Tag: denverthread

Ready for the UMS? Check out these Haiku pointers – to help you make the most of it!
July 22, 2010 Off

Ready for the UMS? Check out these Haiku pointers – to help you make the most of it!

By Billy Thieme

Denver, The UMS, Day 1, Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 –

It’s come around again. The UMS – Denver’s pinnacle celebration of the local music scene – is upon us, and this year, the festival’s tenth anniversary, this beast has grown, nearly to the point of bursting. Four days, over 20 venues, and over 300 bands, comedians, burlesque and other performance artists (are you a fan of Lucha Libre? Then plan to spend Saturday & Sunday afternoon on South Broadway!) – it boggles the mind!

And yet, this is the sound of our town, and it’s just down the street – and some of it’s even FREE! Denver’s scene has grown with at least the same fury as the UMS over the past ten years, branching out from almost every genre, weaving in and out of each other like trade winds and crosscurrents, and creating new ones along the way.

So how do you decide who to see, after all? Over 300 bands, playing over 4 nights, means . . . something like 75 options per night (not that they’re all split up that way, of course). Without cloning, your chances to see everything is nil. . . Click through to see some suggestions to help you make up your mind!

New Threads: New tunes from Gypsy Nomads, Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js and Deadbubbles
June 1, 2010 Off

New Threads: New tunes from Gypsy Nomads, Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js and Deadbubbles

By Billy Thieme

The summer music overflow has begun, and Denver looks to be deluged with a constant influx, through-flux and home-spun-flux of music for the season, both live and recorded. Upstate New York’s Gypsy Nomads have released a new collection of twelve songs laced with oodles of magic – of both the cabaret/vaudeville and faerie ilk – that will have even the driest of cynics swaying, maybe even singing along, to the duo’s French medieval folk meets West-Mass punk instrumentation. Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js recently released a live recording of a show at the Tomichi Tavern in Gunnison, CO that captures the bands’ sonic mayhem and should whet any aficionado’s roots appetite. Among other projects – which include a tribute album (currently in the works) and hosting the legendary Hugh Cornwell (frontman of the seminal British punk band Stranglers) in a truly exclusive show recently – Deadbubbles recently produced the “24 Hr. Nemesis” EP, a collection of early ambient recordings featuring White and current guitarist Paul Humphrey.

Murder Ranks plays a fantastic fun brand of dancehall and hard dub, welcomes the highly anticipated return of Denver’s beloved Warlock Pinchers
May 25, 2010 Off

Murder Ranks plays a fantastic fun brand of dancehall and hard dub, welcomes the highly anticipated return of Denver’s beloved Warlock Pinchers

By Billy Thieme

Legendary front range provocateurs and pranksters Warlock Pinchers are getting back together for a show in August, and they’re determined to cash in on the nationwide – worldwide – “remake trend.” Of course, unlike much (most? all?) of the other remake grout that’s been piling up in our entertainment culture for lack of bricks, these guys promise to offer premium, relevant and fun entertainment, chock full of their characteristic DIY, punk rock/hip hop/scramble-wave hybrid mayhem.

Odds are they’ll be among the few projects that will deliver – and deliver over and above. And there will be plenty of merchandise to boot.

The show, scheduled for August 6th at the Gothic Theatre, promises to hold numerous surprises – from airborne meat (likely as not raw) to go-go dancers to cellophane-wrapped band members, in the vein of past extravaganzas. Those legendary shows featured shenanigans like all of the above, as well as various liquids and solids being dumped, sprayed or otherwise unleashed upon their audiences – all in front of pre-recorded (on cassette!) drums and live bass, guitars, screeching, rapping and scratching. In a word, unpredictable. In another word, unmatched – maybe unmatchable. This time, though, all instruments will be live, as the band has taken on Melvins drummer Dale Crover up on a decades-old offer to play with them.

Live DenverThread Review: Ideal Fathers with Solar Bear, St. Elias at Hi-Dive, 04/29/10
May 3, 2010 Off

Live DenverThread Review: Ideal Fathers with Solar Bear, St. Elias at Hi-Dive, 04/29/10

By Billy Thieme

This part of the Denver scene continues to grow in both band members and fans, and the Hi-Dive hosted an all-local, all noisy and all fun lineup that showcased some of them last Thursday night. Including Solar Bear, Ideal Fathers, St Elias and Colors, it attracted a more than modest crowd, and kept the fans fascinated – often dancing to some metal-dipped prog-rock and post punk.
Solar Bear and St. Elias bookended Ideal Fathers’ set with a somewhat similar vibe based in different sub genres of prog, which actually made the latter band’s style stand out. Not that the two are clones – to the contrary.

Who’s Playin’ What, Where? This Week – Katy Taylor, Salesman, Ideal Fathers
April 23, 2010 Off

Who’s Playin’ What, Where? This Week – Katy Taylor, Salesman, Ideal Fathers

By Billy Thieme

With a beautiful, lilting voice delivering delicate and passionate songs that recall a younger, more relaxed Suzanne Vega, local troubadour Katy Taylor will be gracing Trios Enoteca this Friday night, to accompany the restaurant’s well-made cocktails, beers, wines and foods. Taylor fits well in the smooth, low-lit atmosphere of Trios – though she would also fit impeccably in a larger venue – with her powerful, folky compositions and accomplished acoustic guitar.

Threading the Scene with Denver City Saltlicks – The DenverThread Interview
April 15, 2010 Off

Threading the Scene with Denver City Saltlicks – The DenverThread Interview

By Billy Thieme

Denver City Saltlicks – or DCS – pack a musical punch with tunes that explode out of their private backwoods still and into your face with the force of a moonshine firehose. As it finds its way down your throat, it burns with a feeling like it’s removing most of the smooth lining, and then sits inside, warming while it generates a small nuclear reaction that powers unstoppable hips, cheeks and ankles. I defy you to avoid dancing next time you see them live, without suppressing an inevitable and overwhelming full body twitch fit.

The four-piece, currently fronted by ‘Bama Slim and Cate Hate, a brother and sister team that covers vocals, ukelele, washboard and the “Blue Spruce” Johnson (look below for more on this fabulous home-grown piece of music history) and joined by bassist George Wilson and Bullseye Dray, the drummer, can just as easily croon any packed bar into a teary singalong with vocal stylings akin to a duette between a young Elvis and a punkier, grittier Supremes’ Diana Ross. And they fill in the spaces everywhere in between with solid delta blues, smoking surf guitar and frenzied, scathing punk rock – it all depends on their mood, and possibly the heat in the room at the time.

Thoughts on Malcolm, with a resounding R.I.P. . . . .
April 9, 2010 Off

Thoughts on Malcolm, with a resounding R.I.P. . . . .

By Billy Thieme

Malcom McLaren died this week, and judging by many comments on Facebook, there seem to be many folks that are much less than mournful. In fact, some seem jaded to a level at which they feel the need to express their dis-ease with being the least bit affected by this monumental swindler’s passing, in very cavalier – even snide – ways. This is funny to me – strange, and strangely typical – that “jadesters” would be so judgmental, so quickly, and with such bravado in large measure.

I have to call bullshit on their attitudes – or at least their cavalier comments – and cite the place McLaren occupies in rock history in his defense.