The mountain-set college town of Boulder, CO, has since the late '60s had a notoriously hippie-ish, laid-back vibe. In the '70s, mellow soft rockers Firefall were the city's main musical export, and more recently bands like Leftover Salmon, the Samples, the String Cheese Incident, and Big Head Todd & the Monsters have made Boulder jam band central. (To be fair, the Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra is also a Boulder native, so it's not all hacky sack, noodle dancing, and patchouli.) This makes the heavy power trio rock of Boulder's Rose Hill Drive all the more surprising: this young trio has much more in common with contemporary stoner rock like Queens of the Stone Age and vintage 1970s boogie acts like Mountain and Deep Purple. Rose Hill Drive were formed in Boulder in 2003 by singer and bassist Jacob Sproul, his guitarist brother Daniel Sproul, and their friend from high school, Nathan Barnes. Following a pair of live EPs that showcased the trio's impressive on-stage skills and a heavy touring schedule that found the group playing the festival circuit and opening for the Who on parts of their Endless Wire tour, Rose Hill Drive signed with Sony BMG metal imprint Megaforce Records to release a self-titled debut album in the summer of 2006. ~ Stewart Mason