Organic Beginnings A young alternative rock band is making waves in the Rockies, with black Sharpie X’s on their hands, handed out by security bouncers at venues across the state. Meet clementine, the Fort Collins-based band that’s lighting up the Colorado music scene. This over-the-top rock group is just a bunch of college friends with […]
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.”
Precision has long been one of the favorite descriptors the world uses when talking about the Swiss, and Lucerne, Switzerland-based indie rock quintet Cold Reading certainly don’t break the mold set-forth by the neatly ticking clocks their ancestors meticulously crafted.
Their newest concept album, a three-part guitar-drum-bass-keys opus called ZYT is literally an homage to the concept of time in it’s lyrics and musical composition (and the title if you speak Swiss German). But the long-running Swiss ideology Cold Reading also exemplify on is that of staunch autonomy and independence.
Built To Spill was ultimately grouped in with the “Northwest sound” from the outset, a result of being signed to Up Records. Although they left and signed with Warner Bros., they managed to retain their independence. After eight albums, the Doug Martsch-led group are still a mainstay in the indie rock world.
“The main key is, of course, luck. But there’s also the fact that I am so simple, I don’t get bored playing these songs over and over again,” Martsch jokes.
Built To Spill play The Mishawaka Amphitheatre July 26.
Geraniums, Bellhoss’ debut record, premieres today via BandWagon Magazine!
The ennui of this 7-song bummer-rock collection engages without dragging it’s heels; a credit to Becky Hostetler’s honest, forward-leaning twang which distinctly brightens up the mid-tempo telecaster sway throughout, bringing to mind Pinegrove, ALVVAYS, and even Kurt Vile in feel and frankness.
The band needed a name. Matthew Sease pulled the biggest book from his mom’s shelf, opened to a random page and pointed to a word. “The.” That wasn’t going to work. Now properly named, The Beeves will be hitting the Fox Theatre May 17 in Boulder to release their first album Adam and Beeve. Their sound mixes punk, 60s mod, and country – and it comes out like an exorcism on stage.
Cold War Kids are a force of nature in popular music. With six full-length albums and several chart-topping hits including the song “First” which peaked at number one on the U.S. alternative charts, the label of indie rockers hasn’t applied to them for years. For lead singer Nathan Willett, looking back on his career (and looking forward) the name of the game is being the best versions of themselves they can be.
Tried and true emo-honesty comes off OFW’s chest in spades, but the truth is, more and more of Northern Colorado is all ears. Shout-y open-throated hooks throughout the EP evoke images from its release show last month at The Bluebird Theater, packed with hoodied disciples bopping and shouting along.
“One thing we tried really hard to convey on this EP was the energy of our music that we display at our live show” OFW says. “A big part of that was incorporating gang vocals into the recording. We always get the audience to sing along when we play live and we wanted to harness the energy that comes with that into a recorded song.”
