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I've been a lifelong musician and songwriter. My skills include singing, playing guitar(electric, acoustic, and pedal steel), bass, drums, keys, and synths. I've been playing in bands around the Denver area since 2003 and have toured nationally on several occasions. My songs are honest and often confessional in nature and my live performance is often raucous and punctuated by me stomping and flailing around on stage for the duration.

The highest compliment I've received about playing music came from my best friend and creative collaborator Miriam Suzanne when she said "She plays guitar like it’s her dying breath, and sometimes I think it might be. There’s so much pain and terror and beauty in that sound."

A photo of Josie Cool playing guitar and performing as An Antiquated Bluff

An Antiquated Bluff is what I've been calling my solo singer/songwriter material since 2018 when I first started performing without a band. Genre descriptors are ultimately meaningless, but I've often said it sounds like John K. Sampson of The Weakerthans if she was a depressed trans woman on a Neil Young bender. I've played with the likes of Jenna Pup of HIRS Collective, Cher Strauberry (Twompsax), Tristan Puig, and Gutless(FL).

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A photo of Josie Cool playing guitar and performing as part of Teacup Gorilla. 2 other band members are shown behind her

I joined Teacup Gorilla in the fall of 2017 after being a fan for several years. The band had been known for their mixture of Americana's warmth mixed with the dynamic shift and moodiness of post-rock. Often compared to The Velvet Underground, Explosions in the Sky, and early Modest Mouse, I was brought in for my ability to create texture, as well as my rhythm guitar ability. Little did they know they'd get a sometimes lead guitarist and riff creator in the process.
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A photo of the band Great American House Fire performing on a stage

I co-founded Great American House Fire with Kristin Garramone as our former group, Spokeshaver, was coming to an end, and as I had decided to disband The Uncertain Sea. While the band morphed and changed throughout the course of its existence, the constants were Kristin's soulful voice and my emotive and dynamic songwriting. Part Midwest-emo, part post-hardcore, and part dance-punk, we survived 25 songs, nearly a dozen lineups, and 2 gender transitions to put out a 5 song single-sided 12" record in 2018.
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A photograph of The Uncertain Sea with streams of typewriter ribbon blowing towards the camera.

The Uncertain Sea was founded on a shared love of the music of Neil Young and Steve Albini. We were a math-rock/southern rock band that existed from 2010-2012. Among our exploits, we traveled to SXSW in 2011 and played a showcase with The Gary, Post Honeymoon, and Whales. The band released a 5 song cd-ep and a few compilation tracks. A slightly different version played its final show in November 2012.
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While working on finding a new singer and bassist after the departure of Mike Taylor, the members of TUS also created "Crazier Horse: Colorado's definitive Neil Young and Crazy Horse B-Side tribute act".

A photograph of Josie and Kristin performing in SpokeShaver

Spokeshaver was a 4 piece progressive punk/emo band formed in 2008 after the dissolution of Out on Bail. I answered a craigslist ad looking for musicians interested in playing songs in the style of Jets to Brazil and The Broadways. Somehow, 4 years later we were writing 20 minute suites of music influenced equally by the British prog rock of Yes and Genesis. The band released a 6 song CD-EP in 2010 and sadly broke up before we could finish our second album, a concept record about the creative cycle and the difficulty of being in a band in the modern era.
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A photo of the band Out On Bail sitting on a wooden fence in a field of grass.

I consider Out on Bail to be the place I learned how to create art with other musicians. The first "real" band I was in while living in Colorado, we started in 2003 as I was finishing up school and starting my adult life. Through the 4 year existence of the band, we went on a half dozen tours, released a full length and an ep, and played more than 100 shows with the likes of The Heartless Bastards, The Soledad Brothers, Lucero, Drag the River, as well as restarted a new generation of the Denver alt-country community along with Los Dos, Red Cloud West, Ghost Buffalo, and Bad Luck City.
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