It was about as star-studded as Broomfield gets. But maybe the North Metro city should get used to the glitz and fanfare.

10:57 am March 4, 2010

Here’s your February soundtrack…don’t forget the champagne

by French Davis / illustration by Zachary Williams

It’s February, and that means it’s the most important holiday for romantics looking to express affection in a socially acceptable manner: Groundhog Day.

Seriously, Valentine’s Day is little more than a nauseating display of polyester teddy bears and chalky heart candy, but it does provide an excuse to break out a list of the greatest torch songs in history. You could probably find these at Bart’s CD Cellar, but since they’ve been shuttered (rest in peace, West End landmark), you’ll have to do your due diligence online to find this collection, a perfect CD mix for your candlelight dinner:

February 2010 Issue

by James Burrus

Last year’s legislative session saw a barroom brawl between craft brewers and the liquor stores that sell their suds and the big corporate grocery chains that want to be one-stop shops. The question of whether to allow supermarkets to sell liquor, wine and beer was narrowly defeated last year. Temporarily beaten back, the grocery stores threatened to return this year with more heavily funded lobbyists intent on seeing the law changed.

February 2010 Issue

by French Davis

Gregory Alan Isakov landed in Colorado by way of Philadelphia after his family emigrated to the U.S. from South Africa during the height of apartheid. The Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray loves him, as does pretty much every fan of the singer/songwriter genre from Pueblo to Fort Collins—and lots more across the country. Isakov’s poised on the brink of national recognition, thanks to a recent tour with Brandy Carlile, and another soon to follow. Here, he talks about Nick Drake, the ’80s and his passion for horticulture.

February 2010 Issue

For those who don’t like heavy metal, you might as well leave the room. Local band The Mandrake has put out a new album called Black Prophecy (Crash Music, Inc.), and this killer album is a head-banging heavy metal sensation that makes you want to dance all around or mosh.

January 2010 Issue

Too Much Joy finds very little joy with their record label dealings

by French Davis

The newspaper industry is dying.

Yes, I know, it’s not exactly a revelation to you. It’s old news, and you’re probably sick of hearing all about it, especially from some self-serving so-called journalist
who’s whining about losing a paycheck. Big deal, you think. The truth is, the industry has no one to blame but itself (and Craigslist, at least somewhat): it got fat and lazy and couldn’t protect itself when the lean, wild and woolly Internet came bearing down on it.

Much like the music industry. “Woe is us!” claim the major labels. “The Interwebthingie is stealing all of our money!”

Or not. Tim Quirk doesn’t think so. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, at least as far as his band is concerned. Quirk played for Too Much Joy, a mid-range popular band in the ’90s that was signed by Warner Bros. Quirk also works for Rhapsody, an online music provider, so he has a uniquely unobstructed view into the record label’s ivory tower.

To summarize: Quirk received a 10-page statement detailing the band’s recent earnings from digital distribution of their Warner Bros. releases (the physical albums are not being pressed anymore). That statement revealed they had earned $62 and change.

The band never “recouped.” That’s label-speak meaning Warner Bros. never recovered what they spent on the band from the band’s share of the retail price of their albums. It’s an important, if obfuscated detail, because Warner Bros. made plenty off of their own share of each album sold. So any royalties earned go right back into the label’s coffers. So Too Much Joy wouldn’t get the $62. But they’ve also earned $12,000 on downloads of tracks from albums on their own labels.

Quirk dug a little deeper and discovered a host of other potential inaccuracies and unexplained discrepancies, leading him to the conclusion that Warner Bros. simply couldn’t be bothered with accurately tracking digital sales of music from un-recouped bands.

“The sad thing is I don’t even think Warner is deliberately trying to screw TMJ and the hundreds of other also-rans and almost-weres they’ve signed over the years,” Quirk said in a blog post on toomuchjoy.com. “The reality is more boring, but also more depressing. Like I said, they don’t actually owe us any money. But that’s what’s so weird about this, to me: They have the ability to tell the truth, and doing so won’t cost them anything.”

Simply put: Warner Bros. is, at best, struggling with a significant glitch in their tracking mechanisms; at worst, leaving money on the table they should be collecting.

Either way, it’s hard to feel empathy for a big business that’s complaining about people sneaking in through the back door and stealing their money when they’re throwing it out the living room window with a shovel.

Or, as Quirk puts it: “…it is also possible that labels are evil and avaricious AND dumb and lazy, at the same time.”

January 2010 Issue

And other booze-tastic tid bits

by James Burrus

For those who love their craft-brewed beer as much as they love their dog(s), Brian and Becky Bennett have created a fetching tome that pays heartfelt homage to the two ubiquitous things we cherish most in Colorado.

January 2010 Issue

by French Davis

Josh Blue leapt onto the national scene with an irrepressible sense of charming, self-deprecating humor thanks to his win on Last Comic Standing’s fourth season run. The comedian’s ability to win over judges by poking fun at his own disability (he has cerebral palsy) was a juggernaut through the competition; since then, he’s made a career out of it, touring the country and performing on virtually every major network. Here, he talks about tying his shoes, making fun of Yo-Yo Ma and his aspirations to open a legal pot dispensary.

January 2010 Issue

BETC’s SantaLand Diaries will shove holiday spirit up your yule log

By Andra Coberly

The holidays are about tradition. And they are about doing things for the good of tradition—because your mom wants to see the Nutcracker for the 64th time, because your dad adores fruit cake, because your wife wants to take the kids to see the “good” Santa at Cherry Creek. Blah, blah, blah.

1:52 pm December 14, 2009

What else are the holidays if not a chance to enjoy the finer things— wine, beer, vodka. YS gives insight on some spirited presents.

by James Burrus

Stashing for the holidays
The stealth gift that will reap huge rewards is an aged case of imperial beer. Like fine wine, high alcohol beers age and mellow with time. Varieties brewed now will taste much different in March or April—and even better a year from now—as hops, malts and other flavors mellow, meld and combine into a delicious maturity. Buying a case (or mixing varieties) and stashing it in a cool, dark corner of the basement (where temperatures remain cool and constant) makes a great gift next year. Good candidates include Avery’s Kaiser, Salvation, Czar or Maharaja ales; Left Hand Brewing’s Smokejumper Imperial Porter (if you can still find it), Widdershins Barleywine, Oktoberfest or Oak Aged Imperial Stout; Great Divide’s Wood Aged Double IPA, Espresso Oak Aged Yeti or Old Ruffian; and Boulder Beer’s Mojo Risin’.

December 2009 Issue