Author: goat

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.  It’s the middle of my busiest season of the year with multiple events happening at an almost daily rate.  I’m working on a home remodel so I can move my 75 year old Mom in with us this September.  This coming weekend I’m on a radio promotion panel at the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (DPUMS).  And, I’m also interviewing for one job that I applied for, and am likely to be considered for another that just opened up.  Both, yes, are in radio – you didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easily did you?  LOL.

I also got new music this week I cannot blog about nor air on my show, as the band wants me to wait until they have some units in their hand to sell; so I figure another couple of weeks on the new Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams called Sinners & Saints — not to be confused with the wonderful new Mollie O’Brien/Rich Moore release called Saints & Sinners.

This is a pretty packed MMMM (Monday morning music meeting).  There were a lot of new adds this past week.  So it’s broken down into the top three featured releases, and a montage of tracks from some others….  enjoy.

Paper Bird – When the River Took Flight (self)Genre/Style: americana, folk
Website: paperbirdband.com
Notes: Paper Bird inexplicably re-recorded and/or remastered a number of songs from their last release, including a more radio friendly (they got rid of the FCC non-compliant language) version of Colorado.  Also included are new versions of Lost Boys, Dead as a Dead Man’s Bones, and Lullaby, all from the ep A Sky Underground. The new material follows the same general musical themes, with perhaps a bit more bluegrass influence, as evidenced by the samples employed.  From their website:  Their rare and beautiful approach to music led them to be featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and they were voted in the Top 10 Best Underground Bands by Denver Post two years in a row, as well as 5280’s Top of the Town 2009 “Top Local Band”. In the last year they have played Red Rocks Amphitheater to an audience of over 8000 people and have shared the stage with Devotchka, Judy Collins, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Glen Campbell, and Big Head Todd & the Monsters. Their haunting and authentic sound is a refreshing and breathtaking blend of folk, jazz, bluegrass and rhythm and blues.

Mandy Harvey – Smile (M/H Records)Genre/Style: jazz, vocals, adult standards
Website: www.mandyharveymusic.com
Notes: WOW!  Okay, it’s hard enough to sing well when you have all your physical parts in tact.  What do you do when one of them, one of the most important of them, diminishes or disappears on you – as is the case with 22 year old Mandy Harvey who lost her hearing when she was 19.  From Mandy’s bio on her website:

This CD is also an expression of hope. Nearly three years ago, Mandy experienced an unexpected and profound hearing loss. Though legally deaf, she continues to sing. You will hear the music of her heart…and it will make you smile.  Mandy lives in Northern Colorado and is a regular performer at Jay’s Bistro in Fort Collins. Her love for music and singing has been years in the making. She was selected as the top female vocalist of her high school and entered the Music Education program at Colorado State University. During her freshman year she lost her hearing and left the university.  While her dream of becoming a music teacher has died, the music is still alive and well within her. Though her hearing loss is profound (110 decibels in each ear) her timing, pitch and passion are perfect.

The guest players on this album have impeccable cred – Mark Sloniker (piano, co-producer), Erik Applegate (bass), Mark Raynes (percussion), Andrew Vogt (sax & clarinet)

Suggested tracks:  all of them.  Mandy tends to fare better on the slower material overall I think, but I wouldn’t pass on the uptempo numbers either.

I would definitely go to her website and read the JazzTimes review of Mandy’s work.  It’s worth the read, and might even choke you up a bit.  I know it did me.  Bravo young lady, bravo .. this is an exceptional work of art, regardless of who you are, or what you have to work with 🙂

Fuzzy Killing Machine – Enjoy & Destroy (Chair 8 Records)Genre/Style: rock, alternative
Website: www.myspace.com/fuzzykillingmachine
Notes: 3 piece band out of Durango.  Recording produced by Durango resident and legendary producer/engineer Ed Stasium (Living Color, Talking Heads, Ramones).  One of the strongest SOUNDING rock records of the year so far… with a producer like Stasium, how could it not be, right?

THE MONTAGE

Wovenhand – The Threshingfloor
Notes: David Eugene Edwards produces some of the most intriguing and interesting music in Colorado – a long way further down the dark corridors of his soul than what he did with 16Horsepower, which was pretty dark in its own right.

Mechanical Dan – Mechanical Dan
Notes: MD is a new band on the scene.  This is their debut.  The band channels some of the best of southern rock/blues.  RIYL Gov’t Mule, Widespread Panic, etc.

Bailey Stauffer & the Katy Janes — Bend or Break
Notes: produced, mixed & mastered by Jason Larson (Pig Pen Studio/Backbone Studio).  Baily Stauffer grew up in Loveland, Colorado.  In 2009 the band entered and won the Fort Collins Battle of the Bands, which was slightly surprising, quite flattering, and came with a prize — free recording time at Pigpen Studios with Jason Larson.  RIYL:  Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty

Elin Palmer – Postcard
Notes: From website – Elin has had the pleasure of working with a lot of acclaimed artists throughout the years, including 16 Horsepower, M. Ward, The Czars, Wovenhand, Basia Bulat, The Fray, and Kal Cahoone. She was also a core member and string arranger for Munly, in his former group Munly and The Lee Lewis Harlots. Elin often tours and plays for Eric Bachmann (of Archers of Loaf) in the band Crooked Fingers. She has performed arrangements by Tom Hagerman of Devotchka and toured with the band as a performing musician— including a May 19, ‘08 performance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Apples in Stereo “Dance Floor” from Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
Matt Morris “Live Forever” from When Everything Breaks Open (2010)
Ash Ganley “Ghost By Your Side” from Universe Acceptable (2010)
Wovenhand “The Threshingfloor” from The Threshingfloor (2010)
NEW – Baily Stauffer and the Katy Janes “Two Weeks From Yesterday” from Bend or Break (2010)
NEW – Jeff Brinkman “Inside This Room” from To the Bones (2010)
John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light “Thinking ’bout God” from Beautiful Empty (2010)
The Czars “Killjoy” from The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People (2001)
NEW – Mechanical Dan “Mississippi” from Mechanical Dan (2010)
Break Mechanics “Just Like Chocolate” from Break Mechanics (2004)
Heather Marie Philipp “Counting Stars” from Under the Apple (2008)
NEW The Dominant 7 & The Jazz Arts Messengers “Hop On, Buckle Up” from 14 Channels (2010)
Devotchka “Along the Way” from A Mad & Faithful Telling (2008)
Nathaniel Rateliff “Early Spring Till” from In Memory of Loss (2010)
Big Head Todd and the Monsters “Rocksteady” from Rocksteady (2010)
Jeff Finlin “East by West” from The Tao of Motor Oil (2010)
NEW Fuzzy Killing Machine “Forgiven” from Enjoy & Destroy (2010)
Bobby Walker “Pistol Packin’ Mama” from Way Back When (2010)
Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore “Losers” from Saints & Sinners (2010)
Julie & Andy Monley “My Castle’s Rockin’” from And You Could Be The Sun (2008)
NEW Paper Bird “Steady As” from When the River Took Flight (2010)
David Williams & the Wildgrass Band f/ Kristina Murray “Why Do Angels Get Wings” from The Crazy Kind (2010)
NEW Elin Palmer “Ballons” from Postcard (2010)
Soundrabbit “From the World I Have Known” from Tree Trunk Airplanes (2009)
Ninth + Lincoln Orchestra “Your Cent” from Ninth & Lincoln (2008)

Weird that we’re almost in the middle of July.  Hmmmm…. what have I been doing? Busy week for sure … lots of new stuff hitting the desk.  Have fun y’all … 🙂

Big Head Todd & the Monsters – Rocksteady (BIG)Genre/style: rock, funk, adult alternative
Recommended tracks: Rocksteady, Beautiful, Happiness Is…, Smokestack Lightening, Beast of Burden
Notes: ok, so what gives with “Big Head” Todd Park Mohr lately?  Is he like totally schizo or what?  Todd has taken to changing his noticeable influences not just every album, as he’s done for at least the last three now, but now changes mid-stride in the middle of an album.  This past December, keyboardist Jeremy Lawton sends me a dl for the single, Smokestack Lightening (sample #1, track #7).  I’m like shocked … this is BHTM???  This sounds like it crawled out of the belly of the wolf himself.  Then a couple of months ago all of us in radio got the “single” from the new album, Beautiful (sample #2, track #2).  Okay – this is cool.  Not like anything really I’ve heard from the band over the years, and it is a bit “soft,” but it works … folks are diggin’ it … and then I get the album yesterday and come across the title track “Rocksteady” (sample #3, track #1) and “Happiness Is…” (sample #4, track #5), both of which show a funky side to Todd I cannot recall hearing over the past two decades.  Todd’s time in Chi-town has infused him with more than just a bit of that city’s sense of the blues.  There’s a playful soul thing going on here (cool horns btw) that I can’t recall hearing in previous efforts, and is considerably more refined and tasty than a lot of the the classic blues-rock sounding records I do recall.    Oh … and that cover of the Rolling Stones “Beast of Burden” (not sampled) is pretty tasty too 🙂

Jeff Finlin – The Tao of Motor Oil (Bent Wheel)Genre/style: rock, alternative adult contemporary, singer/songwriter
Notes: I have no idea what more can or should be said about Jeff’s work.  He says of the new album, Tao of Motor Oil, that it is a “foray into the mystical experiences of life, itself.”  Jeff’s unique voice and phrasing highlight the journey.  He’s also one hellova producer.

Emily Hurd – Daytime Fireflies (self)Genre/style: alternative adult contemporary
Notes: ok, I’m fessing up that I know very little about Emily other than from her website and the fact that her brother (?) Michael Schenkelberg said she’s moving to Denver (pretty much the same as FoCo gal Lindsey O’Brien, another Chi-town native).  Gotta say, the record has captured my ear.

Jeff Brinkman – To The Bones (Devonshire Records)Genre/style: alternative adult contemporary, singer-songwriter
Notes: Jeff is becoming a popular local out of the Longmont/Lyons area.  If you’re a fan of Dave Matthews and Counting Crows, no doubt you’ll find something here you’ll like also.  A very solid debut record.