|
What better way to bring the summer in Colorado to a close
than to invite local, national, and international acts
to play a two-day party, namely the 2009 Monolith
Festival, in our lovely, world-renowned Red Rocks?
We’re talking five stages and over 60 bands, enough
to keep y’all running up and down and all around…a
great way to burn off the calories you’re drinking.
For VIP ticketholders, things get
started Friday night, September 11, a the pre-party
at the Gothic, getting the blood pumpin’ to Chromeo,
The Cool Kids, The Grates, Boyhollow, Love Jones Affair,
Hottub and Natural Selection.
Once again, the line-up is stupendous, featuring the
acts you’re quite familiar with, like the Yeah,
Yeah, Yeahs, Girl Talk, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Chromeo,
M. Ward, MSTRKRTF, The Dandy Warhols, and OK GO,
and some you may not have, like Stars
of Track and Field, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart,
Frightened Rabbit, The Thermals, and Neon Indian.
As always, local talent plays a big part of Monolith,
and those mixing in with line-up include our beloved
A Shoreline Dream, The Knew, Jim Mcturnan &
The Kids That Killed The Man, Gregory Issac Isokov and
Pirate Signal. And to keep the music going
non-stop, many of our DJs will be bringing the talent
in between sets--MU$A, Vajra, Satan's 80's Lovechild,
Cysko Rokwel, Plus, Boyhollow, Klaw, Mike Deez, Mentat,
Scotty Matelic, Option 4, Neo Vizion, Self Inflicted,
Seven7h Wave, and Digital Disko.
In the spirit of our current environmental challenges,
Monolith offers plenty of opportunities to party, sweat
and drink with a clear conscious. They’ve partnered
with Carbonfund.org to offset over 200 metric tons of
CO2 to balance out the energy they’ll be using
to make the speakers scream. There will also be plenty
of places to dispose of your recyclables, and if you’re
not carpooling with your friends already, check out
AlterNetRides
and the Zimride/Esurance
carpool sites.
The
festival schedule has been released so
you can start your making plans, and Gigbot
enables you to personalize an online schedule.
Check out the start of our picks list (which we
will be adding to as time goes along) for this
year's Monolith Festival and start to stretch out now,
since that stair climb to the top where the other stages
are located has been know to cause leg cramps...a small
price to pay.
Related Monolith event:
Monolith Sampler Party - Wednesday, Sept 9
Lowdown Wednesdays, a weekly party at Tooeys (Colfax
and Marion by the post office), which features Indyelectro,
Underground Hip Hop, Old School, & Retrom is devoting
the entire night to Monolith.
"Come down to Tooeys for a mix of music from
the artists of Monolith featuring DJ Papa Gongo and
request your favorite band! Enter to win a pair of tickets
to the Vip Monolith Kick off Party (Cool Kids/Chromeo
DJ set) at the Gothic the following Friday."
FREE PBR and PBR swag with proof of Monolith Ticket
Purchase. Play old school Nintendo on the big screen.
No cover, 21+
Monolith
Festival VIP Tickets, Parties and Goodies:
Full 2-Day festival pass with no service fee
Premium reserved soundboard seating
VIP Parking in Red Rocks upper North parking lot
Access to Monolith VIP Lounge w/ private bar
Monolith Festival T-Shirt
Plus...
Access to Exclusive Monolith Kick-off Parties on Friday,
Sept 11th*
Southern Comfort Kick-Off Party at The Gothic Theatre
– Ages 21+
Toyota Antics/Filter Kick-Off Party at Moes BBQ and
Bowling – Ages 18+ (Includes free bowling and
shoe rental)
Both kick off venues are walking distance from each
other
*VIP Passes are open to all ages, however you must
be at least 18 years of age to attend the Kick-Off Party
at Moe's and 21+ to attend the SOCO Kick-Off Party at
The Gothic
Check
out the complete festival schedule
|
photo: Will T Yang |
Girl Talk - 7:45pm, Saturday,
Sept 12 - Esurance Stage “Summer’s
here and the time is right for dancing in the
streets.”
If Gregg Gillis, aka Girl
Talk, had his way, that sing-song statement
by Marvin Gaye would be so. But for now, dancing
to the artist’s legendary musical collages
will take place within the confines of this summer’s
festivals, including the Monolith
Festival (September 12, 13) and an
upcoming
FREE concert in Southern Cal sponsored by Squirt
(July 24). (The Squirt concert has
since passed)
The word “sold out show” has followed
Girl Talk everywhere he’s played after the
release of Night Ripper in 2006. Needless to say,
the goal of wanting to translate the over-the-top
party feel of the Girl Talk live show into album
form for 2008’s Feed the Animals
(Illegal Art) has been met, and then some.
Girl Talk’s modus operandi pieces together
bits from 20 to 40 different songs to create a
single track, so it may be hard to identify every
drum part, bass line or vocal melody. In the way
he pulled apart sounds to create another, music
videos for these tracks present the visual counterpart
to each song. So on “What’s it All
About” for example, we see Busta Rhymes
is spliced in rhythm to The Police’s “Everything
Little Thing She Does is Magic,” then Wilson
Picket takes over the mic…and a bit later
in the track, little Michael Jackson and his brothers
performing “ABC” with the undertones
of Vanilla Ice and the swirling of “Umbrella”
by Rihanna.
Read
our interview with Girl Talk
See
pictures, shot by Will T. Yang, of the Pomona
show |
|
|
Of Montreal - 8:45pm, Saturday,
Sept 12 - Southern Comfort Stage
Art, humor, theater, the rollercoaster rides
of human existence, Light Bright, drama class,
vintage clothes shopping, Spirograph and circus
colors, harmonies that would make Freddy Mercury
blush, all spun with rhythms that are plucked
from numerous cultures and centuries is just the
first step in experiencing the theatrics and celebration
Of Montreal presents. And if
there’s one thing you can count on from
the Athens troupe, it is the element of surprise.
Many pleasant surprises, to be exact.
For starters, the change ups in the band’s
songs get one’s heart a fluttering, like
the shift towards the end of “An Eluardian
Instance,” (Skeletal Lamping, 2008) which
rolls out a sunshine day of kites dancing in the
sun (as seen in the accompanying video) and picnicking
with a giddy mountain goat, then slows down into
a bass-heavy strut-along that almost seems like
it drifted right into a new song.
The creative reach of “Wicked Wisdom”
stretches with an operactic, tellin’-y’all-what’s-up
saunter, side steps to the back alley to grab
a smoke, and it’s back on the avenue without
meeting a beat… until a cacophony of what
seems like harpsichord drunk on Absynth goes head
to head with John Lennon.
more |
|
|
The Pains of Being Pure at
Heart - 4:00PM, Saturday, Sept 12 - Southern Comfort
Stage After just a few notes
of “Come Saturday” from The
Pains of Being Pure at Heart, I was immediately
beamed back to 1995 and the release of Poole’s
Alaska Days, the power pop times of The High,
The La’s and Ocean Blue, and the cool indie
breeze of Ride’s “Vapour Trail.”
After releasing the highly beloved self-titled
debut earlier this year, the New York five-piece
(Kip Berman, Kurt Feldman, Alex Naidus,
Peggy Wang) keeps the music machine running
by releasing four new songs within the Higher
Than The Stars EP.
The title track’s keyboards flows crisp
and icy, leaving a jet plane trail against an
indigo sky as Berman swoons his vocals in a way
that sets Morrisey’s haircut on fire. Jangle
guitars on “Twins” sway with a tinge
of romantic regret, but the popping drums give
penance for all sins.
more |
|
|
M. Ward - 6:15pm, Saturday,
Sept 12 - Esurance Stage On
a surprisingly quaint Thursday in San Francisco’s
always-bustling Marina District, under the majestic
regal red surroundings of the Palace of Fine Arts,
M. Ward performed to a sell-out
crowd of dedicated fans with an arsenal of neo-folk
ballads that wrenched at the sappy side of even
this unfamiliar and rather tough-skinned rocker.
M (Matt) Ward got his footing
through years of involvement with the group Rodriguez,
and has been at the solo game since about 2001.
He has also guest-appeared on stage and in the
studio with numerous well-known acts, including
Bright Eyes, Cat Power and Beth Orton.
But it was She &
Him—Ward’s pairing with actress
Zooey Deschanel—that really
broke the long-time indie-rocker onto the big
stage. After Ward and Deschanel recorded a track
together for the film "The Go-Getter,"
the two decided to carry on with She & Him,
and since then, Ward’s solo career has seen
a huge growth in attention.
Read
the rest of our review of M. Ward's show at the
Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco |
|
|
Cotton Jones - 7:00pm, Saturday,
Sept 12 - WOXY.COM Stage - Monolith Festival
Sultry, floating, blue notes of sounds that fall
galaxies away from any general genre description
is the closest I can come to describing Cotton
Jones, made up of the duo Michael
Nau and Whitney McGraw.
Nau originated Cotton Jones during the hiatus
of Page France, pulling in McGraw, also with the
outfit, to round out the smoky mood of their harmonic
vocals.
The song title “By Morning Light”
from the duo’s debut full-length, Paranoid
Cocoon (Suicide Squeeze), does capture
the mood and grace of the track, moving slowly
and gaining light until the last note. “Up
A Tree” (With This Heart I Have) saunters
with a shade of The Ravonettes and a toke of 60s
folk, and “Blood Red Sentimental Blues”
would complement a homegrown mix tape featuring
the Cowboy Junkie’s version of “Sweet
Jane.”
more |
|
|
Neon Indian - 3:00pm, Sunday,
Sept 13 - WOXY.COM Stage - Monolith Festival
Comprised of composer Alan Palomo
and his high school bud Alicia Scardetta,
a videographer/filmmaker, Neon Indian
has been busy creating a visual and musical ride
to the stratospheres, which they plan to debut
this Sunday, Sept 13 at Monolith. This will be
the jumpstart to a tour schedule that has Palomo
flipping between Neon and his other endeavor,
VEGA.
Pre-release singles from Psychic
Chasms (Lefse), Neon Indian’s
debut full-length set for release on October 13,
venture into more synth-based territory, including
“Deadbeat Summer,” a bump-along scooter
cruise along a sun drenched beach.
“Terminally Ill” bleeps and bloops
as Palomo’s dream pop vocals serenade you
through a Ferris Wheel ride on the boardwalk,
then the sun sets and the night brings out potential
regret and hazy 20/20 hindsight on “Should
Have Taken Acid With You.”
more
|
|
|
Passion Pit - 5:30pm, Sunday,
Sept 13 - Southern Comfort Stage
From valentine to electro orchestral victory,
Passion Pit started off as a
self-produced, High Fidelity mix of love songs
for a girlfriend, and year and a half later, landed
Michael Angelakos and the boys
into the band they are now the Chunk
of Change EP under their belt and
the 2009 full-length, Manners
(released in May on French Kiss).
The five-piece—including Angelakos on vocals
keyboards, Jeff Apruzzese on
bass, Nate Donmoyer on drums,
Ian Hultquist on keyboards and
guitar, Ayad Al Adhamy on synth
and samplers—are known for starting a figurative
fire on stage that ignites great passion in their
fans and spreads throughout whatever venue they
happen to be performing. Translating the studio
works onto the stage takes some technical planning
and ingenuity, but the OZ magic does the job and
seems to be a welcomed challenge for the group.
The evolution from Chunk of Change to
Manners also turns the page on their
skills in instrumentation, bringing in more organics
and depth of tone on tracks like “Moss Wings,”
which serves piano grandness on a silver, sparkling
platter, and the butterfly dance of drums, bass
and keyboards on “Let Your Love Grow Strong.”
more |
|
|
Chromeo DJs the Monolith
VIP pre-party Friday, Sept 11 - Moe’s (next
to the Gothic) / 8:45pm, Sunday, Sept 13 - Southern
Comfort Stage If you want a good
indication of what’s in store for the Monolith
pre-party on Friday, September 11, you
need go no further than the new Chromeo
DJ-KiCKS remix album
from !K7. Electic and endearing, funky and funtabulous,
track one through track 18 is a non-stop groove
and party waiting to happen, sans the balloons
and confetti.
DJ-KiCKS can also be popped in the following
morning to get the blood pumping for the day head;
a perfect backdrop to a muted “Weird Science”
or “Beverly Hills Cop,” if they were
filmed in Montreal.
While the Chromeo duo, Dave 1 and P-Thugg
throw their fairy dust on 70s artists such as
The Alan Parsons Project ("Pipeline")
and Leo Sayer ("Easy To
Love"), the essence of this remix album is
the use of artists that don’t ring any bells
at all and a refrain from giving fans any inkling
of what Chromeo’s next original album will
hold.
more |
|
Additional
Picks
Saturday,
September 12
Gregory
Alan Isakov - 1:30pm - Esurance Stage
Stars
of Track and Field - 1pm - Radius Earphones Stage
Of
Montreal - 8:45pm - Southern Comfort Stage
Yeah
Yeah Yeahs - 9:30pm - Esurance Stage
Sunday, September
13
A Shoreline Dream -
12:20pm - WOXY.Com Stage
The
Dandy Warhols - 3:30pm - Esurance Stage
Phoenix
- 7pm - Southern Comfort Stage
MSTRKRFT
- 7:45pm - Esurance Stage
|
|
