The Mile High Music Festival is coming to the Denver area this weekend in the somewhat awkwardly-named but supposedly pleasant Dick’s Sporting Goods Park out in Commerce City (incidentally, the only city in Colorado with a liquor store that sells this nectar of the gods).
I’m going to be covering the fest, and sure Tom Petty and Dave Matthews are headlining. But depending on circumstance and how the day unwinds, I am more looking forward to seeing some folks like:
Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Bob Schneider Josh Ritter (!!) Andrew Bird Spoon Lupe Fiasco The Whigs The Flobots Grace Potter The Roots The Black Crowes
I still regret missing The Roots at Red Rocks when they were here opening for Wilco, Athens’ The Whigs are supporting their excellent sophomore album Mission Control, and Josh Ritter always absolutely slays me in the best possible way (likethis). Not too shabby for a weekend, close to home for once. Come on out!
[one spot of loud audio at the beginning – it gets better!]
Supergrass rocked what felt like a secret show last night at Denver’s tiny Larimer Lounge, after the Foo Fighters cancellation at the larger venue up the road. “Hellooooo Red Rocks!” Gaz Coombes shouted as they took the stage, looking back at his bandmates with a grin. With three of the band members sporting matching fedoras, they launched into a short but intense set of songs drawn largely from their new album Diamond Hoo Ha, which all sounded ferocious –and very, very loud– in the compact club. Three merry Britons next to me seemed elated by their dumb luck of seeing one of Britain’s biggest bands of the Nineties (who regularly play to massive festivals and stadiums) in the well-loved confines of our Larimer.
Supergrass and I had a hot date tomorrow night at the Foo Fighters show at Red Rocks, but then Dave Grohl went and got sick.
To soothe our wounds until the make-up dates in September, Supergrass is going to play a Denver show anyway tonight at the teensy Larimer Lounge. Should be a rad evening; their new album packs a swaggering punch with a surprising hint of dare I say glam. Los Angeles band Year Long Disaster opens. Diamond Hoo Ha Man – Supergrass
Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) is many things: Pittsburgh native, biomedical engineering school graduate, skinny white guy with piercing blue eyes — but most relevant to you, he is a Master of Mashup with his massive throwdown shows. On Friday night, the Boulder kids (and Denver kids, and Colorado Springs kids) all packed ourselves into the Fox Theatre, pressed sweating up against each other to dance and sing along at a super-sold-out show with Mr. Gillis. He almost rocked all the cheeky unicorn backpacks, shortie tracksuits, and neon sweatbands clear off. Check the video (oh, warning – douchebag content):
I’ve said before that listening to Gillis feels like the way my brain plays music snippets all right on top of one another when I flip through an eclectic jukebox in a bar after drinking a few. It is a little disorienting but so wonderful. He clearly loves what he does, and that enthusiasm vibrates out into the crowd. It was an all-ages show so I begrudgingly kept feeling vaguely old at 28 (!) and the temperature inside on the sweltering July night must have topped the high ninety degree mark. But despite all the sweating (or because of it) this was one of the best evenings I’ve had in a long time.
What floors me about Gillis on his album –and times 10 in a live setting– is the way he mashes such unexpected songs from different eras, and they all fly so damn well. The dirty version of Khia’s “My Neck, My Back” layered in with Yael Naim’s “New Soul”? Surprisingly flawless. A closing moment of communal epiphany with arms interlaced to Journey’s “Faithfully” right in there with “Pop, Lock & Drop It”? Sweeet.
My new friend Ben was commenting on how it was a little odd to be standing facing a stage waiting for a “show” and then an “encore” by a “band” that was just one guy and two laptops wrapped in plastic bags (to protect against dripping sweat?). Seconds after Gillis started his set, the floor started to undulate. One guy ran on stage which started a landslide, and soon the room and stage both were converted into one big writhing mass of people.
You think you’ve experienced the fun of Girl Talk by spinning Night Ripper at your party or Feed The Animals in your dorm room, but I gotta say that you simply have not gotten the full GT experience until you hear him work his craft live, drenched in sweat, with hundreds of your new friends. GO!
GIRL TALK LIVE DATES Jul 24 Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC Jul 25 Capitol Hill Block Party – Seattle, WA Jul 26 Roseland Theater – Portland, OR Aug 3 Lollapalooza – Chicago, IL Aug 6 The Øya Festival – Oslo, Norway Aug 7 Way Out West – Stockholm, Sweden Aug 8 All Points West Festival – Jersey City, NJ
And this is still my favorite Girl Talk jam: Bounce That – Girl Talk
Under the July sunshine, the SoCo Music Experience took over an open-air lot outside Coors Field in Denver on Saturday. The free festival drew thousands of Denverites for sunshine, interactive games, booths, and of course, the free music…
(you gotta say that like you are at a monster truck rally):
I’ll be covering the Southern Comfort Music Experience: Denver for Paste Magazine. Admission is free, it’s at Coors Field starting at 2pm, and SoCo and I concur that you should come on out.
In the short time I’ve been listening to Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit, something in their music has hit me hard. Their latest album Midnight Organ Fight has been more or less on constant repeat and haven’t even come close to getting tired of it. You can read all about it here.
Scott Hutchison formed the band with his brother Grant (who is an insanely ferocious and passionate drummer) in 2004. I was curious to learn more about the person largely behind these gorgeous songs, so Scott and I sat in a Denver parking lot in the deepening twilight this past weekend and talked a bit more about the emotional core of the record, the songwriting, and the production that Peter Katis (The National) brought to it.
They are Frightened Rabbit, they are on tour in the US, and yes, they are happy to meet you.
SCOTT HUTCHISON (FRIGHTENED RABBIT) INTERVIEW
On Midnight Organ Fight you sing about working on erasing someone but lacking the proper tools. It seems that many of your songs on the record are a sort of catharsis, or a tool for working through a difficult situation, but at the same time, a constant reminder of some pretty rough times. Is that ever a difficult dichotomy?
Well, during that part of my life, that relationship and that situation was a really major part that wasn’t going to go away anyways, so I didn’t really see the songwriting as therapy or anything like that. It was just the most important thing that was going on at that point in time, and the only thing I really cared enough about to write about.
And now, each time I sing the songs I definitely think about that time just naturally, like imagery pops into my head, but the whole thing’s not hard anymore. Performing them every night definitely takes some of the edges off of it, but you still have to transpose whatever energy or emotion you’re feeling that day into those songs when you perform them. When the record was recorded it was still pretty fresh. It’s not really anymore. I’m really concentrating on different things when I’m doing it live, like playing it well, and getting energy into it.
I know as a writer that there is some sense of fulfillment when you can string together words that perfectly pierce the gut of what you are trying to express. All of the lyrics on the new album are extremely rich, but do you have any personal, small favorites?
Yeah, I really like the whole of the song “Poke.” I feel like something definitely happened with that one whereby I was able to exactly compartmentalize one particular time in my life – something about it, I don’t really know exactly what. I summed something up perfectly in that song, I really like the line about tying a navy knot, just how two people can be interlaced like rope:
“You should look through some old photos I adored you in every one of those If someone took a picture of us now they’d need to be told That we had ever clung and tied a navy knot with arms at night . . . I’d say she was his sister but she doesn’t have his nose”
And then I also like the line about “I might never catch a mouse and present it in my mouth / To make you feel you’re with someone who deserves to be with you.” There is a sense of compressing three years of worry on my part into that one line. Those words kind of appeared from nowhere.
But I don’t usually write in the moment or at the time of feeling, I usually write after the fact so that I can them almost fictionalize events and distance myself from them slightly. I’ve always thought that there’s one thing to be personal in a song, but then you’re really a fine line away from being selfish if you’re not externalizing it so other people be invited into your songs. I hopefully try and write so that there’s enough vagueness so that the emotion is specific, but the personal is not specifically mine anymore. People can attach their own emotions onto my songs, and I can let the songs go.
That must be kinda difficult to balance, because the emotion all by itself means less without any details or context.
Yeah. Of course, people close to me are well aware of lines meaning really specific things, which is fine, but I think the metaphors used are still idiosyncratic enough that not everyone feels those things as intensely as I personally would. I mean, I think anyone can even take most of the songs on that record and just enjoy them as rock songs, it depends what frame of mind they’re in.
But I definitely do try and get as much out of each line of lyric as I possibly can. I don’t like throwaway lines in other people’s music. I tried to make the whole record and each line matter. That helps with what we were talking about before, to make the live delivery of each line as if it really matters.
My first introduction to your music was actually a YouTube video where you covered a bit of Fake Empire before My Backwards Walk. The National are a bit formidable to cover, not many bands have attempted that that I’m aware. What is your relationship with their music other than sharing a producer?
I came to that song before we worked with Peter and got to know the record and loved it. I’d heard The National in a bar in Glasgow, and that song definitely came at the same time as when I was writing and finalizing some of our songs on the record. When I first heard “Fake Empire” –on MySpace cheesily enough– I don’t know, there’s something about it where I just visualized myself inside of that song during that time in my life.
The National have a way with lyrics; there’s a line with them so often that really hits you so directly, and there’s wit which I really appreciate as well. I’ve never met the band, although I’d love to, so I cover that song 100% from a fan perspective.
I love Peter Katis’ work with The National, and you’ve said that with Peter you knew there was a certain way the record was always going to sound. Can you tell me more about that? How did that working relationship come about?
I got mostly what I’d expected from working with Peter, I just really appreciate the atmospheric quality he brings to all his records. Up to that point our demos and our first EP had sounded very closed, not really big. I really wanted to achieve a grander scale with this record. There was a completeness to the whole album and to the writing process, and I didn’t want the power of that completeness to be brought down by the music not being sonically powerful enough.
So Peter brought a muscle, I would say, to the record. He approaches things in production from a more scientific perspective than I do, which is good. He has his tricks that he uses on all his records, but he was really clear about the fact that he wanted to make our record unlike most of the other records he’s produced, which are quite dark. We got to the point at the end of mixing where he felt that this should really not be a dark record, actually. Hopefully we kept the power and the muscle without turning into Interpol. I mean, I think there’s black imagery, but also a hopeful aspect to the songs.
I can definitely appreciate the grandness on this record — I mean, there’s a place for the intimacy of bedroom demos, but the atmosphere and the beautiful sonic feel of the album kinda lends itself to expanding into new emotional areas through that as well.
Yeah, see the beautiful thing about Boxer is that there is so much breathing space for people to jump into the record. You can visualize yourself in the record and in the room . . . they definitely have a great way of describing rooms as well. The whole record has so much space, you can absorb yourself in it.
One of the nicest things that Peter brought to our record, actually, was that pulling back sometimes and taking things out. In my demos I tend to be all about filling the whole thing in. When I was younger, my mom tells me that I would always want to color in the whole piece of paper, rather than just drawing a person and a house and leaving it at that. I would want to color in all the white space to the very edges. I think that’s something that’s still there in me, I like to use all my colors. But Peter was very good at trying to make space so that there wasn’t that overload.
Is there a certain song you can point to on the record where you feel he did that really well?
There’s one called “I Feel Better” that I think I could have really taken over the top, going for more of a Phil Spector feel. But with what Peter did with that song, I feel like he made a difference in it. It’s completely different from the demo.
How has the response been in this leg of the tour?
It’s been consistently good. I mean we knew people were enjoying the record and it was doing quite well, but you’re never really sure what to expect until you get in each city and meet people and get their reactions about the songs. It’s been really nice. People are excited to talk to us as well, which is kind of weird for us, they want to meet us and talk to us about how they came to the record and why they like it. People are really forthcoming and very honest, and so many people apologize for being weird about it and taking it to heart but hey, they’re in good company with us. Really a big part of coming over here has been meeting the people that have connected with the record.
Do you feel like it’s been a long journey for the band to get to this point?
It’s been a really nice, steady growth. There’s not been a point with this band since its inception where I’ve felt that we’re moving backwards at any point. That’s the whole motto of the band, as soon as we feel that we’re traveling backwards perhaps it’ll be time to shake things up. But as for now, we’re moving forward and I don’t have any other ambitions aside from that.
In terms of our records, I really don’t feel you should be producing your best work on your first record either, or even on your second for that matter. I would say that I am in fact prouder of our second record, as a fan of albums – that’s definitely an album and not just a collection of songs. That first album was really written over a period of time when songwriting and playing music was more of a hobby to me so it’s more disparate. But this one is more a representation of me as a person, so I enjoy giving that to people more.
*********************
And giving to people from the depths of their gut is definitely what this band does superbly well. Later that night they blazed brilliantly through almost every song from Midnight Organ Fight, as well as several older ones from Sings The Greys (the chanting fraternal harmonies of “music now!” felt like a rebel yell). I think I felt walls shake at the Hi-Dive from the emotion reverberating through the near-capacity crowd. I doubt that I will see a better show this year.
Here’s the video I shot of the Fake Empire/My Backwards Walk. Their agitated intensity seeps out of every part, and watch Grant on the drums. The way he can barely contain himself as the song winds to the place where he comes in mirrors the way I felt in watching this song come to life:
Frightened Rabbit is playing tonight at Holocenein Portland, and on Saturday all you San Franciscans should absolutely head out to see them at The Independent. More tour dates follow in the coming weeks; I strongly recommend going home with the albums, a handmade t-shirt (like I did — thanks Steve!), and a renewed faith in the power of good songs and live music.
[My other pics from the show are here, and my creative friend Kate took some artsy shots which can be found on her Flickr]
When the Texas foursome the Old 97s took the stage last night in Denver, I thought it fitting that two members were rockin the Converse (the guitarist and the drummer, natch) while the other two strut their leather boot stuff. Footwear usually ranks low on my list of important topics, but the way it characterized their dual-personality of rock and country seemed too fitting an analogy not to mention. It was my first time seeing the Old 97s and they put on a rock & roll show layered with good ole country dust. They simply vibrated with heart and soul.
The setlist rollicked through songs from all of their last 15 years of existence, from the raw bar-band twang of their earlier material to the richly varied textures of their recent release Blame It On Gravity (2008, New West Records). As Rolling Stone wrote a few weeks ago, these are “four Texans raised on the Beatles and Johnny Cash in equal measures, whose shiny melodies, and fatalistic character studies, do their forefathers proud.”
BARRIER REEF – Old 97s, Live in Denver 6/10/08
The hardworking, never-fail attitude of this live band and the refreshing (and drunk) enthusiasm which emanates in waves from their fans reminded me of my experiences seeing Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. As I left the venue, I was glad Rhett Miller and Co all made it to the stage this time through the Rockies.
A final note: Since I am not 15, I don’t usually comment on the dreamyness of the lead singer, but in Rhett Miller’s case, it’s kinda hard not to say something. Down in the front with my photo pass, I tried to get some good shots, but was nearly sucked in to the hormone frenzy of the cougar pit formed directly beneath Rhett’s feet. That is one charming and good-looking frontman, with hair so perfectly tousled and Bon Jovi windblown that you almost didn’t believe it. Julio and I couldn’t help but be dazzled by its radiance; like the sun, it’s best not to look directly at it, Julio says.
Two of the strongest recommendations I received of places I needed to see while I was in Washington DC last week were The 9:30 Club and The Black Cat. The latter was partially accomplished on Friday night when I found myself at the downstairs part of the club, Red Room. No live music at The Black Cat that night, but Red Room has the best jukebox I’ve ever seen in a venue. I spent many dollars.
The 9:30 opportunity presented itself earlier in the week, when after the conference meet & greet, I found myself with not much to do around 7:30pm. Never one to sit when I could listen to something good, I cabbed it over to the sold-out show at The 9:30 and bought a ticket off some guy standing outside looking vaguely lost and somewhat interested in selling the ticket he clutched in his hand. I think he’d been stood up. I wanted to apologize on behalf of whomever’d done it, but gave him a few crisp bills instead and was on my way into the mysteriously completely unmarked door.
After missing most of the Black Lips’ set, I got a spot up near to the front in a location so close to the speakers that my clothes literally vibrated with each thrum of the bass and kick of the drum. After their fedora’d roadie crew set the stage, The Raconteurs sauntered on a bit before 10pm. The last time I’d seen them was in the overwhelmingly huge chaos of Coachella, but in this concentrated and intimate setting their music scorched and flayed each of us. The riffs were excoriatingly raw but tight, their songs were all blues grit and swagger, and they looked like they were having quite a bit of fun.
SETLIST Consolers of the Lonely Hold Up Level Keep It Clean Top Yourself Switch and the Spur You Don’t Understand Me Rich Kid Blues Yellow Sun (rockin’ version) Attention Steady As She Goes Blue Veins
ENCORE Shades of Black Intimate Secretary The Stones Will Shout Salute Your Solution Carolina Drama
When I saw Bob Schneiderlast November in Denver there was one simple, naked song that felt like a heavy weight settling in on my chest as he performed it. Maybe it was just something in the air that night but I remember that it knocked me back on my heels; it’s rumored that hot tears may have inexplicably pricked into my eyes about two thirds of the way through this, but no one has any proof of seeing that happen so it’s hard to say, really.
I finally found an mp3 of that song a few months ago after much searching. There’s a lyric in it about candyteeth, and so that line popped into my head last night while driving home from having my face melted (again) by Wilco, listening to my Summerteeth CD. This is how my brain works.
Anyways. Last night I turned off Tweedy and Co. and sang this quietly to myself instead. It’s got signature Schneider phrasing, but reaches deep to be a song of longing, defeat, and maybe a glimmer of hope for some future contentment.
I wish I was a baby bear sleeping in the brown winter grass in April, while the sun was going down and I wish my shoes were empty and I was still in bed with you there beside me with your dreams inside your head
Oh I wish the world would do what I want it to and I wish the wind would blow me, blow me back to you
I wish your mom was ugly and your dad was ugly too cuz then they couldn’t of had a girl to be as beautiful as you and I wish I was a tightrope walker with legs made out of gold I’d hold you in my golden legs and never let you go
Oh I wish the world would do what I want it to and I wish the wind would blow me, blow me back to you
Well I wish I could see Jesus shining in the sky so that he could finally let me know that everything would be just fine I wish I knew that God’s love was all I’d ever need I’d cut my candyteeth for fun and let the good times bleed
Oh I wish the world would do what I want it to oh I wish the world would do what I want it to and I wish the world would blow me, blow me back to you
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.
The Mile High Music Festival is coming to the Denver area this weekend in the somewhat awkwardly-named but supposedly pleasant Dick’s Sporting Goods Park out in Commerce City (incidentally, the only city in Colorado with a liquor store that sells this nectar of the gods).
Name: Heather Browne
