Category: Denver Threads

News, reviews, interviews, specifically about local Denver bands, any genre

Who’s Playing What Where? Accordion Babes, Mancub and The Tubes (Yes – The Tubes)
July 8, 2011 Off

Who’s Playing What Where? Accordion Babes, Mancub and The Tubes (Yes – The Tubes)

By Billy Thieme

Hell – we’d give up our tickets for the aforementioned shows for these, if the economy didn’t already make us feel like grade-H junkies (when are you gonna get the chance to see The Tubes again, right?)

Best Bet – Accordion Babes, Sunday night, July 10, at the Lion’s Lair (2022 E. Colfax, Denver – Thanks to Amber Lee Baker and Renée de la Prade – known together on this tour as The Accordion Babes – these once pernicious precursors to the keytar are inching ever closer to private & sultry boudoir serenades than adolescent living room talent shows.

— ••• —

Saturday – Mancub, Flashlights and Mercuria and the Gemstars – Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver

Flashlights, one of Denver’s newer, light-up electro-pop numbers, just got signed wicked fast to a record deal, and just released a new EP last month, but they still remember their base. So they’re opening a show for some local scene-mates, Mancub, at the Hi-Dive Saturday night. Mancub is a duo that’s building a reputation for using lo-fi electronics and hands-on passion to make a kind of electro-shoegaze combination. Worth taking in, if only to see their dexterity and sound combo skills. Plus, lights from both bands should make everyone feel a little bit interplanetary.

New Threads – Inactivists release “The War on Jazz Hands” to a hungry public at the Walnut Room
April 1, 2011 Off

New Threads – Inactivists release “The War on Jazz Hands” to a hungry public at the Walnut Room

By Billy Thieme

If there’s one thing we need less of in this world, it’s got to be those annoying flapping fingers at the end of swirling hands, and a more worthy cause for war probably doesn’t currently exist. And yet, as a country, we’re dang near broke. But I already digress . . .

This sentiment comes from the title of The Inactivists’ latest record, “The War On Jazz Hands.” The Denver band remains one of the local scene’s hidden treasures, and the title’s an adroit summation of their personality and style: playful like They Might Be Giants with an adult humor that hovers around that of Ween, but remains more explicitly juvenile. And yet, they’re always musically complex, diverse and accomplished, in the only way that would ever allow a true theremin artist – in this case the accomplished and extremely talented Victoria Lundy – to fit in.

Live Thread – Erik Husman @ the Walnut Room, Thursday, March 24, 2011
March 29, 2011 Off

Live Thread – Erik Husman @ the Walnut Room, Thursday, March 24, 2011

By Billy Thieme

The Walnut Room provided the perfect flavor of intimacy and concrete last Thursday night to encompass – enthrone – the recording of a local fledgling artist’s second album. The 50-some people gathered to watch and listen to Golden’s Erik Husman were treated to a mix between Merle Haggard and a Pete Seeger that spent more of his life on the rails than in protest. Husman, suffering from a cold that caused between-song hacks, sniffles and a dry-throated rasp, nevertheless marched all of us through two sets of some emotive, lively tunes, most of which were original.

And that crowd loved every one.

Golden’s Erik Husman records sophomore effort @TheWalnutRoom Thursday night
March 22, 2011 Off

Golden’s Erik Husman records sophomore effort @TheWalnutRoom Thursday night

By Billy Thieme

One of the more popular new trends lately has been a band’s live rendition of an influential record from their past. It’s a pretty cool thing, too, to see bands like Pixies play albums we all grew up listening to, live, in their entirety.

It’s not often, though, that we get to share the stage with the performers to help create a recording that just might become one that everyone remembers years from now. This Thursday, local troubadour Erik Husman and the Walnut Room are offering just that opportunity. Husman, a brand-spanking new addition to the scene, out of the city of Golden – will be playing a set of all new material that night, and recording the entire affair, and will produce the result as his second release.

“I’m kind of freaking out, really,” said an almost giddy Husman when I sat across from him in a Golden bar recently. “It’s not like preparing for a gig. I’ve got to do about 180 hours of studio performance [about the time it took to record his first album] free-form, live, in one take. There’s no going back,” he added. “But it’ll be the most genuine thing, the only way to capture the real me.”

Husman’s style ranges from rough spirituals and anthems that recall Woodie Guthry and Pete Seeger with heavy influence from classic country, to a solid indie feel with a little more more than a nod to the Radiohead crowd.

What/Where This Weekend? The “Love Project” debuts, and Sunder plays at the Larimer Lounge
February 11, 2011 Off

What/Where This Weekend? The “Love Project” debuts, and Sunder plays at the Larimer Lounge

By Billy Thieme

This weekend’s one night stand will feature some photos from the “My Life” project, but is focused on “The Love Project.” As the Denver Post’s John Moore reported recently, “The Love Project” came out of De Giovanni’s deep desire to “… figure out how to recognize real love,” as a result of her last breakup. The methodology of each shoot is to open the shutter quickly, again and again and again, for one minute, and one minute only, as the couple in question attempts to show her their love. One and only one photograph is chosen to represent the couple, and becomes a vision of their connection.

Strings & Wood, local music and art non-profit, throws a 2-year anniversary tonight at the Oriental
February 4, 2011 Off

Strings & Wood, local music and art non-profit, throws a 2-year anniversary tonight at the Oriental

By Billy Thieme

If you’re unfamiliar with Strings & Wood Concerts, and your tastes run towards the more melodic and folksier side of acoustic rock, this weekend may be the perfect opportunity for you to get to know the local promoter and community advocate. Strings & Wood is celebrating their second anniversary in business with a concert and benefit that features a stellar lineup of local solo artists and musicians at the venerable Oriental Theater (44th and Tennyson in NW Denver) on Friday night, February 4th. The show will feature some of Colorado’s best acoustic and vocal bands, singer/songwriters and collaborations, as well as visual and design artists, silent auctions and even a professional on site massage therapist.

Founded by – and still run by – local professional photographer Art Heffron, Strings & Wood Concerts’ non-profit mission, according to their bio, is to promote “… live music, visual arts and social justice in the local Denver community.”
“Strings & Wood produces intimate, living-room style concerts at Denver’s top venues while striving to support the featured artists. Musicians take home 90% of the total ticket sales and 100% of merchandise sales. . .”

New Music Threads – Local heroes Veronica & The Raven & The Writing Desk offer up fun and surreal tunes, and live shows to fill your holiday nights
November 28, 2010 Off

New Music Threads – Local heroes Veronica & The Raven & The Writing Desk offer up fun and surreal tunes, and live shows to fill your holiday nights

By Billy Thieme

Three veteran Denver artists, all previous members of bands that have long since passed into legendary status – and that enjoyed that status off and on during their active years as well – have pooled their talents and love of straight ahead punk/indie rock with a simple aesthetic and an indelible stripe of mischievous humor and made a record that just about everyone can fall in love with, and have loads of fun through all of its just over 30 minutes.

Ted Thacker and John Call – wicked guitarist and gigantic drummer, respectively, who both played in Baldo Rex in the ’90s – joined with Andrew Koch , formerly of Tiger Beat, on bass to finally record 12 songs, many of which have been mainstays for the trio’s sporadic shows over recent years, and have released it independently. The title is apropos, as they’ve all three been immersed in the ephemera of becoming while the band has frequently taken a back seat. But, thanks to their dedication (and maybe a little help from the gods of awesome rock), the album has finally come together – and it’s worth every week of the time it took.

The debut from Denver band The Raven and The Writing Desk, “Recidivist,” took time to grow on me – but I’m glad I let it. On first listen I thought the record’s 8 songs would have some trouble floating out of a typical too-folky, hip and indie vibe – something Denver has plenty of, and too much of it is depressingly average. After setting the collection aside for a while, though, I found myself haunted by some of the music’s undercurrents, and succumbed to further exploration. Good thing, because the record has grown on me after delving further in and, though it still suffers at times in the way most freshman efforts do, I’m intrigued, more satisfied, and look forward to watching them grow in Denver.

Gangcharger and Smoothbore – two Denver bands release new tunes, noise in a new direction
October 17, 2010 Off

Gangcharger and Smoothbore – two Denver bands release new tunes, noise in a new direction

By Billy Thieme

There aren’t too many bands that can withstand an entire personnel change and keep going. There are even less that come back stronger for it – but Gangcharger is one that has. Ethan Ward’s love child – with huge emphasis on the love – has not only rebounded after being abandoned by virtually every member of the band over the course of late 2009, he’s driven the rebuilt band beyond anyone’s expectations, maybe beyond his own – and definitely miles beyond the previous lineup’s promise – with their latest release, “Free Exhaust.”