Bearcules

SOD: Naive Thieves "Le Sheik Rhat"

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:02:06 -0700

SOD: The Virgins "Rich Girls"

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:01:37 -0700

Radon Reviews: Islands "A Sleep & A Forgetting"

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:02:05 -0700

From the bluesy chords of “This is Not a Song” to the indie-country sounding snare-riding of “Hallways”, A Sleep & A Forgetting by Islands is sometimes a slow foot shuffle of indie rock and sometimes a Happy Days sock hop that has all the pop-like craftsmanship of slow Weezer songs, the cloudy air of The Shins, and just a tiny, tiny pinch of Spandau Ballet. If you want energizing, mood-lifting music, Islands aren’t giving it to you here, but if you believe in the truths found staring out into cold midnight rain, those photos of still life that still feel lifeless, or need something to curl up into a ball and stop thinking to at 3 in the morning, this is an album worth picking up.

This album in a lot of ways makes me feel like it’s a compilation of all the best riffs written in rock history combined into one concept, the intro and verses of “Never Go Solo” are married to the driving power ballad piano chords that define it, even when it gets thick and gurgling with sound. “Can’t Feel My Face” has all the electric organs a fan of Byrds-era psychedelia can ask for while still having that go-go American Bandstand pop background to it. Each song here is like when a song gets one part perfect that gets the entire bar going, then is distilled and bent to fit the needs of its new performance.

A Sleep & A Forgetting’s biggest weakness is also sort of its biggest strength – It’s a little one-note at times, being mostly soft-spoken and melodic, it’s not so easy to relate to without the mood to match. At the same time, each song is different enough that the minor variations keep the album from getting stale at any point, and it becomes a sort of exercise on how to express the same emotions eleven different yet very effective ways. From the doo-wop rock of “No Crying” to twangs and distortion of “Don’t I Love You”. Islands doesn’t so much skip genre as influence, putting together a competent display of musical ability.

A Sleep & A Forgetting feels almost novelty-like at times, like a series of style parodies, but beneath that layer, there’s a lot of personal reflection and soul searching on this record. If you’re not looking to find yourself in a song, or not wanting to find in a song that there’s an emptiness inside of you, pass on this album, hope that things stay happy-go-lucky, and go hit the clubs. If you need someone to get you through a long, lonely night without pandering and telling you it’s going to get better, Islands’ A Sleep & A Forgetting might be the dose of reality you’re after.

SOD: Ladyhawke "Black White & Blue"

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:42:42 -0700

Holy fuck it’s new Ladyhawke! I’ll admit after the first listen I’m not too excited for what else will be on the new album but her debut album was so fucking rad that I’m still gonna be ingesting it all in like a fat kid stuck in an ice cream cake freezer at Dairy Queen.

SOD: R Stevie Moore "I Like to Stay Home"

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:05:48 -0700

It’s early onset Apples In Stereo. Enjoy the 80’s VHS goodness.

Radon Reviews: The Holiday Crowd "Over the Bluffs"

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:59:58 -0700

Put on your legwarmers and hi-tops, because The Holiday Crowd’s debut EP Over the Bluffs sounds like it was the very thing written for John Cusack to be awkwardly in love to while Molly Ringwald shows us all that there’s a lot of societal pressure to being a teenage girl. This is a band that is going to be plagued by comparisons for their entire career for the bands that obviously influence them, and it takes exactly 30 seconds of any song of theirs to convince and unconvince yourself a dozen times that it’s really, for example, The Smiths you’ve been listening to all along.

I always appreciate music like this, that feels so out of its time that what better time is there than now to listen to it? The combination Colin Bowers’ jangly, almost island-style guitar playing and singer Imran Haniff’s throaty wails call into mind all the great bands who were making a name for alternative music thirty years ago. This isn’t a matter of pretending and emulating something they’re not. The Holiday Crowd could have been an easy hit in John Peel’s book, landed in a spattering of John Waters film soundtracks, and lip-synched their songs on Top of the Pops, and nobody would bat an eye.

One of the really great things about this EP is that it knows its time is limited, and so it minces nothing. From the very beginning you get a clear picture of what you’re going to be listening to, and it stays true throughout. If you like the first minute, you’ll like the other twenty. Lead track “Never Speak of it Again” is an absolutely beautiful piece of songwriting that is as good for the isolationist, blustery days leading into spring as it is for your theme-costume throwback parties. “Pennies Found” is everything Morrissey would have ever asked for in a song and more.

I’ve watched my share of VH1 Classic, let me tell you, and I’d always hoped they would provide a spot for bands like The Holiday Crowd who can deliver an experience so authentic to a genre and a time period while still being new and something you can be excited about and follow without having fingers crossed for a disappointing cash-in reunion show. If you’ve ever laid on your couch staring at nothing while listening to bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Holiday Crowd’s Over the Bluffs is something you desperately need to add to your collection. It evokes more than just a copycat sound, it draws out all of the feeling and aesthetic that made those bands timeless to their fans and presents something new yet familiar.

SOD: Bourbon Legend "Robot Dick" THE SEQUEL!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:53:00 -0700

Ask and Ye Shall Receive! A while back “Robot Dick” was our SOD and we loved it long time and hoped we could hear it live with a backing band. Well folks this little gem got dropped in my inbox this week and I gotta say I’m not disappointed in the slightest. The band sounds tight and his voice sounds just as good as the recording. Bourbon Legend, you keep that shit up.

SOD: Die Antwoord "I Fink U Freeky"

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0700

I immediately began sharing this video to whoever was around me per my normal operating procedure when a new Die Antwoord video comes out. Not only will the song make you hit repeat over and over again but the videos are always little nuggets of original content inspired by a TOOL video. So they are entertaining to say the least. I kept waiting for someone to scream “MORTAL KOMBAT” at one point during the song but alas it didn’t but but but they did smash a pair of those overpriced piece of shit Dr.Dre headphones. I’ve been wanting to run half naked into a Best Buy screaming the lyrics to Hall & Oates “Rich Girl” and begin smashing those atrocities with a hammer for quite awhile, now thanks to Die Antwoord I can delay that Sunday activity for just a little bit longer. Thank you Die Antwoord, thank you.

Radon Reviews: Plants and Animals "La La Land"

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0700

Plants and Animals have put me in a precarious position. On the one hand, what I’ve heard off their latest album The End of That has me in an anticipatory fit. On the other, it’s not out yet. So how about a primer? Let’s have a look at their previous album, La La Land, which is, it seems, just as adept at blending infectiously simple guitar strums with the subtlest of synthesizers to create something with layers and depth in a way that seems almost too simple. The good news is that it all sounds cloudy and punctuated in its own excellent way.

To draw a line between what Plants and Animals do with some other genre of music, I think their sound is fairly progressive, but in a hushed, muted way. Somewhere between Modest Mouse and Rush, Plants and Animals have carved their names in the bark. Though the guitars and the vocals resonate so well off each other that one could fall asleep in the middle, the sharpness of the percussion keeps you from losing yourself. Listen to the second and third tracks (“Swinging Bells” and “American Idol”) one after the other and you can feel the seamlessness that the band moves from 1960’s native psychedelia to its edgier 90’s revival.

Call it a strength or a weakness, there’s no real cohesion from song to song in any imaginable way. From tempo and arrangement to mood and genre, La La Land doesn’t really care about keeping your vibe steady. It’s easy to see the possibility for rejection in this album, but the odds of you falling in love with it seem stronger. If you like slow, foresty plods, check out “Undone Melody.” If you want something a bit more modern with a garage sound, give “The Mama Papa“ a listen.

La La Land is not the album I wanted to review, but in some ways, it’s better to get this out of the way and share the excitement for a potentially great album to release. What mystifies me about Plants and Animals is that it seems so much like they want you to tune them out and relax, but they never let go of your focus for a second. The songs are almost moodless, alternating between density and scarcity, and balancing itself at all times. The beauty of Plants and Animals lies in that equilibrium between the two extremes that are presented at every twist.

SOD: Jack White "Love Interruption"

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:26:58 -0700

Jack White is releasing a solo album and here happens to be the first single. It’s not bad but not Jack White caliber, cant wait to hear the new album but help but think he is doing this so people will forget his work with Insane Clown Posse a while back. Nice try Jack, nice try.

Radon Reviews: Adaline "Modern Romantics"

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:02:05 -0700

It takes about a grand total of five notes for Adaline’s Modern Romantics to present itself: an off-center pop album set inside of some futuristic cabaret. The album does more than just that, but the pulsing electro beats of “That’s What You Do Best” have their own place among the distorted guitars just as the dark horn section of “Lovers Collide” fits in to the scheme of things like a modern pop song mixed with the Peter Gabriel albums of yesteryear. Still with all that experimentation, Modern Romantics never really feels as if it’s pushing boundaries.

The Latin, percussive beat of “Silent Prayer” versus the soft piano of “Heartache” is just one of the many contrasts an album that under most circumstances could be called experimental or avant garde. But Adaline manages to be just as familiar as unexpected, even if the lyrics and rhythms aren’t anything overly complicated or daring. This is music you’re supposed to dance to, and there’s just the added benefit of being able to dance to almost every track differently.

Toward the middle and again at the end, Modern Romantics lost my attention a bit the first time through, and I wasn’t blown away and immediately compelled to play it for anybody within earshot. Still, I can’t say the album has a single song that isn’t worth listening to, from the almost Metric-like “The Noise” to the serenading “Cost Is Too High (Not To Love).” If you want something new to listen to that could fit right in with all the songs you’ve heard your entire life, Adaline is certainly not risky in checking out.

Modern Romantics illustrates a keen sense for performance and composition that maintains its personality despite an absolute radio-friendliness, and that’s a refreshing thing to find. If you want to know why lots of people drop radio in favor of streaming solutions like Pandora or even cloud-based access to their own music, it’s because there might be one song worth listening to and another dozen that sound just like it, only not good. Adaline’s Modern Romantics features a dozen songs that each deserve their own slice of bandwidth on your radio dial, even across several stations and formats.

SOD: Etta James & Harvey Fuqua "If I Can't Have You"

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:27:04 -0700

Only doing this because of Etta James dying recently and I’m out of ideas to post an SOD so here you go. But in true Bearcules fashion its not one of her most popular songs and it happens to be a duet that really captures a juke joint feel to it, enjoy.

Radon Reviews: Sparrow & the Workshop "Spitting Daggers"

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0700

Where do I start with the sublime Sparrow and the Workshop album Spitting Daggers? Having just finished my first complete listen of the album despite picking at it in chunks here and there, I feel like I saved the best for last. While the whole album is really something truly special, the final track, “Soft Sound of Your Voice” left me feeling absolutely touched. But how did the album get to this point, to make one track hit so hard and leave me with no other options than to start from the beginning?

Sparrow and the Workshop are really a truly amazing band that I am glad to be aware of, and Spitting Daggers builds and continues a legacy put forth by their previous release Crystals Fall. Typically starting each song with an unassuming, innocent build-up, the band explodes into every chorus with an absolute burst of energy and noise. Look no further than the opening riffs of “Pact to Stay Cold” to get a feel for just what this album plans to do sonically throughout. Songs like “Against the Grain” and “Snakes in the Grass” have all the raw beauty of a Lush song with all the northern European twang and harmony of The Cranberries.

While the band is Scottish, lead singer Jill O’Sullivan was born in Ireland, raised in Chicago, and all of those cultural influences really come together. Every song on this album is great, it’s a total smash hit that fires on all pistons. It might have too strong of a soft/loud dichotomy for some, but that kind of music really gets me going, and then when the last song, “Soft Sound of Your Voice” plays…. The haunting slow guitar and lullaby-sound of the vocals are like a cold shower. You let everything sort of melt you down and relax, and then with one last thrust, the song explodes into broken-down screaming and distortion before settling down one last time. It’s chilling, and to me was a profound punctuation to cap off a fully brilliant album.

I feel bad that an album this good gets reviewed right after my Top 5 list for the year, but Spitting Daggers is good. Scary good. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m talking about Sparrow and the Workshop a year from now, saying just how much I still listen to and love this album. If this band isn’t on your radar, they need to be. They’re fantastic. I love them. And I want you to love them too. So I’m telling you right now. Figure out a way to get a good listen to this album in before you forget. It warms the soul like hot chocolate.

SOD: Bleeding Knees Club "Bad Guys"

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:18:44 -0700

To the 5 or so people who actually visit the site I apologize for the lack of posts. The holidays have wrecked the body and mind and killed the motivation to update. That however is completely fucking over with and now we can get back on track. Live shows will begin flowing like wine again and Radon will hopefully send some more album reviews our way and Benjamin will school us is some Haiku’s this year! Today for the years first ever SOD we have Bleeding Knees Club who sound a lot like Black Lips and Jay Reatard mixed in a blender of megaphone and surf rock, enjoy.

*Click the main picture to see the full album. “Put on your helmets, bitches!” Fort Collins Natives...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:56:47 -0700

*Click the main picture to see the full album.

“Put on your helmets, bitches!” Fort Collins Natives Elway & Friends Play 3 Kings

Fort Collin’s invaded Denver on Friday, Dec 1^st, well okay, not necessarily an invasion, but they definitely sent some hard rocking ambassadors.

Arliss Nancy and Sour Boy Bitter Girl opened for Elway, who all brought they’re respective, yet intermingled genres to 3 Kings Tavern. One band, a little country, another a little Conor Oberst, and the last a little more punk, and in that order too.

The schizophrenic sounding line-up all complimented each other and the venue well. 3 Kings Tavern, a venue that jostles between super awesome and extremely frightening, somehow manages to get a different genre, and thus new crowd every night of the week. One night you could be enjoying a ska-punk show, skanking and chugging 40’s with strangers and the next night you could be seeing “The Show is The Rainbow” (Lincoln, Nebraska) and watching a coked-out, half-naked version of Jack Black running around in circles strangling himself with a microphone chord while spouting off some paranoid nonsense.

And yeah, tonight would merely add to that eclectic mix.

Elway, headliners of the night, have grown quite a following in the Denver area and with good reason (besides a stern finger-wagging by Colorado legend John Elway for encroachment of name). They’re music is reminiscent of late-90s pop punk bands like Alkaline Trio, NOFX and (seriously just fill in the blank).

Everything about pop-punk takes you back to a time when bands were less worried about how cool they look, and more into how much fun they, and ultimately the crowd were having. When fun is the core element of a show, good things will happen.

Tim Browne (lead singer) plays with such enthusiasm, that his mannerisms shout, not scream, “Yeah, the genre is outdated, we love it and you used to like it so we’re going to smack you in the face with it for ever thinking about leaving it.”

A ballsy move, especially when considering the ultimate demise of any power pop punk band that gets too big (Prime example, any power pop punk band that “made it”… ever).

Elway belted their songs like they hadn’t out-rocked the entire movement by 10-ish years.

Though, the real highlight had to be Arliss Nancy, the opening band, also from Fort Collins, playing their country-fried pop alt-rock. A band of farmhand rock stars, the black horses of the night, refusing to give up their Colorado roots for a more coastal look and feel the seems so popular nowadays.

Arliss Nancy is one of those bands who are hard to put your finger on, switching up the feel for every song but making it fit together in the end.

Their songs are similar to everyone’s favorite indie-rock versions of Bruce Springsteen, The Hold Steady, but with a delightful twist. Just imagine The Hold Steady with a less robust and overwhelming lead singer who just so happens to have a backing band. By simply turning down the lead vocals and distributing the musical weight more evenly, you are left with Arliss Nancy, blasting out Boss-esque power ballads into the night.

The second band, Sour Boy, Bitter Girl, consisted of a hybrid of a three new members with the guitarist and keyboards from Arliss Nancy but with more of an acquired taste.

Through their many references to the great Southwest, Benjamin Buttice (lead singer) had a less tormented Conor Oberst feel. An ambiance indicative to I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning or time spent with the Mystic Valley Band and fewer songs about first time sexual experiences [Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, “Take It Easy (Love Nothing)]. A few lyrics resonated by Buttice cut to the love deprived humans in all of us, cutting to your soul with lines like “I’d love to buy you a drink, but I don’t know what you drink anymore,” relatable for anyone who’s ever run into an old flame.

“Waltz of the Sea Wolf,” summoned the not-used-often-enough slow rotating disco ball hanging above the 3 Kings dance floor, transporting the entire audience back to their high school prom. Loved it, hated it or neglected to attend it this song left a lasting impression of high school dances for the better.

Their songs may transport you to the desolate Southwest, but as fast as an Elway band member can bark “Put on your helmets, bitches!” before the start of the next song, you are taken back to where you started, wedged between some rocks and a grassland, at a haphazard punk venue, in Colorful Colorado.

-Review by Chris Barker, shitty pictures by Bearcules.

Haiku Review: Melt Banana @ Studio 13

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:00:05 -0700

Melt Banana / 400 Blows / Sohns / Wonderland - Studio 13 - 11/20/2011
Sohns are everything music should be; loud, fast, energetic, engaging and completely bad ass. 400 Blows were the elder statesmen and played like a modern Big Black, minus Roland. Melt Banana’s lead singer dressed like a cat, mingled with the crowd and then the band blew the crowd’s ears off. Punk rock is alive and well and for a single night it was living in a strip mall in San Antonio, Texas.

In the last 12 months (December 2010 – December 2011) I’ve reviewed exactly 40 albums for...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:00:00 -0700

In the last 12 months (December 2010 – December 2011) I’ve reviewed exactly 40 albums for Bearcules. They’re not all necessarily new, some are a few years old, one a couple decades old, but one thing that they all have in common as a result is that they are all officially eligible for the 2011 Bearcules AWESOME Award (Which Exemplifies Special and Outstanding Musical Excellence) Awards! I know, Top ____ posts are a total copout, but I wanted to put something together in time for the holiday season so you would know exactly what to buy for people who have good taste in music, but not enough good taste to read Bearcules. Without further ado, here are my Top 5 albums for 2011.

#5 – Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher

When I heard this release, I was confident it was a front-runner for one of my top albums of the year, and it continues to hold its own despite everything else I’ve listened to. A perfect mix of slow and fast, gentle and noisy, Cloak and Cipher continues the tradition of excellent albums by Land of Talk, and was the first to really make me feel like they could follow up their initial EP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. “Goal Time Exposure” and “Colour Me Badd” have grown on me immensely, while “Quarry Hymn” and “The Hate I Won’t Commit” still remain favorites of mine. Solid from start to finish.

#4 – Hollerado – Record in a Bag

Recently coming to my attention and quickly becoming one of my favorites, Hollerado’s “Record In A Bag” evokes everything fun about rock music while still being emotionally honest no matter what. Self-produced but with all the professional trimmings, Hollerado pulls no punches delivering an album that is funny, intense, heartfelt, and powerful. The album loses a little steam during the interludes, and I’m still not really digging “Hard Love,” but “Walking the Sea,” “Juliette,” and “Got To Lose” are all amazing enough to elevate this album despite its few weaknesses.

#3 – Mother Mother – Eureka

It still comes to mind every time I listen to Mother Mother that I didn’t like them at first, and I’ve had a difficult time getting this album to hold any traction with anybody I’ve shared it with, but that doesn’t change the fact that I listen to it about twice a week still. Odd, quirky, filled with Euro-pop harmonies and 80’s synth sensibilities mixed with modern rock, Eureka just really gets my blood going everytime I go through it. The strength of the songs that drew me in like “Oleander” and “Simply Simple” has unbelievably grown with each listen, while “Far in Time” and “Calm Me Down” have found my favor so much that I find them in my head almost every day. Perhaps an acquired taste, but like all acquired tastes, it’s so good once you break through the barriers.

#2 – Sons & Daughters – This Gift

When I decided to sit down to do a top 10 list, this was probably the first album that came to mind, and it’s something of an anomaly that it’s not at the top of the list. Powerful, fast, beautiful, amazing, the reason that this album ultimately hit #2 for me is that Sons & Daughters make this kind of musical perfection seem almost routine. With four full albums out now, they’re in a more experimental phase, with their latest release eschewing the balls-out rock of This Gift, Mirror Mirror is more 80’s alternative goth. I was extremely disappointed at first, now I get it, and I love it. Back to the album at hand however, it’s virtually impossible to dislike this album. The guitars are furious, the drums pound, the vocals are haunting with their beauty. Probably one of the best albums from any band, of any genre, released in the last five years. I could put this disc on repeat and listen to it 10 times straight on not be tired of it. An absolute must-listen.

#1 – Hungry Kids of Hungary – Escapades

And then there’s Escapades. No album made me want to cry (“No Returns”) as much as it made me want to go berzerk on the drums like a certain Muppet (“Wristwatch”), and every single track on here doesn’t even make me think twice about singing along at the top of my lungs. Extremely accessible, perfect from start to finish, Escapades is a truly inspired work by a sublimely talented group. With most bands I worry that they’re coming out with albums and they’ll fly under my radar, that something amazing will drop and I just won’t have checked to know about it. After hearing this album, I check about once a month to see if Hungry Kids of Hungary is working on anything else. Sure-fire instant classic, you could blindly buy this album for everyone on your holiday shopping list, and I’m sure most people would be deeply thankful for it once they put it in.

Radon Reviews: Cuff the Duke "Morning Comes"

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:07:05 -0700

My love affair with country-folk-rockers Cuff the Duke has waxed and waned over the years, as I tend to tire of their sad whines and defeated sound when my confidence is high, and then when things aren’t so sure, I find myself looking for them, a security blanket, an ex-girlfriend who won’t let you make any regrettable decisions but will still hug you when you need it. Their latest album, Morning Comes, fits all of these bills. When things even out, I think I’ll find myself putting this one back on the shelf, but for now I can’t get enough of everything this album represents.

I always draw the comparison in my head between Cuff the Duke and Weezer, as they both have similar qualities when it comes to songwriting, melodic structures, and vocal styles, but Cuff the Duke embraces that classic southern rock sound, combining country twang with the principles that shaped rock music through its truly defining years. The emotional aspect of these songs is sharp, pulling no punches, eschewing the metaphors and imagery to present something that instead just defines itself clearly as accusatory or pitiful, sometimes both.

The biggest risk in making music with such a personal sound and feeling is that either you find yourself resonating to directly to each and every song, or you don’t connect at all. Morning Comes, like nearly every aspect of Cuff the Duke’s work before it, is an all-in moment, but their continued success stems from both the fact that they’re doing something right and what it is they’re doing they do exceedingly well. Songs like “Standing on the Edge” and “Time Is Right” have an unmistakable shine to them, never attacking the listener with anything more than an arm slung over a shoulder.

Like every classic country act, Cuff the Duke should be judged on their sad songs, and “So Many Times Before” is one of the most heart-wrenching songs I’ve heard in my life. If this kind of music brings you down or you’re just not in the mood to listen to it, Morning Comes isn’t going to do you any good. If you need a late night drinking buddy or just the knowledge that life isn’t just hard the way you live it, Morning Comes is a good chance to meet ten different friends who can get you to sunrise when your brain just won’t give it a rest.

Live Review: Priory @ Hi Dive 11/20

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:39:00 -0700

Technical difficulties lead to a brutally brilliant performance by Priory.

Now I’m not saying this because my comped tickets were in fact not comped, or because the time it took to correct the technical difficulties came dangerously close to the amount of time actually spent playing by the Oregon based band or even because the laser lights during the show may have caused permanent retina damage, but seeing Priory live brought the fucking house down. And for all 12-ish of us that stuck around (bartender, Priory, four weird kids sitting on the ground by the Contra machine, sound guy and assumed guy doing coke in the back NOT included) Priory was well worth the ticket price.

The quartet, choosing to travel by bus, have been on heavy rotation on my iPod ever since I heard their first track off their self-titled album. Consisting of bass, guitar, drums and a killer mix of keyboard, glockenspiel and whatever else you can beat the shit out of, Priory can easily fit under the umbrella term of “Indie, but with a sub-genre labeled “Awesomeness.” I have yet to see a band handle technical difficulties with such ease. Having to stop several times midway through a song, giving the audience only a mere taste of there self-titled album, and finally having to take a 10 minute break to put the problem to rest. The guys of Priory did not just bounce back from what could have been a set ending malfunction and a long night at the bar, but exceeded expectations by keeping the audience involved and making them part of the show. I can’t even say that they “recovered” because the guitar and drum instrumentals kept the toes-a-tappin’.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. So much of what deems a show good, great or bad depends on what happens when there isn’t any music playing.

Perhaps I’m biased, because this band has quickly become one of my favorites. Regardless, Priory pumped out hits such as “Lady of Late,” Kings of Troy,” “Devil vs. Heater,” and I swear to god, I was holding back a tear when they played “Searching,” a ballad about the struggle of wanting to truly know and understand your family. When the band finally got all the kinks worked out, Priory performed as though they were making up for something, they had something to prove. With passionate gusto, Priory performed from the heart and left it on the stage for all of Denver to see (well, all 12 of us at least). The bittersweet thing about seeing Priory live is that listening to them after the show on an iPod was just an empty memory of how truly great they were live. Beware indie scenesters, Priory is about to missile kick you directly between the ears, much like if Fleet Foxes got some balls, turned the up the volume, and actually played their instruments with some might. With that being said, line-up for the night was an eclectic mix.

The first being Jesse Manley and his band. An act you would expect to see midway through a cross-country road trip in a podunk town, deeply imbedded in the heart of the Midwest, at a bar best known for their sarsaparilla. As my associate said, the members played with such precision and concentration that they were like a band of clock makers & craftsman with their instruments. Manley, with a soft and intoxicating voice sounding very close to that of Destroyer’s Daniel Bejar, switched back and forth between banjo and guitar while backed by drums, bass and lap steal. Their heavy western feel was undeniable, and an excellent opener for a night at Denver’s Hi-Dive. Jesse Manley can be found hopping between The Walnut Room, Meadowlark, Swallow Hill and Hi-Dive, and is definitely worth a listen.

Following Jesse Manley was Reviving Cecilia, who was seemingly aiming for a Mynnabirds sound, but fell short. With the support of their friends (approximately half the crowd, close to triple Priory’s last standing troopers) Reviving Cecilia is off to a good start, but needs to find their voice. Like a porcelain doll, Reviving Cecilia came off as pretty from a distance, but ultimately emotionless shell of a band. I’m not saying that I’d break up with a girl for loving this band, but I would definitely attempt to sway her towards something with more substance.

Back to the main point though, Priory put on one hell of a show, and the technical difficulties only brought out the best in them. The crowd that stuck around was delivered a show to be remembered. If Priory keeps up there intense touring schedule, I can only see good things in their future.

-Chris Barker

Editors Note: Due to some technical difficulties of our own the photos from this review can be seen here

Priory 11-20-2011 @ Hi Dive

Haiku Review: Morrisey @ Bass Concert Hall

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:05:05 -0700

Morrissey - Bass Concert Hall - 11/15/2011
Morrissey’s stage show was pretty engaging and what you’d expect of him, lots of preening, spotlights and projection video coating the stage and the band. Morrissey played a lot of his singles, some smiths and a lou reed cover. Morrissey sounded pretty amazing, he still sounds just like he does in your old smiths albums. This was one of the better shows I’ve been to and one you should check out if the huge price tag doesn’t scare you off.

-Ben Drinkin