Second Story Garage: Ashley's picks - and farewell

By Ashley Dean

When I interviewed for a job with the Colorado Daily in September 2011, then-editor Dave Burdick asked me what I would do with extra time and resources. I told him I’d bring music into the newsroom.

Less than a year later, with hard work from Dave, sound engineer Duncan Taylor, photographer/videographer Paul Aiken and Boulder Daily Camera executive editor Kevin Kaufman, Second Story Garage was born. With the help of my co-host, Quentin Young, producer Kevin “Moose” Huhn and many others, it grew beautifully.

It’s strange to look back at videos of Rob Drabkin — a stranger who greeted me with a hug and became my friend — playing in an empty studio and leaving behind his hair pick. Now, as I bid adieu nearly two years later, the Garage has seen almost 90 performances and the shelves are cluttered with mementos.

Before my departure, I was tasked with picking my favorite performances, and it was a lot more difficult than I expected. I gave myself a limit of five and ended up with seven after having to trim from the list so many fantastic musicians, whom I can’t thank enough for performing in our studio. In no particular order, here they are (to watch, click the photos or links):

In the video at the top of the page, the super-fun Whiskey Shivers. I noticed that every song I chose was also the song Duncan thought was best. I listen to our recording of “Jealous Heart” all the time. And when I saw these guys barefoot in a bar in Austin, Texas, I knew they needed to play in the Garage. They didn’t let me down.

Also filed under Way Too Much Fun, I Sank Molly Brown. “Sticks and Stones” never fails to get stuck in my head, and their interview was just absurd.

The Shivers weren’t the only Austin band I was hoping to get into the Daily Camera’s newsroom studio. Ringo Deathstarr came in off the road and got very loud and a little crazy for us during a performance that came to a crashing, screeching end with “Nowhere.”

Speaking of loud, In The Whale might have been the loudest band we’ve brought in. In “Ed Gein Blues,” a song about a man who made a human skin lampshade, you can see that the band shook things off the shelves.