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Of Montreal friends/opening act Icy Demons share some of their cool with Denver
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The Icy Demons sound like a taste of the rainbow (photo courtesy of their Myspace.)
Chicago's Icy Demons’ roots can be traced through the Elephant 6 degrees of separation. The Elephant 6 Recording Company began as a collective of musicians who planted a seed in the Denver/Boulder area in the mid-90s, then cultivated their music in Athens, Georgia. The E6 gave birth to bands like The Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Dressy Bessy, Neutral Milk Hotel, and many others, spreading all over land and genre with a notoriously pseudo-psychedelic sound.
This Petri dish of connections, collaborations, and general influence then spawned bands like Ladybug Transistor, indie-superstars Of Montreal, and Bablicon, the band that would bring Griffin Rodriguez (aka Blue Hawaii) together with his friend Chris Powell (aka Pow Pow) and several others to form Icy Demons.
If you were to take that awesome late-60s group The Fifth Dimension, crack them open, and play Operation with their insides, the result would be Icy Demons. The Demons create freaky kaleidoscopes of melody that trickle over tribal beats, with the resulting sound appearing in tangible, pop music-sized packages.
I caught a few moments with Rodriguez of Icy Demons via email recently, and he gave me a little insight into this tangle of amazing musicians that spans dozens of bands and over a decade or so of music history.
Bree Davies: Icy Demons is a super-group of sorts. How did you guys initially come together?
Griffin Rodriguez: We are friends from many musical escapades. Chris Powell (drummer/percussionist also in Man Man) saw my band Bablicon, and I recorded Need New Body. We have been friends ever since.
BD: Any band/venue/collaboration/etc. going on in your home base of Chicago that you guys are excited about? Any other collaborations/projects in the works?
GR: Chris Kalis (who plays in Icy Demons as well) is part of an excellent group named Chandeliers. Obey Your Brain is working with them as well. They are an excellent electro-art-funk keyboard party. Really exciting! Also Dylan Ryan who drums for Icy Demons has an excellent and energetic Jazz group called Herculaneum. Everybody plays music constantly.
BD: How did the tour dates with Of Montreal come about?
GR: I have known the members of Of Montreal for almost ten years now, and I'm excited to play with them after all these years. My group Bablicon spent half of its time in Athens, and was loosely associated with the E6 posse.
BD: What are you guys listening to right now?
GR: Count Bass D, “95 Chop,” from his new instrumental LP "Robbed Without a Pistol." It’s available for free at his website countbassd.com. Complete with a sample of Stevie Wonder singing at an Obama rally.
BD: Any band you've seen/played with lately that you think the world should know about?
GR: I haven't seen What's Up, a group we're working with in the spring from Grass Valley/Sacramento, but I'm really excited to see them.
Rodriguez, Powell and their band mates can be criss-cross-connected all over the US, from Chicago’s Shape Shoppe studio (and now defunct venue) to Baltimore’s Wham City scene (who birthed Dan Deacon), places that are frothing fountains of musical weirdness and wonder. Icy Demons are playing a leg of brethren band Of Montreal’s tour, coming through Denver tonight November 16th, at the Ogden Theater. They will also be touring with Brooklyn slow-drip trippers Yeasayer, coming back to Denver on November 29th at the Bluebird Theater.
Tickets for tomorrow’s show are $20 pre-service charges, and tickets for 11/29 with Yeasayer are $16 pre-service charge.
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