Best DIY Label 2024 | Unit-E Records | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best DIY Label

Unit-E Records

We chose Unit-E Records, champions of the growing art community, as Denver's Best DIY Venue back in 2012, when it was just a rented-out space in the Art District on Santa Fe. It was the best place to go during First Friday Art Walks, because you always knew there would be art worth seeing and music worth hearing. Now, over a decade later, that DIY ethos is being channeled into a record label designed to provide opportunities for local artists and encourage supporters through its record subscription program. The label might be relatively new, but it's already started bolstering its roster with rising stars such as Cherokee Social and Machete Mouth alongside Denver mainstays RAREBYRD$ and Wheelchair Sports Camp, among others.

unitedenver.org

Best Debut Album

Okay Grandma, Your Turn
May Be Fern

May Be Fern has been rocking Denver since 2022, but the band really captured our attention this year. With a unique, intentional and well-curated sound, the four-piece describes its music as "queer funk rock," and yes, that's just as amazing as it seems. Take a listen to the group's debut album, Okay Grandma, Your Turn, which showcases May Be Fern's breadth of talent, from funky licks on each instrument to clever lyricism delivered through powerful, melodic vocals. We only anticipate more greatness to come from Kate Fern (vocals/bass), Hannah May (vocals/keys), Madi Spillman (guitar) and Evan Jeffers (drums/vocals).

maybefernband.co

Best Rock Band/ Concerts

Ipecac

Sheer talent dedicated to pure, raw hard rock — that's Ipecac. The band delivers unbridled performances that hurtle audiences to the golden ages of the genre with a healthy dose of punk and grunge, too, evoking such greats as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Hole. The members are natural-born rock stars: Vocalist Isabella Osborne is a powerhouse, whipping across the stage with mic in hand, while founding member/guitarist Ariadnee Ziady tantalizes the audience with heavy, crushing chords and solos alongside fast-and-furious drumming from Kanyon Dickerson, all of it held down by Tayte Eubanks's masterful bass. The band's self-titled EP was released in September 2023 and has kept us hooked while we check Ipecac's socials and website for upcoming shows.

ipecacrocks.com

Best Revival of Classic Rock

Velvet Daydream

The ’70s are alive and well in Velvet Daydream, the new psychedelic rock-and-roll band from Broomfield that wowed us with its self-titled debut album, released in October 2023. Reminiscent of such greats as Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones, the four-piece has also won our hearts with its live shows, which include plenty of headbanging and top-tier musicianship from members Nick Schwartz (drums/keys/vocals), Ryder King (guitar/vocals), Jude Pfanstiel (bass/vocals) and Kaeden Keys (guitar/vocals). If you've ever wished you'd been at Woodstock, put these guys on your list of bands to see.

thevelvetdaydream.com

Best Out-of-Pocket Lyrics

Horse Bitch

If you're an underground music fan and tend to frequent shows at the hi-dive or Skylark, you've probably seen Horse Bitch perform and thought, "What the fuck are they saying?" Take the lyrics "I'm gonna start a Harry Styles stan account that gets so big that I can't go out in public," for example, in "a song about fuck," from the 2021 album RIP Pistachio, or "Getting fucked up on cough syrup the night we slept inside your car," on "a song about cough syrup." You might not know what they mean, but once you learn the words, the live shows will have you banging your head and screaming every syllable. After listening to pretty much any music afterward, you'll come to realize that no one writes lyrics like Horse Bitch.

horsebitchbandcamp.com

Best Soul-Shaking Stage Presence

Rootbeer Richie & the Reveille

A reveille (from the French for "wake up") is the morning bugle signal used in the military, and this Reveille knows just how to arouse your body and stir your spirits. The rhythm-and-blues swamp-pop crew might sound like it was born on the bayou, but that's only true of the band's frontman. Hailing from Cajun country (aka Louisiana), "Rootbeer" Richie Richardson spent time rambling from town to town and soaking up new sounds before eventually landing in the Mile High City. That odyssey resulted in a formidable eight-piece Denver supergroup of experienced rockers who always bring their best soul-shaking chops to the table.

rootbeerrichie.com

Best Band of Activists

Los Mocochetes

If giving a shit is hot, then consider Los Mocochetes an active Colorado volcano. Not only is each and every bandmember a multi-disciplined artist, but they are all extremely dedicated to community activism. The charming Chicano funk outfit has often been described as making "protest music you can dance to," and its socio-politically charged lyrics accomplish that task with wit as sharp as a machete. The ever-evolving, intoxicating sound helps set the stage for these hardworking hometown heroes and their like-minded comrades to create and hold space for all that need it.

losmocochetes.wixsite.com/mocoso

Best Punk Music Video

"Bad Indian"
Dead Pioneers

Indigenous activist, visual artist and spoken-word performer Gregg Deal wanted to put a spoken-word piece to music, and that led to his forming a band, Dead Pioneers, which released its eponymous debut album, recorded at the Blasting Room, last September, and grabbed attention with several concerts. One show, at Seventh Circle Music Collective, was recorded for the "Bad Indian" music video, which is interlaced with scenes of Deal confronting Native stereotypes. The music, the scenery and the lyrics are pure punk, and so is the album. The band's already gotten half a million streams, and we see it going far.

deadpioneers.bandcamp.com

Best Sad-Boy Psych-Punk Band

The Sickly Hecks

Raymond Suny and Steve Hartman of the Sickly Hecks have always been DIY punks at heart, but they're not afraid to embrace a potential pop crossover. After all, they've always understood that the foundation of most punk bands is still just a bastardization of pop music. So after they graduated from rowdy house shows to self-producing their work on a DIY label, it was not surprising to find that they had somehow become a boundary-pushing post-punk powerhouse. As the musicians continue to grow, so will the band evolve musically. But the Sickly Hecks will always remain tethered by Suny's melancholic "sad boy" melodies.

thesicklyhecks.com

Best Dream-Pop Band

Little Trips

Formerly known as Whiskey Autumn, the Denver duo of Greg Laut and Jason Paton dissolved that project in 2020 and almost immediately reincarnated as Little Trips. At that point, Laut and Paton had to wait until the world wasn't shut down to record their debut album, but that gave them plenty of time to write new material and recruit a new member in Tiana Thakur. Several years later, the new sound has been polished to a shimmering psychedelic gem. There are plenty of danceable rhythms woven into Little Trips' trippy tapestry of imaginative indie dream pop, and the band welcomes you to the beach party inside your mind.

littletrips.co

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