The UMS are coming to town this weekend

Sometimes I forget things. Like how passionate I am about certain stuff.

In this case it’s music. Passionate enough about it to waste 3 solid days listening to, categorizing, and planning an entire weekend of music. Passionate enough to write a blog entry about it (yes I know I still have to post photos from Prague and Barcelona from November – I’m working on that).

The Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (The UMS) is a music festival in Denver, starting Thursday and running through Sunday night. In fact, it’s so underground, that most of the people I’ve talked to about the UMS had no clue what it was. You’d think there would be a better social campaign for this cool music event. But that’s another blog entry for another time.

Look for blog entries today through Saturday telling you what I’m stoked about for the coming day, along with Spotify playlists of the bands I’m interested in going to see. Obviously I can’t see them all, but thought a good list of each band I liked would help me figure out where to go and where to go if a bar was crowded or if a band sucked.

HOW DID I COME UP WITH THIS LIST?

Spotify launched in the US last week, which coincided with my learing of this music festival a few miles from my house. So I decided to find as much music from the UMS as I could on Spotify, and listen to as much of it as I could to decide who to go see this weekend. Working from home is nice because I can listen to what I want, when I want it. So i listened to music. Lots of it. Basically all day, every day for the last few days. I’ve made a list, and nerdily color-coded it.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

RED – can’t miss
GOLD – hope to see
GREEN – maybe want to see
BLUE – if I happen to be there, I’ll check it out

So here’s what I’m planning on seeing on Thursday. Stay tuned for what I’ll be checking out on Friday. If you’re a Spotify user, here’s a playlist of the bands I am going to try to see Thursday at the UMS.

THURSDAY

Dirty Mittens (indie pop) – 8:00 – Skylark
Pictures of Then (indie pop) – 9:00 – Moe’s
Gauntlet Hair (Britpop?) – 9:00 – Hi-Dive
Wirefaces (indie) – Thursday, 10:00 – Hi-Dive
Porlolo (lady singer indie rock/americana) – 10:00 – 3 Kings
OH NO OH MY (indie) – Thursday, 11:00 – Irish Rover
Royal Bangs (indie fuzz rock) – 11:00 – Hi-Dive
El Ten Eleven (indie/instrumental) – 11:55 – Hi-Dive
Minor Note Orchestra (big band) – 11:55 – Irish Rover

Stay tuned for more music tomorrow! I’m pretty excited to rekindle my addiction to music. It’s been a while, good to see you again.