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Music and art on tap tonight

Wasteland Hop

If you like your fusion music with beer and art, a Fort Collins, Colorado, band has got you hooked up Wednesday night. Wasteland Hop, which despite the name is not a hip-hop band. However, they do have some spoken-word in their songs and do have an MC.

Fiddler Liz Baylor says trying to figure out what to call the music they make has been a “major hitch” since the band members started playing together six years ago.

“Over the years we’ve had different people who try to help market or manage us and everyone says, ‘You guys need have a clear genre.’ And then we say, ‘OK, what is it?’ And nobody knows," Baylor said. "We kind of say it sort of folk-rock with a spoken word poet-rap. I don’t know.”

People often wonder if they’re a hip-hop group because “hop” is in their name, but Baylor says that comes from old-time sock-hops.

Baylor says this is the band’s 13th visit to the state.

“We’ve stayed very close friends with Alaska. Our MC, Nicky, is actually born and raised in Anchorage, and so, he got his MFA in poetry at CSU in Fort Collins and that’s how a lot of the band members met," Baylor said. "But it (Alaska) just became a very natural place for us to come.”

Baylor says Wasteland Hop is partnering with Kaitlin Vadla of Cook Inlet Keeper to create art to the music.

“She is going to be painting with us, doing live art during the show. And we have another painter who travels with us. He’s from San Diego, California," she said. "So we’re just going to have a nice, fun event.”

Wasteland Hop will play starting at 9 p.m. tonight at 4 Royale Parkers on the Spur Highway on the edge of Soldotna.

The band has several songs and videos online at YouTube. While they’re in Alaska, Butler says they’re also putting the finishing touches on their fourth studio album.

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