Mention the "Colorado Sound" to most music fans and they'll immediately think of a laid-back, acoustic groove with folky lyrics and a friendly feel; an offshoot of the '70s California sound developed by artists like Dan Fogelberg and Firefall.

But there was a time when Colorado — specifically Denver — was known for a different sound. In the late '70s and early '80s a number of Colorado bands jumped on the punk/new wave bandwagon, to varying degrees of success. The bands — the Violators, Young Weasels, Jonny III — may be unknown to most, but log onto Web magazine www6.50megs.com/newwave and you can rediscover that forgotten side of the Denver scene.

The site includes photo galleries and articles about bands and the punk community, including a nice piece on the importance of local record store Wax Trax to the then-growing scene. Best of all, it features rare audio clips, from the Corvairs, the Ravers, the Cells and Joey Vain and Scissors. There are great links to other sites detailing Colorado's counterculture connections, particularly Andrew Burnett's "Neal Cassady's Denver," which provides a thorough, relatively up-to-date guide to many places where the Beat Generation figure spent his time growing up in Denver.