Hot Congress

Poet Ken Arkind on his new book, Denver, and the purpose of poetry in a music-driven world

When they met a few years ago, Ken Arkind and Charly Fasano became fast friends. Like Arkind -- an American National Poetry Slam Champion who tours the world performing and teaching poetry as executive director of the award-winning Minor Disturbance Youth Slam Team -- Fasano liked to perform poetry ... More >>

Denver in Verse

Brandton Manshel of GNU on the struggles of keeping a DIY space going in Fort Collins

For nearly two years, GNU: Experience Gallery has had the distinction of being one of the few DIY spaces in Fort Collins. Housed in a basement unit of a building in the city square on Linden Street in the Old Town section of Fort Collins, GNU was originally conceived as a collective art space but be ... More >>

Fine Gentleman's Club to record album at Comedy Works on Halloween

Known for their wild, unpredictable comedy nights at Deer Pile, as well as several open mics around town, the Fine Gentleman's Club comedy co-op will attempt to put chaos to order on Halloween, when they record a live album at Comedy Works. "One of my favorite comedy albums, Dave Attell's Skanks for ... More >>

Meet Shady Elders, Denver's newest supergroup

Taking a Dylan-esque route of abandoning acoustic folk for mod-rock, Britt Rodemich teamed up with local favorites Casey Banker -- fresh off the now-defunct The Don'ts and Be Carefuls -- Miles Eichner of Tulip Wars and Marlon Chance of Spires, to form Shady Elders, an indie rock supergroup of sorts. ... More >>

Too Much Funstival comedians on how Denver's scene has evolved

"When I started doing comedy in Denver, there were about two open mikes a week and one alt show a month," says Bobby Crane, a member of the Fine Gentleman's Club. "And now there's more than one open mike every night of the week and three or four alt shows a month that are really good. I'd say in the ... More >>

Stuart Confer of Hindershot discusses the band's new EP

​See Also: Hindershot trashes Spencer Alred's backyard in its new video. Stuart Confer can't pin down exactly where the inspiration for the tunes on his band's latest EP, Curse Us All, comes from. Confer, the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter for Hindershot (due at 3 Kings Tavern on Frida ... More >>

Denver's best music releases of 2011

Download free Hot Congress Summer Sampler

Hot Congress just dropped a summer sampler with brand new tracks from Vitamins, the Don'ts and Be Carefuls, Hindershot and more, alongside previously released tracks from some of the label's other acts. While a lot of the sampler certainly hits the niche Hot Congress has carved out for itself, there ... More >>

Hindershot's Stuart Confer on background, Naked Eyes and evolving songwriting

​Hindershot (due tonight at 3 Kings Tavern with Force Publique, Achille Lauro and The Show is the Rainbow) started out with songs lead singer and guitarist Stuart Confer wrote in his bedroom a few years before. In just over a year, Hindershot became one of the more popular bands associated wit ... More >>

The Epilogues' story has a happy ending

A little goes a long way as bands like Hindershot, Spires and more come together to help a friend

Erica Beegle and her big pup, Anton​This is the kind of city we live in: Last weekend, local band conglomeration Hot Congress organized a benefit at the Skylark to help friend and longtime music supporter, Erica Beegle, with some hefty vet bills. After her pup Anton spent a rather expensive da ... More >>

Hindershot

It's Only Blood
Hot Congress

Hot Congress 2011 Fest at the Gothic, 1/20/11

​Last night Hot Congress took over the Gothic for Hot Congress 2011 Fest, with performances by Fingers Of The Sun, Lil Slugger, Kissing Party, Night of Joy (featuring our own Bree Davies) and Thee Goochi Boiz. Photographer Jonathan Shoup was there and brings back these photos from the show. Se ... More >>

Shenandoah Davis returns to Colorado for a trio of shows in Fort Collins, Boulder and Denver

​After graduating high school in Boulder and obtaining a bachelor's degree in music from UNC in Greeley, where she honed her piano and vocal skills, songwriter Shenandoah Davis moved to Seattle. That was nearly four years ago, and she's done anything but sit still since.

Free Christmas music from Kissing Party

​What's more festive than giving away music? Nothing, as far as we're concerned, which is why we're raising our wassail to the Kissing Party and its dark new Christmas song, "Winter in the Pub." The Kissing Party is generally a summer sort of band. This year's The Hate Album is full of brillia ... More >>

New Music from Amazing Twin, the outfit formerly known as Old Radio

​Old Radio, a prominent member of the Hot Congress collective and generally excellent band, has finally finished its debut recording. The band is slated to release the new EP, titled New Wives' Tale, this Thursday during Hot Congress's final night of residency at the Meadowlark. You can hear ... More >>

Tonight: Hot Congress Residency at Meadowlark

John Botts​For this week's installment of the Hot Congress residency at Meadowlark, the group is bringing out the big guns, with Hindershot being joined by Vitamins, Kissing Party, and Luke Hunter James-Erickson. For the entire month of November, the collective and record label has handpicke ... More >>

Hot Congress reincarnates as Rot Congress for Skylark show Halloween weekend

Luca VenterHindershot​Local misfit rock collective Hot Congress will be partaking in the Halloween festivities this Friday, October 29, at the Skylark Lounge, with over a half-dozen of the bands on its roster participating in a gore-themed line-up. The catch? This is no longer Hot Congress, it ... More >>

The Weekend Show Down: Monotonix mixes up a molotov of rock

Aaron ThackerayMonotonix at last year's Monolith festival​ There's nothing like experiencing the sweat, thump and catharsis of a great show. But it can be tough to decide which one to go to when you live in Denver, the land of embarrassing musical riches, the land of too many shows and too li ... More >>

The Weekend Showdown: Hot Congress and Long Spoon rock your block off

​ There's nothing like experiencing the sweat, thump and catharsis of a great show. Trouble is, you live in Denver, the land of embarrassing riches when it comes to music, the land of too many shows and too little time. So which ones are worth checking out? Glad you asked. After the jump, we' ... More >>

The Weekend Showdown: Akron/Family and Bad Weather California are living at Quixote's

​ We would hate for you to miss out on all the awesome that happens every weekend in our fair city, so we've decided to run down five of the best shows in one easy-to-swallow post, with video and audio. Tell us -- and the rest of the world -- what we missed in the comments. This week, folk vi ... More >>

Where can we sign up for The Achille Lauro Burn While You Burn Personal Empowerment System?

Achille Lauro made a promo video for their album release party, and they nailed the campy informercial vibe hard. Front man Matt Close, from the clip: "When we're not writing choice rock and roll tunes, you can find us in the gym, using the Achille Lauro System to make sure we're 100. All the tim ... More >>

Hey, DJ! Q&A with Tyler "Danger" Jacobson

Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats (and kittens) behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up to them half co ... More >>

The Weekend Showdown: Crank that Old Radio

We would hate for you to miss out on all the awesome that happens every weekend in our fair city, so we've decided to run down five of the best shows in one easy-to-swallow post, with video and audio. Tell us -- and the rest of the world -- what we missed in the comments. Whitney Van Cleave​ ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of February 8, 2010

​As music critics -- and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music -- the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to right now?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation. ... More >>

Moovers and Shakers rounds up our favorite local releases of the year

Over the Weekend: Hot Congress at the Oriental

Achille Lauro​ Hot Congress Comp. 1 Release Party Achille Lauro, The Vitamins, Fissure Mystic, Action Packed Thrill Ride October 12, 2009 The Oriental Theater Better Than: A community garden, or most other team projects you can think of. There is more than music to address here because Hot C ... More >>

Over the Weekend: What you missed while you were sleeping with Tiger Woods

Aaron Thackeray​Busy weekend in Denver, including a White Trash XMas Party, a slightly less trashy Christmas party, and a bunch of other parties that varied in trashiness. See photos of them all on the slideshow page. Also: Read a review of the Hot Congress show -- which sounds like one big ... More >>

Hot Congress is what happens when kindred musicians pool their efforts

Various Artists

Hot Congress Vol. 1
Self-released

Q&A with Crawford Phileo (Vitamins), Lucas Johannes (Action Packed Thrill Ride) and Jon Evans (Achille Lauro) of the Hot Congress collective

​Hot Congress came together when a few friends came up with the idea of putting out a compilation by every band that was a member. These friends figured they were better off working together rather than struggling alone, and thus a mini-community with ties outside its membership was formed around ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of December 7, 2009

​As music critics -- and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music -- the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to right now?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation. For t ... More >>

Moving Pictures: Iuengliss, Tauntaun, Paper Bird, Hot Congress, John Common and Blinding Flashes of Light

Behold our latest weekly feature: Moving Pictures. Like a slideshow, only with sound and motion, Moving Pictures is basically just a quick highlight reel of the things we saw during the week or, in this case, over the weekend. This first edition features clips from yet another extraordinary weeken ... More >>

Widowers' Mike Marchant recovering after being hit by car

Andrew SegretiTo say Mike Marchant has an angel resting on his shoulder is an understatement on par with saying our economy is sort of a bad way right now. Yesterday, Marchant, one of Denver's most talented songwriters, was hit by a car and managed to walk away from the incident having only suffered ... More >>

Getting started with local music, part two

Fissure MysticAs I mentioned yesterday, it can be pretty damned daunting and difficult for a well-intentioned person to start exploring Denver's almost embarrassingly fertile local music scene. Sure, you can pore over Westword's listings, but how do you figure out what's both worth checking out and ... More >>