“There was a point where I was trying to end my whole life,” Evan Thomas – aka TX2 – tells BandWagon. “I felt worthless. And I had friends help me out. Once people feel like they’re alone, they need someone to talk to. I feel like that helps save lives.”

In addition to putting on cathartic, high energy pop-punk shows, Thomas is the founder of The X Movement, an online safe space for his fans (and anyone struggling) after battling with his own mental health.

A few years ago, Mom Rock booked their first gig at The Garden, a notorious house on the Boston DIY basement show circuit. They were ecstatic… until they saw the 6 pm time slot. Barely anyone would be there. What happened next cemented the quartet as a fixture in the scene.

“We went up to play and the crowd was electric,” guitarist/singer Josh Polack told BandWagon. “It was the first time I ever crowd surfed during a guitar solo.”

“Our fans are the best people on earth,” guitarist/singer Curtis Heimburger said.

The night Pecos & the Rooftops wrote the song that gave them their breakout success, they really weren’t even a working band yet – just a bunch of friends who liked to hang out and jam to cover songs.

The quintet’s frontman, Pecos Hurley, had just begun writing songs, and he was playing the chords to one when magic struck: One of the other guys began singing a chorus to it. 

“Damn, that’s good,” Hurley recalled saying during a phone interview for BandWagon. “Do you care if I try to finish it?”

Finish it he did, and the result, “This Damn Song,” was a smash hit.

It’s 1 am in San Antonio, Texas and Aaron Martin wants to give you a hug.

He’s the singer and co-founder of Okey Dokey and why wouldn’t he give you a squeeze? You are, after all, a part of Okey Dokey too.

“It’s everything you’d want after two years of, you know, the absence,” Martin tells BandWagon of their current tour. He’s been excited to finally practice Okey Dokey’s mission statement with the people who make the live music experience what it is to him: pretty much everyone who’s not in the band.

“The whole statement is kind of anti-separation,” Martin says. “Bands aren’t just a band. It’s everyone involved.”

What sets Eric Riley and Nate Valdez apart from other heavy acts isn’t their musicianship (though it is excellent) but their ability to translate unflinchingly raw moments into music. Starting with INTHEWHALE’s last EP, Dopamine, the band’s tone shifted from the sophomoric humor of their earlier releases to brutally honest explorations of the darker moments of life. These explorations continue on Vanishing Point. The band wrestles with pharmaceutical addiction, suicidal ideation and gentrification. The pain and anger is palpable.

Hundreds of hours spent in the basements of dive bars don’t often yield respectable accolades, but for George Cessna, that’s arguably how he came to be this month’s Colorado Sound featured artist.

Cessna and his close friend Brian Buck literally clocked as much time in the basement of Denver’s beloved Hi-Dive, recording and eventually emerging with Lucky Rider, a twangy, dark and lo-fi album released in December.

Los Moccochetes, Denver’s award-winning latin funk band, springs from a group of highschool friends and acquaintances from the music and poetry scene. The raw, “la famiglia” vibe is potent both on stage and in their new, multi-lingual, socially conscious EP Mucho Gusto. Los Moccochetes are here to party for the right to fight.

“‘Cuchito’ is a song about a cat. It’s kind of about my cat,” Christopher Castillo Bowers says. But Kiltro’s most recent single, holds more layers than the obvious, much like the band’s spry sound: an intricate mix of acoustic instruments, warbling vocal and polished dance grooves.