The Epilogues End the Wait

Previewing a new full-length from the Denver locals

Climbing a long elevator, we were sequestered away in the top of a clocktower, plied with Illegal Pete’s and sponsored beer. Loosely packed, the crowd stopped talking just long enough for the band to mention thanks and the importance of everyone present. The collection assembled were all people who, in one way or another, had  helped the album become a reality (myself excluded), being there for the four in the way that only struggling musicians will ever experience. You always find these collections in the local music scenes—associations of the hopeful that hold up others’ dream as best they can. And in The Epilogues’ case, they are rich in help. Especially since even the food counts in a way, since Illegal Pete’s owns and operates Greater Than Collective, the label to which The Epilogues recently signed.

Singer Chris Heckman’s eyes rove with anxious excitement; actually, the whole band seems to be waiting to see what will happen, running their eyes around the room cautiously, with the look of people readying to have their hearts and souls wantonly judged.

Cinematics is the first full-length album for the band since 2009, and whatever happened in the meantime was a backstory I never quite caught. Regardless, the upheaval seemed to lend greater significance to the night and the reveal. Off compact red studio speakers they cranked their new sounds to a crowd that immediately burst into chatter, drowning out any hope I had of a good listen to the album. But there was nothing I could do about that. Grab a beer, stand on the balcony, and catch what I could of the record.

The Epilogues’ sound is a mixture of the polish of today’s studio rock, and the un-jaded earnesty of  that from the mid-2000′s. The best I can explain is to have you mentally mix songs from 30 Seconds to Mars with MUTEMATH’s self-titled debut. They’ve been incomprehensibly compared to Death Cab for Cutie in the past (though God knows why), but have the bridled angst and mainstream melodies that make them more “Modern Rock” than any kind of Indie. (Although yes, they are on an independent label.) Cinematics is tightly produced, with crystal vocals cutting smooth swaths of backing in striving melodies. As a whole, the album is an impressive step for a local band; a level of professionalism that few ever reach. And even perched in the Daniels and Fisher tower, berated by a magnificent douche from Upslope brewery, it sounded like they deserved in earnest the national attention they’d found.

But in spite of their success growing out of Denver-only size, they’re staying true to the roots. Not available Nationally until November 6th, Cinematics is being released exclusively to our fair city on October 2nd, available at Twist and Shout. They’re also launching with a release show at Summit Music Hall on Oct. 6th, making sure everyone in Denver gets to see and hear them before the rest of the country does. And from what I’ve heard, both ways are really necessary to understand what The Epilogues do.

Get your tickets to the release show here, and when you make it there (as you should), keep your eyes peeled. There will be more than one member of the Donnybrooke manse roaming snootily around the show. We’ll be the ones with martinis.