Posts Tagged ‘Denver’

WOLF VAN ELFMAND – ” Heading To White Cloud “

Posted: March 1, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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If 2020 was a year for flexibility, then 2021 is the year where everyone will be showing off what they’ve been up to. Wolf van Elfmand has a head start — the author of the sweetly earnest tune “Flexible Cowboy Man” has his new album “All Blue”, to show for his quarantine pains. Van Elfmand is also from NYC, leaving cowboy yoga behind in Denver for whatever path awaits him here in the five boroughs. I talked the album up in last week’s podcast episode, but I wanted you all to get another listen to the bluesy “Way Down in Denver.”

While most of the album is comprised of sweet folksy blues, All Blue picks up when Van Elfmand is giving vent to a little spleen.

“This is the first full-length record that I wrote, produced and mixed. The conception of the album occurred when I started to learn how to sequence drum parts on my recording software. I was listening to artists like JJ Cale who frequently used drum machines and wanted to take a stab at it,” Van Elfmand . “At the onset of quarantine I had written a bunch of new songs in April. Without being able to play with other musicians, I wanted to find a project to give them life. This record is truly a product of 2020. While shacked up at a house in Northwest Michigan I spent the month of May recording the majority of the album. The bass parts and pedal steel were done remotely and the backing vocals were then added for a final touch. It’s a guitar-heavy album that lends itself more to a vibe than other lyric-centric stuff I’ve released.”

Indeed, the album is best experienced on a foggy day with a nice cup of tea: Van Elfmand’s hazy sadness truly captures those early days of spring 2020, and the solace we all continue to need.

Wolf van Elfmand writes songs and plays the guitar. His music explores genres within the Americana realm from finger-picking folk to alternative country to good ol’ fashioned rock & roll. As a solo artist and producer, Wolf’s albums contain different ensembles and players. With no touring in sight, Van Elfmand has plans to release some new music in 2021 so keep your eyes peeled and ears perked.

“All Blue” · Wolf Van Elfmand Released on: February 12th, 2021

ISADORA EDEN – ” All Night ” EP

Posted: February 10, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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With recording as basically the only medium in which to experience new rock bands these days, the full-throated belting and high energy antics which work on-stage aren’t always the way to tap into an audience’s feelings. The truth is, the opposite tactic does the trick. Today, from our homes, we seek connection, communion, and acknowledgement that all this isolation is hard. And giving into the gloom – even just for the length of one, intimately recorded EP – can be more of a cure than ignoring the darkness by pumping your fist.

“All Night” was fully recorded and produced in Loveland, Colorado, though Isadora Eden’s residential history includes New Orleans, Brooklyn and her current home, Denver. The soft elocution in her young, muted alto reflects this well-travelled soul; one who’s stories we believe regardless of how few words they contain or how many years they took to accrue. Together with co-writer/band-mate Sumner Erhard, Eden builds thoughtful musical structures and well-woven instrumental textures throughout.

All Night’s producer, mixer and mastering engineer Corey Coffman (Gleemer, Slow Caves, Corsicana) should be given due credit for framing Eden’s minimalistic, melodic exhilations with just the right amount of dramatic rock beauty. Like a shoegaze-y Soccer Mommy cloaked in timid sincerity, Eden’s voice offers sad solidarity to those who will listen, while she, Erhard and Coffman carry her shy messages on the shoulders of stately guitars, dignified drums and echoey atmosphere.

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Recording these sad songs with Corey & Sumner was so fun. I feel so lucky to work with such awesome & talented people and I’m so proud of these songs.

Released February 5th, 2021

lyrics: Isadora Eden
music: Isadora Eden & Sumner Erhard

CINDYGOD – ” EP 2 “

Posted: July 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Fire Talk is excited to announce the signing & new EP from Cindygod, the project which saw Gauntlet Hair’s Andy Rauworth and Craig Nice reuniting, are announcing their second effort, following their 2018 Demos EP, under the new name with EP2 out August 14th on the label. The lead single “Rhys” takes a darkly sinister route, with Rauworth’s ghostly vocals flickering between Nice’s driving rhythms, culminating in a potent post-punk-meets-new-wave warped reverie. “Rhys” establishes the new direction Cindygod are taking with confoundingly pummeling rhythms cut with oscillating riffs that lend a sonic unease to the lyrical unease at the heart of the first single. EP2 is full of familiar yet skewed sonics, simulacrums of dream pop sit atop menacing angular guitars while the occasional yelps from Rauworth agitate between dreamy synths. The sublimely idiosyncratic amalgam of genres on Cindygod’s EP2 points not only to how far the duo have come since disbanding Gauntlet Hair in 2013 but the new EP succinctly soundtracks our ongoing descent into a fully realized dystopia.

EP2 is the second EP from Cindygod the new project is due out July 10th 2020 on Fire Talk. Stereogum noted 2018’s EP1 filled with “new wave shimmers and hooks… a sort of ramshackle and scrappy charm.” The new EP doubles down on the hollowed-out saccharine sound of Rauworth’s recent work, while retaining glitchy agitated electronics that pierce together the best of dream pop, post-punk and indie nostalgia. Fans of Gauntlet Hair rejoice! Cindygod is an honest creative extension of some of those original ideas, a little darker & sinister around the edges.

Conveniently enough the only song available at this moment(“Rhys”) happens to be absolutely stellar, though if you’re lucky enough to have already heard “Not Right” you might agree that it combines the magic of “Simple” and “Top Bunk” into yet another banger from Andy and Craig. Impossible to pick a favourite track but then if you’re a longtime fan of Gauntlet Hair it’s a familiar and welcome problem to have. Demos B-Sides in due time?.

From Cindygod’s EP 2 Out August 14th on Fire Talk

MIDWIFE – ” Forever “

Posted: July 13, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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As Midwife, Denver-based multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston plays what she describes as “heaven metal,” or emotive music about devastation.  Johnston began developing the experimental pop project in 2015 while a resident of beloved Denver DIY space Rhinoceropolis. The venue/co-op started in the early aughts and nurtured local artists until 2016, when its doors were shuttered due to high tensions surrounding the safety of DIY spaces (not coincidentally following the horrific Ghost Ship fire in Oakland). Residents were displaced around Denver and artists like Midwife were forced to start over.

However, it was at Rhinoceropolis that Madeline became close with Colin Ward, an artistic confidant and friend to whom her new album, “Forever”, is dedicated. Madeline comments, “He was my roommate and was the embodiment of that place [Rhinoceropolis] in a lot of ways. We became really close friends there. I was always learning so much from him, about life and being an artist. He was an amazing teacher and friend to me.” When Ward passed away unexpectedly in 2018, she turned towards sound to express the indescribable feelings that partnered with her grief.

These mournful sounds ultimately developed into her new album, “Forever”. The 6-song LP is a latticework of soft focus guitars and precise melodies– anthems of light piercing through grey clouds of drone. On the track “C.R.F.W.,” we hear Colin Ward reading a poem that speaks of a leaf falling from a tree in autumn: “imagine the way a breeze feels against your leaf body while you finally don’t have to hold on anymore.” Johnston responds with slowly radiating tones, branches stretching out to hold the leaf one last time. “I wanted to write him a letter. I wanted to make something for him in his memory,” Madeline says of Forever.

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On Forever, Midwife combines ambient and dream pop into nuanced, reverb-soaked music that is equally haunting and moving

Released April 10th, 2020

Recorded by Madeline Johnston.
Additional instrumentation by Tucker Theodore, Randall Taylor, Jensen Keller & Caden Marches.

TENNIS – ” In The Morning I’ll Be Better “

Posted: March 12, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Despite the lyrical content reflecting the roller-coastering emotions of the past few years of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley’s lives together as a family and as a band, as dreamy as ever, sedating ’80s dance-pop with the neo-psychedelic tints of Beach House and Johnathan Rado. Each track on the record is as full of unique instrumental flourishes as it is harrowing tales of pain and recovery, never sounding the least bit derailed or psychologically overwhelmed.

In January 2018 we went on tour. After years of scraping by, we found our footing with our fourth record Yours Conditionally. It was a commercial success that set us up to to play the biggest rooms of our career. But three shows in, I developed a raging case of influenza. Each night I dragged myself onstage and croaked out the set in a delirium. After a particularly bad soundcheck, Patrick asked me if we should cancel the show. I couldn’t imagine giving up the thing we’d work so hard to achieve. “I’ll be on stage even if you have to mic my coffin,” I joked.
The next morning I fainted and had a seizure while grocery shopping for breakfast. Patrick carried me through the check-out lanes screaming for a doctor. I woke later in a hospital bed. Patrick leaned over me, crying. “That’s it,” he said. “I’m cancelling the tour. I thought you were dead. We’re quitting the band. I’m going to be an accountant.” But I was on the mend. We missed two shows and pressed on.

This is the story of deep-rooted companionship strengthened by pain and loss. These songs carried us through our grief. It is us at our most vulnerable, so we kept a small footprint, recording everything ourselves in our home studio. I set out to describe the love I have come to know after ten years of marriage, when you can no longer remember your life before that person, when the spark of early attraction has been replaced by a gravitational pull.
Band Members
Patrick Riley, Alaina Moore
Swimmer is available everywhere February 14th, 2020.

MIDWIFE – ” Anyone Can Play Guitar “

Posted: January 28, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Midwife. Photo credit: Alana Wool

As Midwife, Denver based multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston plays what she describes as “Heaven Metal,” or emotive music about devastation. Johnston began developing the experimental pop project in 2015 while a resident of beloved Denver DIY space Rhinoceropolis. The venue/co-op started in the early aughts and nurtured local artists until 2016, when its doors were shuttered due to high tensions surrounding the safety of DIY spaces (not coincidentally following the horrific Ghost Ship fire in Oakland).  Residents were displaced around Denver and artists like Midwife were forced to start over.

However, it was at Rhinoceropolis that Madeline became close with Colin Ward, an artistic confidant and friend to whom her new album, Forever, is dedicated.  Madeline comments, “He was my roommate and was the embodiment of that place [Rhinoceropolis] in a lot of ways. We became really close friends there. I was always learning so much from him, about life and being an artist. He was an amazing teacher and friend to me.”  When Ward passed away unexpectedly in 2018, she turned towards sound to express the indescribable feelings that partnered with her grief.

These mournful sounds ultimately developed into her new album, Forever.  The 6-song LP is a latticework of soft focus guitars and precise melodies– anthems of light piercing through gray clouds of drone. On the track “C.R.F.W.,” we hear Colin Ward reading a poem that speaks of a leaf falling from a tree in autumn: “imagine the way a breeze feels against your leaf body while you finally don’t have to hold on anymore.” Johnston responds with slowly radiating tones, branches stretching out to hold the leaf one last time.  “I wanted to write him a letter. I wanted to make something for him in his memory,” Madeline says of Forever.

On Forever, Midwife combines ambient and dream pop into nuanced, reverb-soaked music that is equally haunting and moving.  Look for the album to be in stores on April 10th via The Flenser and see Midwife performing at Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands following its release, as part of the Flenser 10 Year showcase.

“Forever” Out April 10th and released by The Flenser

WILDERMISS – ” Paralyzed “

Posted: September 29, 2019 in MUSIC
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Denver indie-pop quartet Wildermiss is dropping a new EP, In My Mind, November 1.

When the members of the popular Denver indie-pop outfit Wildermiss shot the video for “Paralyzed” earlier this summer, they called on their friends to take photos of themselves around downtown Denver.

But members also approached strangers on the street, and the video soon had a Spanish flight attendant and people visiting from Japan taking part. “It was cool to communicate with them just through trying to get their photo and tell them what it was for without really talking to them,” says vocalist Emma Cole. “It was really cool meeting all these people and kind of hearing a smidgen of their story, but also just catching them at that moment in Denver for a video.”

It’s not the first time Wildermiss has taken to the streets of Denver for a shoot. In the video for “Carry Your Heart,” the four lugged an old couch from location to location.

Thematically, the video ties into a lyric in the song, “Just another look in your eyes and I’m paralyzed.” The imagery comprises a series of black-and-white photographs that have been stitched together and give the appearance that the subjects are sitting still while the background shifts behind them. In a way, the subjects appear frozen in time, or perhaps paralyzed, because of the effect.

“We just thought it would be a fun way to present the lyric video,” guitarist Seth Beamer says. “Our goal was to get as many pairs of eyes as possible.”

Band Members
Emma Cole,
Joshua Hester,
Seth Beamer,
Caleb Thoemke

“Paralyzed” from the new EP “In My Mind” out everywhere 11.01.2019

The YAWPERS – ” Human Question “

Posted: April 8, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Yawpers fourth album delivers more great rock ‘n’ roll. The Denver trio The Yawpers are blazing a trail of roots rock brought bang up to date with balls and panache that gives one hope for the current state of American rock. It ain’t dead yet. On their last album – 2017’s Boy In A Well – they veered off left field to deliver a concept album set during the First World War, but on “Human Question”, their fourth, they deliver ten songs that, whilst having an over-arching theme of redemption, self-destructiveness, and the healing that can come from unity – be that in a band or society in general – is a ride filled with great songs that raise you up, smash you to the ground, and drag you to your feet again, until your ears feel like they’ve been in the aural equivalent of a mosh pit. These guys do tension and changes in tempo with real finesse.

Opening track “Child Of Mercy” sets the scene with its discordant intro. There is a Doors-like guitar hovering lightly over the dark rhythm. The vocals are shamanic, the lyrics full of street shaman smarts over a heavy, tight blues beat. The drums pound. The guitar gets dirty. There is a heavy bridge, the guitars slicing through like power tools, building up into an explosion of sounds ravaging the streets.

Dancing On My Knees is more heavy blues with a 60s rock beat. The drums pound out the message hitting the beats on the vocal punches. The background vocals are like police sirens and a devil’s chorus. The bass veers off into demonic deepness. The violent chaos is controlled, brought back into subtle rhythm and a bottleneck guitar shrieks and howls like an animal in pain at the side of the road. There is more control on Human Question, a 70’s psychedelic rock infused song, but it’s a control filled with tension. It is the beauty of desperation and it builds up layer by layer. Man As Ghost is Americana tinged with folk music and displays a more contemplative side to The Yawpers. This is music played on a porch, staring across at a mountain sheathed in clouds, wondering about life.

Next up, Earn Your Heaven, is a raw slab of Stooges like rock ‘n’ roll mayhem. The drums pound and pound and hold it all together as the guitars strew the studio with mayhem. Time to take a breath with Reason To Believe – a delta blues number that resonates like a memory from some dim remembered past. It is elegiac and full of spirit. Carry Me is a gorgeous, slow-burn of a song that fuses gospel, soul and rock that starts slow and mournful as the singer lays out his sins and builds up into full throttle rock voiced fervour as he begs for salvation. Stunning. Forgiveness Through Pain is fuzz boogie woogie with Led Zep influences to the fore. It’s dirty blues, heavy with salaciousness. Can’t Wait returns to the laid-back folk tinged Americana sound, with a lighter touch that feels like the sun emerging after a storm. Album closer Where The Winters End has a 50’s ballad opening, followed by jangly 60’s rock. It’s a haunting rock prayer that is a perfect, thoughtful end to a great album.

It’s not always easy to say why a band sounds the real deal but these guys do. Part of it is due to it being so effortless, as though rock runs through their blood and into their muscles and straight into the instruments. This is roots rock at its basic level but so much more with complex shades that are revealed on repeated plays – that’s if you can switch off from the physical response your body has to the visceral blues rock hybrid. It has everything a good rock album should – rock out tunes with violent energy, nuanced moments of folk and blues, thoughtful lyrics and band members who all complement each other, each taking a moment in the spotlight but always remaining a band.

Recommended for people who like real rock ‘n’ roll music.

PORLOLO – ” I Quit “

Posted: March 22, 2019 in MUSIC
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Porlolo aren’t quitting music or anything drastic, bandleader Erin Roberts has just done the far more sensible thing of ditching her day job and writing a song about it. The stand-alone single, “I Quit”, is the first new material since the Denver act’s 2018 album, Awards, with Erin also confirming work is underway on a brand new album for later this year.

Discussing the track, Erin has cited the influence of the 60’s pop on the track’s sound, with twanging guitar lines, doo-wop like vocals and strutting bass-line, adding a distinct girl-group swagger to Porlolo’s usual wide-screen country-rock vibe. The track was actually written prior to Erin walking out of her job, as she explains, “singing this song puts power back in my hands when the going gets rough. I’ve used it as mantra to sing repeatedly to myself when faced with tough situations. Dehumanizing bosses, turgid gatekeepers, class ceilings, blind eyes. Sometimes when there’s nothing nice left to say, you can just say ‘I QUIT’.” An anthem we’ve probably all been able to relate to at some point, thankfully seventeen years into a musical career Porlolo sound better than ever, and nowhere near ready to quit the important stuff.

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60’s inspired, dreamy but stick-it-to-ya track for everyone, everywhere that’s ever wanted to quit. When you don’t have anything nice left to say, say “I QUIT”.

LAST OF THE EASY RIDERS – ” Unto The Earth “

Posted: February 10, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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From high in the Rocky Mountains, Last of the Easy Riders descend with “Unto the Earth”, its new psych-infused country-rock long-player.

While the Easy Riders’ first outing exhibited the band’s kaleidoscope of trippy guitar sounds and production techniques, Unto the Earth unveils the band’s earnest songwriting chops and knack for genuine Bakersfield-Sound country. Though, the guys certainly didn’t abandon its lysergic-leanings, especially on the mind-warping title track – which also serves as the lead single.

With no shortage of jangly guitars, piano and pedal steel, the LP no doubt echoes Clarence White-era Byrds, but it doesn’t stray far from the band’s Southwestern-rock ‘n’ roll roots. The early-‘70s AM rock sounds of “Free Wheelin’,” the opening track, reverberates the band’s nomadic lyrical tendencies, while promptly setting up the sonic road trip Unto the Earth delivers. “Turn the Tide,” which closes Side A, melds brilliantly modest Tom Petty-esque guitar riffing with the Easy Riders’ signature vocal harmonies – which soar across both sides of the wax.
Being the first full-length for the band, the members – whom all share songwriting credits – were able to stretch out and laydown some lengthy and tastefully-stacked arrangements. From the fiery doors-esque jamming on “Woodland Echoes” to the ominous western guitar lines of “Shadow Cruiser,” numerous moods freely wander across the nine-song track list.

Last of the Easy Riders are 4 songwriters playing a mix of raw Midwestern treble and passionate deep-south rhythm and bass. Culminating in original High Country Folk Rock and Southwestern Psych.

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The band’s co-founder Christopher Minarik (guitar/backing vocals) is joined by the lineup heard on the LP is bassist/vocalist Dan Duggan, guitarist Bradley Grear and drummer Mitch Mitchum. Unto the Earth was recorded in March 2017 in Lansing, Michigan by producer/songwriter George Szegedy – who also offered up his own song for the disc, the twangy-and-wistful “It Won’t Be Long” After five months of mixing and fine-tuning, the Last of the Easy Riders were ready

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