The music you listen to as the self-absorbed teenage version of yourself is not the same as the music you listen to now.  If you grew up like I did, you may have just started to really spend obnoxious amounts of time on listening to new bands.  Or maybe you started spending a ridiculous amount of money seeing those bands while you were in college, like I did.  I never got a chance to see Margot & the Nuclear So and So's during either of these periods in my life, but I definitely feel like I would have if it were possible; they either weren't in existence or weren't touring all the way down to Florida.  But being at the Larimer Lounge and seeing them play brought me back to the feeling I got when I used to when I was in both of those musically-charged situations.  Seeing all of the "x's" on the wrists, and the camera phones snapping/recording and hearing the intense singing in the cramped space was a feeling entirely too familiar as I recalled the warehouse shows, the house parties, the small college venues that I grew up with and frequented before I was old enough to go to bars and other, bigger venues.  The music I listened to then was a lot more emotionally complicated, gritty-guitar infused and just crowded. 


The Nukes have cast a wide net for their fans over the years, and I love to see the different generations that get sucked into catch when I see shows like theirs this past Tuesday.  And their passionate, too: there are a certain type of music fan that will be drawn to bands for reasons that have more to do with values, and the way people were raised, and I get that feeling with the people I observed at the front of the crowd this evening.  I'm sure there were a few people that came to hear something new, too; all bands this evening had released a new album as of one or two months ago. 

So the opening band was Whispertown, and unfortunately I missed all but the last 3 songs they played.  They had a bare-bones set up with one small drum and Jake Bellows on the guitar.  Bellows is an established musician of the Saddle Creek / Omaha variety (you may know of his other band Neva Dinova), and I was not expecting to see him up there with Morgan Nagler, the principle member of Whispertown.  Nagler herself expressed the revolving door of musicians that Whispertown is comprised of in our interview we did over the internets - you can read it here.  I would have like to see more of the two perform, but I know from Nagler's interview and some brief internet searching that the duo will be back in town soon enough.  Her recent release is Parallel, and you can listen to it

Next up on the night's list of musical guests was Dinosaur Feathers.  They are a band from Brooklyn and their bassist is the splitting image of Ron Linvingston (the movie, Office Space).  The band plays fun, catchy songs that sound like pop-music crack: they jump around and make you want to jump around, it's addictive.  The band played mostly from their new release, Whistle Tips, and the highlights of their performance of that album I think would be "Young Bucks" and "SURPRISE!". 


Richard Edwards is the singer for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's and he's from Indianapolis.  This was made clear when he made a comment about the Broncos recent addition of Peyton Manning, famed quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts.  "I want someone to send me tapes once football season starts . . . you may have him now, but we got the best of him."  I forgot about football until he brought that up; I honestly have been in a mental NFL blackout since that Tebow-trading thing.  The Nukes started off with new tracks like "Shannon" and "Fisher of Men," but the night included a little of everything, including "Skeleton Key" and "Will You Love Me Forever?".  It was nice to see the musical accompaniment that Erik Kang provided with the slide guitar and violin, and Cameron McGill on the keyboard and backing vocals.  It was a full room of listeners and a full stage of band members.






The group enjoyed the captivation of that evening's guests, lot's of kids got to experience what I never did - seeing a great band that you can grow up with play a small venue.  And lots of new music to queue up on Spotify afterwards.

Don't you just love band names?  I particularly like to play the game where you try to guess what type of music a band makes from their name alone; it's good tactic for book covers, obviously, but with band names it becomes really funny really fast.  Please indulge yourself if you haven't heard of these bands before, then read on for the scoop on tonight's lineup that the Larimer Lounge.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's are pop music first, but have a punk attitude and somewhat experimental in sound as they dabble in a few different types of sounds on each album they have released so far.  In 2006, the band released the emotionally-driven The Dust of Retreat and gained many fans with the single "Skeleton Key".  Since then the group has disbanded and reformed with new members and new grittier sounds with 2010 release of their third album Buzzard.  Singer and songwriter Richard Edwards is a lyrical whiz who puts a cute spin on any song with pop hooks throughout.  The March release of Rot Gut, Domestic (unfortunately the band didn't take advantage of the excellent marketing opportunity to release a microbrew with the same name) features songs that are '90s influenced rock, but maintain personality such as with "A Journalist Falls in Love with Death Row Inmate #16" which is about an unlikely relationship with a felon (I guess it happens, i.e. Danny Rawlings) and "Prozac Nation" which is most certainly an ode to the beloved pharmaceutical industry.




Whispertown is the newest version of Morgan Nagler's band, formerly the Whispertown 2000. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings have their own label, Acony records based in Nashville, and Whispertown is the only other band they've released on it. The new EP Parallel is the bands 2nd release, and the follow up to their previous release, Swim.




Dinosaur feathers is an indie-pop quartest from Brooklyn that cites Billy Joel as an influence on their Facebook page. I think that is a great summation for a new band. Check out all three of these acts tonight at the Larimer Lounge - Doors at 8:00 PM and Show at 9:00 PM, more information can be found on their website here.