Album Review: Logan Farmer – A Mold For The Bell

November 9, 2022

Following 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.

Continue reading

The Blasting Room: FoCo’s Punk Rock Heart Beats For 25 Years

November 11, 2019

The Blasting Room didn’t start with a Big Bang, as you might expect, but a drunken nap. The engineer for one of the Descendents’ mid-80s records fell asleep at the recording console. As he snored, Bill Stevenson, the band’s drummer, rolled the engineer’s chair out of the way to work the dials himself. 25 years later, the studio he built with Jason Livermore has become a punk rock recording institution, producing pop and folk records too. But the heart of the original Blasting Room still beats like a punchy snare, a place where young bands make their punk rock dreams come true.

Continue reading

Album Review: I Am The Owl – A Mission to Civilize: Part II

July 1, 2018

I Am The Owl’s newest release is for longtime fans of the Fort Collins punk/metal band and new listeners alike. Recorded at the Blasting Room, a heavy hitting local recording studio readers should familiarize themselves with (if you haven’t already), A Mission to Civilize: Part II rips. Fans of the hybrid genre will dig the searing guitars and signature “tight, but huge” drums.
Following up their first release, A Mission to Civilize: Part I, the new drop expands on I Am The Owl’s galvanizing sound with much-welcomed production value increase. Fans of local DIY punk rock, don’t let that turn you off.

Continue reading