Twist and Shout has asked some bands performing at the UMS to answer a few questions for us- check out these bands July21st-July24 at the UMS.
Lion Sized
Where and when are you playing at the UMS?
Lion Sized is playing on Sunday, 8pm at 3 Kings Tavern right after Eolian and right before Sins Desires Marie
Do you have your cd for sale at Twist and Shout?
You can pick up our latest EP 'Cough Up Your Teeth' and our split 7" w/ Accordion Crimes
How long has your band been together?
Circa 2006
What was the first album you purchased?
Mickey Mouse Disco (1979)
Besides your own band- who do you want to see at the UMS?
Tom Murphy
Best past UMS experience?
That one time that one guy did that thing that everyone thought was funny. That was awesome!
Do you have any tips for festival goers?
Hydrate and don't blow your wad till Sunday
What's the best food people can find on Broadway during the festival?
Sweet Action Ice Cream
If you were behind the counter at Twist and Shout, what three albums would you recommend to our customers?
Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique
Anything from Otis Redding
Hot Snakes Automatic Midnight
Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
We play a fast set that usually stars right on time. Don't blink.
Dan Craig
Where and when are you playing at the UMS?
6:45pm Sunday July 24th at the UNIMOG stage in the Goodwill parking lot
Do you have your cd for sale at Twist and Shout?
yes
How long has your band been together?
About 4 years
What was your band's first live show/ performance?
A moveable feast, at the Walnut Room in 2007 was the first show we played as most of the current lineup
What was the first album you purchased?
MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em
Do you have any (quick) advice for new bands?
Don't take yourselves too seriously
Besides your own band- who do you want to see at the UMS?
Ooh, many bands to see this year - Churchill, Fairchildren, Hollyfelds, Corey Teruya, Jessica Sonner, American Tomohawk, Gregory Isakov, Reviving Cecelia are on the list so far
Best past UMS experience?
I'd say playing guitar with Nathan and Stephen at the Mayan last year at midnight.
Do you have any tips for festival goers?
Go see at least 2 bands you've never heard of
What's the best food people can find on Broadway during the festival?
Well last year it was the Steuben's cart. Here's hoping they come back in 2011.
Who is your all time favorite Denver band?
too hard to choose
If you were behind the counter at Twist and Shout, what three albums would you recommend to our customers?
Jeff Buckley - Grace, Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago, and Joni Mitchell - Blue would make for a pretty beautiful afternoon.
Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
Just that UMS is something to appreciate that doesn't happen in every city. Denver is lucky to have such support from the post and to have a festival growing so quickly with such great energy.
The Raven and the Writing Desk
Where and when are you playing at the UMS?
Saturday July 23rd @ The South Broadway Christian Church 9 pm - we gonna shake that holy house!
Do you have your cd for sale at Twist and Shout?
Yarg!.... yes - 3 glorious copies
How long has your band been together?
Just over a year - a really fantastic year
What was your band's first live show/ performance?
Our first show was May 17th, 2010 at the Larimer Lounge to a packed Monday night crowd of friends and strangers. It was a good way to start.
What was the first album you purchased?
MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
Do you have any (quick) advice for new bands?
Garlic & onion sandwiches!
Besides your own band- who do you want to see at the UMS?
Chimney Choir, A. Tom Collins, and Ian Cooke to name a few
Best past UMS experience?
Being poked in the tummy by a masked member of the Itchy-O marching band as they paraded down Broadway last year and thinking "Do I know her?"
Do you have any tips for festival goers?
Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.
What's the best food people can find on Broadway during the festival?
Sputnik sweet potato fries...mmmmmmmm
Who is your all time favorite Denver band?
Devotchka
If you were behind the counter at Twist and Shout, what three albums would you recommend to our customers?
Serge Gainsbourg "Histoire de Melody Nelson,"
Neutral Milk Hotel "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea,"
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks "Real Emotional Trash"
Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called "life."
Electric word, "life." It means forever, and that's a mighty long time.
But I'm here to tell you that there's something else: The UMS.
Bad Weather California
Where and when are you playing at the UMS?
I think the hi-dive. But check the schedule. They are more organized than I am.
Do you have your cd for sale at Twist and Shout?
Yeah. And a vinyl too.
How long has your band been together?
Hard to say. We just do what we do since we were young.
What was your band's first live show/ performance?
Tijuana was my first show where I played songs that I wrote. Salt Lake was the first show with this line up.
What was the first album you purchased?
Beach Boys cassette or Tone Loc cassette I think.
Do you have any (quick) advice for new bands?
Keep it street.
Besides your own band- who do you want to see at the UMS?
HOT WHITE! Is Sauna playing? How about School Nights?
Best past UMS experience?
Irish rover, BWC, straight jammin'.
Do you have any tips for festival goers?
See HOT WHITE!
What's the best food people can find on Broadway during the festival?
I like that fancy ice cream place.
If you were behind the counter at Twist and Shout, what three albums would you recommend to our customers?
The Modern Lovers. The Velvet Underground. James Brown Live at the Apollo.
More interviews to come!
Once upon a time there was a magical land called
Southern California. In the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s a group of
musicians inhabited this land and created some of the best sounds of their
century. Names like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Brian Wilson, The
Byrds, and later The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and even
Steely Dan came to embody this shaggy sound and the lifestyles it implied. Like
all good things its time came and went, leaving lasting stylistic impressions
on both the collective ears and hearts of the listening public. Alas, another
movement come and gone. And yet! In 2011, a new name appears on the scene:
Jonathan Wilson, a young North Carolinian who made several albums with a group
called Muscadine in the late 90’s. Wilson was building a buzz around his analog
studio and production skills at his compound in Laurel Canyon (the spiritual
home of that SoCal sound that had seemed to pass into history) and released his
first album, Gentle Spirit, on the great Bella Union label.
The first time I played Gentle Spirit my jaw hit the floor. Here it was, finally. A
completely legitimate and heavenly return to that beautiful California sound. A
delirious mix of great songs played by a bunch of amazing modern musicians
totally embracing pastoral songwriting, meaningful lyrics and all, wrapped in a
gauzy haze of psychedelia and recorded with analog signals burning their way
directly into your ears. One can’t really overemphasize the sound of this
recording. On LP it is a sublimely warm and satisfying listening experience. The
thirteen songs on this album veer between smoky ballads of love and loss and
more upbeat rockers. Everything has that appealing California laid-back appeal,
with great care being given to vocal performances and the juxtaposition of
acoustic instruments and crushing electric guitar. Coiled underneath it all
though is a tie-dyed snake that bares its fangs on "Desert Raven," "Natural
Rhapsody," and "Woe Is Me" with washes of keyboards, swelling
waves of bass and heavenly spiraling guitar lines.
"How can a debut album be so accomplished?"
you may be asking yourself. A fair question, and it does seem almost
counterintuitive that a relative newcomer could create an album of mature songs
with rapturous musical accompaniment and an almost too-good-to-be-true analog
sound. That, indeed, is the mystery of Jonathan Wilson. In answer, all that can
be said was that in short order after this album was released Wilson was
hosting jam sessions with the likes of Tom Petty, Bob Weir, Chris Robinson and David
Rawlings among others. His studio and his own production skills have become
very in-demand as he assists artists like Father John Misty, Dawes, and Conor
Oberst in realizing the sounds in their heads. Then, in the last two years he
could be found traveling the world in Roger Waters’ band as the guitar,
keyboard and vocal ringer on one of the biggest and most emotionally satisfying
tours of the new century. Quietly and unobtrusively, Wilson has woven his way
into the modern sound. He is an artist to be reckoned with.
It has been a rocket ride to the top for this
guy, and he has produced two more superb solo albums, but, it is Gentle Spirit that brings me back over and over. The guitar tones on songs like "The
Way I Feel," "Ballad of the Pines," or "Valley Of The
Silver Moon" strike just the
right note. Wilson has clearly absorbed the lessons of Hendrix, Pink Floyd and
classic Neil Young and melded them together in a crucible of song to produce
sturdy pillars of sound. The album loses nothing with repeated listens. In fact
it seems to continually unfold, revealing a profound opening musical statement
from one of the most promising musicians on the scene today. Do the sounds of
cranky digital guitars and endless loops of other people’s samples leaving you
cold? Take two Gentle Spirits and call me in the morning.
