The Mile High Makeout: Not in Austin, but in Denver
By eryc eyl | March 19th, 2010 | 3 comments
You don't have to travel to the South By Southwest Music Festival to hear great Denver music. Start here instead.
Well, it’s that time of year again. Everyone who’s anyone in the indie or semi-indie music world has flown, driven, hitchhiked, bussed, scammed or slept their way to Austin for the industry shindig known as South By Southwest. If you’ve been reading this or any other music publication this week, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the annual flurry of press coverage for the festival.
This year, the Colorado contingent at the enormous, Dionysian event is bigger than ever. The Pirate Signal, the Rouge, Tauntaun, Paper Bird, A Shoreline Dream, Andrea Ball, the Still City, the Photo Atlas, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, Houses and Nathaniel Rateliff are just some of the hometown heroes who have been swilling Lone Star and staggering down 6th Street this week. In fact, all those acts are playing TODAY. And that’s just the musicians.
Then there’s the coterie of journalists, bloggers, girlfriends, boyfriends, fans and assorted couch-surfers who have followed the bands to Austin. Yes, it seems everyone who’s anyone is in Austin. Everyone, that is, except me. Well, me AND some really phenomenal Denver bands who will likely make the trip in coming years.
The numerous personal and professional reasons why I’m not at SXSW this year — and, in fact, haven’t been since I lived in Austin in the early ’90s — aren’t that interesting. Most of them are just excuses for my pathological laziness anyway. But as I rifle through some of the Colorado-made tracks I’ve received in recent months, I’m far more impressed by how many talented, creative, homegrown acts AREN’T scarfing migas and twisting by the pool this week. A complete list would, of course, be impossible, but let me draw your attention to just a couple you might not have heard yet.
The duo of Corey Ryan and Joseph Hansen first surfaced under the name Sandusky about five years ago. It’s minimalist country-folk-meets-tape-loops aesthetic was beautifully captured on the enigmatic album, “Blankets on the Green, Green Lawn,” available as a free download from net label Rope Swing Cities. Intermittent live performances and a second self-released record followed before Ryan joined Patrick Porter and Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens (of George & Caplin and Wentworth Kersey) to play atmospheric desert music with Runway Estates.
Recently, Sandusky has reappeared, with a show scheduled at the Meadowlark Bar on April 3, and this captivating track, recorded with Brian Gerhard of Audioloom Recordings, who shared “A Christmas Song for Syracuse” with me way back in December.
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Another outfit who grabbed my ears last year was Pina Chulada. Comprising Brent Smith and Jen Villalobos, the emotive electronic duo first came to my attention last summer via a little Denver sampler that Travis Egedy of Pictureplane put together for the Fader. However, I didn’t really sit up and take notice until Smith (who has shared living space with Brittany Gould of Married in Berdichev and Caldera Lakes) sent me some MP3s in December.
The act is focused on recording and video work at the moment, and hasn’t made much of an impression on the live scene yet. However, Pina Chulada’s spacey, synthetic-yet-organic sound, combined with some very solid songwriting, is beautifully realized on tracks like “Someone Like You” and the concise, crystalline track, “What You Mean.”
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So while I’m extremely excited about the showing that Colorado is making today in Austin, I’m even more excited about the future of music right here at home. The impressive Mile High roster at this year’s South By Southwest Music Festival merely foreshadows all the great square-state music that’s in the pipeline.
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out Steal This Track every Tuesday for local music you can HEAR, and the Mile High Makeout every Friday.
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