mollycoulter.com

Published Articles04 Sep 2007 11:27 pm

Flag’s musical co-op queen
Karna Otten embraces the unity of things and crafts some great songs
By Molly Coulter
Published on 08/30/2007

After playing guitar and crafting a list of original songs throughout the past 12 years, local singer-songwriter Karna Otten recently decided her art deserved her undivided attention. A few months ago she quit her day job, slung her acoustic Alvarez across her back and began canvassing Flagstaff with her blues and folk sound. She’s been opening for local bands and playing gigs solo at all hours and on every downtown stage so chances are, you’ve caught her act once or twice. But if you’ve been living in a cave or the opportunity has escaped you, you can catch two shows this week. She’s building a fanbase and in an instant Karna’s going to get you too.
     “I can do it now or I could never do it. You’ll never know if you don’t do it,” Otten says. “Somebody was saying it takes all this time to make it, but I feel like I’ve already made it and ideally I want to just live off of the music.”
     Otten ditched the Midwest and journeyed to Flagstaff four years ago alongside a boyfriend who became an ex. “Music played a huge part in me getting through that,” Otten says. “I can look at the music pre-break-up, during and after and I can see it: when I was down, when I was feeling certain things.
Now my music has empowerment and I think because of how things were I was so inside of myself and I can see that in my songs. Now I have been really taking everything outside of me in and the things I’ve observed.”
     Love is a common theme among most musicians, so it’s no surprise Otten incorporates songs embracing and dealing with the universal force. She covers jazz singer Norah Jones with a romantic intensity that would make the famed singer proud. But Otten explains she’s progressing into the realm of storytelling owned by fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan.
     “I write from the experiences that I have, but I’m heading in this direction with my songwriting where it’s more of a story than just verse, chorus, verse, chorus. There’s a beginning and an end to it,” she says.
     Otten picked up the guitar while she worked at a hospital back home. Her co-worker taught her a few chords and eventually gave her his instrument, which she played for five years. Otten passed on the guitar as well. “I used to work at the alternative center and I brought it in for the kids to use. One grew really attached to it. From the time he picked it up and to the time he was leaving his improvement was amazing so I gave it to him. The way I feel about guitars is that if I’m not using it, someone else should be.”
     Her friends thought the same of their guitar collecting dust in a closet, so they gave it to Otten as a Christmas gift. And just a few weeks ago another friend handed her a banjo.
     “I had an electric guitar that I gave to a friend, which I later regretted, but it’s so crazy. It’s manifestation or karma, but all my instruments have been given to me when I wanted one or when I needed one,” she says.
     Otten attended a music college and took a stab at open mic nights, but she didn’t fully embrace music until she moved to Flagstaff. After many great Tuesday open mic nights at Charly’s she found her passion.
     “Even just like journaling, getting that out, I feel lucky that I can share that with people: the human experience. It fills a very spiritual place for me,” Otten says. “It serves as a therapeutic tool. When I’m doing music I feel whole physically and mentally. Since I haven’t had a job the first couple of weeks there were a few days where I found myself holed up in my bedroom just playing music all day. Also, when I’m doing the music, it fills a social aspect. You see people and you’re constantly connecting. You’re never really off of work. You’re always connecting.”
     Otten says those connections are the rewards for her hard work.
     “I think the thing I enjoy the most is when people are listening and I can see that they are connecting with what I’m doing on stage,” she says. “I can feed off of that. I have this song ‘Crush’ and it’s really personal and it can be about anybody. I’m sharing this openly and it could be in my diary and I’m up there and not scared. You share such a personal part of yourself in your songs. It’s an opportunity to be an open book without freaking people out.
     “And I just love music,” she says and laughs about her optimistic answer. “But I do, with such a passion. Any time that I have people playing with me or sharing that experience with people, it just feels good.”
     See Karna Otten live this week at the Mountainaire Tavern, 110 Mountainaire Road, Sun, Sept. 2 at 4 p.m. She’ll also be appearing on Live Lunch at Noon on Northern Arizona University’s KJACK 1680 AM on Wed, Sept. 5. For more info, see www.myspace.com/goodkarna.

Thoughts on...20 Aug 2007 07:12 pm

Hahahahehehe

C ARTOON.jpg

Published Articles16 Aug 2007 12:45 pm

A must-see band from Texas

Pimp and circumstance
On the road with Grupo Fantasma
By Molly Coulter
Published on 08/16/2007

The Prince’s boys: Fast-rising music royalty Grupo Fantasma takes a quick break from their quest for total world domination. Photo courtesy of Grupo Fantasma.

Ignore your urge to take it easy this Sunday night. Save the last few chapters of that paperback and after dinner put on your coat, not your pajamas. Austin, Texas’ 11-piece marvel Grupo Fantasma is playing at Mogollon Brewing Co. and despite reading this line many times before, you shouldn’t miss this show. Remember when you realized you should have heard that one band instead of all your buddies raving about it for the next month? Well, this band blows that other one away and you have an exclusive opportunity to get up close in a small venue.
     Highly regarded as one of the top contemporary Latin musical acts nationally, Grupo Fantasma also has earned distinguished honors at home in a city famous for heaps of stunning artists. The band is a fireball on stage blazing up the room with its irrefutably passionate and skillful sound. Music icon Prince, whose influence jumpstarted a notable list of musicians and celebrities, felt the heat and invited the band to back him up at a Golden Globes after-party. Then came the after-party following Prince’s sensational show at the Super Bowl this year and a weekly spot playing with him at his Las Vegas nightclub 3121. And as if that wasn’t enough accolade to keep Grupo Fantasma’s members beaming for life, the legend asked them to tour London with him this summer.
     “It’s been nuts,” says guitarist Adrian M. Quesada. “He just brings so much. Even if he’s doing a huge stadium, he’ll always play the most intimate feel. You actually capture the moment of this music, instead of being somebody in the upper deck. He loves people to get into the music, which is something we’ve learned from him. It’s inspired genius music school 101.”
     Quesada explains when the members initially played with Prince they were fixed on playing Prince’s music like we all know and love it, but the mogul put a stop to that practice. “We didn’t want to ruin his songs, but he’s been pretty adamant about interpreting it in our style,” Quesada says. “He actually said it’s about our interpretation. We feel a lot more comfortable and it changed it. We play it like we play our own music and sometimes we’ll just play our music and he’ll play with us. Hopefully we’re turning him on to some Latin music.”
     As for past or future collaborations with other artists, he says, “That’s about as big as it gets. It sort of came out of the blue and we’ve opened for and shared the stage with lots of bands, but nothing compares to Prince. No pun intended.” (Prince wrote “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the hit pop song that catapulted Sinead O’Connor’s career when she covered it in 1990.)
     Having Prince fly the members into Las Vegas every Thursday for three months and embracing the chance to get all 11 of them overseas is a far cry from the birth of Grupo Fantasma. “When we originally started touring we had one van. Those early years were interesting,” Quesada says. “We learned to know when to give each other space. But now everybody knows everybody else’s personalities and we all know the main objective is the music.”
     The band members split their paychecks more ways than most groups, which keeps them on the road and dedicated to their objective. “Because it’s such a large band and we do this for a living, we tour non-stop,” Quesada says. The countless gigs gained an audience and the band listens to it.
     “Everybody at our live shows wanted something to take home so we put out the first album,” Quesada says of their 2001 release, Grupo Fantasma. “The second album we spent a lot of time in the studio trying to get it right, but our bread and butter is always the live show. The CD never quite lived up to it, so we decided to make a live album last year and get it right.”
     Quesada says Grupo Fantasma mainly records and performs original songs, but “we play the occasional traditional song, revamped in our style for fun. One of our strengths is reinterpreting old songs.” Quesada says “the Latin, funk orchestra” has a repertoire that includes Columbian dance music called cumbia, ’70s funk music and “we’ll throw in the occasional James Brown song. It’s not traditional music in the traditional way.”
     Grupo Fantasma will play Sun, Aug. 19 at Mogollon Brewing Co., 15 N. Agassiz. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. and handing the band a $10 cover charge will be well worth it. For more information, go to www.grupofantasma.com or call 773-8950.

Thoughts on...01 Aug 2007 02:45 am

Time stamp: 2:41 a.m.

Mood: crazy

Apologies: give them up. I say sorry too often…

Life: the way you like it.

Message: Life is really worth living because of you and your peers and enemies and friends and all of ‘em, but most off… Van Morrison…

Published Articles24 Jul 2007 03:36 pm

EastonAshe

Endless highway
The boundless drive of Valley band EastonAshe
By Molly Coulter
Published on 07/19/2007

EastonAshe. Photo courtesy of Diggs Communications.

If the band EastonAshe were tragically subjected to a high school senior class category, it would undoubtedly achieve “Most Likely to Succeed.” The band hails from Cave Creek and bares the title of “One of Music’s Hardest Working Bands.” The band books 300 gigs a year, leaving few scattered days to adjust focus from the members’ goals. The last tour covered 6,500 miles in eight weeks. The members invested $35,000 in to their album Can I Drive It? and the band will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, next week for 10 shows in 12 days.
     “We’ve always done it on our own,” acoustic guitarist, lyricist and singer Ryan Sims says of the band’s ability to play stages across the country with its gritty, yet precise rock ‘n’ roll. “We never used an agency. When you decide that you want to start touring you pick up a phone and start dialing numbers and that’s what we did. Do something big for yourself and your home town and start getting bigger.”
     Sims speaks like a veteran of the music business despite being a man in his mid-20s. He and his bandmates formed the current line-up in 2006, cherry-picking players from both coasts, but Sims got the band going when he was fresh out of high school.
     “I had decided when I was 19 I was going to forgo college and try to put together a rock ‘n’ roll band. Luckily I had the support of my family, so I went about finding the best players in the country,” he says. Sims found drummer Geoff Jouas among his high school alumni. In Baltimore, where the band grounded a home base for one year, they grabbed electric guitarist and singer Matt Henderson. And in 2006 bassist Nathan Marshall solidified the group. Now back in Arizona, three of the four members live together on a five-acre ranch in picturesque Cave Creek.
     “We’re four people with four completely different influences and you can hear those influences on any given night that we’re playing,” Sims says. He worries he’ll sound pretentious when he says the band makes “intelligently played music” that all comes down to the fact that “we’ve all taken a lot of time to really learn our instruments and hopefully that comes through in our music.”
     The band has a catalog of original songs that can easily fill a three-hour set, but the members aren’t shy to throw out some covers for kicks. As Sims explains the band’s stance on original versus cover material, his calculated reach for the audience takes priority.
     “We cover music from the early ’60s straight up to today,” he says. “We play everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Metallica and sometimes we’ll play Metallica in the middle of Simon and Garfunkel just to mess with you.”
     The band certainly can capture attention. Sims says fans encouraged the group to enter a contest by the producers of American Idol, but he isn’t concerned about the outcome.
     “We’re doing it for our fans,” he says. “People always tell us to enter contests, so we just made a DVD and submitted it. I’ve never even watched one episode of American Idol. I always thought it was kind of the cheater’s way of making it into the music business. I think we’ve worked too hard to make it that way, but I guess after five years of doing this, I’ll take my big break any way I can get it.”
     As the band inches closer to national stardom, Sims says the work ethic behind it keeps EastonAshe identifiable.
     “We’re willing to do whatever it takes,” he says, including playing five to six nights per week “because we have to.” Sims says the members don’t have real jobs and haven’t for awhile. They’re able to support themselves gigging night after night, but from our conversation I sense this is the only job Sims and his bandmates would ever dream to occupy.
     “If it’s in your blood, it’s there forever,” Sims says. “I’m OK being poor. I’m OK being hungry, but I’m not OK not playing music.”
     Be sure to see EastonAshe Sat, July 21 at the Party on the Patio at Flagstaff Brewing Co., 16 E. Rte. 66., to celebrate its 14th Annibeersary party, so don’t miss out. The show starts around 10 p.m. and the cover charge will be $5. For more information on EastonAshe, see www.eastonashe.net. For more information on the show, call 773-1442.

Published Articles17 Jul 2007 03:41 pm

What Laura Says

Neo tent revival
What Laura Says Thinks and Feels brings a traveling musical spectacle
By Molly Coulter
Published on 07/12/2007

Ennui before the storm: the five members of What Laura Says Thinks and Feels. Photo by Jeff Ambrose.

It’s mid-afternoon and the wind is picking up speed as you park your bike inside the garage. Cloud clusters dampen the sun’s rays and the temperature drops while you search your backpack for your house keys. Heavy rain on the horizon catches your eye, so you stand still and watch the rolling thunderstorm gain ground. Your serenity is shattered as a lightning bolt strikes within feet of your doorstep. A woman appears in the millisecond flare of light that surrounds you and a handful of witnesses. She says her name is Laura, and you say you’ve got a name for that band you’ve just started.
     That’s pretty much how four boys from Tempe came up with the name for their band What Laura Says Thinks and Feels.
     “It started one night during monsoon season,” says percussionist Jacob Woolsey. “I walked outside to watch the storm. A large bolt of lightning flashed and I closed my eyes. When I opened them there were four other individuals standing there who had the same experience. The lightning bolt flashed and stayed and a person was walking toward us named Laura.”
     The band name may sound emo, but the group’s style is anything but. It’s a breezy mix of pop and rock with folky undertones. Picture Brian Wilson or Ben Folds divided into five and outfitted in logo-clad T-shirts. Guitarist James Mulhern says the group incorporates “Southern blues, a little bit of swamp buckets, sandy, Beach Boys, three-part and four-part harmony, sugar, ‘Oklahoma,’ Rogers and Hammerstein, classic core and the dirt between your toes.”
     The five-piece formed 10 months ago in the Valley in a recording studio upon suggestion from outside players.
     “We all were in different projects and they put us together,” says bassist Mitch Freedom. “It all worked out because the first time we actually sat down in a room together it was magical.”
     The players’ median age is 24 and their aims are ambitious. However, shooting high from the get-go could pay off as the band’s sound is original and has great potential to launch.
     “We have an album out now that came out in February,” says Mulhern. “We want to take it as far as we can. We have some recording time coming up and a tour. We’d like to tour with national and international acts.”
     Thus far, the band has enjoyed heavy stage time in Phoenix and traveled to Tucson and Flagstaff.
     “The energy of the crowd is amazing and that’s mostly what we feed off of,” says keyboardist Danny Godbold. “One of our biggest assets is that our live show is a lot of fun. People dance a lot and generally good times are had. There’s not much of people standing around and twiddling their thumbs. It’s almost a church revival, I imagine.”
     The band members laugh as Godbold suggests the band’s shows are religious experiences, but their bassist Mitch Freedom expands on the sarcastic comment.
     “The dancing and the overall positive vibes that occur at our live happenings goes back to the whole revival thing and blues,” he says. “People think we play a lot of different genres, but it’s all very roots oriented, like the White Stripes. Old school is the new school. It’s really coming back around. That’s where we really strive to fit in.”
     What Laura Says Thinks and Feels will play the Monte Vista Cocktail Lounge, 100 N. San Francisco, Fri, July 13 with an opening act to be announced. The show starts at 9 p.m. and there is no cover charge. For more information on the band, see www.myspace.com/whatlaurasaysthinksandfeels. For more info, call 774-2403.

Published Articles09 Jul 2007 10:11 am

Hey Mr. DJ!

Variable vinyl
Three local DJs sweep the scene with synergetic sounds
By Molly Coulter
Published on 07/05/2007

DJ Marty King spins as part of Mogollon’s Wednesday ’80s night. Photo courtesy of Emmett White.

Madonna pulses from the speakers as Prince fervently waits his turns. Sporadic bursts of neon light blasts the packed, dark room. “Get into the Groove” ignites the hip kids busting moves on the dance floor. Just outside and around the corner the introduction to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” impels a whooping roar from the crowd and a stampede of dancers follows. No, it’s not 1988 on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It’s the stages at the Mogollon Brewing Co. and the Monte Vista Cocktail Lounge every Wednesday night.
     Local DJs Marty King and Emmett White spin a funky mix of ’80s music for Mogollon’s weekly madhouse, ’80s Ladies night. Their buddy Johnny Swoope hangs solo at the V, mixing a wider variety of dance music not obliged to the decade. The drink specials might draw in a few, but most crowd members come back for the party music, courtesy of the selectors who assert the crowd selects the playlist.
     “It really is so much about who’s there, not about who’s playing the music,” White says. “The vibe and the element—we’re one small part of that. I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of that.” The DJs consider themselves to be more like mood lights than the spotlight.
    “A lot of people can beat you over the head with whatever they’re feeling. You can have an idea of where you want to take it, but you have to build to it,” White says of DJs with poor party etiquette.
    “We have our music that we are really into, but I don’t know what I am going to play first,” Swoope says. “It depends if people are hanging out. You can feel right away when you walk in what the mood is.”
     Swoope first walked into the DJ booth 15 years ago. After raving through early ’90s parties in Los Angeles, Swoope moved to Flagstaff to help a friend bust open the local dance scene. Deep Down House came about, filling former nightclub the Alley from 1999 to 2002 on a weekly basis. Swoope joined King in a DJ crew fashioned by their mutual friend (and former Flag Live columnist) Reymont Cantil, a.k.a. DJ Rey Luv. Known as blume, the crew played bars and broke up the genre-specific format that dominated downtown. Crowds could hear a range of artists and songs instead of attending “jungle night” or a break beat show.
     “That kind of set a vibe for a different type of dance night in Flagstaff,” King says. “We were incorporating all over the map kinds of styles.”
     Swoope says the response was bright. “It was perfect for the time here. Everybody was ready for it.” White, a relative novice, spun a one-man-show every week before linking into blume two years ago. White says he’s been spinning for about three years, while King’s 11 years of experience developed from the rave scene in Phoenix.
     “I got into it because I needed a drastic waste of time and money,” King says. His retort is part joke, part concession to the records in his repertoire. King says the number of milk crates carrying his vinyl records stacks up to about half the floor space of his bedroom, or about 120 gigabytes in MP3 format.
     White says he’s gathered between 1,500 and 2,000 records over the years. Swoope says he has “probably about the same, but I’ve gotten rid of a lot of records. You’ve got to recycle it if you don’t play it.”
     Recycling is elemental in gathering a collection. The DJs scavenge record and thrift stores in every city they visit. “A lot of stuff we’re getting are hand-me-downs,” King says. “This is someone’s record collection from 15 years ago that they’re finally selling.” Swoope hints at the social anthropology of record shopping when he says “record hunting out of town gives you a feel for the neighborhood.” The trio agrees Bookmans, 1520 S. Riordan Ranch Road, supplies the best pickings locally and gives props the music manager Eric Polchowne.
     While the DJs don’t tote all of their records to each show, they set up with plenty of music at their disposal. King says he and Emmett bring 400 to 500 records to each ’80s night.
     “It’s like being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout—you’re always prepared,” White says. “That’s the key to being a really good DJ. They can tap into the feeling.”
     These days DJs can pull up just about any song they want and throw it into the mix with technological aids, which adds to the discussion of analog versus digital music.
     “Every B-level actor and any guy in an indie band calls themselves a DJ,” White says. “Any person off the street can download MP3s. You can get up with an iPod and call yourself a DJ and plenty of people do, but the physical element, the technique, the finesses isn’t there.”
     King says technology is blurring the lines, but a good DJ can use both analog and digital means to “switch seamlessly from a regular record to a file on your computer using the table as a medium.” Regardless of its sources, the final product is what’s important.
     “Part of the DJ’s job is to put together two parts at a time,” King says. “It’s going from one song to the other and making that ‘to the other’ as exciting as possible.”
     The DJs kick off a new night of dance music on Thursdays at the Monte Vista Cocktail Lounge, 100 N. San Francisco, starting July 5 around 10 p.m. Called Club Soda, the weekly gig will feature everything from Roxie Music to Technotronic. For more information, call 774-2403.

Additional photos for this story:

DJ Emmett White spins as part of Mogollon’s Wednesday ’80s night. Photos courtesy of Emmett White.

Published Articles28 Jun 2007 09:27 am

Showbot

The outer limits
Showbot’s local intergalactic funk
Photos and story by Molly Coulter
Published on 06/28/2007

I am a musical robot: Showbot bassist Marcus Ray (left) and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Jim Wildermuth.

On a faraway planet lives a primitive civilization devoid of music. The race intercepts a satellite transmission of famed American country singer Gil Grady and builds its faith upon his voice, mistaking him for God. Enter Shibubop Bao. The curious scientist introduces funk music to the now established Gilgradians in the form of Showbot, a music machine designed to teach the Gilgradians how to dance and bring in the funk. The Gilgradian government arrests the scientist for treason and forces him to live a life sentence behind bars. Now a freak without a leader, Showbot faces his solo mission to spread the word of the funk and launches into space. A massive vortex near Sedona pulls Showbot’s battleship to Earth. The robot travels north to Flagstaff and begins fundraising in downtown bars disguised as three local musicians.
     “If you’ve got a robot as your mascot, how can a comic book story not follow?” ponders bassist Marcus Ray of local three-piece funk group Showbot. The band incorporates elements of hip-hop and rock and roll in its sound, but its primary push is funk.
     The members cite the O-Jays, the Commodores and the Meters as their influences. Showbot covers these groups, as well as Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and atypical funk music from bands like Ween and the Flaming Lips.
     The story of Showbot weaves into the band’s original songs. Jim Wildermuth, who plays keyboards and guitar and leads the vocals, quotes a movie as he explains funk is an offshoot of soul. “Soul music is songs about struggle and sex. A lot of the songs we cover are about how hard it is to get by,” he says. “The comic book is the struggle. There’s the basic story and all these characters. Like Stink Tank, the alter ego. The song is actually about the comic book struggle but it has ties with struggles in reality.”
     Showbot formed one year ago as the remaining rhythm section of former local group, the Sundowners. Wildermuth, Ray and drummer Peter Meinel thought they’d take a stab at funk music after spending collective decades playing rock, folk and punk music.
     “Number one, we’re a funk band and a funk band is hard to come by these days in Flagstaff,” Meinel says. Wildermuth says most of the bands that play funk in Flagstaff do not make the genre their main focuses as they delve into jazz, punk and rock and invoke the jam band feel.
     “We’re really structured,” Wildermuth says. “We don’t improvise and we don’t sort of let it flow out. We sort of plan for improvisation, but it’s not all improv. Since there are only three of us, we have to practice.”
     A larger group with horns, DJs or multiple vocalists, the band members agree, can make improvisation its entire routine. “We are more orchestrated,” Meinel says.
     Wildermuth says the formal structure brings about “things that an audience member can really take with them. You can go out and a see a funk band play and not remember any of the grooves or lyrics, whereas because we are orchestrated you can really take something away from the show.”
     The band members say they are excited by audience turn-out thus far and are most satisfied by dancing crowds. “The surprising ones are the rock ‘n’ rollers as the rock ‘n’ roll kids still know good music,” Meinel says.
     Wildermuth says he wants Showbot to attract “music appreciators and people who like to dance.”
     “Funk music is powerful in that people don’t really want to dance to it—it’s that they can’t help but dance to it,” Wildermuth says. “Your body just starts moving. It’s a very universal kind of music. It’s always accepted on a Friday or Saturday night at a bar because it sounds like a party.”
     Showbot will co-host an upcoming party with local jazz fusion, funk rockers Livelihood.
     “We love Livelihood. We’re kind of kindred bands,” Meinel says.
     “We work well together and we both sound like a party,” Wildermuth says.
     The party starts Sat, June 29 at Mogollon Brewing Co, 15 N. Agassiz, at 9 p.m. Livelihood will play first and Showbot comes on at midnight. The 21 and over show is free of charge. For more information on Showbot, go to www.myspace.com/showbotmusic. For show details, call 773-8950.

Additional photos for this story:

Showbot’s Jim Wildermuth.

Showbot drummer Peter Meinel.

Published Articles25 Jun 2007 09:20 am

Delta Nove

Tour de (Delta) Force
The road warriors of Delta Nove
By Molly Coulter
Published on 06/21/2007

With national acclaim and a broadening spotlight, Delta Nove could become too big for our little mountain town, but luckily these guys can’t wait to head back to Flagstaff. On a recent trip to Los Angeles I ran into the band’s bassist, a 6-foot-plus, long-haired redhead called the Viking outside the House of Blues. We chit-chatted about the hippie-dippie doo-wop booming inside the venue and discussed D Nove’s next trip to northern Arizona. As I walked back inside comforted by the talented player’s humbleness, I said to my friend, “I wonder if these guys know they’re rock stars.”
     The world funk styles of Delta Nove feature a diverse mix of genres, fusing funk, rock, ska and reggae with a heavy mix of Brazilian samba, afro-beat and world music. The five-piece band from Long Beach, Calif., makes a stop on the patio this Saturday night at Flagstaff Brewing Co.
    Leeway’s Home Grown Music Network named the band Road Warriors of the Year in 2005, a title ripe with accuracy yielded from Delta Nove’s non-stop touring schedule. This summer Delta Nove will play a handful of festivals, including the Remember Jerry Festival in Sagle, Idaho. A few weeks back, the band joined the Everyone Orchestra featuring members of ALO, Railroad Earth, New Monsoon, Zilla and Boombox at Wakarusa Music Festival in Kansas after taking the stage solo for two sets. Delta Nove has rocked stages at home and afar, traveling cross-country to expose its skillful and imminent sound. After a few stints throughout Colorado, the band stops in Flagstaff and the Goat Head Saloon in Mesa before a run in northern California with a quick stop at home.
     The power behind Delta Nove’s infectious grooves comes from a score of instruments. Everyone in the band plays percussion during the show, whether it be behind the set like drummer Dominic Feedam, inside a circle of congas and hand drums like Heath Bennett or during the conclusion when the members wind through the crowd inviting the audience to join their conga line. It’s a revelry fueled with marching snare beats and a high-pitched lifeguard whistle that signal the D No show has come to an end.
     But afro-beat and Brazilian samba are only pieces of the band’s full high-energy sound. Bobby Easton on guitar and vocals and Matt Welch, most commonly known as the Viking, on bass and vocals employ a sharp rock edge and bring in the funk. Saxophonist Rob Covacevich also plays flute and clarinet, as well as sings, to unite ska and reggae with funk and world sounds. The combination is uplifting, to say the least. The powerful beats rouse even the stiffest square from his seat and insist every crowd member break it down on the dance floor.
     The band formed in 1999 and took the show on the road in 2002. Five years later and the band has amassed a roster of collaborators full of impressive and celebrated musicians including, Umphrey’s McGee, Steve Kimock Band, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Yonder Mountain String Band, Burning Spear, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Michael Travis from String Cheese Incident. Greg Ginn, founder and guitarist of hardcore punk band Black Flag, teamed up with Delta Nove this year in his studio, as well as on stage earlier this month.
     Delta Nove will play Sat, June 23 at Flagstaff Brewing Co.’s, 16 E. Rte. 66, weekend patio party. The show starts at 10 p.m. There will be a small cover charge, but you’ll be glad you came to the D No show. For more information call 773-1442 or visit www.deltanoveband.com.

True Story and Thoughts on...06 Jun 2007 02:27 pm

Truthiness

There are some things you shouldn’t admit to, like owning a Kermit the Frog collection. But I do.

Lately I’m overwhelmingly consumed with figuring out just what I’m supposed to do with my time each day. Where do I want to be and how do I get there? In this painful time of career and lifestyle exploration, at least I can fess up to a few hidden truths. Here goes nothing…

I like the songs "Toxic" by Britney Spears and "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani. In fact, I like Gwen Stefani. And Amy Winehouse. And The Dixie Chicks. And the song "Strawberry Wine" by Deena Carter.

I clean my ears out with cotton swabs and I know you’re not supposed to. And after I’m done cleaning them, I look to see how much ear wax came out. That’s gross.

I bite my fingernails. I really have to stop that.

I almost never read completely through a newspaper article on world affairs. I will, however, read an article on interior design or architecture from start to finish.

I have never completed an entire New York Times crossword by myself.

My bike has had two flat tires since last fall and I’ve yet to do anything about it.

I think people who ride motorcycles without helmets are morons and I will tell them to their faces.

« Previous Page — Next Page »