Thursday, March 31, 2011

D Note love letter 3/31/11

D hive,

First thing's first. If you have Facebook then please "like us" on our page. We'll send updates of our pizza specials and special events. Plus you'll be part of the community and that is what it is all about.

Next, a story. This Tuesday the band Something Underground was playing a benefit at the D Note and a six year old girl got up on stage and belted out a song with the band. The song sounded like a classic, but we couldn't place it. We found out later from the band that they didn't know the girl. The girl wanted to sing a song with the band and the band gamely agreed. The girl couldn't give any direction to the band except to say the name of the song, a song which, apparently, she made up. The guys didn't know what to do until the girl said, "Okay guys, let's rock!" So the band started playing a 4 chord progression and the girl just started singing her song, hitting all the chord changes, building to a climax and wowing the audience. It seemed like she was an old pro, but she told the band it was her first time performing on stage. It was an incredible moment all the way around and inspiring to see a six year old get so wrapped up in the music in such a raw and powerful way.

Now for the news. This Friday, April 1, we have Oakhurst back in the house for an April Fool's Show. We always love to have Oakhurst in the house as they are a great bluegrass dance band, but we're extra excited this time because they've added one of Adam DeGraff's songs to their mix, "Twango". Come learn to do The Twango with us on Friday night. Dr. Harlan's Amazing Bluegrass Tonic opens the night at 6:30p, Dielectric Sound at 8pm and then Oakhurst takes the stage around 9:30pm. $10.

Saturday at noon the Music Train Family Concert Series presents Beatles Revival. Yellow Submarine? Octopus's Garden? Check and check. $7 adults/ $3 kids.

Saturday at 7pm we have our spring Hafla, with special guests Fuego Fusion (from Las Vegas). $7 adults/$5 kids. Lots of dancers and music by Yallah!.

Then at 10pm we have our favorite world fusion dance band, Mono Verde. We are really lucky to have bands like Mono Verde at the D Note and hope you won't let the opportunity to come hear them pass you by. You can pretend you are taking a trip to Rio or the tropical destination of your choice, because that is how this band will make you feel.

Heads up. Next Saturday night, April 9, we have a CD release party for Swing Je T'aime (an incredible Gypsy Jazz style swing band) followed by an an all female Wutang tribute band at 9:30p!

We a lot more going on during the week, so check out dnote.us for the rest of the scoop.

Yours,

D Scape

Extra Credit:

Starlight
Philip Levine

My father stands in the warm evening
on the porch of my first house.
I am four years old and growing tired.
I see his head among the stars,
the glow of his cigarette, redder
than the summer moon riding
low over the old neighborhood. We
are alone, and he asks me if I am happy.
``Are you happy?'' I cannot answer.
I do not really understand the word,
and the voice, my father's voice, is not
his voice, but somehow thick and choked,
a voice I have not heard before, but
heard often since. He bends and passes
a thumb beneath each of my eyes.
The cigarette is gone, but I can smell
the tiredness than hangs on his breath.
He has found nothing, and he smiles
and holds my head with both his hands.
Then he lifts me to his shoulder,
and now I too am among the stars,
as tall as he. Are you happy? I say.
He nods in answer, Yes! oh yes! oh yes!
And in that new voice he says nothing,
holding my head tight against his head,
his eyes closed up against the starlight,
as though those tiny blinking eyes
of light might find a tall, gaunt child
holding his child against the promises
of autumn, until the boy slept
never to waken in that world again.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

weekend update 3/24/11

D Rex,

It is a amazing how far things like music and humor will go to help give you a lift when you need one. So we shall try to provide you with both, in case you might need one. First the humor:

A woman walks into a bar. Bartender says, "What can I get for you?" The woman says, "I'll have a double entendre please". So the bartender gave it to her.

Now for the music:

Our old friends The Duke Street Kings will be kicking it this Friday night 7-10pm. This is a benefit for Habitat For Humanities. $8. Rock and roll.

At 10pm Friday we have a free showcase for Velcro City Records. This is a very cool electronica label. Check out the wicked flyer and more info here.

Saturday at 4pm we have a ballroom dance lesson (given by Booths Danceport) followed by a big band performance by Serenade In Blue. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

At 8pm we have five indie bands. This show was curated by Bonnie And The Beard, a band that blew us away when the played the D Note in the fall. The line up is Crook's Coat, FaceMan, Bonnie And The Beard, Woodrose and SlakJaw. We are super excited for this one.

We are also excited for a strangely dynamic show coming up this next Tuesday. First Something Underground is going to play a benefit to help cover some medical expenses for our friend Laurie Anderson's daughter. Donations welcome. Then at 8pm a progressive indie rock band from Ithaca NY called Ayurveda is coming back through the D Note. Since they've been here last they've put out a concept album that has been getting raves. We're looking forward to hearing it live. Then we have a very cool local band called The Raven And The Writing Desk. $5.

Also, did you know we have one of the longest lasting and best salsa nights in the midwest? Every Sunday night. Just a reminder, in case you forgot. Only $8, includes a salsa lesson and a rotation of salsa orchestras. It gets tropical up in here.

In,

D formation

Extra Credit: While trolling the Facebook we stumbled across a poem by Stephen Ellis that caught our attention. We breathe a little more life into it here, for those of you paying close attention.


TAME

Mind's ice rendered

glass, the window


through which to stare

as if there were



an outside to break

into: Madness is just



the spike already

rusted deep within



my arm that keeps

these seizures close



at hand. If there is

a bird in sight, why am I



not riding on its

back? Is it force of



circumstance that I be

standing on a stone?



"Winged chariot," they

always scoff: "Just be



fantastic and lie back down

in bed." I bled



for the right to be

torn apart, and now



my time has come.

The gold is only ever



clear when the bowstring's

pulled all the way



back. Hear the music?

See the chardonnay simmer



in my vacant eyes? I

dissolved my father's



teeth in it. And now

streets and fields of



green once his are

unalterably barren,



pissed on, grown wild

and completely mine.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Weekend update 3/10/11

Symphony in D,

As we write this we are listening to a mix tape called Lullabies and Dream Songs, which you can download free on rootstrata.com. This is a website that puts out roots music "mix tapes" that derive from a little specialty record store in Mississippi. Just thought you might like to know about this treasure trove.

This weekend we have some amazing music for you. First we have Bop Skizzum. Bop is a band that knocked our socks off at the D Note a few years back. They were on hiatus for awhile as front man Andy Guerrero was busy with his band The Flobots, who blew up to national status. Now Bop is back, with Guerrero intact, along with Serafin Sanchez and the rest of the crew. The word is they are even better than they were before. Strings Like The Sun, a tasty indie rock band from Arvada, will be opening at 7pm. The great DJ Chonz will join Bop Skizzum during the end of their set and spin into the night. It should be one of the thousand or so best nights in D Note history (as Phil the door man likes to say.) $7/$10 (under 21)

Saturday at noon we're having our annual Rummage Sale and Community Charity Donation. Clean out your closets and pick something new up too.

At 4pm Saturday we have Steal Hearts and Fervor. Fervor is indie rock and Steal Hearts are more folky. $5.

7pm Saturday we have a benefit for Dry Bones, an organization that helps homeless kids get off the street. Sarah Peacock, a country pop singer from Atlanta GA with a bouyant style will be playing for this benefit. $5-$10 suggested donation.

9:30pm Saturday night we have a very cool trip hop style band called Love Royale. This band features the drumming of our friend David Petry and the music is very cool.

Sunday morning yoga led by Nicki Viera w/ live meditation music w/ Melissa Ivey and Adam DeGraff was beautiful last week and we hope you can join us this week. Starts at 10am sharp. It is a wonderful way to start the week.

Hope to see you soon,

D Symphony

Extra Credit: We heard a song by Cake the other day that seemed to go in this space, about a dark symphony, not in D, but in C. Written by Cake's John Mccrea.


Commission a Symphony In C


So you'll be an Austrian nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions

You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
With money you squeeze from the peasants

To your nephew you can give it as a present
This magnificent symphony in C

Completely filling the palace concert hall
It's warm and golden like an oven that's wide open
It has a melody both happy and sad
Built on victorious known triads

You've entered the room with great caution
Though no one in the hall is even watching
They are transfixed
They are forgetting just to breath
They are so taken by your symphony...
In C

You're sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death

So you'll be an Austrian nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You'll be commissioning...
A symphony...

Thursday, March 3, 2011

weekend update 3/3/11

D rigueur

One of the truly wonderful things about the D Note is being a part of the musical community of Colorado. There are communities within communities and they cross over one another in myriad ways. It would be a fun exercise, if we but had the time, to make Venn diagrams of the overlapping circles. A good place to start the diagramming would be this Friday at the D Note. We have a show that features several performers who could be considered scenesters, or better put, supporters of other performers. One of these bands include Quillion, who has a very tight connection to the D Note. They know everyone at the D Note, but also know seemingly everyone else in the scene and so do their part to stitch it all together into a crazy Quillion quilt. Q Diva Experience also will be playing and you will meet the souldful and dynamic lead singer Quana everywhere once you meet her once. Kristina Ingham and Elana Rogers are performing Friday night and ditto. They all know each other and support each other too, and the result is a whole which is even greater than the powerful parts. Come experience the love, starting at 7p on Friday. $5

At 11p on Friday we feature another great scenester, Chris Budin. We once went to a drumming party in Chris' basement where he played house music while we all drummed. Chris is going to be doing a DJ set at the D Note Friday night with live drumming and it will be wicked. (BTW Budin's band Oakhurst will be playing the D Note April 1st).

Tyson Ailshe's jazz trio will be opening the night Friday with a free concert at 5pm, a spirited way to start your weekend.

Saturday we have 14 hours of music planned. (A serious marathon for our sound engineer. Let's hear it for the amazing Greg Rendon.) First we have Zumba (dance excercise) at 10:30am. Then at noon we have a garage band recital by Music Lessons Of Westminster. At 5pm we have a recital for the (very) advanced students of JT Nolan. These students will have one of the best back up bands you could ask for with Matt Skellenger, Kailin Yong and Paul Muliken. We're envious! At 7:30pm Drew Schofield Band will be taking the stage, followed by the blues rock of Blind Child. And at 11pm the indie rock band SuperSeed will be playing. $5. Whew!

Sunday morning at 10am we have a new yoga instructor, Nicki Viera, who comes highly recommended. Melissa Ivey and Adam DeGraff will be there playing music for the yogis and meditaters.

Then at 11:30am Sunday morning we have a new monthly residency (first Sunday of the month), an electronica house party for ravers and the kids of ravers dubbed Sunday School. Resident deejays Tom Hoch and BioJeff will be spinning house music. This is a chance for those of you that, until you had kids, used to dance all night to get back on the floor WITH your kids. You can have it all. We'll also be featuring, as usual, our fantastic brunch menu of breakfast pizzas and frittatas. Mello Cello Brunch will be back next week and resume the rest of the month. $5 adults/ kids free.

Next Tues is Fat Tuesday and we are having a party with The D Note Mardi Gras Krewe featuring the Joseph Barton Trio at 7:30pm. $5. There will be specials on Hurricanes and Jambalaya.

Next Friday night we have Bop Skizzum in the house. Yes.

In,

D mando

Extra Credit: Turns out Charlie Sheen is a poet. Here's a sample of some of his recent work.


In the Air and On the Ground

I got magic
And I got poetry
At my fingertips
Most of the time
And this includes naps.
I’m an F-18
And I will destroy you
In the air,
And I will deploy my ordnance
To the ground.

Like Lambs to the Slumber

So just shut your traps
And put down your McDonald’s,
Your magazines,
Your TMZ
And the rest of it,
And focus
On something that matters.
But you can’t focus
On things that matter
If all you’ve been is asleep
For forty years.
Funny how sleep
Rhymes with sheep.


On Deaf Ears

Did you say Cancun
Or caboose?
I don't know,
I was in a blackout, man.