Ten Cent Redemption

Worst Plan Ever Ten Cent Redemption
Like a time-release capsule of clinical-grade dopamine, Ten Cent Redemption's Worst Plan Ever gets infinitely better with each listen. Americana with tinges of Brit-pop texture, Ten Cent's songs ache and twang with equal abandon and make you forget about the bandmembers' past affiliations -- a remarkable feat when you consider the act's substantial collective DNA. Although "Somewhere in Between" -- on which frontman Rhett Lee thoughtfully pays homage to his previous band, Carolyn's Mother -- is the album's de facto centerpiece, there's no shortage of other stellar cuts, among them "Set Closer," "Bring Your Gun" and "Already Raining," which Lee wrote as his wife was lying in a hospital bed. Redemption has never sounded so good. - Westword, Denver CO

Ten Cent Redemption arose from the ashes of Carolyn's Mother, a band that packed clubs in Denver and on college campuses in the region for more than a decade. Former Carolyn's Mother lead singer, Rhett Lee, formed the new group with John Waggoner on guitar, Tony Burke on bass, and Bill Thomason (the original drummer for Carolyn's Mother) on drums. The new group combines the jangly pop sound of Carolyn's Mother with a new alt-country influence. "We're just a rock band with a twang," Lee said.

Ten Cent Redemption spent the spring recording its first album, "Worst Plan Ever," which takes it name from numerous complications the band members went through during the recording process. ... It's a quality recording, remarkably consistent for a local debut even for a group of experienced players. Highlights include "Somewhere in Between," a heartfelt goodbye ballad to Carolyn's Mother, and "Set Closer" with guest vocals by Rachel Simring of Rachel's Playpen and Elana Rogers. - Denver Post

Stuffed into a pair of oversized booths at Mickey Manor, the members of Ten Cent Redemption could pass as a support group for male pattern baldness. And from the sound of it, this isn't the first time these follicly challenged musicians -- vocalist/guitarist Rhett Lee, guitarist John Waggoner, drummer Bill Thomason and bassist Tony Burke -- have been mistaken for something they're not.
"We were at Toad Tavern a couple weeks ago, and he and I are sitting back to back in a booth," Lee recalls, motioning toward Thomason. "And Jay, the sound guy there, comes up to Bill and goes, 'Hey, Dave. How's it going?' Bill's like, 'Uh, my name's Bill.' He's like, 'No shit? The guys from Tequila Mockingbird just told me you're Dave Herrera.'"

There are worse things you could accuse these guys of than resembling a crass, overweight, chain-smoking, curmudgeonly music critic. Being a bar band, for instance. Sipping his beer, Lee blanches at the mere suggestion. "When you say 'bar band' to me," he says, "I think of a cover band."

Ten Cent's music is far more sophisticated than that of your average bar band: Equal parts Brit pop and Americana, it would sound more at home in a Dublin pub circa 1983 than, say, a Jersey shore dive today. But the act's ethos is definitely that of a working-class bar band. Taking its moniker from the recycling notice printed on the backs of beer bottles, Ten Cent Redemption formed in July 2004, after Lee's previous outfit, the much-lauded Carolyn's Mother, disbanded. And according to Burke, these thirty-somethings have no delusions of grandeur. They're all about playing music purely for the joy of it.

"We decided that right up front," he says. "We talked about it openly. We're like, 'Hey, this is for fun.' We've all been around the block. It's almost like because of all our past, our contacts and everything else, everything has come to us more easily than it did before. But we're not necessarily expecting anything to happen. We're just having fun, and I think that that comes across in our performances."

"The intent," Thomason interjects, "is as long as we keep writing really good material, and the four of us really enjoy it and really believe in it, that's what it's all about. Every time we get on stage, about halfway through that first song, everything fades out, and it's just the four of us in a room, playing."

"We're just four guys who really enjoy playing together for the right reasons," Waggoner adds. "We're glad when people receive it well, and it's definitely more fun to play for a room full of people, but it comes down to enjoyment."

"We're open to people who want to give us millions of dollars," Lee clarifies with a laugh, "but we're not actively pursuing it."

That's evident when you see their impassioned live show. While countless counterparts blindly follow the latest trends and obsess over projecting just the right image, Ten Cent Redemption simply plays from the heart.

"I feel young again, honestly," Lee confesses. "It feels like it did when I was eighteen and we were starting a new band and wanting to take over the world."

If Lee's exuberance makes him seem like a divorcée dating for the first time in years, that's understandable. Ten Cent is only his second true band experience. He formed an outfit called the Floor with Thomason in 1992, when he was just out of high school. Although the two had an acrimonious split in 1996, Lee continued with the group (which changed its name to Carolyn's Mother along the way) until its farewell show in October 2004. Meanwhile, Thomason devoted his time to deejaying under the moniker DJ B-Ill. The old friends made amends when Thomason e-mailed Lee the day Carolyn's final album was released.

"At that time," Lee says, "I already knew that Carolyn's days were numbered. So we started talking about jamming together. We played together a couple of times, just the two of us. It was kind of ridiculous."

"He and I were dicking around in the basement at my house," says Thomason. "And we were talking about getting something together just to try it out and play around and see what happens. I'd been out of the band scene for so long, I didn't know anybody anymore."

As luck would have it, Lee was having conversations with a few other potential suitors, including Rexway's Mike Mitchell (who was in the band for eight hours, Lee says) and Waggoner. But he was most eager to reconnect with Burke, who'd just moved back to Denver after parting ways with Mere, his former band in Los Angeles.

"Tony and I had been talking for a couple of years," Lee remembers, "kind of half joking that we were going to start this alt-country band as a side project. Then I saw him playing, and I said, 'That's the kind of guitar player I want.' And I ended up getting that guitar player. So I definitely had him in mind for what I wanted to start."

"This band has been destined to start since mid-2002, before I moved out to L.A.," Burke adds. "I was on t - Westword

Ten Cent Redemption, Worst Plan Ever (Self-released). Fusing elements of ethereal Brit pop and Americana, Ten Cent Redemption's debut aches as much as it twangs. Led by erstwhile Carolyn's Mother frontman Rhett Lee -- who thoughtfully elegizes his previous outfit on the album's de facto centerpiece, "Somewhere in Between" -- this quartet has crafted a wholly organic sound that stands on its own. - Westword