Ha Ha Tonka - Mile Marker Session

One of the best albums of the year thus far has come from the still relatively unknown Bloodshot Records band Ha Ha Tonka, with their record Death of a Decade. The band will be headlining at the Denver Underground Music Showcase next weekend, which in my opinion is one of the better festivals around for discovering new talent without the oppressive crowds or horrible parking.

Of course, the UMS appearance doesn't do me a ton of good this year because I now live 12 hours from Denver. What is helpful is the fact that the Denver Post blog Hey Reverb recently posted a Mile Marker session with Ha Ha Tonka that includes live versions of three of the band's best songs for free download.

Go here to download the tracks. And if you like what you hear, check out the full album Death of a Decade, as I think you will be pleased at the strength of the album as a whole. And if you are in Denver, by all means, check this band out live next weekend.


Ha Ha Tonka - "Usual Suspects"

Munly & The Lupercalians release date

After a tip from a good friend and some recent searching, finally some news about the release date of the latest record from Denver band Munly and the Lupercalians. Scheduled for release on Sept. 21, 2010, and entitled Petr & The Wulf, the record is the first in a series of albums detailing the fictional town of Lupercalia. Update: Now available on iTunes.

As I've found, the band is not often the first to make announcements about themselves. Rather, I almost always stumble upon updates accidentally. At one point the album was reported to be a double album, although the recent announcement suggests this record will be a single with continuation of the story in future releases.

While Munly's label Alternative Tentacles does not yet have the album for sale in the store, it is posted for presale here and at various other places on the web. It appears that the release will be available on CD and LP, as well as mp3 download.


















Below is an abbreviated description of the album pulled from this press release:

The first installment in a multi-album set describing The Kinnery of Lupercalia, Petr & The Wulf is the correct telling of a story about which most have been woefully misinformed. This truth is courtesy of Munly (known as both a solo artist and as the co-frontman of Slim Cessna's Auto Club) and his extremely talented backing band, The Lupercalians (which includes Daniel Granbois of Slim Cessna's Auto Club and Tarantella). [...]

The record begins with Petr, "the last of the Northrops," who tells how he will bring his people back to greatness by rescuing Grandfater from the Bedlam. The Three Wise Hunters let all know that they can be hired to rid the land of whatever menace is present. The Wulf tells of his love for the Northrops despite their continued refusal of his offerings.

Munly writes, "Hopefully you will accept the current Lupercalians offering with open heart and understanding mind."

Having caught the Lupercalians performance to a packed house at this year's UMS, I am very excited about this record. Not to mention the fact that it has been 6 years since the brilliant album from Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots, with very few updates about new material during that span. The wait should soon be over.

UMS 2010 Preview

The time has come once again for Denver's best music festival, The UMS, taking place on South Broadway from July 22-25. It's like CMJ without the hassle, like SXSW but with less butt sweat. In short, it's well worth your time. I've put together a short list of the bands I most want to see. In my past experience, there will be someone good playing almost all the time, so this is but a sampling of what the UMS has to offer. You can still by a $30 pass that will get you through the entire weekend of music up through July 21st, so don't delay any longer!

While some of these set times are close together, the beauty of this festival is the proximity of all shows to one another. You can make it between the most distant venues in probably 10 minutes at the most, while it's less than 5 minutes between most.




















These United States - Friday, 11 PM @ the Hi-Dive
(Photo credit Sarah Law)

The UMS has been working the last few years to bring in national headliners, and These United States will be a fantastic act to headline Friday night. I've recently become quite a fan of this band on account of hearing their Daytrotter sessions, and have since bought their most recent LP Everything Touches Everything. The band should have a new record out for their performance at the UMS, which should result in the Hi-Dive being packed wall-to-wall for their
set.




























Munly & the Lupercalians - Saturday, 10 PM @ the Hi-Dive (Photo credit Gary Isaacs)

Munly shows have been quite rare around Denver as of late, and I believe his last two shows have been on New Years Eve with the Auto Club, so the chance to see him at the UMS should not be missed. Munly's double album continues to have no release date, but I expect that he'll be playing mostly material from that record at his showcase this year.























Thrift Store Cowboys - Saturday, 11 PM @ the Skylark Lounge (Photo credit Logan Caldbeck)

Having recently celebrated their tenth year as a band, TSC theoretically could have played at the UMS every year of its existence, but since the festival started out with locals only, and TSC hail from Lubbock, Texas, it just wasn't meant to be. However, now that they're both 10, their parents arranged a play-date for the two. TSC will have lots of new material to play from their soon to be released LP Light Fighter.






















One Wolf - Saturday, 7 PM @ the Skylark Lounge

Another great Lubbock band, One Wolf plays their first UMS this year as well. With two great albums under their belt, and plenty of time honing their live show, this will be a set you don't want to miss.





























Paper Bird - Thursday, 11:55 PM @ the Hi-Dive; Friday, 7:30 PM @ CarToys Stage (Photo credit Gary Isaacs)

I have somehow gone four years in Colorado without getting to see Paper Bird, but I continue to hear great things about them. Hopefully their two appearances this year will finally give me the chance I need to catch their show.





























Amanda Shires - Saturday, 9 PM @ Walnut Room Pizzeria

As 1/6 of the aforementioned Thrift Store Cowboys, Amanda Shires has come into her own as a songwriter with her recent West Cross Timbers. She basically lives on the road, so when it comes to handling a live crowd, Amanda is among the best. Don't be surprised to see a member or two of TSC backing her up on this gig as well.

Various

Busy at work, plus back-to-back shows in Denver last week make me want to crawl under my desk and stay there until the weekend, and then I got sick over the weekend, and so Monday I think I really did crawl under my desk in a cold medicine haze. My point being that the blog has really been down for the count as a result.

Various notes:

Lucero at the Bluebird - good as always.
Spent too much money, as always.
Didn't feel so hot the next day, as always.

Shooter Jennings as opener for Lucero - hmm, how can I say this nicely? Ok, I can't. Not good. Just not good. Conceptually, I respect that he is trying to do something completely different than his dad's kind of music, but musically, what he is doing sucks. I could have handled 30 minutes of it, but his 90 minute set was horrible overkill.

See a review of the show and photo slideshow of this show here.


No rest for the weary though, as Wednesday night brought Thrift Store Cowboys, Mount Righteous, Amanda Shires & Barton Carroll to the Hi-Dive.

Barton started out the show with his solo acoustic set. He is an interesting guy, and his songwriting has a very literary feel to it (which I mean in a good way), and he deals with some quite heavy subjects. He could probably teach a world history class just by playing his songs.

Amanda Shires continues to come into her own as a songwriter. She played both new songs as well as some off of her most recent record, all with the accompaniment of Colt Miller on guitar.

Mount Righteous brought their 9-piece marching band to the Hi-Dive, and somehow they fit on the stage, and more importantly, the stage did not collapse. It's a super high energy show, and is almost so unclassifiable I am at a loss for describing it further.

Thrift Store Cowboys played a set of mostly new songs, off of the album they have just finished recording at Wavelab Studios in Tucson. Definitely extremely excited for this record, which is tentatively scheduled for a September release.

See photos from Denver Post Reverb blog here.


In other news, Denver's mini-SXSW, The Underground Music Showcase (or The UMS) has just made their first lineup announcement. I'm sure more bands will be announced in coming months, but the lineup already looks great. It's a bit like I imagine SXSW was at the very beginning, i.e. long before showcases were sponsored by energy drinks.

Also, pretty good new What's So Funny? column out today.

I have to admit, I didn't get that excited about Record Store Day this year, largely because there just weren't a ton of releases I was that interested in. This year seemed to have a lot more labels just trying to cash in on the event with boring releases rather than actually putting out something quality. I did get the one thing I most wanted, which was the Bon Iver/Peter Gabriel 7" split. Best find wasn't even associated with RSD, but there was no question I had to get it. Found a copy of Vic Chesnutt's first album Little on vinyl for a really reasonable price. Apparently the record store found a number of copies in the back that had basically gotten buried soon after the album was released, so needless to say, they are worth a good bit more than they were in 1990.

The end of the UMS and stuff

Awesome:

Brand new Daytrotter session from the Avett Brothers.

I know you don't care:
but I find it humorous that the FMQB Triple A radio conference that I've mentioned before lost Ben Harper as a headliner and replaced him in the lineup with Mindy Smith.

I told you it would happen:
and sure enough, Visioneers looks to be coming out very soon now that Zach Galifianakis is a mega star. Showings in Denver on July 29th & 30th.

I said I would do a final recap on the UMS:
but I also know you don't care about it that much, especially if you are not from Denver. Let me summarize ever so briefly: 1) The festival is super cheap - $25 for a last minute pass - I think it was like $12 for presale. I've paid more than that for one band. 2) It features some of Denver's best talent and is beginning to bring in some choice national talent. 3) Next year is the 10th Anniversary and I guarantee you they will bring in some bands that will basically be a steal for the money. 4) Enough people will have heard about it 5 years from now that there is no chance your band will get in then, but it just might if you try for next year. 5) South Broadway in Denver in July is about the best place to be in the world.

I think it's funny:
that apparently some people have accidentally happened upon my blog because Google search led them here after searching for the new Lucero album, specifically the search terms "1372 Overton Park" and "download." Not here jerks. You'll never find a leaked album for download here. But you can pre-order the new album from their Web site and get a digital download of 6 songs from the new album right NOW.

The time has finally come to give away some vinyl:
I just sent emails to the winners. Sorry if you didn't win, but the chances were tough, given that a number of people entered, and you CAN always pick up a copy from Vinyl Collective.

If you like funny things (probably safe for work, but let's be on the safe side and say NSFW):
Ben Kronberg is an awesome comic who is originally from Denver. Honestly, I just read about him in the most recent What's So Funny?, but it's pretty awesome stuff.

Denver Underground Music Showcase - Sunday

During the last day of the Underground Music Showcase, I wavered back and forth between wanting to see as much music as possible before it ended, and also not wanting to hear music ever again. For the most part, I was able to stick with the former, although I wouldn't say I made it to the bitter end. As a disclaimer, I am well aware my photos are not of the best quality, and they get progressively worse as the daylight fades. You can click them to make them a bit larger and maybe a little easier to see. Disclaimers being stated, here's some photos and most of what I can remember:

Started the day off with Hawks of Paradise on the main stage. I think 3 Kings was more of their ideal venue, but still not a bad show by any means for the middle of the afternoon. Glad I checked out the Denver Post blog before I posted this, but apparently this band announced at the end of the show that this one might be their last, but have since recanted on such claims. I'm a little less impressed with them now. Maybe I'll check them out again when the angst is out of their system.

















I knew this festival was missing something, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Oh, that's it...pedal steel guitar. Thanks to the New Ben Franklins for making that happen. The steel guitar and cowboy hats were a nice break from all the loop pedals and headbands over the past 4 days. Plus, what better venue for this type of band than the Skylark?

















Next up on the Cartoys stage was Houses, another local indie rock band. Nice tight rock set, and they did a good job of moving past some technical difficulties that involved getting shocked when they touched the microphone.

















The next band I can remember seeing (not from drunkenness, just music overload), whether they were the next one I saw or not, was Everything Absent or Disorted. With this being their next to last show, I expected they would pull out all the stops, and their set was no disappointment. This was the last show on the Cartoys outdoor stage, which was a huge benefit for them, in that they didn't have to rush, and they could play about as long as they wanted. Despite some technical difficulties, the set was about everything the band's long time fans could have asked for.

































The band and crowd loosened up a good bit as the set wore on, although I doubt it was from the Rolling Rock, as I don't know anyone who has gotten drunk off of that, but rather it was just a band soaking up every second of the near-finale of their 4-plus year tenure in the Denver scene.

















I don't have any pictures where you can see the accordion being played, but it didn't really matter in the long run, as the accordion didn't survive the rock show intact. Eventually, the show evolved into something that looked a lot like this:

















In a heartfelt gesture of appreciation for their support, they brought up their wives/partners/girlfriends/friends for the last song (before their other last (encore) song). I didn't get a great picture of it, but you'll also notice the pink airbrushed EAOD shirts, which the band apparently had no idea were part of the day's plan until the start of their set when the wives/significant others showed up:

















The band announced that they'll be doing their last show at either the Hi-Dive or the Bluebird, some time in November, at which time they'll also be celebrating the release of their final EP, that I *think* they said will be a free digital download.

Following this set, I regrouped for a short time, before heading over to the Hi-Dive for the night's (and the festival's) finale. I caught most of the set by North Carolina's Megafaun, who are on tour with the Bowerbirds. Apparently Justin Vernon, i.e. Bon Iver, is a good friend and huge fan of this band. The band gave a strong set to the near packed house, most notably keeping the crowd quiet enough to hear their unplugged final song (a feat that a band earlier in the festival was unsuccessful at).

The Bowerbirds were next up and gave a very solid performance. I went in not knowing any of their music, but came out with a strong appreciation for them. "Northern Lights" is an initial favorite of mine, which you can check out on their myspace. If you've read this blog before, you know I don't often quote lyrics, but for some reason, I just love the line: "and I don't expect a southern girl/to know the Northern Lights."

My pictures really took a downturn when I got into the Hi-Dive, which you might find hard to believe. However, turns out the cheapest Kodak digital doesn't do indoor night pictures...at all. Here's about the best picture I got (well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little):
















Check out the Denver Post's blog for better pictures and a recap of all the acts I missed. I may post one more time about the UMS before I give it a rest until next year, not that you care, but nonetheless, that about does it for a great 2009 UMS. In the meantime, take heed:

Denver Underground Music Showcase - Saturday

I learned tonight that similar to SXSW, the best plan for the Underground Music Showcase is to pore over the list of bands, carefully make a schedule of everyone that you want to see, allow for plenty of time to get to the first venue just a little bit early, and then throw away your list and wing it. It's not that you shouldn't work to see everyone you want, but expecting everything to run on the same schedule turns out to be fairly unrealistic.

I didn't have a ton of bands on my to-see list this rainy Saturday evening, but I did want to see the comics of Wrist Deep Productions. These include Adam Cayton-Holland, Greg Baumhauer, Jim Hickox, and Ben Roy, a group that has begun to make a name for themselves in the media over the past year or two. Slotted to start at 9 p.m., I showed up to Sobo 151, a sports bar where the showcase was to take place, and my first impression was that I was not in the right venue. Nonetheless, I waited it out and eventually saw the comics come in. However, in the mean time, I overheard discussion that a band, maybe more of a flash mob, called Boba Fett and the Americans was going to be making an appearance in front of the Sputnik at 9:45. Greg Baumhauer did start the comedy off around 9:30, although this was out of order from the schedule. I stayed for his set, which was hard to hear over the sports bar crowd, but there were some decent high points. I left out soon after to find out about Boba Fett.

Getting to the Sputnik about 9:45, I heard lots of talk about the band, which over time devolved into talk of whether they would show up or not. By 10 p.m., I was starting to think I should head back to the comedy, but on my way back that direction, I finally saw the Boba Fett crew warming up in the parking lot. Back at the Sputnik, the marching band finally showed up outside, possibly more fueled by the rain than deterred by it. Given the lack of any major headliner of the night, Boba Fett was really the talk of the town, and apparently the talk of the twitter as well.

















(Boba Fett and the Americans outside of Sputnik)

It's hard to show exactly how many people gathered on the street to watch, but it was quite the party. Here was just a sampling of some of the crowd. I was really never able to get a picture of the entire band, nor of the entire crowd, which is probably the way it should be. Tons of local musicians, from bands such as the Wheel and Everything Absent or Distorted, could be found among the crowd, as well as festival organizer Ricardo Baca, who I happened to catch in this picture on the right side of the frame (holding the camera).

















After the Sputnik performance, the band retreated briefly to regroup, but they proceeded to march around South Broadway for a couple of hours with groups of followers of varying sizes throughout that time. It was definitely a highlight of the night. The band ventured down as far as the front of a (maybe out of business?) adult entertainment store, stopping to play a song, and then proceeding to talk about how awesome it was the time they played Pleasures.

















(Boba Fett shortly after their awesome gig in front of Pleasures)

Anyway, back to the comedy, I arrived back at the bar in the middle of Adam Cayton-Holland's set. Of the 4 comics I saw, Cayton-Holland seemed to keep the sports bar crowd at bay better than most, such that one could actually hear his set over the din of the crowd. Given that he was supposed to go on at 10:30, and actually was finished about 10 minutes before then, I overheard some disappointment from the late arrivals who had come to see him. But that's the nature of things like this. Ben Roy finished out the night, and while he hit a few high points, the crowd didn't really respond to his antagonistic antics, and rather just kept talking, so things didn't really finish on a high note. I would really like to see the comedy showcases get moved to a gallery or some non-sports bar in future years, as this setting was far from ideal.

I had to work a volunteer shift in the middle of all of this, so I ended up seeing one band I hadn't planned on. A hip hop group backed by a live band called Input played to an enthusiastic crowd. While I don't really listen to their type of music on a regular basis, the live band was extremely tight and the show was really high energy. Pretty cool show for a band I hadn't heard of or expected to see.

Next I checked out a band at the Irish Rover called A Mouthful of Thunder. Pretty cool stuff. I didn't know much about them, and still don't, but apparently at least some of them were/are in a local band called Hearts of Palm that has been around for a while. The lead singer said that they had gotten together most of the songs as a group fairly recently, but you really wouldn't have known if he hadn't told you. It is discoveries like this one that make festivals like this the most worth it for me. No matter how many national acts the UMS brings in in the future, you really have to hope that it always leaves room for musicians to throw together bands/side projects/marching bands at the last minute and give the fans something they hadn't expected.

















(A Mouthful of Thunder at the Irish Rover)

The rest of the night unfortunately involved me standing in line for 10-15 minutes or so at the Hi-Dive and 3 Kings, mostly to see bands that I watched one song of and then moved on. Saw a band from L.A. called El Ten Eleven that had one guy on double necked guitar/bass and a drummer. The guitarist did some pretty cool loops and seemed to have a really strong crowd, but it was so packed that I moved on. Unfortunately the biggest excitement after that was watching a 3 Kings bouncer give a young woman a seriously hard time about her ID. The fact that she just walked away when he said he was keeping the ID didn't bode well for her credibility. That and a person driving the wrong way down one-way Lincoln Street pretty well capped off the night. It's always quite an experience at that time of night being the only sober driver on the road.

With the extreme drunkenness I saw last night, I don't expect a large number of folks to come out tonight, but I hope they do, as there are some great bands still on the schedule. Come on people, just hold it together for one more night.

Update: The Denver Post has a ton of pictures up and more accounts of the Boba Fett appearance, if you're in to that sort of thing.

Stuff, pt. 7

You should have known this would happen:
The ridiculous internet marketers on Twitter have found that they can put the most popular labels on the end of their tweets, so that when you search for "Michael Jackson," you'll get a ton of links on how to make $500 online every day. You had to know that these people would ruin twitter before long Michael Jackson Harry Potter Moon Michael Vick.

Being from West Texas:
I always love a good article on Stanley Marsh 3. The link is to a recent article from the Toronto Star.

I'll come clean right now:
I skipped the second night of the Underground Music Showcase, partly because I won tickets to Wovenhand at the Fox, and partly because I didn't think I could make the late night Denver-Boulder drive 4 nights in a row.

The Wovenhand show:
was okay. Not really anything happened warranting a full account. Crowd was made up of mostly old dudes, and the band was very tight, although they seem to avoid playing some of their best older material. And this is coming from someone who really likes his newest album. Oh well.

Who would've thought:
that the Jim Ward duet with Tegan Quin, on his new In the Valley, On the Shores, would be so good? Probably not me, but it is really good.

Just linked up with an old friend:
from the time before I quit the music business for the first time, and probably hadn't talked to her since some time before I quit the music business for the second time. If you live in the DFW area and want to know the best events going on, check out her blog the Fine Line.

Dear bands who think it is still 2005:
sending out random myspace friend requests to get people to listen to your band doesn't work these days. Consider yourself lucky if any of your actual fans even use myspace anymore.

I guess because of Lucero's new album:
Ben Nichols may not be on the next Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan and company. Have seen some concert listings though that indicate Jim Ward (Sleepercar, Sparta, ATDI) is going to be one of the other headliners.

Sorry for this, really:
but have you ever thought about who the person was who decided to use the "@" symbol in emails? Was probably a fairly random decision, but I bet that person is sure proud of him/herself now.

If you haven't bought:
your $30 (+ service charge) Gomez tickets for the Boulder FMQB Radio Summit, you'd better hurry. The $45 Ben Harper tickets already sold out. Have a great time - don't think I'll make it out.

Denver Underground Music Showcase - Thursday

Nothing against Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles, but Everything Absent or Distorted was the true headliner at the Hi-Dive for the first night of Denver's Underground Music Showcase. The recent announcement that the band will soon be hanging up their trombone and stage jumps after they release their last EP provided for a crowd intent on soaking up every single sound EAOD had to offer. After watching a two piece KaiserCartel fit just perfectly on the stage in the slot before EAOD, it was clear the 8-piece band and the 100 or so square feet of stage were going to make for a memorable collaboration. The picture below looks a lot like what the band looked like on stage, if you can just imagine fitting a drum kit, 2 keyboards, accordion, trombone, banjo, bass, and 2 or 3 guitars in with them. (update: here's a link to a photo of the band last night courtesy of the Denver Post, as well as other pics from the first day.)


(photo by Todd Roeth via eaod.net)

In all honesty, I was close to talking myself out of going to the first night of the festival, but hearing the announcement that tonight would be one of the last three shows EAOD will play, I decided it was time to suck it up and drive to Denver to finally get my chance to see them perform. The air conditioner at the Hi-Dive was no match for the fans that packed out the venue for the band's set, but once the music started, everyone seemed to forget they were watching the show from Butt Sweat City anyway. It is sets like these that make me realize my capabilities in describing music are far short of adequate, as the passion that the band put into this set, and the true artistic drive that has driven this project would be shorted a good deal by my use of buzz words and flowery language (talkin' purdy). Thus, if you live in the Denver area, all I can do is implore you to catch one of the last two shows (one of them being this Sunday). I think I'm going to have to make it just in the hopes of hearing "Gospel of Slight Rust" live at least one more time. I'm going to go ahead and be the first one to say (to the band), that maybe you guys should think about getting together next year for a little reunion at the UMS - it will be recent enough everyone will still know you, and your music will still be new, so all I'm asking is just think about it. Nonetheless, the band is finishing up its tenure the right way, and watching them perform appears a bittersweet experience for them.

Langhorne's closing set followed, his second of the night. The first had been opening up a sold out show for Josh Ritter at the Bluebird. A talented songwriter and energetic performer, he seems to be the go-to opener for some of the bigger acts around - The Avett Brothers and Lucero are just a couple that he's toured with in recent years. I recognized a number of his songs that I was familiar with, but just didn't know he was the one who sang them. I honestly have to say I was more impressed with his set than I went in expecting, and given the act he had to follow, his set was even more commendable.

(Langhorne photo credit crackerfarm)

So far, I'm very impressed with the UMS. While modeled as a SXSW style festival (in the organizers' words), it's far less obnoxious and FAR less expensive. You can walk right up any day of the festival and get a $25 pass, whereas I think a similar pass at this year's SXSW was somewhere around $750. Mind you, it is not on the same scale, nor do they pretend it is. Rather, the organizers have made an effort to build it each year, with this year's festival being the first where national touring acts have begun to take the stage. Also nice about the festival is that while there are a lot of good bands, for the most part you avoid the situation where choosing to go see one band doesn't feel like you have just chosen not to see 5 other good bands.

The first unknown (to me) that I ran across tonight was Hawks of Paradise. Only caught a couple of their songs at 3 Kings, but I think they'll be worth another chance on Sunday when they play again. Regarding Sunday, Denver, remember, 7 p.m., Sunday night, Everything Absent or Distorted at the Cartoys Stage in the Goodwill Parking Lot. I'm done talking so you can put it on your calendar right now. I expect this show will be very well attended after word spreads over the next couple of days that the band is hanging it up.

UMMMM... here's my to-see list

Denver's Underground Music Showcase begins tomorrow and doesn't stop until Sunday night. I certainly don't have the room, and you don't have the patience for me to talk about all the bands I want to see. Similarly, I'm having to leave off a number of bands that deserve attention, but you can go here and here and here and here for more previews, and you can check out the UMS Twitter too. Nonetheless, here's what I'm thinking so far:

Thursday:
Magic Cyclops
Everything Absent or Distorted
Langhorne Slim

Friday:
Hello Kavita
Elin Palmer
Bela Karoli
The Hollyfelds
The Wheel

Saturday:
Elin Palmer & Kal Cahoone
Dressy Bessy
4 great comics this night, including:
Jim Hickox
Greg Baumhauer
Ben Roy
Adam Cayton-Holland - Check out the new What's So Funny? while you're at it.

Sunday:
Everything Absent or Distorted (if you missed them the first time)
Reed Foehl
Bowerbirds
Ian Cooke

Monday:
UMS is over, and I feel sorry for anyone playing Denver Monday night, but... if you can stand one more night, you can check out Bloodshot Records artist Ha Ha Tonka at the Hi-Dive. They've got some promising new material, so if you're just not ready to let go of the 4 day party that was the UMS, then why not make it one more night before you return to reality?

A dilemma of not very epic proportions (not epic at all)

Of all the conundrums I’ve dealt with in the past, this one is completely inconsequential, yet it really has me worked up. As of late, I feel as though I’ve been caught up in a whirlwind (“dust devil” for West Texan readers) of new music and good live shows. The Denver area music scene goes back and forth with periods of no good live shows, and then periods of too many to attend (or afford). New music releases have a similar ebb and flow in my experience.

I’m starting to feel like new music burnout is just down the road, yet I can't stop myself from really wanting to go check out the Denver Underground Music Showcase this year. Not only are there a ton of good local bands I’d like to see, I know there are many I don’t even know about, and said showcase would afford me the opportunity to begin filtering through those and deciding who is worth a longer listen. Nothing wrong with any of that.

Photo credit: Mark Holthusen via Wovenhand's myspace

Enter David Eugene Edwards. It so happens that one of Colorado’s most compelling artists is playing a show in Boulder (i.e., about 5 minutes from my house, no less), on Friday night, the same night when there are a number of bands I’d like to see at the UMS. Not that I haven’t seen him before -- quite the contrary -- but I hate to miss his show at the Fox Theatre, because at least according to a 16 Horsepower fan site, DEE has only played Boulder 3 times, ever (two with 16 HP, and one with Wovenhand). And it's a very reasonably priced show for Boulder ($10, or $14 DOS).

Even as I write this, I’m leaning back and forth on what I think I should do. I’m not sure I have the energy to make all 4 days of the UMS, but if I had to choose, I wouldn’t purposely make Friday one of the ones I missed.

Can anyone talk me through this one?

Festivals and stuff

Best news I've heard in some time:
Doug Burr will be heading back into the studio at the end of the summer.

Congratulations:
to Amanda Shires for her recent spotlight piece in Texas Music magazine, and also for charting on the Americana Radio charts (up to #28 so far).

If you care about this type of thing:
Bloodshot Records now lists the limited edition vinyl for Justin Townes Earle's The Good Life as sold out. You can probably still find some copies here and there, but probably not for a lot longer.

More congratulations:
to Telegraph Canyon, from Denton, whose next album will be released on Velvet Blue and Spune, which is also Doug Burr's label.

No matter how long we've had cell phones:
it turns out that it's still not a good idea to be talking to someone on the phone while you're pulling out into traffic on a busy street. Just in case you didn't know.

Austin City Limits Festival:
is looking more and more tempting. Must keep in mind how expensive it is though, and how it will be 150 degrees and 50,000 people will share 2 porta potties. But then again, there's also the Avett Brothers, Bon Iver, Devotchka, Grizzly Bear, and the Felice Brothers. Sorry to offend any major Arctic Monkeys fans, but I can't see much reason to go on Sunday.

Denver's SXSW equivalent:
is called the Underground Music Showcase (the UMS), although there's probably about 5,000 less bands in town for it. However, I count that as a plus. Hoping to make it down, with early intentions to catch Bela Karoli, Elin Palmer, The Wheel, Dressy Bessy, Adam Cayton-Holland, and Everything Absent or Distorted.

Is there any reason:

that I shouldn't go see both the Boulder AND the Denver Avett Brothers shows next month? I'm starting not to see any.

Thinking about giving away:

a few copies of the new Mt. Inadale 7" split. I'll keep you posted.