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California label cultivates Durango fans

Since 2009, the San Francisco-based record label “20-Sided Records” has slowly built a fan and friend base in Durango, with bands signed to the label performing a handful of shows around town.

These shows, especially performances at The Olde Schoolhouse, have paired 20-Sided bands with local acts.

Couches, a band led by 20-Sided founder David Mitchell, has booked these shows around travel to or from the South by Southwest music festival and conference in Austin, Texas. Although Couches is bypassing this year’s festival, they are touring around the country, including a stop tonight at The Olde Schoolhouse along with rock band H. Grimace. Local rock band You’re Welcome will open the show.

Couches’ last recorded effort came in 2014; “Slackin’ since the ’80s” was released on LP and cassette in 2014, and a full-length from the San Francisco trio will drop later this year.

H. Grimace is a London-based rock band led by Hannah Gledhill on vocals and guitar, Shan Pasha on bass and Asher Preston on drums. Eddie Gomez from the Dead Westerns will be filling in for Marcus Brown on guitar.

The quartet formed in 2011 in the Northeast London borough of Hackney. It’s a part of London with an emerging music scene, complete with a growing number of indie rock and punk bands, a sound reflected in the work of H. Grimace.

For Gledhill, it all began with the purchase of a Pavement cassette tape. The ’90s softcore band sits high atop the indie rock canon, and their influence is present in the sound of H. Grimace. Their 2015 EP “I Am Material” is a six-song release that moves from straight-ahead rock to post punk, psychedelic rock and noisy folk, all with an underlying sound of reverb-drenched surf. Built to Spill, the 13th Floor Elevators, Pavement and Patti Smith all have influenced the sound of H. Grimace.

They’re also major proponents of the do-it-yourself culture that has been motivating bands in the rock industry for decades. H. Grimace is still a young band that, with the help of Couches and 20-Sided records, has put together a month-long tour of the U.S. The tour has come to fruition not because of a deep-pocketed record label, but because of a network of other musicians and fans willing to help a rock band out as they travel the country, hoping to expand their small American fan base.

H. Grimace has promoted and put up other bands in their town, and that kindness is being reciprocated. “We do it ourselves, it’s self-funded and self-motivated” Gledhill said last week in a phone interview. “I’m not sure we have a following here, but it’s an absolute pleasure to play, and hopefully we’ll have a following when we leave.”

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.

Bryant’s best

Friday: Rock music with Couches and H. Grimace, 10 p.m, no cover. The Olde Schoolhouse, 46778 U.S. Hwy. 550, 259-2257.

Sunday: Jazz music at Jazz Church, 6 p.m., no cover. Derailed Pour House, 725 Main Ave., 247-5440.



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