Shakedown on a Saturday Night

I love Radio 1190. Even the times I don't care for what they are playing at the minute, I appreciate their eclectic, subjective, and what I reckon to be, truly honest selections. I dig that they play what they dig, not only what might sell some ads. However, as you know, listener supported radio still has to pay the bills.

So be a good listener and get to the Hi-Dive on Saturday night for Radio 1190's Local Shakedown Volume 3 compilation Benefit Show and you can shake your own self down to some of Denver's most fabulous talents. I can't wait to hear the haunting and adrenaline-inducing new songs Bad Luck City has been recording performed live on stage. The much talked of Overcasters will be there to dazzle with sounds and projections. And for goodness sake don't get there late or you'll miss the long-awaited return of live music from Cowboy Curse.

Only $6! And kids, you can come too. It's a 16+ show.

This ain't no Little Miss Sunshine

But it is a Denver band doing the film scoring thing.

I am really looking forward to hearing what Bad Luck City came up with for the what has to be some of the most elaborate and terrifying clay animation films I've ever seen.

Saturday 15 November 2008, 2:45 pm, I will be at the STARZ Film Center to see An Evening with Bruce Bickford. One of the films, CAS'L', runs as a silent film and will feature live musical scoring from Bad Luck City. Dark music--played in the dark.

If 2:45 pm is too early in the day for you, they'll do it all again on Sunday at 9:45 pm.

I may just go to both.

cd release: Blue Million Miles

Blue Million Miles cd release this Saturday 9 August 2008 at the Hi-Dive in Denver.

Each time I listen to Blue Million Miles, I appreciate them even more. One part dream-like, one part driving, they kind of creep into your memory and stick. And you're not sorry for the invasion. There are a few Denver bands I've actually felt relieved to find out they were definitely recording their songs, so no matter what happens, they'll always be there for another listen. Friday, I'll be in line to get my own copy of Blue Million Miles newest release, Of Building Walls. And as if that weren't enough reason to get to the show, the fabulously amazing Bad Luck City and consistently spectacular, The Overcasters, will both be playing too. I'd not miss it.

dpums 2008: a couple lists

Too tired to write in sentences. Mostly. So, lists:

Who I managed to see at least some, and in some cases, all of:

American Relay. Reverend Deadeye. Bad Weather California. Overcasters. Bad Luck City. Orangu-tones. Rachel Pollard. Jason Cain. Aaron Collins. Ellison Park, George Inai, Blue Light. Joseph Pope III. Andy Tanner. Married in Berdichev. Andrea Ball, Jen Korte, Jack Redell. Cowboy Curse. Hearts of Palm. Bela Karoli. Hot IQs. Porlolo. And a few others bits here and there walking up and down Broadway. I didn't get to listen to everything I wanted to hear, but I listened to all I was able.


Some of the worst parts:

People talking louder than Porlolo’s set in the Skylark,
then the jukebox starting up.
Sketchy sound systems.
House music playing at Blue Ice during Cowboy Curse,
and American idol on a wide screen TV.
Trying to see two bands at once.
Not trying to see two bands at once.
Leaving in the middle of a set.
Just missing someone you really wanted to see.
Griping about this stuff.
Blisters on feet.
Being hungry and thirsty.
The hot hot sun.
Sitting on the itchy grass.
Forgetting to bring earplugs for the kids.
Being overwhelmed and overtired.
Sweaty and over-packed Hi-Dive.

Some of the best parts:

I hate being packed in, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the show.
Friday night, appreciating what a great club the 3 Kings Tavern is.
The Overcasters and Bad Luck City back to back.
Not being able to stop smiling.
All those fabulous all-ages venues.
Being able to bring my kids Saturday.
My kids thanking me (so much) for taking them.
The people who stopped chatting and started listening to Porlolo.
Roger Green learning a Porlolo song on the stage,
and it still sounding amazing.
Cowboy Curse playing a great set in spite of the club.
Listening.
My daughter napping on a stack of carpets
Mellow singer/songwriter round sets.
Volunteering. Really.
Just the right-sized outdoor stage.
Nathaniel Rateliff pushing his gear around in a K-mart shopping cart.
Cold drinks.
Aaron Collins child-like-playful solo performance in Rock the Cradle.
Marching my children into the Skylark to hear Porlolo
and nobody stopping us.
Inviting people who don’t usually come out to the shows
and seeing them there.
So many creative and diversely talented folks doing their stuff.
Feeding my kids those yummy Sputnik french fries
one order sweet, one order white.)
Feeling the genuine and impossible-to-fabricate good-will vibe.
All the cool stuff I actually caught.
Realizing some festivals are not so bad.
And all this in Denver.

CD review: Bad Luck City - Adelaide (2008)

"I am stealth, I am secret, I've got a cover and I'm going to keep it."

So goes the line in Bad Luck City's song "Stealth." But it's hard to imagine this band's music really staying secret any more than one could imagine anybody staying seriously undercover "hunting ETs and chupacabras...by moonlight and candelabra."

Like many of the songs on the album, "Stealth" is serious and spooky, but balanced with a smart sense of humour, albeit something of a tragic sort of giggles. Light and dark take turns so deftly they almost seem the same thing. "Stealth" is about a self-proclaimed demon hunter, drink by drink and verse by verse, becoming more blurred as the story moves along until the demon and hunter blur into union. The layering of Hayley Helmerick's (Monofog) and Dameon Merkl's vocals brings a captivating and insidious execution to this song. But with no less than ten guaranteed FCC censor's heart attacks, this song won't be sailing the public airwaves.

From the slow and haunting melodies to the heart pumping, crescendo rising ones, every song on Adelaide is threaded with a delightful sort of creepiness. Weaving the line between recitative and ballad, the lyrics deliver stories of a longing stalker in "Suffer the Day," the forlorn "Widow Frances Colver," a regretful morning after "The Night Before" (a great cover of the Lee Hazlewood song) and the tragic tear-jerker end of a race horse "Distaff." All these, vignettes and snapshots of dark but lightly familiar characters and scenes. The music likewise, inseparably surrounds and carries the words. Even the artwork on the cover reflects Adelaide's setting of mysterious and dramatic places captured in a manner of playful yet elegant pencil-line accuracy.


With six people in the band not counting the additional vocalists and players of piano, trumpet and such on the recordings, you might think there'd be some unruly scrapping for attention and center spotlight. But no. Musical deference prevails. Pair that musical courtesy and talent with the remarkably clean mixing of sound and everything comes out sounding great.

Photo courtesy of Bad Luck City.
Album cover artwork designed by Jonathan Till.

Bad Luck City CD Release Show! This Friday!

Bad Luck City is rad
man, that sextet is cool
Radio 1190 loves Adelaide
and the Truth does too

Friday 29 February 2008
at the fabulous 3 Kings Tavern
with Monofog and Oblio Duo