March 6, 2020 | 0 Comments

DOWN TIME – HURTS BEING ALIVE is at Top 200 Radio Now!!!

My newest priority for radio is a fun bedroom indie rock band from Denver. I actually was introduced to Down Time through a film festival coworker friend, which is a fun and unusual way to make new music friends! They have strong ties to fellow Denver band Tennis – they recorded this album in Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore (of Tennis)’s home studio, and also Riley and Moore are releasing it via their label Mutually Detrimental. So I mean for sure RIYL Tennis for this band! But I’d also put them somewhere in a nexus between Palehound and Best Coast with more psych-y vibes splashed on top, if you can picture that? Or well ya know, you don’t have to picture it, just give a listen to this lovely album! Also just to make sure you see, the band’s name is Down Time, two words with a space in between. Now you know!

DOWN TIME

HURTS BEING ALIVE

Mutually Detrimental

“See you on the other side,” Alyssa Maunders sings on “Other Side,” the opening track to Hurts Being Alive by Denver bedroom indie rock trio Down Time. Her voice carries over a lasting, sustained chord, just before the spacious track dives into its second side, where she’s joined, like old friends, by bass, drums, and a bending, hopeful guitar line. There’s comfort in those words. It’s a promise, and Maunders’ trusting vocals ensure that it’ll be okay. Just take this journey with her.

And that journey is like exploring the warmth of a childhood memory—something nostalgic but unique to specifically one time and place. Take “Not a Complicated Person” for example, where Maunders sings about the oft-overlooked simple pleasures of a home cooked meal—creating something from nothing. Giving back. And that’s what Down Time’s music is. It’s an act of kindness. David Weaver’s bass and drums are careful, precise, enriching. Justin Camilli’s melodies are fulfilling, friendly, unassuming. Maunders’s vocals are compassionate, understanding, introspective. It’s the sound of creative freedom—a clarity of artistic vision, of collaborative trust, and truth.

Listening to Down Time is like dropping in on a friend—someone who’s there to listen or challenge or provide a new perspective. Down Time brings excitement to familiarity. It’s a conversation between three friends that invites the listener to be part of the family.

Produced by Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore of the band Tennis out of their Denver home studio, Hurts Being Alive is out via Riley and Moore’s label, Mutually Detrimental, on March 6th, 2020.