Broken Record: Denver Band Excites Local Scene
Photography: Tessa Byrns
On April 23 at the Lost Lake Lounge in Denver, Colorado local emo-centric band Broken Record treated the audience to an energetic show full of old and new favourites.
Hailing from all over the United States and finally settling in Colorado, Broken Record officially formed on Halloween of 2016 with the poaching of punk drummer Dr Nicholas Danes. Originally a three-piece with vocalist/guitarist Lauren Beecher, guitarist Matt Dunne, who had been manning merch tables for other bands and decided to try his hand at playing guitar, and bassist Corey Fruin. Once Danes joined, the band played Ratio, the fortuitous place where they all came together.
They have been putting out music and touring steadily ever since. Releasing their debut, eponymous EP in 2018, the band boasts impressive professionalism in their music that most young bands cannot master right away.
The EP opens with a classic breezy “song of summer” style guitar riff that makes way for the bouncy drumbeat of ‘Say It All’. Beecher’s low register in her singing voice denotes the anguish of the lyrics.
“I don’t want to know what you’ve become and all you’ve done, I know you’ll never see the difference.”
The middle of the song then breaks into a riff that takes a queue from the opening wateriness of the bass riff in the Nirvana classic, ‘Come as You Are’.
The band’s first full-length album, ‘I Died Laughing’, was released in 2020, right before the pandemic sidelined many bands. Since touring was no longer an option, the music has remained new, with songs like the energetic ‘Time Warp’ and the sure to be emo staple ‘New Miserable Experience’.
The title track, ‘I Died Laughing’, opens with another watery guitar that holds the song together when the rest of the band comes in.
The newer music will be an amalgamation of each member's different influences.
“I think seeing some of our differences come through in our own way,” said Fruin. “I’ve been trying to sneak in some R&B and bass lines in there, just drawing from different influences so we can put our own spin on stuff.”
“It becomes cohesive,” Beecher adds. “The unique thing I think I bring to the table is I’m really into 90s alternative and it really informs a lot of my songwriting.”
“I grew up playing in hardcore bands and punk bands and as I got older it got kind of dry,” said Danes. “I got into a lot of the post-hardcore, screamo type stuff.”
Though Colorado may seem full of jam bands to the unknowing observer, the music scene has been welcoming mixed bills for all different bands and genres. Although more rooted in the 90s alternative vein, Broken Record were welcomed onto a stage shared by more hardcore bands.
Broken Record will continue to tour the country throughout the rest of the year and will release new music this summer.
by Tessa Byrns (Music Writer)
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