SPEAKER_00 0:09

Good morning, Boulder County. It's Wednesday, July 15th. I'm your host, Jay Castle. And this is the Frequency, a weekly local podcast covering the news, events, and voices shaping the Boulder Valley. Today's episode is brought to you by the Regional Air Quality Council. This year, set the summer trend, take simple steps for better air, and avoid idling your car when parked in parking lots or waiting in pickup lines and drive-throughs. Turning your car off and on again instead of idling can make a huge difference for summer air quality. And it helps reduce ground-level ozone pollution in the Colorado Front Range. Know when it matters most by signing up for ozone alerts from the Regional Air Quality Council. Learn more at SimpleSteps atterAir.org. Today, we'll travel the cosmic highway with Longmont and Netherland-based group Prairie Wolf. But first, the headlines. Lafayette's City Council will dedicate the entirety of its July 21st meeting to the town's beleaguered cemetery. Lafayette Cemetery was closed to casket burials in November 2025 after human remains were discovered during two internments. Extensive ground mapping completed earlier this year revealed two additional burials in sites designated as available and 750 to 1,000 unmarked graves. Mapping also concurred with previous findings that, quote, the facility can no longer provide additional burial capacity, according to a publicly available report. Approximately 150 individuals currently own one or more plots, with an approximate 270 remaining unused plots, according to information provided by the city. Lafayette hosted two public listening sessions in June. At the July 21st meeting, council will quote, address options for plot holders, including fees and repurchase rates, individual plot assessments, and improvements to the other municipal cemetery, Coal Creek. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 21st at City Hall, 1290 South Public Road. Many changes are coming to Boulder ahead of Sundance's arrival in just five months. Here are two of them. The City of Boulder is selling a downtown parking lot to developers who plan to build a 110-room hotel. The parking lot is located at the corner of Spruce and Broadway, just one block off the Pearl Street Mall, and has 59 spaces. Capacity at existing city parking garages can absorb lost spots, according to a city analysis. The buyers are a Denver-based group who developed the Ramble Hotel in Rhino. The hotel will also include ground floor commercial space available for below market rate. Boulder has long had a goal of subsidizing retail rental rates to encourage local small businesses. The purchase price has not yet been disclosed. City Council will weigh the sale in early August. Boulder is also relocating some homeless services farther away from its downtown civic area in Central Park. Community Court is a program that helps people avoid jail time for low-level municipal offenses such as sleeping outside. Participants can have tickets and charges waived if they make measurable progress toward becoming housed, such as acquiring identification. The weekly program is held outside the Penfield Tate Municipal Building where council and other city boards and commissions meet. Starting next week, it will relocate one half mile to St. John's Episcopal Church. St. John's has long hosted other homelessness services. The move was recommended by a consultant's report released last year, which also found Boulder would need to spend an additional $11 million per year to end unsheltered homelessness by 2028. Read more about all our headlines at the links in our show notes. Coming up next, get into the zone with Caribou Currents Tyler Hickman and Jesse Gray, as we share an excerpt of their interview with Prairie Wolf. For the full episode and a written article about the local band's latest LP, visit cariboucurrent.com.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

By the end of the second set, I was just like, I don't know where I can't see out into the audience. I'm not sure where I am. That wasn't very it felt like we were we had we had drifted off into space or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

The July issue of our arts and culture monthly Caribou Current hits the racks with local cosmic Americana band Prairie Wolf gracing the cover. If you haven't heard their music yet, you can thank me later. The trio is rooted in Boulder County from Netherland to Longmont, and their latest record, Zone Poems, drops July 17th via Centripetal Force Records. If you're a live album buff, I'm looking at you, Deadheads and Fitch fans. I cannot recommend these guys enough. But what's really interesting is how this live record came together. The group went on tour throughout Colorado and got into some pretty funky headspaces on stage. They didn't know it yet, but they were making their next record in real time. Today, we're going on that journey with them. Our editor Jesse Gray sat down with Jeremy Irwin, Tyler Wilcox, and Stefan Beck to find out how this weird tapestry of spacey laid-back jams came together.

SPEAKER_05 6:06

Thanks for joining us today. Appreciate all you guys for carving out a little time. Very, very stoked and very stoked about this new record. Thank you. It's hard to believe it's been three years. That is pretty wild. 2023, man.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Because that was when that first the first record came out. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Yep. Spring of 23. So let's let's start there. Can you guys kind of catch me up on the prairie wolf saga over the last three years?

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Where are we now? When we started the group, you know, I had the intention of, and I think we all shared this, is like making music that was soothing. Like the times that we had come out of with COVID and the Trump era just fucking sucked. And I just wanted to make music that was just soothing. Just felt good, like a really good combination of instruments that everybody liked. And just you know, it was kind of I don't know, healing music. And times have changed fairly drastically over the past three or four years. I don't know if I go in with the intention of like trying to soothe people anymore. It's more like I think everybody just wanted to like get lost in it and just kind of go there for the, you know, enjoy the music for the sense of just getting out of the shit.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

Yeah, that that's super interesting to hear you say that, just talking about the different environments, you know, compared to where we were when LP1 came out versus LP3. And I will say to that to that point about you know, desiring to soothe, if I had guests coming over, first record I'm putting on Prairie Wolf LP1. It's the welcome to my home music. Like let's put everyone at ease. Uh let's and we'll take a journey together.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

I don't know if the new one is is the one that you would put on to. I mean, uh yeah, I mean, I do think it's you know, it has it has some of those elements. I mean, there's definitely some, but I mean I I do think it's edgier. I mean, edgier for us.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

I think that it's I wouldn't call it edgy. I think if what we find edgy is not what is actually edgy.

SPEAKER_05 8:12

Well, it's it's funny you say that. I I have a whole question prepared about this very word, Tyler, because you you included that in an email. You you said that the the live quality of the recordings gave some of the moments on the record, you know, kind of an edgier quality. I agree. And I also agree with like the sentiment that that Stefan's saying, which is like it's not exactly the first word that would come to mind when you're describing Clary Wolf. Right, right. Um, so let's maybe like since we're on that topic, let's go there. Like, take me to like a moment on the new record that you feel like has a little bit of edge to it.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

I am personally all about uh the the first single that we put out, Burning Edges, like track three on there. Stefan has a genuine like fuzz-tone solo that goes. I don't know what the length is, Stefan. Have you timed it?

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Too extended solo.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

No, it's not long enough, man.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

I can still remember that song playing that song in Creststone. That I mean, it wasn't the first time we had played it, but I mean, I maybe it was the first time that Stefan played that the the solo that that developed into the one that's on the record.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

Oh, yeah, because we we changed the arrangement. That might have been the first time we did.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Yeah, yeah, maybe we did it. I yeah, I can't remember. But um, but I remember being shocked and dismayed by it um and delighted. Um, I thought I was I thought it was great.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Oh, I think the tape is out there of the creststone show. And I think I like yelled at him to like keep going. Because it was amazing. You never get a little like that out of Stephanie.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

The Creststone show that gives me a good transition to speak to what I consider an edgy or dangerous moment on the record was I had a crazy migraine on that show and like couldn't see and was like had no idea like if anything sounded right. And then that ended up being the bulk of site A. It came from that show.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

I mean, that show was genuinely strange to I mean to me as well. Yeah. I remember just fin because we played we did play two sets, right? Um and by the end of the second set, I was just like, I don't know where I I can't see out into the audience. I'm I'm not sure where I am. That wasn't it was very it felt felt like we were we had we had drifted off into space or something.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

Um well creststone's a weird place too. Like there's a lot of people, there's weird energy there. There's a lot of like spiritual seekers there, but there are also just a lot of people who like go there to get away from everything else, and they call it the cosmic highway, like the two-lane road that runs down there where they have all these UFO sightings, and like there's like some weird folk art dedicated to that. And there was like a there was a wasn't there a bachelor party there at that show. They had like witnessed some cosmic event on mushrooms the night before, and yeah, the mayor of Creststone was running sound as well.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

He was he was in charge.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Um it felt like a kind of weird turning point, you know? It's kind of locked in and it just kind of set the tone in a weird way.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

To kind of go back to sort of aerial view of these last few years. I mean, you guys have been producing new music at a pretty healthy clip, roughly a record a year, maybe, you know, maybe not quite, but um, you know, we've gotten a few LPs over these past few years. I mean, is it fair to say like you guys are feeling pretty dialed in right now?

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Well, you should have been at our rehearsal the last weekend. I don't know if it was that dialed in. Yeah, no, I mean, I I mean I think I think as we were saying, like it felt like like we could come in and for the most part kind of knew what to do with the songs. We didn't have to think about them too much. So yeah, in that respect, I mean I do feel like you know, it's it's something that at least, you know, if we we have songs, we can kinda we we we know what to do with them now. I don't know. Maybe I don't know if the other guys agree.

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Well, I would just add to that and say one thing that helped kind of focus in on getting those songs dialed and getting really comfortable with playing them live was, you know, we we had a bunch of music that we all brought to the table at the beginning of last year. I don't know how many demos we had, but you know, there were maybe 10 or 12. And uh Jeremy wisely said, Well, let's focus on a smaller group of them and just get to know these songs inside and out and kind of let them evolve um as we play them. And I think that was really effective. So I think I do think, you know, like in the time period when when those recordings were made, you know, from whatever it was, May to October of 2025, we did we were really dialed on those songs. Um, especially by the end. Like I remember that last Glob show we opened for Pitch and Bajas. You know, I think at the end of our set, I was like, I think that's the best we've ever played. And that's you know the basis of a handful of songs on the album.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

We played 15 shows last year. I think that's more than we played combined previously. We would I would record every show with a little Zoom recorder, and we had eventually tapers would come out to the show uh and record, which is a phenomenon that I never imagined we would experience. So we had all these recordings of the shows, right? And we'd listen to these and sprinkle in there was an occasional soundboard recording that we would get, like a multi-track soundboard recording from the venue, which is amazing to have because you can mix it like a record, right? So as we'd go back and listen to the the shows, you know, we could identify what was the best or what was like a unique performance or of a song. And I think we started the year with the intention of playing these new songs and recording an album at the end, traditionally, because the intention was to get inside the songs, see where they had advanced by the end of the year, and and capture that in the studio. Well, the multi-track recordings happened to be some of the most memorable shows. Crestone, um, and then we had a couple at Glob at the end of the year. They were just amazing. So I think by like Stefan said, that Bishan Baja show we opened for, we were like, we I think we might have a record already. I I went through and picked what felt like the strongest representation of each of these new songs from those multi-track recordings. We made a list and all everyone I can't recall this part. If I said, Hey, these are the best, listen to them and agree, or if I just took it and ran with it.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

No, no, no. You made you just made a record. We were we had finished those, and then it was like you went underground into mixing mode and then popped up a couple months later and we're like, Hey, what do you think of this? And if I was and it was like kind of mind-blowing that you were able to come up with what you did.

unknown 14:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Because I know, I mean, you had definitely said that that you thought that you could do it, and I honestly didn't I thought that you would start doing it and get, you know, sort of down a tunnel and kind of be like, actually, it would be much better if we sat down and actually recorded this. But once you we had it, I was like, I was like, this is like the easiest record I've ever made because I I played those shows, but I didn't do anything beyond that really. So I was like, this is great. This is almost like getting a new prairie wolf record that I didn't have to like hear a hundred times before it was kind of finished.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

It was like getting the source material from our live shows and and reviewing it in the same way you would like a studio session. So what I was able to do is this record is not only based on tracks from a specific date, uh, you know, like the first track is not simply from Creststone, but the the bulk of it, like the Tyler and Stefan and the drum machine are, but then I'll also take large sections from another date, like a whole Stefan track and drop it into the the track from Creststone, and it just fits. Like that's kind of the weird serendipity of Prairie Wolf, where I can take like a completely semi-random take of a song and throw it over another one and it just works.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

It's almost like this is how we were meant to make records in some way. Yeah. All along. So I mean, I think it yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know whether that's you know exactly how we'll do this in the future, but maybe I don't know, maybe we will. Because it works pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

So that's kind of what the record is. I mean, it's quite literally taking one piece from one date and adding it to another and just sitting back in amazement at how well it works. So it's layered live recordings, but there are also studio parts that we dropped in. You know, we're only three dudes. So if I want to hear a bigger chorus, I'm gonna add, you know, a layer of Mellotron or a string synth here and there, or an arpeggiated synth that's open burning edges. So the record that I will frequently compare it to is the Anthem of the Sun, The Grateful Dead record, in which it's built, I think, in the exact same fashion.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Because I mean I, you know, that's what I kind of thought was great, is that, and I think that that was in the performances, you know, we weren't thinking about them being on a record. And that for me, in a lot of cases, when we're recording is challenging. When we're recording in the studio, I'm usually like, like, okay, this is gonna like this is gonna go on the record. And I didn't think about that, you know, like I was not thinking about that at all when we were playing these shows. Um, not for an instant.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

You have described zone poems in the press materials as a sicko's delight, which I would argue if I had a vote, if I were a a member of Prairie Wolf, I would say that should be the album title. I mean, that's the remix record, Sicko's Delight. There you go. But you unpack that for readers. What why is this a sicko's delight?

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Well, I'll I'll specify Sicko's Delight. I when I said that, I was intending to refer to the the bonus disc, which if you for purchasers of the uh physical versions, the the CD or the LP, the CD is a double disc, and the second disc is the first run through of every song on the record. And some of them are very long, like modifications is 20 some minutes long, but it's killer. I I just love the idea of like this. Is how it started. This these were the original versions, and this is what it became. It solidifies that idea that there's there's no best version, they're just versions.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

You know, sicko's is probably I mean, we'd probably describe ourselves as that in as as music fans, because I think all of us get into weeds with different bands. So I mean, we're all like like this is something that we would like from our favorite bands, is is you know, being able to hear these different versions, which are rougher and you know, kind of kind of scrappier and longer. So that's what I mean. The sicko's delight for me. Yeah, I was like, I was like, yeah, it's like it's for the people who are you know sicko's about this music. For the real wolf heads.

SPEAKER_05 19:27

All right, fellas. That's what I prepared for us. Thanks again for for taking the time to chat with me. Really appreciate it. Um, looking forward to the shows and um congrats on the new record, guys. It's great.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for doing this. We really do appreciate it. Yeah, it is awesome. So thank you.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

All right, see ya.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

See you later.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

That's all for today. Huge thanks to Jeremy, Tyler, and Stefan for all of the time they gave to us for this story. Their record, Zone Pones, is out July 17th, and they've got a few cozy shows coming up too. You can catch them at Louisville's Electric Room July 18th, Boulder's Paradise Found Records on August 1st, and Denver's Ghost Canyon Fest, August 29th. Jesse wrote a phenomenal story about this trio for our latest issue. You can find it in print all throughout the Peak to Peak and in Boulder, or read it online at cariboucurrent.com. The issue is also packed with music, art, culture, food, you name it, covering the foothills, peaks, and everything in between. If you're looking for live music, we've got two pages of upcoming shows for you, plus curated events to keep your summer calendar filled. It's free, so go find a copy and read some truly great local arts journalism today.