A few weeks ago, I helped dragged a table out into a bar parking lot on a lovely Sunday afternoon and interviewed last summer’s winners of Denver’s best alt-country band title, The Hollyfelds. They have a new EP coming out Friday, and they played at our Hillbilly Prom last weekend (oh wait, that was the Lurleens).
Feel free to jet on over to Gigbot.com and see what we had to talk about.
[photograph by my favorite Todd Roeth]
I saw These United States twice in Austin and their live set absolutely crackled with rough and rowdy energy. They are the perfect headliners for our First Annual Denver Hillbilly Prom this Friday night at the Hi-Dive. I am wearing a peach and white striped Gunne Sax/Jessica McClintock dress from the early ’80s and –of course– my cowboy boots.
Get Yourself Home (In Search of The Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous) – These United States
Y’all come out, and for those of you who can’t, check out this fabulous (deafening) performance from the Hype Machine/Music Slut SXSW Party last week:
Catch These United States on the road if you can, because their sets were packed full at SXSW:
Mar 25 @ The Sub (College of Santa Fe) Santa Fe, NM
Mar 26 @ Sundown Saloon Boulder, CO
Mar 27 @ Hi-Dive, w/ Lurleens Denver, CO
Mar 28 @ Pioneer Inn Nederland, CO
Mar 29 @ The Dusty Bookshelf Manhattan, KS
Mar 30 @ Slowdown Omaha, NE
Mar 31 @ The Nomad Minneapolis, MN
Apr 2 @ KRUI Live In-Studio Iowa City, IA
Apr 2 @ The Mill Iowa City, IA
Apr 3 @ The Hideout Chicago, IL
Apr 4 @ Founders Grand Rapids, MI
Apr 5 @ P.J.’s Lager House Detroit, MI
Apr 5 @ House Ann Arbor, MI
Apr 6 @ Village Idiot Maumee, OH
Apr 7 @ Scene Metrospace East Lansing, MI
Apr 8 @ Canal Street Tavern Dayton, OH
Apr 9 @ My Old Kentucky Blog live session Indianapolis, IN
Apr 9 @ Locals Only Indianapolis, IN
Apr 10 @ The Comet Cincinnati, OH
Apr 11 @ Transylvania University Lexington, KY
Apr 11 @ Al’s Bar Lexington, KY
Oct 20-24 @ CMJ Music Marathon New York, NY
[our fine poster designed by the fearsome Todd Roeth, in the back of our car somewhere between Texas and New Mexico last night. True story.]
Ben Nichols of Lucero has a gravelly, urgent voice full of hard wilderness. I cannot fully tell you how excited I am by the fact that his new solo album The Last Pale Light In The West is inspired by the Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian, which I coincidentally just started reading last week. McCarthy is one of my favorite authors, and Nichols has the chops to compose the perfect atmospheric soundtrack to his writing.
STREAM: The Last Pale Light In The West – Ben Nichols
The seven song “mini-LP” was recorded this past summer with Rick Steff (Cat Power, Lucero) and Todd Beene (Glossary), and will be released January 2009 via Liberty & Lament / The Rebel Group.
In full band news, the formidable Lucero [previous lavish Fuel/Friends love] has signed to Universal, and they’ll be heading into the studio to record music for their 6th studio LP at the end of 2008, which is scheduled for release in summer 2009.
[Top photo credit the fantastic Denver photographer Todd Roeth]
Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS is brought to you by Fuel/Friends LLC. Ownership of all audio and visual material displayed here remains with their creators and/or owners and is cited accordingly.. Illustrations by Luke Flowers. Design & Layout by Dayjob.
