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MUSIC reviews
BandWagon Magazine
Crescent City Connection PG. 4 N3ptune PG. 6 The Matterhorn Project pG. 9 Single Reviews PG. 12
BANDWAGMAG.COM Publisher
ELY CORLISS
Editor
KEVIN JOHNSTON
TX2
BandWagMag BandWagMag
PG.24
art director
PG.20
CARTER KERNS
CONTRIBUTORS
DAN ENGLAND GABE ALLEN VALERIE VAMPOLA
Mom Rock
BANDS AND MUSICIANS Submit your MUSIC for review: BANDWAGON MAGAZINE 802 9TH ST. GREELEY, CO 80631
kevin@bandwagmag.com
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PG.11
PG.16
Pecos & the
Rooftops
Any other inquiries:
bandwagmag@gmail.com BandWagon Magazine © 2021 The Crew Presents Inc.
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Crescent City Connection Yeah You Right!
Valerie Vampola
BandWagon Magazine
Fort Collins based Crescent City Connection brings New Orleans flavor to the Colorado funk-rock scene with their new album Yeah You Right! Tracks like the instrumental jam “D’Mina,” and the minorbluesy “Blue Car,” stay in line with the Coloradobeloved funk-rock aesthetic, featuring a powerful rock organ, scratched rhythm guitar and horn lines all over
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an upbeat rock groove. This makes them reminiscent of other local groups like Float Like a Buffalo or Graham Good and the Painters, but their niche sound is infused with characteristics popular in Nola Brass and Dixieland traditions. The group steps out from the rock beat and into a Dixieland shuffle transporting listeners straight onto the streets of the French Quarter on “All on a Mardi Gras Day.” “Iko Iko” continues that same Dixieland feel while including upbeat and bouncy horn melodies that are reminiscent of street band improvisations. Crescent City Connection also throws in some honkytonk piano in tracks like “Big Chief” and “All on a Mardi Gras Day,” serving as a nicely tied bow to complete their shiny New Orleans package.
But the track that stands the excitement the band is out the most is “Cracks in capable of creating when the Sidewalk” because of it’s they truly connect. balanced blend of both the Crescent City Connection funk-rock and New Orleans (Magic Rat’s choice for their sounds, featuring horns and New Year’s eve live act) a gospel organ over that rock return live to Magic Rat on groove. The grooving organ Friday January 14 and Friday, solo turns up the energy, and February 11 from 8 to 11pm. the screaming guitar solo that follows matches the Visit www.crescentcityband. com for more. intensity and power showing
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N3PTUNE
Renneissance Valerie Vampola
BandWagon Magazine
takes a sharp turn into a heavy trap section. “WHITE PONY'' introduces a stomping, bluesy rock style, reminiscent of The Black Keys, which is new and unique to N3ptune’s aesthetic. The four-on-the-floor style is accentuated by a Jack Whiteesque guitar solo via his collaborator and the record’s producer, Rusty Steve.
N3ptune also plays around with dance-pop but with N3ptune’s album his own dark overtone and RENAISSANCE, released last clubbing beats in “MISERY month, is a birth of style that LOVES COMPANY,” which combines elements of trap, pulls things in an upbeat Lady dark dance pop, and heavy Gaga direction and “ABSENT blues rock. (BODY),” which features dark Like his past releases, synths reminding listeners of Denver’s N3ptune kept the The Weeknd. mood dark through his beats RENAISSANCE is an and lyrical themes revolving appropriate title for an album around struggles with suicide by an artist who does it all: and abuse, like in ”MILITIA.” acting, singing, modeling, But what we have not heard producing and performing. much before is his use of a But moreso, this album is the powerful RnB and soul voice rebirth of a man finding the to convince listeners of his perfect way to combine all his suffering. “WEDLOCK” uses influences and styles into high a layered vocal chorus and mainstream art. improvisations that sound N3ptune will support Sleigh like a gritty gospel choir over Bells on an East Coast US which N3ptune raps about his tour February 8 through father, whom he portrays as a corrupt preacher. It features March 6, later performing at Treefort Music Fest. More at more soul than N3ptune’s past releases, at least until he linktr.ee/N3ptune
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THE MATTERHORN PROJECT Traveller
Gabe Allen
BandWagon Magazine
Just seconds into “Traveler,” the opening track of The Matterhorn Project’s latest EP of the same name, you get the unmistakable feeling of falling backwards. You reach up towards the solid ground you perched on seconds before, but your fingers grasp only air. You plummet into a murky, vaporous abyss as the earth folds inward around you. When the phrases “prog metal” and “solo studio project” occupy the about section of a band’s website, a couple of red flags go up. Sometimes, when an artist, especially one in the progressive sphere, spends a great deal of time alone in the studio, the result is an overly busy, hopelessly complex piece of music. Even a song with great bones can become boring and opaque when weighed down by layer upon layer of mathy riffage. But Zahari Tzigularov, the mastermind behind Traveler,
has used his studio time well. Though his musicianship is apparent, his artistry is front and center. The 5-song EP is at once lush and foreboding. Tzigularov’s compositions weave between sludgy bass-driven riffs, wandering clean guitar melodies and fantastical whisper-growled lyrics. Underlying the entire record are lavish, atmospheric soundscapes. Tzigularov, a Bulgarian-born long time Denverite has been active in the Front Range heavy scene for years. When, at the beginning of the pandemic, he had to stop performing, he decided it was time to delve into a recording project that had lived rent-free in the back of his head for a long time. “I wanted to push my limits,” he told BandWagon. “My challenge to myself was to write, perform, and record the album, as well as create the art for it.” Tzigularov’s challenge limited him in one sense, because he had only one creative perspective to draw from end-to-end. But, this limitation is also the EP’s strength. From the melancholic album art to the viscous instrumentation, the pieces of Traveler fold together into a cohesive work of art Traveler is streaming everywhere now – visit thematterhornproject.com for more.
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Featured ARTIST
OF THE MONTH
H
undreds of hours spent in the basements of dive bars don’t often yield respectable accolades, but for George Cessna, that’s arguably how he came to be this month’s Colorado Sound featured artist. Cessna and his close friend Brian Buck literally clocked as much time in the basement of Denver’s beloved Hi-Dive, recording and eventually emerging with Lucky Rider, a twangy, dark and lo-fi album released in December.
GEORGE CESSNA
“Of course, it took us hundreds of hours of work because we were still learning all the time,” Cessna tells BandWagon of the eleven echoey, country-leaning tracks. “I think it also helped give us a lot of confidence with music projects in the future. We know what we're capable of, or not capable of, now.” Though his first proper solo effort, Lucky Rider is not Cessna’s first rodeo. He released a split in 2019 with the artist Lathe, and is a participant and pedigree of the best (and, only?) gothic-roots dark-country supergroup in the region, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, of which his father is the founder. “I think I always wanted more than anything to play in my dad's band,” Cessna says, “so when I started doing that, I kind of hit a 'well, now what?' point with my own music. It's hard to be able to believe you can make anything as intricate, strange, and beautiful as their music. And I don't know if I ever will. But it's nice being back in work mode on my own stuff, and I hope to keep that ball rolling.” – Kevin Johnston
LUCKY RIDER HITS THE SWEET SPOT BETWEEN TIMBER TIMBRE, LOW AND GEORGE JONES. HEAR IT ON THE COLORADO SOUND AND SEE GEORGE CESSNA WITH HIS BAND SNAKES JANUARY 28 AT THE BLUEBIRD THEATER IN DENVER.
REASONS TO LISTEN TO THE COLORADO SOUND • MORE COLORADO ARTISTS • KNOWLEDGEABLE DJS WHO LIVE HERE • NO COMMERCIALS • • UNIQUE PROGRAMMING YOU DON’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE FROM BEASTIE BOYS TO BILLIE HOLIDAY •
105.5FM & ONLINE AT COLORADOSOUND.ORG 11
SINGLE REVIEWS KEVIN JOHNSTON
Co-Stanza
Branson Hoog "No Vacancy"
"Cassi-o-Peia"
Pop music trends flow in cycles and right now, unvarnished cute is cool. Dr. Dog’s twee, meek delivery is genius and Boy Pablo’s simple niceties are all the rage. Dropping realness like a reference to FaceTime helped folks relate to FoCo’s Co-Stanza (to the tune of nearly 2 million streams on “I Don’t Mind”) and by the sound of this hooky new toe tapper, CoStanza will continue racking up fans with each tick of the clock. Locally, “20 Minutes” brings to mind BandWagon’s jazzy fav’s People In General, but make the call yourself on January 20 when Co-Stanza hits The Aggie Theater
Intimate and sexy, Branson Hoog’s nimble, close-up vocals evoke alluring darkness over deep and minimalistic beats on “No Vacancy.” He’s influenced by pop greats from Justin Timberlake to Billie Eillish on this, his second release under his own name. Hoog, the frontman for NOT A TOY (fka the Fort Collins favorite Shatterproof) proves that he could hang with those icons given the hook-up and the right couple of breaks. His range is impressive and the track is expertly produced with much temptation to discover in the shadows beneath its neon light.
with Lady Denim. whatiscostanza.com
linktr.ee/bransonhoog
It’s 2022 and yes, it’s possible that your garage band owns 100 synthesizers. That’s true for DEBR4H, the FoCo ensemble led by Jed Murphy, and it was true for DEVO back in the day. Out January 20, “Cassi-o-Peia” pushes the band’s blipping to a full-on synth stomp at the outset, thickening things up to a dense sparkle as intricate as the Milky Way on the chorus. Murphy’s partner Kayna delivers monotone Kraftwerk interjections and Metriclike vocal doubles to Murphy’s croon, and Oliver Mueller (Slow Caves) and FoCo fixture Zach Visconti weave instrumental counter melodies and support throughout. The group isn’t pop, garage or EDM, exactly, but whatever the constellation is, DEBR4H shines. Catch them Jan 13 at Lost Lake. debr4h.com
"20 Minutes"
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Pecos & the
Rooftops
T
he night the members of Pecos & the Rooftops wrote the song that gave them their breakout success, they really weren’t even a working band yet – just a bunch of friends who went to college together in Lubbock, Texas and liked to hang out and jam to cover songs.
The quintet’s frontman, Pecos Hurley, had just begun writing songs, and he was playing the chords to one when magic struck: One of the other guys began singing a chorus to it.
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MORE THAN
ONE DAMN SONG BY DAN ENGLAND
“Damn, that’s good,” Hurley recalled saying during a phone interview for BandWagon. “Do you care if I try to finish it?”
most popular song on the platform, “Wouldn’t Have To Miss You,” part of the band’s 2020 extra play release Red Eye E.P.
Finish it he did, and the result, “This Damn Song,” was such a smash that many struggling songwriters are probably throwing up their hands upon reading this. The single now has nearly 55 million streams on Spotify alone, which is 50 million more than their next
In fact, the release and success of “This Damn Song” two years after it was written inspired them to get serious. “Once we released it and it did so well, it was, ‘Well, I guess we have to be a band now,’” Hurley tells BandWagon. Of course, Hurley finished the song in 2017, before the band began writing songs together and
touring as Pecos & the Rooftops. They haven’t matched that song’s success yet, but they have high hopes for their first full-length record. They released a song on December 17, “Last Night’s Lashes,” which has had a good response on Spotify so far, Hurley said. They’re now touring in support of the upcoming record, playing the Outlaw Saloon in Cheyenne on January 13 and Summit Music Hall on January 15 in Denver, surrounded by dates in Deadwood, South Dakota, as well as Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Rooftops haven’t tried to match the success of “This Damn Song,” nor have they tried to copy the sound, Hurley said.
“That’s when you just start spinning your wheels or trying too hard,” he said. “We’re just trying to write what feels right and staying true to that. [“This Damn Song”] was just one of those songs. I don’t know how to explain it, really. The other music is doing well, too, but it’s just not on the same level. That song just caught a different kind of traction.” That could be frustrating, but Hurley calls the success a blessing. They might
not have even become a proper band if it hadn’t hit so hard; they were just friends from school who liked to play music together, after all. The tune got them a touring slot with Kolby Cooper, which led to more success and even more gigs. Hurley calls that tour, more than the song, their big break. The band, or “This Damn Song” at least, sounds a bit like Hootie and the Blowfish back in the day, with a gritty mix of mid-tempo country, folk and straightforward southern rock. But The Rooftops have never talked specifically about their sound or what they would want it to be. Among the members, they have similar tastes in music, but only kinda, Hurley said. They just write. “It’s still all over the place,” he said of the band’s style. “We will all enjoy it whenever someone plays some music, but you can also tell who [the writer] is by the music.” Hurley says the new album won’t stray too far from what the band’s fans know and love, with an aesthetic he calls half rock and half slower, more mellow vibes. They feel prepared for the next steps and feel good about the music they’re making. They’re looking forward to building their longer-term careers after such a fast start. “We had the songs written before we went into the studio,” Hurley said. “I feel confident about it now, and the guys like the songs. We are just ready to get it out.”
BANDWAGON PRESENTS PECOS & THE ROOFTOPS LIVE ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 13TH AT THE OUTLAW SALOON IN CHEYENNE, WYOMING. VISIT PECOS-ROOFTOPS.COM FOR MORE ON THE BAND AND GRAB TICKETS AT BANDWAGONPRESENTS.COM
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Mom Rock WANTS TO KISS YOU ON THE MOUTH
THE QUARTET OF BERKLEE GRADS IS FULL OF LOVE FOR FANS ON THEIR FIRST EVER NATIONAL TOUR. BY GABE ALLEN
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few years ago, Mom Rock booked their first gig at The Garden, a notorious house on the Boston DIY basement show circuit that was run by a revolving cast of college kids. They were ecstatic… until they saw the 6 pm time slot. Barely anyone would be there and almost no one would be properly intoxicated (although they might be stoned and sleepy given that the show was on 4/20). Luckily, college bands are flaky, and two of the night’s headliners dropped off the bill the morning of. Perhaps they had overindulged in the day’s festivities and forgotten how to play their instru-
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ments or drowned in existential dread. Either way, the members of Mom Rock were in full control of their faculties and ready to capitalize on their revised 9 p.m. time slot. What happened next cemented the quartet as a fixture in the scene. “We went up to play and the crowd was electric,” guitarist/singer Josh Polack told BandWagon. “It was the first time I ever crowd surfed during a guitar solo.” “They literally picked him up without provocation,” guitarist/singer Curtis Heimburger chimed in. “We were in this basement where the ceilings were super low,” bass-
ist Tara Maggiulli added. “I thought he would get concussed, but he was fine.” At the time, the band was newly formed and barely had two songs out on streaming services. If you listen to their 2021 EP, a song with a happy end, you can still hear the manic sweatiness of a DIY basement show in the fast tempos, hooky guitar riffs and sing-along choruses. Their songs may cover morose topics like heartbreak, homelessness and emotional insecurity, but any melancholy is drowned out by foot-stomping catharsis.
“YOU CAN’T REALLY HEAR ANYTHING IN THOSE BASEMENTS,” HEIMBURGER SAID. “YOU GOTTA HAVE A GOOD CHORUS AND A GOOD HOOK.” When the last of Mom Rock’s members graduated from college last spring (all but Maggiulli attended Berklee College of Music), they decided to drive across the country to set up a new homebase in Los Angeles. With a few connections in the scene and millions of streams across platforms, they broke into the scene much more quickly than they were expecting. “It’s always tough to book your first show in whatever new city you’re going to,” Polack said. “We reached out to try to book our first show and they were like ‘yeah, so many people already recommended you to play I was about to email you.” Now, just a few months after moving into their new communal digs, Mom Rock’s members are headed out on their first ever national tour — respec-
tively fueled by trail mix, extra toasty cheez-Its, cheetos, sliced apples and lunch meats. When BandWagon caught up with them in December, they were “analysing the pros and cons of different vans and trailers while watching The Great British Baking Show.” On the week of January 17, providing they find a functioning tour vehicle, Mom Rock will post up in Northern Colorado for a Wednesday show at the Coast in Fort Collins with the Unlikely Candidates and a Thursday show at the Black Buzzard in Denver before playing a weekend string of shows scattered around the state. If you tend towards traditional behavior on a first band-date, try not to get too close to the action if you end up at one of the concerts. While some bands have overly-affectionate fans, Mom Rock has overly affectionate band members. “Our fans are the best people on Earth,” Heimburger said. “If we could kiss every single one of them on the mouth,” Polack chimed in, “We would,” Maggiulli and Heimburger finished his sentence in unison.
MOM ROCK PLAYS AT THE COAST IN FORT COLLINS WEDNESDAY, JAN 19 WITH THE UNLIKELY CANDIDATES AND THE BLACK BUZZARD IN DENVER ON THURSDAY, JAN 20. TICKETS AT BANDWAGONPRESENTS.COM – MORE AT MOMROCKOFFICIAL.COM
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TX2
k n u A P with Pull DAN ENGLAND
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fter a hello, Evan Thomas sighed at the exchange of pleasantries. He sounded a little sad. Then he unloaded a bit. A friend of his is struggling, he said. “I’m OK,” he told BandWagon in a phone interview. “I’m just rolling with the punches of life. I’m sorry to get so deep on you.” If it’s a little unusual to, as Thomas put it, get so deep on someone he just met, someone who is writing a story on him, well, that’s just who he is. And that is also the point of this story. It’s not his music as such, although that plays a big role in how it all comes together, it’s the Discord group he started. Thomas divides his time between Fort Collins, where he’s essentially from, and Miami, where he’s building a following as the artist TX2. He began the server/group-chat on the distribution and messaging platform Discord for his fans after struggling with his own mental health. “There was a point where I was trying to end my whole life,” he said. “I felt worthless. And I had friends help me out. Once people feel like they’re alone, they need someone to talk to. I feel like that helps save lives. I’ve had people tell me that now.” The Discord group is for those struggling, as he once did, as well as his friends. He doesn’t allow any negativity. It has nearly 1,000 members, and he’s proud of it. It’s a place where participants can
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Look for a new music video from TX2 to be released in February. For more on TX2, visit www.officialtx2.com Find the X Movement Discord server via the following link: https://discord.gg/kuxC4NxTns
PHOTO: BACKSTAGE FLASH
admit, flat out, that they’ve had suicidal thoughts, though it’s not only for that.
“I just want to help people out,” Thomas said. “People are getting the message.” As TX2, Thomas, who is just 22, writes about his struggles and those dark thoughts in his music as well. He wrote “Pull The Plug,” a recent release with a transparently gory video, about another really low place in his life. Writing about it, he said, helped him. The song did well on TikTok and YouTube and regardless of its controversial content, seemed to connect with others. “My music is my source of therapy,” he said. “I enjoy putting all my emotions into words.” TX2 plays pop punk rock with elements of rap and a smidge of metal, the kind of formula used by Linkin Park
during their heyday, though Thomas himself would likely throw the adjective “emo” into the description. Indeed, it’s exactly the kind of music that cries out for angry and sad self-reflection. He writes and performs all of TX2’s music on his own and has a band perform with him live. He’s had success in Miami, he said, attending school there and even pioneering an educational hip hop program. But he performed with said band to a packed house at the Aggie Theater in Fort Collins last month and filmed a new music video while in the state, with plans to return for a show in the summer. “I will always be a part of the Colorado music scene one way or another,” he said. Thomas has been in therapy before, he said, but he now uses his music and the Discord group as an outlet, and he likes that others use it as well. It’s becoming as much a part of the music as the music is part of him. “I always take a break in my set to talk about it,” Thomas said. And this statement brought him back to the interview. As it was winding down, he had a question: “Hey, so how are you?”
PHOTO: BACKSTAGE FLASH
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CHARLESTHEFIRST | THE CHINOOK @ TERRY BISON RANCH | PHOTO: JORDAN DEAN
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