I love music but am woefully bad at branching out past the popular singles on country, hip hop, pop, and alternative radio stations. As my coworkers know I also rarely, if ever, attend concerts. Shameful when Red Rocks is your local venue.

While I don’t have plans to change our lack of concert-going anytime soon (wedding travel has bled us dry this year) I’ve been pushing Mike and friends to share new music with me. Prior to our Jackson Hole road trip I added Fun. and The Lumineers to my iPhone, as well as the new Mumford & Sons song in anticipation of the whole album being awesome. On our drive Mike played Alabama Shakes (first recommended to me by my friends and colleagues, Ramonna and Jim) and a few other bands that were new to me, but it was Iceland’s Of Monsters and Men that struck a real chord.

Fast forward two weeks and the album has been on repeat in my car and at in our house while cooking and cleaning. The sound is similar to Mumford but a little happier, if that makes any sense. I am not fluent in “music speak” whatsoever. I just know what I like and what I don’t like. Their website bio describes the sound as “folkie pop,” which is quite accurate. Rolling Stone profiled them in July as well.

Via Facebook I found out they are coming to Boulder this December. As long as tickets aren’t insanely expensive I told Mike that I’d really love to see them live. If you are searching for a new band to get into I highly recommend giving this group a listen. And then let me know what you think!