The 3-1-11 on new records from Slim & DeVotchKa

Great news for us all that two stalwarts of the Denver scene will be releasing albums this spring, and on the same day, to boot.

First, Slim Cessna's Auto Club will release Unentitled on Alternative Tentacles March 1, 2011, just ahead of another appearance at SXSW. First indications of the album came from this interview with Reverb, and since then, presale pages have begun to crop up for the record. Please catch one of this band's shows if you haven't already.





















For Denverites who aspire to perform with Munly, be advised of this recent announcement on his Facebook page:

It is time to introduce the next chapter of Lupercalia. The Lupercalians are looking for new band members (primarily percusionists) to present this new group of characters. Please let us know if you are interested by writing us here.

Another of Denver's more notable bands, DeVotchKa will be releasing their fifth studio album on the same day. Anti- Records has recently announced the release of 100 Lovers, which promises more of the DeVotchKa + WaveLab studios magic of previous releases.





















Finally, for the Denver music fans amongst you, Westword recently published a fantastic interview with David Eugene Edwards of Wovenhand.

SXSW - Ramble Creek and Mile Hi Fidelity parties

Day Three - Friday

Friday morning we proved to be a bit less energetic than Thursday, and without any specific early plans, we took our time before heading to the Ramble Creek day party. We arrived just before 1 PM, with the primary intention of catching the set by One Wolf, who interestingly had played a party less than an hour before across town and still somehow managed to make it on time to the Ramble Creek show, held in a perfect backyard setting.

At that precise point, the random craziness of SXSW hit full force, as H. called to inform me that she and her friends had just gotten in a minor car accident. Thus, for obvious reasons, One Wolf did not happen for us, but most importantly, everyone involved in the accident was okay. While the cars received a good bit of damage, the accident wasn't our friend's fault, and after taking care of the necessities involved with that situation, we all returned to the Ramble Creek party for some much needed stress relief.

The first act we got to see was Collin Herring, an awesome artist currently based in Austin (formerly of Fort Worth) who I've been a fan of for a number of years now. Herring played a number of tracks off of his new release, Ocho, recorded of course at Ramble Creek, and produced by Will Johnson, and also mixed in some of his earlier songs. If I hadn't mentioned this before, Collin has about the coolest steel player around, Ben Roi Herring, his dad, and their duo performance (and banter) were a real pleasure to watch/hear.


















Did someone just say Will Johnson? Yes, that's right, THE Will Johnson of Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, and most recently, the drummer for the Monsters of Folk, graced the Ramble Creek party with a beautiful solo set. I hope I didn't embarrass myself as I sat roughly 10 feet from Will with my jaw resting on the ground, but hearing "Just to Know What You've Been Dreaming" in this particular setting was on par with the very best experiences of my entire SXSW, or maybe more accurately of the past few years. Whatever it took to get him to come play at this show, I can't thank the folks at Ramble Creek enough for making this happen.























I haven't described the exact locale of the Ramble Creek show yet, but it was by far the most enjoyable day party of SXSW by far. It was held in a backyard with the perfect set-up and perfect weather to accompany, and to boot, a big tub full of Lone Star was available for all in attendance.

The next act was one I have missed seeing live ever since we moved to Colorado. Doug Burr has written some of my favorite songs of the last decade, and in my book he has about as much integrity as any artist I listen to. He has recently recorded a new album, from which he played a number of songs. In short, I couldn't be more excited for these songs, as they are absolutely phenomenal. Doug has crafted a career in exactly the fashion that he wants, and this diligence has surely paid off as more and more people begin to take notice. He was backed at this show by his frequent collaborator Glen Farris, as well as members of Seryn and Monahans drummer Roberto Sanchez for some songs.



















































Next up was Austin band Monahans, who include Ramble Creek owner/engineer Britton Beisenherz on guitar. I had not seen this band before, although a number of years ago I saw a previous project of some of the musicians called Milton Mapes, and was a fan of all of that band's material. Monahans, however, is a new project, and as I think was the intention, the transition has infused a new energy into their music. The band is tighter than ever as a performing group, and their set at this day party was absolutely flawless and one of the best of the entire SXSW for me. The band has two albums to their name, although they are in the process of a project in which they will release one song a month for download for the rest of 2010. The first track is already available, and you can check out their Web site for details on how to get in on this opportunity. Monahans is a band on the rise and I fully hope they can ride the momentum to more widespread success and notoriety in the near future.



































Alas, as much as I hated to leave, I had to take off after Monahans because I wanted my Austin friend to see Denver's Slim Cessna's Auto Club, and knew this would be our best chance. While I missed Telegraph Canyon's set at Ramble Creek, I was able to make up for my exit by catching them on Saturday night.

After some frantic traffic navigation and hurried walking, we made it to the Mile Hi Fidelity party just in time to catch the latter half of Slim Cessna's set. Do I even have to mention that Slim did not disappoint? Munly was in top form, having just arrived from the year 1840, performing an extremely high energy set as co-frontman to Slim, just as we have all come to expect out of him and the Auto Club. Very few bands can claim to hold a foot firmly in the alt country legacy of the early 1990s while also remaining relevant for modern Americana/Southern Gothic music as well. In short, SCAC brought their tent revival to Sixth Street, and the end of the set no doubt saw a new group of converts leaving their first Slim show. Please see Slim if you get the chance. Sadly, even though they were the last band, Slim's energetic finale didn't lead into any encore, despite my desire to hear their epic "He, Roger Williams."

SXSW Axiom #4: No encores necessary at SXSW. There is simply too much music during the week for 99% of crowds to ask for another song. Few listeners even catch full sets, and no matter where you go you hear more music, so the encore is largely absent at SXSW, probably to everyone's benefit.

As you can see in the pictures below (click to enlarge), Slim and Munly's crowd involvement made for some of the best action pics of the festival, although "best" is a relative term with my crappy camera. You can't see it that well in the small version, but I love Slim's look in the background of the second picture below.

SXSW preview - 2010 Mile Hi Fidelity day party

The Denver music scene will be well-represented at SXSW this year, and while you can resolve to make each individual band's official showcase if you're going the $700 badge route, you can also catch the entire line-up on Friday. Sadly, this showcase conflicts with my "can't miss" showcase by Ramble Creek, so I'm left to catch these bands at other venues at other times during the week. This showcase would actually be my second-in-line can't miss if it didn't conflict with my first, if that helps make my case.

I've already put my plug in for Nathaniel Rateliff and the Wheel, and if you read this blog, you know I mention Slim Cessna's Auto Club about once a month. Slim has been around a long time, but don't take that for granted. You need to see an Auto Club show while you have the chance. No, they aren't going anywhere as far as I know, but they don't tour as much as they used to, and they don't make it through Texas very often at all. SCAC is one of Denver's most original acts, and they continue to perform at a very high level.

I also recommend that you try to catch Paper Bird if you get the chance, and Houses and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake have been getting increasing attention as well. I don't mean for this to sound like 1950s era product placement, but I'm a pretty big fan of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey too. However, maybe it's for the best I have a time conflict, because I probably don't need to start on the whiskey at noon anyway.

nothing important

I am increasingly thinking, among their other mistakes handling the late night situation:
that NBC made an enormous error in not continuing to broadcast Southland, and instead giving Jay Leno that time slot. Watching it re-broadcast on TNT, I'm convinced it's one of the best shows on TV, and I really hope that TNT has the money to keep it going. You can see some episodes online at TNT.tv, or of course, through various pay sites.

Another thing about Southland:
If you don't believe me, watch the pilot episode. If you are not convinced by 3/4 of the way through that episode, you will be by the end when The National's "Fake Empire" plays over the last few scenes.

Cross Canadian Ragweed playing Bonnaroo 2010:
I did not see that one coming.

I've not said much about the death of Vic Chesnutt:
but he was one of the less appreciated masters of his craft, and I'm very pleased that the Grammy Awards chose to include to him in their video remembering those who had died in the past year. Read this very well written note about Chesnutt from the Oxford American.

If you cared at all:
the video that I embedded in my last post only plays on the Windfarm page, i.e., not in Google reader, as a result of various permissions that are attached to it. ...the more you know.

It don't matter who's in Austin:
'cause Bob Wills is still the king.

If you hadn't heard, Google shut down a number of music blogs recently:
and that's why we don't post mp3s, no matter who said we could. Also because I don't know how.

If you will be at SXSW:
I hope you get the chance to see Slim Cessna's Auto Club. They've been around forever, but only tour sporadically. Without a doubt they are one of Denver's greatest live bands, and one of the key elements of the Denver scene over the past 16 or so years.

A (sort of) new Auto Club release

Just as I typically find out news about Slim Cessna's Auto Club, I happened to check their myspace to see if any new shows were on the books, and to my surprise, I found that they were releasing a new record. Well, a new-ish record.

Entitled Buried Behind the Barn, the new record is purported to contain "lost & rumoured out-takes, compilation tracks and alternate recordings" as per the band's myspace. A bit of research turns up this site, which has the album up for pre-order, although oddly nothing is mentioned on the band's label Alternative Tentacles' Web site yet. According to the former site, the album will be released on March 16th, 2010, available as a CD or 10" vinyl+download.

It's not exactly clear to me why the band hasn't linked to this pre-order site yet, so I can't vouch for it, but it seems to be legitimate as far as I can tell. The site, Midheaven, provides a bit more insight into the contents of the album:

Twisted twangsters Slim Cessna's Auto Club roar back with some raw, heart-shattering tracks from 2000 and 2001. Led by the vocals of Cessna and Munly, the Auto Club bares even more of their troubled souls than usual. Briefly released as a limited-to-200 CDR in 2004, these songs are basically unreleased, original versions of later album tracks and compilation songs. Whatever their destination, all eight are undeniably prime 'n' primal Auto Club--a rambunctious mix of joyful twang, acoustic folk, hillbilly picking, and old-time gospel backed with words of spiritual angst, roadhouse wisdom, and whiskey-drinking sin 'n' salvation.

Speculation on the band's Yahoo message board is that this is a proper release of the band's limited edition Crossbreeding Begins at Home, a 2004 CD-R release of rarities, although given that there is no track listing yet, it's tough to say for sure. Either way, it is nice to see the band putting out new material, and hopefully we'll see a new studio album from SCAC (and Munly) before 2010 is over.

Update: The track listing has been announced, and it would seem the speculation of this being a release of the songs from Crossbreeding is correct.

Your favorite Maines brother and other thoughts

If you miss Arrested Development, there is no replacement:
but Modern Family on ABC is a great new show with a similar theme - family craziness and inappropriate comments. I'm a big fan of everything I've seen so far.

I know you've been pondering your selection for the past year:
but time is almost gone to vote for your favorite Maines Brothers band member of all time. If you read the blog in Google Reader, come on over to windfarm and find the poll in the top right corner. Lloyd has a pretty commanding lead, but like I've always said, you would be a fool to count out Kenny Maines.

Aquarium Drunkard is still the best at blogging:
Check out this awesome piece about JJW's 1969 Driftin' Way of Life album.

To make up for his November show that was canceled due to weather:
Langhorne Slim is coming back through Denver in less than a month. Wednesday, Feb. 10th at the Hi-Dive.

I know you cringe when I mention Rolling Stone magazine:
but they've got an aweomse piece on Devendra Banhart in the most recent issue (Cover title: "You Idiots"). In summation, it does really well to describe how no matter what he does with his appearance or his music, the media insists on calling his music "hippie folk."

In case you missed the shows:
the Denver Post's Reverb blog covered the DeVotchKa and Slim Cessna's Auto Club NYE performances.

It won't affect you, but it will affect the blog's content a bit:
Windfarm will be relocating (geographically, that is, not changing URL) this August. More details on that as the time approaches, and lots of shows to see between now and then. For similar reasons, I may not be able to post and cover as much music and junk as I did for much of 2009. Oh well, at least you've still got the rest of the internet.

3 (or 4) great shows in 5 (or 6) days

Why does it never fail that months upon end can pass without any worthwhile live shows coming through town, but then in one week, so many come up that I can't possibly fit them all in? I guess there is no good answer for that question, but nonetheless, that seems to be the way it goes.

Three of the 4 bands I want to see are promoting very new albums, while the fourth is simply a Denver standard that one should do him or herself the favor of seeing when given the chance.

Lucero
10/26 - Aggie Theatre, Fort Collins
10/27 - Ogden Theater, Denver

Having seen Lucero many many times in the past, I look forward to hearing a good bit of their new material live. When I saw them in May at the Fox Theatre, the band sounded tighter and sharper than I had ever heard them before. I hope that I can expect the same again, and more importantly, given the Monday/Tuesday shows, I truly hope no one buys me any whiskey.
























Langhorne Slim, Dawes
10/29 - Hi-Dive, Denver

I had the opportunity to hear Langhorne Slim live for the first time earlier this year at the Underground Music Showcase, and his music has grown on me ever since. The new material I have heard thus far is amazing, and his live show should infuse the new songs with even more energy. As an added bonus, I've just begun listening to the debut album from Dawes, entitled North Hills, and am very much looking forward to seeing how their material holds up live.























Slim Cessna's Auto Club
10/31 - Benders Tavern, Denver

Slim Cessna is a treasure of Denver music both past and present. His musical tenure in the city goes back as far as the early 90s, that is, when he was playing alternative country music way before you had ever heard of it. Time has only strengthened the band's sound, and if you've never caught one of their live shows, then you truly don't comprehend what it means for a band to blow the roof off of a venue.

I just ran across this old video of an early iteration of SCAC playing "Hold On." They are a bit of a different band than this now, but pretty cool to recognize how long they've been making great music, and how great their early work has influenced Americana and rock music of today.

ramble on

Do you think:
that the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack, composed mostly by Karen O, will sell a lot of copies because simply people will be looking for the song they hear on the trailer? A situation that will be unfortunate, because the song is actually "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire, and is not on the soundtrack? I do. This is like when the Everything Is Illuminated trailer used "How It Ends" by DeVotchKa, but neither the movie nor the soundtrack featured the song. Don't get me wrong, the WTWTA trailer is really good, but funny they didn't use some of Karen O's material for it.

Of course you're thinking:
"he just had to mention that movie, because every blogger in the world has mentioned that movie." What can I say, at least I tried to do my own take on it.

In case you cared:
your cool friends over at Pitchfork mentioned some time back that Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear was releasing a 7" on his new label Terrible Records under the moniker CANT. Well, that record is finally up for pre-order.

Denver:
don't miss Slim Cessna's Auto Club and Drag the River at the Oriental Theater this Friday, Oct. 9th.

It's probably enjoyable because it's not PC:
and in fact there is a new What's So Funny? out today, and it's just as non-PC as ever.

I don't know why I am obsessed with the remote parts of West Texas:
but there is a pretty cool blogger from Alpine who does a blog called Gaping Void. He's actually an author, artist, marketer, and um, CEO of the US branch of a South African wine. Apparently he became famous for his "Ignore Everybody" blog/book, which is generally directed at helping people in the working world (maybe more specifically the corporate world?) to keep from hating their lives so much, or something like that.

Keeping with the West Texas theme:
I found this pretty sweet article about a guy near Abilene who lives in a cold war era missile silo. Lots of cool pictures.

As I've noted:
I'm increasingly impressed with Langhorne Slim's new material, and need to pick up his new album Be Set Free. You can check out a video interview and perfomance of "I Love You But Goodbye" from him here at LA Music Blog.

I don't know about you:
but I'm pretty excited about the new J. Tillman record Year in the Kingdom. It's out now on Western Vinyl, and apparently a vinyl version and a 7" are on the way.

In Avett Brothers news...let me revise that, in my own personal news:
my pre-ordered vinyl copy of I and Love and You, an album for which the vinyl version has been available in record stores for over 3 weeks, has still not arrived. I ordered it directly from the band's Web site, which apparently was the lowest priority to the label, and they didn't get their copies of the vinyl to mail out until last week. Throw in the inconsistent service by the USPS and you've got quite an awesome situation. If you know me, I like to prove points, so I'll probably have to return that record (when it finally arrives), even though it will cost me shipping, and then buy it from my local record store for the same price. If anyone has run into the same problem, hopefully you've found the one positive outlet that I have, which is that you can stream the entire album for free on the Avett's Web site.

Munly, Slim Cessna & Denver Broncos UK updates

Though few and far between, every so often I run across some Munly updates that are of interest, although they are almost always completely random as his mode of operations is basically the antithesis of shameless self promotion.

I've just found that Munly and the Lupercalians are slotted to play the Vendetta Festival in Denver on Sept. 27th. Oddly, the festival appears to be listed as featuring Electronica and Industrial music. I don't know that Munly technically fits either of those categories, but . Ticket information can be found here. The Munly fans that make this show will really have to be die-hards, as I personally don't think I'm willing to buy the $40 day pass for Sunday just to see the Lupercalians show.






















(Photo credit Gary Isaacs via the Denver Bronco's UK myspace)

In non-Lupercalians news, the Denver Broncos UK recently played a show at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. This project is comprised of Slim Cessna, Munly, and Dwight Pentacost. The band posted some pictures from the show, and it would seem that they really put in some effort on adding a visual aesthetic to the show. Some excellent pictures from the show can be found at this Flickr page as well.

I ran across a review/account of the show on the Slim Cessna Yahoo group, and rather than plagiarize the author, I'll just link to it here. Highlight of the review is definitely the story that when someone got up to go to the bathroom during the show, Munly stopped the music and said he would wait until she got back, and then he did just that.

I don't know the history of this band well enough to say much more about them. They've been around on myspace for some time, but this is the only show I remember seeing listed. I am not aware of any past Denver shows, but my hope is that now that they've played a couple of shows, they'll want to play a few more in the foreseeable future. This band and all its affiliated artists do well to maintain quite a cult following, but at times its easy for one to miss out on what's going on with them because only Slim Cessna's Auto Club plays with any frequency. Speaking of, they'll be touring the west coast in late Sept. & early October.

And with that small gathering of information, that's about all I know.

Update 01/22/2010: SCAC releasing an album of rarities & outtakes.

Can I go mom? Please?

Slim Cessna's Auto Club at 3 Kings Tavern. this Friday (3/13) and Saturday (3/14).

Picture from here.

Haven't seen the band since before Cipher came out, so hoping to catch one of these shows. If you've not seen them live yet, and you live in the greater Denver metropolitan area, you should consider moving to Kansas (pictured below).

Seven Signs that it's hard to find an entirely new perspective on the South

I hesitate to do much in the way of reviews on this site, just because I'm so indecisive in forming opinions on such things. However, I'd like to give a brief report on what I thought of the above Seven Signs movie.

The documentary is the brainchild/project of The Legendary Shack Shakers front man JD Wilkes. Format-wise, I didn't find it substantially different than Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus. I like both movies, and seeing one before the other probably influences how you perceive each.

By far, Seven Signs has it's strength in the stories told by the people that are interviewed. Similar to SFTWEJ, there are countless interesting "characters" and legends in the South and Wilkes does a good job of seeking out some interesting folks. Additionally, there is a strong focus on music, and the film includes performances from a number of musicians that claim some sort of Southern influence in their art.

One thing I was looking forward to was the inclusion of Slim Cessna's Auto Club in the film, as I'd known they were involved since I first saw the trailer. Oddly though, this turned out to be a portion of the film I didn't quite understand. The end of the film includes a live stripped down performance of "Children of the Lord," by Slim and Munly. The part that I didn't quite understand was the story that Munly tells in addition to the performance. While it was fairly characteristic of the Munly stories I've read, it just seemed an odd conclusion to the film, given that most of the earlier narratives were from folks from the South who were telling either personal stories or local folklore, and here is a Denver musician telling a story about "Döder made me do it."

It's almost an Andy Kaufman type of moment, where you don't know if the joke's on you or if you're just not getting it. I welcome interpretations from others.

The film is short, running at about 50 minutes, but covers a number of interesting subjects, has an intriguing theme running throughout, and is overall worth the watch. I think it is a good and honest portrayal of the South, although not a totally novel one. But then again, not many people can completely redefine the representation of a region or culture through art (unless you're Cormac McCarthy).

We have found Providence

With all the gushing over the Old 97s I've really neglected my "Denver sound" folks, namely the new releases by DeVotchKa and Slim Cessna's Auto Club.  

Slim's new album Cipher was released last month, and while they played a few SXSW shows and one hometowner, they've been relatively quiet since.  I guess that is the reality of having a band where a number of folks live in different cities. 

Nonetheless, the new album has a great progression, although their slower songs seem to have grown darker on this album.  Overall, however, this album definitely delivers with some great new songs.  Given that this is the band that brought us "He, Roger Williams," they could get away with just about anything in my book, but they don't rely on any formulas on this record.

For any of you who have seen recent live shows, you'll already know "Children of the Lord," quite the quintessential tent revival rocker with a redux of a familiar Vacation Bible School song.  "Scac 101" brings some great contrast, with what one might deem a bit reminiscent of older Slim.  The thematic tune of "An Introduction to the Power of Braces" appears throughout the album, the significance of which must be interpreted by the listener I suppose.

On top of the well arranged songs, the album artwork, especially the photos by Gary Isaacs, really give the album a great visual presentation.  Isaacs has become somewhat of an icon in the photography of a number of Denver musicians, and the inside photo is a great example.

Next up we have the new album by DeVotchKa, A Mad and Faithful Telling, released on the Anti- label, their first LP released on a label.  Honestly I hate to try and describe the sound because I know I've been heavily biased by reading various reviews of DeVotchKa over the recent years, and thus, I don't know that I have much different to say.  Needless to say they still have a pretty good corner on the market of gypsy indie mariachi cabaret music.  However, speaking of Gary Isaacs, here's a great new press photo he did for DeVotchKa:

An important recommendation I would make is to purchase the ITUNES bonus track of "Undone," featuring the Tom Hagerman Quartet.  While the regular cut of "Undone" is a great listen, I prefer this extra track.  We had the opportunity to see Tom play an instrumental show in Boulder a few months back, and while a completely different experience from DeVotchKa, it was an amazing night of instrumentation with his extremely talented colleagues.  If that's your thing, don't forget to pick up a copy of Tom's The Breakfast Playground.   Other good listens off the new record are "Along the Way" and "A New World."  Still haven't really warmed up to "Transliterator," but maybe with time.

While I'm on the subject of Denver music, a couple of other items of note.  Around this time last year, Smooch Records announced that there was a documentary in the works about the Denver sound.  I've not heard any updates on this, but hope to see something out soon.  One can argue there is no specific "sound," but there is an interesting element to the fact that the city has produced such distinct and notable acts as 16 Horsepower, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Munly Munly, DeVotchKa, Woven Hand, and the Denver Gentlemen to name a few (in no particular order).  

Speaking of Munly, the only news I've been able to find on him is that he is working on a double album on the fictional town of Lupercalia, although the most that has been heard of him lately has been his appearance on New Years Eve with his new band Munly & the Lupercalians.  However, word is that the Lee Lewis Harlots are no longer playing, for reasons that I have only heard in rumor form.  And I don't want to be one to go spreading rumors...

And finally, one more Denver-related release on the horizon is the new Woven Hand record Ten Stones, slated for an August release.  Hopefully that means they'll play a hometown show by that time, although they seem to have a more adoring fan base in Europe than here in the U.S.  

i can't get a word in