FoCoMX revealed: Fort Collins bands’ guide to the Fort Collins music scene
Northern Colorado musicians make their picks for FoCoMX III
Photo by Sarah Boyd Neubert
Sour Boy Bitter Girl (pictured) is but one of the many treasures of the Fort Collins music scene
In the past year or so, it’s almost become a cliché to talk about the fertility of the Fort Collins music scene, but the Fort Collins Music Experiment (FoCoMX for those in the know) has a way of throwing that fact in your face: The festival’s third installment brings 264 musicians and DJs to 31 stages scattered around the Choice City on April 8 and 9, all of whom have ties to Northern Colorado in some shape. Modeled around SXSW, the festival, which is the Fort Collins Music Association’s primary showcase for local talent, pulls in everything from indie to metal to bluegrass to industrial.
The downside? Navigating a festival of this size can be tricky, particularly to anyone without much exposure to the Fort’s acts. That’s where a little local knowledge pays off: A.V. Club surveyed several acts on the FoCoMX bill for guidance on the festival’s choice picks.
Tim Browne, Elway: Without a doubt, B.J. [Buttice] is the best songwriter in Fort Collins. There’s absolutely no competition. He’s on a level that’s inexplicably brilliant, and he always surrounds himself with an arsenal of really awesome musicians. He never disappoints. He won’t disappoint at FoCoMX. If I could recommend any one single band, Sour Boy Bitter Girl would be it every single time. B.J. is the kind of guy that realizes that he doesn’t need to have anyone around him, obviously, but he does, and he chooses the right people. It’s just awesome every time. They’re such a brilliant band. I wish they were the biggest band in the country. It’s just a goddamned shame that he’s not the most well known musician in Colorado.
Devyn Robuck
Chris Anderson, Fierce Bad Rabbit: He’s like 17 or 18, but he’s a killer guitarist. It’s kind of singer-songwriter, but a little more rock to it than the singer-songwriter thing. It’s just some good songs that are kind of pop-rock. I think it’s cool that he’s young and he’s doing it. I kind of wish I had been out there playing gigs when I was 18. It’s fun to watch him play guitar. Both times I’ve seen him play, it makes me feel I should practice a bit more. He’s just fun to watch.
Greta Cornett, FoCoMX organizer: His name’s Dillon Groeneman, and I’ve been watching him play music since he was like 14. He studied down at Windsor High School, and he’s just a phenomenal drummer. The way that his mind works musically is just amazing. I’m not sure if you’ve seen Galaxies play live, but they remind me a lot of The Postal Service. It’s just him. He plays every instrument and writes everything. [I like] watching people grow up in the music scene and watching them contribute to it, and see where they grow.
Stelth Ulvang, Dovekins: There’s a couple musicians around the country that does what he does. He’s basically a solo instrumental guitarist, and he sings as well, but he does this finger-tapping thing along [the lines of] Kaki King. I’m really impressed by it. He has a lot of energy, and he’s just really humble about it. There’s something about musicians who are ripping solos—which is what an instrumental guitarist is doing all the time—that’s really cocky. He just pulls it off, and it’s a really beautiful, melodious style. He’s really technical, really percussive. You have to zone out and hear it. There’s a lot of stuff coming out of one guitar. It’s a soundscape, as opposed to harmony with singing and melody. Everything’s happening on the guitar. He’s one of the most talented guitar players I know.
Nick LoFaro, Common Anomaly: We’ve really seen them grow as a band. They were in the Jimi Austin, two of the guys before, and I think where they went with Wire Faces is really the rock route. We’re always happy to see other rock bands. In this town, you get a lot of jam bands, which I love, and a lot of reggae and dub, but rock ’n’ roll is kind of a hard area to fit in here. We’ve been friends with those guys for a long time. That’s what’s kept us here—that community, this sort of friends helping each other. A lot of bands helped us when we were starting.
The Three Twins
Jonathan Tiersten: It’s really The Subdudes minus Tommy Malone, for people to see a truly polished act with a lot of soul and still an edge. Some guys in the band are 60 years old. It’s just awesome. I think they’re going to be playing a lot more now, because The Subdudes are going to take a four-month hiatus. I can’t predict what those guys will do. I know they really like the Three Twins thing.
AVC: A lot of people don’t even know about the connection between The Three Twins and The Subdudes anymore.
JT: Do you wonder whether if they want that or don’t? I’d say two or three years ago, they were really blowing up. They quit for eight years. It’s the typical story, where too many cooks are going to spoil the stew. I think people gave them bad advice and delusions of grandeur. I know. I’ve been there. I wouldn’t be surprised if, with the quality of music they have, if they experience another resurgence.
Christina the Hunn
Shane Zweygardt, Wire Faces: She’s really unique. Nobody’s doing what she does, honestly—a one-woman show where she’s playing drums. To me, it’s like theater—like an expressive, performance-art kind of thing. There’s songs to it. She’s playing these drum beats and just throwing it all out to you, like, “Here’s how I feel about something.” It’ll go up and down, rise and fall. It’s not necessarily verse-chorus or anything. It’s more just stream of consciousness, kind of like Yoko Ono.
B.J. Buttice, Sour Boy Bitter Girl: Paean will be the single most epic display of awkward, sort of self-unsure evil that you’ve ever encountered. It’s evil that doesn’t know it’s evil. There won’t be many more opportunities to see them. It will be a good show. I’m sure of it.
The Riflemen
Randall Ramirez, The Heyday: It’s going to be their CD release show as well as their last show. You don’t hear that too often. It’s their first show in a number of years, and it’s going to be the last. It’s some friends of ours making some good folkie, indie Americana. They’re kind of all over the country, but they’re from Fort Collins, and most of them are still in Fort Collins. They’re a big part of the Everyday Joe’s scene, so they’ll be playing there Saturday night.
Ghost In The Machine
Jasper, Give ’Er Hell: One of the guys who’s doing something really cool is Chris Smith. He has a collaborative thing that’s an electronic... there’s an industrial aspect to it. He collaborates with a couple of the guys from Peace Officer, Nick Duarte from Post Paradise works with him, and Joel Decatur, a local singer-songwriter, works with him also. It’s a big collaborative effort. You’ll see some really cool stuff. Chris does a lot of the programming, he plays drums, he plays guitars on some of the tracks. I don’t know how everything comes to fruition.
