Most Likely To: make you appreciate your surroundings.
It's the native with the sly but unmistakably proud smile, the one who says "yeah, I live here." That is the soul you want to find when you are new to a place. Locals know about great places that aren't in your travel guide, and if you're lucky, they can tell you the inside stories behind them.
Colorado has its unique qualities, for certain, but in other ways it is much like everyplace else -- people who live here love music, make music, and listen to music. A Colorado music-loving native can scan the club listings and point out great shows to catch on any night of the week. It takes time and attention, as you know from being a music fan yourself. So, who has the time to find and collect a solid and diverse sampling of some of the best music a place has to offer? College radio DJs, naturally.
This is where the Radio 1190 Local Shakedown Compilation Number Three comes in. The Local Shakedown is a radio show that exclusively plays two hours of Colorado music every dang week. The DJs of this long-running show have, week after week of year after year, taken time to hear a lot of stuff and play what they like (or at least stuff they figure is interesting). Some of it is bound to not really be your cup of tea. It is eclectic -- like the people who live here. But in the mix there are some undeniable true gems for any music fan to admire and enjoy. There are common threads, not surprisingly since many of these artists play with other artists on the disc on a regular basis. Dozens of connections, collaborations, and inevitably, competitions abound.
Here are the stats: 41 tracks. All Colorado. Pretty indie-centric, but definitely eclectic, ranging in genres from folk, rock 'n roll, blues, pop, punk, experimental, hip-hop, electronic, atmospheric, to singer-songwriter fare. Twenty-two of the tracks are currently unreleased and a handful of those are exclusive to this disc. Some of the featured artists have, for years, gathered nods of recognition outside of Colorado, like Munly and Chad Price. Some artists have been out successfully touring Europe recently: Reverend Deadeye and The Omens. And many others have been touring within our own country's borders, among them Nathaniel Rateliff and The Wheel and Bad Weather California.
Some of the artists wear their influences vividly on their sleeves, and that's alright sometimes. But there are also tracks on the Vol. 3 which wouldn't and couldn't have come from anyplace else. Some of the most strikingly original and among my favorites (of music and people) on this disc are Bad Luck City and Bela Karoli. Newly discovered favorites are Milton Melvin Croissant III and Fire Drills. From among the new tracks, I'm especially looking forward to hearing the rest of the new recordings from Munly and the Lupercalians, Moonspeed, Bad Luck City, and Blue Million Miles.
Having lived near Denver for a little over a decade, I'm not exactly a native, but I've been out and about and as a music-loving listener. I've seen and heard a little over half the bands live at least once, and some, many times more. I've heard about another third of them and looked up the remaining handful of bands I knew next to nothing about. There's stuff on this compilation I could live without and other music around that I would've rather seen on the disc, but there are enough great songs on this third in the series of Radio 1190 Local Shakedown compilations to make up for the not so great.
Verdict: a solid sample of some the sounds around Colorado.