Email Author Jason Heller

2003 Stories by Jason Heller

• Hit Pick

  published September 11, 2003

  Contrary to popular belief, rock and roll is not a form of music. It's not an attitude, either, or a lifestyle, or a sexual position, or even a... More >>

• Simple Folk

  published September 4, 2003

  It happens once every couple of years. You wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. Your memory's stuck in shuffle mode, so... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published September 4, 2003

  Ovulations? Clowns with knives? Suns that don't want to be photographed? With subjects like these, you might figure that why? isn't your... More >>

• Fade to Green

  published August 28, 2003

  The collective lyrical output of rock and roll reads like a shopping list of things that are hard to do. Breaking up. Making up. And, inevitably,... More >>

• Pedal Steel Transmission

  published August 28, 2003

  Drummer Don Ogilvie has taken a pretty bumpy path through the music scenes of Denver and Chicago over the past twenty years. He started out in... More >>

• Endgame

  published August 21, 2003

  There was a time not too long ago, before the plague of Good Charlotte and Sum 41, when it was still viable -- even respectable -- to be an... More >>

• Hit Pick

  published August 21, 2003

  Denver lost a mighty source of rock power the day the Volts disbanded. From 1991 to 2002, the quartet -- led by the circuit-blowing vocalist J.R.... More >>

• Man Posse

  published August 14, 2003

  Ask anyone from the '90s music scene about Diggie Diamond, and you'll get quite a reaction: shock, fear, awe, reverence, gagging noises. You might... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published August 14, 2003

  What happens when punks get sick of playing punk? Historically, all kinds of great things, from Public Image Limited to Slint to the Mercury... More >>

• Camp Rock

  published August 7, 2003

  The words "summer camp" dredge up a ton of memories: campfires, rashes, leaky canoes, homesickness. But at Kake Studios, tucked away behind the... More >>

• Madlib

  published August 7, 2003

  As far as credentials go, Madlib's got it made. Baptized Otis Jackson Jr., he has an immaculate pedigree: His dad, Otis Sr., was a soul semi-star... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published August 7, 2003

  When you click on the word "Biography" on the Giddy Motors Web site, you're taken to a page that says simply "There are three of us." But... More >>

• Kid Alienated

  published July 31, 2003

  Late last summer, a pale, willowy young man walked into the vinyl section of a Denver-area record store. He seemed nervous. His glossy black hair... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published July 31, 2003

  Who would have thought that in the early 21st century there'd be a glut of garage-punk bands fronted by Tina Turner-esque soul divas? The Detroit... More >>

• Punk of Ages

  published July 24, 2003

  My strength is in writing pop songs -- punk-rock pop songs." Dave Smalley, singer/guitarist of the Southern California-based quartet Down by... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published July 24, 2003

  With Terroir Blues, his second solo full-length, Jay Farrar has inched 23 tracks closer to his final destination: an image of... More >>

• Soul Assassins

  published July 17, 2003

  Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!" So declared the manifesto of the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1974,... More >>

• Critic's Choice

  published July 17, 2003

  "So, which one of you guys is Rilo?" Yup, Rilo Kiley, appearing Thursday, July 17, at the Climax Lounge, with M Ward and the Golden... More >>

• The Postal Service

  published July 10, 2003

  It takes sound and meaning to make a word. Remove either one and you're left with a morphological shell; combine them in just the right way... More >>

• Hit Pick

  published July 10, 2003

  According to the medical journals, the symptoms of Swayback disease include weakened arteries, internal bleeding and the laying of abnormally... More >>

• Feel the Noise

  published July 3, 2003

  The racket is nauseating. Vibrations slither up your tailbone and into your skeleton, rattling ribs and clacking skull against jaw. The heat bakes... More >>

• Dead Meadow

  published July 3, 2003

  Trilobites. Plesiosaurs. The double-record, gatefold, vinyl LP. One would assume they were all extinct, rendered obsolete, yanked from the gene... More >>

• Hit Pick

  published July 3, 2003

  Mixing rock and funk nowadays is usually about as appetizing as pouring shellac on your pancakes. Luckily for Denver, the Compulsions --... More >>

• Voices Carry

  published June 26, 2003

  Fly Me to the Moon," by Frank Sinatra. "Crying," by Roy Orbison. "Roxanne," by the Police. The hits keep rolling out of the jukebox and bouncing... More >>

• Hit Pick

  published June 26, 2003

  Punk rock sure has come a long way since the days of three chords, battered amps and shredded knuckles. Just don't tell The Hacks. This... More >>