Wakarusa continues to bring in rising talent on the cusp of fame, including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros,  Pretty Lights, and Mumford and Sons. This year will be the tenth anniversary on the Mulberry Mountain including Dispatch, Snoop Lion, and STS9. While there are up to 20,000 people in attendance at the festival, there is still an intimate feel because of more then 150 artists and multiple stages tucked away in nature. Wakarusa brings just about every kind of music for every listener, from alt country and folk to hip hop and dubstep. It is the best group of fans to be around, with the best music, in the most beautiful setting and KCSU is excited to report on this festival. We will bring you a review, pictures and other content after the festival. We hope to see some of you out enjoying the festival.

At Everyday Joe’s we observed the talent of singer-songwriter Amber Baack.  She soothed an audience with her genuine lyricism and the piano filling the room where a band was not needed. It was a casual and pleasant surprise before the next artist Danielle Ate the Sandwich took the stage.

Before Danielle was in our sights, DJ Scogle and I departed to Hodi’s Half Note to yet another meeting with a friend, and a meeting with cover band Velvet Rope doing a crowd pleasing cover of “Hungry Like the Wolf”. With names like Velvet Johnson and Silky Smoove Rope, they did not disappoint with their glamtastic covers of the 80’s and 90’s popular songs. At one point an audience member who happened to be a young kid boldly got onstage and promptly showed the band and crowd how to dance like a robot, or a young kid.

Only staying for a few songs the company headed back to Everyday Joes to catch up with Danielle Ate the Sandwiches set. Danielle is formerly from Fort Collins, but recently moved to Minnesota and has been touring around the country frequently. There was no shortage of love in the form of crowd turnout to her set, and she gave the love back in some of her beautiful ukulele songs accompanied by cello and violin. She kept thanking the crowd for coming out, and they ate up her quirky but strangely up front sense of humor.

Things became quickly adrenaline filled, as we caught the beginning of metal-hardcore band Awaken the Masses (Dale- the frontman of the band, is an employee of Rocky Mountain Student Media). I have never been one too fond of metal, but this show at East Coast quickly changed my opinion. The brazen, almost psychedelic quality of head banging and catching all the changes in the intensity of their show was something I caught on to, and it was refreshing to see in the Fort Collins music scene.

Moving on over to Crankenstien, where a line outside formed to get in to see Otem Rellik, well known hip hop artist and put on an intimate show with his almost confessional lyrics. The blues rock band Dinero fired up the crowed at Moes Original Barbeque with their high charged riffs. Their bio says playing music is better than joining the Elks, and I am glad they chose to.

Fierce Bad Rabbit drew the largest crowd I saw, almost filling the Aggie Theatre to capacity. Their show drew praise from the fans, and it kept up with their demands. Cranking away pop-alternative-indie tunes, they have been one of the major staples in the Fort Collins Music scene for a while. Back at Moes later in the night, punk-alternative band Shotgun Shogun delivered a set with steadfast appreciation of all things rock and roll. Hailing form Laramie, Wyoming, I even caught a hint of country influence with their harmonica and a willingness to let loose with good old ska punk tunes. “Hello, my name is Bill Smith” were the so called names of all the members of space jazz band Bill Smith at the Tap n Handle. The crowd was in a steady lean back and forth type of dance, jamming relentlessly to the electron blips and beeps weaved in with a solid rhythm section and the sprinkling of guitar effects of all ranges.

Saturday night heralded even more acts and surprises, the first being a man in a cat suit drumming and singing over groovy electronic tracks at the Lyric Cinema Café. This person, WhiteCatPink, had a posse of likewise people dressed up in costumes and dancing while the cinema played obscure 90’s music films or old film clips from the 50’s behind them. Pretty soon, the crowd took in the whole experience and either started dancing or soaked up the artsy audio assault on all senses.

At the Ramskeller, a nostalgic audience experienced New York City Cops, a Strokes cover band playing the debut Strokes album, “Is this It”, from top to bottom. The singers, who were different band members who traded off every song or so to sing, even seemed to hold that slightly drunk confusion of a face and the inadvertent hipster posture that is characteristic of Julian Casablancas (front man of the Strokes) circa 2001.

Widows Bane, a self described Zombie Death Polka band, put on one of the best shows of the night at Hodis Half Note. The lead singers tales of death and all dark things enjoyable aroused the audience to dance and sway with the quick delivery of their songs.

Gypsy’s Curse, a pirate punk band at Washingtons, entertained a casual but large crowd of partygoers moving in and out of the place with 12 string guitar punk (a first for me). Besides some minor sound issues, they showcased a dynamic range of songs from gypsy like to full on punk with elements of hardcore.

To close out our night Musketeer Gripweed more than filled the Aggie with their rock and roll jam boogie. Lead singer Jason the preacher (his costume) brought onstage an oversized representation of a giant joint, and proceeded to have it bounced around the audience like a beach ball. Plenty of getting down and dirty dancing proceeded, in what could have been described as rock music from a mountain town.

Fort Collins, like any other place, has it’s outlets for expression in the form of art. These two days happen to be one of the prominent musical outlets, where sounds from all different places, genres and backgrounds make their ways out of the cracks and fill the ears of plenty of listeners for two full days. This year was no exception to that, and as always I look forward to even more musical events, where my musical tastes can be expanded and people can just go enjoy some good old music brought to you by your friends and community members via Fort Collins Music Experiment.

Saturday night a block party took a turn for the worst resulting in Fort Collins swat team responding to rioting students and young adults. Fort Collins Swat used tear gas to break up the crowd and we have unconfirmed reports that flash bang grenades (create a loud noise and bright light resulting in disorientation) and pepper bullets were also used to assist in breaking up the crowd.

News of the block party was shared on the CSU confessions Facebook page which had been offline for most of Sunday morning. The party took place Saturday from 6pm to whenever at the 1600 block of West Bridge drive in Fort Collins CO. The organizer of the party had registered with CSU in an effort to contain the event. Around 7:30 Fort Collins police responded to a call from the party organizer requesting help in breaking up the event.

One officer who requested his name is left out stated “It was getting out of control and we got a call to assist in breaking up the party.” The officer stated there were probably 600-700 people at the event when the 8 police officers arrived on scene. Officers stayed on hand until 8:30 during which they were taunted by the crowd with cat calls and F-the police among other types of foul language. The officers remained calm and respectful during the taunts.

Shortly after the units left the scene people stated to file into the neighborhood quickly gathering to what has been estimated to be over 800 people. Students were seen sitting on the roofs of buildings, climbing light pools and standing on the roofs of cars. One car had about 10 people on the roof which caused the cars top to collapse breaking the front windshield in the process.

The crowd quickly became fired up chanting CSU, USA, F-CU, F-the police, F-CSUPD and others. Shortly after 9pm fireworks began going off in the crowd. Police arrived back on the scene around 9:30 during which a few in the crowd became violent towards the responding officer by throwing beer bottles at them. Officers at the time were not wearing helmets which resulted in SWAT being called. Within a short period of time and with the assistance of non-lethal weapons police were able to disperse the crowd. There were no injuries to Fort Collins police but at least 3 people were reported going to the hospital for minor injuries related to tear gas exposure.

Police recorded some of the event and will be reviewing the tape in an effort to identify persons of interest.

If you have any information you can contact the Fort Collins Police Department at (970) 221-6540

More information can be found at http://www.collegian.com/2013/04/28/three-sustained-with-minor-injuries-from-fort-collins-block-party/

This year’s FoCoMX certainly had its quota of acts diligently throwing waves of ‘Everything’s OK!’ but against a backdrop of the Boston Bombings, of the Waco explosion, of grey skies and second winter, it’s beginning to seem like maybe everything’s not OK.

Friday’s headliner Fierce Bad Rabbit was packed, but against the third-week backdrop their upbeat brand of indie pop rock just didn’t seem to reflect the times. Likewise, Danielle Ate the Sandwich drew an impressive crowd to Everyday Joe’s but was, I hate to say it, a little tired sounding (before you label me a hater, consider that I’ve long considered myself a DAtS fan).

On the other hand, it seemed to be the harder, the faster, the dirtier acts that said what people wanted to hear and provided something for the audience to live up to rather than settle into.

Awaken the Masses (full disclosure—the singer, Dale Tormey, is an employee of Rocky Mountain Student Media) had everyone at East Coast moving with their fast-paced formula of metal/punk/hardcore. We all needed a little screaming.

Make no mistake about Shotgun Shogun from Laramie, WY—though they describe themselves as rock-pop they are American rock’n’roll in its purest form, playing from an amalgamation of influences they deliver a sound with all the wind-swept character of the state they come from—raw, dirty and timeless without being out of touch with the right now.

In The Whale delivered what I consider to be one of the best performances of the weekend at East Coast on Saturday night. Coming from Denver, this is the two-piece’s fourth FoCoMX experience. ITW played the kind of raw, powerful rock’n’roll that needn’t be given labels like ‘punk’ or ‘metal’ because in truth it’s neither and both—it doesn’t rely on genre crutches. Several songs were played under the drone of a recorded air-raid siren blasted at full volume, a chillingly appropriate effect.

It’s like two people who had never been exposed to any music from the last 20-30 years were tapping into the same mystical channel of electric anger and excitement that The Who, the Sex Pistols and others tapped into long ago, and inventing it anew for themselves.

I believe that Fort Collins will stay the town we all know and love, singer-songwriters and all. There won’t be any movement to trade the violins and ukuleles for electric guitars and kick drums, and I’m A-OK with that; I love Fort Collins just the way it is. For one weekend, though, Fort Collins needed an outlet for anger, aggression and fear. I’m glad I got to be there to see it happen.

A few weeks ago I got my hands on We Are the 21^st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic by Foxygen, and it did just that.

The album is a song for sore ears; a charming collection of eclectic choruses and modern-day nostalgia­. Despite vocalist Sam France’s birthday being just a year before mine, he channels a vocal styling that is reminiscent of The Byrds, The Animals, and The Rolling Stones (you could probably hear a touch Bob Dylan in there as well).  We Are the 21^st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic takes you on a trip back to the basics that seem to have become lost.

Is Foxygen doing something that’s been done before? You bet— but with a nice millennial twist.  In other words, Foxygen is kind of like the love child that Mick Jagger and the B side tracks on MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular never had.

My picks of the album: San Francisco, Shuggie

Release date: January 22, 2013