There is a sweet intuition in watching brothers playing or sisters singing together. Some of that familial DNA seems to weave its way through the verses, the octave changes and the rhythm shifts. When my sister and I sing together, it’s like singing with myself but in stereo. Watching Colorado Springs’ Conor and Ian Bourgal of The Changing Colors play together, it’s as if one person splintered into two – a river of fraternal goodness.
I’ve come to know Conor and Ian as some of the finest purveyors of good music in Colorado Springs — our town known for many things but not necessarily that. Originally from New York, this twin superpower finesses the audio behind both my chapel sessions and for local label Blank Tape Records (Haunted Windchimes, Joe Johnson), but they also make beautiful music in their own right. I’ve been wanting to feature The Changing Colors in their own chapel session since the beginning, and finally got my chance on a recent Sunday, together with their cellist Aaron Fanning.
I hesitate to even use the word “autumn” in this still-summer context (don’t go, August, please, I’ll change, come back baby) but true to the innuendo established in their band name, these songs usher in a particular crimson and orange wistfulness, and whisper to us about the season that’s just right on ahead. When I first saw The Changing Colors perform live, I was grabbed by Conor’s husky, rough-hewn voice – try and not be reminded of Ray LaMontagne. You can’t. I’ve been listening to this session all day.
The final song is a Tom Waits cover from the “Bawlers” disc of 2006′s Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards collection, and sounded pretty much perfect in a church. And after you enjoy that sweet, sweet slide guitar in “On The Side of the Light,” listen for the perfect timing of the church bells that started singing above our heads with Conor’s final guitar strum. We always try to time the recording in the fifteen-minute windows between chimes and this time our calculations were off, but also wonderfully so. I hope the Bourgal brothers never go back to their native New York; heaven knows our city needs them here.
Pete Roe is from London and was playing some dates supporting my friend, Nathaniel Rateliff from Denver. He has one album and one EP out, and is currently working on new material. He is a part of Ben Lovett’s Communion Records label. This is a pure, glittering gem of a song.
I was first introduced to Dolorean in 2008 through a song of theirs called “Heather Remind Me How This Ends” that I used to bookend one of the saddest, most bleeding-heart mix CDs I’ve ever made.
Here’s a free relationship tip: Don’t do that.
Not to be confused with the danceable Spanish band from Ibiza named after 1985′s most bitchin time machine, Dolorean is from Portland, has at times served as Damien Jurado’s backing band, and released four records in their own right. I keep track of which band is which by remembering the Spanish word for sadness, dolor, and then listening to the record — and all things flow accordingly.
Out now on Partisan Records, The Unfazed is not a sad record, per se, but it is deeply wistful and bittersweet, and in that richness there is a healthy wash of beauty. Man, listen to this:
It is a complex, richly gorgeous album of melancholy and ache. Al James’s voice soars with a vulnerable, incisive timbre that cuts right into me. I’ve played it on the stereo for friends when they come over, and the comments I get are often equal parts Ryan Adams/Heartbreaker and Blind Pilot’s smoky, multi-hued, string-laden beauty. This is a marvelous record, front to back.
Just like the album cover marries “high art” with the impassioned graffiti scrawls of our most base desires, this is an album of knowing better, but doing anyways:
I give you tumbleweed nights / I know it ain’t right
to pass through your sheets as I please
It’s just a life of excuse / when you don’t have to choose
the direction, the speed, or the breeze
Even fools have needs.
[from the song "Fools Gold Ring"]
I agree with the Willamette Week review that called 2007′s You Can’t Win “one of the best albums to ever come out of [Portland],” and the new record gives that a fair run for its money. I foresee this being one of my favorite albums of the year.
I got one of the best birthday presents ever the other night, when I dug through some packing peanuts to pull out the 7″ clear, first-pressing vinyl single of the new Wilco song “I Might” b/w a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label,” in a special Solid Sound Festival edition. My dear friend Dainon, who covered the fest for me, sent it on over. “I Might” is muscular and crunchy pop, like no one does quite as well as Wilco. Since we can’t all gather ’round my record player (boo), I wanted to make sure you’d heard the sweet melody of the b-side especially — a charming way to honor the founding of the new Wilco label, dBpm Records.
In the last few days, I’ve put this song on repeat and just steeped myself in it over and over. Tomo Nakayama of Grand Hallway has a haunting, spectral voice here (reminds me of Thom Yorke) as he covers one of Tom Waits’ saddest sad songs. I very nearly lost someone I love last weekend, and have been reminded this week how incredibly tenuous this life is. You might go ferociously hug someone you love today, and tell them what they mean to you. Just a thought.
Tell me, how does God choose
whose prayers does he refuse
who turns the wheel, who throws the dice
on the day after tomorrow
And the summer, it too will fade
and with it brings the winter’s frost, dear
and I know we too are made
of all the things that we have lost here
This video was recorded a year ago as part of their Sound on The Sound Session. The second song in this video (“I hear music from the next room…”) is called “Roscoe (What A Gift),” and it is the closing track from the new Grand Hallway record. It’s also one of my favorite songs on there.
My friend Nick Hornby once wrote something very true and marvelous about a central challenge of human-ness: “Keeping in touch with the things that help us feel alive – music, books, movies, even the theatre, if, mysteriously, you are that way inclined – becomes a battle, and one that many of us lose, as we get older.”
We won that battle this past weekend, all weekend long, at the Doe Bay Fest 2011: The Full Moon Festival. With a few hundred other folks for 4 days on Orcas Island in the San Juans, I felt deeply, vibrantly alive. It was like summer camp for adults (and many kiddos) who wanted to touch that thrumming coil of deep goodness that crackles and bursts in live music, if you know where to look and are ready to be stunned by what you find.
I found music around every bend in the road. I ascended a dirt trail at midnight and found Damien Jurado and John Vanderslice playing to a silent circle of folks lit only by the flickering fire of tiki torches. I ducked into a humid nighttime yoga studio and found myself linking arms with Kelli Schaefer and her band and The Head and The Heart, singing a rousing golden version of “Stand By Me.” I wandered through an alder grove to a black-pebbled beach under a full rising moon and watched Ravenna Woods pound out a primal set that made all my blood course hot and pure. I sang a gospel chorus of assurance (“know it’s gonna be alright”) on a crisp Saturday morning on a rocky bluff with Elk & Boar and a crowd of hundreds. I walked away saying, “Did that really happen?!”
I got no problem with massive, whirling, impressive music festivals in all shapes and sizes. I have partaken in my fair share. But the difference here was something quieter and more profound.
As my friends and I looked past the sea spray of the wake left by our ferry as we departed Doe Bay, I think we all felt transformed by music. That is not a common universal sentiment, I find, at many music festivals. I think Doe Bay Fest is onto something here, now in its fourth year as a very organic, do-it-yourself community of musicians and music-lovers, getting together to create something beautiful in this world that is all too often hard and cold.
I think we should be finding and creating and pouring ourselves into hundreds of petite music festivals all over the world that feel like this one. As we challenge the norm, maybe there’s something in there that will save us.
Favorite moments?
- Pickwick because holyshit
- “Find Me In The Air” with The Builders & The Butchers down amidst the crowd with everyone singing along
- That time I sang my first open mic ever, with Josiah from The Head and The Heart (I am now legit)
The thing I am most sorry I missed:
- Lemolo at the yoga studio (“She sees the world the way she wants…” singalong)
FOR THE EYES: My pictures are over on the Fuel/Friends Facebook Page. The stunningly gorgeous pictures (that capture all the little things of the festival far better than I had patience for) of Sarah Jurado are here.
I set off this morning for a highly-anticipated celebration of my birthday at the Doe Bay Music Festival, camping with a group of twenty of my friends from all over the world and all different parts of my life. Yep, that’s this weekend. It is a miracle I slept last night.
In the meantime, I can’t stop listening to this new song from Beirut, a band I have never heretofore adopted with personal love. But this song immediately changed all that. Their new album The Rip Tide is due August 30 on Pompeii Records; this song is sad and sweet and bohemian, with that shimmering brass cadence breaking through the grey piano.
It was first a b-side to the “East Harlem” 7″, which furthers my theory that the best songs are b-sides. Stream the full album on NPR for a little while here, or pre-order it at the Pompeii Records site.
I am beyond thrilled to announce that the Fuel/Friends Chapel Sessions recordings with The Head and The Heart will be officially released on August 15th as bonus tracks on the deluxe UK version of their debut album, via Heavenly Recordings/Rough Trade. Import-only bonus tracks have always held a certain music nerd mystique to me, so the 15-year-old Heather is totally geeking out right now.
I couldn’t go to Lollapalooza this year, despite my preview post they featured. Not only was I ill-equipped to fund another music trip this summer, but I am frankly not sure of my fortitude to handle Chicago in August, despite the great lineup.
So in this case, I call in my minions, and this minion this year was the marvelous Adam Sharp who writes the Songs For The Day blog (a daily must-read). His musical tastes and mine almost perfectly align, and there are few things more thrilling than meeting your identical music twin. Let’s see what Adam loved.
GUEST POST: LOLLAPALOOZA 2011
by Adam Sharp
There are things you simply cannot prepare for, and I now know that Lollapalooza is one such thing. No amount of hydrating, planning who you are going to see or anything else can prepare you for the mammoth beast that is 115 acres of music filled with 90,000 sweaty people each day checking out bands playing 8 different stages. Prepared or not, I went to Lollapalooza to have an amazing time, and that’s pretty much exactly what I had as the skyscrapers and Lake Michigan provided the perfect backdrop for the great music being played. It was a hell of an experience, filled with some incredible moments that I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget. Now that I have fully replenished all the missing water and nutrients in my body let’s talk about what happened in Chicago.
FRIDAY, AUG 5
Wye Oak
Wye Oak was the first band I saw at the festival, and I found their set to be a great way to kick off the entire weekend. Watching Wye Oak it struck me how much your appreciation grows for their music when you see them live. Jenn Wasner is as skilled as they come with the guitar, and Andy Stack is incredibly impressive as he drums with one hand and uses his left on a myriad of synths and other machines. Despite coming out and having some audio trouble (first a broken amp, then a broken guitar pedal), the rather large early crowd was totally behind them and they managed to rip through their set in most impressive fashion.
Foster The People
Foster the People
I remember when Heather wrote about the ridiculously large crowd for Foster the People at Sasquatch, and I was pretty interested to see if that would happen again at Lollapalooza. Um, yeah. That HAPPENED. About a half hour before the set started there had to have been 10-15,000 people waiting, and by the time they started that number grew to the point of being outrageous. They delivered a really enjoyable, incredibly sweaty show in the mid-afternoon heat to a completely adoring crowd, noting in the middle of their set that this was easily the largest crowd they had ever played to. It’s always nice when you can tell a band can’t believe what’s happening, and you most assuredly got that feeling from Foster the People.
Cults
Cults
I’ve really enjoyed Cults’ debut LP released earlier this summer, but given the secrecy behind the band, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. Cults came out and delivered an extremely entertaining set of their dark, doo-woppy tinged pop music, with lead singer Madeline Follin proving herself to be plenty charismatic. The crowd was into it, dancing and crowding together trying to get closer. The set was a really great way to cool down in the middle of the day.
Mountain Goats
Mountain Goats
In a word, Mountain Goats were unbelievable. Heather had been (loudly) telling me of their greatness in the lead up to Lollapalooza and they certainly proved that she wasn’t lying. I think the most striking thing about the set was the amount of fun everyone seemed to be having (including the band) as lead singer John Darnielle wove exceptionally personal and dark stories. The crowd and the band (including Darnielle) had smiles on their faces throughout, and you could tell that this intense music was resonating in a cathartic way for so many in the crowd. The set ended on a high, with Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak (Darnielle introduced her as a member of the band who has put out the best record of the year so far) coming out to help lead through an incredible rendition of ‘This Year.’ The crowd ate up every minute of it, shouting along every word feverishly and giving an applause that was a borderline roar at the end. It was the single best moment of Friday for me.
SATURDAY, AUG 6
J Roddy Walston & The Business
J Roddy Walston & The Business
J Roddy Walston & The Business are a group of bad, bad men, and they were playing Lollapalooza to make sure everyone was well aware of that fact. I hadn’t gotten terribly familiar with the music beforehand, but it didn’t matter: there was no way to not feel the energy of the crowd grow as the band rollicked through their set of dirty, southern-tinged rock and roll. It was a superb way to start the day, and judging by the constantly expanding crowd during the 45 minutes they played, lots of other people found that to be true as well.
Typhoon
Typhoon
You know when you want a band to be awesome live and then they are? That’s pretty much exactly how Typhoon’s set went, with them absolutely rocking a large, loving crowd while barely fitting on the tiny stage they were afforded. From first note to last, it was pretty evident that Typhoon deserved a much larger stage (they had 13 members after all), with the crowd clapping along at all the right points (and batting around a ton of beach balls for good measure). It was really great to see that the word had gotten around about how special the band is. By the end of the set you could hear people talking about how great the performance was.
Fitz and the Tantrums
I had heard from a number of people that I needed to make it a priority to get to Fitz and the Tantrums, that I would have an immense amount of fun and it would be totally worth it to fight through the huge crowd. That was a huge understatement, as the band had the crowd dancing around from the get-go, with seemingly everyone in the crowd having a huge smile on their face. The ending to their set was perfect, with lead singer Michael Fitzpatrick stopping their hit, ‘Moneygrabber,’ right before the last chorus and forcing everyone (and seriously…10,000+ people did it) to squat down and then jump up and go insane as they played the last chorus. It was one of those moments I wasn’t expecting and it was certainly one of the most memorable moments of the entire festival for me.
Local Natives
Local Natives
This was the best performance of the festival in my eyes, as pretty much everything about it was perfect. I managed to squeeze all the way up to the front right of the stage, ending up with a great view of the band and the insanely large, eager crowd as the golden hour set in on Chicago. While the entire set was spot-on, there are two moments that stuck out for me. The first was when vocalist/guitarist/percussionist/keyboardist Kelcey Ayer dedicated ‘Airplanes’ to his mom, who I think was the woman who immediately leapt to her feet and yelled along all the words while dancing. It was a pretty special moment.
The second moment, my favorite moment of the entire festival, was during set closer ‘Sun Hands.’ As the sun was coming out from behind the clouds and the band got to the line ‘I want to lift my hands towards the sun,’ the entire crowd that I could see spontaneously lifted their hands up towards the setting sun, as the downtown skyscrapers provided a beautiful backdrop to the sea of hands. It was just one of those really perfect, incredible moments where music and life come together to produce something you won’t forget.
It was magnificent in every way imaginable.
Beirut
Beirut
I decided to take in the set from Beirut at a side stage instead of joining the crowds for the headliners, which turned out to be a rewarding choice. A large, enthusiastic group gathered as Beirut’s baroque stylings and Zach Condon’s rich voice filled the nighttime air with skyscrapers illuminated the backdrop. Beirut sounded wonderful, providing a relaxing, gorgeous ending to one of better days I can remember.
SUNDAY, AUG 7
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
It’s a testament to Lord Huron’s growing success that they were able to draw a rather large crowd as the first band playing on Sunday morning. They delivered a great set, adding new depth to their songs and providing a terrific way to ease into a third day of heat and music. I had the added bonus of standing next to the bassist’s family, who were extremely nice and very proud, dancing, constantly exchanging smiles with him and letting those around us know they were his parents/sister. It was a neat, personal moment to witness.
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr.
I spent a good deal of Sunday wandering around the grounds, trying to find something to catch my attention after Lord Huron, and coming up empty until Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. took the stage. I have enjoyed their new album all summer long, having seen them in a dive bar a few months ago and hoping their show would translate to a much larger venue. Judging by all the dancing, singing along and cheering it appears they did a great job of introducing themselves to an audience that was pretty large despite the main stage acts starting to get to the headliners. They are a boatload of fun, crowd size be damned.
Portugal. The Man
Honestly, I had gone to see Portugal. The Man because I was trying to camp out and get a great vantage point for the upcoming Explosions in the Sky set. While I was waiting though, I was treated to a few really great songs from Portugal. The Man, leading me to wonder why I hadn’t given them and their danceable psychedelic rock a shot earlier. (Editor’s note: they got all their stuff stolen after this set. Gah!). They had the crowd dancing, and seemed to be hitting their stride…
…. when on the horizon what looked like a full-on deathstorm started to show its face. I knew things were about to get serious when they started to take down the banners from the sides of the stages, and knew I needed to run like hell for cover. I called my sister (who lives on the north side of the city) and asked her about the weather, to which she replied ‘You mean it’s not pouring there yet?’ So, I trudged as fast as possible across the massive field, making it up the stairs to the main concourse area just as the first raindrops turned quickly into a torrential monsoon. I ended up ducking into a tent manned by a really kind volunteer lady and filled with an odd bunch of people who I was pretty sure had fake British accents. It wasn’t exactly how I envisioned my Lollapalooza adventure ending, but in retrospect it was kinda fun and memorable.
Some other notes:
- I was introduced to the service provided by LotuSIGN during J Roddy Walston and the Business’ set for the first time. They are an incredible group of interpreters that sign select sets during the festival for the deaf, but they do far more than just sign. Each song turns into a sort of performance art to go along with the lyrics, with the interpreter playing air drums or air guitar at all the right moments. It was something I hadn’t considered, and even though I am not deaf I found it entirely enjoyable and fantastic to watch.
- I used to think people recording shows on their cell phone were annoying, but during the festival I found something far worse: at multiple sets I saw people holding up their iPads (or other tablets) to record. That’s not okay, kids.
- Passing through the area before Noah and the Whale took the stage, I notice they were pumping what sounded like a rock orchestra version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ over the speakers. The entire crowd sang it, clapping along and cheering as though Queen was up there performing it. It was like a festival version of Wayne’s World.
- One of the really awesome things about the festival was that they had tremendous food choices. I always try to avoid buying food and such at these types of events, but when a vendor board shows me that I can make a meal out of a Lobster Corndog and Parmesan Truffle Popcorn, well, I start reaching for the money. It was as delicious as it sounds. Actually, more. Way more.
- I’m thinking that the double rainbow (and throngs of people yelling ‘DOUBLE RAINBOW! OH MY GOD!) that showed up after the storm was Mother Nature trying to redeem herself a bit for the chaos she caused. While it didn’t fully makeup for how bummed I was about missing out on Explosions in the Sky, it was a pretty cool moment to end a weekend that was perfect as it was.
For three days last week, I had the blissful privilege of listening to a varied group of strangers unearth a single story that they were carrying around –and learn to dig out my own– at a workshop led by the Center For Digital Storytelling.
I’ve been pretty pensive all weekend about the tangible effects of knowing other people’s stories; I have a hunch it could be revolutionary to this world, dramatic as that sounds. The other students and facilitators in the group at that ramshackle farmhouse in Lyons were all bursting with incredible stories that I would have never ever guessed they held. I would like to be permanently affected by this way of seeing the world.
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.
This video was recorded a year ago as part of their 
Name: Heather Browne
