{"id":2442558,"date":"2019-04-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=302935"},"modified":"2019-04-04T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T22:00:00","slug":"moon-taxi-back-in-aspen-for-sets-at-the-apres-and-belly-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/moon-taxi-back-in-aspen-for-sets-at-the-apres-and-belly-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon Taxi back in Aspen for sets at The Apr\u00e9s and Belly Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nashville-based rock band Moon Taxi will play The Apres at Buttermilk on Friday and Belly Up on Sunday.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After 12 years of old-school, nose-to-the-grindstone rock band touring and recording, Moon Taxi<\/a> reached some old-school milestones of success last year as their fifth album, \u201cLet the Record Play,\u201d rose to the top five of Billboard\u2019s \u201cHeatseekers\u201d chart along with its single \u201cTwo High.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hit song is a straightforward and upbeat earworm of a pop song with a sing-along chorus (\u201cPut em up!\u201d Two high!\u201d). But the band\u2019s sound is anything but straightforward. Their songs swerve easily between southern rock and folk to prog anthems to \u201cTwo High\u201d-styled pop, with electronic touches and some jam band noodles.<\/p>\n

Their live shows typically include a Grateful Dead cover and recently have included an inspired spin on Kacey Musgraves\u2019 \u201cSlow Burn.\u201d The diversity of the Moon Taxi sound might result from the band\u2019s collective songwriting approach, said bassist Tommy Putnam<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a kitchen where there\u2019s one chef and a couple sous chefs helping out,\u201d Putnam explained.<\/p>\n

Moon Taxi has steadily built buzz and gained fans in recent years on the big-ticket summer festival circuit, playing down the bill at Coachella, Hangout and Bonnaroo. But the Nashville-based band honed its live show by playing long and late in smoky bars around the American South.<\/p>\n

The five-piece band will play the Aspen Skiing Co\u2019s new music festival, The Apr\u00e9s, on Friday evening and Belly Up on Sunday night. It formed in 2006 while its members were students at Belmont University and found their following in Birmingham, Alabama, and in college towns like Tuscaloosa and Knoxville, before they got any attention in Nashville. The gigs weren\u2019t glamorous, but they shaped Moon Taxi into a live powerhouse.<\/p>\n

At Marty\u2019s in Birmingham they\u2019d play shows that started at midnight and went until 5 a.m. At The Boot in Tuscaloosa, they\u2019d go on at 11 and play until 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just packed the place out and played for five hours,\u201d Putnam recalled. \u201cJust crazy stuff. I couldn\u2019t imagine playing that long now, but we did and learned how to become a live band. And we\u2019d come back to Nashville and play a show and people were like, \u2018Holy s\u2014, these guys are great!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve stayed true to their bar-band roots by touring aggressively with hundreds of shows a year, including festivals and in opening slots on tour with Matisyahu and Umphrey\u2019s McGee (who follow them on Friday at Buttermilk). Locally, they\u2019ve won over some fans with a 2017 show at Belly Up and an appearance at the Skico\u2019s free Hi-Fi Concert Series in Snowmass last year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get lost in the crowd of talent in Music City, USA. Putnam credited that high threshold for motivating the band to hone a live set that would leave an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were becoming a band in Nashville we knew there was a lot of talent there, and there are so many good bands, good singers and good guitar players that if you want to rise to the top, you have to put on a live show right off the bat,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we kept working at it. And I think Nashville made us become one of the best live bands out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nashville-based rock band Moon Taxi will play The Apres at Buttermilk on Friday and Belly Up on Sunday.Courtesy photo After 12 years of old-school, nose-to-the-grindstone rock band touring and recording, Moon Taxi reached some old-school milestones of success last year as their fifth album, \u201cLet the Record Play,\u201d rose to the top five of Billboard\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 05:51:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}