New White Rabbits vid

This is "Temporary," from White Rabbits.

Jewel

Jewel played for free at the Convention Center over the weekend as part of the women's NCAA Final Four in Denver. It was just her and two acoustic guitars, playing for a few hundred people. She started off with an a cappella version of "Over the Rainbow" and then went into "Near You Always."

She asked for requests from the audience but had to pass some over because she couldn't remember all the words. She did play "Carnivore," which isn't on any records, and a ditty about Denver that she wrote. Also "Hands," "Foolish Games," "Who Will Save Your Soul," "Meant for Me," "Violet Eyes." She finished by yodeling.

See Lucero! See Jewel! For free!

Lucero is doing an acoustic set(duo) at Twist and Shout tomorrow, 3/30, at 6:30 p.m.

As part of NCAA women's final four action in Denver, Jewel plays at the convention center 3/31 at 5:30 p.m. if you get there early enough to get in

Silversun Pickups

The Silversun Pickups' new album is on its way May 8. You can listen to the single "Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)" now:

The Lumineers

Denver's The Lumineers are heading out on tour after SXSW. They play May 11 in Denver at the Bluebird. (Sorry, Seattle, show is sold out)

Onward, Soldiers (and Kyle James Hauser)

(photos by Thomas Peipert)

The North Carolina quartet Onward, Soldiers like when people dance to their songs. They've turned up the focus on the piano with their second album, and with their lyrics, they rhyme "Oklahoma" with "coma." What's not to like?

The band got a boost from having "Stick to Your Guns" off their first album featured on "One Tree Hill" and "Let the Time Roll By" landing on a CD that helped relief efforts after the Gulf oil spill.


Last night in Denver, it was a bit of a family affair for Onward, Soldiers at the Walnut Room, with lead singer Sean Thomas Gerard's girlfriend, mom and cousins in the audience as they rolled through a bunch of their songs, new and old. The audience was reverent and quiet through most of the set until they finally started dancing up a storm to "Let the Time Roll By" off the first album "Ghosts in This Town." (It's hard not to get up when drummer Kevin Rhodes is standing up behind his drum set, beating the drums.)



The band also played "Telling Nobody" off the new album, which was just released last month. Another highlight was "Cry," with 3-part harmonies (with drummer and Winoca Records co-founder Kevin Rhodes and guitarist Lincoln Morris chiming in behind Gerard)

If you missed them at the Walnut Room, you still have a chance to catch them in Denver at Vine Street Pub tonight, 3/4, around 10 p.m. They'll also be at SXSW.



Frankly, I was just as happy to hear Kyle James Hauser, sans band, opening for Onward, Soldiers (and The Yawpers, who came on after the soldiers).

He played "Oh Oh" off his new album. He also played a song he wrote about a would-be co-writer who would come over ostensibly to write but then shoot up and pass out in a corner. Sorry, I forget the name. Someone help me with that. He also jammed on the banjo, throwing in bits of "Blackbird" and "Norwegian Wood" there for fun. He'll be at SXSW but also plans to play with his band at the Hi-Dive 3/25. His new album (well, it came out in November or something) is $10.

New music from Seattle

A has been listening to Half Acre Day

Summer Fiction

We've gotten hooked on Summer Fiction. Listen to the album free at bandcamp.com to see if you want to buy it. (It's cheap, $8)

We really like the songs "Chandeliers", "By The Sea," "She's Bound to Get Heart," "Throw Your Arms Around Me."

Sasquatch Music Festival

The lineup for Sasquatch is out, and oh, my goodness. Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, AND Wilco, Decemberists, Flaming Lips!?! AND Rodrigo y Gabriela, Bassnectar, Robyn, Old 97's, K-OS, Wolf Parade!!!! Guided By Voices, Sleigh Bells, Cotton Jones, Local Natives, it goes on and on and on.

The last time Jukebox the Ghost was in Denver, singers Tommy and Ben both lost their voices for a spell. The vocal cords held out fine this time, and their sound was polished.

This is a band that's built themselves a rep for sunny, bubbly melodies (they even have a blog devoted to gum, fwiw) even if the lyrics aren't always that way. They pull songwriting ideas from lots of influences. And how many guitarists do you know who sing arpeggios for the mic check? Hooray for Earth, which was one of the openers, jumped on stage to play tambourine, shakers and a few keyboard lines for Jukebox's cover of The Cure's "Close to Me." (In their own set, Hooray for Earth had a few glitches with their synth and robots but still did fine.) Jukebox the Ghost played 3 encores, finishing with a cover of "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis. (They previewed it by saying, "We're going to take you back to 1994. Most of you probably heard this in the dentist office." That prompted one audience member to say, "That's the year I was born!")

Rufus in Denver

It was a family affair at the Ogden when Rufus Wainwright played there Tuesday night.

His sis Martha opened. Martha charmed the audience with little chatter in between songs. She said it's good touring with Rufus, because he writes a lot. "I feel envious and guilty," she said. The songs she sang included "Black Sheep Lodge" and she also sang one sang a cappella without the mic.

For Rufus, it was a performance in two acts. Part One was more art piece, Part Two traditional concert. For the first part, the audience was told not to clap at all until Wainwright had left the stage. He entered slowly wearing a dark cape on a dark stage and sat at his piano with a big screen behind him continually showing images of slow-blinking, dark eye-shadowed eyes. The first act included slow, melancholy melodies like "Zebulon," with others like the lively "Give Me What I Want and Give it to Me Now" punching things up. Wainwright is an intriguing songwriter, with layered piano melodies underlying the long notes he likes to have himself sing over them. It'd be interesting to hear a classical artist interpret them.

Anyway, in the second act, his playful spirit was back on display. He came out in a bright orange patterned suit and white shoes. He joked with the audience, saying Colorado seems to be the place where people who are really , really poor or really, really rich seem to come to drop out. ("I've done the drive from Denver to Aspen," he said. "That's the whole spectrum of dropouts") Songs in the second half, after an intermission, included his version of "Hallelujah" (Martha sang it with him as a duet)

He left off with "Poses," and "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," and a song his late mother, Kate McGarrigle, wrote about his parents' courtship

Sting @ Red Rocks :: April Smith and The Great Picture Show @ the Larimer Lounge

April Smith and The Great Picture Show showed up at the Larimer Lounge last night. Rollicking, moxie, spunk, are words that come to mind. April belted out tunes about not thinking about an ex, keeping a rival away from her man, and good ol' trouble. She got the crowd into it, telling stories, dancing on stage, clapping and keeping the energy up, up, up. Everyone in The Great Picture Show can improvise and throw down, from the stand up bass to drums to guitar to the accordion/keyboard/etc, etc man. All on a night when Sting was playing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Red Rocks.

Music notes

Been listening to new music by Achille Lauro, and boy, the song "Summertime" sounds so gorgeous. "Sandra" is all right too. Their record release party is April 10 at the Hi-Dive.

By the way, Pee-lander Z is back in town and playing at the Larimer Lounge tonight, 3/31. $8.

The Flobots are playing on Saturday, 4/3, at the Colorado Rapids' home opener. Game time is 2 p.m.

Best of Bonnaroo, FREE

Head to www.musicforaction.org, write to your member of Congress about climate change and download music from artists like Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Pearl Jam, Raphael Saadiq, Dave Matthews and others for free. You don't have to do anything at all if you just want the free music, but of course, they would like you to make your voice heard.

Langhorne Slim

All right. So Langhorne Slim didn't make it out to Denver last time because of snow. Will it happen again??? Langhorne Slim is slated to play Wednesday night, 2/10, at the Hi-Dive. Here's hoping it happens this time.

Matt Morris :: album debut

Matt Morris got a taste of show biz as a kid when he tried out in a Denver-area audition for a new version of the Mickey Mouse Club. There were about 800 kids who showed up, and by the end of the day there were just eight. And after singing "Wind Beneath My Wings," (a song his dad Gary Morris had recorded as a country musician) Morris was among those left. He ended up being on the show with the likes of Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

Today, Morris' album "When Everything Breaks Open" is debuting on Timberlake's record label, Tennman Records. He and his band will be on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Friday, the CBS morning show the next day and then on Ellen on Tuesday.



Morris had kept in touch with his MMC co-stars as their careers went "astronomical," and he has written with Aguilera and Timberlake before. About five years ago, Timberlake mentioned he wanted to start a record label and sign Morris to it.

"Sure, thank you!" Morris remembers thinking. "It was a really generous thing."

Til then, Morris had been going the indie route. Unlike his co-stars, Morris took a break from show biz after MMC to be a regular teen, go to high school, sing in high school musicals. Rather than pursue a big contract, he spent time between his junior and senior year volunteering in Paraguay. "It's sort of the opposite of celebrity life. It's not about the glorification of you. It's about the betterment of others," he said. You might have seen him playing in coffee shops or The Walnut Room.

He planned to go to CU Boulder _ it was the only place he applied _ until he got a look at a syllabus and realized there wasn't much he wanted to do. On a whim, he applied to Belmont in Nashville and got in and called home to say he was moving. He says that's where he went through great change musically.

"When Everything Breaks Open" (produced by guitar great Charlie Sexton and Timberlake) has a breadth of styles, but we think Morris is at his best on the quieter arrangements where you can focus on his trembling vibrato, insightful lyrics and smooth voice.

Tennman head Ken Komisar says Morris came to the table with songs, then he, Timberlake, Sexton and others would work musically together to flesh them out. Here's a rundown of some of the songs on the album:

1. Don't You Dare :: Can't believe this is the first song on the album. Sounds overproduced, but if you like Maroon 5, maybe you'd still like this. The songs get better from here.
2. Money :: This should've been the first song, but maybe they didn't want to make people think too much of Timberlake on Morris' album right away. The song opens with sax, trumpet and trombone alone, to voices, then acoustic guitar. Timberlake does background vocals. It's a rhythmic groove, smart lyrics, not a lot of distractions
3. Love :: Some reggae influences here. Written shortly after Morris met his now-husband. Morris plays guitar and piano on this. Edie Brickell sings backing vocals
4. Bloodline :: A beautiful storytelling piece with strings and Patty Griffin doing background vocals
5. Live Forever :: Produced by Timberlake. Nice anthem
6. The Un-American :: If it were a drawing, it'd be a political cartoon
7. Let It Go :: A pleading ballad, just Morris and the piano. The strings envelope him later. He has such a full tone in the upper notes. Beautiful.
8. You Do It For Me :: Funk to spare. Plugged-in block party song
9. Just Before the Morning :: Inspired / reworked from an ambient song guitarist Dave Preston (now in Morris' band) recorded into a song with separate melody and lyrics.
10. In This House :: Thoughts about materialism and what really matters
11. Forgiveness :: Timberlake adds vocals again. The drums, guitars, loops add a lot of musical layers. Not a religious song per se, but more spiritual tones in the lyrics
12. Someone to Love You :: The album finishes with heavier fare.
13. Eternity :: This one tells a story, takes you on a journey.
**Bonus: 100,000 Strong

And that's it. Kind of makes you wonder what's next in the Matt Morris story, doesn't it?

Morris played recently in Boulder to open for the Flobots. As for Denver bands, Morris is digging Houses and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake.

He's playing in NYC tonight. More touring to come.

Merry Christmas!

(photo from Colorado Ski Country)

And after Christmas ... on Dec. 26, go to the Marquis (20th and Larimer) for an all-acoustic show with the Meese brothers, Chris from Epilogues, Randy from the Heyday and Danielle Ate the Sandwich. $5. 8 p.m. (all ages)

WOXY.com moving to Austin

WOXY.com just announced this morning that it's leaving Cincinnati. It will start broadcasting from Austin, Texas, in September. They say the move will let them take advantage of all the bands that roll through town and broadcast more live Lounge Act sessions. More from Cincinnati Enquirer

Friday in Denver: classical by day, rock at night

The Colorado Symphony is performing works from four emerging composers at a FREE concert Friday, 7/17, at Boettcher Concert Hall, 10 a.m.

Then at night, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit plays at the Larimer Lounge for $16. Isbell is formerly of Drive-By Truckers.

Paper Bird (album release and a FREE show)

Paper Bird release their EP tonight, 6/24, at the Hi-Dive! Fun starts at 9 p.m. $10

If you can't make it, they're going to be playing this Friday, 6/26, at Twist and Shout for FREE. The performance will be recorded too.