Give your belly a break and treat your ears to a feast of fresh music by local artists. And don’t be shy about going back for seconds or thirds.
Before diving in, let’s start with an appetizer: Denver hardcore band Cop Killer put out a self-titled EP independently on November 14. It’s only available online via Bandcamp, but you can also find CDs and tapes at local record shops, including Drop To Pop Records and Curio. Similarly, Notes from the Underground Vol.2: Denver, also released on November 14 via Denver’s Label 51 Recordings, can only be found on vinyl or CD. A collaboration with Twist & Shout Records, the record highlights the city’s psych-rock scene across twelve tracks, including Sour Magic, Pink Fuzz, May Be Fern, Barbara and Bellhoss.
Now for the main course: Here are the best releases by Colorado musicians in November:
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Dollpile
“Someone Else’s Heaven”
Dollpile may be a new name, but Denver singer-songwriter Isadora Eden’s been making slowcore-infused dream-pop under her own name for a few years now.
The recent rebrand is the next chapter for Eden and her longtime collaborator, drummer Sumner Erhard, which begins with upcoming EP, Someone Else’s Heaven, set to be out in February 2026. Dollpile shared the title track on November 18, the third single in as many months, following “Stoplights” and “Fake Flowers.” Eden’s serenading-siren vocals are front and center here, weaved throughout a melancholic melody of folkish shoegaze, a sound the band likes to call “fuzz folk,” making it hit like a lipstick-stained cigarette.
Duncan Coker
Roadside Attractions
Boulder singer-songwriter Duncan Coker released his sophomore album, Roadside Attractions, independently on November 18. A year after putting out a proper debut — a nine-track self-titled LP, his first in the many years he’s been playing music — Coker comes back with eleven more red dirt-covered songs.
Singles “Rodeo Girl” and “Started Missing You” are indicative of Coker’s lovelorn lyrics, while Roadside Attraction showcases more of an up-tempo country side to the lifelong musician who cut his teeth live, first and foremost.
“I wanted it to feel loose and real, like the band is playing right in front of you,” he says, like boots on barnwood.
Holdfast.
Bet!
Denver alt-rock trio Holdfast. kick out the jams on new EP, Bet!, released independently on November 14. Comprised of brothers Tommy (drummer) and Mikey (bassist) Maddocks and their cousin, Charlie (guitar and vocals), Holdfast. has always kept it in the family, consistently crafting epic and emotive mid-tempo rock since 2011.
The four-song Bet! gathers the latest singles — “A Note To My Younger Self,” “Crystal Ball” and “Unknown” — from the past year with the title track being the freshest.
Old Deer
Someone in the House
Talk about a proper debut. Denver harsh-doom dealers Old Deer dropped its first full-length, Someone in the House, independently on November 7, and the title is indicative of the claustrophobic sense of dread the four-piece creates by incorporating sledgehammer-heavy sludge, manic mathcore and post-metal sensibilities.
“The Hatch” pummels, including a fitting saxophone scream at one point, while the eponymous track is devil-driving doom — low and slow, shifty and sludgy. The crown jewel, however, is “4507.” The nearly thirteen-minute epic closer is an amalgamation of everything Old Deer does, twisting and turning from mathcore to harsh noise to doom-sludge, before wrapping up with a surprise: the King of the Hill theme song.
Whatever guitarist-vocalist Matt, bassist Josh, guitarist Tyler and drummer Adam (when you’re this heavy, you only need first names) do on Someone in the House, it just works.
Origami Summer
“Late Night Infomercial”
Rocky Mountain emo crew Origami Summer gets all up in the feels on new single, “Late Night Infomercial,” released independently on November 18. A relative newcomer having only been active out West since 2023, Origami Summer is comprised of veteran musicians from Midwest shoegaze, emo and deathcore/hardcore scenes, according to the band. And such an education certainly shines through on “Late Night Informercial.
This one feels like a voicemail YOU were never meant to hear — made from the static, the empty midnight channels, and all the words we choke on when it’s too late to take them back,” the group shares. “If you’ve ever stayed up too late replaying memories YOU can’t shut off…this song is for YOU. This is the ART between YOU and us.”
ratstallion
Sisyphus Happy
New hot band alert: ratstallion started popping up locally over the summer, causing murmurs within alt circles, but now the Denver post-gaze project got an official release to call its own in six-song debut EP, Sisyphus Happy, released independently on November 13.
Six tracks of ghostly heaviness that can be both delicately brooding (the title track) and unapologetically heavy at times (“7th”), courtesy of vocalist-guitarist Phoebe Rankin, guitarist Max Murray, bassist Lenny Torres and drummer Dan Paulin (ratstallion rotates who’s behind the kit, depending on availability).
The Teflon Dons
“Final Fall”
Denver punk band the Teflon Dons put out its debut, Ladies and Gentlemen… The Teflon Dons, at the beginning of the year and been playing out on it ever since. But the band recently paid homage to Duane Lance Bodenheimer, the fallen Denver legend and in-your-face frontman of Seattle-based hardcore group the Derelicts, with a rendition of “Final Fall,” released independently on November 6.
The 1989 original feels fitting for a man who didn’t take himself too seriously, even though the Derelicts were seriously underrated but no less influential during Seattle’s pre-grunge era. The “bonus track” of “Assholes Unite,” a ten-second Derelicts song, is a nice touch here, too.
White Rose Motor Oil
Merry Crisis
Cowpunk power couple Eryn DeSomer and Keith Hoerig-DeSomer, aka White Rose Motor Oil, dropped a fun holiday album, Merry Crisis, independently on November 14. A mix of originals and covers, including a couple Christmas classics (“You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” and “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”), the eight songs are indicative of the duo’s influences. There’s also “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight),” a Ramones original, and Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas.” Then you have White Rose deep cuts “Broken Heart Holiday” and “First Song About Santa.” Plus, an update on an old-school standard with “The Feminist’s Santa Baby.”
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.westword.com ’
