Author: Billy Thieme

Aging punk rocker with a deep of all things musical and artistic, enough to remain constantly young and perpetually mystified. Billy has journalistic dreams, but of a decidedly pastoral, Scottish nature.
Threading The Scene: The Inactivists spread their love straight into the heart of Denver
January 25, 2010 Off

Threading The Scene: The Inactivists spread their love straight into the heart of Denver

By Billy Thieme

I’ve been introduced to the perfect collection of songs to commemorate the “holiday,” complete with the appropriate level of irony, humor and lovelorn misgivings in The inactivists’ “Love Songs & Other Songs About Love,” released last year. So much more than merely a pile of rosy, soap opera schmaltz, this record, through The Inactivists’ sharp wit and sense of humor, represents probably the most honest revelation of love from the eyes of a constantly unrequited nerd (and let’s face it, all of us have been that, at one time or another), played by a band of Muppets that landed a daily gig in a bar inside David Lynch’s cranium.

The five piece plays an eclectic style of pop that defies any one genre, and deifies many. Sometimes it’s funk from Sly & the Family Stone – albeit often with an overwhelming flavor of Morris Day & The Time – and sometimes it’s arty rock from bands like King Crimson, or sick and flirty forays into psychedelia that rival Butthole Surfers’ wildest.

Music News: Michael Gira announces plans to reactivate Swans in the Fall
January 21, 2010 Off

Music News: Michael Gira announces plans to reactivate Swans in the Fall

By Billy Thieme

Michael Gira, founder of Young God Records and vocalist/visionary front for Angels of Light, used to live a somewhat louder existence. An existence replete with just as much musical and lyrical beauty as the Angels’ output of over the past decade, but one that was also terrifyingly violent, brutal, hostile and swathed in a noise that had not been heard before, and has (so far) not been heard again since it was silenced with the death of his first band, Swans.

And Gira has announced what was constantly up to now only seen as an impossibility: he’s decided to reactivate the legendary band, and will release a new collection of songs (tentatively) in the fall of 2010. Plans for touring are also reportedly in the works.

The Reverend Horton Heat @ the Boulder Theater, 01/15/10 – Reverb
January 21, 2010 Off

The Reverend Horton Heat @ the Boulder Theater, 01/15/10 – Reverb

By Billy Thieme

As far as psychobilly goes, you’re not likely to find a better practitioner than Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath and the rest of his legendary trio, the Reverend Horton Heat. The Texas group graced the Boulder Theater last Friday night in the middle of a multiple night tour in Colorado. Too bad the Boulder crowd didn’t completely wake up for the show!

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club @ the Bluebird Theater, 12/30/09 – Reverb
January 6, 2010 Off

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club @ the Bluebird Theater, 12/30/09 – Reverb

By Billy Thieme

Leave it to Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, who have put on one of Denver’s best live shows for more than a decade, to be the only band that could outdo their own reputation. That’s what happened last Wednesday at the Bluebird in the first of two New Year’s Eve celebratory shows. The six-piece not only proved their consummate showmanship, often sardonically tongue-in-cheek, but also a grasp of drama, playing as the cast of the classic cartoon Popeye. And they added some new tunes to their set — the first in more than three years.

Melt Banana @ the Bluebird Theater – 12/07/09 – Reverb
December 10, 2009 Off

Melt Banana @ the Bluebird Theater – 12/07/09 – Reverb

By Billy Thieme

For the first 25 minutes of their set at the Bluebird Theater Monday night,Melt Banana blasted the crowd with a melange of noise and darkness — pierced only by the members’ head-mounted lights — that felt like my imagination of shock therapy, without the benefit of that thick piece of rubber they shove in your mouth to keep you from biting through your tongue. Never have I been so impressed by the venue’s sound system, nor have I ever felt the need to don earplugs so badly. And yet I, along with the smallish, half-capacity (at best) crowd, loved every ear drum piercing minute of it. So much so that when the four piece settled into more accessible, 30- to 90-second pieces with recognizable rhythms and chords for the remainder of their set, we all seemed to miss the cacophony.