Members of VYNYL are style-conscious lads, and for this, they sometimes get heckled by jerks who think VYNYL is a boy band. That actually happened recently in Fort Collins, where they were playing a music festival. They didn t let it bother them.
Despite the band s cheery appearance, VYNYL s music is actually quite sad and pensive in places, and nothing like that vapid boy-band music that tends to plague the airwaves every ten years or so.
And the bandmates are used to not really fitting in with the Denver music scene at large anyway. Only guitarist Hunter Heurich is from Colorado. Bassist Andrew Cole is from South Africa originally, and Tyler hails from “the middle of bumfuck nowhere, North Carolina,” as he puts it. They do feel like they have found their place and their fan base, however.
Ivory Circle s Connie Hong is introducing herself to Denver s music scene all over again and this time, she s taking even more risks than she did the first time.
In late March, the singer-songwriter of the established Denver indie band launched a new project, releasing her first album as solo artist Fair Elle. The album,
I m Sorry You Feel That Way, includes ten tracks exploring the process of putting your heart on the line, getting it broken and picking up the pieces. After numerous successes with Ivory Circle, Hong says she was excited to break into the solo-artist scene, debuting with a subdued album that combines electronic vibes, Hong s natural voice, layered harmonies and empty space. Fair Elle s sound may come as a surprise to Ivory Circle fans which, Hong says, was the point of all this.
When Denver psychedelic-funk band Autonomix played a gig last September 5, keyboardist Josh Nermon and bassist Danny Littler had no clue it would be the last time they’d share the stage with guitarist Zack Smith.
But five days later, Smith, 31, was fatally shot following a traffic collision in Denver. Nermon says the case is still being investigated. Smith’s death was a shocking event in an already difficult year, and to say Nermon and Littler were at a loss is an understatement.
Nermon met the guitarist in 2011, when Smith was a member of the electro-funk group Vine Street Vibes, and the two immediately hit it off. They d grown close over the years through their shared love of music, and losing his friend was devastating for Nermon.
“My sister was down here, and she was like, ‘Oh, come on down,’” Stone recalls. “I figured I’d start trying to make enough money to finish the record down here. Once I got here, I just started a new group and working on songs.”
He says the lyrics on the band’s upcoming release,
The Fear EP, are based on his personal experiences, but others are more topical and address the current state of the world. For example, the moody title track speaks to the anxiety gripping many citizens of the country right now.
“It speaks a lot to this kind of nervousness that everyone feels, like we are on the brink of something pretty bad happening in our country,” he says. “There is this desire to be prepared for it, and that preparedness is inevitably bringing out violence. Everyone is expecting the next guy to stab him in the back.”