Since the band’s beginning in 2008, FaceMan has developed a reputation of delivering entertaining live shows that combine original music and videos with an emotional performance.
Of all the Area Codes we’ve done so far, Denver is the biggest city, so it’s probably not a surprise that it has one of the richer histories of anything in the series. Before the jam band craze of the early-to-mid ’90s, Denver was long established as a friendly, scenic city conducive to folk acts (Judy Collins and John Denver) as well as jazz (Bill Frisell grew up there and Ron Miles is a mainstay). Now, the scene is kaleidoscopic and prolific, its components ranging from forward-thinking house music to exploratory psych-rock to jam to extremely left-field acts to straight-up garage and hardcore.
Marquee Magazine: David Thomas Bailey organizes Composer Collective to bring art music to the masses
“More Pabst, less red wine,” is Bailey’s motto for the project. “Let’s treat this like it is, music made by creative people, same as any band, no better no worse, ethically. The Colorado Symphony shouldn’t get to own it in their tuxedos and financial corruption,” Bailey said in a recent interview withThe Marquee.
The album that made FaceMan take off his mask is a self-deprecating, introspective analysis of the man behind the mask. With so much personal material on the table from the songs, hiding behind a mask seemed to be a futile attempt at anonymity.
Evidently, all you've gotta do to entice world class musicians to join you in the studio is ask nicely. Well, ask nicely when they're in town, that is. So last week, we told you about FaceMan extending an invitation to members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to join them at Uneven Studio and contribute to a trackFaceMan had been working on, and to his shock, they accepted.
Steve from FaceMan is pinching himself right now. Well, don't quote us on that. We don't know that for a fact, but we're assuming he is. He's gotta be. This Friday afternoon, his band FaceMan is going to be recording at Bryan Feuchtinger's Uneven Studio with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band before their show with Allen Toussaint and Buckwheat Zydeco at the Botanic Gardens. When the FaceMan frontman reached out to the band with an invitation to perform on his band's new album and sit in at the Gothic, he never dreamed that they'd respond, much less accept.
“I’ve played gigs in places that were really crappy, where the spirit isn’t good and I just didn’t feel any inspiration,” Bailey — who holds a Master’s Degree in jazz guitar from the University of Northern Colorado — explains of the impetus for the Locus Music Project. “And then I’d play the silliest gigs in the silliest places, and they were inspiring. I wanted to explore the way that certain places impact the music.”
Inspired by minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, as well as adventurous rockers like Tortoise, Bailey has taken his inspiration from these unusual venues and let them direct the music. The piece he’s written for the Confluence Park performance (tentatively scheduled for July 17) is written for a ukelele and a clarinet trio. The piece to be performed on Highland Bridge will incorporate the noise of the traffic passing below. In many ways, the Locus Music Project builds on a uniquely American approach to composition.
I've really been wearing out the play button on this track lately. The way it just starts off so easygoing and chill then builds to an explosive chorus only to smooth it back out once again gets this song stuck in my head for days at a time. "Darkest Day" is my first exposure to Faceman, and while the similarities to Franz Ferdinand are apparent, this unsigned act out of Denver has no problem adding their own unique vision to their music. Word on the street is these guys put on one hell of a live show and are quickly making a name for themselves at each and every venue they play. "Darkest Day" is off Faceman's self-titled debut album Faceman, and has been out for a few months now. Check it out below and let me know what you think.
If any other act had so little attention focused on their music during their CD release party, they would have thrown a massive fit. But that was all in the initial plans for FaceMan’s First Waltz.
Indeed, the evening had the feel of a rare showcase, an ambitious collaboration that eloquently highlighted the depth and breadth Denver's homegrown musical talent. While FaceMan used the forum to debut tunes from its ten-song album, the setlist was dizzying in its diversity. Guest players shuffled back and forth on stage, offering expansive, energetic versions of tunes from their respective repertoires.
FaceMan isn't just a band -- it's an entertainment experience.
The name FaceMan was chosen because originally the singer was anonymous. He would sit inside of this eight-foot face sculpture while videos were synced to each song in the eyes of the sculpture. We now have a metal face sculpture made by James Ronner. It is great…but heavy. FaceMan’s name is still unknown, although he now shows his face.
Still, the crux of FaceMan is Steve's songwriting. "DarkestDay" (all song titles, as well as the band's name, are mashed together without spaces) may be his finest and most evocative, with qualities equally indebted to Billy Bragg and Charles Bukowski. It certainly is exemplary: an unassuming folk-rocker with punishing lyrics. "I'm a loose nut/A whack job/I'm a crazy loser," he sings. But against that type, it's a stirring bruiser. There's an intended dialectic. "I think everyone hates and loves themselves," he asserts. "There's a lot about the project that's a duality. I live two lives. It's a powerful experience to admit publicly that you hate yourself. Most people don't have that avenue. Hickenlooper can't say, 'I'm a piece of shit, you know why?' "
The culmination of trolling his inner psyche is a Dionysian exclamation point for Steve. This Friday at the Bluebird, nearly forty musicians — Slim Cessna's Auto Club, the Knew and many others will have members present — will play thirty-plus songs from their respective repertoires for close to four hours.
DENVER - Members of the Denver-based rock band Faceman have a dream that one day local musicians will put aside their competitive differences, pick up their instruments, and play together.
The 11 songs that eventually became the forthcoming self-titled debut release aren’t a break-up album at all. From the Slim Cessna’s Auto Club-sounding first track “Darkest Day” to a 1980s era Lou Reed narration on “Fitting In,” FaceMan has crafted an incredible album that could easily stand on its own, without the mystery of FaceMan. The song “Colfax” for example, which talks about driving down the avenue and seeing “birds and trash and the beautiful lights,” could be one of the best songs about Denver in recent years.
I’ve never wanted this project to be expected. The mask included. Initially the mask was — Well … it was just to be anonymous. It’s like being in costume. It gave me this ability to be more creative in my mind. It created a sort of outlet. It’s like Halloween: You have this sort of unfound confidence when you have a really good costume, and you go to a really good party and you’re like, “Man, why am I such a badass tonight? One night only.” I just wanted to have that excitement, and I realized it gave me a lot of confidence for me to go [on stage] and do something meaningful. [Basically], the mask was never intended to be forever.