Featured Alternative Music News

Boulder, Colorado's 3OH!3 is poised to make a lot of noise on the national scene this summer. In April, the hip-hop duo of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte signed with Photo Finish Records, an imprint of Atlantic Records and their debut album Want was released on July 8th. The group garnered attention with a big showing at last year's Denver Warped Tour and by getting booked at national festivals like Bamboozle Left in California and the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia this summer. The band is named for the area code of that region, 303.

Photo Finish Records courted 3OH!3 for the past six months, finally striking a deal last month. Motte says the record will feature new material alongside the band's most popular songs, like "Holler Till You Pass Out" and "Chokechain." And though 3OH!3 plays a hard-edged variety of hip-hop, at times incorporating elements such as crunk, the group has attracted a diverse following and become a major draw in Boulder, a town not generally known as a hotbed of hip-hop.

"For one reason or another our music tends to be accessible to people from a lot of different musical backgrounds," Motte says. "Hopefully it comes from our attitude. We don't give a (damn) where we're going to appeal." We had a lot of friends in bands who chaperoned us around and got us shows, and that was enough hype or buzz to get us going on our own".

3OH!3 will be spending most of the summer performing on the 2008 Warped Tour. "We've always gotten a good response from the kids that would go to Warped," Motte says. And though he's looking forward to playing to the large festival crowds, Motte says his heart is in the small clubs where he and Foreman cut their teeth.

"Playing during the day, or even at night, in the open air, it's weird. The sound sucks. It's not the same vibe as playing in a club," he says. "There really is nothing like your bass pumping on a crazy system and the people are all sweaty. I'll play in a club any day." 3OH!3 commonly uses skits and costumes during their live concerts.

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