Tomorrow, friends, These United States are playing my grand hurrah mid-summer BBQ fiesta with The Lumineers. Both bands are, quite simply — amazing, and really you should come. Details about Sunday are here. Bring something to cook up and let’s celebrate the radiant heat and summer thunderstorms before they’re gone.
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This has been a sort of OMIGODHELP week back at work, and the very depths of summer ennui have grabbed me firmly by both ankles. So I’ve only been splashing around in little pools of new music, not willing to commit until I heard the new Shabazz Palaces album Black Up (out this week on Sub Pop Records).
It’s a cerebral album from musicians that hover behind a sheet of enigma. The new project of former Digable Planets member Ishmael Butler and mostly-unidentified collaborators, the album resists classifications. The Village Voice piece described the lengthy song titles spot-on as reading “like Babel fish translations.” Beats stutter and start and roll over and fade quickly. Your brain flits around while you listen, trying to find a foothold but okay with the slipperiness.
I don’t have many words for this album, and that’s good. Alls I know is that this makes me want to shake my shoulders (and other parts) when I listen.
A treatease dedicated to the Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1,000 questions, 1 answer) – Shabazz Palaces
And as an enjoyable little surface pleasure, the album also comes in a BLACK VELVET CASE flecked with shiny gold, and this makes me like it even more — like someone just gave me a really nice present.
Dear readers, I am home from my epic roadtrip adventure, well-sunned, well-loved, well-fed, and deeply grateful. In addition to lots of outdoor time with those who matter most to me, my path also crossed with wonderful several musicians, adding spatters of color to the late nights. As an adventure it ranks right up there with the best thing I’ve ever done.
Because I can’t stop/won’t stop, this weekend I am gearing up for the finest days in music that Denver has to offer all the livelong year at the Underground Music Showcase (UMS). The stretch of South Broadway that houses the Hi-Dive, Sputnik, Irish Rover, Skylark (etc) becomes an extended runway of jubilant, genre-crossing, warmly illuminated venues as art galleries, print shops, big ole churches, parking lots, and coffee shops all convert for the weekend into performance spaces.
Thousands of Denver music fans and bands both local and national are coming together to rock your face and perk up your ears. Wristbands for the entire weekend are only $40. Single day passes are also available in limited quantities each day on-site for $20.
Last night kicked off with some terrific artists (Nathan & Stephen, El Ten Eleven, Ha Ha Tonka) but you still have an insane amount of goodness to choose from as we hit our stride starting tonight. Here are some of my don’t-miss picks. Including that one song I am supposed to sing duet on, for my DENVER LIVE MUSIC DEBUT. Yes, really. Come cheer me on.
FUEL/FRIENDS TOP PICKS
FOR THE 2011 UNDERGROUND MUSIC SHOWCASE
The Pirate Signal
Saturday at 7:30pm @ Goodwill parking lot stage
Yonnas is one of the most literate, spirited hip-hop artists I have ever known, and his live performances are legendary. As their Facebook says, The Pirate Signal sounds like: “That point when you’re having sex and your face goes numb and heart feels like it is going to burst out of your chest.” So, um, GO.
Their is also my theme song for the upcoming weekend:
I Can’t Wait – The Pirate Signal
Gardens and Villa
Friday 10pm @ Hi-Dive
Very recently, all my social media feeds have lit up with friends raving about this Santa Barbara band (signed to Secretly Canadian), saying that their live shows are dance-party frenzies unlike anything going. They also apparently carry a bag of flutes on their back. Even though it’s going to be a billion sweaty degrees in the Hi-Dive tonight by 10pm, that sounds like something I need.
Houses
Saturday at midnight @ 3 Kings Tavern
The soon-to-be-called-something-else band featuring Denver music friends like Andy Hamilton, Mike Marchant, Johnny Lundock, and Matthew Till has been one of my favorite musical representatives of our fair city for a while now. They just finished their darkly atmospheric Winter EP, rounding out a sonic year of seasonal bliss. They also put on a terrific show, so it’s a no-brainer.
Generationals
Friday at midnight @ Hi-Dive
You know that super duper catchy song “When They Fight” that I put on my summer mix that sounds like a retro girl group (“I love you, bayyyyybayyyyyy”) but is actually two guys from Louisiana? Yeah well, they’re here tonight. Let’s go see them.
Old Canes
Saturday at 7pm @ 3 Kings
I’ve peppered several mixes with the percussive-heavy rattle and pop of Saddle Creek band Old Canes, the new project of Appleseed Cast frontman Chris Crisci. Their album that I still play constantly is called Feral Harmonic, and I find them to be both, marvelously.
Candy Claws
10pm Sunday at Delite
Named a “rising” band by Pitchfork, this Denver duo makes melodic and shimmery music inspired by lines from a Richard Ketchum book they found in a used bookshop and fed through www.translationparty.com. Rad.
YOU MIGHT ALSO FIND ME AT:
Iuengliss, 11pm Friday @ Delite (I love shaking my shit to Tommy Metz)
Fort Frances, 5pm Saturday at The Hornet (produced by Josh Ritter’s piano player Sam Kassirer, and a band that friends keep telling me to check out)
Denison Witmer, 10pm Friday at Moe’s BBQ (I love him so; watch for the Fuel/Friends Chapel Session we’re taping Sunday)
Gregory Alan Isakov, 8:15 Sunday at the Goodwill parking lot (because he is amazing)
The Centennial, 11pm Friday at 3 Kings (new band from the Meese brothers)
Saturday afternoon music panels “The Sesh” (I’m facilitating the Conversation with Duncan McKie who runs all the cool Canadian music funding programs)
A. Tom Collins (former frontman of Machine Gun Blues at 1am at the art deco Mayan? IN.)
Port Au Prince, 5pm Saturday at 3 Kings (new sounds from old friends in Astrophagus et al)
All the comedy at Sobo151 (Denver has some FUNNY COMICS)
Glass Hits, Friday 9pm @ 3 Kings (because they’re extremely loud and incredibly close) and their tightly-wound Fugazi tribute they’re reprising on Sunday at 10pm at 3 Kings.
Fairchildren, 5pm Saturday @ the South Broadway Christian Church / 7:30pm Sunday @ the Goodwill parking lot (Nathaniel Rateliff is not at the fest this year as far as I can tell, but the musicians that play with him will be, and their songs are based on fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm)
Panal SA de CV, 6pm Sunday @ Hi-Dive (Denver’s own anthemic instrumental rock band, reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky and other good things)
The H is O, 3pm Sunday @ the TS Board Shop (I’m gonna sing. I think.)
LET’S DO THIS, people.
This morning, my car sits packed to its dear 2001 Sentra gills. I am heading off into the southwestern climes of the United States, across six states with my seven year-old, a stack of good music and audiobooks, and a hankering for the open road. We’ll hit Mesa Verde, see family in Phoenix, sun in San Diego, attend a Dodgers-Padres game (so I can teach him to properly boo LA), camp along the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and stay in various KOA cabins along the way. We plan on s’mores and stargazing, and maybe finding a swimming hole or two.
While I check out of here for that time, I’m leaving you all with my 2011 Summer Mix, which we will be rocking in the car (as long as the speakers hold). Consider this my out-of-office autoresponder. Now go outside and play.
SPILLING OUR ICE CUBES ON THE LAWN
The Fuel/Friends Summer 2011 Mix
Someone Else Can Make A Work Of Art – First Rate People
The first rule of summer is that of measured procrastination. Someone else can make a work of art; we’ll have our toes in the pool (“down to the water / where the water is cold”).
Constructive Summer – The Hold Steady
“Me and my friends are like the drums on ‘Lust for Life’ / we pound it out on floor toms, our psalms are singalong songs….” – Some of the best opening lines of any album, ever, I’ve been waiting a few years to use this on a summer mix; I wanted it to get far removed enough from its original release (on the fabulous Stay Positive) so that the urgency and heat of young summers blazed through fresh. I love everything about this song. We’re gonna build something this summer.
Perfect Games – The Broken West
I took the title of the mix from this fantastic little forgotten gem of a song from the (I just learned now-defunct) Broken West, a great power-pop band that was signed to Merge Records. This was on 2008′s Now or Heaven, and it’s about kickin’ around, placing bets on the evening. I’ll bet on a summer evening anytime.
Rio – Hey Marseilles
There are always Brazilian boys to discover. Every line in this song makes it a perfect summer song: Drink til the morning becomes yesterday. Think of the shorelines you have yet to see / where the days left to breathe are not gone, are still long… Can’t wait to see Matt Bishop (hopefully) perform this at Doe Bay, under the August pines.
Singing The Devil’s Tune – Nick Jaina
This one gives off an anachronistic Elvis Perkins-y vibe, and starts with a lament about feet burned from dancing on your roof in the summer’s heat. It’s also the first of our hearty “la la la laaaa”s on this mix, because summer is for singing along (thanks Sean).
When They Fight, They Fight – The Generationals
I was surprised to find that this is a duo of guys from New Orleans, and not a doo-wop girl group with bouffants and pastel taffeta. In this instance, that is a very good thing.
Vocal Chords – Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
Starting here like the Beach Boys and quickly toe-tapping their way into Paul Simon territory, this entire album is a glimmering summertime delight.
I Need A Dollar (Blogotheque version) – Aloe Blacc
…because most of us could use an extra dollar or two in the summertime. Aloe Blacc strips this song back to its spiritual traditional roots in a Paris cafe for his Blogotheque session, and it becomes a timeless acapella lament of the boss man and the price of artistry. And all he needs are foot-stomps, snaps, and some water-glass percussion.
Blackout – Pickwick
A bunch of white kids from Seattle reinvent themselves as makers of music infused with retro-60s soul, after falling for Sam Cooke (a noble path). 100% terrific as an accompaniment to watching the ripples of heat rise off the sidewalk.
Summer Home – Typhoon
Portland’s multi-membered Typhoon has been a magnificent constant for me since the Springtime. This one sings about childhood memories and how those halcyon summers always are especially cemented in our seasonal psyche.
My Body – Young The Giant
And then this one starts like an ignition turning over and I am excited for all the roadtrips we are collectively taking in these hot months, tires humming on the softening black asphalt.
Wonder Why – Vetiver
Alongside the Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr album, the new Vetiver album is my other summer soundtrack. This San Francisco outfit is on Sub Pop Records, and the album landed in my mailbox in May, just as the apple blossoms were getting their act together. The whole album sounds real nice with the windows down, and I can’t stop listening.
Cold Feet – Lost Lander
This Portland band was featured on the PDX Pop Now! compilation, and sounds wildly Celtic to me, a voice ululating about a million tiny flashlights over a gently growing sonic gleam. It’s addictive. (oh — Kickstart them!)
Demons (live on Daytrotter) – AgesandAges
Even though I know this happened in a rad studio in Rock Island, Illinois, I think it sounds just like it could have been around a campfire somewhere on a coast, embers floating off into the salty air, hands clapping in time.
North of Town – Bryan John Appleby
Another stunner from BJA’s debut EP, this one has a jubilant streak in it that made it one of the highlights of his live show, as we all clapped and “la la laaaa”d together with a wish to run off to the north of town. Also, since we last spoke, BJA reached his Kickstarter goal! Yeehaw.
The Least I Can Do – David Wax Museum
I saw David Wax Museum a few months ago in Denver and this was one of the most stunning songs they did, about hearts opening up like flowers and not being able to unbloom. And that is such a good thing.
Let’s Go Down – Family Of The Year
I first wrote about this song back in January with teeth chattering, just envisioning campfires on the beach, and now it’s here. “First we take our shoes off, then we take our socks off, it doesn’t even matter – there are rocks that we can jump off…” My anthem these days.
Slipping Through The Sensors – Fruit Bats
I love the permeating, fresh-green laziness all through this whole damn song. I’ve thought of this as the quintessential summer song for a few years now.
Peaceful Mind – Ryan Tanner
This song by some Salt Lake City friends slides into the mix laden with a simple warm grace, like a benediction. I could listen to this one over and over and gain a new measure of peace each time. It also features Paul Jacobsen on banjo and backing vocals – you guys really really liked his cover of Kathleen Edwards that I posted once. This is a summer twilight song to me, fireflies flickering.
Where’d All The Time Go? – Dr Dog
Because before we know it, this summer will be past us.
ZIP: SPILLING OUR ICE CUBES ON THE LAWN SUMMER 2011
[cover art image by the wonderful Ryan Hollingsworth; original image from Shenandoah Davis]
Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
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