Post-Independence Marathon – New Music from Colorado

We’re travelling all over US in search of new and exciting sounds and this time our eyes and ears are on Colorado! Jump into Post-Independence Marathon archives in order to hear more music from across the USA!

Seal Eggs

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]Seal Eggs loops and processes voice and electronics to create slowly unfolding ambient soundscapes.[/perfectpullquote] Ah, the complexity of human voice – a subject of many a record (we’re looking at you, Diamanda Galas). This particular solo project of Gwen Wolfenbarger focuses on the more ethereal side of things – echoes of work by bands like Miranda Sex Garden are scattered all over SE’s debut “Sunday Will Be Snow”.
While “Sunday” came out in 2016 is the only Seal Egg’s release to date, the project hardly lay dormant since then. There’s a new video out for the song Sublimation and Gwen also embarked on an American tour this year.
Further Reading: Colorado Springs Independent | KRCC | The SoCC | The Catalyst

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Midwife / Sister Grotto

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]Midwife is Madeline Johnston. Known for her minimal ambient work as Sister Grotto, Midwife finds Johnston and collaborator Tucker Theodore creating powerful anthems of dislocation and loss under the weight of reverb buried power chords and swelling choruses.[/perfectpullquote] Gloomy as they are, soundscapes heard on “Like Author, Like Daughter”, Midwife’s debut, also radiate a certain beauty. Much like in case of Seal Eggs the power of her work lies in the interaction of drone and voice, meshing together to create something otherworldly.
Sister Grotto, Madeline Johnston’s other project, features much slower and more drawn out ambient/experimental tracks. Along with more traditional guitar and piano the project features tape loops, found sounds and samples.
Further Reading: Spring Break Tapes | Yeah I Know It Sucks | Slug Magazine | Various Small Flames

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Yawpers

Dictionary defines “yawp” as a “a harsh or hoarse cry or yelp.” and the word certainly fits the kind of music that this duo is making – Americana as seen through the prism of punk/psychobilly. One can only wonder if members of the duo are some sort of long-lost relatives of our own Andy California as both seem to share the obsession with primordial blues.

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Television Generation

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]Meandering through the dredges of rock and roll[/perfectpullquote] Isn’t it shocking how many bands throughout rock history had either Television or Generation in their name, but not both? This Colorado trio apparently thought the same and studied their rock history rather well (see cover of last year’s Peel) – think proto-punk, garage rock and a dash of grunge.

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C. Reider

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]Listener – Composer of working-class abstract music : fungiphile : Antifascist as fuck : nonbinary (he/they) : a complicated waveform[/perfectpullquote] Over the last 3 decades Chris Reider has been tirelessly traversing the drone/experimental/ambient terrain both as a solo artist and a collaborator, working with the likes of Jeph Jerman, Implicit Order and PBK. His band Drone Forest contributed one-minute track to the first volume of our digital series Gone in 60 Seconds back in 2010:

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Seafoam

Brian Cavender (aka Seafoam) has been travelling the underground for about as long as Chris Reider – albeit, in his case, we’re talking about less experimental forms of electronic music (house/IDM). Throughout years his releases appeared on a number of American and European labels, including Guidance Recordings and Dreamers.
More recently French label Rue de Plaisance issued an LP collecting 6 years of Seafom’s output:

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Gasoline Lollipops

Listening to Soul Mine, Gasoline Lollipops latest, one can’t help but imagine endless car chases and roads filled with (mis)adventures of all kinds. Heavily rooted in Americana/country their music got a certain cinematic flair/Waits-ian flavor of strangeness to it, heady mix for sure.

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Chesty Vulva

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]Imagine this! You the listener have just landed in Oz. Jim Jones is an arms dealer to wicked witches, the straw men are junkies, the TV Man is manipulating Oz and Ozma is brainwashed. Will the listener make it back home? Will Oz be saved? Find out on SUBJECTS, the latest project from Chesty Vulva.[/perfectpullquote] This cryptic enterprise (run by one Brian Salazar) happened to be one of the players featured on I Am A Resident, a project from The Residents involving fan submissions from the likes of our own Nick Panagakos, Freek Kinkelaar and countless others.
As for CV’s music? People that made it are clearly not of this Earth – much like Sun Ra. Their physical location is in Colorado, but their hearts and minds are in outer space.
 

More Music from Colorado

We asked people on the list for their own recommendations of music from Colorado and here’s what they had to say:
Television Generation suggested Dressy Bessy, Mr. Atomic, The Velveteers, Rotten Reputation, Plasma Canvas and The Beeves
Chesty Vulva suggested The Truckstop Quickies
C. Reider suggested Jacob hamilton Isaacs, Entrancer, Emptyhelix, Unbridled Sonic Anarchy, Cody Yantis, Echo Beds, Dreadnought, Primitive Man, Kenaima, Mirror Fears, Mrs. Hardy, Offthesky, Haunted Sound Laboratory, Blackcell