If you’re thinking about a road trip to the Fort Collins Music Experiment (FoCoMX) on 4/20 weekend, sifting through the extensive festival lineup of more than 350 Colorado artists playing across 30-plus local venues can be intimidating — especially if it’s your first time.
That’s why we did some digging to highlight a handful of acts you should add to your FoCoMX dance card. No need to stress, though: The Fort Collins Musicians Association’s 16th annual celebration of Rocky Mountain sounds is a good time no matter what.
Jaiel
Aurora artist Jaiel is a true trailblazer. After graduating as the first Black woman to receive a degree in music from Colorado College, she released an EP called Black Girl Songs in 2018 as part of her senior thesis. The six tracks embody what the artist describes as “the healing and resistance power of music.”
“Each song on the EP is both a testament to the traits that make Black women exquisite and a protest against a culture that tries to demean us,” she says.
Jaiel’s official debut, The Magical World of Black Girlhood, followed in 2022. The song “Sunshine Lovin’” was nominated for The Colorado Playlist’s Pop Song of the Year. In 2023, Jaiel was named an official Indie 102.3 Local 303 artist.
She lists Beyoncé, Tori Kelly, Janelle Monáe and Janet Jackson among her biggest influences. Conjuring equal parts pop, R&B and soul, Jaiel packs a message of empowerment into the genre-hopping fusion of tracks like “The Legend of Black Girl Magic (Peg’s Journey)” and “Black Girl Nation.”
The ever-busy artist — who in addition to being a dynamo singer-songwriter is also a dancer, actor and model — is hard at work on new music, set to be released sometime this year. Until then, check her out at FoCoMX.
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ON THE BILL: Jaiel. 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20, Fort Collins Museum of Discovery – Launch Pad, 408 Mason Court.
Foxfeather
The songwriting duo of Carly Ricks Smith and Laura Paige Stratton officially formed alt-Americana project Foxfeather in 2013, when both lived in Boulder. But the co-collaborators go back even further. They initially met back in high school and started making music together in 2005.
Foxfeather is the continuation of a long-running bond that has helped make the group a Front Range staple. They have also performed all over the country with acts such as Andrew Bird and Yonder Mountain String Band.
Smith’s soulful voice has been described as “somewhere between the folky soprano of a young Joni Mitchell and the jazz-heavy range of Lake Street Dive’s Rachel Price” by defunct Boulder-based music magazine The Marquee.
Now living in Longmont, Foxfeather shared their latest album, The Nature of Things, in 2022. Recorded across Boulder’s PS Audio Studios, Animal Lane Studios in Lyons and The Barn in Longmont, the 10 tracks are hopping and upbeat — from the catchy blues-rock of “Fillin’ me Up” to the swinging “End of My Rope.”
While Smith and Stratton are out front in Foxfeather, band members Blake Smith (lead guitar), Chad Mathis (bass) and Jay Elliott (drums and percussion) are just as deserving of their flowers.
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ON THE BILL: Foxfeather. 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, New Belgium Brewing Co. – Front Lawn, 500 Linden St., Fort Collins.
Trash Cat
The trio behind Greeley’s Trash Cat are self-professed nerds. Mary Claxton (electric ukulele), Hayden Farr (baritone saxophone) and Brian Claxton (drums) draw inspiration from their favorite cartoons and pop culture.
So it’s not surprising that the group has appeared at Fort Collins Comic Con and the VINCON Vintage Video Game Convention since forming in 2018. Trash Cat also provided the soundtrack for the 2022 preschool web series Little Roar and His Big Family, an LGBTQ-affirming children’s cartoon following a brother and sister T. Rex and their two moms.
Children’s songs aside, Trash Cat’s previous albums, Welcome to Trash City (2019) and The Tide (2021), land on the quirkier side of indie. Is it ska? Is it electronic? It’s both … kind of. Fan favorite “Robot Girlfriend” is such an earworm it doesn’t matter that the chorus is a string of “beeps” and “boops.” It’s just fun, no matter what you call it.
The band’s new single “My Glow” sounds more serious, but it’s still whimsical and light on its feet. Trash Cat likes to walk the line between “tender-heartedness and absurdity,” according to the band’s official bio, and their latest endearing and wholesome track is a testament to that ambition. It’ll be hard to hold back a smile whenever Trash Cat launches into their set this weekend.
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ON THE BILL: Trash Cat. 5 p.m. Saturday, April 20, Illegal Pete’s, 320 Walnut St., Fort Collins.
Horse Bitch
Violins are emo. Yellowcard already proved that. But a pedal steel guitar? Now you’re cooking. And no one cooks quite like Denver rabble-rousers Horse Bitch. The five-piece crafts an off-kilter blend of somber rock and rowdy country described by the band as “emo honky-tonk.”
Horse Bitch proudly showed us what it’s all about on their 2021 debut RIP Pistachio. The 12 songs cover everything from fan fiction — “A Song About Severus Snape” and “A Song About Donnie Darko (2001)” — to root veggies and cold medicine: “A Song About Carrots” and “A Song About Cough Syrup.”
In case the zany music and cheeky song names weren’t enough, Horse Bitch describes themselves in press materials as “a big part of Roosevelt’s WPA (Work Progress Administration) initiative and crucial in lifting the U.S. out of the Great Depression.” They say the band became lost to history because of the “naughty name.” But don’t get caught up on the silliness; Horse Bitch is seriously good and definitely one to catch.
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ON THE BILL: Horse Bitch. 10 p.m. Friday, April 19, Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins.
Cherokee Social
The beginnings of indie act Cherokee Social go back to Baltimore, where frontman Julian Navarro started as a solo artist known as Faceless Ones. After moving to Denver four years ago, he signed with local label Unit E Records before recruiting guitarist Alex Creighton. That’s when the project really began to take shape.
Navarro’s Cherokee heritage is at the core of the music, but the themes he unpacks are universal. The band’s latest single, “Cinnamon Sugar,” is a funky, flirty love song, while the previously released track “Operator” mourns a long-distance relationship that ultimately didn’t work out.
The pair’s ultimate goal is to become a national touring act, and they’ve already opened for groups like Mato Wayuhi and Xiutezcatl. Cherokee Social shared a vinyl compilation of singles earlier this year, but the best way to hear the unique brand of indie-pop is live.
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ON THE BILL: Cherokee Social. 8:45 p.m. Friday, April 19, Equinox Brewing, 133 Remington St., Fort Collins.
