Photo: Chad FahnestockBoyz II Men, Stevie B and Break EFXFriday, November 28, 2008Ogden TheaterBetter than: Listening to the recorded soundtrack from the ten-year high school reunion of any graduating class from the 1990s.The reactions varied wildly. When I told people that I was covering the Boyz II Men show at…
Photo: Tom Murphy Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk w/Yellow Elephant and Married in BerdichevSaturday, November 29th, 2008RhinoceropolisBetter Than: Seeing well-established bands in a less idealistic setting.As a relatively new, experimental band, Yellow Elephant is still working out its kinks and inconsistencies, but this show was one where things came together…
Wil Swindler’s ElevenetSunday, November 30, 2008Dazzle Restaurant & LoungeWil Swindler’s weekend show at Dazzle helped me recover a lost memory. I must have been three years old at most. My mother was rifling through my parents’ vinyl collection at our suburban home in Aurora, and the Beatles’ “White Album” was…
Photo: Jon SolomonOurs, Plane Jane Automobile and YerkishFriday, November 28, 2008 Toad TavernI was floored the first time I saw Ours at the Walnut Room nearly two years ago. I was fully drawn into the band’s performance and awestruck by singer’s Jimmy Gnecco’s vocal delivery, especially his soaring Jeff Buckley-esque…
Yeasayer and Icy DemonsSaturday, November 29, 2008Bluebird TheaterBetter than: Flashbacks.Druggies, take notice: Yeasayer is a band you need to know. Between the trippy, hypnotic visuals provided by the lightball tree sculptures on stage and the wall-of-sound performance, this is a band that will help you get maximum mileage from your…
Wetlands, Widowers, the Dendrites, Monofog and Fissure MysticFriday, November 28, 2008Larimer LoungeBetter than: Stuffing down turkey sandwiches while watching David Lynch films and weepingOn the day after Thanksgiving, the good hipsters of Denver shook off the tryptophan hangover and braved the snow to catch the Wetlands’ CD release party at…
Here’s a guide to all the great content you might have missed this week while you were eating turkey, drinking heavily, watching football or the Sarah Palin video where the guy is slaughtering turkeys behind her. Just so happens that guy’s half brother sings for Yerkish…
Bela Karoli has been in Helmet Room Studio working on the follow-up to band’s outstanding debut, Furnished Rooms. Tentatively titled, Digital Sixes, the album will feature members Julie Davis (vocals, bass), Brigid McAuliffe (accordion, vocals), Carrie Beeder (violin, cello) and James Han (keyboards), as well as some help from cellist/singer…
Gregory Alan Isakov has been laying down tracks for his new album tentatively titled This Empty Northern Hemisphere, which is also the title of one of the dozen new songs that will appear on the disc. He’s been recording in his home studio and getting some engineering help from Blue…
ohGrThursday, November 27, 2008Bluebird TheaterBetter Than: Not being able to resist the lull of tryptophan.Having seen the previous ohGr tour through Denver in 2001 as well as Skinny Puppy for the Greater Wrong of the Right, I expected the show to be decent but it ended up being even better.For…
Paper Bird, The Autumn Film, Laura Goldhamer, Chuck Potashner, Rob DrabkinWednesday, November 26, 2008Oriental TheatreBetter than: The typical Thanksgiving birdThanksgiving Eve (that’s a thing, right?) is always a good night to get out and have a little fun, unless maybe you’re the one stuck cooking the next day. Cooking is…
Freddy Rodriguez Sr. and the Jazz ConnectionWednesday, November 26, 2008El ChapultepecBetter than: Celebrating Thanksgiving Eve with critical in-laws.Atmosphere makes a difference.I’ve attended countless shows where the skill and power of a performer has failed to make up for obnoxious concertgoers, cramped quarters, poor lighting schemes or bad sound. Fortunately, the…
Most of us live our lives in closed boxes… home, work, the DMV, our car, the bar, a hospital room, a dressing room at the mall. And then, when we die, we get to spend eternity (depending on your belief system) in another closed box.I realize this.So pardon me, in…
Q: How do you know you have the right bass player?A: They’re good. And they’re confident.Example:JOHN: “What do you think of that last take?”JIMMY: “I love it. Take a picture of it. Then put it in a frame and hang it on the wall. Then take a picture of THAT,…
Four years after U2 released The Joshua Tree, Negativland released an EP titled U2. The EP, which included a parody of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” could easily have been mistaken for another U2 album, since “U2” took up nearly the entire cover of the album and…
I haven’t had anyone cut my hair since I bought some electric clippers more than a decade ago. Although that $20 investment has saved me hundreds of dollars in the years since, I still miss my last barber. He was from the old school; after finishing a trim, he’d slap…
With the holidays officially kicking tomorrow, what better way to start of turkey day with a hangover from a lot of partying tonight. Here are a few Thanksgiving eve suggestions:Rockbar (3015 E. Colfax Avenue) will be dubbed Plymouth Rockbar for its Thanksgiving eve kegger. We’re talking five kegs of beer…
How do you know if you have the right drummer? Here’s an example:(Actual transcript from last night’s recording session while we were in the control room, listening/evaluating a take)JOHN: What do you think?CARL: I think I’m hitting my drums too hard… Let’s do it again.JOHN (To himself): Marry me.–John Common…
Shawn Colvin joins Hot Rize and Leo Kottke at the RootsFest. Not too much shaking this week with concert announcements, but there’s good news for acoustic and bluegrass fans: tickets for Swallow Hill’s RootsFest (known as the Denver Folk & Roots Music Festival for the past two years) concert on…
Widespread Panic’s New Year’s Eve show sold out in a record time of 25 minutes, but tickets for the band’s December 30 Pepsi Center show were recently released through Ticketmaster. Tickets are $61 plus a facility fee and an applicable Ticketmaster service charge…
I don’t think it’s just sound waves that get recorded in the studio.I think you’re recording everything — EVERYTHING — that’s happening in the room, in the song, in the heads, hands and hearts of everyone in the room at that moment… and the control room too.There’s really no hiding…
Hard-core Frank Zappa fans will have to wait a little longer for revamped versions of two of the late composer’s seminal works from the ’60s.An ambitious box set combining rare studio tracks and new mixes of both Lumpy Gravy and We’re Only In It for the Money, creatively dubbed Lumpy…
