Best Absinthe-Minded Sound Professor 2005 | Bob Ferbrache | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Absinthe-Minded Sound Professor

Bob Ferbrache

Producer Bob Ferbrache has been the studio ace behind many of the truly exceptional releases to emanate from the Front Range over the last decade. Working from the unlikely confines of his mother's basement in Westminster (Absinthe Studios is actually located within arm's length of a washer and dryer!), Ferbrache added to his impressive back catalogue by engineering two of the year's best albums: Consider the Birds, David Eugene Edwards's redemptive masterstroke as Wovenhand, and the self-titled stunner from Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots. Throw in some informal summer sessions with visiting members of Twinemen (the late Mark Sandman's bandmates from Morphine) and you could call Ferbrache's grandiose feat a goddamn trifecta. Bartender -- another round of wormwood!

Best Basement Recording Facility

Rudy's Studio

Rudy's Studio sits on the outer edge of north Denver, in the basement of Mark Obermeyer's suburban ranch home. Using two tracking rooms and a slew of gear, Obermeyer has recorded some of Denver's best-sounding records over the past few years. And although he initially cut his teeth working with metal bands, he's capable of recording just about any style. Aesthetically, Rudy's may not be the poshest room in town, but there's a reason that respected bands like Love.45, Rogue, Rexway, Kronow, Dead Heaven Cowboys and Drug Under have chosen to track here.

Best Studio for Head-Expanding Music

helmet R00m

Randall Frazier not only fronts the moody, psychedelic outfit Orbit Service, but he's responsible for recording and mixing some of 2004's most engaging local releases, as well. After moving from a west Denver cellar to a space that currently shares walls with the Revoluciones art space, Frazier and production veteran Matthew Mensch helmed audio projects by Sons of Armageddon and Drop the Fear. Boasting 42-track digital production, Cubabse SX editing abilities and endless synth options, their R00m can likewise enhance any recording project with Hammond organs, Wurlitzers, cello or timpani. They're also branching into video production and will soon score international distribution throughout Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. When it comes to head music, there's nothing like a R00m with a view.

Best Recording Studio on the Cheap

Globalsound Recording Studio

Tony and Lydia Fiore, a musician and artist, respectively, sensed that the local music community needed a high-quality, inexpensive place to record and mix music. They were right: Since opening last year, Globalsound Recording Studio has produced demos and CDs for scores of local acts drawn by its accessible atmosphere, reasonable prices and more than adequate facilities. The place is modest, with two studios equipped to varying degrees of high-techness: In the scaled-down Studio East, most bands are able to work at a pace of about two hours per song for recording and mixing. The more highbrow Studio West sports ProTools and a Digidesign Control 24 mixing console. And because time is money, Globalsound is also a good deal as a one-stop CD shop, offering duplication, web design and graphic-arts services. Get rolling.

Best Place to Chill After Rehearsal

Walnut Room

The Walnut Room is a massive extension of Soundstructure Studios -- a popular, musician-friendly rehearsal space on a formerly barren fringe of the Ballpark neighborhood -- with its own restaurant, bar and performance venue. Since it opened, the room has netted a reputation as one of the best-sounding rooms in town, with a huge stage and spot-on sound crew. With its fine wood bar, red neon sign and generous drink specials, the Walnut Room is more than just another cool venue in an invigorated part of town. Rather, it signals a sea change in the way Denver thinks about local music: Here's a venue dedicated entirely to supporting and showcasing musicians while giving them a place to hang out and build community.

Best Place to Feed Your Ears While Feeding Your Belly

Toad Tavern

It's no secret that the club market in Denver is oversaturated. And like crabgrass, for each spot that doesn't make it, two or three others sprout up in its place. Nowadays, folks need a reason to search a place out -- namely, cheap drinks, plenty of free parking, and great sound and booking. The Toad Tavern has all of those things. But the best deal of the week happens at Toads on Friday nights, when, in exchange for a small door charge, you get all the free Anthony's pizza you can shove down your gullet.

Best Live Band

Call Sign Cobra

It's like a full-scale ninja battle on stage: eight sweaty freaks brandishing guitars, horns, tambourines, microphones, pheromones, feedback and blood as they eviscerate everything that is decent and respectable about rock and roll. The band is Call Sign Cobra; that wet splat hitting your underpants is what's left of your spleen. With players culled from Scott Baio Army, Out on Bail, Mustangs and Madras, Rabbit Fight and Pariah Caste, Call Sign leaves no eardrum unscarred in its attempt to force-feed Rocket From the Crypt into Molly Hatchet -- and, of course, cement its position as the most blistering, organ-engorging live act in Denver.

Best New Band

Matson Jones

Fort Collins-based Matson Jones has been around for a couple of years, but it's only in the last few months that the group has really started carving out its empire. Not that the coed quartet seems crassly ambitious; instead, it's wholly focused on creating music that obliterates expectation even as it captures the brain and heart. With a lineup comprising two cellos, stand-up bass and drums, the outfit crafts a seething, tense tangle of sound resembling that of a chamber-punk PJ Harvey. Newly signed to Sympathy for the Record Industry, the indie label that launched the White Stripes, Matson Jones stands poised to whip its captivating whisper into a full-on roar.

Best Jam Band

Harmonious Junk

While not entirely a straight-up ramen act (though lead guitarist Damon Wood can noodle with the best of them), Harmonious Junk pulls together savory parts funk, jazz, blues, psychedelic, soul and jam. The versatile outfit is equally comfortable pumping the groove at a Colfax smoke hole or loosening wallets and hips at more upscale clubs downtown. Composed of members of James Brown's band (yep, that James Brown) and local outfits Cocktail Revolution and the Byron Shaw Projex, the band likes to keep it "old-school, organic and boogieable." Expect classic covers, fresh originals and the sweet sounds of real talent.

Best Metal Band

Tyfoid Mary

In July 2001, Tyfoid Mary lost its frontman, Vince Stott, in a fatal car accident. While such a tragedy would cause most bands to hang it up for good, Tyfoid persevered and found a new voice in Jerry Harper. He had his work cut out for him, as Stott was a well-regarded vocalist. But Harper -- a giant in his own right at 6'5" and nearly 300 pounds -- brought with him a monster set of pipes and an imposing stage presence. The result was two stellar releases -- 2002's Nu Strain and last year's brilliant Quarantine -- and a shit ton of momentum. Talk about resuscitation.

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