Westword July 29, 2010 : Page 50
$5 JAMESON/$3.25 COORS LIGHT HERMAN’S THE INFORMANTS NEW TALENT SHOWCASE EVERY WEDNESDAY! THUR JULY 29 TIM HILL COMBO • LILA BLOOM FUNK MUNKS • BLACK WATER (ROCK•FUNK) • DOORS 6PM FRI JULY 30 WESTWORD'S MUSIC SHOWCASE BEST BLUES BAND -2008, 2009 THE TRAILER PARK PLAYBOYS (ROCK & ROLL•BLUES) • DOORS 7PM SAT JULY 31 HALDEN WOFFORD AND THE HI-BEAMS ROGER CLYNE FEAT. JIM DALTON FROM THE RAILBENDERS ON LEAD GUITAR! THE CULHANES & THE PEACEMAKERS (ROCK•AMERICANA) DOORS 7:30PM THUR AUGUST 5 WHISKEY TANGO HAN HO • ZACH HECKENDORF (ROCK / ACOUSTIC) • DOORS 7PM FRI AUGUST 6 SEMI FINALS #1 AT THE FOREFRONT UNDECLARED PROJECT I.F.F. WHITE LEATHER $5 SOBIESKI VODKAS / $4 MIKE'S HARD LEMONADE DOORS 7PM SAT AUGUST 07 LOCALPALOOZA AFTER PARTY CALIFORNIA’S Edstanley (AS SEEN ON MTV’S THE HILLS) LOST POINT PUSHING DAISIES•STILL ISAAC•CHET AND THE BENDERS! PRESENTED BY WHISPER FIERCELY (ACTIVE ROCK) All tickets for sale at 50 WWW.HERMANSHIDEAWAY.COM WE RECYCLE rough mixes BANDS CALL 303-777-2535 1578 SOUTH BROADWAY • 303-777-5840 End Game E How would you defi ne the kind of music 20:12 makes? I would defi ne the music we make as merging with a sexy brand of hip-hop, intent on dispelling any lingering stereo-types about what Latino music is supposed to be, the members of 20:12 (The Juice, Role Pl-A and DJR 2) fi rst earned their stripes in the twelve-person act Devoted Union. The three eventually parted ways with the group when they realized they were heading in different directions. With a polished stage show, enslaving hooks and vocal skills to match, 20:12 is ex-panding its reach with the help of Latenite Entertainment. The outfi t’s latest effort, a mixtape with DJ Psycho called The Party of Revolución, is due out this week at a dual release show for the Eric Heights-directed video Por Aquí Por Allà, featuring Spoke In Wordz. We caught up with Role Pl-A and asked about the group and the new mixtape. Westword: Tell us a little about 20:12. Role Pl-A: 20:12 is a movement. It’s a symbol to change life into something you want it to be, something that everyone can benefi t from. Wedon’t necessarily believe the Mayan calendar to mean it’s the end of the world, just a powerful change and the end of a lifestyle. 20:12 also represents our heritage; “The Mexicans” was already taken. [Laughs] Reverential A very focused and fresh. I feel we have an original style of being lyrical in both English and Spanish. Every song wemake,wemake with a purpose. Wecompose them to make the listener act or feel a certain way.Wehave the song that’ll make you want to overthrow the government, some to make you move to the beat, and others to make you forget your problems. So what’s up with your new mixtape and the release party on the 30th? The mixtape release is going to be huge for 20:12: We debut our first music video ever, which I think fans will really enjoy, and of course for the launch of The Party of Revolución mix-tape mixed by DJ Psycho. We’ve worked hard to bring together what weconsider the complete Colorado mu-sic-scene experience. We have some very talented artists throwing down, and we’re excited to perform with such honors. How do you feel you fi t into the Colorado music community? I feel like we’re in uncharted territory. lthough the names Nahum, Soul Bender and the Bedraggled are probably lost on most people familiar with the work of Rever-end Deadeye,from the early ’90s until 2003, Brent Burkhart played in those dark, experi-mental rock bands before launching his solo side project. Casting off former pseudonyms like Saint Absinthe, he embraced the music of his youth as Reverend Deadeye. “The music that I play now comes from an earlier time period of mylife, from when I was a kid,” Burkhart explains. “The music I listened to in high school pushed me away from that. I started listening to myold records again, like releases on Canaan Records, and they had crazy old bands like Hemphills, the Happy Goodman Family, the Blackwood Brothers, a lot of quartets. I defi nitely had some Louvin Brothers, Johnny Cash and Chuck Wagon Gang. Country gospel is the basis of what I do now.” Burkhart developed an appreciation for the soul-fulness and authenticity of gospel music and the emotionally stirring power of tent revivals growing up. The son of Christian missionaries from a church in Greeley, he came of age on a Navajo reser-vation in northeastern Ari-zona. Meshing gospel with the blues he came to em-brace later in life, Burkhart struck upon a sound that allowed him to perform the songs alone or with mini-mal accompaniment. In his early shows as Reverend Deadeye, he came across as a wild-eyed preacher pos-sessed of fi ery rhetoric and an absolute conviction in his message. For years, Dead-eye played shows in Denver and became something of a staple in the scene. In 2008, Burkhart’s Originality is something that Colorado de-serves; when we reach out to other states, we love to put it down in a way that the audience has never seen before. They flip when they hear we’re out of the CO. Let’s not forget, there’s a big music scene within the Mexican community here,with bandas, mariachis, and a plethora of other genres in the Spanish-speaking market that we don’t believe anyone’s tapped into. 20:12 Mixtape release party and video premiere, with Hyp-nautic, King Tee, Spoke In Walnut Street, $5-$10, 303-717-8852. Wordz and more, 8 p.m. Fri-day, July 30, Casselman’s Bar and Venue, 2620 The Latino community accounts for nearly half of Colorado’s entire population, and we defi nitely believe we’re breaking down bar-riers to other ethnicities. Though we are growing more successful in Colorado, we gotta hand it back as well, because with-out all the support Colorado showed us, we wouldn’t have become what we are today. We’re just trying to give back all we can to the people who make us 20:12. There have been hat-ers along the road, mostly because of misunderstand-ings, but nonetheless welovethe Colorado music scene. We write for the Latinos, but webelieve wecan coexist with one another. When we say La Raza, we don’t just mean Latinos — we mean the people. — NICOLE CORMIER Reverend Deadeye has an intense gaze, no? Reverend Deadeye With Ross Etherton and the Chariots of Judah, 9 p.m. Saturday, July 31, Paris on the Platte, 1553 Platte Street, $7, 303-455-2451. personal life took a turn for the worse, compounded by the death of his father, and he had something of a crisis of conscience. He decided to embark on a nomadic lifestyle and tour as often as possible. In your thirties, this kind of decision probably seems foolhardy, but in many ways, it has paid off for the Reverend, who was one of the subjects of the film The Folksinger, as well as the German documentary Can’t Take ItWith You When You Die! With tours of Europe under his belt, Burkhart has found a receptive audience there, and his latest album, The Trials and Tribulations of Reverend Deadeye, was recently released on the Hazelwood imprint in Germany,where he played a show for 350 people. “In Europe, being an artist is a legitimate thing to do,” says Burkhart, noting the dif-ference between that continent and ours. “You don’t get looked at like a second-class citizen. Here, if you do any kind of art, people wonder what you’re going to do with it. But when you make a certain amount of money, you’ve made it. Then you’re okay.” — TOMMURPHY JULY29-AUGUST4, 2010 WESTWORD | BACKBEAT | CAFE | ART | THEATER | MOVIES | NIGHT+DAY | CITY LIMITS | OFF LIMITS | ¡ASK A MEXICAN! | LETTERS | CONTENTS | WORST-CASE SCENARIO | westword.com ERIN PRESTON
Rough Mixes
Emerging with a sexy brand of hip-hop, intent on dispelling any lingering stereotypes about what Latino music is supposed to be, the members of 20:12 (The Juice, Role Pl-A and DJ R 2) first earned their stripes in the twelve-person act Devoted Union. The three eventually parted ways with the group when they realized they were heading in different directions.
With a polished stage show, enslaving hooks and vocal skills to match, 20:12 is expanding its reach with the help of Latenite Entertainment. The outfit’s latest effort, a mixtape with DJ Psycho called The Party of Revolución, is due out this week at a dual release show for the Eric Heights-directed video Por Aquí Por Allà, featuring Spoke In Wordz. We caught up with Role Pl-A and asked about the group and the new mixtape.
Westword: Tell us a little about 20:12.
Role Pl-A: 20:12 is a movement. It’s a symbol to change life into something you want it to be, something that everyone can benefit from. We don’t necessarily believe the Mayan calendar to mean it’s the end of the world, just a powerful change and the end of a lifestyle. 20:12 also represents our heritage; “The Mexicans” was already taken. [Laughs] How would you define the kind of music 20:12 makes?
I would define the music we make as very focused and fresh. I feel we have an original style of being lyrical in both English and Spanish. Every song we make, we make with a purpose. We compose them to make the listener act or feel a certain way. We have the song that’ll make you want to overthrow the government, some to make you move to the beat, and others to make you forget your problems.
So what’s up with your new mixtape and the release party on the 30th?
The mixtape release is going to be huge for 20:12: We debut our first music video ever, which I think fans will really enjoy, and of course for the launch of The Party of Revolución mixtape mixed by DJ Psycho.
We’ve worked hard to bring together what we consider the complete Colorado music- scene experience. We have some very talented artists throwing down, and we’re excited to perform with such honors.
How do you feel you fit into the Colorado music community?
I feel like we’re in uncharted territory.
Originality is something that Colorado deserves; when we reach out to other states, we love to put it down in a way that the audience has never seen before. They flip when they hear we’re out of the CO. Let’s not forget, there’s a big music scene within the Mexican community here, with bandas, mariachis, and a plethora of other genres in the Spanish-speaking market that we don’t believe anyone’s tapped into.
The Latino community accounts for nearly half of Colorado’s entire population, and we definitely believe we’re breaking down barriers to other ethnicities. Though we are growing more successful in Colorado, we gotta hand it back as well, because without all the support Colorado showed us, we wouldn’t have become what we are today. We’re just trying to give back all we can to the people who make us 20:12.
There have been haters along the road, mostly because of misunderstandings, but nonetheless we love the Colorado music scene. We write for the Latinos, but we believe we can coexist with one another.
When we say La Raza, we don’t just mean Latinos — we mean the people.
- Nicole Cormier
Reverential
Although the names Nahum, Soul Bender and the Bedraggled are probably lost on most people familiar with the work of Reverend Deadeye, from the early ’90s until 2003, Brent Burkhart played in those dark, experimental rock bands before launching his solo side project. Casting off former pseudonyms like Saint Absinthe, he embraced the music of his youth as Reverend Deadeye.
“The music that I play now comes from an earlier time period of my life, from when I was a kid,” Burkhart explains. “The music I listened to in high school pushed me away from that. I started listening to my old records again, like releases on Canaan Records, and they had crazy old bands like Hemphills, the Happy Goodman Family, the Blackwood Brothers, a lot of quartets. I definitely had some Louvin Brothers, Johnny Cash and Chuck Wagon Gang.
Country gospel is the basis of what I do now.” Burkhart developed an appreciation for the soulfulness and authenticity of gospel music and the emotionally stirring power of tent revivals growing up. The son of Christian missionaries from a church in Greeley, he came of age on a Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona.
Meshing gospel with the blues he came to embrace later in life, Burkhart struck upon a sound that allowed him to perform the songs alone or with minimal accompaniment. In his early shows as Reverend Deadeye, he came across as a wild-eyed preacher possessed of fiery rhetoric and an absolute conviction in his message. For years, Deadeye played shows in Denver and became something of a staple in the scene.
In 2008, Burkhart’s personal life took a turn for the worse, compounded by the death of his father, and he had something of a crisis of conscience. He decided to embark on a nomadic lifestyle and tour as often as possible. In your thirties, this kind of decision probably seems foolhardy, but in many ways, it has paid off for the Reverend, who was one of the subjects of the film The Folksinger, as well as the German documentary Can’t Take It With You When You Die!
With tours of Europe under his belt, Burkhart has found a receptive audience there, and his latest album, The Trials and Tribulations of Reverend Deadeye, was recently released on the Hazelwood imprint in Germany, where he played a show for 350 people.
“In Europe, being an artist is a legitimate thing to do,” says Burkhart, noting the difference between that continent and ours.
“You don’t get looked at like a second-class citizen. Here, if you do any kind of art, people wonder what you’re going to do with it. But when you make a certain amount of money, you’ve made it. Then you’re okay.”
— TOM MURPHY
