3 BANDWAGMAG.COM BANDS AND MUSICIANS Submit your MUSIC for review: BANDWAGON MAGAZINE 802 9TH GREELEY,ST.CO 80631 kevin@bandwagmag.com DraghoriaMUSICreview PG.13 PG.6PG.20 BANDWAGON MAGAZINE 2022 BANDWAGON PRESENTS INC.© @BandWagMag@BandWagonPresentsCheck us out! Advertising Information: gm@bandwagmag.com Editorial Info/Requests: kevin@bandwagmag.com Any other inquiries: bandwagmag@gmail.com CONTACT US Shinyribs' KEVIN RUSSELL GOES BIG. PERMISSION TO SHINE: ELY CORLISS Publisher KEVIN JOHNSTON Editor IN CHIEF CARTER KERNS art director DAN NATEENGLANDWILDE CONTRIBUTORS BIRTH, DEATH AND TIME IN THE SUN FINDS NEW JUSTINSUSTO'SDIMENSIONSOSBORNE
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Music lovers will find plenty of chances to tap their toes in Greeley this summer, beginning with the Friday Fests, every Friday now through September 16. The party kicks into another gear with the Greeley Stampede’s concert lineup. Classical lovers can look forward to a new season from the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. And local venues like the Moxi Theater have a full calendar of acts to get out and see. No matter your musical sensibilities, Greeley has every reason for you to keep tuning in throughout the summer and beyond. Stay Tuned to MyGreeley.com for what’s coming soon.
always strikesrightthenotes
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PERMISSION TO SHINE:
KEVIN RUSSELL GOES BIG.
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He left The Gourds in 2013, a band he’d co-founded and played with for nearly 20 years, to focus on Shinyribs, a project that gave him a chance to be, as he puts it, a “be nevolent dictator” instead of a member of a “sloppy de mocracy.” The Gourds’ democratic dymnamic had worn him down for so long that he compared it to a “five-way sexless gay marriage.” Some might call that a crisis, but to Russell, it was a chance at creative freedom.
“Never did I imagine,” he said, “what it’s become today.”
Shinyribs' Shinyribs'
“The odds were against me for sure,” Russell said in a phone interview with BandWagon, “but I felt like I had to do it. The Gourds were great, but it just went on for too long. I thought to myself that I had one more chance here. It was a now-or-never kind of feeling.”
K evin Russell was nearing age 40, and given the up heavals in his career, should have been facing the clichéd mid-life crisis. Instead, he gave himself per mission to be himself.
BY DAN ENGLAND
He never thought he’d have a horn section, for in stance, but hired some nice guys he called the “Ti juana Train Wreck” to play a wedding with him, and he loved the sound. Then he hired a couple back up singers for a Valentine’s Day gig, and that sounded great too. Then he found an incred ible pedal steel guitar player, and suddenly, he had a wild and organic but amazing band that looks, and acts, like a group formed by your cool old uncle and all his friends.
The result, which he will display at the Moxi Theater in Greeley on September 15 and at LuLu’s Downstairs in Manitou Springs on September 18, still leaves him a bit flabbergasted. He’s now the frontman and main songwrit er for a nine-piece behemoth of a band that is, by far, the most successful musical project he’s taken part in. At 55, he’s more financially secure, happier and artistically chal lenged than he’s ever been.
SHINYRIBS ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
MOXI THEATER IN GREELEY AND SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Russell’s joy and freedom of exploration isn’t limited to the music. He always used to do a conga line with The Gourds, a tradition he continues with Shinyribs, but now he dances a lot more. Some of it is even choreographed with the backup sing ers. He wears outrageous suits and will swap out his guitar for a ukulele.He does wonder what the audience must think of this old guy with a white beard and a pot belly dancing and having a lot of fun.
The eclectic mix gives him a chance to toss together Texas blues, New Orleans funk, horn-driven Memphis soul, some country, border music, roots rock and big-band swing. It’s weird and yet, Russell said, it appeals to everyone.
“I learned so much,” Russell said. “He had us write new parts and arranged all the songs up. Af ter that I realized I was a lazy songwriter.”Itwas,in fact, that time working with Campbell which may have empow ered Russell to go out on his own after years of kick ing it around. He’s since ed ucated himself on new studio techniques and uses more technology that allows him to explore more musical ideas. These days, there’s no doubt he’s the songwriter for Shinyribs, though he calls for help from the horns on writing their parts and doesn’t mind taking suggestions.
BANDWAGON PRESENTS AT THE AT LULU’S DOWNSTAIRS
“I wasn’t making any money at the time,” Russell said, “and I kept thinking, ‘Can I afford this?’ It was a gamble. But the product paid for itself. It was so great. We are now an instant party – wherever we go.”
“I do care what people think,” Russell said. “On stage, I just channel something. People ask me how I do that, and I just say: I gave myself permission to do it.”
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“Everyone has their opinions in the band,” he said with a laugh.
Russell was always a prolific songwrit er, but just before he left The Gourds, he became much better, thanks to Larry Campbell, a multi-instrumentalist who played in Bob Dylan’s band and pro duced the last Gourds album.
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“I've been writing songs for a long time,” Osborne says. Now 35, he was 12 when he wrote his first one. “I've been testing songs out live since I was like 16. It's just kind of a honed skill. As far as inspiration goes, I rarely write unless there's something spiritual or emotional I need to ex orcize. When I try too hard to say something, I don't say it Inspirationright.”surrounding their newest LP Time in the Sun, wasn’t hard to find.
“There were ravines growing be tween me and people in my life,” Justin Osborne tells BandWagon. “And with COVID, everybody got pushed back together. Some of those changes had to be faced head on.” Osborne is the commandant of North Carolina’s Susto and he’s just gone through some of the most intense years of his life.
BY KEVIN JOHNSTON
“I got married in 2018,” Osborne says. “We had a child in 2019. My daughter, Harriet, she's amazing. Becoming a parent, having a new human in the world that you're responsi ble for and that you have this deep love for ... and then … my dad died in 2020.”
“If humans are dimensional,” he says, “there's a whole new dimension of myself that was Susto’sawakened.”soundsits between Americana, psych-pop and the indie-rock church of root sy folk. A mix of satire and earnestness adds a roughness; a raised eyebrow setting it apart from rural radio. Its dark, drug-influenced sentimentality and staunch idealism is, at its heart, just barefaced American songwriting.
“There were a lot of attempts at reconciliation – my own be liefs with how I was raised,” he says. “I had avoided those conversations and being among my family because we couldn't communicate.”
Osborne was playing over 200 shows a year then, on the road before and after his wedding and leading up to and after his daughter’s birth. The pandemic, ironically, of fered rare moments with his ailing father.
“I actually got some really quality time with [my dad] towards the end,” he says. “I got a chance to say goodbye; I feel like I have closure. But then in 2021, my daughter's mom and I split up. And the album [Time In The Sun] came out like, right after.” He says the birth, separation and especial ly his father’s death, shed some light on him. But for someone who publicly satirizes his religious background, it wasn’t a “born again” moment.“Itdidn't make me believe there's some biblical deity,” Osborne says. “That didn't change at all. But I did recognize how difficult it was to navigate those things without that framework to fall back on; that community. Especially when my dad passed, I had to do a lot of pretending, I guess, to be a believer. Just to speak the language of the ceremo ny. And even consoling him on his deathbed – ‘Yeah, I'm gonna see you again,’ but in the back of my head being like: ‘if that's true, it's not in the way that we've been told.’”
“A lot of the things that happened forced a style of communication that is more understanding,” Osborne recalls. “Some people give me pushback still, like at my dad's funeral. And more recently at my grandma’s funer al. I played a gospel song. Some folks were less aware of my pub lic atheism, but some people were aware. They were like, ‘your grandma - you know what she’d really want is for you to mean what you’re saying.’”
CONT. ON PG. 15 13 BIRTH, DEATH AND TIME IN THE SUN FINDS NEW SUSTO'SJUSTINSUSTO'SDIMENSIONSOSBORNE
With titles like “R.I.P. Santa Claus,” “Chil lin’ On The Beach With My Best Friend Je sus Christ,” and “Hard Drugs,” there’s a lot of head-shaking, WTF moments. But what makes Susto stick is how real it all is, ground ed in Osborne’s life experiences.
“I'm trying not to disrespect,” he says, “but to participate in these big life events. Once you stop believing those things, it's hard to justify with your ego to even talk about it. But it's hard for people to accept you when they know you've been publicly against what they're all for.”
“Some of the songs are ready,” Osborne says. “Time in the Sun and this new record are very much siblings. Some were written during Time in the Sun. They didn't fit that narrative but they're part of the era.”Bringing the new music on tour comes with ca tharsis, and the band’s return to Colorado will be a highlight. “I love Denver,” Osbourne says, though his first ever visit to Greeley will be Friday, September 30 at the Moxi Theater. “I'm excited to be spending several days in Colo rado,” Osborne says of the September concerts. “It's going to be nice to be camped out in the state for a week.”Crowds are already singing the lyrics to the new songs at shows, and Susto plans to play old fan favorites too. “It's just a fun, blended set,” he says. “And the lineup of the band right now is great.”
“So, I don't feel like I lost my mind,” he says. “These are powerful substances, but it's silly that people say things like that without acknowledging the benefits.”
If Osborne hasn’t lost his mind, he’s certainly found his stride. On the heels of Time in the Sun, he seized inspiration from the chaotic ether, and an other new album is nearly done.
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“My collaborator Johnny Delaware rejoined the live lineup. It's really fun – the chemistry between the two of us – because we started the band to gether. We do a lot of harmonizing and it's been fun to rekindle that creative partnership. And yeah, we're definitely going to sneak in a few new songs.”
PHOTO: DYLAN DAWKINS | @PERSONA_LA_AVE
O sborne’s religious upbringing isn’t his only inspiring dichotomy. Susto’s 2019 album Ever Since I Lost MyMind is a reference to another culture clash.
BandWagon Presents Susto on Thursday, September 29 at LuLu’s Downstairs in Manitou Springs with King Cardinal and on Friday, September 30 at The Moxi Theater in Greeley with Plain Faraday. Tickets at BandWagonPresents.com –more on Susto at sustoisreal.com
“It's alluding to people saying that if you take psychedelics, you really lose your mind,” he says. “I'm not a crazy psychedelic partier or anything, don't get me wrong. But psychedelic experiences I had, earlier on in my life, really helped me recon cile some difficult things. It put me in touch with emotional tools that helped me navigate,” he says. I continue to kind of reap the benefits of responsi ble psychedelic use and I've seen people in my life benefit from it as well.”
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Nate Wilde BandWagon Magazine draghoria Dangerous Species
20 Colorado mainstay metallers Draghoria have long been a force to be reckoned with. Their latest effort, Dangerous Species, has not only maintained their place on the mountain but have effectively secured their territory at the top.
Draghoria is known in the Colorado community for sheer, sonic brutality, creating an amalgamation of old-school thrash and modern metal held together by forceful melodies, unmatched musicianship, and nods to a plethora of styles that scream (pun intended) pure metal. The band’s sophomore fulllength truly sees each member shine. Lead guitarist Ronald Carillo’s guitar work takes us back to the golden age of thrash, with virtuosic leads likened to the work of metal gods Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, and Kirk Hammett’s early work in Metallica and Exodus. (Likely no coincidence, the album art is reminiscent of Megadeth’s 1990 thrash masterpiece Rust in Peace.) This, paired with Carillo’s son Alex’s pristine and pulverizing blast beats and double kick drums, John Colucco’s fast, heavily picked bass lines, and Ryan Nevin’s ripping rhythm guitar work makes for a pure, sonic stick of dynamite. At the record’s forefront are the massive, blistering vocals of frontman Riggs. With lyrical themes complimenting Draghoria’s overall heaviness, Riggs delivers a consistent punch to the gut with impressive versatility. Picture the vocal cords of Testament’s Chuck Billy, Dimmu Borgir’s Shagrath, a growling Ronnie James Dio, and a little bit of AC/DC’s Brian Johnson thrown into a blender together. Douse the bloody, gory result onto the stage like Carrie White on prom night and you’ve got Dangerous Species. From the driving, double bass kicks of the title track to the brutal vocals of “Deaducation,” the Anthrax-esque shouts on “Terror Hypnosis” and “Murder Nation” to the final crushing note of “O- (Life’s Blood),” Dangerous Species is a massive reminder of Draghoria’s distinction as kings of the metal hill in Colorado. Dangerous Species is out now - buy it directly from the artist at Saturday,comdraghoriathrash.bandcamp.andcatchDraghorialiveSeptember10atTheMoxiTheaterinGreeley.NateWildeisthehostofSlackerMorningson94.3theX
BANDWAGON PHOTO OF THE MONTH CHARLEY CROCKETT | THE LINCOLN CHEYENNE | PHOTO: SHELBY TAYLOR-THORN
