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Kevin Johnston

95 stories

FeaturesNo More Running: Seth Beamer Shines SoloStrong inspiration can carry you a long way.Kevin Johnston · Jan 11, 2023

Features100 to 16, Now Down to 4: BandWagon’s Battle Of The Bands Closes in on Title BoutEternal Glory, $5,000 and the cover of BandWagon Magazine are grounds for musical fisticuffs in Colorado.Kevin Johnston · Dec 6, 2022

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MusicAlbum Review: Logan Farmer – A Mold For The BellFollowing in the Soft-Croon tradition of fellow Colorado folkers Covenhoven and Gregory Alan Isakov, Fort Collins’ Farmer paints with a palette of little more than acoustic guitar and vocal. But a flutter of woodwind textures, flecks of orchestral harp and thoughtful string arrangements elevate the album’s eight songs to a 10. Fans of Bon Iver will love A Mold For The Bell, but expect a few unique brush strokes in this impressionist piece, namely, the pointed, trembling timbre of Farmer’s vocal: It’s hushed and rife with vibrato yet convinced with a determined grit.Kevin Johnston · Nov 9, 2022

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FeaturesBirth, Death and Time In The Sun: SUSTO’s Justin Osborne Finds new Dimesion“There were ravines growing between me and people in my life,” Justin Osborne tells BandWagon.Kevin Johnston · Sep 12, 2022

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FeaturesPlay it For Your Mates: Tones And I Rises Up Solo; Puts the “I” in Team-MacklemoreYou’ve heard it. It was written by a busker, in a closet, for a few friends at a youth hostel but somewhere on Planet Earth in the last three years, you’ve heard it.Kevin Johnston · Aug 11, 2022

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Bevin Luna: 105.5 The Colorado Sound’s Featured Artist“Madison & Angelus is a garage rock EP because it’s rock and roll. And it was literally recorded in a garage in LaPorte, Colorado,” Bevin Luna says. True to the garage band ethos, the 6 tracks mesh originals, covers and co-writes with big, fuzzy guitars, overdriven vocals and bashing drums. But the garage has a heart and some depth behind its door. Much of the writing discusses the turmoil of being a musician in the digital age, and as Luna puts it: “In the middle of a pandemic sandwich: never knowing where to begin or if it’s ever going to end – constantly trying to reassure ourselves that everything was gonna be OK.”Kevin Johnston · Jul 21, 2022

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MusicAlbum Review: People in General – friendsPeople in General are making the leap. Since their first release Piglet in 2019, the trio has grown into a full 8 piece band with horns, extra vocalists and more.Kevin Johnston · Jul 20, 2022

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105.5 The Colorado Sound's Featured ArtistsJen Korte: 105.5 The Colorado Sound’s Featured ArtistJen KorteKevin Johnston · Jun 21, 2022

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105.5 The Colorado Sound's Featured ArtistsAlysia Kraft: 105.5 The Colorado Sound’s Featured ArtistAlysia Kraft can keenly use nature as a metaphor in her music.Kevin Johnston · May 25, 2022

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FeaturesSon Lux Scores Everything and Frees Up Their TomorrowsIf André 3000 playing a Mayan double flute for your band’s movie score isn’t proof that the multiverse exists, we don’t know what is.Kevin Johnston · May 11, 2022

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FeaturesPink Fuzz: Blood Runs DeepIf you notice a particular sweetness in the vocal harmonies soaring above the sludgy riffs, ripping guitar and ruthless drums of Denver rock trio Pink Fuzz, you’re on to something.Kevin Johnston · Apr 12, 2022

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105.5 The Colorado Sound's Featured ArtistsJyemo Club: 105.5 The Colorado Sound’s Featured Artist“From my own experiences, I’ve always wished more people from this country would listen to music that is not sung in English,” Jonny Jyemo tells BandWagon.Kevin Johnston · Apr 11, 2022

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MusicAlbum Review: Thom LaFond – The Moon Leans InNederland, Colorado’s Thom LaFond is most well known as the guitarist and singer in Denver’s four-piece gypsy jam rock outfit Banshee Tree. But on this, his debut full-length, he lets his inner voice shine. Close, acoustic and intimate speckles of piano, pizzicato violin and nimble upright bass frame his hushed, masculine baritone with gorgeous minimalism; a composition on par with a Kandinsky. “Did they take the moon you were after and give it back piece by piece?” the record’s first lyric asks, initiating a song and an album dense with gorgeous prose, artful arrangements and beautiful music.Kevin Johnston · Mar 8, 2022

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105.5 The Colorado Sound's Featured ArtistsBig Richard: 105.5 The Colorado Sound’s Featured Artist“It is SO FUN,” cellist Joy Adams says of Big Richard. “We’re always laughing until we cry, and there’s no competition. It’s just genuine, supportive fun.” Big Richard formed specifically to be the token all-female band at McAwesomefest in Colorado in May of 2021. Lucky for fans of bluegrass, authentic vocals and a little something different, what started as a token quickly alchemized into gold.Kevin Johnston · Mar 4, 2022

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FeaturesCommon Ancestor: LowDown Brass Band’s New Hotness Has Roots“LowDown Brass Band has roots in the Jazz education world,” MC Billa Camp tells BandWagon, “but the Jazz education world has the habit of treating Jazz like an island. As if – Jazz isn’t birthed from the same struggle as Hip Hop. As if they are not Black father and son, born fighting the same fight.” Lowdown Nights, the latest and most future-leaning record from LowDown Brass Band, was appropriately released during Black History Month. It takes things further out of the pigeonhole and into the pan-genre stage, using the history of the African American experience as its guide. Especially with the hit single “Be The One Tonight,” they go mainstream – and that’s a good thing. The collective has enough talent within its ranks to deliver a show with as much variety as Beyoncés 2018 Homecoming at Coachella. It’s the multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-genre kind of mainstream pop and dance music that encapsulates the musical stew of 2022.Kevin Johnston · Feb 10, 2022

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FeaturesSpoke In A Wheel: Zachary Williams of The Lone Bellow Hits the Road with Dirty CamaroZachary Williams, whose powerful voice drove him out from the Brooklyn Bar4 open-mic world and onto the international stage, is best known as the belting leader of The Lone Bellow. His new solo record Dirty Camaro is indeed an escape from that band’s gravity; one that’s weird, head-turning, soulful and fresh. Williams says “I’ve wanted to do it for a long time – really, right after Jim James from My Morning Jacket released his solo record.” He says James had “graciously come out to a couple of my shows,” and the two connected. What began as a two day trial session resulted in the full length record. The album is rich with expert pedal steel guitar, orchestral strings, saxophone and a Texas-band backbone that really cooks.Kevin Johnston · Feb 9, 2022

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105.5 The Colorado Sound's Featured ArtistsGeorge Cessna: 105.5 The Colorado Sound Featured Artist, January 2022Hundreds 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.Kevin Johnston · Jan 14, 2022

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MusicSingle Review: Branson Hoog – “No Vacancy”Intimate and sexy, Branson Hoog’s nimble, close-up vocals evoke an alluring darkness. The NOT A TOY (fka Shatterproof) frontman employs deep and minimalistic beats on “No Vacancy,” the second release under his own name.Kevin Johnston · Jan 11, 2022

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MusicSingle Review: Co-Stanza – “20 Minutes”Dropping realness like a reference to FaceTime helped folks relate to FoCo’s Co-Stanza (to the tune of nearly 2 million streams on “I Don’t Mind”) and by the sound of this hooky new toe tapper, Co-Stanza will continue racking up fans with each tick of the clock.Kevin Johnston · Jan 10, 2022

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MusicSingle Review: DEBR4H – Cassi-0-PeiaIt’s 2022 and yes, it’s possible that your garage band owns 100 synthesizers.Kevin Johnston · Jan 5, 2022