13 minute read
Crooked Rugs
THAT!
Gabe Allen
BandWagon Magazine
There is a cultural, dadinherited fondness for flipping through AM radio channels while driving late at night. Among the usual mix of sports and religious radio, you’ll sometimes get a signal that bounces down from far away bringing a magical moment (before you lose it) of good music from who knows where.
The Crooked Rugs’ new LP, THAT! is what you’ve been searching for on that AM dial all of these years – something that manages to sound otherworldly and familiar at the same time. In their follow up to January’s IT!, the band draws from every era of psychedelic rock, further refining their sound.
Most albums these days are constructed haphazardly — a collection of songs to be chopped up and repackaged into Spotify playlists. THAT!, though, seems to have an intentional structure, starting out intense and frenetic, then pensive and thoughtful before devolving into chaos on “Slugface,” the final song.
Tracks like “Brain Squash” and “Big Groove” are dominated by crunchy guitars, heavy bass and distorted vocals, reminiscent of modern psych-garage rock acts like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Ty Segall and Osees. "Everything You See,” the first song to surface after the torrential grooves of the first few tracks, is propelled by interweaving electric piano and rock organ. Whether consciously or not, the band channels first-wave psychedelic rock — somewhere between Jefferson Airplane and the Doors.
Though definitely more jammy and less math-y than IT!, there are still a few tracks that showcase the bands’ musicianship. “Say It Again” sounds like a Dave Brubeck and the Moody Blues collaboration, and “Jams To Fall Asleep To” is a post-rock diversion with babbling synths and reverby guitars.
In the end, THAT! isn’t quite as focused as the Crooked Rugs previous effort, but that’s the beauty of it. Er, that. THAT! sounds like you just happened to walk in off the street to witness a group of excellent musicians on an inspired, peyote-infused 40-minute session. The band clearly can’t stop making music, and we clearly can’t stop tuning in through the static.
THAT! By the Crooked Rugs is out now. Catch them in Fort Collins October 8 at Surfside (supporting Hoveriii) and
October 23 The Emporium. Visit thecrookedrugs.com for more.
Featured ARTIST
OF THE MONTH
Classically defined, a motet is a medieval piece of music in several parts. Today, we might simply call that a jam, and maybe that’s what drummer Dave Watts was thinking in 1998 when he founded what would become one of Colorado’s most well-loved live acts.
With a cast of inspired instrumentalists and vocalists over 20+ years, The Motet maintain those ancient polyphonic concepts, though always layering a fresh coat of funk, rock, and soul on top. Known for surprising their die-hard audiences with top-tier special guests, they have other tricks and treats up their sleeves too.
Every October since 2000, the worldtraveling entourage return to their native Colorado, offering the highlight of their touring season: their legendary Halloween shows. Since the onset, the affairs were full-on interpretations of acts from The Beatles to Prince.
As of 2013, they've taken an even more “polyphonic” approach to the Halloween concept, covering an evening’s-worth of hits from a particular year’s Billboard top 100 chart.
So while Colorado audiences may not know exactly what to expect from this year’s Motet Halloween, one thing's for sure: the band delivers a killer show with musical chops so good it’s scary. – Kevin Johnston
THE MOTET
THE COLORADO SOUND PRESENTS THE MOTET AT WASHINGTON’S IN FORT COLLINS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29; TICKETS AT WASHINGONSFOCO.COM
REASONS TO LISTEN TO THE COLORADO SOUND • MORE COLORADO ARTISTS • KNOWLEDGEABLE DJS WHO LIVE HERE • NO COMMERCIALS • • UNIQUE PROGRAMMING YOU DON’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE FROM BEASTIE BOYS TO BILLIE HOLIDAY • 105.5FM & ONLINE AT COLORADOSOUND.ORG
TECH N9NE
NEW TORMENTS IN A FASTER WORLD
DAN ENGLAND
Even when he’s in bed, trying to calm his crazy mind so he can sleep, Tech N9ne keeps his phone within reach. He never knows when the next lyric will come, and when it does, he wants to be sure he gets it down.
That’s the kind of devotion you’d expect from a rapper who’s recorded 14 albums (with one on the way) and has, as his new single says, "Been Thru A Lot." But it’s also the kind of work he has to put in (even as he’s turning 50) for his record label Strange Music.
Tech N9ne, otherwise known by his birth name Aaron Yates, just wanted to be a rapper when he began in 1985. He joined several groups in addition to his own act and signed three record deals. But none of them worked out, and he admits that he had as much to do with that as the fickle nature of the actual music business itself.
He got his pseudonym from the rapper Black Walt in tribute to his unusually quick, choppy style, which Walt thought resembled the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun. At the time he usually painted his face in ways that made him look, well, scary. But he refused to play into gangsta rap trends despite his name. He wanted to play the game his way.
When a millionaire, Travis O’Guin, liked his style and said he would put up money to form a label with him back in 1999, Tech jumped at the chance and called it, appropriately enough, Strange Music. Founded in 2000, the two remain 50/50 business partners today.
“I didn’t know I would be pushed into that,” Yates said, “but I was a black man with a red face and record labels didn’t know what to do with me.”
He knew he wouldn’t have the labels’ marketing machines behind him, so he’d have to win over fans one show at a time.
“If you want to be the hip-hop president, you have to politick,” he said, “and how we politick is on tour. We constantly had music in the market; constant touring and constant albums, and we grew a base.”
Tech N9ne will appear at The Lincoln in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on October 24 as a part of that constant touring. The tours truly never seem to stop and the hard work has paid off. He’s since sold more than two million albums, with some gold records, and has the respect of the entire rap community, both for his music and his business. In 2015, Eminem appeared on his album Special Effects – for free – as long as he agreed to return the favor. Tech admits the move left him “flabbergasted.”
“I was in my own world, painting my face and doing my thing, and you don’t know if people are paying attention,” he said. “But I know I push people to go harder now.” Indeed, many of today’s true rap technicians have collaborated with Tech pro bono.
He formed his own style after Slick Rick and Ice Cube, a different era when rap was rap, not the blended, autotuned, genre-fluid hip-hop it is today.
“Everyone is singing now,” he said. “Back in our day, we prided ourselves on lyrics. [Today] they pride themselves on vibe.”
And Yates doesn’t say this derisively. He loves some of the “vibe” music, and he knows eras fade and styles change; he’s persevered through them himself. There are still pure lyricists out there — Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer, for instance — and personally, Tech believes he’s still relevant. “If my style wasn’t still in the times, I wouldn’t be on tour,” he said. “I wouldn’t be selling. There is something out there for everyone.”
After decades in the biz, he’s made it work even while eschewing many of the standard moves of other rappers. He’s made his hometown, Kansas City, his home base after spending some time in New York and L.A. He still spends weeks at a time in those places to work, but he comes home to his three kids and makes it clear where his heart lies: In 2019 he released “Red Kingdom,” a tribute to the Kansas City Chiefs, which turned out to be one of his biggest, all time chart-toppers on Billboard.
“Kansas City is my comfort zone,” he said. “That’s where my family is, my uncles, my aunts, the love of my life.”
Tech plans to keep touring at 50 and pushing the edges, even if no one would blame him for slowing down. Yates is seven months sober, he said, and despite wanting a drink “bad,” it’s helped make him better as a performer. "I’m getting faster,” he said. “The youngsters still want me on their records. I’m getting more crisp and precise. It’s crazy.”
BLUE PIG PRESENTS TECH N9NE LIVE SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24 WITH RITTZ AT THE LINCOLN IN CHEYENNE, WY AS PART OF THE "STRANGE NEW WORLD TOUR.” SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE KING ISO, MAEZ 301 AND JEHRY ROBINSON. TICKETS AT THELINCOLNCHEYENNE.COM MORE ON TECH N9NE AT STRANGEMUSICINC.COM
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Wreckno Wreckno
B-QUEEN DROPS IT LIKE A BOSS
GABE ALLEN
Over the past year, an unlikely icon has burst onto the EDM scene. Brandon Wisniski, known eponymously as Wreckno, creates earth-shaking bass drops, raps about pulling up on your dad and refers to himself as a “FULL TIME BUSSY BOPPER” on Twitter. He may be the biggest, loudest, gayest producer the bass scene has ever seen, and he’s just getting started.
“Medusa,” Wreckno’s breakout collaboration with GRiZ, served as an anthem at pride celebrations across the country in June of 2020. In June of 2021, the young emcee followed it up with PANSY, a six-song EP that reclaims a word long used to oppress queer boys and men. Now, Wisniski is touring hard alongside CloZee and Dirt Monkey. He will make a stop through NoCo to play the Aggie Theater along with fellow DJ and vocalist Megan Hamilton on October 23.
Wisniski’s music melds together the aggression of old-school gangster rap with the manic energy of bass music and the glamour of a drag show. It’s a perfect fit, but it has never really been done before. While there are queer bass producers, like GRiZ, and queer rappers, like the excellent Cakes Da Killa, no one has merged the two genres with the devotion and mastery that Wreckno has. Like most good artists, though, it took a long time for Wisniski to find his voice.
In 2012, Wisniski was a Lady Gaga-obsessed 16-year old in Northern Michigan. Creative expression was important to him already — he learned dance routines from pop music videos step-for-step and tinkered on music production software with his brother, Dakota. That summer, he bought a ticket to Electric Forest, an earthy EDM festival in Rothbury, Michigan. The experience changed the course of his life.
“I didn’t have anybody to be with, but this group of people from Colorado took me in. They could tell I was too young to be there
alone,” Wisniski tells BandWagon. “It was my first festival experience, and afterwards I was like ‘I need to fit this into the rest of my life somehow.”
It would still be many years, though, before Wreckno graced festival stages. Wisniski soon dropped out of high school and spent his late teens and early twenties “wooking it — being a fucking wook.” He moved in with friends at 17, got deeply into hula hooping and made just enough money to pay rent and get tickets to the next big show.
Before too long, though, the neverending EDM circuit took its toll. At 23, Wisniski wasn’t getting anywhere with his music, and he had developed an all-consuming stimulant addiction. He couldn’t afford rehab, so he moved in with his conservative father and stepmother. When he relapsed soon after, they kicked him out of the house. His grandparents were the last people left to take him in.
“In my head I was like ‘if you don’t make this work you’re going to be one of those people that is just the problem all the time,’” he said.
In order to stay occupied, Wisniski poured all of his energy into music. Six months after kicking his habit, he was booking shows. Now, two years out, he’s at the top of his game. If you want proof, go watch the double video for “Honey Drip” and “Hieroglyphs,” two of the opening tracks from PANSY. It features Wreckno in chest-length pigtails, black lipstick and a yellow, puffy, gangsta bumblebee suit, seated atop a glamorous floral bouquet, with dancers from the Detroit Pistons cheer squad and excessive quantities of, yes, honey.
But as exciting as Wreckno’s singles, EPs and videos as are, there’s nothing like the real thing. Wreckno’s live show is immersive — goofy, frenetic visuals that sometimes read “error: bussy overload,” stacks of amps and subwoofers and the engaging, enigmatic man himself at the helm. Wisniski dominates the stage with the unmistakable energy of a born performer, making his bussy, buzzing fans flock like bees to their queen.
DON’T MISS WRECKNO LIVE, OCTOBER 23 AT THE AGGIE THEATER WITH MEGAN HAMILTON, THE FINAL SHOW OF HIS COLORADO RUN, INCLUDING 10.21 IN DENVER AND 10.22 IN BOULDER. TICKETS AT AGGIETHEATER. COM FOR EVERYTHING ELSE WRECKNO, VISIT LINKTR.EE/WRECKNO
The Burroughs The Burroughs with
with the greeley the greeley philharmonic philharmonic orchestra orchestra
The Burroughs bring The Burroughs bring a modern twist to classic soul music, teaming up with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra for one truly a modern twist to classic soul music, teaming up with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra for one truly unique performance. unique performance. America’s premier America’s premier shadow-dance company uses light, color, video, dance, acting and more to tell beautiful, intriguing shadow-dance company uses light, color, video, dance, acting and more to tell beautiful, intriguing stories on stage. stories on stage.
NOV. 6 NOV. 6
The Silhouettes The Silhouettes
