Tag: colorado music scene

Community, Features, Local Business, Print

Stayin’ Alive: Unconventional Venues Save The Scene

March 4, 2021

When Ben Mozer was 14, he took a trip to Spain with his family. Across from their hotel, a theater was playing the newly released hit Pulp Fiction, which he and his brother had been unable to see in the U.S. due to its R rating. But what stuck with him after the movie was over wasn’t Samuel L. Jackson’s iconic monologue. What stuck with him was the theater. 

Earlier this winter, Mozer’s Fort Collins movie theater the Lyric was one of the only venues in Northern Colorado that was still producing live music.

And Mozer isn’t the only one finding a creative way to amplify local sounds. This winter, Dan Mladenik has tapped local talent for the Mishawaka-produced Live on the Lanes series at Chipper’s Lanes, converting a bowling alley into a cosmic live music experience.

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Features, Print

Dead Amps: Where We Are Now / Harnessing the Chaos

January 12, 2021

Erin O’Toole isn’t Dr. Phil, but she does have a little marital advice:

“If you can record an album together and remain happy,” O’Toole says, “you can survive anything.”

O’Toole would know, given that she’s made music with her husband, Jonathan Payne as the band Dead Amps since 2005, a year after they met. She says when they both find something they like, it can be magical )as on their new full-length “DA4”) but it’s usually more arduous than that. Just like a marriage with moments that inspire rom-coms and adult contemporary hits, there’s a whole lot of hard work behind the magic.

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Features

On The Road Again: Four Months Of COVID-19 Madness & One Bike Accident Later, Kosha Dillz Is On A Mission

July 31, 2020

Going from doing at least 80 live shows a year (with everyone from Mos Def to Nappy Roots) to performing for a six-year-old’s backyard birthday party in Arvada, Colorado is just one of the many ways the coronavirus pandemic has impacted his typically flourishing career, but Kosha Dillz is a rare breed. With 16 years of sobriety under his belt (to the day) he must guard his recovery like he guards his life, something that’s even more challenging when you’re immersed in the music industry.

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Music, Print, Reviews

EP Review: Polyakov – Hazy

July 8, 2020

Dream pop, as a genre, has a home in Northern Colorado, and in a way has come to represent the leisurely stroll through anxiety you get from living here. Capturing this is Polyakov’s four track debut EP ‘Hazy’ – a luscious and well textured delivery that lives up to the title. Killer vocal harmonies, guitar effects and layering techniques here are mesmerizing, making Polyakov another NoCo artist to watch.

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Features, Print

In My Room: Music Teachers Turn To Online Methods, Keeping Musical Communities Together

June 4, 2020

With stay-at-home orders in place, students still want to make music with their teachers and with their peers. Fairview High School students in Boulder decided to try a “virtual choir.” Virtual ensembles, including choirs, are a huge trend worldwide, allowing musicians to collaborate with their friends, bandmates, or favorite artists from home. But putting together a collaboration of 15-plus people requires a lot of time, a hefty budget, and in this case, a supportive community.

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Features, Print

Max Barcelow: The Fragile Big Time and Saying Yes

March 17, 2020

Max Barcelow’s life as a professional musician in Fort Collins has had plenty of twists and turns. Drumming for prolific folk artist Gregory Alan Isakov, he’s played Red Rocks, in Europe, with the Colorado Symphony and attended this year’s Grammy ceremony on January 26 at The Staples Center, long dubbed “Kobe’s House,” on the day of Kobe Bryant’s death.
An evening torn between celebrating music and hastily trying to address and honor Bryant, Barcelow witnessed the pomp and grandeur of the Grammy’s while being reminded of how no one can escape life’s fragility – even with success and money. “It’s funny how death just brings it all back home,” Barcelow said.

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