Denver Music Blog

Malas Semilla, Light Travels Faster and Dark Meat
August 28, 2007
The hi-dive
Better than: A psychedelic tent revival

Malas Semillas was the sound of an alternate universe where hipster culture spontaneously generated in the Appalachians, complete with irony and punk rock roots intact, but lacking all other indie touchstones. These kids pumped out hillbilly pop on banjos, mandolin, acoustic guitar and standup bass, with the occasional dollop of saw, washboard and spoons. It was silly and chock full of fun. The song about Pauly Shore and the cover of the Dead Milkmen’s “Punk Rock Girl” were fun if inessential; the cover of Ween’s “Baby Bitch” did little for me; but the original song “Bowl Me” – an innuendo and entendre-laden tune built around a bowling metaphor – was charming, catchy and funny as hell. The closer, a high-speed hoedown that references the Devil himself, was pretty fine too.

There’s a lot more to Richard Swift than what’s in our August 30 issue. Swift himself said, “I think primarily people think of me as just some dude behind a piano singing, you know, like sad bastard songs.” Sure, his latest Dressed Up For the Underdog might be heavily steeped in Beatles-inspired melodies, with hints of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith’s moodiness, but Swift says he has plans to release two vastly different records, which draw from a larger pool of his interests, everything from Can, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin to Link Wray, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Swift also talks about the music that inspired him early on before embarking on his musical career. Here is our interview with him in its entirety.

Jason Roth, Cap’n Fresh & the Stay Fresh Seals, and All Teeth And Knuckles
August 27, 2007
Larimer Lounge
Better than: Weeping into your Miller Lite over the incisive musings of another brilliant singer-songwriter.

Tard-tronica. Electrobotomy. Hip-schlock. Call it what you will and make of it what you will, but the deliberately dumb dancefloor detonator is back with a vengeance. Tonight’s bill at the Larimer proved there’s plenty of life left in analog synthesizers, TR-505 drum machines and intentionally clumsy white-boy raps. Blame Daft Punk. Blame LCD Soundsystem. Blame the disaffected youth who now lose more sleep over global warfare than any generation since the Cold War ended and just need something – anything – to take their minds off their troubles.

Inland Knights & Luke Solomon
August 24, 2007
Vinyl & Two A.M.
Better than: You know what they say about half a loaf…

When something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Something like, say, getting two headlining DJs – Inland Knights and Luke Solomon in this case – at one club night. When none of them had arrived by 11 p.m., I began wondering how that was going to work. By the time Inland Knights started at midnight, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to. At least they didn’t leave much to complain about. They played everything from typical deep housers to some hip-hop/R&B influenced tracks to some bouncy, chirpy and abstract tech house.

Their mixing skills were impeccable and they kept everything smooth and groovy throughout the night. The mood they set was great, it was well-paced and the energy was good. Sure, there were too many people sitting down and not enough people there to fill the place, but none of that was their fault. Denver just seems to go for the higher-energy, big-room stuff.

Rock the Bells @ Red Rocks
Wednesday, August 22
Red Rocks

Better than: Ninety percent of the hip-hop you see on television and hear on the radio. This acts on this bill hardly get any radio or video play anymore.

It’s been almost ten years since a quality hip-hop festival played at Red Rocks. It was called the Smoking Grooves Tour and featured such acts as Cypress Hill, the Fugees, Gangstarr, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, among others. Smokin’ Grooves tried to make a comeback in 2002, with fewer artists and it was held at Coors Amphitheatre. But now with the Rock the Bells tour, hip-hop heads have a chance to spend a cool summer day watching legendary acts at the best venue in the nation.

Lez Zeppelin
Wednesday, August 22
Bluebird Theater

Slide Show

Better than: Physical graffiti in the houses of the holy when the levee breaks.

All right, first things first. Lez Zeppelin, if you can’t tell by the name, is an all-female band paying tribute to the almighty Led Zeppelin. To get anywhere near the brut force that Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones created is a Herculean task. But these gals did a pretty damn good job getting the Led out Wednesday night, their first Denver show since March.

After powering through tunes like “Immigrant Song,” “Custard Pie” and “Misty Mountain Hop” early in the set, they slowed it down a bit on “In My Time of Dying,” where guitarist Steph Paynes did some fine slide work on what looked like a Danelectro guitar. And if you’re a hardcore Zep gearhead, you might know that Page played a Danelectro on “In My Time of Dying” and on “Kashmir,” which the gals interpreted faithfully, and Helen Destroy was beating the crap out of the drums, as she was on literally every song they played. She definitely learned a few things in the Bonham school of power drumming.

Although our August 23 interview with Tower of Power founding member Emilio Castillo mostly focused on the band’s new album, the sax player also talked about the early days of playing in Bay Area, coming in at the tail end of the psychedelic scene and having the group’s first record released on San Francisco Records, which was headed up by legendary music promoter Bill Graham. Castillo also enthusiastically recounted the first time he saw Sly Stone. Here's the interview in its entirety.

Korn guitarist Munky appeared to be more than a little befuddled during a conversation with Westword for an August 24 profile. A sizable percentage of questions during the interview (which took place on August 1, the day after the release of Korn’s eighth studio disc, Untitled) seemed to confuse him, and several of his answers returned the favor. Even he couldn’t figure out what one of his responses meant.

That, my friends, is the story of rock.

The topics covered, more or less, in the Q&A below include Korn’s megabucks profit-sharing deal with EMI, the company that owns its label, Virgin; the members’ decision to re-record demos made with the Matrix, the songwriting crew that assisted them on their previous studio CD, See You On the Other Side; the difficulties of doing without longtime drummer David Silveria, who split shortly after the departure of guitarist Brian “Head” Welch; the ways Korn’s sound has changed now that only three of its original members (Munky, bassist Fieldy and singer Jonathan Davis) remain in the fold; Welch’s book, which details his drug addiction, depression and eventual Christian conversion; Munky’s displeasure at missing his daughter’s sixth birthday because of touring commitments; and his continuing enthusiasm for his longtime band.

Call in Munky business.

The Dave Navarro who was interviewed by Westword for the August 23 Message column is very different from the one who chatted with the paper by phone in late 1990. During that conversation, he was slurring his words, sniffing loudly, bumping into furniture, losing track of his thoughts and otherwise acting as if he’d just shot up, which, in all likelihood, he had. Hence the headline affixed to the article that resulted: “Panic in Needle Park,” which predated Westword’s online archive, but is reproduced below.

There’s plenty of irony in the piece, not the least of which is the guitarist’s rant about hating interviews. Now, of course, a cleaned-up Navarro is the one doing the interviewing on Spread Entertainment, his program for Denver-based ManiaTV! -- a development as unexpected as his survival.

For more flashbacks, read on:

Slide Show

“This song is not a rebel song. This song is ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday!’”

This song is beset by incorrectly tuned guitars.

But let’s not get too nitpicky about local U2 tribute band Under a Blood Red Sky’s performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and the rest of their act at Red Rocks last night, a largely faithful re-creation of the original U2’s June 5, 1983 performance at the amphitheater, a now-mythical show that helped launch the Irish foursome — and the venue itself — into international stardom. Sure, Under a Blood Red Sky lead singer Billy Bunting’s Bono-mullet was a little thin on top, the Irish accents were a bit garbled and the Edge stand-in (aka “the Tedge”) flubbed a few chords. But what the group lacked in polish it made up for in heart, exhibiting the same end-of-the-world determination that helped earn U2 the title “The best band in the world.”

Backyard Tire Fire, Year Long Disaster, Clutch
August 20, 2007
The Boulder Theater
Better than: an actual backyard tire fire or yearlong disaster

When I first saw Clutch in Austin in 1994, the audience was mostly clad in backward baseball caps and was there as an alternative to bar fighting. Elbows, grimaces and teeth flew in the perpetually swirling mosh pit. Last night’s sold-out show at the Boulder Theater, however, was quite a different scene. Through its 16-year existence, the Maryland-based heavy hardcore outfit has evolved from a relentlessly violent, hip-hop-inflected metal hybrid that presaged rap-rock to a complex, proficient, blues-based beast that appeals to a very different kind of fan. From teenagers to near-retirees, frat boys to stoners, hippies to metalheads, the crowd jockeying for drinks at the theater’s bar was even more eclectic than I’d envisioned. I decided to forego the bar ballet and made my way to the front fence at the apron of the stage, taking my place next to a Les Claypool look-a-like, who happened to be wearing a Les Claypool t-shirt.

Pelican, Clouds, Your Black Star
August 19, 2007
Marquis Theater

Better Than: The spiciest hot wings you ever ate.

First to the stage was Louisville’s Your Black Star, a power trio that seemed to have an instrumental thing going at first, but a promising lead on some psychedelic and noisy prog rock soon turned to a short set of alt-rock confusion. The other opener, the Boston quartet Clouds, made things quite a bit more interesting. Clouds mixes thrash, punk, and classic rock into an unpredictable, throwback style that takes you on a condensed history lesson of underground heavy rock and milks something new from that synthesis.

For their headlining set, Pelican opened with the first two tracks off its new album, City of Echoes, “Bliss in Concrete” and “City of Echoes.” The post-metal, post-rock instrumental four-piece sticks to a formula that works, generally sticking to the framework of album they're touring to support. After all, why mess around; the explosive Chicago outfit makes albums meant to flow in a particular direction so sticking to the blueprint for its live show only makes sense.

The Ron Miles Group
Saturday, August 18
Dazzle
Better than: A mint julep on a hot summer day

Trumpeter Ron Miles has style, man. And that tone, that gorgeous tone, it’s just downright classy. And to hear him do mainly a stylish, subdued set of ballads during Saturday’s 9 p.m. set, well, it was damn near the ideal setting to hear the man play.

Drummer Rudy Royston, who’s been playing with Miles off and on since 1991, started the show off with some trills, which gradually built into something of a snare solo, with sticks clicking on the on the rim. The band then joined in on the Miles original “Close,” which he recorded on Heaven, his duo album with Bill Frisell. It's a slow waltz, which mildly resembles to Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now.” Miles would toss in a few more Bacharach-isms throughout his set: here and there he added little phrases that just sound like they were pulled from the Bacharach songbook. And Miles has this knack for occasionally hitting the blue notes, those notes that sound a little bit out of key, but that definitely still work.

Jim Bianco, Paper Bird, Bitter:Sweet
August 15, 2007
The Walnut Room
Better than: Any variety show I’ve ever seen.

Question: What do you get when you add a musical comedian, an old-timey girl group and a smooth, downtempo chanteuse? Answer: Last night’s show at the Walnut Room. It started an hour after it was supposed to and I was getting restless and cranky by the time Jim Bianco took the stage. With just his voice – a rough croon with a raspy edge – and his slight, spare guitar playing he managed to change my mood instantly. He was genuinely funny, enough so that he could have ditched the guitar and done his act as straight stand up and it would have worked. That’s a compliment to his sense of humor and connection with the audience, not a knock on his music, which was excellent. By the time he ended his set with a sing-along version of “Rainbow Connection” he’d made more than a few new fans among the audience.

Westword’s August 16 profile of Hilary Duff finds the junior pop star touching on a number of tabloid friendly topics, including her breakup with Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden, who got over his heartbreak by quickly impregnating Nicole Richie. Below, scope the entire interview, in which the nineteen-year old emphasizes her desire to escape adolescence once and for all.

Topics include the title song from Dignity, her new CD, and how much the tune is, and isn’t, about scolding misbehaving celebrities; the disc’s jacket photo, in which its name is superimposed over a photo of Duff looking like genuine royalty, as opposed to the kind that gets slimed on Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards; how songs about her parents breakup have been wrongly assumed to be comments on the Madden-Richie match; her contributions to Dignity’s songwriting, and her contention that the co-writing credits she receives are fully earned; her fragrance and clothing lines; her resistance to being seen as a brand as opposed to a human being; and War Inc., her forthcoming movie, which actually sounds like something people will fully functioning brains might want to see.

Will wonders never cease?

The Epilogues, the Bears, Sleeper Horse
August 13, 2007
Larimer Lounge
Better than: Watching my beloved Broncos win a preseason game of faux football earlier in the night.

Arriving nearly an hour early at the Larimer Lounge, I settled in on the patio to make some phone calls and then peruse a magazine and chainsmoke cigarettes when I couldn’t reach anyone I needed to talk to. Before long some strangers sat down and engaged me in random conversation and I sort of half-met the drummer of the Bears. Proper introductions were postponed when the sounds of the Epilogues filtered out to our smokers’ haven.

The Epilogues threatened to bounce off the stage from their first number. Lead singer and guitarist Chris Heckman was like a human tornado, twisting and leaping about while thrashing out some chunky post-punk riffs and emo-tinged vocals. The rest of the band did their best to match his insane energy and made a pretty good go of it as they punched through a set of frenetic tunes that shined the spotlight on their wild, turbocharged frontman.

Side-Fi Noise, Dartanian, A Shoreline Dream, Peña
August 10, 2007
Larimer Lounge
Better than: Spinal Tap opening for Sigur Ros

You just never know what you’re getting into at a local show, but Denver audiences are usually open to anything good. A Friday night show to kick off A Shoreline Dream’s tour reinforced that: Three bands played in support and none of them sounded anything like Shoreline, but the audience stuck out the duration and was enthusiastic throughout.

Side-Fi Noise started the night with a nice arty, instrumental no-wave rock thing. It was a little bit jazzy, a little bit funky, with Sonic Youth-sounding guitar and a very capable and polished rhythm section. The whole thing bopped along nicely, but the songs didn’t do much to differentiate themselves from each other.

Dartanian followed with a throwback to the heyday of ‘80s metal, spun out of equal parts reverence and humor. One guitarist sported faux-authentic metal garb (tight, leopard-spot pants; mullet wig; vest over a bare chest) while the rest of the band pulled authentic metal faces and poses even tough they looked like typical Denver indie-band dudes. Add that to some incredibly authentic sounding Iron Maiden-inspired riffs, garnish with a crazily enthusiastic audience and shake well for a fun, dumb time.

Hybrid, DJ Ivy
August 11, 2007
Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom
Better than: The tired, overrated DJs playing at the night’s other big dance music event.

Upon my 10 p.m. arrival at Cervantes' DJ Ivy was playing an excellent set of dark yet funky breakbeats and to a “crowd” of maybe eight people, including the bartenders. Despite the empty room he played for almost two hours, as people slowly trickled in. Whether it was the competition from the other big events of the night – Electronaissance and the DPUMS – or just an off night, the crowd peaked at maybe a few hundred people by the time Hybrid finally took the stage at midnight.

Hybrid didn’t seem put off by the largely empty room, and launched into a high-energy, hard set of rollercoaster breaks. They definitely leaned on the progressive/NuSkool breaks: heavy, thick and just a tiny bit funky. Highlights included the incredible, sci-fi funk track that I recognized from their Frisky Radio DJ set; an adventurous progressive trance track full of ponging synthetic percussion; and Orbital’s "Halcyon + On," which served as the closer. It sounded good and was very danceable from the get go, but it seemed a little too intense for the size of the crowd. It was simply putting out more energy than the crowd could return. Sure, everyone seemed to be into it, but the excess energy seemed to burn people out quickly as the crowd dwindled throughout the set. It’s hard to fault Hybrid for giving more than the crowd could return, especially since the hardy souls who stuck it out 'til the end were all smiles and sunshine as they spilled out of the club and into the night. – Cory Casciato

Critic’s Notebook
Personal Bias: Breakbeats frequently leave me cold, unless done extremely well.
Random Detail: There was a woman pestering me all night to let her take my picture with my camera.
By the Way: Hybrid are done with the US on this tour; you’ll have to catch them next time if you weren’t there.

Social Distortion, Blue October, Jack's Mannequin, Motion City Soundtrack, Plain White T's, Single File, I Hate Kate, Tickle Me Pink, Synthetic Elements, No Fair Fight

Coors Amphitheatre

On the surface, summertime festival shows seem like a good idea and a real bargain: a lot of bands for relatively few bucks apiece. Unfortunately, such productions seldom live up to expectations. They're generally too hot, too long, too scattershot and too often plagued by technical problems -- which pretty much sums up The Big Gig, the self-promotional bash thrown by KTCL on August 11.

The August 9 profile of the String Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth, timed to mark the band’s final Red Rocks appearances prior to going on a hiatus that may or may not last forever, mines a few nuggets from his interview with Westword. This is the place to find the whole lode.

Subjects? Hollingsworth discusses confusion among fans and the press over whether the Incident is breaking up; a recent, and emotional, show in New York City; new covers that are being unveiled on the current tour; the plusses and minuses of having a wide-open future; the push and pull between business interests and musical creativity; the process of putting together new songs with bandmates, despite the looming deadline; memorable String Cheese moments, complete with a fond salute to an aging vehicle named Bussy; musical heroes that are both well-known and unknown; and Hollingsworth’s new projects, including a band featuring Arrested Development’s Speech and a baby of undetermined gender.

Clearly, plenty of things are still up in the air.

Rufus Wainwright and Sean Lennon

Fillmore Auditorium

Apparently, being the offspring of famous people isn't the draw it once was. Last night's Rufus Wainwright-Sean Lennon concert was the most poorly attended show by major recording artists I've attended in recent memory. Although the main performers have a lot more going for them than famous bloodlines, the venue was only about one-quarter full -- a fact the Fillmore staff's decision to put tables and chairs on the main floor did nothing to disguise.

The turnout likely had a major influence on the brisk pace of the proceedings. Because a third act, A Fine Frenzy, was on the bill, which listed an uncommonly early 7 p.m. start time, I thought I'd be able to catch the lion's share of Lennon's set if I arrived shortly before 8 p.m. By then, however, Lennon was two and a half tunes from wrapping up -- and the intro to Wainwright's slot began at 8:30 p.m. It was as if the pair wanted to get through the gig as quickly and professionally as possible in the hope that the next one would attract an audience without quite so much elbow room. Nevertheless, their time onstage at the Fillmore was revealing, if only because it forced these children of privilege to deal with difficult circumstances in the full glare of stage lights.

Sure, the members of the Fray just completed a triumphant three-night run at Red Rocks, solidifying their local-hero status. But their steady march to cultural hegemony has been formalized by their appearance in the realm of some real heroes: the X-Men.

X-Factor issue 22, to be released on August 8, is built around Molly and Wally, who are described in an online preview as "two charming children who go around the country singing cheerful songs that incite people to violence against mutants." Siryn and Monet are sent to deal with the pair, and on this page, they attend a Molly and Wally concert. They're not impressed by the tuneage.

"Well, what do you think?" Siryn asks, her eyebrow arched in disdain.

"Charming," Monet deadpans. "The Fray should record a cover version."

In the end, it doesn't matter whether this line comes across as a tribute or an insult. What's more important is that the boys from Denver have entered the Marvel universe. Too bad they weren't given any superpowers... -- Michael Roberts

David Waxman
August 4, 2007
Club Vinyl
Better than:, Sweating that much for no good reason.
Slide show

On a hot Saturday night made humid by drizzling rain and the sweat of hundreds of clubbers, David Waxman brought New York City to Denver at Club Vinyl. For roughly two hours he played a set of diverse, hard-charging material, ranging from old-school piano-driven house classics through state-of-the-art French electro house. The foundation of his set was dark, pounding tribal house and the aforementioned, searing electro house, but everything from a remix of Public Enemy to progressive trance got worked into the mix.

Bob Marley and the Wailers
Roots, Rock, Remixed
(Quango)

Since most remix/tribute discs bite, the listenability of Roots, Rock, Remixed comes as a pleasant surprise. With a couple of exceptions, the album’s programmers wisely steer clear of the most overplayed Marley material in favor of less known compositions epitomized by “Duppy Conqueror,” “African Herbsman” and “400 Years.” Moreover, mixers such as Bombay Dub Orchestra, Afrodisiac Sound System and DJ Spooky treat the songs with respect rather than as an excuse to cut and paste ad nauseum. Far more agreeable than anyone could have expected. – Michael Roberts

Kelly Clarkson
My December
(RCA)

How did I know that Ms. Clarkson’s latest would be a commercial disappointment? Because I kinda like it. Don’t get me wrong: The disc doesn’t exactly qualify as an artistic triumph – not given the surplus of mock-profound couplets exemplified by “I’m strong/But I break” (from “Maybe”). But producer David Kahne and guest musicians such as bassist Mike Watt (!) give songs like “Never Again” a tougher-than-expected edge, and Clarkson seems more emotionally connected to the material than if she were simply reciting the fruit of professional tunesmithery, like the majority of her Idol kin. No wonder Clive Davis is pissed at her. – Michael Roberts

This August 2 profile of Ryan Adams provides a taste of the eccentric interview the singer-songwriter recently conducted with Westword. Below, find the whole meal – a sumptuous spread of conversation and contradictions, complete with a serving of metaphysical hippie-isms that concludes the chat in a suitably peculiar manner.

Examples? Adams talks about his dislike of reading reviews, complete with the revelation that he’s more or less ordered those around him not to mention the subject; his arms-length relationship with the media and computers; the reasons for the year-and-a-half gap between the arrival of his latest disc, Easy Tiger, and 29, the third of three CDs put out in an eight-month span; references to new members of his band, the Cardinals; info about two other albums made during this time period; an impending box set loaded with other complete albums that have yet to officially see the light of day; his rejection of fear in any form; a defense of his hyper-prolific artistic nature; the beauty of life and his refusal to filter any of the inspiration that flow his way; and the degree to which his work is autobiographical, with a nod to the one bandmate who can usually tell when he’s speaking from personal experience.

That makes him this Cardinal a member of the Adams family.

Daft Punk
July 31, 2007 at Red Rocks Amphitheater
Better than: A four-story-tall Light Bright

The French electro/house duo Daft Punk descended on Red Rocks last night, dressed in their now-iconic robotic garb and encased in a radiant pyramid of light. The pyramid exploded with vivid imagery fueled by the band's thumping mix of crushing synths and feverish sampling, and served as the centerpiece of the duo's space-age deconstruction.

If you follow Daft Punk at all you've probably heard about this set up before -- it was the crux of their performances at Coachella and Bang, two shows heralded my many critics as the best live performances of 2006. Sure, that may come off as a slightly hyperbolic statement to any that haven't witnessed the spectacle first hand; even if those folks were in the majority due to the painfully small number of U.S. appearances the duo made that year. The group's decision to extend the tour by adding five more U.S. performances this year just means more fans will get to witness the show first hand.

After a solid showing by opening neo-new wave act The Rapture and an energetic set from French electro artist Kavinsky, the lights went out in the amphitheater to signal Daft Punk's arrival. From behind a black curtain that covered the stage, the duo shot their opening volley: the Casio-style notes used by humans to communicate with the alien race from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The communique wasn't lost on the crowd, whose collective roar bounced back with a message of its own. The curtain dropped, exposing the two artists perched high atop a black pyramid at center stage. The duo continued their robotic call and response until the syllabic sounds they were looping actually melded into a robotic message of their own: Human, Robot. It was a clever way to start the show, and to set the tone of robotic evolution that encompassed the evening.

Blitzen Trapper, Smoosh and Aqueduct
July 31, 2007
The Hi-Dive
Better than: You’d think three bands with such silly names would be.

Blitzen Trapper started the night off with a set of deliriously giddy, loose-limbed indie pop built on a foundation of rattling drums, overdriven guitar, fuzzy synths and sunshine melodies. They came off for the most part like a more somber Flaming Lips or a more upbeat Minus Story, which isn’t bad territory to stake out.

Smoosh followed and proved, once and for all, that junior-high-age girls can seriously rock the fuck out. It would be easy to assume a band comprised of two girls that won’t be driving legally for some time would be purely novelty, but that isn’t the case. The singer had an incredibly pure, clear voice that pushed angelic melodies straight into the stratosphere and the drummer might as well be the reincarnation of Brian Jones, albeit in pint-sized female form. These girls have some serious talent and, with a few more years and a bit of polish under their belts, should find them among indie rock royalty.