Elway

There’s more to the band Elway than the recent kerfuffle kicked up by the superstar quarterback who’s not too happy to be sharing his name. The Fort Collins pop punks boast a no-nonsense approach that sidesteps the genre’s less appealing trends for something a little more legitimate. Its Midwestern-pop-meets-Jawbreaker sensibility landed it a deal with Chicago-based label Red Scare, and the group members are not about to let a pissing match with Denver’s favorite son derail them now. If anything, the publicity has helped, generating interviews everywhere from the Alternative Press to ESPN, with vocalist Tom Browne repeatedly reminding the band’s QB namesake to lighten up—it’s just punk rock, after all.

Updated 06/10/2011