February Music Appreciation ~ Some Fav Bands' New Drops 28Feb23

We are already past Valentine's Day, so my spring concert dates are filling in nicely... next up live is King Princess @ Belly Up in Aspen with Yoho; that will be completely awesome. KP is an great newish artist who finally appeared on NPR Tiny Desk and is at Belly Up Aspen, my fav club sound, this weekend.

• King Princess... we are going to the after party in Aspen.
  

Still, recorded on YouTube is excellent from my seats in homes, and it allows faster audits of current and new favorites. Here are some recent drops from some of my more favored artists.

• Cuffed Up - Live On Audiotree 14Feb23 - Cuffed Up, LA, they made it prior to KEXP so yeah; wait. I love the right LA music. Just some EPs so far. Wicked cool. Panicked duo-leads is what attracted me. But Saphire has been replaced in this recent offer. Hmmm... new lady is fine but flat and not even credited, which is strange AF. I'm gonna remove them from the watch list. No live shows ~ no problem. Yet, if you wanna listen to the last Cuffed Up, head HERE for a listen-point and French Exit... where's Saphire now? If you ask me, go Asymmetry or don't go at all...
  
  
• Screaming Females - Mourning Dove & Desire Pathway 17Feb23 -  The prolific Marisa Paternoster is an awesome guitarist and writer. She fronts a tight NorJersey/Philadelphia hard rock band. I like nearly everything they do and I am finally getting to see them live on tax day at the Marquis. Her latest album of many is Desire Pathways and it's again worthy of the style, if not a smidge more pop sounding. Don Giovanni has and has had a big win here.
  
  
  
• Alex Lahey - Lahey did some keen stuff with her partner Gordi, also an strong Aussie, during the pandemic, but I've not heard much from her dissonant punk pop till very recently on the Official Vid For Good Time, grrr. Sure I snagged tix to her show in my hood... The Answer Is Always Yes. This especially since she cancelled the last show with The Regrettes (probably a good move, as their vibe has moved distinctively pop). Too, her version of Nat Imbrulia's cover of Torn is very good on Triple J.
  
• Sweet Pill - Yeah, anything they've done is very good. HERE is more of the current album live from Philly (Sep '22). Of course I have tickets to Black Sheep for their CO debut!
  
  
  
  
  
• The Beths - Auckland conservatory musicians ~ I tried to catch them on the N Island @ home in Auckland when there recently but they were touring the US. Uhh...they still are, so I grabbed tix for here in Colorado.
  
  
  Sure they are backed by all NZ public radio and works offer... 'cause they are they are that good. From the beginning they've been bizarrely integrated - especially the leads. Yes, Stokes leads with a cool AF breaking voice and Pearce follows with backing voice and shred lead guitar... but integration is complete here. The beat boys join vocals too. Their vibe is fun and their sound is gold. I sacrificed my ethics (staff accosted me on my last outing to this venue) as The Beths are playing. HERE is the recent, and uber-cool, ...Dying Field from them.
  
• Ani DeFranco - Peg & Scooter are inbound to the Nest so a perusal of Summit acts for that weekend is suggested. Ani is playing; she is one of the OGs in DIY and go direct. She's awesome so we have tix. HERE is her some recent stuff. HERE is her big time stuff 10 years ago.
  
• Sharon Silva - Since The Wild Reeds have stopped collaborating, and my fav of their contributors, Sharon Silva, "left" the band, I follow her separately. She remains singularly spectacular as a songwriter and performer. You can only find her on super-small studio releases; it is very worthwhile to so do. HERE is her most recent drop (there are 2 songs).
  
• boygenius - The Record is to be their latest album and they (or in solo concerts) have been playing pieces from it. Still there are no great live recordings of the new stuff... but there are lyric and official vids from The Record; here a playlist of what's in the can thus far. Worth it. UPDATE 3/1/23: Live HERE ~ 1st time since 2018.
  
  
  
• Neko Case - Neko is dropping new stuff ~ and it's like her to be of a uber-nature-vibe, even at live events. HERE she's at Lung in mid-'22 with Carl Newman, yeah of New Pornographers.
  
   
   

Fishing The PT 28Feb23

It's a nice temp today on the Front Range so I headed down to Pueblo for some early tailwater action, despite the 20mph wind forecast. I hooked up twice around the Walkbridge Hole in town but now that I use a jig barbless lead fly I learned not to tie the droppers off the bend, as they can come off. That happened and a couple good fish took off with my dropper bugs, a blood midge and a Pop Top. Despite these I didn't really see a lot of fish in town. I retied through the Perdigon eye, reloaded and headed to the Nature Center section. I chose the Rodfather Cobalt Cutbow, a fast 9' 5+ that can slice the wind. It was great.

Out of the NC I went straight to "the farm" and scored the 18" beta female (show) and alpha male (netting) from there. Both took Coffin's Pop Top and this time the dropper line held. I saw lesser bug sign today that my last outing here. I think the wind might have a smidge to do with that.

Spawning activity is not "on" but some redds are being finned and some randy behavior like the chases has already begun. Colorado is so cool.

Skiing And King Princess Show 24Feb23-26Feb23

Jim & I headed up to Summit County to grab some runs, meet a friend in Vail, and hit the King Princess show at Belly Up. I drove up Thu after the tough Wed snowfall but the roads had been mostly cleared ~ we went through Frisco so stopped at ORB for a pop and then enjoyed good pho in Silverthorne that night. We did some tunes training on the NestT to ready us for the concert.

We were fortunate to again get nice snowfall Thu night. Vail, our host target for Friday, received 6"-8" of new fluff and while this made for a tougher drive on Fri morning, it was worth it. So was meeting up with an old friend from FNet, Jeff Gibson. Don't ever imply that North Carolinians can't shred ~ in addition to plenty of accomplishments in tech, Jeff is an endurance athlete and damn nice skier. It was great catching up with him and enjoying some good conditions from all over Vail's terrain.

Jim & I headed back to Summit and mostly laid low at the Nest that night. I did alert him to The Expanse and what a UHD + HDR TV setup can do. Saturday came and I took a "painful thighs day" on the couch and watched some TV... it was a weekend after all and lacrosse season has arrived. Once the legs could move we did briefly go out to introduce Yoho to the newest brewery in Summit Co, Syndicate, close by in Silverthorne. Sunday was a big day... we headed out to Beaver Ck to ski before moving on to the Roaring Fk Valley for a concert at a fav club there named Belly Up. We skied all over BC from Arrowhead to Bachelor Gulch to Grouse Mtn to Larkspur to the new McCoy Park (fun but green glade area). Fun day but we stopped a smidge early so as to not exhaust before the show. Snowfall began again as we got to the car but the drive west was fine. We stopped at our hotel in Basalt to check in and prep for dinner and the show. Jim found a great place within walking distance: Heather's, it was excellent.

After dinner we napped a skosh then headed to Aspen. The drive was a little wet & snowy. Arriving in Aspen we scored position A parking right next to Belly Up, and free. We were the 2nd team in line for the GA show, right behind four KP superfans traveling together from Canada. It was a cold night and staff didn't start the heater till they came to let us in for doors @ 8pm. Fi Sullivan opened. She is an experimental electronica dance music artist from Denver and while she actually sang well, I couldn't get around the sameness in the thumps.

The King Princess show was excellent... Belly Up sound was good as usual though I did think the mix should've boosted her lead vocals a bit. Nonetheless, awesome. For the unfamiliar, and there are many as she doesn't chart often, King Princess, 

Mikaela Mullaney Straus, is Brooklyn multi-instrumental pop artist with a great voice, some songwriting skills, and strong showmanship. Her biggest hit is "1950" off of the original EP, Make My Bed. She recently dropped her 2nd album, Hold On Baby, with Mark Ronson. She's got a strong catalog already (and a boatload of official music vids and a breakthrough 1st album, Cheap Queen) and delivered a very good show. Belly Up was only 50% full though this night ~ the price of the "reserved" seats was $300 (our GA tix were $100) and while that section was empty, the mosh pit was full of teen lesbian fans and others in adoration. KP even called out the superfans from the front of the queue, mentioned earlier ~ traveling for as many KP shows as they can get. We were close to all the action to see the self-avowed  "saltiest gay pop star." I think she really enjoyed the smaller crowd and club atmosphere as she's mostly opening stadiums for bigger bands right now.

 

Good rock from a cool person... she played keys, bass, lead and acoustic through the show... and passionately belted her songs, often engaging the front row fans face to face. Her costume change was mainly to drop her "Apres" cover to her waist and play some songs then douse it altogether for the rest of the set. The accompanying band included drums, keys, bass, and lead guitar... Ronson wasn't there, on stage at least.

If you have not had the chance to catch her stuff ~ do so; she's big already and will only get bigger. I recorded only one song fully from the show ~ it's a brand new one, unreleased on recorded media as yet. Cool - I think the song title is "We Can Be Together" but it might be "Fuck In The Kitchen..."

Decent 1st Fish Of '23 US, A Slab Cutbow ~ Coffin's Pop Top Works 17Feb23

It was the first nice day since a snowy cold snap on the Front Range, and the 1st I've been here to enjoy it. So, I headed to Pueblo and landed my 1st good slab cutbow of 2023. A hefty 19"er. He was colorful for the pending spawn. I targeted him and his 3 buddies at the bottom of a weir hole out of Nature Center. I fooled him with my Pop Top winter midge in grey, which also took some other cutbows. Awesome brief fight on the Rodfather Diamond Blaze 4 wt. The weather was great @ ~45° and sunny. It's nice to be fishing.

Bro Brown's Guyz Ski Week '23 02Feb23-06Feb23

Wow, the subject Guyz Ski Week was the largest in which I've participated! Folks came out of the woodwork to slide again with my big brother Brown and hang in Summit at The Lodge. Steve, Richard, Brad, and Connor rambled in from the far northland and desert and were joined quickly by Scott.

Wed 02Feb23... We hit Keystone that first day with bluebird weather, though no  new snow. We did not hook up tightly at Keystone that day as I was later to arrive (I prefer dubl digit temps) but skiing was solid and a view of our 'hood in the Gore, from KS, was excellent.

Yoho joined me @ The Nest and we all partied together on Wed. There were plenty of beers and custom totties that first night. Tunes were rockin' on the NestT till early AM hours. Sweet Pill. Would arising for an early start be an issue?

03Feb23... Our friend Scott thoughtfully brought each of Steve & me cool signage gifts for our houses. Thanks buddy! We skied Keystone again in continued stellar weather. It was Jim's first day out this season - woohoo. We tamed the intake, soothed the bones in the spa, and dined separately where we noshed Thom Ka Gai. We closed watching flix and went to bed early.

04Feb23... It was Breck day and a chance to meet up with my friend Dave. Yoho & I drove to Valdoro pretty early and guest-parked in comfort in his covered condo lot ~ nice. We three shuttled to the slopes and scored some runs on Pk 10 before the others arrived. Soon enough though we met up with the rest of the circus. The team was augmented at this point with Derrick & Jacob (Steve's sons), and Austin. We made a hell of a squad shredding over 30Kft of vert all over Breckenridge. We devised a plan to hit all peaks in order: 10, 9, 8, 7, & 6.

Scott, Dave & I broke from the team for some keen runs down Whale's Tail and Horseshoe but that did not stop us scoring the "All Peaks" challenge.

Dave had to head home at the end of skiing; he's bearing in on an all new product release for which he owns significant dev responsibilities ~ till next time my friend. The rest of us headed to the awesome Outer Range Brewery where Bro Brown & I scored our Feb 4 packs and we enjoyed some Bird Cafe food and tasty brews. Getting the "everybody look mean" seems always off a smidge. Once home, Steve made tasty ribeyes, I made bourbon cassis sours, and then the night rolled on with more "tunes training" on the NestT with featured guests Derrick, Jacob and Austin. Derrick and I might've disagreed on a few musical nuances but it's all good ~ we had a blast.

05Feb23... Jim headed home; Bro Brown's Guyz headed to Beaver Ck where Kyle (Richard's kid) joined the ski week. Steve and his boys skated & XCed @ Breck Nordic for the day. I did similarly, but on Dillon Rez on XCD gear (check that depth of field). We chilled separately and I got some work done finally shutting down irys Networking.

06Feb23... Summit Co received a few inches of new snow overnight and the contest was pretty tied among the resorts ~ we hit Keystone again. Dennis & Glen joined the team. Our plan to park at Mountain House free base is working well - a small walk to the lift and mostly we can ski all the way back to the car. After an awesome day out on the Outback, mostly on the north side glades & bumps, we stopped at the Outpost Stube for a rest. Starting again, I was pleased to find plenty of stashes in the trees off of North. It was another fairly large day for the entire team.

We hit the latest Summit brewery to open, Syndicate, for some fine and festive beers. Later I was able to convince Scott to share some tasty Evil Haze Factory with me; we didn't even wrestle this night. Richard made a nice chicken and veggie bowl over noodles for dinner and I concocted Brad's Delight for us ~ banana/blackberry/lemon/cream/rum. I hosted Dennis for some tunes @ The Nest... everyone was dutifully trained this week. We mostly said our goodbyes that night as I expected to bug out on Tuesday to see Kala and do stuff on the Front Range.

It happened that way in 2023. Too, I am proud once again to be the least visible one on the team... I stand in the ski patrol spot awaiting my mates when in the lift lines and mostly they can't see my black & olive drab vibe; nor do they see me coming or going out on the slopes.