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

• Green's Day

  published August 29, 1996

  There's a good reason why Al Green, perhaps the greatest male soul singer still among the living, appears on so many late-night television shows... More >>

• Escapist From L.A.

  published August 29, 1996

  At the midpoint of Escape From L.A., a futuristic action yarn from director John Carpenter, protagonist Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) walks along... More >>

• Rhymes Pays

  published August 22, 1996

  "My vibe switch is on right now," says Busta Rhymes, one of the most vital personalities to break out of the hip-hop scene in eons. "So I can't... More >>

• Simply the Quest

  published August 22, 1996

  As an act becomes more successful, its relationship to music critics mutates in tangible ways. Take the frequency with which artists do interviews... More >>

• Feedback

  published August 22, 1996

  These notes are for you. Tippy, from the cranium of Denver's Neil Slade, reminded me of Seventies-vintage Todd Rundgren in its... More >>

• Playlist

  published August 22, 1996

  Nas It Was Written (Columbia) The reported death of gangsta rap has been greatly exaggerated: It Was Written entered the... More >>

• Feedback

  published August 15, 1996

  In May, I derided Denver's electronic media and the folks at our fair city's daily newspapers for their hysterical coverage of an altercation... More >>

• Free Willie

  published August 15, 1996

  Willie Nelson is right where you'd expect to find him: on a tour bus, heading from one show to the next. He's 63 years old and wears every one of... More >>

• Playlist

  published August 15, 1996

  The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Chaos and Disorder (Warner Bros.) Spite is often overlooked as a spur to creativity, but... More >>

• Dead, Schmed

  published August 8, 1996

  Doug Gertner became a convert to the secular religion that bloomed around the Grateful Dead when he first saw the band in concert during the early... More >>

• Feedback

  published August 8, 1996

  In September 1994, I scribbled an article for this publication entitled "Come Together--Again"; it was intended to lampoon then-current supergroup... More >>

• Something's Phishy

  published August 8, 1996

  I park my car along the side of a narrow road at 7:10 Sunday evening, August 4, and begin running up the incline toward Red Rocks, where the... More >>

• Playlist

  published August 1, 1996

  Neil Young and Crazy Horse Broken Arrow (Reprise) In a review of 1977's That Obscure Object of Desire, the last film made by... More >>

• Honesty Is Golden

  published August 1, 1996

  Golden Smog began its life as what singer-guitarist Dan Murphy describes as "the cover band from hell. We'd learn, like, twenty or thirty covers... More >>

• Feedback

  published August 1, 1996

  Singer/guitarist Michael Daboll loves garage music. He loves to play it in his band, Element 79, and he loves to listen to albums by other artists... More >>

• Surf's Up

  published August 1, 1996

  The exhaustive liner notes that accompany Cowabunga! The Surf Box, a four-CD set recently issued on the Rhino imprint, are certainly respectful of... More >>

• Jailhouse Rocker

  published July 25, 1996

  Most musicians aren't morning people--but if police are right, Brian Nalty is the exception to this rule. On July 9, the onetime guitarist... More >>

• Playlist

  published July 25, 1996

  Metallica Load (Elektra) Thus far, this album has been reviewed more often on the basis of the bandmembers' new grunge-junkie... More >>

• Feedback

  published July 25, 1996

  Most local, independent record labels are labors of love--small outfits such as Arnie Swenson's Prolific company (lauded in this space last issue)... More >>

• I Talked With a Zombie

  published July 25, 1996

  Of course Rob Zombie's surly; you'd expect him to be, wouldn't you? But on this mid-July evening, he's somewhat less glum than usual, and for a... More >>

• Playlist

  published July 18, 1996

  Patti Smith Gone Again (Arista) For an artist with such a stratospheric reputation, Smith's body of work is, in a word,... More >>

• DJ Keoki, Superstar

  published July 18, 1996

  It's fifteen minutes shy of nine o'clock in the morning, but the rented Capitol Hill house of Superstar DJ Keoki, the newest prince of the Denver... More >>

• Feedback

  published July 18, 1996

  As we all know, Ron Miles is finally receiving national attention thanks to his recently consummated album pact with Grammavision and the... More >>

• A New Way to Fret

  published July 18, 1996

  On a weeknight evening at the Blue Note Cafe, perhaps a dozen people chatter over pastries and coffee. The majority of them appear oblivious to... More >>

• Family Ties

  published July 11, 1996

  It's early June, and less than 48 hours earlier, an event took place that immediately changed the manner in which the current Finn Brothers tour... More >>