Email Author Michael Roberts

Awards

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

  "The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down"

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1996 Stories by Michael Roberts

• The Prize Patrol

  published December 26, 1996

  What follows is a list of the best albums of 1996. Sort of. Each December this decade, I've sat down to compile a roster of the finest... More >>

• To Buy or Not to Buy

  published December 19, 1996

  Various Artists Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (Warner Bros.) According to the tabloid press, Evita is... More >>

• Feedback

  published December 19, 1996

  It's time for Feedback's year-end clearance. All items must go. The closings of (america) and the Tivoli Brewery Restaurant--both located... More >>

• The Gravity of the Situation

  published December 12, 1996

  "I've always hated the radio," announces Ed Ruscha, leader of the Maids of Gravity, in a sunny, what-me-worry? voice. "Except for, like--well, I... More >>

• Feedback

  published December 12, 1996

  Those local reviews just keep coming. Available on Denver's Fahrenheit Records is Mirror Image, from Images, a four-piece that operates in... More >>

• Christmas Seasoning

  published December 12, 1996

  When it came time to categorize the more than thirty holiday releases I've received this year for our annual seasonal-CD roundup, I made an odd... More >>

• Playlist

  published December 5, 1996

  Tricky Pre-Millennium Tension (Island) In a music scene dominated by the safe, the threadbare and the predictable, Tricky... More >>

• Feedback

  published December 5, 1996

  When an independent radio station is swallowed up by a corporate behemoth, things generally change for the worse. But not always. A case in... More >>

• Social Diseases

  published December 5, 1996

  Social Distortion's Mike Ness is pacing around an East Coast hotel room, his voice loud, his words tumbling out so quickly that he can't quite... More >>

• Playlist

  published November 28, 1996

  Joshua Redman Freedom in the Groove (Warner Bros.) Somehow it doesn't seem fair that previous generations of jazz buffs got an... More >>

• Todd Man Out

  published November 28, 1996

  By most standards, the music industry has treated Todd Rundgren well. His recordings have been put out by major labels since the late Sixties, and... More >>

• Feedback

  published November 28, 1996

  Listeners to KS-104 (aka KQKS-FM/104.3) can be forgiven for wondering if the station has been abandoned. Earlier this year, the entire KS-104 air... More >>

• Feedback

  published November 21, 1996

  As alluded to in Backbeat's lead article ("Our Gangstas," page 71), gangsta-rap artists who sell albums in the millions have been unable to cash... More >>

• Playlist

  published November 21, 1996

  Wesley Willis Feel the Power (American) If you're wondering where opportunity ends and exploitation begins, the answer... More >>

• Our Gangstas

  published November 21, 1996

  Gangsta rap isn't dying easily. The lion's share of critics have long since tired of its formulas, most major record companies (cowed by the... More >>

• Playlist

  published November 14, 1996

  The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Now I Got Worry (Matador) R.L. Burnside A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Matador) ... More >>

• Feedback

  published November 14, 1996

  Pete Townshend, who recently came through town as part of the Who's latest reunion tour, is rock's most prominent sufferer of ear problems; years... More >>

• Blind Faith Redux

  published November 14, 1996

  Is it possible for a group to be a supergroup if very few people have heard of either the alleged supergroup or any of the other groups whose... More >>

• Playlist

  published November 7, 1996

  John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey Dance Hall at Louse Point (Island) This disc has garnered the worst reviews of Ms. Harvey's... More >>

• Yesterday and Today

  published November 7, 1996

  Then: I first saw the Who in 1979, when I was in high school. Drummer Keith Moon had died the year before--in an unintended satire of the... More >>

• World of the Living Dead

  published November 7, 1996

  Denver's Jonathan Canady is a very disturbed young man. The recordings he makes under various handles (Dead World and Deathpile among them) are... More >>

• Feedback

  published November 7, 1996

  For several years, John Chamie has been one of the leading personages in the Denver-Boulder dance-music universe. But lately he's broadened his... More >>

• Heads Down

  published October 31, 1996

  It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Chances for the resurrection of Talking Heads, a justly revered band that has been dormant since... More >>

• Feedback

  published October 31, 1996

  In talking about Rock Island, the LoDo club he owns, David Clamage offers kudos to a such a long list of past and present employees and associates... More >>

• Lab Rats

  published October 24, 1996

  "When people are told about Stereolab," says the band's lead singer, French-born Laetitia Sadier, "I've heard that they often imagine a dance act.... More >>