Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The nuns who live at Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital (they're big big fans of the Denver Broncos) are getting filmed for a Broncos commercial today (7/31)

Single File plays free 8/1 as part of McDonald's free summer concerts. But you'll have to go to Aurora. At the McDonald's at 1444 S. Havana. 6p. That's the same night Modest Mouse and Band of Horses play at Red Rocks and the same night Mike Laughlin will be guest chef at Bella Bistro in Arvada, so you'll have to pick and choose what you want to do

In sad news, Bottom of the Hudson had a van accident Sunday on tour. Absolutely Kosher Records says the van went out of control and flipped on I-40 near Clinton, NC, when a tire blew out. Bassist Trevor Butler was killed and drummer Greg Lytle is in the hospital. Absolutely Kosher is collecting donations for Butler's family and Lytle's medical bills.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

LadybiRdS


The LadybiRdS' debut LP may just be the best powderpuff dance pop side project yet. Gym Class Heroes keyboardist Tyler Pursel teamed up with former bandmate Teeter Sperber of Ley Royal Scam (hence the capitalized LRS in LadybiRdS). Throw in guest vocals from Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, Max Bemis of Say Anything, Justin Johnson from The Danger O's and Neil Sabatino of Fairmont and you've got the infectious sugar-sugar dance confection "Regional Community Theater," out this fall. Tyler provides the Atari-style hooks (listen to "Shark Party"...you really can picture the pixelated kung fu) while Teeter provides the heart and charm with chirpy vocals. "I only sing because, because you told me that I can't," she sings on "Oh No! The Unicorns are Knife Fighting Again." I don't know. You'll have to check it out yourself.

LadybiRdS interview



LadybiRdS lead singer Teeter Sperber has been a rock publicist, did A&R at Virgin Records, sold band T-shirts at MerchDirect and runs 31 Corn Lane with her family. You've probably seen 31 Corn Lane totes and wallets at Fancy Tiger in Denver. She took some time to answer some of our questions. Read on

_ I saw Gilmore Girls on the band's MySpace page! What did you think of the finale, (or did you give up on the show before then)?

* Do you love GG too??? I was absolutely OBSESSED with Gilmore Girls for many years, especially with the shows classic case wrong-side-of-the-tracks punk rock bad boy, Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia, OMG. Hottest! Dude! Ever!) I loved all the alt alt alt cultural/ indie rock references that you could find buried within the storyline if you really paid attention.

A few shining examples: Jess sitting on a bench covertly reading Punk Planet, Rory and he planning a date to go see The Distillers, a Slint album being shown in an independent record shop scene, Jess wearing a Dinosaur, Jr. t-shirt, Sonic Youth playing a show in the town square, and continuous mentions of Bowery Ballroom, a seminal NYC rock venue. Dude, GG was like no other show on TV - it was crystal clear that the writers knew what was up!

That said, it was DEVASTATING to me, like, TOTAL HEARTBREAK HOTEL STYLE when the shows creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino decided to leave for the last season, because she was very obviously the root of all the awesomeness. I tried my super hardest to give the new writing team a chance for Season 7, but it KILLED me to watch the shows swift fall from kick ass-ed-ness. The quippy banter between Rory and Lorelai didn't work anymore, the characters weren't as snarky or funny as they had been at it's peak. I stopped watching, final straw style, around the 6th episode, but would shamefully ask my best bud what was going on and would still secretly read the Television Without Pity message boards. While I did watch the season finale, I didn't cry giant dinosaur tears, which is what I had always imagined I would do at the end of this amazing part of my television life. In closing, I totally hated Logan. Ewh!

_What convinced you to be a part of LadybiRdS?

* I was living in a super small cottage on the Oregon Coast when Tyler asked me to be 1/2 of LadybiRdS. He had been in Gym Class Heroes for awhile and was looking for an outlet for his own magical creations. At the time, I was still very much nursing my musical wounds over the breakup of Ley Royal Scam. That little band had been the most amazing, frustrating, fantastic, humbling experience of my life up until to that point. I had promised myself while living in the little cottage that I was going to break up with music almost entirely, with the exception of listening to Lucinda Williams, our nations saddest, most earnest, drunkest, most desperate lady songwriter. (OMG love her.)

I thought about it for awhile, said no a few times, and then ultimately changed my mind because Ty kept asking and I finally admitted to myself that the part I liked most about my rusty relationship with music was the actual making of it, in the studio, and that's all he was really asking me to do. To lend my voice to a project between friends. Ty was one of my besties from back in our LRS days and it just made sense to grow with him.

_How does working w/ Tyler now compare w/ when you guys were in ley royal scam?

* Neither Ty or myself had much creative input in The Scam, even though we both totally wanted it. I would fight to write my own lyrics and Ty, who, might I mention, is THE BEST GUITAR PLAYER I HAVE EVER KNOWN, would write some of his noodly fantastic licks, but wasn't really able to participate much beyond that. It was certainly a challenge for us both, especially considering we're both opinionated to boot, but, for whatever reason that was the predetermined LRS structure.

For the 'Birds, it couldn't really be a more collaborative, symbiotic relationship. It just works so amazingly well. Ty creates all the instrumentation on this ridiculous keyboard called a FANTOM and he gets to be the boss of all things studio-related. I write all my own lyrics, can totally kick down ideas about how I think vocal patterns should sound, and get to be responsible for absolutely everything beyond the creating of the record; package design, licensing, marketing, choosing radio, video, and press promotions teams. Like everything. It rules because I worked in the music industry for what feels like a bazillion years, so these are the business-y things I like to do.

_How much of the songs did Tyler have written before you jumped in?

* Ty sent me an entire record of instrumental tracks about 3 days before we went into the studio for pre-production. In a neat twist of events, by the time pre-production was over not one of those songs sounded the same. After my arrival it became a completely different record and the cool part is that it happened in a totally organic way. He would sit at his keyboard, I would sit in the beg red armchair across from it, and he would tell me that he was trying to "Teeter-fy" the songs, to get them to sound more like the sonic manifestation of my spazztard personality. Oh man, did he ever do a great job. Little dude is brilliant.

_What are your hopes for the band? Will you do another album? Any plans to tour?

* I have worse performance anxiety than Catpower, so, if all goes my way we'll never ever have to play a live show. It's terribly daunting for me, I still have visions of this lil' 14 year girl up front at one of our LRS shows - she was holding her ears, had her eyes closed and was nodding her head back and forth mouthing the words "No, No, No." I mean, granted, all she really wanted was to see Taking Back Sunday play - and we we're the last thing standing in her way -- but that was the worst feeling evs! I was not meant to be on stage.

Plus, Ty's schedule with Gym Class Heroes is absolutely bananas right now, he's been traveling through Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand - you name it, and he's been there bringing the indie hip-hop to the kids. Neither of us has any idea when his next break will be. Howevs, I know fer sure fer sure that he and I wold both really like to someday make another LadybiRdS record. Ty makes me laugh so much in the studio and also, his girlfriend JoJo makes the best guacamole ever.

_The song "Cooper, Thanks for the Birds" ...what's it about?

* The song itself is about loss, I know I know, par for the course - but! The title is a dedication to one of my best friends on earth, Cooper Sanchez. He's an amazing artist and a fantastic Southern gent. He made every bird image you see attached to this band (with an ink dropper and a piece of plywood, no less!) so we thought it would be nice to secretly thank him through one of our song titles. He didn't even see the title until the saw the finished record.

In other news, before I ever knew him I watched him stomp around in an adult diaper on the Jerry Springer show.

_For "You are the Torro King"...was it always an instrumental or did you consider adding lyrics?

* "You are the Torro King" was always intended to be instrumental. When it was first written it was supposed to be the record intro, but by the time I heard it, it was so long (almost 3 minutes!) that I suggested we make it the outro instead. I think that song is super beautiful and messy and organic and something about the end of it, those noises that sound like they were pulled off a Nuetral Milk Hotel album, makes me really sad.

_anything else about the album or you or the band you want people to know?
* Our one dream is to be on the soundtrack to DeGrassi: The Next Generation. HOLEY COW. That show is amazing!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Street art


Jesse LeDoux, who worked for Sub Pop Records and has done album designs for The Shins and The Little Ones, has one of his murals on the side of Andenken Gallery near Coors Field.



And some street art on a pole near Andenken: (you'll have to click to get a closer look at his T-shirt. I know, classy)

Music news

_Did you get your tix for Meese @ the Bluebird on Aug. 10? (Check out their song "Letters"). With Nathan and Stephen.
Meese also opens for the Fray at Red Rocks 8/4

_You can hear songs from Tegan & Sara's new album on MySpace. Some dates on their tour are already sold out, but you can still seem them in Boulder, Nov. 3, @ the Boulder Theatre. Check out a recent video interview with them here

_Silversun Pickups are here in Denver on Monday, 7/30, at the Ogden

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Denver Graffiti: 13th ave


Mitt Romney in Colorado

Romney was in CO yesterday for fundraisers in Denver, Colorado Springs (hosted by his Olympic pal Bill Hybl, former USOC head) and Aspen ($1,000 for entry, or up to $2,300 for a VIP photo reception). The expected haul was at least $150,000 for this swing through the state. Afterward he stopped by for a speech to El Paso County Republicans. It wasn't a fundraiser for him, just for the local party, but about 700 people attended.

Romney, a Mormon, spoke for strengthening the definition of marriage (as between a man and woman), strengthening the military, and cracking down on online predators. But he also had plenty of anecdotes.

On his wife Ann:
They met as teens at a party, but another guy was interested in her. So he told the other guy, since he lived closer to Ann, he'd take her home for him. They've been together ever since. "I said to her, sweetheart, in your wildest dreams, did you ever see me running for president of the United States. And she said, Mitt, you weren't in my wildest dreams."

For his 60th birthday, his five sons handed him a car key. "I thought Mustang, Corvette ... I let my mind wander. It was a 1962 Rambler American." "We started it up, drove it down the street from the house, pushed it home..." (Romney's dad had led American Motors and the '62 was the last one he presided over before he went on to be governor of Michigan.)

Monday, July 16, 2007

Capitol shooting

Legislators were not in session when a man with a gun walked into the state Capitol today, but the governor was in his office. (Police say a state trooper shot the man, after he refused to drop his gun outside the governor's office.) AP reporter Steve Paulson, Denver Post reporter Mark Couch and Charles Ashby of The Pueblo Chieftain (they regularly cover the statehouse) were among those who heard the gunshots in the building. Construction has been going on at the Capitol, in the basement. At the Capitol, the center is open all the way from the basement to the third floor, so you can look up and down to each floor when you're standing in the middle of the building. Some inside the Capitol said their first thought when they the bangs was that it was a plank or something that fell during construction.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Internet radio

If you love online radio as much as we do, go to WOXY, read the message on calling your senators and act now. Otherwise royalties that online stations have to pay will spiral far beyond what many stations will be able to pay, and poof, your favorite station(s) may go silent.

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Oh and I saw Marcus Camby at the grocery store today! Camby rules!!!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Forecast

_ 7/12, Sweet Land, winner of an audience award at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival plays at the Starz Film Center at 7 p.m. and director Ali Selim is scheduled to be there for it.

_ 7/13, Hipster yarn- and local artists'/musicians' shop Fancy Tiger turns one! And has a party with a DJ and free stuff to celebrate. 7-10 p.m.

_ 7/21 Tokyo Police Club @ the Larimer Lounge, with the Laylights. $10 now or $12, day of show. 10p

Perhaps you've been at Sputnik for Bingo with Ben Kronberg on Mondays. On 7/23 he's supposed to be on TV...Jimmy Kimmel Live

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Independents Day: PocketFuzz

When you want a ringtone that says you're way hipper than that one girl who got Rihanna's "Umbrella" as her ringtone: PocketFuzz. It's the Denver-based startup that lets indie bands offer their songs as ringtones, and fans get to choose which 30-second snippet of the song they want to use. Songs from Conner, Born in the Flood and Meese are my favorites of the ones offered so far. (And it seems to be a company for the good of the people...the company _ which is already profitable _ shares profits with bands)

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

The Forecast

Don't forget, Johnny and the Moon on Independence Day @ the Larimer Lounge for cheap ...
Or, Nathan & Stephen for $6 at the Hi-Dive, also 7/4.

And on 7/6, go to the Hi-Dive for Cat-a-Tac, Tifah and Joshua Novak.

This Saturday, 7/7/07, DC10 celebrates its 1-yr birthday

...and WIN FREE GROCERIES. Go here for a chance to win $100 or $2,500 in groceries from Safeway.
(contest rules here)