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Four Colorado Bands Our Staffer Can't Stop Recommending

Four Colorado Bands Our Staffer Can't Stop Recommending

by Athena Rose-Duke in FTWELVE Music

Hey, my name is Athena, and I'm on the Records on Main staff. I come from the local emo and screamo scene, where I do pro bono art, fliers, patches, and more. I love helping people find new music, especially local music, which has made working at Records on Main a perfect fit. With that in mind, here are four local bands I always recommend to anyone looking for new, creative sounds from Colorado.

A Place For Owls

For Fans Of: American Football, Death Cab for Cutie, Foxing, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
Genre(s): Emo, Midwest Emo, Folk

I've always joked that A Place For Owls is the band I automatically recommend to my musician friends, because every single musician I've recommended them to has fallen in love with them. They strike a chord that many other bands just don't quite hit, one you didn't realize you needed until it first graces your ears.

They're a self-described emo band from Denver, but their exact style is up to interpretation: Midwest emo, folk, emotional indie rock, or some combination of all three. Whatever label you put on them, A Place For Owls is bound to tug a heartstring you didn't know was there. I say this as someone who rarely cries to songs, and even less at concerts (A Place For Owls has made me guilty of both). They have a fierce understanding of how to harness emotion and weaponize it to create beautiful music. Their matured sound can only come from experiencing both the boundless joys and the horrors of life. That perspective is rare in emo, but it's a familiar and relatable tone nonetheless.

If you want to get into them, I'd recommend their second LP, How We Dig in the Earth. It's not only one of the best albums I've ever heard; it changed me as a person. In my opinion, it's a mandatory listen if you've ever experienced grief, trauma, or any sort of personal tragedy. It will speak to you on a level no other album will.

Emotionally devastating music aside, A Place For Owls works hard to uplift local artists. They founded the nonprofit Holy Fool to help connect musicians with resources and equipment, and recently teamed up with Blucifer's First Rodeo to help raise $123,500 for local bands and artists. Their members are some of the sweetest, most genuine people I've met, with so much love for their community and so much to give. They put their heart and soul into their work, and it shines through in the music. If you have a passion for music and care about keeping Colorado's scenes vibrant, A Place For Owls needs to be on your radar.

Buddy Bench

For Fans Of: Tenmonthsummer, Silversun Pickups, Kerosene Heights, Jimmy Eat World Genre(s): Emo, Emotive Rock

Buddy Bench is a Denver emo band that started as a duo and has since grown to include two members of A Place For Owls. They're creating a sound the scene has never heard before, taking influence from a variety of other acts while distancing themselves from the typical emo sound. The result entices fans of the genre and inspires them to think outside the box about what this music can be.

Put simply, every part of their songs is ear candy: innovative, math rock inspired guitar sections, solid yet dynamic drums, satisfyingly melodic vocals, and expressive, gut-punching lyricism. With their new members, Buddy Bench has been able to bring refinement to the bass, ambient guitar, and occasional saxophone, which held a lesser role in their earlier work.

I'm a personal fan of their debut EP, Dibs on First Rips, but if you want a snapshot of this band's past, present, and future, I’d recommend their second EP, Homes Like Cells, Bodies Like Ashtrays, released earlier this year. It builds on the strong foundation they set previously;  with more time, a better environment, and more experience behind them, they were able to complement their writing with improved mixing and recording.

I still hold vivid memories of every Buddy Bench show, they bring a joy and energy that’s comforting to feel in a time filled with such negativity and uncertainty. This band helped me discover the love I have for my local scene; they showed me the potential that each person can hold within their community, and they’ve continued to provide a welcoming space for anyone willing to spread their passion for music. I'll always recommend Buddy Bench to anyone looking for a fresh take on the genre that's backed by genuine loving souls.

Lobsterfight

For Fans Of: Foxtails, Gingerbee, Glass Beach, Godfuck
Genre(s): Emo, Art Rock, Experimental

Lobsterfight hail from my hometown of Pueblo, and they don't get brought up nearly enough when people talk about Colorado emo. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, they're a Southern Colorado band, and bands outside Denver and Colorado Springs generally don't get talked about as much. Second, they're one of the most experimental takes on emo active today. That's exactly what caught my attention: I adore any band that acknowledges the rules of music and finds innovative ways to break them.

Lobsterfight often perform in makeup and costumes, as if they're playing characters set in their own universe rather than ordinary musicians. Whether it's their stage makeup, merch designs, lineup, the instruments in their songs, or the topics in their lyrics, they always find a way to break convention. Their music and presence embody a revolution against conformity.

I struggle to pin any label on Lobsterfight. At the end of the day, they make emotional music that exists as its own piece of art, separate from everything around it. They're art rock at its core, and their debut album, My Coathanger Is a Necklace, proves it: the LP (which I'm lucky enough to own) features entirely hand-illustrated art and custom-designed everything, making it one of the most unique records I've ever seen. But they're not just a visual band. Every song on that album, every lyric, is deeply emotional and tangible. Everything about it shows the passion behind its creation, and as an artist, I can't help being infatuated with all of it.

Lobsterfight deliver performance art both live and on record; every song and every set is a new experience. This band constantly excites me, and any time I see them on a local lineup, I feel a sense of hometown pride. If you're an artist, or just looking for a band that prides itself on deep artistic storytelling, Lobsterfight is for you.

Ambretta

For Fans Of: Ostraca, Life, Frail Body, Circle Takes the Square
Genre(s): Blackened Screamo, Hardcore

I've been following Ambretta for a while. They were previously part of the Arizona screamo scene, which I consider one of the hidden gems of the screamo world. I first found them while putting together a compilation of Southwest screamo bands, their hauntingly angry sound blew me away. They've since moved to Colorado Springs, and now I have the honor and privilege of calling them a local band.

Ambretta is a blackened screamo band; which is a fusion genre of black metal and screamo. It contains the emotional intensity of hardcore and screamo, backed by the dramatic riffs and melancholic musicality of black metal. Ambretta embodies all of it. They take the framework of screamo and amp up the intensity, creating music that's dark and guttural, with moments of clarity that keep you constantly on edge. As a longtime screamo and emo fan, I find their take a breath of fresh air, and I've rarely heard it done with Ambretta’s quality.

After moving to Colorado, Ambretta released their album Something Has to Change, which is already a contender for my personal album of 2026. It's unrelenting, angry, and filled with the frustration and anxiety of the current political climate. Ambretta took everything they established on their EP Ephemeral and expanded on it, blending its emotions into a full album. It feels like the perfect representation of their story: the album they were always trying to make, and what grew from the seeds first planted in Arizona.

Ambretta are leading the way in a sub-genre that hasn't been fully explored yet, and I can't wait to see the heights they reach now that they're getting the attention they deserve. They capture the anger and personal strife so many of us feel right now, and if you feel it too, I highly recommend giving them a listen.

Come Dig In

These four bands are just a starting point. Colorado's emo and screamo scenes are full of artists making music worth hearing, and I could talk about them all day. If any of these catch your ear, come find me at Records on Main, and I'll point you toward your next favorite local band.

Tags: Features Local

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