NewBo Music Festival Artist Spotlight: Shapes & Colors

When we set the lineup for the NewBo Music Festival we wanted to get a variety of Alternative music sounds. Young the Giant is the big national headliner. Allen Stone brings a brand new Capitol record deal and his self-proclaimed "hippie soul." Mr. Prall's Dickie Band and MINT have great sounds and even greater Hawkeye State fanbases. And Full Body Tones will kick out some "alt-punk," Kentucky-style.

We also discovered a really cool groove from Michigan's Shapes & Colors. My co-worker Courtlin down the hall here on the 4th floor told us we needed to book her friends from their Michigan homeland. She recently hit the road for a few of their Iowa tour stops, including a Des Moines show and said they were ON! She emailed me some of their singles and I knew we had to lock them in for our festival.

We're spinning this killer track among others. Take a listen to "Rise."

The guys recently gathered 'round the fire to tackle some Twitter questions from fans. First topic: Musical inspirations. The answers were varied, from Bono to Chris Martin to Phil Collins.

Here's another cool track from their latest record.

And, the boys get freaky on "The Life You Stole."

Follow Shapes & Colors on Twitter and Facebook, and hit their official website.

It all goes down Saturday, August 8 outside at NewBo City Market. I'll see you at the jam.