parents filed suit against the rocker blaming his song “Suicide Solution” for coercing the teen to take his own life August 8 1992: Metallica’s James Hetfield is seriously burned onstage by a pyrotechnics machine August 9 1995: Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead dies of a heart attack while in a rehabilitation center August 11 1966: John Lennon apologizes for his statement that “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” August 12 1994: Over 350,000 people attend Woodstock II in Saugerties, New York 1983: While drunk, Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil is involved in a serious car accident which kills Nicholas Dingley of Hanoi Rocks August 15 1969: The Woodstock Music and Peace Festival, which attracts over 450,000 people, opens on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York August 16 1977: Elvis Presley dies at “Graceland,” his Memphis, Tennessee mansion 1974: The Ramones play their first show at CBGB’s 1962: Pete Best is replaced by Ringo Starr as the drummer for The Beatles August 23 1980: AC/DC releases their LP Back in Black with new lead singer Brian Johnson replacing the deceased Bon Scott August 26 1970: Jimi Hendrix makes his final public appearance at The Isle of Wight Festival in England August 27 1990: Stevie Ray Vaughn dies in a helicopter crash near Alpine Valley, Wisconsin August 28 1965: The crowd boos Bob Dylan for plugging in during a concert in Forest Hills, New York

Industry Profile: Sweetwine Entertainment puts focus back on artists

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:14:03 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

It’s no secret that in today’s music business the focus is on the almighty dollar. Artists are being lost in the shuffle at an alarming rate. Ironically, now is the time that more focus on the artists could result in more dollars and happier relationships. With these thoughts in mind, two Boulder-based agents have joined forces, jumped ship from the popular Crescendo Artists and started their own agency, Sweetwine Entertainment Group. Ira Sweetwine and his business partner Koryn Johnson, both musicians themselves, opened the doors to their agency earlier this year with a goal of making and keeping the focus directly on the artists. Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended? Johnson: John Denver. Sweetwine: P.I.L. (Public Image Limited). I was a punk rocker when I was a kid in Detroit. Marquee: What was the first album you ever remember owning? Johnson: Andy Gibb, the one with him in snakeskin boots on the cover. Sweetwine: I honestly don’t know. I’m thinking it might have been in my punk rock days, but it might have been Purple Rain, too. Marquee: How did you guys decide to form S.E.G. while working at another agency? Johnson: Well, I kept going to Ira for his thoughts and we found we worked really well together, and slowly a business plan started to develop. Sweetwine: We just saw eye-to-eye on so many things in the world of artists and musicians that after a while it just made really clear sense. Marquee: How does the time you’ve logged on the road as a musician help what you’re doing? Sweetwine: I was on the road for 10-plus years on and off with different bands. The last band I worked with, Jyemo, we took to a national level and experienced some small success. I ended up getting into the business because I managed and booked the bands I performed in, so it just led here. But being an agent that knows the road is a good quality to have. Our bands love it. They just know that I’m a road dog and they’re like, ‘he understands.’ Marquee: I know you have some things in the works that you can’t publicly talk about, but who are the artists on your roster right now? Sweetwine: Les Nubians, The Motet, Golden, Quemando, 8traC, and our newest addition is a reggae star from Jamaica, Everton Blender. Johnson: In addition to those national touring acts, for which Ira is our agent, handling that exclusive roster, we have a private event side, a corporate side of the business, which is what my background is. Marquee: What is one of the biggest challenges facing you and the bands you work with? Johnson: Gas prices (laughing). Sweetwine: It’s kind of funny, but true. Most talent buyers give you prices based on a band’s past history, but the industry hasn’t taken that expense into account. I’ve gotten a few talent buyers to recognize that, but when I get a sour offer, I say, ‘Hey man, with all due respect, can’t you kick a few hundred for gas purposes?’ It’s a reason a lot of bands don’t make it — expenses on the road are outrageous. Marquee: What’s the goal for Sweetwine Entertainment? Are you hoping to grow your roster? Johnson: We are getting bombarded by artists and we are discovering the reason why is that the huge agencies are disregarding smaller bands. Bands that they consider tiny are big to us and they aren’t getting the attention. So I would say our biggest concern isn’t about how big our roster gets, but that we stick to our initial core value of making sure that all of our artists get exceptional over-the-top service from us. To the point where they are shocked. Sweetwine: I want them to be able to call me at four in the morning. There are times when a band is on the road and they need that help or there’s a disagreement or something. Sometimes the agent or manager is the only one that can push the buttons. I just want to be available for that.

CD Reviews - August - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:24:57 +0000

David Gans Twisted Love Songs Perfectible Recordings 3.5 out of 5 stars If you haven’t heard of David Gans yet, either you’re not a Dead fan or you were still in diapers while Gans was interviewing stars like Phil Lesh, Pat Benetar and Rod Stewart. Best known as the host for the radio show “The Grateful Dead Hour,” Gans has tested his 30-plus years of experience with music to his own most recent album, Twisted Love Songs. The album is a varied collection of Gans’ own songs, with the exception of the Grateful Dead’s “Cassidy’s Cat,” a version of Roger Miller’s “King of the Road,” and a few others, with Gans on vocals and acoustic guitar using a loop station to bring it all together. The album begins lighthearted with an old country feel, using the music to tell a story rather than sing one. But Gans more than redeems himself when his roots with the Dead really start to show on track 5, “Prophet and Loss,” an instrumental piece where his vocals don’t get in the way of his dynamic musicianship. Gans has sat in with musicians like Phil Lesh, Railroad Earth, Donna the Buffalo, and String Cheese Incident — and it shows in his guitar work. The music switches throughout the album, from almost cheesy Hank Williams-style country to insanely great jam pieces, so if you hate one song you might love the next. — Heather Jarvis Sweet Sunny South Showtime Two Dolla Reccas 4 out of 5 stars Paonia, Colo.-based bluegrass band Sweet Sunny South has released a new album every year since 2004, and this year is no different with its latest offering, Showtime. From slower, easy waltz songs to slap your boots and dance fast jams, the album is a diverse collection of catchy, old-time music. With mandolin and fiddle parts really standing out as an imperative and distinct part of the album, along with the acoustic band’s catchy, simple lyrics, the band’s head songwriter Bill Powers emcee’s Showtime, taking listeners on scenic journeys into dusty old American music. The album was produced by Aaron Youngberg from Hit and Run Bluegrass, who even offers his own pedal steel and banjo licks on a couple of tunes on the album. While Sweet Sunny South is mostly a traditional bluegrass band, they’re not stodgy traditional. The group showcases playful banter at the end of the disc, even throwing in a Borat quote that sums up the playful and fun elements that the album and the recording process created. — Heather Jarvis Patrick Park Everyone’s In Everyone Curb Appeal Records 4 out of 5 stars Colorado native, L.A. transplant Patrick Park is positioning himself as someone who can hang with the ultimate songwriters of our day with Everyone’s In Everyone, his newest attempt after his 2003 debut, Loneliness Knows My Name. The singer/guitarist has produced a passionate effort to voice his opinion of “Don’t shove your ideology down my throat.” “Life Is A Song” is the first track on the album and the last song heard on Fox’s “The OC,” but this shouldn’t deter listeners, because the music supervisor of the show certainly knew what he was doing. — Heather Jarvis Straylight Run The Needles The Space Universal Republic Records 3 out of 5 stars Original is an overused word in this day and age where everything artistic has been done and then done again. But the Long Island, N.Y. four-piece Straylight Run has to at least be given credit for their creativity in their new album, The Needles The Space. Enhanced with piano and organ bits, the album has a unique and interesting spin. The male and female vocals are refreshing, with Michelle DaRosa’s sensual voice completing the album as an eccentric follow-up to their self-titled debut album, which sold over 200,000 copies. — Heather Jarvis QUICK SPINS Joe Satriani Surfing with the Alien Song Legacy Recordings On this classic instrumental album, Satriani shows that the guitar is an extremely versatile instrument in the right hands. This deluxe re-issue features a live DVD from 1988 and re-mastered sound. 3 out of 5 stars S.O.D. Rise of the Infidels Megaforce Records Containing four new songs and a live show from Seattle, this disc is worth hearing for the onstage shenanigans of singer Billy Milano and Anthrax’s Scott Ian alone. Classics from Speak English or Die also shine. 3.5 out of 5 stars Waking Up Dead (DVD) MVD Visual A truly moving film about the dark side of the music biz. The movie follows former Skid Row and Saigon Kick drummer Phil Varone as he reflects on the fact that being a rock star is not all fun and games. 4 out of 5 stars

From the Barstool of the Publisher - August, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:20:32 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson

A lot of people are talking about death in the music industry these days. “CDs are dead” is the new hip catch-phrase of the last two years. These days you can’t swing a dead Sony Discman without hitting someone who will proclaim that it’s a dead media. Satellite radio is still relatively new, but the viral proliferation of iPods may be lumping it together with cassettes and eight-tracks, or at least AM-FM radio. But the final nails may have been driven into the CD and satellite radio coffins earlier this month when Bob Lefsetz, an industry legend who writes a column for celebrityacess.com, re-iterated the statement in his “Lefsetz Letter.” In his column, hysterically but appropriately titled “Blood on the Click Wheel,” Lefsetz said he was talking to his shrink, who had just gotten a new car equipped with free satellite radio. He asked his head doc how he liked it and he learned that since the car also came with an iPod jack, that the guy hadn’t even used it. “Satellite radio,” Lefsetz wrote, “is a boy band with a minor hit, never to be heard from again.” Lefsetz explained that the reason iPod is so easily killing these mediums, seemingly with its eyes closed, is that the iPod does one of the most magnificent things since the remote control: “It gives us what we want, when we want it,” and it does so quickly and easily at that. “Napster wounded the CD, but the iPod killed it,” Lefsetz wrote. Truer words aren’t often uttered. And you know what? I might not even shed a tear when the CD and satellite radio are placed in the ground. I hopped on the bandwagon early with the iPod (when the 10GB model was twice the size of the current 80GB model), and the only time I’ve listened to a CD or radio since is when my iPod battery ran out, or when I forgot it at home. The times I have had to flip through radio stations, I’m appalled at how bad it is. I heard, like, 15 Eagles songs in one one-hour trip and that’s just completely unnecessary. So I’m going to agree with Lefsetz that these mediums are dead, or at least very riddled with cancer, but I’m going to say that it’s not the iPod that’s doing them in. What’s doing them in is the same thing that’s causing death in other areas of the business: Failure to change. The programming directors that still allow the Eagles to be played 400 times a day, they’re the fuckers killing radio, satellite or otherwise. The labels that want to give you 12 songs, and no bonus material or DVD on an $18 purchase, they’re the fuckers killing the CD. The iPod isn’t the Kevorkian of those mediums, it’s the blindfold we can use to avoid seeing the gruesome death — and sometimes avoiding gross things is the best thing you can do. See you at the shows.

Cypress Hill joins with Wu-Tang and others for Rock the Bells tour

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:08:55 +0000

:: Cypress Hill :: Rock the Bells Tour with Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Talib Kweli and more :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 22 ::

By DJ Hippie

Cypress Hill hasn’t been the most prolific band over the last few years but their influence on hip-hop is eternally monumental. Despite the fact that they are known to the masses as a stoner band, Cypress Hill, comprised of rappers B-real, Sen Dog and turntableist DJ Muggs, is one of the more calculating and business savvy crews in the rap game, as their career longevity makes evident. That considered, it is no surprise that rapper Sen Dog — who spoke to The Marquee while ordering his family lunch at a McDonald's drive-through — is unfazed by the various critics that are saying rap has run its course. “That’s total horseshit and it’s totally off line. Every few years that same argument comes up and it is just false. Hip-hop will still continue to flourish, you can’t put a time and date on its demise,” said Dog. In fact, it seems rap is currently enjoying resurgence in popularity. In addition to high profile tours by the Beastie Boys and Snoop Dogg, this summer finds Cypress Hill performing alongside the legendary Wu-Tang Clan (who will be releasing a new album, 8 Diagrams, later this year) on the first nationwide run of the Rock the Bells festival. “It’s a big deal to be playing with the Wu, they have a legendary existence. When Wu-Tang came along it was like a brand new thing with all those MC’s in one group and that’s how a lot of us started out. My first group had six rappers, so to get out on tour with Wu-Tang is a big thing for us,” said Dog. Like Wu-Tang, Cypress Hill also has plans to release a new album soon. While the band’s website is currently touting a late 2007 release, Dog said fans may have to wait a little bit longer to hear new music. “I think we are going to take a little more time. We have all been doing our own things but we are starting to get some beats together and are deciding what direction we want to take with the album. It’s a really vital album for us,” he said. While fans here in Denver won’t get to see it, several of the shows on the Rock the Bells Tour will be featuring the politically charged reunion of Rage Against the Machine. According to a press release announcing the reunion shows, taking place in the political hotbeds of California and New York, the tour dates are meant to deliver a “death blow” to the current Republican administration just in time for the 2008 election. That suits Cypress Hill just fine, who will also be delivering their own political message. “It’s an honor to be playing with Rage. Cypress Hill and Rage Against the Machine were both very vital in the ’90s, as far as cutting edge bands,” said Dog. “As far as our politics, that’s the legalization [of marijuana] thing, but other than that we try not to get too tripped up in global politics.” Even so, being that Cypress Hill was one of the first well known bands to incorporate Latin lyrics and influences into mainstream hip-hop, you can’t help but wonder where the band stands on the currently raging immigration debate. “I’m not gonna speak too much on that issue, but I know this a country where people want to come and make a better life for themselves and that’s why my family wanted to move us here when I was younger,” said Dog, who, along with his brother and fellow rapper Mellow Man Ace, was born in Cuba. “America’s freedom is not just for white people but for people all down the line.” :: Cypress Hill: :: Rock the Bells Tour with Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Talib Kweli and more :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 22 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Wu-Tang Clan • Beastie Boys • House of Pain

The Rentals return with first release in over eight years, Last Little Life

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:04:50 +0000

:: The Rentals :: Gothic Theatre :: August 9 ::

By Tiffany Childs

It’s true. The Rentals are back and in a big way. With their first release of new material in over eight years and a 44-date tour scheduled, both slated for August, the band that brought Moog synthesizers and boy/girl lyrics in the ’90s are set to bring it again. The Marquee recently spoke with front man Matt Sharp (ex-Weezer bassist) about the break, the new album and the upcoming tour. “We just needed to take some time off to figure out where we wanted to go,” Sharp said of The Rentals break. “And we also decided that if we were going to do a recording, it was going to be with a permanent band.” It was a goal that The Rentals just barely missed — lacking only a permanent guitarist. For the tour, Goldenboy’s Shon Sullivan will join Sharp, Rachel Haden (backup vocals) Sara Radle (vocals/multiple instruments), Ben Pringle (synthesizer), Lauren Chipman (viola/vocals) and Dan Joeright (drums) onstage. But Sharp assured fans that someone will be chosen to fill the guitar spot permanently when they return from tour and finally have some spare time. Spare time seems like a luxury at this point to Sharp. “Before starting the album we had probably 30 or 40 ideas to go through. We just started recording them at Dan’s [Joeright] house and let a friend listen to the demos,” said Sharp. That friend happened to be Joe Chiccarelli, a producer/engineer that has worked with the likes of The Shins and White Stripes. “He suggested that we take what we had and release an EP,” said Sharp. And so, The Rentals’ latest release Last Little Life was born. Fans of The Rentals will be glad to see that the band’s essential elements remain very familiar on the EP, especially the vocals and chords. However, this release is a lot less aggressive and hyped out than previous works. It isn’t as driven by distorted guitars and instead focuses on the beautiful melodicism the band manages to accomplish with such ease. To promote Last Little Life, The Rentals will begin a national tour in San Francisco on Aug. 1. Prior to that, though, they’ve been scheduled to play a residency at L.A.’s famed Spaceland every Saturday in July. “These [Spaceland] shows are for figuring out what to do with our material when we begin touring,” Sharp mentioned. “The first one was really fun, but full of technical difficulties. It was like a TV sitcom — guitar strings were breaking, amps were unplugging, just everything you can imagine going wrong did.” Luckily, Matt Sharp isn’t a person to let a situation get him down. “There comes a point where you have to realize, this is the way it’s going to be and you just have to go with it,” said Sharp. Perhaps that’s the secret to why The Rentals are well-known for putting on one hell of a show. Seeing a show by The Rentals means entering a room bathed in exhilaration, mayhem and all-out-fun — although it seems a lot of people don’t realize it beforehand. “People don’t expect our shows to be so explosive,” Sharp said. “I think they expect more stoicism because of our videos. The high energy always surprises people.” And just a word of warning — you have to be prepared to join in the frenzy with abandon or risk being forced into it by the rest of the crowd. Being a septet, there are a lot of band members to contribute to that energy, a trend the indie world is seeing more and more of. “The past couple of years there have been more and more bands with a large number of musicians. No one is really locked into an instrument any more and that makes our shows more grandiose,” Sharp said of the movement. Sharp also told The Marquee that this time around the tours are a lot easier, but more extensive than what he has done in the past. “Touring solo, playing all those low-key shows gave me a better understanding of the audience. I feel I have a better connection to them now and that makes the shows better,” said Sharp. As for the extensive part, Sharp said The Rentals are playing a lot of shows outside the major markets, such as in Florida and Texas. That’s good news for fans that have had to travel far in the past to be able to see a show. :: The Rentals :: :: Gothic Theatre :: August 9 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Belle and Sebastian • Arcade Fire • Broken Social Scene

G. Love and Special Sauce release first DVD, head to studio for new album

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:56:42 +0000

:: G. Love and Special Sauce :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 17 ::

By Heather Jarvis

Guitar slung over one shoulder, Garrett Dutton rolled up to his new bass player’s house on his skateboard for one of their first band practices. Drummer Jeffrey Clemens went outside to check out Dutton’s board, but before Dutton could show off the new deck, Clemens promptly snatched the board and locked it in his car for the next year. For reasons more selfish than big brotherly, Clemens didn’t want Dutton to end up riding that board under a bus somewhere, because to him, this kid was his ticket out of Boston. In that house, sans skateboard, the creation of a satisfying recipe known as G. Love and Special Sauce was born. > Thirteen years and eight albums later, the future proved that Clemens had put all his hopes in the right direction with Dutton, more commonly known as G. Love, with the hip-hop blues band now touring throughout the country, headlining festivals and shows everywhere. The Marquee recently caught up with writer/rhymer G. Love as he was walking his home streets of Philly toward the studio, ready for his third day of recording their next album. “My dream was to make a living playing music and to make one record, and then I achieved that,” said the man behind the vocals, guitar and harmonica. “I was lost for awhile, thinking I just wanted to make one record, now I’m on a third and fourth, and I wasn’t focusing enough to use the potential I had. Now I realize the things I do that people react to; I know my limitations and how to manipulate them so they aren’t limitations. My dream now is to rock the whole world. I want to bring my music to as many people as I can and make a record that’s going to be huge, and I want it to be an amazing record that’s viable and fun to listen to, but gets respect.” G. Love and the not-so-secret Special Sauce, which consists of Jimi “Jazz” Prescott on bass, Jeffrey “Houseman” Clemens on drums and Mark Boyce (who joined the band in 2006) on keys, have ramped up for a summer tour that has been in the making for the last five years. Beginning in California, the Summer Haze Tour, with Slightly Stoopid opening, will be an intense trip, with the band playing 19 shows in August alone. The tour will end in Florida at the beginning of September, taking them from one coast to the other, stopping at Red Rocks for a show that G. Love says will be a milestone in his career. “I’ve played at Red Rocks opening up for Widespread Panic and Blues Traveler and sat in with Jack Johnson, but I’ve never headlined a show there,” he said. “Most people go there to party and listen to some great music, which is what I’m doing too, but it’s a big thing for me because I’ll be able to do my thing for a bigger crowd.” As G. Love ordered an iced latte with skim milk, he touched on his beginnings on the East Coast and his effort for originality. “One day I was playing on the streets, doing my blues thing, and I started rapping over it,” he said. “I realized at that moment that no other white kid or anybody, really, was playing a blues guitar and rapping over it. That was like a musical epiphany for me because I always wanted to be different. In the back of my head, I’m always trying to do something that’s me, but sets me apart from the pack. I try to do my own thing. I’d rather be a leader than a follower.” G. Love’s ripping harmonica licks can also be attributed to his effort to remain original, and has a lasting effect on their most recent album, released in 2006, Lemonade. The album he calls his “summertime groover” was a collaboration of name-brand artists such as Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Donovan Frankenreiter, Dave Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Blackalicious, Tristan Prettyman and Marc Broussard. G. Love said the addition of these artists lead the record from a frustrating beginning that was like treading water, to a record that was extra special for them. “It really saved our ass on a creative level because having the guests come in the studio it made everyone behave. Musicians never grow up, myself included, so when you have outside musicians there you can’t act like a kid,” said Love. G. Love and Special Sauce will release their first DVD, A Year and A Night, on Aug. 2. Love said that the DVD commemorates the ins and outs of a band that has been “on the grind” for the past 13 years. But that grind is exactly what has fueled them and given both Love and the Special Sauce the drive to keep going “wherever the vibe is good,” said Love. “It could be a street corner, Red Rocks or some smoky club. To me, it’s all about what kind of vibe we have on stage and what kind of vibe the people bring.” :: G. Love and Special Sauce :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: :: August 17 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Ben Harper • Blues Traveler • John Butler Trio

The Comas enchant listeners with Spells

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:52:40 +0000

:: The Comas :: Hi-Dive :: August 6 ::

By Tiffany Childs

Perhaps it was recording in a spooky mansion in the Catskills that makes The Comas’ new album Spells so enchanting. Or maybe it’s that the band has finally found its place in the music world. Whatever it may be, The Comas and their new album Spells both leave an indelible mark on the listener. If it is true that a record invariably documents an artist’s life during a particular time period, then things are certainly looking up for Andy Herod (vocals/guitar) of The Comas. The band was catapulted into the spotlight in 2004 with their album Conductor, which focused rather publicly on Herod’s breakup with actress Michelle Williams. Now, their new release Spells sees The Comas growing stronger in their particular brand of psychedelic garage pop and branching out into new topics. The band was formed in 1998 in Chapel Hill, N.C. and has seen a consistent shifting of members since that time for various reasons. One major reason was Herod’s move to New York in 2004, just before the release of Conductor. “North Carolina has a very slow pace,” Andy told The Marquee in a recent interview. “You always see the same people and I got a little antsy. So we moved to New York for more excitement and opportunity.” It turned out that not everyone from The Comas wanted to go. Hence, the changing lineup. As a matter of fact, Nicole Gehweiler (guitar/vocals) is the only other original Coma left. Matt Sumrow (keys/vocals), Jason Caperton (bass) and Nic Gonzales (drums) round out the group as the “newcomers.” The new album certainly reflects the new members. “Spells is a much different album because this time around there was a lot of input, a lot of voices adding an opinion. So, the songs are more of a compromise than in Conductor,” Herod said of the record. “The process was sort of like making an art project together that just happened to revolve around my songs.” Indeed it is different. The songs are still full of floating synths and guitar fuzz, but they have a much happier, shinier sound now. Spells is a more upbeat album that has more of a party vibe than Conductor, which focused on one pretty dreary subject for its entirety. The album shows a side of The Comas that isn’t as serious and is slightly weirder than they previously lead on, most notably in the lead single “Red Microphones.” It’s a refreshing view. “That wasn’t necessarily the original goal,” Herod told The Marquee, “but it makes sense for us as a band right now. We wanted to make something that was different sonically. Recording this album was a bit experimental, but it was fun as hell and I’m pretty happy with it overall.” Part of that experimenting might be due to recording with Bill Racine (The Flaming Lips, Mates of State). “Bill is awesome and crazy,” Andy said. “There are producers who go into the studio knowing exactly what they want. Racine isn’t one of them. Bill has this sort of kitchen sink method. You pile anything you want into the mix and then you peel back the layers at the end to find these great songs.” Whether the songs are great or not is apparently still being argued by the critics. “We have received a lot more responses for Spells,” Andy mentioned. “It seemed like Conductor was well received by everyone, but this is a more mixed response. And I feel like there is more awareness for the album.” The Comas aren’t a band that really cares about reviews, though. They’re more concerned with getting the music to the fans. Having been on tour for most of the summer, they just hit the road again at the end of July after a brief respite. Playing dates all over the continental U.S., The Comas are giving fans a chance to judge the new material for themselves. :: The Comas :: :: Hi-Dive :: August 6 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • New Pornographers • Pavement • Weezer

Jason Isbell breaks away from Truckers and releases first solo CD Sirens of the Ditch

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:44:53 +0000

:: Jason Isbell :: Larimer Lounge :: August 9 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Jason Isbell came into his own with the southern rockers Drive-By Truckers, over the course of a six-year tenure with the band. He appeared on three of the Trucker’s albums and wrote and performed tracks like “Outfit,” “Decoration Day,” “Never Gonna Change” and “Goddamn Lonely Love” as one of the three front men and lead guitarists for the band. But this year, in what came as a surprise to many Truckers fans, Isbell left the band and has already double-clutched into high gear to release a solo album that he has been working on for the better part of four years. Part of Isbell’s departure from the Truckers most certainly had to do with his divorce from his wife, Drive-By Truckers’ bassist, Shonna Tucker. But in a recent interview with The Marquee, Isbell said that the split was inevitable, as the lives of his bandmates started to take a different turn. “We were just moving in different directions, musically and otherwise, right now,” Isbell said. “It has a lot to do with the fact that most of them are at a point in their life right now where they’ve got families and have got their priorities in a different place than they were 15 years ago. They don’t want to tour all the time and I don’t blame them, but I’m still at a point where I kind of need that. So this gives me the opportunity to do that; to go hit the road and stay gone forever.” All that being said, however, Isbell’s first foray into his solo career is essentially the Drive-By Truckers album that the Truckers never released. Every member of the band, except Mike Cooley, plays on Sirens of the Ditch, and fellow front man Patterson Hood co-produced the album with Isbell. Isbell is also joined by Hood’s father, David Hood, and legendary keyboard player Spooner Oldham, who most recently played with the Truckers on their Dirt Underneath Tour. From the rock-driven opener “Brand New Kind of Actress” to softer numbers like “Dress Blues,” Isbell showcases tracks that could have comfortably fit on some Truckers albums, but there is also an underlying subtly on the tracks that could come from the freedom Isbell is feeling. “I pretty much write songs first and then figure out where they go afterwards,” Isbell said. “But I hadn’t considered these for Truckers records. For me, these fit better stylistically for my solo stuff. I wanted something more pop oriented that still gravitated toward the darker issues in life. I like weird pop music that talks about strange things, but that you don’t realize it because you’re singing along with the hook.” Isbell continued to explain that, for him, happy songs are harder to write. “It’s hard to write a song about a happy topic. I have some songs with some humor, but it’s difficult to write about being happy and have it be sincere. So I pretty much end up focusing on things that I’d like to fix, or my reactions to things that I feel are unfixable in my life or other people’s lives,” Isbell said, while lighting another cigarette. While dark topics and being solo played a role in the final sound of Sirens of the Ditch, Isbell said that a big part of the album’s final feel can be attributed to FAME recording studio in Isbell’s hometown of Muscle Shoals, Ala., where the album was recorded. Aretha Franklin, Duane Allman, and Otis Redding, among others, recorded at the studio in the 1960s and ’70s and helped define the Muscle Shoals sound. Isbell said he really tried to capture that sound on Sirens, but what probably makes that sound most prevalent is the loose nature of collaboration that the album has. “I just got whoever was available at the time I was ready to record. And there were a lot of people in town, when I was recording,” Isbell said, explaining that he took snippets of time in between Trucker’s tours to get into the studio. “It was a fun record to make, but I wish I had a more concise amount of time to just go in and get it done. The recording was split up over two-and-a-half or three years.” Despite that, the album has a continual flow, difficult to achieve under those circumstances. Isbell said that while he will push Sirens for a while, his next goal is to get back into the studio with the band he’s currently touring with. The four-piece of Isbell, Jimbo Hart on bass, Ryan Tillery on drums and Browan Lollar on guitar, has been on the road for the summer tour, but Isbell pointed out that none of these musicians played on the album. He added that while he will be playing music from the new album, he will also throw in some of the songs he wrote and performed with Drive-By Truckers. :: Jason Isbell :: :: Larimer Lounge :: August 9 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Drive-By Truckers • Bruce Springsteen • James McMurtry

Brett Dennen brings his rocket ship ride to the top to Folks Festival in Lyons

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:37:34 +0000

:: Brett Dennen :: Rocky Mountain Folks Festival :: August 18 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Brett Dennen. Be sure to make note of that name. With intricate lyrical phrasing that calls to mind Paul Simon and a spirited upbeat performance style that has entertained crowds in some of the biggest and some of the smallest venues across the country, Dennen has already made a name for himself in the folk world and seems destined for true musical greatness. In the midst of a swing through New England with his band, Dennen took some time to sit down with The Marquee and, in his own humble way, talk about his summer and his career as a whole. He had just played a tiny show in a small Methodist church in Lebanon, N.H. and it was clear that he had really enjoyed the experience. “They were packed in there,” he said. “In an environment like that you can really connect with the audience, they can pick up on your subtleties and you can get really quiet if you want to. It can create a very magical, intimate vibe that I don’t think you could ever replicate in one of those big shed shows.” On the other side of the coin, earlier this summer Dennen was fortunate enough to be invited to play several of “those big shed shows” with guitar hero/pop heartthrob John Mayer and witty pianist Ben Folds. While this pulled him from the intimate venues that he loves, he quickly recognized that this was a once in a career kind of chance to build his fan base. “We were the opening act, so people were just getting there and energy and attention was all over the place. A lot of people were talking and as a result we were always struggling to get people to pay attention to us, but when we did connect the roar of the big crowds makes for epic onstage moments. At every show I know that we broke through to a bunch of new fans, so it was worth it for us,” said Dennen. Dennen admitted that he relished the opportunity to learn from two veterans and took in as much as he could on the tour. Unfortunately, due to the rigors of life on the road and the routines of the artists, there was little interaction between the tour mates. “They both keep their ships running pretty tight,” said Dennen. “Ben Folds gets to the venue about five minutes before he goes on and while John Mayer hangs out a lot, he’s got his own dressing room filled with computers and TVs and guitars and wardrobe. He’s got his own little world that he hangs out in. When you are on tour all the time it is natural to find comfort in a routine and often that’s what keeps you sane.” While he seemed to understand why there was so little interaction with Mayer and Folds, Dennen hopes that the festival setting of The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons will be different when he appears there this month. He is currently slated to take the stage before Judy Collins and Ray LaMontagne, two artists for which he has great respect. “I grew up listening to Judy Collins records and I’ve never seen her play. My mom was a big Judy Collins fan and a fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and that whole scene, so that is going to be a trip for me. I am also a huge Ray LaMontagne fan and I’ve never seen him before either. There are so many great artists on that bill that I have never gotten to see before and, of course, I feel honored to be on the same bill with them,” said Dennen The picturesque Planet Bluegrass ranch will provide a perfect setting for this 6’5” redhead to win over several thousand folk music connoisseurs who may not be aware of this relative newcomer. Given that he hasn’t had the support of a “major” label, Dennen has managed to get his music out via a variety of different channels, including an increasingly popular medium for artists these days: network television. His songs have appeared in the hugely successful shows Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy and his song “Blessed” was featured in a recent Hilton Hotels commercial. “Ten or twenty years ago I would have said that you don’t have go that route, but that was back in an age when record labels were much more supportive of their artists. These days you gotta do what you can to get your music out there. Luckily, I got to examine that advertisement and agreed that the message that traveling is an experience in a lot of ways that promotes integrity, education and tolerance in society is a good one,” Dennen said. “John Mellencamp said ‘Chevrolet is the greatest record label I have ever been on.’ I agree completely. That Hilton commercial has done more for me than my record label could have done on its own. At the end of the day, maybe it helped Hilton sell a couple of hotel rooms but it is also getting my music out there and it is getting a really positive message across and it is doing it all through television, which is the most powerful form of media that we have today.” Clearly, Dennen has the business sense and the musical talent that it takes to succeed in this business and it is only a matter of time to see if his past and future songs end up in the great American folk cannon. :: Brett Dennen :: :: Rocky Mountain Folks Festival :: :: August 18 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Paul Simon • Ben Harper • Jack Johnson

Ryan Adams sobers, matures and gets brilliant in the form of Easy Tiger

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:12:27 +0000

:: Ryan Adams and The Cardinals :: :: Fox Theatre :: August 2 :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 3 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

By all accounts, I shouldn’t be writing this article. In fact, no one should be writing articles on Ryan Adams. A year or so ago we should have all written obituaries on him — obituaries which would have poignantly compared him to the alt-country legend Gram Parsons (with whom Adams shares a birthday, November 5) and to other musicians and actors who died tragically before their time from drug overdoses. Adams’ penchant for speedballs (a lethal blend of uppers and downers) would have placed his death alongside the likes of Brent Mydland, River Phoenix and Layne Staley, as well as John Belushi and Chris Farley, who all died from speedball overdoses. But just when Adams was about to take that final leap, something, or more importantly, someone pulled him back from the edge, and the now sober 32-year-old has just released his ninth album to critical acclaim. He recently told The Marquee that now, he’s more “me than I’ve ever been.” Earlier this year, Adams confessed to famed music critic Anthony DeCurtis, “I snorted heroin a lot — with coke. I did speedballs every day for years and took pills and then drank. And I don’t mean a little bit. I always outdid everybody,” he told DeCurtis. In mid-July when The Marquee caught up with Adams, he said, “I quit taking drugs because I was taking a lot of drugs. And I quit drinking because I always hated drinking, but I needed something to do when I was taking tons of drugs, which I know sounds really weird, but that’s just how I am. I’m an obsessive sort of person. But what I found out, and, like, what I knew the whole time is that I was really burnt with it anyway. I hated drinking. It was like such a job. But I just didn’t know that I was doing all of that stuff to feel like I feel now, which is basically, I could have just had a cup of coffee and I think I would have been fine.” It was Adams’ girlfriend, writer/model Jessica Joffe, who recently cleaned up her own lifestyle, who helped Adams get sober. And in a press release written by Stephen King for Adams’ new album, Easy Tiger, Adams claims that it was Joffe who used the phrase that became the album’s namesake. “She wanted to go out to dinner at eight; I wanted to go right away. She said, ‘Easy, Tiger,’ and that hit me. It stuck with me to the point where I called up Neal [Cardinal’s guitarist Neal Casal] and left a message on his answering machine with those two words. ‘Don’t forget this,’ I said, ‘cause I want to use it,’” Adams said. While Joffe played a variety of roles in helping to re-vamp that side of Adams’ life, the singer/songwriter credited a number of his professional acquaintences and fellow Cardinals with the final direction of Easy Tiger. Among them, Adams said that Luke Lewis, the chairman of the Nashville division of Universal Music, of which Adams’ label Lost Highway is a part, played a large role. He said that before he set off for Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland Studio in New York with The Cardinals, he spoke with Lewis about what the label was looking for. “I wanted to know what record they were excited about, because at that point The Cardinals and I had enough ideas that we could have done the most rocking, concept, Zeppelin 6-type piece or something more punk rock, new wave or folk or pop. We had so much inspiration going. When I asked Luke what he was interested in, he said a solo record. That wasn’t a command from him,” Adams said. “The irony is that it’s the record that everybody else in the band was starting to go towards. We kind of did it as a challenge.”“ Additionally, Adams credited The Cardinals — Casal, Jon Graboff, Brad Pemberton, Chris Feinstein and producer-turned-Cardinal Jamie Candiloro — with the album’s sound. “The band wanted to support me, which I kind of needed to happen before there is a ‘band’ record. We needed to at least leave things in their correct place. So by the time we were done I worked with them so much — because I couldn’t find my ego for it — they helped me pick tunes and when it was finished I felt like this is a Cardinals’ record, because we kind of accidentally learned even more how to be Cardinals by having a project like that,” he said. Those feelings ultimately led to Adams asking Lost Highway to release the album as a Cardinals release, instead of a project with his name on it, but the label balked at the idea. Candiloro, according to Adams, also took a major role in the development of Easy Tiger. As Adams talked to The Marquee on the phone, it was Candiloro who was driving Adams around Los Angeles, following a mid-night bus run through the desert from Austin to L.A. Adams agreed with the statement that Easy Tiger sounds more like a traditional studio album than his 2005 releases of Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights, which both had a live flavor to them. “That’s all Jamie,” Adams said. “It was his idea of making things more pronounced in the way we were sometimes looking for things in the past with a big bomb, he did it by reducing layers. So, like, if you really want a big guitar part in a crescendo, maybe it’s doing it as simple as you can on acoustic guitars. Jamie’s style was a bit feng shui. You kind of come in there and there’s just some things you don’t need and when you remove them they can breathe more, which is good because in order for The Cardinals to establish a sound, we first went in by making a lot of noise and found identity in that and then, I suppose, little by little, we’ve been trying to figure out how to bring more clarity to that, without falling.” Adams said. Adams talked about everyone’s role in the album in a kind of ‘Thank God they’re here’ kind of way, and he later explained that he is somewhat fearful of the whole process of songwriting. “Every song I write is going to be suspect to me on some level or the other, always, because I know how they’re built. Therefore, it’s probably a bit like the person who manufactures airplanes. I bet that that person is probably somewhat terrified to fly, you know? Like, cause, you know where all the kinks are and you know where the parts are that weren’t quite working so you improvised and who knows how long it’s going to hold? That’s kind of how I see song structure. I see it as I’m almost building a physical thing like a bridge or something. something that is made out of something and those parts have to be weighed perfectly, or it’s going to get soft,” he said. Adams should be concerned about his songs getting soft. The songwriter has never been afraid of crafting sad songs, and any fan of music knows that while sad songs can strike incredibly powerful chords with listeners, some can fall very flat if they’re not handled delicately. He said that he often tries to slip in a bit of humor to those songs that can serve a cathartic purpose while keeping the song on track. “Here and there I try to slip in a little one liner, something that will add some levity. Without a bit of levity, some songs will fall really fast. So I like to get in there and talk about the heavy stuff when I write, but I realize it’s almost like I’m taking evasive action by the time I hit the chorus to make sure that I don’t overcook it. Nothing is worse than a song that’s good for like six months but later times out. For me, the balance is to use as much local color as possible without dating it,” he said. But, in his typical self-deprecating tone, he adds that there are a bunch of songs that fans have never heard because of that exact reason. Some of that, he said, will be put to rest this fall when Lost Highway releases a boxed set of Adams unreleased work. Some of those tracks were recorded when Adams was in his drinking and drugging days. He admitted, “Back in the day, in my 20s, when, you know, I drank and did drugs or whatever, there are sessions that were paid for just to have some place to go where I could be for two days where there wasn’t going to be any police intervention. It’s not all bad, either,” he laughed. Anyone who knows Adams knows that his prolific songwriting and urge to create isn’t ever really turned off, and even though Easy Tiger just hit the streets this summer, it’s a safe bet that he’s got another album or two up his sleeve ready to go at any time. He even alluded to that, but said that it’s not the time to get started. “I’d definitely say that my bag is pretty full of tricks at this point, but I’m just keeping those things to myself at this point. I haven’t been revealing too much really. I want to keep the focus where it is. It’s not time for them yet.” :: Ryan Adams and The Cardinals :: :: Fox Theatre :: August 2 :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: August 3 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Lucinda Williams • Gram Parsons • Jeff Tweedy

The National Blow up touring behind critically acclaimed Boxer

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:29:25 +0000

:: The National :: Ogden Theater :: Sept. 18 ::

By Timothy Dwenger It’s been one of those years for Matt Berninger, front man of the Brooklyn-based The National — one that he probably never thought he would have when he was studying to become a graphic designer in Cincinnati. He’s been to Europe three times, he’s played to a sold out crowd at Radio City Music Hall and he met David Letterman all in the span of about five months. What precipitated this whirlwind of events was a simple release by his band: an album called Boxer. “I think Boxer is the best album we’ve made,” Berninger told The Marquee from his New York City apartment on a rare break from touring. “This record has a different personality from the other ones. It took us a long time to find the atmosphere or mood that is represented on the album and I think the fact that we were patient and didn’t rush through it helped us to succeed. There wasn’t any big vision when we started, but we did a lot of different things and only used the ones that added to the song in an interesting way. Everything included on the final product has it own purpose.” That purpose and intent is evident in the music and convinces the listener that The National is more than just a rock band. They are artists that take their craft seriously and are not going to compromise themselves for the sake of meeting a studio deadline. “We were successful on our own terms,” said Berninger. “There were a lot of moments during the making of Boxer where there was pressure to finish and we kept pushing the deadlines. We just didn’t want to put something out that we felt was compromised on any level. It cost us time and a lot of stress but I am glad that we kept pushing and made the record that we wanted to make.” The album is a lavishly produced affair that features Berninger’s robust baritone backed by Scott and Bryan Devendorf and identical twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner. Joining these longtime friends is Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist Padma Newsome, whose horn, woodwind and string arrangements flush out the band’s dark and brooding sound beautifully. “Padma has been sort of a sixth member for a long time. He and Bryce [Dessner] are in a chamber orchestra together called Clogs,” Berninger said. “We didn’t just add in his orchestration as an ornament or pile layers on a chorus to make it sound more epic or something like that. The horns and the woodwinds and the strings all play a really important role in the sound.” In order to do justice to that “really important role in the sound,” Newsome will again be joining The National on the road this fall as they continue to play, and frequently sell out, bigger and bigger venues around the U.S. and internationally. Berninger, who has had problems with stage fright in the past, doesn’t seem to be phased by the bigger crowds that his band is performing for these days. “It isn’t that different to play to the bigger crowds. I love performing, but it is never really comfortable. I guess I’ve just come to peace with being uncomfortable and I think that’s fine. Playing to big crowds of say 3,000 people is no more or less nerve wracking than if it’s 20 people. In fact, being in a room where there are only 20 people watching is sometimes worse than the big shows because you feel like you are under such a microscope,” he said. Berninger also apparently doesn’t like to have the lyrics he writes for The National put under a microscope and largely refuses to have them included in the liner notes for the band’s albums. “Songwriting for me is a collage kind of process and I never begin to put a song together without the music that the other guys have created. The lyrics aren’t meant to stand on their own and I never think of them as being separate from the music. I don’t write poetry, I write songs; and without the music it doesn’t work at all.” It is these songs that Berninger and his band of brothers create that have propelled The National into the spotlight. Each composition draws on the collected talents of the group and is born out of the desire to create simply beautiful, heart-wrenching music. While difficult to categorize, The National are influenced by some of the darker songsmiths of our time. “Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Morrisey, Steven Malkumus and Bob Pollard are some of the many songwriters that I have learned from,” said Berninger. “Listening to the Smiths was when I first realized that rock songs can be more than just entertainment. They can be hilarious and also despicable and depressing at the same time.” Whether The Nationals will ever live up the musical legacy of The Smiths or Leonard Cohen remains to be seen, but with their soaring popularity and dedication to making music that is not compromised in any way, they may very well be looking at a long string of years as busy as the past five months. :: The National :: :: Ogden Theater :: Sept. 18 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Smiths • Interpol • Leonard Cohen

Phil Lesh & Friends enlist Jackie Greene and Particle’s Steve Molitz for fall tour

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:22:49 +0000

:: Phil Lesh & Friends :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Sept. 28 :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: Sept. 29 :: By Timothy Dwenger The music of the Grateful Dead has transcended decades and generations to become some of the most enduring music produced by one band in the history of rock and roll. For 30 years the Grateful Dead jammed and noodled their way through their shows, inadvertently creating an entire subgenre of rock music that continues to grow and thrive 12 years after the band officially parted ways. While it’s true that the Grateful Dead name was retired in 1995 when legendary lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia passed away, the music has lived on through the various surviving members. Bob Weir’s Ratdog is actively touring, Mickey Hart and his various projects still interpret the material (and coincidentally, Hart has two gigs this month in Colorado with his Global Drum Project: Sept. 23 at the Boulder Theater and Sept. 24 at the Oriental Theatre), and bassist Phil Lesh has done his part to keep the flame alive by enlisting various “Friends” over the past eight years to help him in his quest to reinvent the songs and the spirit of the Grateful Dead. Lesh’s “Friends” have included a virtual who’s who of the jamband music community, including Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell from Phish, Paul Barrere and Billy Payne from Little Feat, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, who currently play with The Allman Brothers, and, more recently, John Scofield and Ryan Adams. Though each incarnation of Phil Lesh and Friends has produced some memorable musical moments, it has always been tough to get a band together that really gelled. “It’s been kind of a rollercoaster ride with lots of different musicians coming and going,” Phil Lesh told The Marquee during a recent interview from his home in Marin County, California. “We had ‘The Q’ [The Phil Lesh Quintet] which went for a couple of years, but it’s kinda hard in the final analysis to work around everyone’s schedules. As a result, we decided to try and get a band together that we could work with a while. All the musicians in the current line-up have given us a commitment that they will be available to work with us for about the next year or so. It is really a relief to have those commitments and now we can really focus on taking the music to another level.” The men who have signed on to work with Lesh are his longtime drummer John Molo, multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, singer-songwriter Jackie Greene and Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz. This line-up was debuted in late July at The Independent in San Francisco and drew rave reviews. The bluesy Jackie Greene has stepped into the spotlight and is handling many of the vocal duties as well as playing guitar and keyboards. “He’s a real find, this guy,” gushed Lesh. “Last year I heard a cut from his album American Myth on the radio and I said, ‘Whoa, who is that?’ ... And I went out and got his record. I absolutely loved it. Everything about it was just so wonderful, the tunes, the singing, the guitar playing, the arrangement and the way the guitars interlocked with one another and all these great little ideas that were bubbling in the background. It was just delightful. I said something about the album in an interview and two months later I got an email from Jackie ... we got together and it just clicked and we invited him to join the band. Fortunately, he jumped at the opportunity, which was really gratifying.” Steve Molitz is another relative youngster that Lesh has played with for a couple of one-off gigs over the past several years, but this is his first national tour with the bassist and it promises to be a special one. “Steve is a young guy with a whole different perspective ‘cause he comes out of that electronica jamband scene. I’ve been wanting to integrate that aspect of jamband music into my band for a long time and Steve is the ideal person because he can play the root stuff on the regular keyboards and jam out and yet when the moment is right he can do the really spacey, but still jammin’, kind of stuff,” Lesh said. Lesh is an anomaly in many ways because he is still striving, at the age of 67, to grow and develop as a musician. He consciously brought Molitz and Greene into the band because “the kind of energy that Steve and Jackie bring to the band is so fresh and so exciting that the rest of us old guys kinda gotta get jacked up to that level,” he said. “It makes us play differently and that’s really what I am after with the band. I want to be inspired to play outside of my comfort zone and outside of the box that I have always been in with the Grateful Dead.” In many ways, when Lesh returns to Colorado at the end of the month, he will be returning to a comfort zone in the form of Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Between the years of 1978 and 1984 the Grateful Dead played the famed venue 21 times and Lesh has returned many times as part of other projects. “Red Rocks seems to bring out the best in us, and we’ve got some special things up our sleeves for that gig,” he said. “We are going to be doing two full electric sets but in the middle we are going to do an acoustic set. Jackie’s music and his playing really lend themselves to that, so we are going to do the special acoustic set which we won’t be doing at The Fillmore.” :: Phil Lesh & Friends :: :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Sept. 28 :: :: Red Rocks Amphitheatre :: Sept. 29 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • The Grateful Dead • Jackie Greene • Ryan Adams

Phil Lesh & Friends enlist Jackie Greene and Particle’s Steve Molitz for fall tour

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:22:49 +0000

Monolith Festival: Must Hears

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:07:06 +0000

Editors

Friday :: New Belgium Stage :: 7:45 p.m.

This U.K. act has jumped on the hyperactive pop-punk machine of nostalgia that is currently being churned across the Atlantic. A hybrid of Franz Ferdinand and Echo and the Bunnymen, Editors forge far more experimental territory than their aforementioned inspirations. The Birmingham quartet’s 2005 debut The Back Room eared critical success as well as a Mercury Prize nomination for record sales in Britain, and found them on the bills of Coachella and Lollapalooza on this side of the pond. Their latest release An End Has a Start was helmed by legendary producer Jacknife Lee, who has been largely responsible for the signature sounds and success of U2, Kasabian and, more recently, Snow Patrol and Bloc Party.

— Brian Kenney

Ghostland Observatory

Friday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 4:30

Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner began their trial by theatrical fire just over three years ago in the podunk Texas town of Fort Stockton. Since then, Ghostland Observatory has wedged themselves into the Austin scene as the electronica act of choice, and more recently they have stormed the national festival scene. The two claim that Ghostland Observatory is not a band, but an agreement between two friends to create something that not only heals their beat-driven hearts, but pleases their rock and roll souls. Merging the stage show presence of P-Funk and Prince (in his kick-ass hey day) with a soundscape of crescendoing arpeggios, ice-cold breakdowns and the drum and bass of Daft Punk, Ghostland Observatory have released two albums this year and gone coast to coast with their live performances.

—    Brian Kenney

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Saturday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 5:40

Brian Jonestown Massacre front man Anton Newcombe is to psychedelic indie rock what Axl Rose is to rock and roll — a loose cannon that’s part prima donna and part psychopath. But the real similarity is that, like Rose, Newcombe is capable of producing some amazing music. The band, which is adamant about the fact that their portrayal in the documentary Dig! painted them in a bad light, also shadows Rose in that it has had 60 (that’s six-zero) members pass through the band over the years, the most infamous exodus of which was shown in Dig!, when the band quite literally lost it and rolled around on stage fighting in front of label execs. Recently, however, Newcombe’s writing has been hailed by critics and, of all people, Iggy Pop, for being fantastic. If they keep it together they just might be able to prove greatness, especially to the folks who show up for the Evel Knievel factor, hoping to see them crash and burn.

—    Brian F. Johnson

Ra Ra Riot

Friday :: woxy.com Stage :: 6:30 p.m.

In its brief two-year existence, Syracuse, New York’s Ra Ra Riot has already been dealt a serious setback that terminates many bands. The death of a band member is difficult for most bands that lack the hard-edged industry experience and gumption to continue when most call it quits. Drummer John Pike tragically drowned earlier in the summer just weeks before the eclectic, classically trained six-piece act released their highly anticipated debut EP. Nevertheless, Ra Ra Riot have triumphed over tragedy and carried on, securing slots on many desirable festival bills, in addition to a bi-coastal tour with Editors. This is due process for a band the British mag NME named as one of the “hot five” bands of the CMJ Music Marathon.

— Brian Kenney

Das EFX

Friday :: New Belgium Stage :: 6:15 p.m.

In the early 1990s two emcees from Brooklyn met at college in Petersburg, Virginia and hip-hop history was made. Skoob and Krazy Drazyz formed Das Efx and signed with Def Squad, the label of East Coast hip-hop heavyweights EPMD, and forever changed the face of rap music. The duo had perfected a style that Americanized reggae dancehall music and made it accessible to hip-hop audiences. Hip-Hop was born in the dancehalls in Jamaica, where deejays would talk and rhyme over the beats. Kool Herc brought hip-hop from Jamaica to the Bronx in the mid-Seventies. So it made poetic sense that nearly twenty years later someone from New York would take it back to jam rock. Das Efx’s 1992 release Dead Serious remains as one of the most imitated albums in the history of the genre.

—    Neil Mcintyre

Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos

Saturday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 4:30 p.m.

We made the claim two years ago and we say it again. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s is the band you want to tell your friends about. Get your buddies to fight the main-stage crowd and check out the band’s Saturday afternoon set. The “I-told-you-so” factor will be almost as satisfying as the show itself (for us and for you). The band’s sound “is a mixture of insightful guitars, witty rhythms and the electronic edge that echoes Postal Service (even though lead singer and songwriter Richard Edwards claims to have been doing it first). The painfully sincere lyrics are complimented by breaths of trumpet or cello and are delivered with comforting cynicism as songs like “Skeleton Key” engulf anything real and boil it down to a bittersweet memory,” wrote The Marquee in 2005. We could have written it again yesterday, because there’s no better way to describe what the hell this band does. Don't believe us? Ask the band’s 19,488 myspace friends. They’ll tell you.

—    Alex Samuel

Yacht

Saturday :: woxy.com Stage :: 10:30 p.m.

Jona Bechtolt, formerly one half of the popular duo The Blow, is well known for his electrifying performances. Bechtolt likes to perform geeky dancing, full of gymnast-like moves, and mix music that ranges from indie hip-hop to Prince-like funk during his sets. With an unbridled enthusiasm and super friendly demeanor, Bechtolt makes sure that the crowd is having a damn good time while he is in charge of the music. His techy cross-pollination has not gone unnoticed. He has been commissioned by numerous high-profile museums and art collectives and he’s produced an hour-long internet radio program with Clear Cut Press, a Northwest-based publisher of new literary work. Most recently, he performed with his frequent collaborator and girlfriend Claire L. Evans at New York’s The Kitchen, and a few days later performed at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris with West Coast laser folkies Lucky Dragons and Bobby Birdman.

— Tiffany Childs

Mobius Band

Friday :: woxy.com Stage :: 9:10 p.m.

Everyone has that picture of what the open road is: an 8mm-quality shot of blue skies, straight, empty road and sprawling space on the side. Maybe it comes from some collective unconscious, maybe it comes from a movie scene, or maybe it comes from bands like Mobius Band. The Brooklyn trio echo an electro-pop past, while layering distant voices with telling guitar. Half nostalgic and half revolutionary, the sincere lyrics somehow replicate that contemplative loneliness that gurgles up during road trips. The band was touring since they released their debut album The Loving Sound of Static in 2005, but recently stopped to record Heaven. The self-produced album was written and recorded over 19 months and is due out this October.

— Alex Samuel

White Rabbits

Saturday :: woxy.com Stage :: 6:30 p.m.

NME gave White Rabbits the #3 spot of Best Bands at SxSW and it seems like every other press outlet out there is clamoring to kiss their cotton tails, with rave reviews across the boards. The New York by way of the Midwest band has been praised for its stellar songwriting ability and instrumental prowess. Within a year of being in New York, the band caught the attention of Say Hey Records and producer Chris Zane. Their Say Hey debut Fort Nightly is said to have a certain joie de vive, a playfulness and charm which evokes days spent on the green, old cinemas, tragic mothers, and restrained, but no less awkward domestic disputes.

—    Brian F. Johnson

Cat-A-Tac

Friday :: woxy.com Stage :: 5:10 p.m.

This Denver four-piece brings to mind a slower, steadier drive of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Dandy Warhols and will come home to Denver in time for Monolith after a national tour highlighted by the release of their first full-length, Past Lies and Former Lives. On this disc, they’ve refined their sound, minimized some of the heavy guitars, and accentuated vocalist Jim McTurnan’s soft-spoken croon. They step into Red Rocks having simplified their sound and earned their keep on the road. In a world that celebrates Silversun Pickups, Cat-A-Tac is clearly on the cusp of national merit.

—    Brian Kenney

Laylights

Saturday :: New Belgium Stage :: 2 p.m.

Denver’s own Laylights will count Monolith as a career highlight and will take out all stops by drenching the stage with the same euphoric energy U2 did when they played the Rocks. Like The Killers in 2005, The Laylights’ self-titled 2006 EP possesses a sound that is not overproduced, exaggerated or pompous, but a fuller-produced well balanced exploratory sound akin to, most recently, Arcade Fire, Spiritualized and Interpol. Multiple appearances at SxSW and Denver’s Westword Showcases have only skimmed the surface of their potential. The Denver Post’s Ricardo Baca has said that the band’s live show makes “an airtight case for rock and roll as an Olympic sport. The Denver band is fearless, and this show showcased its manic dexterity and epic sound.”

—    Brian Kenney

The Thieves

Saturday :: Rock Room Stage :: 4:30 p.m.

British born but California based; it’s no wonder The Thieves are ‘Bowie meets the Beach Boys.’ They are England’s answer to The Strokes. With super-melodic and radio friendly verse-chorus-verse punchy songs, the Oxford, England-born two brothers and a drummer" trio will singe Monolith with a whiskey-infested set of straight-ahead rock that will give Kings of Leon and BMRC a run for their money. And now that they’re resident Californians, expect a slight surfer edge to their more recent tunes, especially considering they’re now sponsored by Rip Curl and have been added to Bam Margera's Viva La Bands Tour.

—    Brian Kenney

Machine Gun Blues

Saturday :: Rock Room Stage :: 9:50 p.m.

They are used to beer-soaked floors and sweat-soaked instruments, but Red Rocks should prove an accepting venue for Denver’s self-described “shameless rockers.” Recently returning from a West Coast jaunt, MGB brings a certain stripped-down sense of rock and roll to Monolith. Stripped in the sense that the audience should not be surprised if band members end up in various stages of undress. But also stripped in the sense that their sound recalls G’n’R in their infancy, the Live, Like a Suicide era. They are Denver's answer to Jet: nostalgic, raw, and energetic rock.

—    Brian Kenney

3 OH! 3

Friday :: Rock Room Stage :: 9:50 p.m.

How often has this happened: You’re sitting at a red light. The SUV next to you is pumping gansta rap so loudly that your rear-view mirror is vibrating. The rapper shouts out to Boulder — as in Colorado. Rare, right? Not lately! In fact, if you haven’t heard lines like “Yous a punk-bitch if you don’t know about Boulder” spilling from speakers or seen kids flashing 3Oh!3 hand symbols, you’re getting old. Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte’s raucous antics can pump up anyone with a heartbeat. The Boulder-filmed video for “Holler Till You Pass Out” is being featured on mtvU’s website. The band has even opened for Snoop Dogg himself (just a few weeks ago at the Fillmore in Denver). They’re the hottest thing in B-Dizzle Boulder, Foreman rocks a mean ’stache and they own the basketball courts (the ones with the elementary school-sized hoops, anyway).

—    Alex Samuel

Gregory Alan Isakov

Saturday :: Songwriter Stage :: 2 p.m.

Gregory Alan Isakov is hardly just another singer/songwriter. His dusty guitar and haunting voice slowly ease into your awareness and settle there with banjo-licks and steady rhythms. His first full-length album That Sea, The Gambler came out last May and was recorded partly in Isakov’s barn. Isakov’s band The Freight lends a subtle touch to the album’s delicately arranged ballads and a dynamic boost to songs like “Black & Blue,” and the jazz-laced “Salt and the Sea.” Isakov was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and grew up in Philadelphia. At the end of the last decade, Isakov moved to Colorado and, in 2007, won the Telluride Troubadour competition and received Westword’s Best Singer/Songwriter award.

— Alex Samuel

Monolith Festival: Red Rocks’ Biggest-Ever Festival Set To Blast Off

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:05:43 +0000

Cake

Friday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 10:15 p.m.

CAKE is one of those bands with a distinctive sound that is easy to identify, yet remains hard to label. In an amusing classification, Vince Difiore – trumpet, keys, vocals — told The Marquee in a recent interview, CAKE’s music is “just a bit downstream from mainstream.” Downstream or not, the band’s combination of funk, ska, pop, jazz, rap and country, among other genres, serves as the musical backing for songs ripe with lyrical wordplay, creating a style that has won the band several platinum albums and a dedicated fanbase that spans all sorts of demographics. Part of the Columbia Records label for five years, CAKE recently decide to part ways with the major and create their own label, Upbeat Records. It’s on this label that the band plans to release their latest effort B-Sides and Rarities in October of this year. The album, a collection of songs originally sung by legends such as Frank Sinatra and George Jones, signifies a fresh start for CAKE. “This gives the band a new life,” Difiore said of the transition. “It’s a bit like moving from junior high to high school, moving from Columbia to our own label.” For a band that has cared so much for the arrangement and sound of their songs, it seems fitting that they would move into a role where they are able to control more of what happens in the recording process, from deciding when to release an album to how to package it. “On [Columbia Records] we were contractually obligated to put out albums at certain times. Now, we aren’t going to put something out because it’s time. Rather, we will put something out because it’s good and we believe in it,” Difiore said. With their parting from Columbia Records, CAKE has taken matters into their own hands and life couldn’t look sweeter. The band has built a tour to support the release of the newest album they believe in, B-Sides and Rarities, and part of that tour includes headlining at the highly anticipated Monolith festival. Difiore said of the opportunity, “We are looking forward to playing Monolith because [Red Rocks] is a really amazing place to be and to play. I’d go there to see someone play the polka on an accordion just because of how beautiful it is.” But CAKE is a band that also appreciates the hard work involved in something as massive as Monolith. “This is an event, so bands know they have to come and put on their best show, but to organize something like this – that takes a lot of work,” Difiore. Besides, the festival itself is something CAKE really believes in. “It’s the end of the summer and things are winding down. People need this sort of thing before winter settles in. Just to be outside having a good time and listening to music in that sort of setting is cool in itself,” Difiore said. Monolith seems to be part of a great beginning to a new chapter in the story of CAKE. Luckily for festival goers, they’ll be playing something a little better than the polka.

— Tiffany Childs

Cloud Cult

Saturday :: New Belgium Stage :: 9:30 p.m.

Picture a group of passionate musicians with lofty ideals and some of the highest morals you’ve ever run into. Now picture them on stage playing songs that range from ballads to fast-driving rock guitar, all tinged with electronica. Meanwhile, on another part of the stage, two visual artists each begin and finish a painting during the set. You’ve just become passingly familiar with what Cloud Cult does in the music world. Cloud Cult is being hailed as one of the up-and-coming bands that will be playing the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks this month. Although, with a start in the early ’90s, seven releases under their belt and a very enthusiastic fanbase, it seems a bit odd calling Cloud Cult the next big thing. Recently The Marquee caught up with Craig Minowa, founder/singer/songwriter of Cloud Cult, and chatted about some of his thoughts on what Cloud Cult tries to bring to the table and why their fans are so, well, fanatic. Minowa told The Marquee, “I am still continuously mystified by the fans’ enthusiasm. In the places where we have an audience I just wonder about how these people hear of us.” This lack of ego, which seems to be a Cloud Cult staple, may be a contributing factor of the group’s likeability, especially in an industry where big egos are the norm. Another reason for the loyalty might have something to do with the band’s ethos. Minowa’s background is in Environmental Science and his environmental, political and social awareness is often reflected in the music Cloud Cult makes. Not only do the lyrics reflect these convictions, the band took it one step further and created a not-for-profit record label that uses the most eco-friendly methods they can find to minimize their damage to the environment, whether they are planting acres of trees or using solar powered items to offset the use of power necessary to put on a concert. Although these sort of ideals coupled with Cloud Cult’s heavy, moving music create a fierce dedication in fans, the ever-increasing following hasn’t been an easy accomplishment. “It’s been sort of a gradual thing, kind of like walking up a big staircase,” Minowa said about the gaining popularity of Cloud Cult. With the recent release of The Meaning of 8 Cloud Cult has been satiating their fans’ thirsts for live shows by touring almost constantly since March. Monolith represents the last stop of their tour and Minowa told The Marquee that the band was incredibly excited and honored to be playing the festival. “Connie [Craig’s wife and one of the visual artists on stage] and I and the rest of the band get burned out in city clubs and we are looking forward to the show at Red Rocks because we really thrive in an outdoor environment. And because it’s our last show I have a feeling it’s going to be really alive and energetic,” he said. We have a feeling Minowa may be right. With the ever-present theme of the celebration of life in their songs, Cloud Cult’s elegantly crafted and beautifully performed music should seem right at home among the natural beauty of Red Rocks.

— Tiffany Childs

This Month in Music History - October

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:07:37 +0000

This Month in music history October 2 • 1967: All six members of the Grateful Dead are arrested for drug possession after a raid at their 710 Ashbury Street house in San Francisco • 1951: Sting is born Gordon Sumner October 3 • 1967: Woody Guthrie dies at the age of 55 • 1954: Stevie Ray Vaughan is born October 4 • 1970: Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room at the age of 27 • 1956: Johnny Cash is jailed for one night for drug possession October 5 • 1954: Humanitarian and Boomtown Rats leader Bob Geldof is born • 1949: Brian Johnson of AC/DC is born October 7 • 1957: “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark premieres on U.S. television October 8 • 1980: Bob Marley collapses during a concert in Pittsburgh and will never perform again • 1966: The U.S. Government officially declares LSD an illegal substance October 9 • 1975: Sean Ono Lennon is born • 1940: John Lennon is born October 10 • 1953: David Lee Roth is born • 1917: Thelonius Monk is born October 12 • 1997: John Denver is killed when the plane he is piloting crashes over Monterey Bay, Calif. • 1979: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull suffers an eye injury after a rose is thrown on stage • 1978: Nancy Spungen, girlfriend to ex-Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, is found dead of knife wounds in Room 100 of New York City’s Chelsea Hotel October 13 • 1941: Singer/songwriter Paul Simon is born October 16 • 1977: John Mayer is born • 1962: Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers is born Michael Balzary • 1947: Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead is born October 17 • 1974: Eminem is born Bruce Marshall Mathers III October 18 • 1926: Chuck Berry is born October 19: • 1965: Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd is born October 20 • 1977: Lynyrd Skynyrd loses Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines when their plane crashes into a Mississippi swamp • 1971: Snoop Doggy Dogg is born Calvin Broadus October 21 • 1995: Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of an overdose at the age of 28 October 25 • 1991: Concert promoter Bill Graham dies in a helicopter crash October 27 • 1967: Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver is born October 28 • 1936: Charlie Daniels is born October 29 • 1971: At the age of 24, Duane Allman dies undergoing surgery after he is injured in a motorcycle accident in Macon, GA October 30 • 1986: License To Ill by The Beastie Boys becomes the first rap album to reach #1 October 31 • 1966: King Ad-Rock of The Beastie Boys is born Adam Horovitz Compiled from the archives of Rock & Roll Library www.rocklibrary.com

CD Reviews - October - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:47:34 +0000

Black Crowes Brothers of a Feather: Live at the Roxy Eagle Vision 4 out of 5 To many Black Crowes fans, the last few years since the band reunited have been relatively flat. The band hasn’t done any press to let their fans know what’s going on, they’ve shed two members and only message board rumors and vague press releases have given any type of insight into it all. And despite last year’s CD/DVD release of Freak N’ Roll Into the Fog, no new material has been released (although, they still maintain that it’s coming). But last year, even the most jaded ‘Amoricans’ fell back in love with the brothers Robinson when they performed a series of duo acoustic shows under the moniker Brothers of a Feather. The CD part of the project was released this summer, but just last month a combo CD/DVD package hit the shelves that’s guaranteed to be the most important release by the band since its platinum selling Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Brothers of a Feather offers 14 CD tracks and 20 DVD tracks all culled from the Los Angeles shows, which go from the black birds’ earliest releases all the way through their solo work (when the Crowes were on hiatus), and the set also features two brand new songs “Magic Rooster Blues” and “Cold Boy Smile.” Some of the most shining moments of the set include the covers, such as Lowell George’s “Roll Um Easy,” and the amazing Roosevelt Skye track “Driving Wheel.” Even though the footage shows a subdued and seated Robinson brothers, Rich Robinson takes his typical serious role, while Chris takes his usual goofy ambassador role. Chris’s interactions with the crowd — particularly when he tries to act as if he feels mushrooms are “illegal and wrong” — are loveable and hilarious. Production-wise, the shows lacked flair on purpose and thus both the CD and DVD are without it as well, which is fine, but the post-production could have done more to highlight Rich’s playing, which at times is overshadowed by Chris’s ultra-powerful voice. Regardless of that flaw, this is the best thing that the boys have done since reuniting and, hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come. — Brian F. Johnson Phish Live Phish (8.13.93/10.21.95/11.14.95/12.01.95/12.29.97) Jemp Records 4 out of 5 In an effort to capitalize on the free trade of their shows, Phish, several years ago, started to put out LivePhish releases. The latest batch to be released (8.13.93 / 10.21.95 / 11.14.95 / 12.01.95 and 12.29. 97) hit the mark just where other LivePhish releases have. Their production is dialed-in perfect with re-mastered soundboard audio and their packaging is flawless in its simplistic design. It’s also wickedly cool that you can purchase the packaged CDs, or buy the MP3 or Flac files right on your computer, and some shows now have the option of video selections as well. There is only one problem with the whole LivePhish set, and that’s a simple organization problem. A lot of the data, including dates, venues, cities and otherwise, are inconsistently organized from disc to disc, making iTunes importing a hassle and web searches a must. It’s a minor glitch in the spectrum of the whole set, but one that should be remedied for the anal-retentive hippies who care enough to buy the CDs — Brian F. Johnson Kinetix Talking to Faces Independent 3.5 out of 5 The Denver five-piece Kinetix bills themselves as a funk-pop-jazz group, but their latest album, Talking to Faces, just might have fans looking in the rock section of the music store for their disc. While the band still holds on to the orchestration and roots that originally gave them that classification, Talking to Faces stretches it more into the rock realm. In fact, the opening bars of the title track specifically show the fence that the band teeters on and how effortlessly they can bounce between sounds. With a funky bass line and wah-wah heavy guitar part, the band launches the song, before heading in, balls first, to a rock riff and screaming guitar solo and back again. Throughout, the vocals hold a very pop feel over the music, like a cheering section for the musicians, but it’s done without taking away from the musical realms the band is exploring, and they add to the ample energy. — Brian F. Johnson Pete Kartsounes Out of Nowhere Independent 3.5 out of 5 Boulder guitarist/ singer/songwriter Pete Kartsounes was never as successful as he was when he was teamed up with his old musical partner Brendan MacNaughton. But his newest release, Out of Nowhere, certainly makes a conscious effort to surround him with the best bluegrass pickers and Americana musicians the Front Range has to offer. The result is a strong album that showcases some of his best work since he and his former band Acoustic Semi/Possum Logic parted ways. Kartsounes has spent the last several years playing in a number of local and regional acts, most recently Wayword Sons, and the maturation is apparent in these songs that touch on his familiar themes of love, location and lament, but do so without the trite songwriter pitfalls he’s shown in the past. The musicianship is stellar and Kartsounes’ always-strong voice shines among these deeper, more developed tracks. It could very well be his best work to date. — Brian F. Johnson QUICK SPINS Ingrid Michaelson Girls and Boys Cabin 24 Records This New York songstress is enjoying her turn in the limelight after writing a song for the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” and having a song featured in an Old Navy ad. Michaelson may have shot to fame via those routes, but her music warrants the attention. 3 out of 5 stars Kennedy Kennedy for President Cordless Recordings This singer/song-writer has a manic style comparable to Beck; the main difference being that there is a lot more pomp than substance, although that may be an asset for Kennedy in today’s image-driven music scene. 2 out of 5 stars Cipes and the People Conscious Revolution KG2 Records Reggae was always meant to be more of a musical weapon than the back-ground music to a bong session. This hook-filled album catches a fire and the true spirit of the reggae movement. 3 out of 5 stars Megadeth Warchest (Box set) Capitol Records This massive box set proves without a doubt that even though Metallica may have sold more records, Megadeth has tons more integrity and talent. Filled with a full arsenal of unreleased tracks, this is a must for any Megadeth fan. 4 out of 5 stars Keith Richards Under Review Sexy Intellectual Productions Normally, “unauthorized” DVD’s aren’t worth much, but this look at the Rolling Stone’s guitarist who is sometimes known as “the human riff” has a lot going for it and spans almost two hours. 3 out of 5 stars Various Artists Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur Warner Brothers Officially sanctioned by Yoko Ono, musical heavyweights like Aerosmith and Green Day team up with Amnesty International to pay tribute to John Lennon and raise money to stop the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. 4 out of 5 stars

Industry Profile: Chuck Morris grows his legend with new AEG Live post

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:38:54 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson Concert promoters are a rough and tumble type of crowd. Some of the more legendary ones in the business have egos that overshadow the artists they promote. But Chuck Morris, who last year left Live Nation and just recently took over the position of president and chief executive officer of AEG Live, Rocky Mountain Region, defies that stereotype. Sure, he’s eccentric, continually juggling countless pairs of glasses with an almost obsessive compulsive drive and sure, he’s got some been-there-done-that slickness to him, but talk with Morris for more than a minute and there’s an immediate understanding and recognition that this is a humble man who loves his work. That work has taken him from CU Boulder, where he dropped out of a Ph.D program to manage The Sink, on University Hill, which he grew to be the number one 3.2 bar in the state. He reminisces fondly about lines that wrapped around the building in The Sink’s heyday. Going through his extensive resume would take pages, but the quick rundown is that he opened and ran the renowned Ebetts Field club, named after the Brooklyn Dodgers ballpark that was eight blocks from his childhood home. He served as senior vice-president of the famous — and-infamous — Barry Fey’s Feyline Productions. He ran his own management company, representing bands like Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Lyle Lovett, Leftover Salmon, and Leo Kottke, and in 1998 he started Bill Graham Presents/Chuck Morris Presents. After a few purchases, the company finally became Live Nation. During that time he also transformed the then-Mammoth Gardens into one of Denver’s finest rooms, the Fillmore Auditorium, with whom he now competes. Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended? Morris: I found God when I saw the Kingston Trio. It was in 1956. Marquee: What was the first album you ever bought? Morris: The Kingston Trio. Marquee: One of your first jobs in the industry was running Tulagi, in Boulder. Does it kill you that it’s a sandwich shop now? Morris: I guess it should, but it doesn’t. I don’t really live in the past. The business has changed and if you live on condemning how the business has changed you're never going to stay in the business. I’m still involved in some of the greatest music in the world, so I shouldn’t complain, and frankly, the club business almost killed me. I was certainly part of the 1970s and early ’80s partying time in the rock and roll business, but that’s all changed and so have I. Marquee: You’ve said that your senior V.P. of promotions, Don Strasburg, is like a son to you and that your chief operating officer, Brent Fedrizzi, is ‘one of the most together promoters’ you’ve ever seen. How have you always been able to be the coach to your team? Morris: I never took any of those courses, but I have a very serious work ethic, having grown up in a lower class area in Brooklyn. My father was a school teacher and principal and had a lot of jobs to support his family and I learned that it was important to work hard and treat people right. In the old days, part of my job was to make sure people didn’t quit Feyline. Barry, God bless him, was one of the greatest promoters of all time, but was still difficult to deal with and one-fifth of my job was making sure people didn’t quit. One of my better features is I’m a good coach. I’ve always been a good orchestra leader. There may be a few people I didn’t get along with, but not very many. I always hear — without bragging — that I’m one of the most likeable people in the music business and I’m very proud of that. This is a business where a lot of people don’t like a lot of people. Marquee: You told me you always idolized musicians so you were never comfortable trying to live like one. What do you mean by that? Morris: I grew up loving music and going to Broadway shows for a dollar, where they’d let you sit in the back or give you standing room only on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I went to all the famous musicals in the 1950s. And so I grew up idolizing musicians and was very humble when it comes to musicians, and I think that’s an advantage because I’ve never forgotten that I work for them. When your ego gets too big and you feel like you're more important than the artists, you have a lot of problems. Marquee: You’ve booked some of the biggest acts in the world, broken bread with the biggest stars. What stands out in your mind as your best time in the business. Morris: Well, maybe the best night of my life in the business was when I had Earl Scruggs play at Tulagi. He had left Flatt and Scruggs and was touring with his sons and at the end of the night as we were settling up (and I’m all excited because I love Earl Scruggs) he said to me, with tears in his eyes, that he wanted to thank me for giving he and his sons a chance to play the club. I’ll never forget that. Marquee: You’ve been a big supporter of politicians and have a love for politics that runs deep. Will we ever see you run for office? Morris: Maybe. I’ve thought about it. Maybe when I’m done here I’ll run for city council.

From the Barstool of the Publisher - October, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:36:18 +0000

With this being the October issue, it’s pretty safe to say that summer is finally and quite officially over. But September — that month on the cusp with summer weather and an autumn calendar — certainly did its best to take the title of the best summer month for concerts. Here’s the quick re-cap (in no particular order and with obvious omissions for space): two nights of Wilco, two nights of Yonder Mountain String Band, Snoop Dogg, The Killers, VHS or Beta, STS9, Built to Spill, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, the Black Crowes, Marc Ford (without the Crowes), Rilo Kiley, The Academy Is... and two nights of Monolith at Red Rocks, to name a few. Each show was amazing and should provide enough momentum into the fall and winter to hold us freaks over until next spring, when we venture outside again for music. I must say that despite the fact that a couple of my all-time favorite bands played in Colorado last month (and played really good shows, at that) my highlight was Monolith. In fact, I think the festival could go down as the best thing I’ve witnessed so far this year. When I spoke with the festival directors, asking what to expect of the event, they had rattled off this phrase that sounded rehearsed and self-fulfilling, about how the element of discovery would be a dominating centerpiece of Monolith. Well, you know, their phrase may have been scripted but they were also right. Looking through the Monolith line-up, there were a lot of bands that I knew and a lot of bands that I had seen live before. But the list of bands that I didn’t know anything about was much, much longer, and that proved to be the most incredible fun for me. I had heard of Earl Greyhound, but had never seen them and they blew me away. I knew nothing of Clout Cult and again, I was floored. And even though they come from my town, I had never seen 3Oh!3 and I was shocked at how great those boys rocked the stage. Discovering music is always a touchy thing for me. When I’m told, “Oh, you’ll love this,” I can almost bet that I won’t. But when I’m allowed to find music on my terms, that is when it speaks to me the most and that is exactly what Monolith provided. People bitched about the event online after it was over, saying that the way the stages were spread out and the stairs in between made it suck. But I said it then and I’ll say it again now: If I can waddle my fat ass up and down the amphitheatre stairs without complaining, then the people who live in Colorado so that they can hike and bike and ski every weekend ought to be able to handle it too. Plus, if that’s your biggest gripe, then the festival was without a doubt a success. Stop your whining! See you at the shows.

Future Rock turns heads with new album GEARS and Daft Punk reenactments

Marquee Magazine — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:33:16 +0000

:: Future Rock :: Aggie Theatre :: October 11 :: Fox Theatre :; October 12 :: Bluebird Theater :: October 13 ::

By Jim Collins Future Rock pride themselves on being a fresh voice in the electronic music world, but it was a recent jaunt as a cover band that brought in their largest audience to date. In late August in front of thousands of fans at Camp Bisco, an electronic music festival in New York, the Chicago trio transformed into Daft Rock for a special late night tribute to one of their idols. While their show didn’t offer the dazzling pyramid or the robot suits, it did generate quite a buzz. As electronic music enthusiasts, the band is quite familiar with the spectacle that is live Daft Punk. A few weeks before Camp Bisco, the trio got some inspiration by taking in Daft Punk’s show at Lollapalooza. And before that, Future Rock bassist Felix Moreno said he rocked their legendary Coachella performance for a few months straight on his iPod. “What I love about Daft Punk is that it’s electronic, but it’s also arena rock,” said Moreno in a recent interview with The Marquee. “It’s house music but it transcends into that rock and roll hardness. It’s right up our alley. That’s what we’re trying to do.” At this point in Future Rock’s career, it might be more bar rock than arena rock, but the local group is definitely putting their own spin on electronic music. They have that digitized, robotic sound, but they look more like a traditional rock band, with Moreno on bass, Mickey Kellerman on keyboards and Darren Heitz on drums. “We’re really trying to infuse the rock aspect — turn the amp up to fuckin’ 11, have Darren bang the shit out of his crash, head bang, fist pump. I want to see sweat streaming off of the audience because they are dancing so hard,” Moreno said. Another thing that sets this instrumental trio apart is their insistence on creating the music organically. You won’t find any laptops at a Future Rock show. Audiences sometimes mistake drum beats for pre-recorded samples, but Moreno says just about every sound is being created on the spot. Between Heitz’s percussion, Kellerman’s combination of synthesizers and a vintage keyboard, and Moreno’s bass guitar and synthesizer, there is quite a bit of sonic layering going on at Future Rock’s dance-driven concerts. “Darren will sample himself live and use a synthesizer to affect the loops he makes and then he’ll play on top of it with either electronic or acoustic drums,” Moreno explained. “And that’s the case with all of our music. What we’re doing is a little different. We’re playing this stuff live with instruments. It has a different feel. I don’t know how many people are interpreting electronic music in a live setting the way that we are. We are actually physically playing every part.” Fresh off a summer of festival gigs, Future Rock is now concentrating on supporting the October release of their second studio album, GEARS, on Harmonized Records. The new offering follows last year’s self-released debut, Sugar Coated Bullets. While much of the first album was written on whiskey and coffee in the studio, GEARS was fueled by Red Bull and vodka and involved reworking a lot of material they had previously played in concert. The band feels the new 11-track release is a better representation of the live Future Rock experience. “We really managed to keep a lot of the attitude that we have live,” Moreno said. “Not to take anything away from Sugar Coated Bullets — we’re really proud of that album, too. But this has more of a ruckus attitude and a feeling that is much more pure rock and roll. It’s just more bangin’ — period.” :: Future Rock :: :: Aggie Theatre :: October 11 :: :: Fox Theatre :; October 12 :: :: Bluebird Theater :: October 13 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Daft Punk • Justice • Idealism

Lotus closes out summer festival season and launches new album in Denver

Marquee Magazine — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:29:47 +0000

:: Lotus :: Aggie Theatre :: October 5 :: Ogden Theatre :: October 6 ::

By Lisa Oshlo While few bands these days truly can be said to push the envelope, Philadelphia-based Lotus clearly stands within this group. Purveyors of a sound that’s a little bit disco and a little bit rock and roll, the music of Lotus encompasses many genres. When catching them live, the predominant genre would be jam; the members of Lotus are masters of improvisation and are constantly evolving their sound onstage. Made up of Steve Clemens on drums, Jesse Miller on bass and sampler, Luke Miller on guitar and keys, Chuck Morris on electronic and acoustic percussion, and Mike Rempel on guitar, Lotus formed on the campus of a Mennonite college in 1999. “Some of the administration did not want Lotus playing on campus because we also performed at bars, and I guess that meant we encouraged drinking,” said Jesse Miller in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Otherwise, the biggest challenge was finding venues to perform at around Northern Indiana and Michigan while still being able to make it to class Monday morning.” All of their efforts were not in vain, as Lotus has become one of the most exciting bands on the jam band circuit today. Their blend of down tempo, instrumental post-rock, dance, and live electronica is on the cusp of an emerging new genre. Their newest album, Escaping Sargasso Sea, is their most exciting release yet. The double disc set is a collection of fan favorites, new tracks, and the organic improvisation of recent live shows. “It is the best sounding live recording of Lotus available, and I think it translates the energy of the live show into something that can be listened to anywhere,” said Miller. The high energy of their live shows has made Lotus a mainstay on the late-night festival scene. The music gets the crowd moving, as familiar compositions are broken down and restructured in front of the audience. “The compositions dictate how much improvisation will take place — some are more open-ended than others,” said Miller. “We like to mix up our sets and take some risks with different transitions or completely improvised sections. The goal is for the band to be able to feed off the crowd’s energy and often this is easiest to do in the improvised sections.” And speaking of live shows, the band has something special planned for their show this month at Denver’s Ogden Theater. “Since the album came out we have been playing festivals exclusively, so we have decided to make the Denver show the album release party, Lost at Sargasso Sea. So break out a pirate eye patch or mermaid costume and come on down to the Ogden,” Miller said. “We are also letting fans vote on one composition for the band to bring out of retirement for the night.” And lest anyone is confused, Miller lays it on the line: “Lotus is a rock band. We have guitars and drums, our shows take place at rock venues and not in dance clubs. We are trying to blur the lines somewhat by incorporating compositional elements traditionally associated with electronic production and leaning toward certain types of grooves that have origins in dance and DJ culture. But, at the end of the day, we are not on stage simply pushing buttons, clicking a mouse, or playing along to pre-recorded tracks.” :: Lotus :: :: Aggie Theatre :: October 5 :: :: Ogden Theatre :: October 6 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Sound Tribe Sector 9 • Pnuma Trio • The New Deal

Aesop Rock drops politics from his new album and rehearses like a madman

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:25:03 +0000

:: Aesop Rock :: Black Sheep :: October 17 :: Cervantes :: October 18 :: Fox Theatre :: October 19 :: Aggie Theatre :: October 20 ::

By Mike Scales “It is far too easy to hate on something because pop culture has watered it down,” wrote Definitive Jux label rapper Aesop Rock in a recent URB magazine article. “To entirely dismiss hip-hop as being ‘dead’ is a little like saying elephants are dead because they are no longer armored and used in battles like they were in 16th Century India.” No truer words have been written in the defense of hip-hop culture and the underground innovators who constantly strive to explore the possibilities of this young genre. Case in point: From the first few seconds of “None Shall Pass,” the title track from Aesop Rock’s new highly-anticipated LP, it’s clear that his vision of the art form is more vital and alive than that which was displayed in any of his previous output. The song’s subtle techno thump, spacey keys and guitar with shuffling hi-hats, sounds almost otherworldly, as does the rapper’s frenetic delivery. On the phone with The Marquee from his new San Francisco abode, Aesop discussed the direction of his new material, the upcoming None Shall Pass Tour and all the painstaking crap in between. “Recording Bazooka Tooth in New York after 9/11, it was hard to avoid the political issues being talked about everywhere, all the time,” confessed the rapper of his 2003 Def Jux full-length. “That definitely had an effect on the vibe of that record.” Four years later, as war continues to rage in Iraq, Aesop felt that a musical change of pace was somewhat inevitable. “It’s funny, ’cause I’ve almost become numb to the war at this point and some of the political rap out there just sounds like rappers are preaching and talking at you. I’ve tried to steer clear of that this time around by making a record that’s more of an escape and telling stories you can get lost in. I just don’t want [politics] in my music at this point,” he said. A perfect example of this new direction is the song “Fumes,” a track about a relationship plagued by drugs, that was over a year in the making. “All I had was this great bass line and one verse of lyrics,” said Aesop. “The beat was kind of repetitive, though, and I ended up dropping it until about a year-and-a-half later. At that point, [producer] Blockhead came through and we decided to finish the story and completely pick the beat apart and try to make something epic.” With None Shall Pass in the bag and the subsequent tour pending, Aesop’s days are mostly filled with rehearsal and promotion, which basically means his schedule already has him crisscrossing the country. “We’ve been rehearsing for the tour in New York,” he said, “so I went from there to L.A., where we shot the [horror/zombie-themed] video for ‘Coffee,’ back to New York for rehearsal, came home again for the [NSP album artist] Jeremy Fish art opening, then back to New York again for more rehearsals.” When it comes down to it, it seems that rehearsing with Blockhead and fellow Jukies Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz is the most important pre-tour aspect for this seasoned rapper. “The decision to have a live band or not, how to work in these visuals we have for each song in the set…just the live vibe in general is something we’ve really been focusing on,” said Aesop. “The idea is figuring out how to take this [live hip-hop] tradition and somehow make it my own. Everyone involved in Def Jux has been at it for so long now, we should know how to have fans feeling like they really saw a show, ya know?” :: Aesop Rock :: :: Black Sheep :: October 17 :: :: Cervantes :: October 18 :: :: Fox Theatre :: October 19 :: :: Aggie Theatre :: October 20 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Sage Francis • Brother Ali • Talib Kweli

Liars release fourth album and tour with Interpol, but who can believe them?

Marquee Magazine — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:21:07 +0000

:: Liars :: Fillmore Auditorium :: October 14 ::

By Tiffany Childs Liars is a band known for drastic musical shifts in each of their albums and their latest release, the self-titled Liars, is no different. With their mystical and heavy sound, Liars is a band that has grown used to gaining and alienating fans with every new release. Liars, however, may see the band gain more admirers than ever before because this isn’t just a reinvention; it’s a brand new start for the group, using a simplistic approach to songwriting that we haven’t seen or possibly even imagined coming from Liars. In a recent interview with The Marquee, Aaron Hemphill (percussion/guitar/synth) told us that this tendency to change each album is actually purposeful and not just a reaction to their previous work. “When we are making an album we try to exhaust all the possibilities before moving on. We try to make it so everything is covered in whatever style we are doing. And then we make a natural transition to what we’re interested in next,” he said. The band — Angus Andrew (vocals/guitar) and Julian Gross (drums) round out the trio — definitely covers every possible scenario when making an album. Their last release, Drums Not Dead, came with an entire multi-media package in which each track had three distinct short films. Although Liars leaves behind the 30-minute “sound collages” as well as the multi-media aspects, it is still an album that showcases the group’s creative ability and, according to Aaron, was just as much, if not more work due to how quickly they created it. Andrew said of the record, “We aimed to make songs that weren’t going to require a concept. Aaron and I wanted to write songs that spoke for themselves in a more visceral way — like when you’re a teenager and things really mean a lot for you in a song.” So they went back and listened to bands they liked as teenagers, people like OMD, The Cure, and Siouxsie and The Banshees, and created songs to remind themselves of what it was like to be a teenager and have a record make a real impact on you. Besides not being a “concept” album, Liars sees the band demonstrate a previously unseen range of music within one record. In past albums, Liars usually picked a specific genre, whether it be dance-punk or electro-acoustic experimentation. This album, however, jumps from Beach Boys-influenced melodies to no-fi electric shuffles, all without missing a beat. Hemphill told The Marquee, “It is exciting that people look for changes in each album,” but that there was a more common element than people often see. Ultimately, he says, what fans hear is not so different after all. It’s more of an emphasis on different parts of a song, rather than creating a whole new style each time they record. As Andrew mentioned, both he and Hemphill write the songs. What is a bit awe-inspiring is that they do it separately, sometimes half a world away from one another, as was the case for Liars — Andrew was in L.A. and Hemphill in Berlin — up until two weeks before recording. “We just send demos to one another. It’s rare that we come up with songs together,” Hemphill said. And even if their aim for the record’s sound is different, Andrew said he was more interested in the bass, while Hemphill focused on the “high-end trebly stuff,” they still met on the idea: “writing songs about freedom and teenage melodrama.” The trio is taking those teenage melodrama songs on tour with Interpol and they are pretty pleased about the opportunity. “Interpol’s audience is pretty cool and open-minded and are responding well to us. It’s exciting to play for people who don’t know you when you convert them into fans,” Hemphill said of the tour. In what must be taken with a little skepticism, Hemphill told The Marquee that Denver was his favorite place to play. And although he refused to say anything further, he did mention that they were all happy to be touring in general in America again, this time playing larger venues and previously unvisited states. Playing in bigger places and new states definitely presents some challenges, though. “We certainly have different acoustic challenges now in the larger venues and the challenges are a little scary, but we’ve always been a band that wanted to do what is scary for us,” Hemphill concluded. However, with a fourth album release and touring as the opening act for Interpol, life for Liars must certainly be looking a little less scary. :: Liars :: ::FIllmore Auditorium :: October 14 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Deerhoof • Xiu Xiu • Sonic Youth

Jose Gonzalez releases In Our Nature with even more sophistication than Veneer

Marquee Magazine — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:15:10 +0000

:: Jose Gonzalez :: Bluebird Theatre :: October 12 ::

By Tim Dwenger Seven years ago a record executive never would have looked for the next superstar singer/songwriter in a University of Gothenburg, Sweden research lab, yet that was exactly where he was spending his time. The student was Jose Gonzalez and, at the time, he was pursuing an advanced degree in biochemistry and merely dabbling in music on the side. Today, Gonzalez has won several international music awards and sold more than 700,000 copies of his debut album Veneer. He has toured the globe, from Scandinavia to Japan, several times over and captivated audiences with his deftly subtle finger-picking and understated vocals. As you might assume when listening to his music, Gonzalez is a humble and soft-spoken man. However, more than once during a conversation with The Marquee from a London hotel room, he made references to the current state of the music business as being full of “artistic compromises.” Though he has performed at some of the largest festivals in the world, including Austin City Limits and Coachella here in the States, he made it very clear that “most festivals are compromises for me. Musically, they aren’t that good because usually the stages and sound systems are made for rock and loud music and it is difficult to get my acoustic guitar to sound as good as I want it to.” Later in same conversation, he referenced the relatively new practice of licensing songs to corporations for commercials in much the same light. It might seem to some as if these comments were, in a way, biting the hand that feeds him, as Gonzalez owes much of his rapid rise to international acclaim to these two mediums and, specifically, to one television commercial. In 2005, his take on The Knife’s “Heartbeats” was featured in an international ad campaign for Sony’s Bravia line of televisions. The ad was a fascinating artistic statement, featuring 250,000 super balls careering down a San Francisco street, and apparently that was enough for Gonzalez. “Most of the time I get to see the ad before I say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and I usually feel like it depends on what the advert is about and whether it is a great idea or not,” he said, before switching gears and complimenting music fans around the world. “Music is music, and I think people see through the feeling that is not the perfect setting, and if they hear something they like they are okay with how it is presented and I think that’s the most important thing,” he said. It is observations such as these that give us insight into the critical thinking side of his acutely sharp mind, while it is his meticulously crafted music that gives us insight into the more creative side — a side which has masterfully adapted from writing the songs about love and self disclosure that dominated Veneer, to reveal a more sophisticated and mature songwriter. “On In Our Nature I have approached the lyrics more consciously,” said Gonzalez. “I was inspired by philosophical and religious topics and by elements of human nature and other urgent and relevant topics that could be true to anyone. I was reading ‘Practical Ethics’ by Peter Singer and ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins while I was writing this album and those certainly affected the songs.” The result is an album that, while not hook-laden, has a way of worming its way into your soul and troubling your mind. Though he claims that the album isn’t an overtly political statement, lyrics like, “How low are you willing to go before you reach all your selfish goals?” and later, on the title track of the album, “Put down your sword. Send home your dogs. Open up your doors. Let down your guard,” are hard to ignore as a listener in today’s world, and especially in the United States. It is clear that on In Our Nature Gonzalez has taken a more worldly perspective and is offering much more to think about this time than he did three years ago. What kind of songs will flow from Gonzalez in the next three years are a mystery, but what seems sure at this is point is that he will not be slaving over test tubes and studying viruses in a lab. He will instead be traveling the globe enchanting audiences in his own contagious way. :: Jose Gonzalez :: :: Bluebird Theatre :: October 12 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Iron & Wine • Nick Drake • Elliot Smith

Jethro Tull heads into 40th year with new DVD releases and a new album in 2008

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:10:34 +0000

:: Jethro Tull :: Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre :: October 10 ::

By Brian F. Johnson Jethro Tull is approaching its 40th year. In the last four decades the band has sold over 60 million albums, notched three Top Ten singles and have performed over 2,500 shows in more than 40 countries. As Tull nears this latest milestone, releases of DVDs are flourishing and the band is working on a new album due out sometime in 2008. The most recent release, Live at Montreux 2003, a CD/DVD combination, is a great snapshot of where the band is and what fans can expect from their live show — a set consisting of their standard hits, peppered with a few new tracks. Lead singer and flautist Ian Anderson, in a recent interview with The Marquee, said that the Montreux set isn’t necessarily Tull’s best or worst performance, but a good indicator of a “night on the road” with Jethro Tull. But, the former Montreux resident said that the impetus to release the DVD came from the honor the band felt to be a part of the legendary Switzerland festival. “Live at Montreux is just another night on the road with Jethro Tull. It was a one-off festival, all recorded live straight to stereo. So you can’t go back and doctor it or change it, and it’s just one of the many concerts over the 41 years that Montreux has been taking place. Claude Nob, the festival director, is an old friend of ours from the early 1970s and he’s got an extensive collection of concerts from the festival over the years and he wants to see some of the performances, that he considers landmark, released like this as a tribute to his efforts over the years,” Anderson said. Anderson went on to say that much of what appears on the Montreux DVD is similar to a DVD released in 2001 titled Living With The Past, but that the epic-ness of the festival justified the release. Despite the fact that there are three DVDs scheduled for release this year — Montreux, a collection of German television performances, and a Tull documentary — Anderson said that he doesn’t quite understand the whole draw of DVDs. “I’m not sure that people watch a DVD more than once. I mean, think about how many times you’ve heard Peter Frampton sing “Show Me The Way” in your lifetime. It’s one of the most played tracks on classic rock radio. And if you like it you’ve heard it maybe hundreds of times and probably still tap your feet and sing along when it comes on. But I challenge anyone to watch it over and over. I think you buy a DVD, you watch it once, maybe twice and then you lend it to a friend and forget to ask for it back,” he said. He added that because of the fact that Jethro Tull has been around for so long, he suspects all the DVD attention is an effort for companies to have that epic last performance, that they can release posthumously after the band ends. “I should be flattered, but I suspect there’s a bit of ambulance chasing going on. They smell the sense of imminent death and they want a piece of that real estate,” Anderson quipped. While video production companies may feel that Tull’s reign is coming to an end, Anderson explained that they have no plans to slow down yet. In fact, he said that a new album is due out sometime in mid-2008. “We’ve recorded a good chunk of stuff already that we need to finish up and I have a few new songs that we’re going to record as well,” he said. The new album, he explained will touch on all of the eclectic genres which Tull is known for without trying to brandish itself as any particular type of music. “A lot of our records embody all elements of music, going back to the very first album ... which is imperfect, but still a pretty good album from a band that was just finding its feet. And that’s the way I approach albums today. I’m not trying to do a pastiche thing where I’m inviting people to listen to a piece of authentic Bulgarian folk music, but it might be inspired by that,” he said. Though Jethro Tull has been around long enough to have “done it all,” Anderson said that these days, his goal is to challenge himself to find those moments that he looks back on later with fondness. “I take great pleasure in, for example, playing to several thousand Muslims one night and then playing to several thousand Jewish people in an adjoining country the next. I feel a little naughty about it and there’s some devilry to it, but it’s about crossing barriers to me and I love challenging people’s perceptions.” :: Jethro Tull :: :: Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre :: :: October 10 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Yes • Traffic • Moody Blues

Maroon 5 comes back after four years with chart-topping sophomore release

Marquee Magazine — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:06:19 +0000

:: Maroon 5 :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Oct. 29 & 30 ::

 (note: show relocated from Pepsi Center)

By Tiffany Childs Waiting four years to release a sophomore record in an industry that has a notoriously short attention span may seem like a big gamble for most bands. Maroon 5, on the other hand, wasn’t worried about it at all. And it seems they had no reason to. Their newest release, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, hit the charts running – their first single set records on the Billboard charts by jumping 63 slots to #1 — the largest jump in the charts’ 49 years. Beyond that success, Maroon 5 has also seen their single take iTunes’ top spot in audio and video downloads as well as having pre-sale orders reach #1 on the iTunes album download sales chart. With all of this success one has to wonder if the Grammy-winning quintet is setting itself up for a repeat performance. In a recent interview with The Marquee, Adam Levine (vocals/guitar) and James Valentine (guitar) spoke about their thoughts on the album’s success and the tour supporting it. “I think it’s because we just take a very classic approach to song craft and I think that’s sort of lacking in a lot of music today,” Valentine told The Marquee. As it turns out, most of the craft for this album was done by Levine himself. “You know, I think it was just the way it happened. There was no self-conscious effort on my part to separate myself from anybody. It was just, we had this house and it was basically just a stomping ground to be creative in. All of the melodies and lyrics come from me for the first record. The chord progressions and the arrangements were where a lot of the collaborations took place, so nothing changed drastically,” Levine told The Marquee. It Won’t Be Soon Before Long sees quite a bit of change from Maroon 5’s previous release, Songs About Jane. Most notably is a more upbeat tempo. Valentine remarked the difference was intentional. “The only conscious thing that we really went into the studio thinking was that we definitely wanted some more up-tempo songs because we felt that our set lacked that. All the songs on Songs About Jane are kind of mid-tempo or they’re lower in the beats-per-minute range, and so we did want a couple more up-tempo songs to accent the set,” Valentine said. While listeners may agree that “Make Me Wonder,” the first single released, is more upbeat, Levine told us the second single is going to be “Won’t Go Home Without You” — which will bring the tempo down to familiar territory again for old fans. Maroon 5 kicked off yet another tour at the end of September to support the album, hitting 28 North American cities in just over a month. Something the band is excited about is the “green” aspect of this tour. “A dollar from each ticket sold will go to Global Cool to make the entire experience green to neutralize our footprint. We personally are using bio-diesel in the buses. There are a lot of limitations, but it’s going to be the greenest tour it can be. And that’s all we can strive for,” Valentine said. Opening up for Maroon 5 is The Hives, which some people see as an unusual choice to say the least. However, Levine professed his love for The Hives and their music. “They’re a great band and we wanted to get a really good, energetic, amazing live act. I think they’re best suited for playing live and that’s what the show’s about, so we wanted to get the best one out there,” he said. And perhaps an even better reason came from Valentine: “It’s going to raise the bar for us every night because they’re going to be really tough to follow. So I think it will force us to step up and bring our A game.” As a band who has seen so much of the road, Maroon 5 certainly is experienced at knowing what a concert-going crowd wants from them, and they know that cover songs are a big part of that. “Yes, we’re sort of known for playing cover songs and it was because we had no choice on the first tour,” Valentine said. “We only had one album’s worth of material, so we had to start throwing in some other people’s songs. Now, we’re just excited that we have enough songs to make a set of our own music.” And Valentine told The Marquee that much of that will be centered around the new material and less on show production. “We don’t want there to be too many bells and whistles because we don’t want to detract from the music,” he said. With the latest record full of beats that hit a little harder and faster tempos, there’s little doubt that the music will be the audience’s focus. :: Maroon 5 :: :: Fillmore Auditorium :: Oct. 29 & 30 :: (note: show relocated from Pepsi Center) Spectate if you Gravitate: • Howie Day • John Mayer • Daughtry

Devotchka polishes it’s newest full-length for release in early 2008

Marquee Magazine — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:55:48 +0000

:: DeVotchKa :: Fillmore Auditorium :: October 27 ::

By Timothy Dwenger When first exposed to their startlingly original sound, it is difficult to believe that DeVotchKa hails from right here in Denver and was formed a mere 10 years ago. Their Eastern European sound and the emotional crooning of lead singer Nick Urata could be the soundtrack to an Eastern Block nightmare, circa 1950. Perhaps they are musicians born in the wrong era or, more likely, they are trying to bring a neglected and largely untapped genre into the public eye. “When I started this band 10 years ago I was kinda treading water in a sea of unknown musical styles,” Urata said in a recent interview with The Marquee, from a studio in California. “I just kind of honed in on what felt natural and what I felt like I could do some justice to. I definitely wanted to do something exotic, use unusual instruments and break away from the drudgery of guitar rock bands.” With roots in burlesque theater, DeVotchKa often pairs their unique sound with surreal visual elements in their stage performances. “The visual aspect of our performances has always been a big part of the vision and inspiration for DeVotchKa. It is funny, whenever The Slavic Sisters, the acrobats who tour with us sometimes, perform during our shows, it is what everyone seems to remember most,” said Urata. The Sisters will be performing their aerial stunts with DeVotchKa at their Day of the Dead Gala at the end of the month. As if that isn’t enough, the band is pulling out all the stops and has invited The Yard Dogs Road Show to join them as well. The Yard Dogs are an amazing act who Urata says, “have developed their show into a dark carnival side show that transports the audience to a different reality much like a great circus should.” Though Urata didn’t want to give up any of the other surprises that DeVotchKa has up their sleeves for the Gala event, he did stress the fact that “when people walk into the show they are going to be treated like they are going to a formal dance.” As evidenced by the formal aspects of the event, Urata holds the Halloween holiday in high regard. “Halloween is my favorite night of the year,” he said. “There is a spiritual element that dwarfs that of Christmas and hallucinogens can really open your eyes to that. I think back to some of my favorite shows as an audience member and they were life-changing. They led me to abandon the safe straight life and heed my calling. I can only hope that we live up to that sort of standard.” Over the past several years it is fairly safe to assume that the music of DeVotchKa has changed several lives, including those of the band members themselves. Starting with the 2004 release of the band’s critically acclaimed How It Ends, a national audience began to take notice and touring intensified. “It sorta snuck up on us. We had a little bit of a cult following and it made us able to sustain things and it made going out on the road fun, but we were so used to being the opening act that we were just starting to accept our fate of being a junior varsity band, so to speak,” Urata said. Though Urata isn’t sure that DeVotchKa has really “taken off” yet, he did allow that they have exceeded the goals they set together as a band. “We never thought it would get to this level. Earlier this year we sold out the Fillmore in San Francisco, which I never thought would be possible, so we’ve already surpassed our expectations,” he said. While DeVotchKa’s eerie sound may not mesh with today’s indie-rock and new wave punk-filled airwaves, the band has been given some airtime on independent stations such as KCRW in Los Angeles. One morning, the husband and wife team of directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris happened to hear DeVotchKa’s “You Love Me” on the station and thought the sound would be perfect for the project they were working on at the time. “It was sheer luck,” Urata said. “I wrote the song while riding through the wide open expanse of the Arizona desert and, coincidentally, the script they were working on at the time was about a family traveling across the wide open expanse of the Arizona desert. As fate would have it, they heard the connection and called me up.” Working with the directors and composer Mychael Danna, DeVotchKa adapted a film score from several of their existing songs. The project turned out to be the indie smash Little Miss Sunshine and it gave Urata’s band the break it had long deserved and earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack. Though the soundtrack and a 2006 EP entitled Curse Your Little Heart were interesting diversions, fans of DeVotchKa have been waiting for a proper album of original material since 2004’s How It Ends. Even though Urata was working furiously on the mix of the currently untitled new album when he spoke with The Marquee, he said that it wouldn’t hit shelves until early 2008. He did promise that the band would unveil some of the new material at The Day of the Dead Gala. “We aren’t going to torture anybody because they don’t have the record yet, but we’ll kick out a few of the new tunes for sure.” Urata was fairly tight lipped about the sound on the album at first, only quipping that it is “like Mexican food on a long Russian winter night.” However, he did eventually elaborate by saying that “we had some pretty grandiose aspirations on this record and we used a ton of strings and some more dance beats. It is a little more fun than our last few albums have been. It’s just more eccentric and silly, I think.” :: DeVotchKa :: :: Fillmore Auditorium :: October 27 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Gogol Bordello • Beirut • Andrew Bird

This Month in Music History - November

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:00:18 +0000

November 1 • 1969: After a seven year absence, Elvis Presley returns to Billboard’s number one position with “Suspicious Minds” • 1962: Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers is born November 3 • 1954: Adam Ant is born Harry Beetle • 1972: James Taylor and Carly Simon are married in a NYC apartment November 4 • 1940: Delbert McClinton is born November 5 • 1974: Ryan Adams is born • 1959: Bryan Adams is born • 1946: Gram Parsons of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers is born • 1971: At the end of a Minneapolis concert by “The King,” announcer Al Dvorin says, “Elvis has left the building” for the first time November 6 • 1948: Glenn Frey of The Eagles is born November 7 • 1973: The Rolling Stones begin their first tour of the U.S. in three years, in Denver • 1943: Joni Mitchell is born November 8 • 1949: Bonnie Raitt is born November 9 • 1993: Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee is arrested for trying to take a gun on an airplane • 1967: The first issue of Rolling Stone is published in San Francisco and comes with a free ‘roach clip’ • 1970: Susan Tedeschi is born November 11 • 1972: At the age of 24, Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley is killed in a motorcycle accident, three blocks from where guitarist Duane Allman was killed November 12 • 1999: Gary Glitter is sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to child pornography charges • 1970: The Doors make their last concert appearance while in New Orleans • 1945: Neil Young is born • 1955: Chuck Berry is awarded “Most Promising Artist” by Billboard November 14 • 1964: Rapper Run, of Run D.M.C., is born Joseph Simmons November 15 • 1969: Janis Joplin is arrested in Florida for vulgar and indecent language November 16 • 1978: Queen performs at Madison Square Garden with several nude women riding around the stage on bicycles for “Fat Bottomed Girls” November 20 • 1994: Singer/songwriter David Crosby receives a liver transplant • 1970: After Keith Moon collapses twice during a San Francisco concert, The Who’s Pete Townshend pulls a 19-year-old boy from the crowd to play three songs • 1965: Mike D (Diamond) of The Beastie Boys is born • 1946: Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers is born November 21 • 1947: Joe Walsh of The Eagles is born November 22 • 1997: Michael Hutchence, of INXS, hangs himself in an Australian hotel room • 1967: Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant is released • 1965: Bjork is born Bjork Gudmundsdottir November 23 • 1976: Police arrest Jerry Lee Lewis outside Graceland after he appears for the second time that night, waiving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis November 24 • 1991: Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury dies of pneumonia the day after announcing to the world that he had AIDS • 1954: Bruce Hornsby is born November 25 • 1976: The Band plays its last concert at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom; the show is recorded and made into the film The Last Waltz • 1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience make their debut at London’s Bag O’ Nails Club November 26 • 1968: Cream plays its last show at London’s Royal Albert Hall until 2005. • 1938: Tina Turner is born Annie Mae Bullock November 27 • 1942: Jimi Hendrix is born November 29 • 2001: George Harrison dies at the age of 58 at his home in Los Angeles • 1933: John Mayall is born November 30 • 1994: Tupac Shakur is shot five times outside a NYC recording studio • 1988: LL Cool J performs at the first rap concert in Africa • 1965: The Colorado government announces today will be The Rolling Stones Day in the state.

CD Reviews - November - 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:20:37 +0000

Bruce Springsteen Magic Sony.Records 3 out of 5 I.m going to break from the popular opinion of the mainstream music press and say that I.m not a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen.s post 9-11 music. While The Boss.s 2002 release The Rising was noble in its subject matter, it seems to have begun a pattern that repeats itself here on his latest effort, Magic. It.s a pattern of putting too much shine on a product that is supposed to have rough edges. Don.t get me wrong, Springsteen still has more songwriting talent in his little finger than many songwriters have in their whole bodies. What.s missing here, at least for me, lies in the production. Magic.s first single, .Radio Nowhere. kicks ass, but not as much as .Murder Incorporated. did years ago. .Girls in Their Summer Clothes. is classic Springsteen story weaving, but it lacks the believability of a song like .The Ties That Bind. simply because of the slick production. All-in-all, many older artists wind up sounding like old men singing a young man.s song. In my opinion that.s not Springsteen.s trouble, his trouble is finding a way to beat his songs up a bit so they sound more like the classics they will likely become. D.J. HIppie — Brian F. Johnson Melissa Etheridge The Awakening Island.Records 3 out of 5 While nothing she.s released since has touched the power and passion of her first two albums . her 1988 self-titled debut, 1989.s Brave and Crazy, and even her breakthrough mega seller, 1993.s Yes I Am .Melissa Etheridge.s latest effort, The Awakening is a strong batch of adult songs. Etheridge, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, chronicles her journey from the values she absorbed as a Midwestern girl (raised in Kansas) to the spiritual soul searching catalyzed by the breast cancer with a hefty dose of social, political, metaphysical, and relationship commentary in between. The Awakening is a thematically linked piece of work that bucks the download trend of singles and is intended to be listened to from beginning to end. The album moves beyond Etheridge.s traditional relationship-heavy motif and expands out into a wider range of adult territory, in ways that are reminiscent of Lou Reed, Pete Townshend, and Bruce Springsteen. While it won.t knock any socks off, it is a mature, polished work that is worthy of the listening time. . LJ Hammer Buck 65 Buck 65 Situation Strange Famous.Records 4 out of 5 So much in our society today is there just for sheer entertainment purposes, with no real redeeming qualities. Buck 65.s latest album Situation is not one of those things. The album is a concept piece, and one done with some incredibly brilliant insight as well as some good humor, poignancy and nostalgia. Beginning with an imitated Ed Sullivan introducing Buck, Situation goes on to examine the events of 50 years ago . the year 1957. The album embodies imagined perspectives from a vast assortment of semi-fictionalized characters. The concept comes across as smart and thoughtful, as if someone wrote a really good hip-hop album in 1957 about the things they saw happening around them, the result of which is an album that speaks volumes about the times we live in now. It.s no wonder Buck 65 is on Sage Francis. Strange Famous Records. Together, the two could be the most important and intelligent rappers of our time. . Brian.F. Johnson :: Buck 65 :: :: Fox Theatre :: November 27 :: Ian Ball Who.Goes There Dispensary.RecordsDispensary.Records 3 out of 5 As a member of Gomez, Ian Ball has penned some of the band.s most well-known tunes, including .Whippin. Piccadilly,. .Get Myself Arrested. and .In Our Gun.. But, following on the heels of Gomez.s biggest selling album yet, Ball has gone on to write, record and produce his own album, which he said happened all by accident. Following a .booze filled evening. with Will Golden (a collaborator of Gary.Jules) and Phil Krohnengold (Ween), where they played everything from.Supertramp covers to their own originals, Ball began pulling out songs that he had .kinda stored up over the last few years.. A few sessions later, he had a full album worth of recorded material and he spent his free time on tour with Gomez learning ProTools and tweaking the material. By the end of the Gomez tour, Ball returned to his adopted home of Los Angeles with a completed album. While the solo work has loads of Gomez-style rock and pop, Ball also incorporates a slew of Americana on Who Goes There. It.s a strong album with some really good songs, but it.s clear that Ball shines brightest with his British chums at his side. . Brian F. Johnson Oblio Duo And the Archers Nuclear War EPNuclear War EP Independent 3 out of 5 Raw talent is the perfect way to describe Oblio Duo and The Archers. The Denver quartet, which merged the Oblio Duo of Will Duncan and Steven Lee Lawson with The Archers. Vaughn McPherson and Andy.Wild, have just followed their 2006 release The Flag with a great EP of tracks known as Nuclear War. The production value leaves a lot to be desired, coming across as a true lo-fi garage recording, but beneath that are some damn-good Gothic-Americana songs that still stand tall, and should be great live. . Brian F. Johnson :: Oblio Duo and the Archers :: :: Meadowlark :: November 15 :: :: Lion.s Lair :: November 30 :: Tim Pourbaix A Pony Craig, Not GregA Pony Craig, Not Greg Independent 4 out of 5 Tim Pourbaix (poor-bay) nails the modern singer/songwriter genre with A Pony Craig, Not Greg. The album is delicate and sensitive without being whiny or trite. It.s poppy and catchy, yet still heartfelt and sincere. — Brian F. Johnson :: Tim Pourbaix :: :: Larimer Lounge :: November 8 :: Quick Spins - By DJ.Hippie Foo.Fighters Echoes,.Silence, Patience and Grace RCA Records Instead of changing gears like they do with each release, the Foo Fighters instead include a little bit of everything on this lukewarm album. It.s far from their best work but still has enough originality to be slightly entertaining. 2 out of 5 stars Opeth The Roundhouse Tapes Peaceville Records This haunting metal group two disk live effort captures the dark band displaying their A-game for a London crowd. Mostly a release for diehard fans but potent enough to be a good starting point for the uninitiated. 3 out of 5 stars Nikki Sixx The Heroin Diaries MTV.Pocket Books Who would have guessed Nikki Sixx.s journals about his heroin addiction would have cracked the NY Times Bestseller list? It.s a great read, but the day I see Sixx on .The View. is the day I declare rock and roll D.O.A. 4 out of 5 stars

Industry Profile: Sarah Finger takes over as head talent buyer for The Fox

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:00:54 +0000

By Brian F. Johnson There are female artists, female agents, female publicists and female venue owners in the local and national music scene, but for some odd reason there is a complete dearth in female talent buyers — particularly throughout Colorado. But the Fox Theatre — long heralded as a breeding ground for new talent and a trendsetter in the business — may be changing all of that. Late this past summer, head talent buyer Eric Pirritt left his long-held seat at the Fox to make a move to Live Nation, and with that move came an internal promotion that has been years in the making. Sarah Finger, who worked alongside Pirritt as the assistant talent buyer at the Fox, was chosen to fill the large shoes left by Pirritt and in doing so it made her one of the only female talent buyers in the state, and definitely the most powerful female talent buyer along the Front Range. As the assistant talent buyer, Finger was responsible for booking local bands and opening acts, but as she takes over the head talent buyer post, she is now responsible for the Fox’s entire line-up each month and thusly, she’s a major player in helping to shape the Colorado music scene. Marquee: What was the first concert you ever attended? Finger: In sixth grade I saw Tom Petty with my dad at Riverbend in Ohio. We went with his business partner and it was me and like three 45-year-old dudes. I loved it. But my first concert without my parents, where I actually went with my friends, was the HORDE fest in Cincinnati in 1995. Marquee: What was the first album you ever bought? Finger: The Black Crowes’ Amorica. Marquee: How did you get into the business? Finger: Well, I graduated from Ohio University with a degree in journalism and I applied to newspapers out here. I came out here without a job, and was looking at papers like the Rocky Mountain News and the Boulder Weekly and nothing happened. Then I got a job as the office manager for Chuck Morris. I really didn’t know anything about the music business, but I needed a job and he needed an office manager so I figured it’s a paycheck. And then I got in with Don (Strasburg) and Eric Pirritt and it all happened. In an office as big as Chuck’s all I did was answer phones and make copies and do the mail and Fed Ex, so while I was in it, I still had no idea what was going on. Then I came over to the Fox as office manager and when you’re the office manager here you do everything. You do promotions and ticket counts and just all sorts of things that I never learned there. Marquee: And you’ve had several jobs at the Fox, right? Finger: Yeah. I was the office manager. Then I was Eric’s assistant — not the assistant talent buyer, but just his assistant. Then Rob Thomas left and John Caprio moved up to the general manager spot and I took over as the assistant G.M. and then I came back as Eric’s assistant and became the assistant talent buyer and now I’m the head talent buyer. Marquee: So what’s the biggest difference between being the assistant talent buyer and the head talent buyer? Finger: There is a huge difference, for sure. When Eric was here there was not as much stress or pressure on me because he always had the final word, so if there was something I couldn’t figure out he could step in. And since he had been here for so long he had a really good grip on that. Marquee: You’ve only had this job for a couple months, but what have some of your successes been? Finger: In June (even before Eric left) we had two nights of The Faint and that was big. It was June 4 and 5 and school wasn’t in and it was a Monday and Tuesday, so we didn’t even have the weekend draw. They had really only wanted one night and I got them for two, so I was excited. But five days before the show we had only sold like 100 tickets. We were paying them so much that if we didn’t sell out we were going to lose a lot of money, which in the summer is really hard because we don’t have as many shows to make up for it. I thought it was going to be awful. This was supposed to be my big success and we were going to lose thousands and thousands of dollars. But we ended up having huge sales over the weekend and a huge walk-up and both shows sold out. Marquee: You talk about being nervous to lose money, but as a talent buyer aren’t you playing with house money? You still get a paycheck. Finger: Yeah, but it effects me a lot. I’m emotionally attached to the Fox, so when we lose money I take it very personally. This place is like a family to me. Marquee: What’s the biggest asset you have? Finger: It’s definitely huge to have the Fox name because people want to play here, even if they’re bigger than the Fox. It’s small and intimate and it has this rich history that Don (Strasburg) really created. Marquee: What’s the biggest challenge? Finger: The competition. There are so many venues in the Denver/Boulder market, especially for its size, and it’s really heart-breaking when you’re trying for a show and you don’t get it and then the Gothic or someone gets them for two nights. Marquee: So what are some of the goals you have in this position? Finger: Well, I hope to keep the legacy going that Eric and Don built, but I’m an indie rock girl and I hope to bring in more of that.

New Pornographers latest album incorporates conceptual feeling

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:00:26 +0000

 :: The New Pornographers :: Gothic Theatre :: November 5 ::

By Chris Castaneda The weather report in San Francisco, according to John Collins of the New Pornographers, is nice, breezy and not too hot. The bassist is in search of a calm spot to settle down for a conversation with The Marquee before the band’s show at the Warfield Theatre in a few hours, as the Vancouver-based supergroup starts its North American tour in support of Challengers. The new album (the group’s fourth) is a much more lush and relaxed sounding piece than its predecessor, Twin Cinema (2005). That said, criticism has already begun to surface alleging that Challengers lacks the twists, turns and delicious pop hooks of Twin Cinema and that principal songwriter, and recently married, A.C. “Carl” Newman took a safer, more direct approach. But there is plenty of depth to Challengers that gives it legs from which to proudly stand on its own. The songwriting efforts of Newman and Danny Bejar create a slightly melancholic atmosphere with songs like the title track, “Adventures In Solitude,” and “The Spirit Of Giving.” But there is also a joyfulness and optimism to the album that keeps it from becoming too heavy. The steady pulse of “All The Old Showstoppers” and the almost-English pop playfulness of “Myriad Harbour” are proof enough that the group didn’t suddenly forget how to craft a pounding tune. The combined strengths of Kathryn Calder (Newman’s niece) and the luminous Neko Case catapult the vocal dynamics, already a key element of the group’s sound, to an even higher level. Collins said that while the album features all the band members, a great deal of the flavor of Challengers falls on the writing of Newman. “We wanted to make another record and feature everybody’s talents as much as we could. I think the shape of the album, the sound of it, really came out of the songs Carl was writing — which were on balance a bit more, kind of thoughtful and a little less abstract. I really like the way you can still read your own story into his lyrics. There was definitely an actual concept behind a lot of the tunes. Falling in love and moving to New York was kind of the crux of it,” Collins said. Collins went on to explain that the band’s longevity, which is going on 10 years now, helped tremendously in the scope of the album as well, because they know each other, and their role as a unit. “For several years, until our first record came out, there were about three years there when it just didn’t seem like much ever happened. We were practicing one or two nights a week for a year and a half or so and tinkering around with the band thing. That was really valuable time because the band really got a sound and an identity,” he said. That aspect, coupled with the band’s curious nature, according to Collins, helped years ago to define the group’s delivery, particularly with its vocals. “The vocal-heavy nature of the New Pornographers, in my recollection, started with Carl doing some demos ages ago at my studio. We had two digital eight DAT machines, and I just loved his voice and singing style. He was very creative too, making musical parts for vocals. I just said, ‘Let’s go nuts. Let’s go completely Brian Wilson and just go past the point of good taste.’ And then we could make ourselves sick and stretch it back to the threshold of bad taste. When we started working on the Pornographers’ first record [Mass Romantic] that was definitely a major thing that I wanted to do, and Carl was into it too. We had a great time stacking his falsetto harmonies and stuff. It became obvious that that was a good idea,” Collins said. :: The New Pornographers :: :: Gothic Theatre :: November 5 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Iron and Wine • Rilo Kiley • The Decemberists

From the Barstool of the Publisher - November, 2007

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:00:26 +0000

:: November 2007 ::

By Brian F. Johnson Best wishes are in order this month. Actually, truth be told, they were in order last month, but we had already gone to press by the time the announcement was made. After nearly five years of service to the musicians and music fans on the Front Range, Fox general manager John Caprio has moved on to take the spot as the G.M. for the Broomfield Event Center. While the move is a great one for John, and while his replacement at the Fox, Brian Carp, who has been assistant G.M. for some time now, is more than capable, something that’s very hard to put your finger on has been lost. When John took over the G.M. spot from Rob Thomas (who moved on to be G.M. at the Fillmore in Denver) there was a tangible difference in the feeling at the Fox. That’s not to say that Rob wasn’t a good manager either, it just speaks volumes about John’s tact, mannerisms and enthusiasm for the job. While his title may have been general manager, John was much more of an ambassador and he spent most nights in the lobby genuinely engaged in conversation with folks and doing everything he could to make them enjoy their time at the Fox. He was in the unique position to see thousands of shows, but his top priority was to always make sure his guests were happy, that the employees were happy and that things were running smoothly. Then, and only then, did he go into the house to enjoy the music himself. John had visited Boulder long before he ever moved to town and he and his now wife attended a show during their vacation here. He once told me that he very specifically remembered thinking that night, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great to work here?” Well, he went on to do just that. He was the box office manager, the publicist, the assistant G.M. and the G.M. for the theatre and despite all of that time, it didn’t ever appear that the magic had worn off for him. Whether he was dealing with a problem, attending a Hill Association meeting or listening to the music, it seemed that he always loved his job. The Broomfield Event Center has, of course, hosted some concerts, but it’s more of a sports center, in all honesty. However, it’s hoped that promoters start tapping that venue so that it doesn’t feel like John has left the music scene for good. In this business that’s infamous for shady characters, John showed that an honest and sincere man can make a giant impact. We wish him the best and hope that Brian Carp and the remaining Fox employees carry on the legacy that John was so very proud of and dedicated to. See you at the shows.

Mountain Goats capture the about-to-come-unglued feeling for upcoming release

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:00:19 +0000

 :: The Mountain Goats :: Hi-Dive :: November 6 ::

By Lisa Oshlo Born of the mind of Pitzer College student and psychiatric nurse John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats (which often include only Darnielle and a myriad of revolving musicians) have been steadily producing music since 1991. In fact, at the rate of just about an album a year (and with over ten full-length albums since 1995), he is certainly one of the most prolific songwriters in the indie rock scene. Over the years, Darnielle has earned a devout underground following and has managed to crank out work after work without sacrificing the literary quality of his material, and he said that much of it can be attributed to a practice that he feverishly maintains. “Well, I keep a notebook, like people used to always tell me to do when I said I wanted to be a writer,” he said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “For years I totally resisted the notebook, but it was futile, because it just meant I’d be scribbling down stray phrases or overheard stuff or out of context stuff on cigarette packs or flyers or something.” Besides having a lot to say, Darnielle is clearly intelligent and imaginative. His songs are lyrically centered, rich with metaphor, and often contain religious or mythological themes. He plays with song cycles that span several albums, most notably the “Going to…” series, the “Alpha Couple,” and the “Songs For…” series. Each invariably shows him as both an earnest and evocative songwriter. In the early years, Darnielle’s earnestness was accentuated by his bare bones musical accompaniment and lo-fi recording style. In fact, when he first started to play, he would release his music only on cassette. It wasn’t until 2002 that The Mountain Goats began to experiment with a bigger sound, and with equally beautiful results. In the past five years, the band has continued to evolve within its basic framework. “We kept saying how old-school Mountain Goats felt when we were recording [the new, yet to be released album]. The songs are pretty up-tempo for the most part, the energy has that dude’s-gonna-come-unglued feel,” he said. “The Bright Mountain Choir sing on it, and I haven’t had them on a record since God knows when. But I’m a much better songwriter now than I used to be, if I can say that, and my rhythm section is seriously locked in, so there’s a much more swinging feel to it.” Despite occasionally playing with a larger band in the studio, The Mountain Goats have always embraced the simple structure of acoustic guitar, bass, and voice. A large number of performances feature only Darnielle on guitar and vocals and Peter Hughes on bass. “I think a lot of that has to do with the basic pleasure of playing music with one other person,” said Darnielle. “The duo has its own set of limitations and possibilities and unwritten rules that you break. I’ve got Catholic blood, I love self-imposed limitations,” he said. These days, the band is playing as a trio with John Wurster on drums. “The big excitement there is that’s new territory for me,” said Darnielle, “and when you’re breaking new territory, that’s almost always when all the exciting stuff happens.” :: The Mountain Goats :: :: Hi-Dive :: November 6 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Neutral Milk Hotel • Iron and Wine • Sufjan Stevens

Do Make Say Think actually speak on most recent album and make fans think

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:00:48 +0000

:: Do Make Say Think :: Bluebird Theater :: November 8 ::

By Tiffany Childs Do Make Say Think is a band known for pensively beautiful instrumental songs. That is why it was a surprise to most of their fans when their fifth release, You, You’re a History in Rust, came with vocals on some tracks. The Marquee recently had the chance to catch up with Justin Small (guitar/bass/keyboards) to talk about the switch and the band’s tour in support of the release. “We didn’t really think it out as a concept,” Small said of the addition of vocals to this album. “It was more like we thought, what could we do differently? What is a challenge to us? And more importantly, we felt all of the songs couldn’t have vocals, they had to be worthy of having vocals.” Also coming as a surprise was the idea that the band itself didn’t think adding vocals was all that big of a deal. “We were kind of surprised that so many people noticed,” Small mentioned. And he added the band wasn’t even certain there would be vocals from here on out, it may have been a one-time event. The album was released in February of this year and since then Do Make Say Think has toured almost continuously. With a group so large it can sometimes be tough to do that. “There are 11 of us in a van for days at a time, so if one of us gets sick, we’re all going down,” Justin told us. Sometimes, though, large numbers are a blessing in disguise. Small said, “The hard part is getting us all to do something collectively, like to meet at a certain time. But, if you are upset with somebody you have, like, nine other people to talk to until it blows over, so there isn’t a lot of conflict.” When touring does get to be too much, the group also has another outlet — creating music for films. Although the members will score films separately, one song of Do Make Say Think called “Chinatown” has been used in several films because of its simplistic beauty. Small mentioned that making music for films is a great avenue to let music out, alluding to the idea that we may see more of it by stating, “It’s what I want to do when I grow up,” he joked. While “Chinatown” has gone down on celluloid and the band aspires to do more movie work, most of Do Make Say Think’s other tracks aren’t always film suitable. Its dense, melancholy melodies and post-rock distortion might overshadow other elements of the big screen. With 11 members, the band’s overall influences can be tough to pin down but Small said that it unashamedly draws influences from Talk, Talk to Tortoise. “With this album we used more of The Band or Neil Young, but I don’t think bands should be terrified of their inspirations. You are paying tribute to them and as long as you find your own voice I think it’s okay to rely on your inspiration along the way,” he said. Describing their music as super serious art rock or avant garde, Small said that when playing any music you have to be both humble and proud. A tricky task no doubt, but he also gave the advice to “hope like hell you’re good at it [making music] and to surround yourself with honest people.” As much as Do Make Say Think has been playing lately, it seems as though they have some very honest people around them indeed. :: Do Make Say Think :: :: Bluebird Theater :: November 8 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Godspeed, You Black Emperor! • Tortoise • Akron/Family

Sea Wolf emerges from Silverlake and takes the reigns as indie folk’s new darling

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:00:25 +0000

 :: Sea Wolf :: Larimer Lounge :: November 13 ::

By Timothy Dwenger There’s a new face on the indie folk circuit these days. The face belongs to Alex Brown Church and he has emerged from the Silverlake district of Los Angeles, a recent hotbed of activity in the indie music community. Church is Sea Wolf in the same way that Sam Beam is Iron & Wine and, like Beam, Church rarely performs solo and relies on a diverse cast of backing musicians to flesh out his songs. When Church first put Sea Wolf together he was an active member of Irving, another band native to Silverlake, and needed an outlet for more of his own material. “Sea Wolf is my songs and Irving is more of a group thing where I only had a few songs on each record,” Church said during a recent interview with The Marquee that was plagued by the lack of cellular coverage in Southern Oregon as he drove from San Francisco to Portland for the second gig of Sea Wolf’s marathon fall tour with his current bandmates. “I’ve been playing with this line-up since March and while it’s hard to say how permanent anyone is, everyone seems pretty good to go for now,” said Church. “I’ve been out on the road with these guys a couple of times and we are pretty familiar with each other at this point. We are really getting along pretty well. We all really like each other and it is a good group but being stuck in a van with anybody for that long a time can make you start to hate your best friend. It’s just the way it goes on the road.” Before cementing the current line-up of Sea Wolf, Church called on members of the so called “Ship Collective” to fill out his sound both in the studio and on the stage. “The Ship Collective was a group of bands from Los Angeles that included the Silversun Pickups, Great Northern, Earlimart, Irving and a couple of others,” Church said. “We were all friends and we created this sort of community. We practiced within a block of each other, played on each others’ records, hung out together and just really supported one another.” While the importance of the “Ship Collective” has faded, and Church is now a year removed from Irving, he has found Sea Wolf to be much more creatively rewarding for him and he maintains a good relationship with his ex-bandmates. “Those guys have been really supportive of Sea Wolf the whole way, we’re definitely still pals,” he said. “Sea Wolf was just getting a lot of attention-building momentum and Irving wasn’t. It got to the point where I felt like I wanted to go with Sea Wolf full time.” The attention that Church is referencing has been coming in several forms. On the live front, his friends in Silversun Pickups invited Sea Wolf to join them on a high profile tour this past summer. On the radio front, Church has become a darling of NPR and has been featured at least twice in the last year on “The World Café” program. And, most recently, Church got the opportunity to reach a much broader audience when Jimmy Kimmel invited Sea Wolf to perform in the Pontiac Garage on his late night television show. Much of the attention has been as a result of the band’s first single, “You’re a Wolf,” from their debut album Leaves In the River. Ironically, it’s a song that Church wrote when Sea Wolf was a very new idea for him. “I wrote ‘You’re A Wolf’ about four years ago,” said Church. “It’s been a while and I think that I had the idea as I was humming along and the words ‘you’re a wolf’ just kinda came out. I really liked the idea of that being the song and I thought about what it meant and tried to figure out why it registered with me.” He didn’t want to elaborate much about the meaning of the song but did acknowledge that, in addition to liking the implied message the lyrics convey, he was playing on the name of his band. When asked about the origin of that name, Church reflected on his childhood growing up in Northern California. In a home without a television, he was often reading and stumbled upon the work of Jack London, the author of the famous maritime tale, The Sea Wolf. “The name of the band comes from Jack London’s book The Sea Wolf,” he said. “I grew up in Berkeley and Jack London is from Oakland and is sort of this mythological figure in the Bay Area. I grew up with Jack London Square in Oakland and a restaurant not too far from my house that had pictures of him everywhere. He was very present in my childhood and I felt this connection to him in that way.” Though Church now makes his home in Los Angeles, it was fitting that he started his first national headlining tour as Sea Wolf so close to his childhood home. “The show was about what I was hoping it would be,” he said. “We just put out our first record and we haven’t played in San Francisco very much, but there were a couple hundred people there.” The tide seems to be changing for Church, and after years of gliding below the radar of most major media he has broken through and his music is getting the notice that it deserves. Chances are it won’t be long before he is taking the next newcomer to the indie folk world under his wing and showing them the ropes. :: Sea Wolf :: :: Larimer Lounge :: November 13 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Iron & Wine • Band of Horses • Earlimart

John Butler Trio reaps success and sows seeds of consciousness for the world

Marquee Magazine — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:00:18 +0000

:: John Butler Trio :: Ogden Theatre :: November 23 and 24 ::

By Monica Banks “Yes, I one hundred percent believe music can change the world,” John Butler said. And that is exactly what he and the trio that bears his name are trying to do with refreshing sincerity. Butler began playing the guitar when he was 16 and by the time he turned 21 showed enough discipline and promise to inherit his grandfather’s 1930s Dobro. Armed with his family’s confidence, he developed an obsession with the guitar. “I always loved songwriting, but it wasn’t until I saw (Australian singer/songwriter) Jeff Lang and (Scottish musician) Tony McManus that I realized what I wanted to do,” Butler said in a recent interview with The Marquee from his Australian home. He began by busking as a street musician at the Fremantle markets in Australia and his performances soon inspired a popular demand to record. His first release Searching for Heritage was completely self-funded and released on tape in 1996. Butler sold three-and-a-half thousand copies and was able to record his first CD with his earnings. In 1998 he released the self-titled John Butler album, followed by an EP in 2000, Pickapart. This got Butler put into high rotation on Triple J, an underground radio station in Australia that plays all over the country. Although in the earlier years Butler had a bit more of an edge, Triple J DJs were willing to take a chance and it has paid off well. In 2001 the John Butler Trio, comprised of Butler, Shannon Birchall on bass and Michael Barker on the drums, released their breakthrough album Three, which reached number one on the Australian charts three times. By the time Three reached platinum status the band was beginning to catch on in the U.S., and Jarrah Records was formed in conjunction with fellow Australian band The Waifs so they could keep their independent model as they began to break down international boundaries. In 2003 their double live CD Living 2001-2002 debuted at number six and brought JBT into the mainstream. Later that year, Sunrise Over Sea was released and marked another crossover, onto commercial radio. The premier made history as the first independently released album to debut at number one on the Australian charts and went on to achieve five times platinum status. Along with his musical obsession, Butler also became an activist. As the ancient forests suffered from clear cutting, Butler saw the need to speak out against such travesties. “These people were coming into the local and state governments, trashing the community and saying it was good for the economy and then moving on,” said Butler. “I realized it was a cause more important than myself.” In 2005 Butler realized a long time dream by creating the JB Seed Arts Grant Programme. The program was initially funded by Butler and promotes the exploration of the social, cultural and artistic diversity in Australia. Nationally recognized by its second year, the program helps to network experts in the industry with independent artists and educate them in areas such as management, legal matters, copyright, publicity and promotion. Butler is a man of action; the Trio’s soldout national tour for Sunrise Over Sea donated one-dollar from every ticket to the Refugee Action Coalition. This tradition has also benefited The Wilderness Society, Save Nigaloo Reef Campaign and the JB Seed Programme. For Butler, it’s about more than just the environment. “It’s about the human condition. These days, everyone is just in it for personal gain, it has infiltrated our head stage,” he said. Taking a cue from other artists such as Tracy Chapman, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, Butler continues to try and touch people with his music in hopes they will touch other people in their lives. “You can just be a person who enjoys music and still make a difference,” Butler said. JBT encourages their fans to buy “Green Tickets,” a program designed to help offset CO2 emissions created by their drive to the show. The tickets are an additional 40 cents, to help build new wind projects through Native Energy, a renewable energy company. In 2006, after much deliberation, the band decided to sign with Lava Records, an imprint of Atlantic. “We’re still independent in Australia, but we needed the help with America,” Butler said. “I don’t think we could have made it here if we hadn’t made it back home.” Their contract came with a rare clause allowing the band to maintain creative freedom and independence. “They know we can deliver,” Butler said. “When you’re in a relationship or any kind of collaborative effort you have to be open to people’s opinions, some of them are really quite good.” Their latest album, Grand National, was released last March and went straight to number one on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) album charts. The album is up for five ARIA awards, including album of the year, single of the year (“Funky Tonight”), best male artist, best independent release and best blues and roots album. “It’s moving more toward a universal kind of music,” Butler said. :: John Butler Trio :: :: Ogden Theatre :: November 23 and 24 :: Spectate if you Gravitate: • Jack Johnson • Xavier Rudd • Michael Franti and Spearhead