For listeners looking to skip the drive-thru, Eat Out Culture, Vol. 1 from rapper Nick Sanville and guitarist-turned-producer Timo Massa (Stella Luce, VIVIAN) reminds us of the value of a home-cooked meal. This 4-track EP covers sonic landscapes seldom heard from contemporary Hip-Hop artists, combining intricately woven punchlines with masterfully crafted moody atmospheres.
Continue readingTag: NoCo Music
Double Single Review: The Beeves – “Playing Bingo” & Slow Caves “Walk In The Park”
With top production, austere turn of phrase and beautifully transparent melodic construction, “Walk In The Park” by Slow Caves sparkles with the slow motion lens-flare of memories you haven’t even made yet.
Riff-heavy with the pizzaz and swagger of the White Stripes, The Beeves’ new single “Playing Bingo” highlights the proper rock yelps of vocalist Ian Ehrhart and the grooving instrumental playfulness of bassist/vocalist Margot Sease and drummer Will Ehrhart.
Continue readingAlbum Review: VIVIAN – The Warped Glimmer
Even during the pandemic, Fort Collins-based dream pop band VIVIAN pushed forward the release of their debut full length album The Warped Glimmer, and according to the band, are already well into producing a full length follow-up.
Spacy in all the right ways and saturated in the tell tale signs of art-rock gone pop, The Warped Glimmer is VIVIAN turning on cruise control and putting the seat back for you. It’s a warm envelope to rest in but exciting enough not to put you to sleep.
Album Review: Glass Cases – In Between
In Between, the debut album from Fort Collins trio Glass Cases, strives to relate to the band’s own demographic: a generation disillusioned with adulthood. Combining elements of synth-pop and alternative rock, Glass Cases create a vibe that’s both interesting and marketable. With rapid, spoken-word, and sung vocals that shine like Keane, Glass Cases’ topically relevant lyrics about social media and insecurity hit close to home for any millennial or gen Z-er.
The band’s originally planned release show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre March 21 was to be their debut at the famed venue, but has been cancelled due to coronavirus precautions.
Continue readingAlbum Review: Gabrielle Louise – The Unending Alteration of the Human Heart
Gabrielle Louise lived alone for the past couple of years, existing in slow, rural life in Paonia, CO. Her new album ‘The Unending Alteration of the Human Heart’ (out March 20) is the soundtrack to that life. She captures the earthy, folk essence with twangy guitars, acoustic bass, and her clean, lightly brassy voice. But she’s comfortable letting the music breathe by providing sparseness and leaving herself exposed in the record’s intimate tracks.
Continue readingAlbum Review: Satellite Pilot – Toad Tone and His Symphonic Swamp Creatures – Deluxe
As far as local bands go, Loveland, Colorado-based Satellite Pilot can be a lot. Identifying as something like Dr. Dog meets Polyphonic Spree, Flaming Lips, and The Kinks, Satellite Pilot push all their weirdness to the front. Yet that weirdness feels as natural as sliding on an old pair of shoes. This is the case with their fourth full length album titled Toad Tone and His Symphonic Swamp Creatures – Deluxe: on the surface, it’s the psychedelic mess you might imagine it being, but underneath it is so much more.
Satellite Pilot release Toad Tone and His Symphonic Swamp Creatures – Deluxe on February 14, at Pinball Jones Campus West in Fort Collins, accompanied by a children’s book co-written by the band and illustrated by Bailey Corimer.
Continue readingAlbum Review: Meat And Potatoes – After Math
Brandon Harris has lived the first few chapters of a quintessential Fort Collins musician success story. He started out playing a $15 guitar nicknamed “Trash-tar,” without a car or mode of independent transportation until a bike was gifted to him by a friend, and now makes his living playing music. His solo musical pseudonym is called Meat and Potatoes, although it more accurately translates to his bread and butter.
Continue readingThe Blasting Room: FoCo’s Punk Rock Heart Beats For 25 Years
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.
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