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.

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.

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...

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.

update 2/24/11

D nation

For all of you Pisces and wanna be Pisces and friends of Pisces, we have put together a special show for you this Friday night at 7pm w/ Pearls 4 Breakfast, SoundRabbit and Greensleeves. It's a Pisces party, and Pisces are known to party. Pearls 4 Breakfast is new to us, but sound promising. SoundRabbit, playing at 8:30pm, is a killer pop band that should be world known by now since they are so infectious. Greensleeves is a deejay playing at 10pm and spinning disco, funk and old school hip hop. $5, Pisces get in FREE.

Saturday afternoon at 3pm we have a benefit show and silent auction for the West Arvada Dog Park, featuring the music of Open Range and Patty Jackson.

Saturday night we have a fundraiser for White Rabbit, an organization that is raising money for a youth center. The event starts at 7pm and will include a harpist, belly dancers and live drumming. There will be 30 artists on display, with sales of work going toward the youth center. A goth band called Beryl Beloved will play at 11pm. Donations accepted at door.

It will be a special weekend, benefiting youth, dogs and Pisces!

Yours,

D Notary

Extra Credit: We found out this morning that our friend, the poet Akilah Oliver, died last night. Rest in peace Akilah. Here is a selection from her poem Corruptions.

from Corruptions
by Akilah Oliver

Both of us so shy and I attracted to her translucence on display beneath chaotic knitted cap offsetting a deadpan sky, what passed for winter, a screen that made me want to go around saying “Dakota”, those clear consonants holding us dear...

She wrote me a picture that made a personal pronoun nascent

I wrote her a street in return, a green one with leafy things massing

She eventually began to notate scripture

I learned to run, to gallop

So bright, it is hallucinatory in this room, fear breaking like distant bones

I’ve navigated this life, somehow on the run


Standing here as I am away from Ave A, styling a Kmart coat rabbit fur lined collar & my afro wig, [writing in pauses] trying to capture the text



In recalling the details, I may have forgotten the particulars, of say, for example, rain



May I imagine well enough to live forever as this gunner, as this diviner, at rest at this port



May I want, again and, then, moisten the language.



Pull out of the closet, my shy mistress, Desire.

d note love letter 2/17/11

Hot D8,

This Saturday we celebr8 our 8 year anniversary. We've put together a gr8 show for you. First we have Brittany Williams at 7pm. Brittany is one of our servers and we predict a big career for this woman. She has one of the most subtle voices we've heard, and it is still developing. Plus her original songs are really something. At 8pm we have the legendary Angie Stevens. We are thrilled Angie has agreed to play for us on this special occasion. She's a remarkable musician and performer and we can't w8. Seriously, big crush rock and roll. At 10pm we have a killer reggae band called Coral Thief and we'll dance the night away. $8 cover, bring a friend (or D8) for FREE.

Friday night we have the return of 2:10 Special at 5pm for the free Friday afternoon concert. At 7pm we have the return of Mute Man's Microphone and Wheelchair Sports Camp. At 10pm we have a violin maestro and DJ Jeff Hughes. This guy has a long list of accolades, including playing at the Grammys in 2008. He plays a kind of hip hop violin over tracks he has produced himself. He comes to us highly recommended from a friend that said, "you gotta hear this guy this guy into the D Note".

Another way cool thing happening this weekend is O-Tone Brass Band playing for Music Train Family Concert at 4pm on Saturday. Bring the kids. They will be D lighted. (D lit?) $7 for adults/$3 for kids.

We have a guest teacher for Yoga this Sunday, Darcy Hagerman. Melissa Ivey, Adam Degraff, Brittany Williams and others will be playing meditative music to help support your peace and practice. Come join the community. Bring your own mat. Class starts at 10am sharp.

Next Weekend is a party we put together specifically for Pisces and all friends of Pisces. Pisces are in the door for free, so spread the word. Great Pisces bands on board too, Pearls 4 Breakfast, SoundRabbit and Greensleeves.

Zumba is also happening, as well as salsa lessons, blues swing lessons, mello cello brunch, baby boogie, open stage, and much more.

That's most of it. Google the rest.

Or dnote.us.

Love,

dnote.us

Extra Credit: A short line for a long week:

"If music be the food of love, play on." W. Shakespeare.

We will take this opportunity to play on and unveil the best conspiracy theory of all time for YOUR eyes only. The best version of the bible is the King James in our opinion. Why? Because this version is the one (in the English language) that pays the most attention to sound and music. Think of the psalms, how beautiful the language is, "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. " Well, the theory we propose is that Shakespeare translated the Psalms. King James invited the best writers of his kingdom to translate the bible. Shakespeare was a favorite of King James, having written Macbeth for him. (Now there's a morality tale fit for a King!) Here's the evidence. Shakespeare would have been 46 years old during the time the King James Version was translated. If you go to Psalms 46 and count 46 words down from the top of the psalm and 46 words up from the bottom you will see the words "shake" and "spear". My guess is that for some reason Shakespeare asked (or was asked) not to take credit for the translation. One can guess reasons. But Shakespeare, being the genius he is, found an improbable, possibly divine, link between Psalms 46 and his own age and used it to reach the clever person who first uncovered this fantastic literary Easter egg, whomever they may be. Pass it on.

Weekend update 2/10/11

D side,

This Friday night at 8pm we have a Flamenco dance performance by Cositas Buenas featuring Kevin Romero on guitar. $15/$12 students. One of the amazing benefits of the D Note has been the the immersion into different cultures, and Flamenco is perfect example. Who knew that there was such a strong contingent of Spanish music and dance in Colorado? We now know. By the way, if you want a Flamenco primer you can do no better than to start to with Garcia Lorca's essay on Duende. (google it)

After Flamenco we have the return of DJ Chonz at 10pm, definitely one of the best all around deejays in Colorado and we'll be dancing hard. Ladies free.

Saturday afternoon at 4pm we have Sentimental Sounds Big Band Jazz concert, which is a benefit for Sooper Credit Union Community Foundation. $10 suggested donation.

Saturday evening we have a big show featuring house favorites Stonebraker. Jon Boland will kick things off at 7pm, Zen Mustache at 8:30, Stonebraker at 10 and Broken Parts at 11:30pm. $5. Rock and roll!

Next Monday night is Valentine's Day and we encourage you all to come out and play a love song for your lover for open mic night. Add some D Note pasta and wine and could anything be more romantic? Sign up is at 6:30p and Jay Ryan will do his best to fit everybody in.

Next Tuesday at 7pm is an especially excellent songwriter showcase with Jason Vigil, Naor Nave, Jon Woodhead and Jay Ryan. You will swoon, guaranteed.

Next Saturday night is our 8 year anniversary party with Angie Stevens, Brittany Williams and Coral Thief, with a special poster art show by Matt Dougherty. Mark it down because we want you to be there to celebrate with us.

Love,

D ride

Extra Credit: A wintery poem by Adam DeGraff, a local poet whose poetry we first discovered on the side of a train.


Delayed In Central Station

The poetry of liberty. Writing on walls when no one's around.
Reading your own words as if feeling the kind gesture of touch.
The warmth of the touch, brushing against the back of your neck, caressing your ear. "My language trembles with desire."

The words are now embedded, the bride and groom wed.

Delayed by a snowstorm and a momentary ellipse
inside of Central Station, the center of all known
worlds. The center of nothing, all has stopped.
There is only time for this. This is everything.
The pen takes advantage of the lull
between the trains and fills the wall.

As slow as the mind will go. The mind is
making connections to worlds unknown.

Who is there? What is on the wall of your train?
These words dissolve. A man full of nothing, happy,
stops to look...

Train tagging in a winter wonderland.