This is how Michael Trundle -- or DJ Boyhollow, one of a trio of DJs who began Denver's now-legendary weekly club night, Lipgloss, in 2001 -- and I should know each other. But in reality, our moms were once nurses together in the same ER. When I called him to talk about Lipgloss's move to Beauty Bar, I tried to get Michael to tell an embarrassing story from the chunk of childhood we sort of spent together -- but neither of us had anything juicy. Turns out we're just two people who both enjoy listening to Joy Division, grew up in Denver and like our moms.
Bree Davies: So, I told my editors that I have known you since I was born.
Michael Trundle: And they forced you to talk to me?
Shut up. No. I thought we could, you know, chat! About something. We can talk about anything you want. We don't even have to talk about Lipgloss, if you don't want to.
Well, it's part of my life.
And mine. But we should talk about how we know each other -- which is because our moms were BFFs back in the day. Yes, and when I told my mom that I would we talking to you, she said to pass her regards on to your mom. She probably said it nicer than that. Maybe like, "Ask Bree how her mom's doing. I miss her."
I always joke that you were my babysitter -- which is kind of an exaggeration. Your mom was my babysitter. You were just at the house all of the time. Because you know, you were a kid who lived there.
Yeah, I was not your babysitter. I was out causing problems. Or I locked myself in my room and read all of the time.
Totally! You were the elusive weird older kid that I was partially afraid of.
I'm sorry.
It's okay. I also have heard you say that you were one of the first people to hold me after I was born.
I mean, we were at your house when you came home from the hospital. I was probably one of the first, twenty people, maybe, who held you when you came home. (Laughs) I have a memory of that -- I was pretty young at the time. How old are you now? Is that a question I can ask?
I'm 31.
So I was nine. You know how you create stories based off of memories you have around a time? I seem to recall that. We should ask our moms.
I didn't realize you were the same Michael Trundle from my childhood when I first started going to Lipgloss in 2002. Really? I remember you showing up at 60 South (60 South Broadway, first location of the then-monthly Lipgloss). I remember talking to you and I think that was the first time we talked to each other again, and I remember thinking, holy shit.
Lipgloss was on a Monday, I barely remember that much.
It was once-a-month on Mondays, and then we moved to every Monday. We did that for maybe six months and then moved to every Friday. I loved that bar (now 3 Kings Tavern) at that time. I also loved getting too drunk at that bar.
It was cool. It was part of the reason I wanted to move to Beauty Bar. I mean, La Rumba is a beautiful space, but having been there for eight years, it's just so long. And it's so big. And the "big room" music -- the dubstep-electro stuff -- was working fine...when not a lot of other places were playing it. But now everyone is playing it. And, I don't know? I kind of wanted to go back to the stuff that I love to listen to at home. I'm excited to play shit like Velvet Underground once in a while.
Do you have any records in mind to play that you maybe haven't played in a while for the opening night of Lipgloss at Beauty Bar?
I hadn't really thought about it? I don't like to plan my sets ahead -- I like to wing it. It's so much based on how the crowd responds. But I mean, I'll probably start the night off with "Lipgloss" by Pulp -- I want that to be the first song that gets played for the night at Beauty Bar. And end the night with Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
I think it's kind of cool to be back on a block like 13th Avenue -- with Wax Trax and Fashionation and Beauty Bar, which resides in the old Snake Pit space, places that mean a lot to people around our age who grew up in Denver. I bought my electric yellow hair dye in high school on that block. A lot of people bought their first records here.
A lot of where Lipgloss was sort of subconsciously formulated was at the old Snake Pit; me and Tim (Cook, co-founder) and Tyler (Jacobson, co-founder) went to Shag! (a weekly Britpop night at Snake Pit) all the time. Prior to that, Tyler had a night there called Hypersonic. That was a couple of years before that. But that place had a lot to do with us wanting to DJ a night. So it seemed fitting for us to end up back there.
I found this photograph of us from, I think, Hipster Youth Halfway House or Gargeland (both now defunct DIY venues in Denver) from 2004. That was a great summer in Denver. I kind of miss that place in time.
It probably was Hipster Youth Halfway House. We saw each other there quite a bit. There was something special about that place -- I mean, it was a shit hole. The bathrooms were horrible. But it was a really fun time. One of my favorite memories, that summer. It was a lot of fun, even though I had a lot of my shit stolen out of cars in front of that space. All of my CDs, actually. I had a signed copy of a Cure album. I don't know what I was doing driving around with those. I had to play the opening night of Sputnik with a spool of burned CDs because I had lost everything.
But yeah, 2004 felt like when the ball really got rolling for Denver. It was a cool city to be in. You could still go to LoDo and get looked at weird.
Lipgloss makes its debut at Beauty Bar this Friday, June 8, with DJ Boyhollow, Option4 and guest Brooklyn-based DJ Sammy Bananas. For more information on Lipgloss, visit the night's website.
