Email Author Michael Roberts

Awards

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 11, 2008

  "The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down"

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1995 Stories by Michael Roberts

• CHECKING THE TRENDS

  published May 31, 1995

  Anyone hoping to explore the width and breadth of music in general during drive time is out of luck. Over the course of the twenty-plus hours of... More >>

• DIAL "M" FOR MEDIOCRE

  published May 31, 1995

  part 1 of 2 In 1978 (back when he mattered), Elvis Costello recorded "Radio, Radio," a virulent, wide-ranging assault on the title medium. The... More >>

• DIAL "M" FOR MEDIOCRE

  published May 31, 1995

  part 2 of 2PUBLIC RADIO The furor over the funding of public radio is probably fueled by ideology; the Newt Gingriches of Congress don't like... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published May 24, 1995

  Christie Front Drive Christie Front Drive (Caulfield) There are an oodle of pop-core bands slugging it out in the indie underworld... More >>

• HIP HOPE

  published May 24, 1995

  While rap and hip-hop remain inaudible on most radio stations, the genre continues to represent the music of choice for a hefty percentage of the... More >>

• FRANKLY SPEAKING

  published May 24, 1995

  There's nothing like an early death to prompt critical reconsideration--and the reputation of Frank Zappa, who succumbed to cancer in late 1993 at... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published May 17, 1995

  Tricky Maxinquaye (Island) Tricky is already carrying a heavy burden: The British press has labeled him the king of trip-hop, a... More >>

• GETTING THE LED OUT

  published May 17, 1995

  It was a scene to warm the heart of anyone fearful that the generation gap has widened into an unbridgeable chasm. There, on May 8, in the parking... More >>

• THE HORROR...THE HORROR...

  published May 17, 1995

  "I don't really know any musical terms," concedes Kembra Pfahler, the woman behind the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. "I identify with someone... More >>

• WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?

  published May 10, 1995

  At first, Tony Behrendt's room in the lower level of his parents' posh Boulder home seems like a typical college-student hovel--it's dominated by... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published May 10, 1995

  Bill Nelson Practically Wired, or How I Became... Guitarboy! (Gyroscope) Hard to know exactly how Nelson avoided becoming the kind of... More >>

• SOUL MEN

  published May 10, 1995

  M. Doughty, the mind behind the magnetic, brainy amalgamation called Soul Coughing, didn't attend Juilliard or a pricey guitar institute. No, he... More >>

• ALEXIS STAYS PUT

  published May 3, 1995

  It's been more than two years since little Alexis Storkson witnessed the murders of her half-sister, her mother and the man she knew as her... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published May 3, 1995

  Elastica Elastica (DGC) All right, I give up. Rather than whining about the fact that half the allegedly new music being released... More >>

• MIX AND MATCH

  published May 3, 1995

  After 1994's summer concert season (the most lucrative for promoters in recent memory), this year's announced dates seem modest by comparison.... More >>

• CRITIC'S CHOICE

  published May 3, 1995

  Type O Negative, with Queensryche, Tuesday, May 9, at McNichols Arena, looks like your average hard-rock band--its members sport hair as long as... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published April 26, 1995

  Jazz Lee Alston Jazz Lee Alston (Rhyme Cartel/American) The attention-getter here is "Love...Never That," based on a poem Alston wrote... More >>

• THE GANG'S ALL HERE

  published April 26, 1995

  When we last looked in on All ("All for One," December 8, 1993), the band--which descended from the Descendents, among the best, and... More >>

• SPENCER FOR HIRE

  published April 26, 1995

  "We are not a joke band," declares Jon Spencer, the namesake of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. "We do have a sense of humor, but we're serious,... More >>

• ROCKIN' TO RUSSIA

  published April 19, 1995

  Colorado Springs-based rocker Mark Junglen is still amazed that a Russian symphony orchestra will be performing his initial foray into classical... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published April 19, 1995

  Claw Hammer Thank the Holder Uppers (Interscope) Claw Hammer hits the majors with its sound unprettified, thank goodness.... More >>

• CHUNKY STYLE

  published April 19, 1995

  According to Jon Wurster, drummer for North Carolina's Superchunk, "We get mentioned whenever the big magazines do an article about vinyl or indie... More >>

• PLAYLIST

  published April 12, 1995

  Electric Company A Pert Cyclic Omen (Onion/American) Thus far, the memorable work Brad Laner has produced under the auspices of his... More >>

• FORGET THE RUMOUR

  published April 12, 1995

  Imagine the most frustrating of all possible lives in the music business. Imagine making one, two, three brilliant albums that are all but ignored... More >>

• PHAIR PLAYS

  published April 5, 1995

  Liz Phair, who married film editor Jim Staskauskas on March 11, has just returned from an extended honeymoon in the Bahamas--and she's not happy... More >>