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12 Cents for Marvin - 12 cents for Marvin |
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Written by C.W. Casey
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Wednesday, 26 July 2006 |
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Page 1 of 2 
Somewhere in the bowels of the Gothic Theatre in Denver, 12 Cents for Marvin is getting ready to open for The English Beat.
The Fort Collins-based ska/reggae band counts the Beat as one of its biggest influences.
“We opened for them last year when they came through, which was an incredible time,” lead vocalist Tom Werge says.
On Thursday, 12 Cents for Marvin will play in Fort Collins, where most of the band’s eight members live, at Civic Center Park.
The band is a decade from its roots in Ingersoll Hall at Colorado State University. Werge came from the Washington, D.C., area, where he played in a high school ska band.
 “I decided to go to Colorado to go to school, and the first thing I wanted to do was form a band, and I happened to live in a dorm with a bunch of musicians,” Werge says. “We searched out players and threw together a ragtag bunch.”
12 Cents has ranged from five members to nine. The original lineup included a folk guitarist and a heavy metal drummer.
“We mixed it all up and we’ve moved into focusing pretty much exclusively on ska and reggae the last four or five years,” Werge says.
The band plays mainly on the Front Range and has cultivated a strong following in Leadville.
The band’s penchant for high-spirited fun comes through in its live shows.
The band has been voted best band several times and earned first place in Colorado Scene Magazine’s Battle of the Bands.
“Our focus has always been live entertainment, just high energy at our shows,” Werge says. “Lots of energy. That’s why we do it, and we love it.”
12 Cents — a name they adopted early on after being panhandled for 12 cents each by a guy named Marvin on Denver’s 16th Street Mall — has recorded several CDs, including this year’s “Change.”
“We’re still pushing it hard. We’re psyched about it,” Werge says. “It’s a really good album, produced by our guitarist Nik Levinsky. It’s the first album we did completely on our own, and it came out really amazing.”
Last year the band picked up Fort Collins saxophone player Dave Clapsaddle.
Fort Collins remains one of the band’s favorite places to play.
“We pull strong in Fort Collins,” Werge says. “We’ve got so much support, it’s awesome to play up there. I’m surprised we don’t play Fort Collins more.”
 Listen to a Social Suicide by 12 Cents for Marvin here
- Social Suicide
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