Monday, April 28, 2008

FREE MUSIC

Newton Faulkner's new album "Hand Built by Robots" comes out tomorrow in the U.S. But you can win a FREE copy here at Delicatessen. Just e-mail us by 11:59 p.m. MDT Tuesday and tell us what you think of his music. We'll draw a name to win the free album. He'll be playing in Boulder at the Fox Theater on 5/31.

Check out who's coming to the Larimer Lounge this Saturday, 5/3: Mobius Band, Black Kids and Cut Copy. Download Mobius Band's "Love Will Reign Supreme" EP here

My Morning Jacket will be coming to Red Rocks with The Black Keys 8/21! A download of "Evil Urges" is available here

Beginning tomorrow morning, about 5:15 a.m. MDT, you can download Coldplay's new single "Violet Hill" for one week, free, at Coldplay's Web site.

Wolf Parade has a new album coming out in June and a tour to support it, but doesn't look like they'll be hitting Denver as of yet. The song "Call it Ritual" is up on their MySpace page.

Atmosphere coming to the Ogden 5/17 and 5/18. Go to Twist and Shout to enter for free tickets

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Cubbies!

The Cubs were in town for a short two-game trip against the Rockies. They split the series, with the Cubs winning 7-6 in 10 innings last night, and the Rockies winning 4-2 this afternoon. Here's some scenes from last night. Play ball!



Matt Holliday runs back to the dugout from the outfield:



Todd Helton makes contact:



The rally towels go wild as Tulowitzki rounds the bases after his 3-run homer!



Hmm, the Cubs wait for a new pitcher:



Closer and eventual game winner Kerry Wood, even though he did give up the tying run in the 9th:



The game Wednesday was the Cubs' 10,000th win

Friday, April 18, 2008

Free music

The Neville Brothers play free this Sunday, 4/20, at City Park to celebrate Earth Day. The Green Apple Festival brings free concerts to 8 cities. While some cities get to see The Roots, Talib Kweli, will.i.am, Arrested Development, we get the Neville Brothers FREE at 5 p.m. The festivities start at noon, and if you go, you'll also get to see The Heyday (skedded for 2-2:40 p.m.) and an acoustic set from Rose Hill Drive (2:55 p.m.-3:40 p.m.) Domonique Foxworth of the Denver Broncos should be there.


Remember Aaron Hobbs, from Acrobat Down, Hobbs N.M., etc? He was back in action at the Meadowlark last night playing w/ Eliot Zizic & Casey Dexter under the name Richard Fantastic. It was a rockin', plugged in set, with driving versions of some of the old bare bones Hobbs N.M. stuff. They opened for Khale (you might recognize Blusom in this foursome) which is touring Europe this June. And all their indie rock friends were there to watch

Monday, April 14, 2008

Action Packed Thrill Ride

Action Packed Thrill Ride has a new album, and they celebrate with a show this Friday, 4/18, at the Hi-Dive. They're playing with Mothership (which is planning an acoustic guitar set), Roger, Roll (they have a new record) and The Vitamins.

Back when APTR was being born, Lucas Johannes was pounding out disco beats as the drummer for Mannequin Makeout (RIP) and writing country songs to practice recording. One of those country songs ended up on a friend's record label's compilation, and they asked him to play at a small show. "There was no way I was going to play alone," he said. He got some friends together (Mark Cawthray, guitar; Jeni Sykes, violin), started playing out, and what do you know, now we have the five-member band of today's Action Packed Thrill Ride (which now includes Duncan Dotterer on drums, Jon Evans on bass). A bunch of their songs are up on MySpace, so you can get a taste there and then buy their CD to hear the rest. It's fun stuff, with pretty harmonies (because no one felt totally comfortable singing by themselves, ha) and organ and toy piano thrown in

The agreeable Lucas sat down to talk us through the songs on the new album, "A Looseleaf Script," and agreed to talk slowly enough so I could write it all down:

"Something Tells Me" :: The intro, with the slide guitars, I recorded that a long time ago, over a year ago. The rest of the song got pasted on later, in January. But the first 30 seconds have been on my computer a long time. I use a PC (as opposed to Mac). I'm addicted to right click and roller ball.
"On My Way" :: That's the first song we started playing as a full band out of this batch. It kinda sounds like a train. The 'ooh-ooh', and the shuffle beat kinda sounds like a train.
"Stomp Clap Jubilee" :: It's in 5/4, so 'Mission Impossible' time. I had the rhythm in my head. I sat down with a kick drum and shakers. The guitar and violin came after that.
"I Was A Good Man" :: The basic idea was to do an a cappella song (there's still instruments on this, it just gives way to the vocals). We try to stay away from doing it live because it doesn't always work. It's a spiteful song. It's about getting drunk to piss someone off. Maybe it's a horrible thing to do? But everyone's done it.
"Hug of War" :: It's the most driving song on the record. This is the first song we wrote with our new drummer. Our original drummer was more into jazz. He quit to play guitar in a jazz band, but it was cool. Then Duncan came in and within 30 seconds of the first audition, we were like, you can play with us.
"Your War": Mark wrote this. Usually I bring skeletons of songs to the band. This is one Mark brought the skeleton of.
"Two Dreams" :: This is one of two older songs that made the cut.
"Songs in Reverse" :: Mark brought this one to the band. We made it spacier than he had in mind. There's toy piano. I wasn't too hot on it til we started recording.
"I Can't Recall" :: The point of the song is to have this driving, happy sounding song. But it's about being at a bar, being alone but having high hopes, trying to talk to girls, but then having a sad lonely feeling. It's kind of backwards. The verses are much catchier and upfront than the chorus. That was the idea too.
"I'm a Sinner, You're a Saint" :: This is one of my favorites to perform live, although we have to tune down for it. It's the song we can't mess up in practice. It's always the most solid.
"Yours Truly" :: Features Luke Mossman (Achille Lauro, Hello Kavita) on banjo. The idea was a classic murder ballad. There was a version before this that wasn't working. It had a lot of organ, it was loud, in your face. We decided to go the opposite way, with finger picking. Luke came in, he learned the song in 30 minutes, played amazing. He's just what the song needed, I guess.
"Clean Break" :: Features Jenny Brackhan on trumpet. I told her what I wanted. She wrote the solo part. It was awesome.

Sunday, April 13, 2008



A sitting room at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, one of many sites open free to visitors for Doors Open Denver, a look at Denver architecture.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

April snow



It's April 10. The Rockies game has been snowed out. Vail is saying it got 13 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours. It's supposed to be in the 70s next week!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Free Boutique

The Free Boutique (free clothes!) has its official opening next weekend, but the donation party is this afternoon. Details here

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Planet B-Boy

This movie comes to Denver on Friday, April 11. Check out www.planetbboy.com for more. It opens in Chicago 4/4, Seattle and Detroit 4/25.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008



OK that video has nothing to do with anything. Just thought I'd share it. It's Steve Poltz, from the Rugburns, former boyfriend of Jewel, playing TLC.

Anyhow, somehow I got to see Bon Jovi at the Pepsi Center with Daughtry opening. So funny. Anyway, these guys are pros, and they knew how to play to all corners of the sold out place. Bon Jovi walked through the crowd, and at one point stood with Richie Sambora on a platform in the middle of the floor, sending all sorts of fans scurrying for their cell phone cameras. He showed logos of the Avalanche, Nuggets and Rockies on the video screens behind him, plus one of him standing next to Elway to get some cheers. For the encore, he put on a Broncos shirt with #7, then took it off and threw it out to the crowd. There was a great "Livin on a Prayer" singalong, and he played "Bad Medicine" with giant videos of dancing ladies' backsides playing on either side of the stage, "Wanted Dead or Alive," "Blaze of Glory" "I'll Be There for You" "Bed of Roses" "It's My Life."