Silverada Has The ‘Hottest 90 Minutes in Country Music’
Mike and the Moonpies Have Rebranded, and They’re at the Top of Their Game. After 17 years as a band, Silverada, formerly known as Mike and the Moonpies, still love the game. They’re playing dates all over the country this summer and fall. By now, the theater and dancehall circuit is a well-worn track. They […]
Selfish Health (Toxic Pain) by Shanghai Metro Temple | Single Review
When someone close to you is constantly in crisis, you can spend all of your energy on that person without even realizing it. Years go by in the blink of an eye and suddenly you realize it’s been a really long time since you had the space to work on your own shit. That’s when […]
The Legend of Danno Simpson
As Danno Simpson sat in the intake room of the Larimer County Jail sobering up, he tried to piece together the disjointed fragments of the night before. He remembered getting angry, swinging his fists and getting shoved into the back of a cop car. One thing was clear: he had been arrested. At this moment, […]
Why David Cross Will Never Quit Stand-Up
The Comedian, Writer & Actor Talks Parenting & Life On The Road David Cross is perhaps best known from his role as the naive and tumultuous psychiatrist Tobias Futge on FOX’s Arrested Development. His voice is also recognizable from the 2007 film reboot of Alvin and the Chipmunks. And comedy nerds have probably seen Cross […]
Colorado Singer-Songwriter Nathaniel Riley Pours Emotion into “Bird Songs.”
Rootsy Fort Collins singer-songwriter Nathaniel Riley can’t help but pour his emotional life into music. To him, songwriting isn’t just art, “storytelling” or entertainment, it’s a way to sort things out and heal old wounds. “It’s about washing my hands clean,” Riley tells BandWagon. “It’s really an intentional approach to having a good heart. That […]
Lindsey Jordan Doesn’t Want To Write Sad Songs— At Least Not Right Now
Snail Mail’s bandleader on love, existential dread and losing her voice Lindsey Jordan’s Pain and Healing Sometimes the best albums are born from the worst circumstances. When Lindsey Jordan first began to string chords, melodies and lyrics together for Snail Mail’s sophomore album, Valentine, it was often through tears. “I was genuinely in a terrible […]
xDeadBeatx Ignites a Hardcore Punk Resurgence in Fort Collins
“When I moved to Fort Collins, I didn’t want to have to drive to Denver to go to hardcore shows,” Billy Fabrocini tells BandWagon. “Now people will drive up here to go to shows. That’s what DeadBeat was always about. DeadBeat was about showing people, ‘yeah, we can do it ourselves. We can do it here.’”
In addition to being a hardcore band, xDeadBeatx is “straight edge,” a label that arose from the hardcore scene in 1981, after the seminal band Minor Threat released a 46-second track by the same name that disparaged drug and alcohol abuse. Since then, straight edge has evolved, morphed and splintered into its own genre and subgenres. A strict set of ethical guidelines come along with the musical characteristics — no drinking, smoking, drugs, promiscuous sex or addictive behaviors of any kind for life.
Each member of xDeadBeatx has his own reason for embracing the straight edge ethos. Each of those reasons can be traced back to long before the band was founded in 2019.
The Bones of J.R. Jones: Desert Rhythms and Dancing Through the Blues
J.R.’s life as a touring bluesman came later than some. In his late 20’s, he was living in Brooklyn, bartending and teaching at a pre-school. He had a masters degree in printmaking, but the medium was quickly being usurped by digital alternatives. Still, he needed a creative outlet.
A few years before, J.R.’s college roommate had introduced him to a song that made him fall in love with the blues. It was Blind Lemon Jefferson, a 1920’s singer and guitarist who is sometimes credited as the “Father of the Texas Blues.”
“I had never heard that raw, gritty passion in anything else,” he said. “It just kind of leveled me.”
From then on, J.R. spent his in-between time — in between work, school, relationships and everything else — playing the blues.
“There were a lot of DIY venues that popped up in loft spaces or garages. They were perfect for the type of music I was playing,” he explained. “All you needed was a condenser microphone, a picnic table and a cooler of PBR.”