Indie, Rock, Hiphop, Lofi, Pop & Electro
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under CD Review, Denver Show, Music, Upcoming Shows
Dark Dark Dark will be playing at the Hi-Dive on July 19th. In anticipation for what will inevitably be an incredible show, I’ve decided to review one of my favorite recent releases, their brilliant new EP, Bright Bright Bright. Also, I’ll be sitting down with the band after the show, so look forward to an exclusive interview, and, hopefully, a video performance.
Beginning with the prideful melancholy of the title-track, and continuing through to the mournful, yet hopeful, closer, a reimagined cover of Elephant Micah’s “Wild Goose Chase”, Bright Bright Bright showcases a matured, and ultimately brilliant, progression for Dark Dark Dark. Moving forward from the shanty-folk of 2008’s The Snow Magic LP, DDD has managed bring forth the rich, ever-deepening hues that lurked beneath their previous works.
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June 23rd, 2010
Posted by Matt | Filed under Upcoming Shows
For our brethren in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, I give you now Aggie Theatre upcoming shows:
Wednesday, June 16
Rahzel
Tickets: $15
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Friday, June 18
Dead Floyd
Tickets: FREE!
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Tags: Aggie Theatre, Esham, Ft. Collins, Henry Rollins
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June 15th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Music
Jake Bellows and Morgan Meyn (Whispertown) rode in to Denver on a motorcycle to see Tom Petty and play a show with Pearly Gate Music. Before the show, and for a little while afterwards, we discussed early Wailers recordings, Omaha and Edward Norton. Seriously.
How did Neva Dinova get started?
In high school, Heath [Koontz] and I decided to be in a battle of the bands, but neither one of us really played and instrument, or made music. We just thought it would be fun. So, his grandpa loaned us some instruments and we made up some songs. Then, we entered the battle of the bands, but for some reason we weren’t allowed to perform. But that kind of made us want to really try to make music, so we got some more traditional instruments. We had had a banjo and an electric mandolin at the time, so we had to learn to play those. I wasn’t very good at the banjo.
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June 8th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Music
Whispertown ( Morgan Meyn) played an amazing show recently with Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova) and Pearly Gate Music. I had interviewed Jake before the show, but after it was all over we hung out, during which time I recorded this brief interview.
How did you first start writing and recording songs?
The first time I asked my parents for a guitar was when I was 16, and I wrote a song and played it for them. Then, I forgot about it. but, when I was 20 I was working as an actress on a sitcom; we don’t really have them anymore, but the format was that you’d rehearse for a week and then record it live in front of an audience. So, you were only needed when you were rehearsing your scenes, so I had a lot of down time sitting in my trailer. It was there that I basically taught myself how to sing and play guitar and write songs. I started recording a couple years after that, at the push of Jenny Lewis [Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins], my dear friend, who sort of made me pursue it.
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June 8th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Music
Recently, I talked to Seattle’s Jesy Fortino, AKA Tiny Vipers, about her unique approach to songwriting and recording, as well as one good reason to peek into the bushes.
Where did the name Tiny Vipers come from?
Honestly, I just thought it sounded cool (laughs). I mean, it was like 6 years ago, and I need to come up with a name because I didn’t want to use my own. I had just sort of packed that away a long time ago incase I ever needed a name for something.
How long had you played guitar before you felt you needed the name?
Well, I had played on and off for a while. I had played for a little bit when I was a teenager, and then I played again when I was maybe 20. I started playing shows when I was 22, so, its been on and off for a while
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June 8th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Music
The Lighthouse and the Whaler is Michael LoPresti, Arron Smith, Evan Storey, Mark Porostosky and Nate (?). They played recently at the Hi-Dive, bringing their instrument-swapping folk to Denver for the first time. I sat down with the guys afterwards to discuss their music and art itself.
Are you three, Michael, Aaron and Evan, the original 3 members?
Michael: Yes
So, when did the other 2 join?
Michael: Just recently, actually.
Nate: Ya, just before this tour.
So, its just the original three on the LP?
Michael: Ya. It was just the three of us.
You guys constantly trade instruments live. How did you take 3 man songs, and then figure out
how to play them with 5 people? Is that how the extra, free-standing floor tom came about?
Michael: I think that when we were writing the LP we put a lot of emphasis on writing for more than three people. So, because of that, we already had extra parts that we wanted to implement into the songs. But, the floor tom did originate when we added a fourth member [Nate], a while back, and we didn’t have anything necessarily for that person to do at first. And, we liked it so much we decided to just keep it in the band. When we first wrote “Field Song”, Evan wrote it with just a floor tom and a cymbal in the field, and we loved how it sounded, so, we just wanted to keep going in that direction. But, ya, we definitely had it in mind to write for more than three people from the start.
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June 8th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under CD Review, Music
On stage, Zach Tillman stomps and howls in a blood-boiling frenzy of raucous spirit. Off stage, he is jovial, gregarious and ultimately charming. On record, Zach shows himself as something in between, yet definitively different, from his other selves. Pearly Gate Music’s self-titled debut presents the melancholic cries of Zach’s ethereal-folk, with the inexorable ability to shift from whispered drums and guitarless, chanting harmonies to sweat-drenched, clap-along rock n’ roll, complete with distorted, madhouse solos and (inevitably) the stomping toes of everyone within earshot. The album is beautifully lush, a richness that is only furthered by Zach’s heartbroken poetics, something that hasn’t received as much attention, but which deserves as much praise as the sound itself. He is a poet rooted in the spirit of electric-Dylan, but with a modern twist of broken, trailing cadence that drifts in and out of time. The album pulls you in deeper with every rotation, allowing you to catch the almost unnoticed nuances that you had unknowingly smiled towards last time, eventually realizing why a seemingly-sad song had left you grinning and dancing about. Pearly Gate Music is, in one reporter’s opinion, one of the best debut albums in recent years, something to be cherished among the ever-cluttered shelf of modern music.
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June 7th, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Interview, Music
Emily Jane White is an incredible songwriter from California. She has recently released her second album Victorian America, to critical acclaim. On June 3rd 2010, I conducted a phone interview with her to discuss her career, and herself as an artist.
What types of ideas, or moments in life, inspire songs?
I’d say that music is very emotional, and I write songs mostly about things that I feel very strongly about. It usually has to do with feelings of sadness, or injustice, or the realities that happen in life that are very strong and powerful. So, ya, its mostly emotional reactions to things.
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June 3rd, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under Denver Show, Interview, Music, Upcoming Shows
Mini Mansions are playing Moe’s BBQ in Denver on June 4th, and in Colorado Springs the next day. Prior to the show I talked with Michael Shuman (Queens of the Stone Age, Wires on Fire) to discuss his new band, Blondie covers and classic hip-hop.
To start, what is the line-up and how did you guys form?
It’s myself [Michael Shuman], Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford. As for getting together…that’s a long story. Me and Zach have been best buds for like 14 years and he went to college in Santa Cruz and ended up living with Tyler. Tyler makes weird music and always has. He’d never been in a band, just kind of made weird tunes for himself, and Zach sent me some of his stuff and it was always rad. So, when he moved back to LA I hung out with Tyler and showed him some of my stuff and talked about making a band, and the music we were both making just kind of made sense together in the direction we wanted to go. And since he’d never been in a band he didn’t really know what do with his music, but it was just so good I felt that we had to make a full band out of it.
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June 1st, 2010
Posted by Zane St. James | Filed under CD Review, Music
Beginning 6 years ago as Fertile Crescent, and reemerging recently as WOOM, Sara Magenheimer and Eben Portnoy have collaborated to create a feverishly different take on the Female-Male duo. Don’t think The White Stripes or The Moldy Peaches (although the simplistic approach of the aforementioned and the playfulness of the latter do resonate); WOOM is a very different beast altogether, echoing the electronic rhythm of Panda Bear as much as the sundrenched, lo-fi pop of Jonquil, while, in the end, sounding nothing like either. Additionally, gaining comparison to Young Marble Giants and early Velvet Underground, yet touring with bands like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu, the band has proved nearly impossible to pinpoint stylistically, and their debut LP Muu’s Way presents this sonic amalgamation perfectly.
From the harmonized, dusty-drummed, sing-alongs of “Backwards Beach” and “Back In” to the instrumental morning-blues of “Under Muu”; from the male-led, hopeful folk of “Sister” to the somber sparseness of “Foggy Dew”, which features nothing but female vocals, a whisper of bass, and the chirping of nocturnal animals (listening again, are those frogs?), Muu’s Way never allows itself a moment of repetition or stagnation. Every track offers something unexpectedly different from that before it, yet the album as a whole has a cohesion rooted in their distinct aesthetic direction. With 10 tracks clocking in at about a half hour, the album is a small gem, a serious effort that remains laughingly light-hearted, echoing beyond its playing time.
WOOM is out of Oakland and L.A., and touring now with Xiu Xiu. Muu’s Way will be released on June 28th on BaDaBing Records. In the meantime, you can buy their self-released 7” by e-mailing contactwoom@gmail.com.
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May 26th, 2010
Posted by Matt | Filed under Upcoming Shows
Numbers and Letters frontwoman Katie Hasty — living in New York, from Kansas — plays with Ian Cooke this Thursday at Lost Lake Lounge.
If you like you some Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Neko Case, Jolie Holland, Townes Van Zandt, Nina Nastasia, Gillian Welch, or Smog, you’ll like this.
Tags: Colorado musicians, Ian Cooke
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May 10th, 2010
Posted by Joey "Boots" Nelson | Filed under Denver Show, Music, Show Review, Upcoming Shows
Leading into bountiful spring, much has transpired in Denver’s music culture. Here’s a slice of awareness:
Astrophagus – currently Denver’s most visceral underground indie is pushing toward larger local recognition. Confusing title (phagus pronounced like “vegas,” rather then the more interesting and meaningful esophagus), yet moving and balanced like the best of the shoe-gazing ilk but enough presence to command a stage. They are in the Westword new music showcase but will likely take backseat to hot entrant Snake Rattle Rattle Snake.
Recently, Shooter Jennings opened with Hierophants for the Lucero show at the Bluebird. Although casted as his dad in “Walk the Line,” his sounds are distinctly deviant from his sonic legacy. It all sounded like scruffy Allman Brothers tunes with ethereal digital organs stacked against somewhat formulaic southern-style ballads. But in all, honestly, I thought it rocked.
Lastly, Herman’s Hideaway is hosting another round of a local music showcase. Westword’s Hot 32, is starting on Friday, May 14, with Ray Ray, My God Micah and others. On this point I haven’t spoken with promotion but this competition comes on the heels of their Best of the West competition. I suspect this not only helps the rising tide of elevating local acts but also loops venues in effective symbiosis with taste-makers. Good show. Good on, Hermans! Everyone: this is a great way to meet the bleeding edge of Denver talent. I bet you will come away a fan from at least one act so plan it now, thank me later.
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May 3rd, 2010
Posted by Joey "Boots" Nelson | Filed under Denver Show, Music
SXSW 2010 is in the bag, and of the few consolations I can muster, only this is worth mentioning – we have access to acts that have been, seen, and returned. Like pilgrims back from the holy land, I await to hear their stories, regale in relics gathered, and bask in new sonic awakenings. Well, I sit, dreaming, but in the meantime, do yourself a favor, listen to The Photo Atlas. They played March 11, 2010 at the Marquis Theater: good yelling, great drumming, and more than enough reasons to shout along. They were allegedly waitlisted this time around in Austin after splashing big in years-past; however, I would not be surprised if they got in.
But I probably hold SXSW in too much reverence and imbue too much gravitas on what is, after all, just another music festival. Still, pray of 2011.
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March 23rd, 2010
Posted by Joey "Boots" Nelson | Filed under Denver Show
Above: The Still City
The first superlative that must be offered is, professional. The Rouge, above all sounded polished and unwavering as a band on the rise should. However, there comes a time to which the singer of a band has to choose to respect the audience or simply look upon them with the same solipsism as he does his bathroom mirror. The Rouge front man chose the latter. Allegedly approached by Atlantic, they have a clear package of commercial image, sound, and bravado, but perhaps the best way to characterize the band is what the lead singer offered in way of their aspirations. They submitted an offering to one of the Twilight movie soundtracks (which one is irrelevant) and from what I gather was declined. They are shooting for a place on the list of high-fad, the modern day hair band, and that should say it all.
The Still City have delivered a handful of shows since their album We Will Explain Everything, was released on December 1, 2009. From that debut their live show has added a tone of unity and balance providing another level of communication through their music. I’ve heard them characterized as close to Death Cab for Cutie although their verve suggests more of Say Anything or Barcelona but more direct. Well, that does it for third-tier comparisons. For a more mainstream analog, the Still City is the equivalent of the Shins, heartbroken and loud. Look forward to experiencing the harmonic catharsis again.
The Rouge and the Still City are playing the Marquis Theater with the Photo Atlas Thursday, March 11, 2010.
Tags: The Rouge, The Still City
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March 10th, 2010
Posted by Matt | Filed under Music
Want to write? No pay, but you can get into most any show in Denver/Boulder. It actually works.
My son was born 3 months ago, and he’s proving to be a free-time-destroyer extraordinaire.
Use the Contact Us link to get more information on being a RMMB writer.
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February 11th, 2010
