Best of Local Highlights & lowlights 2011

A year is made up of moments—some good, some bad, some just weird. The music writers of The A.V. Club Denver/Boulder offer up this list of our top and bottom musical moments, memories, and achievements of 2011. Enjoy!

Best use of a camera: Brass Tree Sessions
Generation Y’s fixation with documenting everything—everything!—online gets pretty old after suffering through six or seven shows with your view obscured by a sea of concert-snapper wannabes waving their iPhones in the air. The dudes behind Brass Tree Sessions know how it’s done: Setting up semi-pro-level gear in a home and shooting Burn To Shine-styled live sets, the outfit is slowly building an impressive document of the Denver indie scene, with clips that feature Night Of Joy, Bad Weather California, and Force Publique, among others. Better yet, it doesn’t feature blurry video and clipping, distorted audio like all those concert videos on your friends’ Facebook pages.

Worst Reunion: Five Iron Frenzy
Seriously? No, really. Seriously? If there’s one thing the world didn’t need in 2011, it was the return of a third-wave ska-punk band. If there’s one thing the world really, really didn’t need, it was the return of a Christian third-wave ska act. Even more frightening, despite pretty much every conceivable form of logic, Five Iron Frenzy managed to rope in more than $168,000 in donations from kind-hearted Christians. You know, the kind who really, really, really want a chance to skank for His glory once again instead of, oh, feeding and clothing the poor and all that other boring-ass shit that appears in the book of Matthew.

Best unnecessary controversy: Elway
Tim Browne, singer-guitarist for Fort Collins’ Elway, swears his act didn’t rechristen itself after a former Bronco great for the publicity but to invoke its ties to Colorado. It’s easy to believe him. The notion of a Hall of Fame quarterback, football organization executive, and millionaire restaurateur ever finding out that a pop-punk act borrowed his surname, let alone getting totally pissy about it, was kind of outrageous. Until it happened, of course, and the quarterback’s lawyers sent the band all sorts of non-binding, threatening letters telling them to relinquish the title. Turns out, that was the biggest gift the quarterback could have given the band, as punks rallied behind the quartet and bemused sports writers gave the act a mountain of press.

Worst band development tool: Kickstarter
Recording an album or going on tour has always been cripplingly expensive for independent acts, which forced generations of unsigned bands to take second jobs, play a shitload of local shows, or sell off unnecessary equipment to help foot the bill. No more! With little more than an Internet connection and a loss of all self-respect, any band can formalize its sense of entitlement through the Kickstarter website. Once intended to help bootstrap bizarre artistic ideas, the website’s been the go-to for a gazillion local acts as a shot-in-the-dark hope they can foot the bills for their activities without reallocating funds from their beer budget.

Worst breakout single: “Blackout” by Breathe Carolina
If you’re a 17-year-old high-school student with a noticeably subnormal IQ, you’ll love to jam Breathe Carolina’s “Blackout” as you struggle to complete your application to Arizona State while you foster fantasies of ribald campus parties. If you’re anyone else, the Denver act’s breakout single will come off as a sophomoric cross between Girls Gone Wild videos and Animal House. Not sure which set you belong to? Try this test: If you’re able to sit through the song’s entire video, where we said “always-classy flourishes such as pole dancers, hungover clowns, and underwear-clad ladies having whipped cream and chocolate syrup fights in hotel rooms turn up” without feeling embarrassed for yourself, the ASU financial aid office can be reached at 855-278-5080.

Best show of international dominance: DJ Vajra
As cool and urbane as you are here in Denver, it’s still fun to see a hometown hero strike it big on a stage bigger than a Colorado audience. The Mile High City’s DJ Vajra struck it big on arguably one of the biggest stages available for turntablists, coming home with the DMC World Championship title after knocking off DJs in the Denver qualifying round and the national championships in early August.

Best new record store: Growler Records
Since her days as a rebellious, punk teenager, Molly Zachary has adored vinyl and, after a few years of selling records at places like Blast-O-Mat, Zachary decided to start her very own record store. On September 3, Growler Records opened for business in the back of the Sante Fe art district’s only coffee shop: Yellow Feather. But Zachary didn’t start Growler to up her hipster cred or merely run some niche store. Instead, she wanted to offer audiophiles a bunch of obscure, good stuff, especially in the vein of metal, hardcore and punk. So far, she’s doing a fine job.

Most promising near-breakout: The Morning Clouds
In Spring 2010, Josh Wambeke started working on solo material under the moniker The Morning Clouds. Then, just a few months after he dropped The Morning Clouds’ six-track debut, he found himself signed to Lefse records despite the fact the band had never played a show. But it’s no wonder that the former label of Neon Indian and the current home of Woodsman and Youth Lagoon picked up Wambeke faster than a dropped wallet—his songs are perfect. Each track on the debut is a lush, reverb-drenched wash of melodies, carried on by emotional memories of youth and love. Come spring 2012—just two years after The Morning Clouds’ inception—look for that near-breakout to graduate to full-breakout when Wambeke and his full band play Lefse’s South By Southwest showcase.

Best new festival: Goldrush
Long before Fall 2011, Ryan Pjesky had a selfish idea: bring together some of the best indie artists for a mini-festival that celebrates fall here in Colorado. The founder of the Magic Teepee blog asked two fellow bloggers (Jake Martin of Speaker Snacks and Crawford Philleo of Tome To The Weather Machine) to help him assemble a great roster and by early September, the three blog-boys had gathered 30 local and national acts, including Teen Daze, Quiet Evenings, Flashlights, and Moon Tides to play at the Hi-Dive and Delite over two nights. Fortunately, both nights sold out, making the festival worthwhile, and it’s rumored that Pjesky is planning to host a showcase at South By Southwest in preparation for Goldrush 2012.

Best all-local super show: FaceMan’s First Waltz
Celebrating the release of FaceMan’s debut self-titled album, this show shined the spotlight not only on the folk act’s new material, but also on great music from all over the state. Set up like The Band’s final concert, The Last Waltz, FaceMan served as the evening’s MC, calling up bands to join him on stage. The bands would play one song of their own—The Outfit rocked “Strange Bones” and Bonnie And The Beard chose “Voodoo Queen”—and then lent a hand on a FaceMan original. The show included performances from members of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Bop Skizzum, The Knew, and others. It kicked off with a performance from K Buzz And The Brassheads and ended with what can only be described as a mega-jam where members from all the bands present joined forces to create a rock ’n’ roll Voltron. It was part album release party, part local showcase, and it worked perfectly.

Best reason for an AM dial: OpenAir
OpenAir 1340 debuted on Halloween, and in just a few short months has become one of the best reasons to unplug your iPod dock and listen to the radio. Created by former Radio 1190 GM Mike Flanagan, the station has a staff of just five people, but still manages to do some really cool stuff, including dedicating a 13-hour block of time to local music from Mile High bands past and present on Thanksgiving.

Best local Daytrotter session: The Lumineers
Daytrotter showed a lot of love to Colorado bands this year, including Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, John Common And Blinding Flashes Of Light, and Dovekins. But the best act to storm the barn for Daytrotter this year has to be The Lumineers. The trio’s sweet folk sounds lent themselves perfectly to the live session, and the four-song set featured some of the group’s best material, including “Slow It Down” and “The Dead Sea.” The Lumineers new album isn’t set for release until March next year, but this session is a great substitute while we wait for new material.

Weirdest venue choice: Rockstar Lounge
At the beginning of the year, when Rockstar Lounge first opened, it must have still been searching for what kind of music it would specialize in. That’s the only conceivable reason for inviting A. Tom Collins and The Broken Spirits to a club with stripper poles and zebra-print couches. The Broken Spirits brought their fully charged blues-rock to the stage and played a great set while girls tried in vain to pole-dance in time to the clanging beats and noisy guitar. A. Tom Collins poured on its barroom jazz swagger, ending the set with “Fuck The Pretty People,” climbing the poles themselves and generally creating havoc. The place was pretty dead and the waitresses in their white undershirts and jean shorts didn’t look too pleased, but hey, at least the show was free.

Most impressive music video: “Hey Daisy” by Mike Clark
Mike Clark of The Haunted Windchimes and The Ghost Of Michael Clark made a video in which he rides a bike. While it may not sound impressive at first, he’s also strumming his guitar and singing his song “Hey Daisy.” The video was shot in one take on Tehon St. in Colorado Springs, and the song’s bluesy tone really grabs the listener even as Clark is rolling down the street in the Colorado sunshine.

Best goodbye (not breakup) show: Lust-Cats Of The Gutters
Local sweethearts Lust-Cats Of The Gutters surely broke the hearts of millions of teenage boys when they announced that vocalist/drummer Alex Edgeworth would be leaving Denver this past June. Das Goochi Boiz and Night Of Joy started out the hot, sweaty, four-hour “Goodbye Alex!” dance party that occurred as a result. The tiny room felt like an oven as Edgeworth paused between songs to wipe her sweat-coated drum stool on her dress. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Edwards lolled her head à la Courtney Love (except, well, soberly) as she belted out familiar Lust-Cats tunes, and even Ramones and Misfits covers (“Judy Is A Punk” and “Some Kinda Hate,” respectively). The duo will release a mix-tape on Burger Records next year, but just to warn you, it might be some time before you can catch them live in action once again. At least we had one last night in heaven. Well, in Bar Bar.