Indie 102.3 Sessions

Sean Hoots founded Hoots & Hellmouth in 2005, originally as a folk duo. The group soon expanded to a four-piece that blends rock, country and gospel music. They're known for a compelling live show in which they stomp on bass drums and play a variety of acoustic instruments. The Philadelphia-based band this month will release the album "In The Trees Where I Can See The Forest,"...

The Shreveport, La., quartet Seratones mixes Southern soul with garage rock swagger on their debut album, "Get Gone." Fronted by the powerful singer A.J. Haynes, the band earned a spot on Paste Magazine's "20 Best New Bands of 2015" list. The band stopped into the CPR Performance Studio prior to a show at Denver's Fillmore Auditorium with St. Paul & the Broken Bo...

Denver musician Jon Shockness caught our attention as a member of hip-hop band Air Dubai and his soulful solo work as Kid Astronaut. Now, he's teamed up with Nigerian-born producer Daniel Iyere for the new band HVN -- which is pronounced "heaven." CPR's OpenAir was privy to one of the first ever HVN live performances when we welcomed them into our studio last month. Iyere'...

Wheelchair Sports Camp has spent years establishing a reputation as "Denver's biggest smallest band" through live shows, EPs and singles that blend Kalyn Heffernan's rap lyrics with rock, jazz and even country instruments. Their music has won them fans like rapper Sage Francis and landed them on the cover of The Village Voice. This month the band released their debut studio alb...

If you're familiar with the Elephant Six collective, you'll know there have been several notable bands with a Denver connection to come out of it. In addition to Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples In Stereo and Dressy Bessy, that list includes The Minders, who have since relocated to Portland, Ore. Fronted by Martyn Leaper, The Minders have been fairly quiet in recent years. But the band ret...

Since visiting the CPR Performance Studio in April 2015, the Denver band Edison has expanded to a three-piece, signed to a new record label and toured the U.S. Some locations on their journeys -- the Arizona desert, the Chesapeake Bay and the Colorado mountains -- inspired their debut album "Familiar Spirit," which came out last week. Edison returned to CPR's OpenAir last month to p...

Low Cut Connie can count one very notable fan among their followers: President Barack Obama. The Philadelphia band's song “Boozophilia” appeared on one of his Spotify playlists for summer 2015. That selection led to a face-to-face meeting with President Obama last year. Frontman Adam Weiner described the surprising experience to Alisha Sweeney during the band's performance in our CPR Per...

River Whyless came to CPR's OpenAir highly recommended by WNCW in the band's home state of North Carolina. The four-piece out of Asheville, N.C., recently released their second album, "We All The Light," after a performance at this year's Newport Folk Festival. The band played three songs from the new album in our CPR Performance Studio before a show at Denver's Ogden...

Denver band Paper Bird returned this week to the CPR Performance Studio. We first hosted the band's retooled lineup -- with new member Carleigh Atkins, who replaced singer-songwriter Esme Patterson -- back in 2014, and today the band releases its new self-titled album. Paper Bird recorded the LP in Nashville with producer John Oates of Hall & Oates. It finds the band moving away from fol...

Lillian Soderman -- who performs simply as Lillian -- has a lot of musical friends in Colorado. That's a big reason she moved back to the Centennial state from California to record her new EP, "Desert Song." The release features members of Denver bands Inner Oceans and Paper Bird, but it's Soderman who is front and center on its five songs. The music features sparse folk arrang...

Kyle Craft's musical story begins in Shreveport, La., where he found inspiration in the swamp music of his home state and the glam rock of David Bowie. Those two genres meet on his debut album, "Dolls Of Highland," which he recorded in a laundry room. Craft and his band stopped into our studio to perform four songs from the album and speak with Alisha Sweeney about sneaking into the...

Robin Edwards' music career began in Denver. She played in bands like Lust-Cats of the Gutter and The Matildas, and booked concerts at venues like Rhinoceropolis and Bar Bar. When her earlier groups ended, the singer and guitarist started writing and performing pop-punk music as Lisa Prank -- backed only by a drum machine. Edwards now lives in Seattle and often collaborates with bands like Ch...

Denver band For Keeps started as a collaboration between co-lead singers Merideth Pryor and Cody Witsken while teaching in China. Now the band is a five-piece that writes fun and light-hearted indie pop. ​Pryor and Witsken -- now engaged -- and the other three members of For Keeps stopped into the CPR Performance Studio to play some songs from their debut "The People We Let In" as well a...

Since forming in 2010, Los Angeles band The Americans have become rock 'n' roll favorites in their hometown and earned the "Orange County's Best Rockabilly Band" accolade in 2014. They've backed up artists like Nick Cave, Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart and recently toured Colorado with Ryan Bingham. The band has a new album, "I'll Be Yours," out this w...

On her debut album "Beyond The Bloodhounds," Adia Victoria Paul -- who performs as Adia Victoria -- addresses her complicated relationship to the American South. The South Carolina native adapts the blues music of that region with a modern spin. Her album references artists like Billie Holiday and Robert Johnson -- for both their music and politics. Paul and her band stopped into the CPR...

When NPR Music asked listeners to tell them their favorite new music artist of 2016, singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy received the second most votes. Glaspy released the album “Emotions And Math” this year. It’s a strong debut LP for the New York City-based singer-songwriter, featuring her crunchy guitar riffs and hard-nosed confessional lyrics. Prior to a Denver show at Larimer Lounge, Glaspy st...

Eros And The Eschaton last joined us at OpenAir in 2014 after the release of their lo-fi debut album “Home Address For Civil War.” Since then Denver Westword readers voted the Colorado Springs band as the best local pop band of 2015 for their blend of shoegaze and pop melodies. The band has also extended to a five-piece for their sophomore album, “Weight Of Matter,” out August 19. Songs like &quot...

Benjamin Clementine won the 2015 Mercury Prize for his debut "At Least For Now," joining previous winners like PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys and alt-J. Clementine is a London-born self-taught musician who developed as a young street performer in Paris. His haunting and unique music blends classical music, rock and spoken word. At the center are Clementine’s bold tenor vocals and percussive p...

James Cooley has spent eight years making electronic beats and melodies in his Littleton bedroom. He has self-released five albums and three EPs under the name Mesita. Cooley rarely performs live, but he recently stopped into our studio for a unique Mesita performance: Instead of electronica, he performed solo with acoustic guitar. He performed three songs from his catalog including the recent sin...

Peter Bjorn And John are now a decade removed from their breakthrough single, "Young Folks." However, the Swedish trio has remained consistently busy since then, and this year they released their seventh studio album, "Breakin' Point." The band worked on the record for five years with several producers, including Adele and Paul McCartney collaborator Paul Epworth. The resu...

When The Outfit visited our performance studio in 2013, they were a fairly young Denver rock band with a few songs in their repertoire. The band has evolved quite a bit since then, and now has a debut full length out via the local Hot Congress label. We welcomed back The Outfit shortly before an album release show to preview four songs off the self-titled record. The band spoke with Alisha Sweeney...

SHEL returned this month to the CPR Performance Studio for the first time since 2014. The band features the four Holbrook sisters from Fort Collins, though sister Sarah was absent for this particular session. ​ The band recently released the album "Just Crazy Enough." The Holbrooks worked with producer and former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart for the record, which hit #13 on the Billboa...

Inner Oceans has had a steady rise since forming three years ago. The Denver experimental pop group received the "Best New Artist" of 2014 award from Westword and performed on the Underground Music Showcase main stage in Denver last July. The band has released only a few singles, but plans to release a debut album, "I Don't Mind," on Sept. 16. It will feature material they...

Poet's Row is set to release two new EPs this weekend -- "The Artichoke" and "The Armadillo." Both records showcase a different side of the Denver band: The former is solely the folk duets of founding members Mickey Bakas and Emily Hobbs, while the latter incorporates a full band. Poet's Row celebrates the EP releases with a two-night stint at Syntax Physic Opera on F...

Eye & The Arrow brings a different musical direction with each visit to OpenAir's studio. The Denver trio, which features two members of folk-rock band Paper Bird, visited in 2012 and 2013, but neither performance was quite like the one they gave us earlier this month. They performed three songs from the forthcoming EP and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about the real-life "ghost" t...