Local bands bring holiday cheer

It’s the holiday season and everyone is getting in the spirit, including local musicians. Local venues have multiple festivities planned, but there are a few in particular to look out for.

Denver’s Born in the Flood will headline a special “Holiday Revue” Friday, Dec. 12 at the Blue Bird Theater. The event is being hosted by 93.3 and will also feature The Wheel, Joseph Pope III,  Bad Weather California, Sweet Tooth Meat Tooth, Joshua Novak and The Getdown. Tickets are $11 in advance and cost $15 at the door.

On Dec. 20, Tickle Me Pink will return home to Fort Collins for a holiday concert at the Aggie. The band planned the “Holiday Extravaganza” as a special treat for their hometown fans and will feature Barcelona, the Heyday and Meese. Tickets for the all ages show are $12.

Those in need of plans for New Years Eve can look no further than the Gothic Theatre in Englewood. The Flobots are set to perform along with Kinetix and Mike Friesen’s Punch Out on Dec. 31. The Flobots will also be performing at the Gothic on Dec. 29 with Paper Bird and the Dualistics and on Dec. 30 with The Heyday and Hello Kavita. Tickets for all of the shows are $25 each.

93.3 presents “Home for the Holidays”

Local radio station 93.3 has officially launched their annual “Home for the Holidays” competition. The competition gives local bands the opportunity to gain some local exposure.

The station allows any local band to enter a song in the competition. Now, the entries have been narrowed down to 10 finalists. The finalists’ songs will be played on the station starting tomorrow, Dec. 11. Listeners can vote for their favorites on 93.3′s web site. Each band’s song can also be listened to online.

The top three bands will play a live concert at Andrew’s in Denver on Dec. 19. The top band will be rewarded with recording time at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins and will play at a Mammoth game at the Pepsi center. Last year’s concert featured Roe, the Heyday and the Flobots. The Flobots took the top spot and have gone on to be successful on a national level.

The top 10 bands are as follows for this year’s competition are as follows:

Elision – Patiently Dying

The Epilogues – King Arthur

Filthy T – Soular System

Fulcrum – The Way You Are

Improv – Miss Hedonist

Kyle Galanaugh – Wait

Other Side Of Clearview – Sweet Release

Roe – Mayday

Set Forth – Crazy

Strange Condition – Never Fade

Fray’s Gothic show sold out

The Fray’s concert at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood, set to take place on Jan. 6 2009, is already sold out. Pre-sale tickets went on sale Dec. 3 at 10 a.m. and sold out in minutes.

In order to get access to the pre-sale, fans had to pre-order the deluxe version of their upcoming self-titled album, which is set to drop on Feb. 3, 2009.  Those who pre-order the album will also receive a digital copy of a special live album that they will record during their upcoming small club tour. The album is still available to pre-order on their web site.  

The fact that the concert sold out so fast is not too surprising, as the band has a very large local following. Still, this news has some fans angry and others begging for them to add another show. The band received multiple pleas on their MySpace page after the show officially sold out.  

If the band were to add another show, it wouldn’t be the first time. During their tour in 2007, they added another show at Red Rocks amphitheatre after selling out two shows in August.

OneRepublic scores Grammy nomination

OneRepublic is officially in the running for one of the music industry’s most prestigious awards–a Grammy.

The band, originally from Colorado Springs, received a nomination in the “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals” category for their hit single, “Apologize.” The Colorado natives are up against tough competition, as the other nominees include Cold Play, the Eagles, Gnarls Barkley, and Maroon 5. For a full list of nominees, check out the Grammy Awards web site.

Unlike previous years, the nominees were announced in a TV special that aired Wed. night on CBS rather than in a traditional press conference. The special featured multiple performances from musical artists in between nomination announcements in an attempt to increase ratings, as the televised awards ceremony has experienced decreasing numbers in the past few years.

The 51 Annual Grammy Awards ceremony is set to air on Feb. 8, 2009.

Born in the Flood’s “Anthem” on One Tree Hill

Denver’s Born in the Flood received some national exposure tonight when their song, “Anthem,” was featured on the CW’s One Tree Hill.

A minute and a half clip of the song played during a scene in which Nathan attempts to make his comeback trying out for the NBA B league. If you want to see it, check out the clip at the bottom of this posting (0:20 through 1:50).

Born in the Flood originally formed in Hermann Missouri. The band has played numerous local shows as well as shows across the country. They also opened for the Fray at one of their August shows at Red Rocks in 2007. The indie rock group has been praised by Spin magazine for their “guitar and keyboard-driven sound that cribs liberally from the finest moments of Britpop, indie rock, and post-punk.”

In addition to the excitement of their spot on One Tree Hill, the band is also gearing up for their Dec. 12 “Holiday Revue” at the Bluebird Theater that will also include performances by The Wheel, Joseph Pope III, Bad Weather California, Sweet Tooth Meat Tooth, Josh Novack, and The Get Down.

The Fray announces new single, club tour

Upon the initial announcement of their album’s release date of Feb. 3, 2009, the Fray has now announced more news regarding their new single, “You found me,” and a small upcoming club tour.

According to the Denver band’s blog, their single will be available for streaming on their web site on Nov. 20. The song will also make its debut on Nov. 20 in a television promo for ABC’s “Lost.” You can catch the band performing the song live for the first time at the American Music Awards on Nov. 23.

The Fray also announced that they will have a small concert tour in January. The tour includes one show at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Jan. 6, 2009. Tickets will go on sale Dec. 6.

Those who pre-order the deluxe edition of the Fray’s self-titled album starting on Nov. 20 will also receive a digital copy of a live album that the band plans to record during their club tour and a code to access pre-sale tickets to the club shows. The pre-sale period will take place from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5. This would be a smart move for fans in Colorado, as the show at the Gothic is expected to sell out quickly.

3OH!3 on Last Call with Carson Daly

3oh!3 will appear on tonight’s episode of Last Call with Carson Daly.

The band from Boulder is currently touring across the country. They recently played two sold out shows at the Gothic Theatre on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Due to the rate at which tickets sold out, the band added two shows at the Ogden Theatre on Jan. 16 and Jan. 17. Both of those shows have already sold out as well. 3OH!3 has been going non-stop since they released their current album, Want.   

Last Call with Carson Daly airs at 12:35 am mountain time.  Daly’s other guests include former MTV correspondant Gideon Yago and comedian Kathy Griffin. You can catch the band’s performance toward the end of the show.

If you can’t watch the episode when it airs tonight, you can access the full episode on NBC’s website.

12 Cents for Marvin calls it quits

12 Cents for Marvin, Fort Collins’ own ska band, is breaking up after 12 years of performing together.

The band was featured on the cover of the November issue of Scene magazine. According to the article, the eight members currently live in ”3 different towns across two states, and their lead singer joins them via an Internet video-phone connection at practices.” Over the past twelve years, the band has had over 30 different members and played nearly 1000 shows.

When the story was written, the band claimed to be “going strong” and anticipating their 12 year anniversary celebration set to take place at the Aggie Theatre on Nov. 22. Now the band has announced that their show at the Aggie will be their last. They will be joined by Judge Roughneck and The Photo Atlas. Tickets are $8 and the show starts at 9 pm.

You can also catch them at Moe’s in Englewood on Nov. 21 at 9 pm. They will also be playing on KRFC’s Live at Lunch at 12 pm the same day.

The Fray announces new album

The Fray announced that they will release their highly anticipated sophomore album on Feb. 3, 2009.

The release date was announced on the Fray’s website. The website also recently launched a blog that will feature sneak-peek videos of the band in the recording studio.

The Denver group got their start in 2002. They released their first album ”How to save a life” nation-wide in 2005. By creating piano driven rock with catchy lyrics, the Fray has since become one of Denver’s most well known acts. The band has been in the studio for over a year since touring world-wide to promote ”How to save a life.”

The Fray is also being featured in the November issue of Denver Magazine. Check out the article here.

3oh!3 announces another Denver show

It seems like 3oh!3 has been all over Colorado music news, including this blog, but the duo from Boulder just can’t seem to get enough of their home state. The group announced yet another local concert that is set to take place at the Ogden Theatre on Jan. 16.

3oh!3 announced the concert on a MySpace bulletin on Nov. 1. The original bulletin said:

Well all i will say is Denver you Tricked or Treated pretty hard tonight at the Gothic. I just got out of a hot shower and i wanted to let you all pretty people know that we know a lot of you were mad because you didn’t get tickets. Well we added a show on Jan 16th at the Ogdentickets are already onsale at midnight like 1 hour ago. You heard it firsthere before the rest of the world finds out next week. So be the firstto get tickets!!!Holler 3oh!3

This is good news for fans that did not get their hands on tickets to their sold-out shows at the Gothic on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

Tickets are already on sale for $16.75 at Ticketmaster. The Ogden’s website has not posted details about the concert yet.