Beck! Odelay (DGC) Based on the two shows I’ve seen him perform, Beck Hansen probably isn’t the worst performer in the history of popular music, but he’s certainly in the top ten. Damn it if the little squirt hasn’t made a pretty decent album, though. His major-label debut, Mellow Gold,…

“It’s weird where songs come from,” muses Joe Reinke, lead vocalist and guitarist for San Francisco’s Meices, during a mid-June interview. “They just come out of the air or out of experiences and things like that. You have to live to be able to write, I think. If you sat…

In a world of pierced navels and rainbow-coiffed power forwards, no-nonsense performers like Stephen Lee tend to get shunted into the background. But the twenty-something singer-songwriter behind the solid new CD No Turnin’ Back (on Denver’s GMR Entertainment label) somehow managed to avoid that fate. “I just remember being asked…

The Cranberries To the Faithful Departed (Island) There’s a fine line between a distinctive voice and an annoying voice, and Dolores O’Riordan is on the wrong side of that line. Following in the footsteps of prime-time Stevie Nicks, whose singing recalls the bleating of a herd of sheep in an…

If the members of Denver’s Eleventh Hour appear to be suffering from an identity crisis, you can hardly blame them. According to Howard Bridges II, drummer for the youthful combo–which also includes lead vocalist/guitarist Shane Ewegen, bassist/ vocalist Brian Long and self-proclaimed djembe “intern” Nathan Frank–the people who attend the…

Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire (Epic) Why are so many left-wingers humorless? Sure, there are terrible things happening on this little globe of ours–war, torture, rape, racism, discrimination, deforestation–and anyone willing to batter against such obstacles deserves props. But I humbly submit that the harangue is seldom the best…

With washed-up bands from the Seventies reuniting faster than you can say “Fiddler’s Green,” perhaps it’s only fitting that Modern English, a seemingly washed-up band from the Eighties, should also be in search of a nostalgia wave to ride. But unlike many of his classic-rock predecessors, Robbie Grey, the only…

Rick Martinez, drummer for Denver’s Otter Popps, is definitely dedicated to his band. After all, one of the main reasons he’s upset that his 23-year-old brother, Otter Popps guitarist/vocalist Mike Martinez, is stuck in a Jefferson County work-release program until May 23 is because the combo was forced to cancel…

Hootie & the Blowfish Fairweather Johnson (Atlantic) Listening to this album put me in mind of a line from an episode of the Seventies sitcom Sanford and Son. In it, Fred, played by Redd Foxx, describes a particularly bland meal. “After dinner,” he adds, “I belched and it tasted like…

Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party (Motel) If you haven’t seen a film by director Jess Franco, you’re not alone; he’s so obscure that he doesn’t rate a mention in either of the average cineast’s two favorite reference books, Ephraim Katz’s The Film Encyclopedia or Leslie…

“In the Boulder-Denver area, there are so many bands that play fifteen-minute jams,” says Paul Massey, vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Boulder’s Butlers & Thieves. “But we just want to play three-minute pop songs.” Indeed, those of you in search of a Deadhead vibe and tie-dyed clothing should check out…

“We’re kind of like a comic book come to life,” says Mark D., drummer for Denver’s Fox Force 5. “Seriously, our persona is a cross between a comic book and, like, a bad, circa 1973, One Day at a Time sitcom joined together as one.” The stage names favored by…

Green Day Insomniac (Reprise) In the press biography sent to reviewers with this CD, flack Ben Weasel (a nom de plume, perhaps?) claims that Insomniac “ISN’T a progression, and that’s exactly WHY it’s so fucking good. I mean, Christ, if the Ramones coulda just put out a couple more Leave…

The ‘Vengers, Boulder’s premier ska group, don’t do much soul searching when it comes to their music. “I think the bottom line is, it’s not an attitude thing,” says bassist/vocalist Chris “Limey” Welsh. “You get a lot of musicians who stand there and say, `Right, we’re technically brilliant. Look at…

X founder John Doe has found a suitably memorable place from which to talk about KISSINGSOHARD, his first solo album since 1990’s Meet John Doe: An eatery in Kentucky, just north of the Tennessee border, called the G&E Drive-In Rest. “They didn’t even have room to spell out `restaurant,'” Doe…

If you’ve always found Morrissey a might too perky and Rush Limbaugh a trifle unsure of himself, U.K.-bred rocker Edwyn Collins could be the man for you. With a dossier of critically respected work dating back to the 1980s, a hit single (“A Girl Like You”) now earning plenty of…

You might expect a female performer with a hit single entitled “I Kissed a Girl” to be an ardent advocate of the lesbian lifestyle. But singer/songwriter Jill Sobule, who co-wrote the tune with collaborator Robin Eaton, hasn’t used the song’s success (it’s spent nearly three months on the Billboard Hot…

With KTCL, the Peak and what’s left of KBCO all attempting to bend the ears of listeners who went to college during the early Eighties (and apparently lost their taste for musical adventure immediately thereafter), Denver’s airwaves hang heavy with the work of artists who came to prominence when Ronald…

Johnny Rzeznik, vocalist/guitarist for the Goo Goo Dolls, describes his reaction to A Boy Named Goo, his group’s latest excursion into power pop, with characteristic candor. “I like it more than I thought I would,” he says. “I always hate everything I do. After a while, I listen to it…

Bill Nelson Practically Wired, or How I Became… Guitarboy! (Gyroscope) Hard to know exactly how Nelson avoided becoming the kind of six-string hero who appears on the cover of Guitar Player two or three times a year. Maybe it’s because his best-known band, Be-Bop Deluxe, was too resolutely English for…

Rolling Stone recently called vocalist John Gorka “the preeminent male singer-songwriter of the new folk movement.” It’s a description that would thrill most artists, but not Gorka. “That’s not my thing,” he says simply. “It’s kind of silly.” In fact, he adds, he’s not sure that the music he makes…

According to Kit Peltzel, drummer for Denver’s Dive, the friendships he shares with his bandmates are integral to the group’s existence. “It’s amazing, the power that exists within this band among all of us,” he explains. Vocalist/guitarist Myshel Prasad promptly adds: “It’s a love affair,” her tongue not nearly as…