SCENE MAGAZINE - 8/09

What About Pluto? - Let Go

By Erik Myers

It hasn’t been long since Pluto’s relevance in society hit an all-time peak. That was in 2006, when the International Astronomical Union decommissioned the solar system’s littlest big guy from its planetary status. The outcry was relatively short-lived, but What About Pluto? has kept that chunk of rock and ice fresh in the minds of local listeners with a progressively improving series of EPs, the cherry on top being their latest, Let Go.

WAP’s songwriting has been improving at an exponential rate with each recording, but of special note is this album’s sound quality. The level of production on Let Go, recorded and produced at Boulder’s Immersive Studios, is absolutely incredible, nuanced and detailed in all the right ways. There is more than one moment on this album where the amped-up guitars reach for the sky and criss-cross with the pop-rock perfect vocals of Josh Gagliardi. WAP fans will be able to tell right off the bat that the band has put in a pretty penny for a professional polish; the first track here, “Caressing Conscience,” was likewise the first track off 2007’s Comets, Asteroids And Other Rock Formations. The Let Go version is a huge improvement, with a reemphasis on Gagliardi’s vocals and a fuller, cleaner instrumental bed.

However, WAP should have considered hoisting “Little Miss Conversation” as their top single – a slightly awkward guitar-vocal interplay gives way to a roiling, kickass chorus. It has been some time since a Colorado band put out a song as boisterous and fun.
www.myspace.com/whataboutpluto

A Sonnet to Silence and The Wannabe Poets both Win Atlas Theatre’s Battle of Bands

By Joshua Espinoza

A Sonnet to Silence

Teeming with adolescent metalheads, indie hipsters and self-proclaimed “new-age hippies,” The Atlas Theater served as the combat zone for the much anticipated final round of the Battle of the Bands.

Beginning in mid-November, the first two rounds consisted of eight acts eager to make it to the Dec. 6 finale. Out of those bands, only four made it to the final round where they would vie for the coveted prize of $500. Trailer 77, A Sonnet to Silence, The Wannabe Poets and Ruins of Tomorrow triumphed over their opponents and battled it out in a competition of musical prowess. Wielding guitars, drum sticks and microphones, each band brought a different sound and delivered impressive performances that were worthy of gaining the title of 2008 Battle of the Band champions.

Apparently, the final battle was more of a peaceful, cooperative affair than initially predicted.
After the dust settled on the Atlas Theater’s rock n’ roll battlefield, two local bands stood united in glory, due to a tie based on a mixture of judges’ scores and audience voting. Both A Sonnet to Silence and The Wannabe Poets were declared winners and agreed to split the prize money.
“I thought it was fair,” says Alec Lish, the drummer for A Sonnet to Silence. “I don’t mind sharing the wealth. They’re great guys, and they deserved it just as much as we did.”

Interestingly enough, the two title-holders employed sounds that were quite dissimilar. A Sonnet to Silence describe their sound as a mix of metal and hardcore, while The Wannabe Poets describe their sound as new-age folk.

The Wannabe Poets

“I think people thought we were way too soft, and I think 90 percent of the crowd thinks we didn’t deserve the victory. That’s my impression,” says Dustin Barnett, the front man for The Wannabe Poets. “However, we did get some metalheads to listen to us, which was the biggest reward. People who came to hear metal still stayed and listened to our music, and that meant a lot.”

Barnett explained that he and his band mates divided the $250 equally and the money would be used at their own discretion. The members of A Sonnet to Silence, however, plan to put their winnings toward getting band t-shirts made.

“I wanted to win so bad,” says Lucas Wingfield, the vocalist for A Sonnet. “If we didn’t win, I didn’t know where we would have gotten the money for t-shirts. I knew we just had to play our asses off so we could win and further the band, which we did and it was amazing. I still can’t believe it.”

The Green Typwriters Push the Musical Boundaries of the

Greeley Music Scene

By Joshua Espinoza

Engulfed in a lush cloud of cigarette smoke, the scintillating members of Green Typewriters are sitting in the modest living room of Greeley-based artist, Ryan Talbot, explaining their indifference to the 2008 presidential election.

“I’m somewhat of an apathist, and I’m against joining any political parties or organizations. The important thing is to maintain individuality and independence,” says drummer, Jared Lacy, who started Green Typewriters in 2006 with his now-wife, vocalist/keyboardist Goija Lacy. “People say that the goal of humanity is to achieve unity, but that’s the biggest problem with society. As humans we think for us to coexist peacefully we have to have unity. However, I believe that if there is a way to achieve peace, it would be through the opposite effect: not through unity, but through individuality. If you’re your own individual, what do you care what somebody else does?”

Guitarist, Garrison York echoes his bandmate’s ruminative sentiment, “I’m with Jared on the fact that I think individuality, especially within arts and music, is the most important thing.”

Green Typewriters

Adherence to individuality and singularity seems to be the predominant aspect in the carefree philosophy of the Green Typewriters.
Looking as if they wandered from the hip and edgy enclave of Williamsburg, this effervescent trio of 20-something hipsters has deftly perfected the art of being different. Through their innovative and unconventional approach to music making, Green Typewriters are introducing Colorado to an unprecedented sound by way of quirky lyrics, idiosyncratic instruments and battery-operated sex toys.
While conducting several experiments with sounds, the group found that pressing the buzzing gadgets against a xylophone created, according to Goija, “a really cool sound.” This discovery led to a controversial concert at The Beetle, after the band had the effrontery to incorporate the vibrators into their performance.

“They weren’t too happy about it,” Goija recalls. “When they were pulled out to be played, the concert promoter came over and was like ‘Whoa, whoa. You can’t use those in here.’ I explained to him that they were just musical instruments and that they had never been used as anything else before. And even if they had, so what? They were clean.”

Fortunately for the band, the hesitant concert promoters obliged and allowed the use of the louche instruments. And a year later, the same promotion company approached the band to perform at the Oct. 3 grand opening of Atlas Theater, which is where I was first introduced to the Colorado bastions of eccentricity.

Jared, who has lived in Colorado his whole life, met Goija while visiting his cousin in New York City. The two have a hard time explaining how it all transpired, but shortly after being introduced to each other, Goija moved to the Centennial State and shacked-up with Jared. “It just sort of happened,” Goija says. “I just sort of came to Colorado, moved in somehow and never went home.” After living in sin between Ft. Collins and Greeley, the two finally made it official and got married in August of 2007.

Just two weeks after their marriage ceremony, Jared and Goija began recording music and playing a few local gigs. Initially the Green Typewriters were a duo, but that changed after an unsuspected reunion between Jared and Garrison that took place following an Architecture in Helsinki concert.

Garrison, who joined the band in October of 2007, had known Jared since high school. The two had played in a rock-n’-roll band that went by the long-winded name of Long Lost Enemies Deep Inside a Trench Shooting at One Another — Long Lost Enemies for short. Their first and last show was at a Noodles & Company in Lakewood— a setting quite fitting for a band whose sound was, according to Garrison, “experimental with a little bit of blues influence.”

After the demise of Long Lost Enemies, Jared and Garrison had lost touch for approximately five years. Then on a fateful October night outside the Ogden Theatre, Garrison had impulsively decided to take an alternative route to his parked car, which unpredictably led him to cross paths with the newlyweds.

“I had heard from a series of mothers that Jared had gotten married, but I hadn’t met his wife. So we met right there and started talking about music. And a week later, we decided we should be a band” says Garrison, who also has a solo project, Open to the Hounds. “Ever since high school, when that old band we had never continued, I always wanted to play music with [Jared]. I just always felt that we’d create some really good stuff together.”

And indeed, their “stuff” is good – elusive, but good.

Live, they produce a stimulating jumble of sounds so sweetly dizzying, that it’s almost like being in the midst of a bizarre, pastoral reverie. It’s raw. It’s trippy. But above all, it’s different. “Throughout the last couple of weeks while promoting our show at the Larimer Lounge, a lot of people would ask me what kind of style we played,” Garrison says. “I finally just started telling them that it was our style.”

Garrison’s description is rather appropriate. I have a hard time designating any fathomable label on their music that wouldn’t require more than five hyphens. I can hear it; I can dig it; but I can’t fully explain it. Think Sonic Youth, wrapped in saccharine melodies and iridescent vignettes. It’s something that has to be experienced in order to fully grasp. Fortunately for those who haven’t heard Green Typewriters, the band is planning to release their debut EP, Monsters, sometime in the spring of ’09.

“We want to make it so that we can live off of our music and travel around,” Goija says. “I think about that everyday, and it’s totally going to come true.”

Greeley’s What About Pluto? Moving toward Bigger Gigs

By Joshua Espinoza

What About Pluto?

One month after performing at a Weezer concert in Broomfield, Josh Gagliardi is still having a difficult time articulating the experience: “It was beyond words. Use any great adjective you can possibly come up with and put it there. It was one of the best nights of my life.”

Josh, who fronts the Greeley-based rock band What About Pluto?, landed the fortunate opportunity after entering a contest sponsored by KTCL 93.3FM. And as a musician who has covered Weezer songs on various occasions, Josh says the privilege was indescribable. “Those guys are unbeatable,” he says. “To be able to play with them was just really amazing.”

Though sharing the stage with the legendary Rivers Cuomo offered Josh a taste of the big leagues, he and the other members of What About Pluto? aren’t completely unfamiliar with playing major gigs. This past summer, Josh - along with drummer Eric Riley, bassist Shane Randolph and lead guitarist Christopher Gagliardi (Josh’s younger brother) - performed on the Kevin Says Stage at the Phoenix Warped Tour and drew an impressively large crowd at this year’s 16th Street Block Party. But the band insists that the magnitude of the audience makes no difference.

“We just love to play,” Christopher says. “If it’s for five people, we love it just the same as if it would be for a thousand people.” It seems that the latter scenario will be much more likely, especially after the release of their four-track EP set to come out next month.

The CD, which has yet to be titled, will have three new songs, including a remastered version of “Caressing Conscience” - a fan favorite replete with a propulsive 80s arena intro and deeply atmospheric noodlings.

Though far from being groundbreaking, their music appeals to the underdog in all of us. With tracks that sound like quintessential summer anthems, What About Pluto?’s chief message is one of perseverance and encouragement. “I would really love it if our fans could think of our music as not necessarily an escape from their problems, but a maybe remedy,” Josh says. “I want them to enjoy the music, enjoy being around other people, enjoy being themselves and enjoy loving life.”

UNC students may have noticed the flyers around campus advertising a place called "The Atlas Theatre."  No, the place is not a theatre where people study maps and atlases; rather, it is a new institution that doubles as both a church and a concert hall. 

Concerts at the Atlas Theatre are put on by the organization called "The Crew Presents," which also put on The Block Party earlier in the semester.

Ely Corliss, President of The Crew Presents, rents the Atlas Theatre from the Atlas Church of Christ. According to Corliss, both the church services and concerts took place in The Beatle until last June.  Since then, the Atlas Church of Christ purchased the Atlas Theatre located at 709 16th Street, which now serves as a permanent location for the two organizations.

Benefits of the new location include a significant capacity increase. The capacity of the Atlas Theatre is approximately 300, whereas the older location would have been crowded at around 100 people.   

Corliss reported that The Crew Presents is not affiliated with the Atlas Church of Christ at all. Rather, they simply rent the institution from the Church in order to put on concert events. 

"The whole idea of the Atlas Theatre is to give the community something to do. It creates a positive atmosphere," said Corliss. 

For the most part, the Atlas Theatre serves as a location for smaller, local bands to perform at. The Atlas Theatre plays host mostly to rock groups, but does expand its boundaries to include groups from other genres of music.  Examples include hip-hop groups Koshir & Young J, Tiger T, and V.I.P., as well as indie performance Eat Your Heart Out Underground Music Feast, presented by Kissing the Proletariat.   

The Crew Presents is working with Ananda Agency to bring in bigger bands like Greeley Estates and A Static Lullaby, who will be performing on Dec. 11.  The Crew Presents will also be hosting a three-part Battle of the Bands series during November and December.