Indie 102.3 Sessions

Natalie Tate has been busy in Denver’s music scene in recent years. She’s played lead guitar in Ark Life and received the “Best Singer-Songwriter” award from Westword last year. Tate recently released her second studio album, “Broken Open,” which features more electronic instruments than her previous work. Tate visited the CPR Performance Studio to perform a few songs from the new album and speak with Alisha Sweeney about featuring notable musicians from Denver’s music scene on the new album, integrating pop culture references into her music and her long musical partnership with filmmaker Shane Boris.

Tennis recently returned to the CPR Performance Studio a few days before the release of the album “Yours Conditionally.” The Denver indie band has been on tour for much of 2017, and they head to California this month to play Coachella Music Festival. Tennis performed four songs from the new album and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about the feminist message behind “Ladies Don’t Play Guitar,” how their recent sailing trip inspired “Yours Conditionally” and getting “Girls” actress Zosia Mamet to star in the promotional videos for the album.

Overcoats are emerging as one of the most exciting young bands of 2017. The New York duo recently performed at South By Southwest, appeared at NPR headquarters for a Tiny Desk Concert and landed an opening spot for Maggie Rogers’ North American tour — including a stop at Denver’s Larimer Lounge last week. Overcoats brought their dreamy harmonies and synth-pop to the CPR Performance Studio before that show to perform a few songs from the forthcoming debut LP “Young.” They also spoke with Alicia Bruce Mitchell about the band’s origin story as students at Wesleyan University, bonding over a love of the Dixie Chicks and experimenting with their sound on “Young.”

Slothrust has drawn comparisons to guitar-driven alternative rock bands like Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. But the trio initially met as students at Sarah Lawrence College playing jazz and chamber music. That background adds an unpredictable element to their rock music. Slothrust released its third album, “Everyone Else,” last fall. The band members performed a few standouts from that album in our CPR Performance Studio and spoke with Jeremy Petersen about their musical experiences at Sarah Lawrence, writing through improvisation and their recent move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

Strange Americans last joined us in the CPR Performance Studio in 2014. Since then the Denver roots-rockers have been at work on the follow-up to “That Kind Of Luster.” We got a sneak preview of that album — “Borrow You Brother” — when the band returned to our studio this week. The band headlines Denver’s Hi-Dive tomorrow night before a few tour dates in the Midwest. They played a few new songs in our studio and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about recording the new album in Denton, Texas, how a studio fire affected the recording process and their collaborative lyric writing.

Some prominent women of Denver’s music scene collaborated this month for a two-night show at Denver’s Syntax Physic Opera. Billed as “WMN And The Queen City Of The Plains,” the unique concerts featured members of eight female-fronted Denver bands. Prior to the shows, we welcomed a few artists who participated into our CPR Performance Studio — including Jess Parsons and members of Ivory Circle, Bluebook and Sinkra. These four acts each took a turn playing an original song. They also spoke with Alicia Bruce Mitchell about how the concerts came together with the help of musician Wes Watkins and the many hard-working female musicians in Denver.

Slow Caves first performed in our studio in 2015. Since then the Fort Collins band has signed to the Cincinnati-based Old Flame Records and released the “Desert Minded” EP. This year they’ve performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho. The self-described “synth-punk” band returned to our studio earlier this month. They performed some new music and spoke with Scott Carney about signing to their new label, how they’ve evolved as a band over the past two years and getting compared to the Beach Boys.

Bad Licks is a new Denver band that includes members of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Rootbeer & Mermentau and The Blue Rider. They’ve released just two songs but have gained attention through live shows in Denver and beyond — including a stop at this weekend’s Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho. The garage rockers stopped into our CPR Performance Studio before heading up to Boise. They played some new music and spoke with Alicia Bruce Mitchell about the origin of Bad Licks, plans for a forthcoming EP and previous experiences at Treefort with their other bands.