“I’m generally a pretty optimistic person,” understates jazz and classical pianist Darrell Grant. “I expected good things from life and have, for the most part, gotten them.” The reasons behind Grant’s progress thus far have everything to do with his work ethic and personality: In many ways, he’s a jazzy…
If you’ve never seen San Diego’s Crash Worship perform and you enjoy shock value, don’t spoil it for yourself by reading this article. Just put down the paper and plan on being at the Aztlan this Friday night. As for the rest of you, these are the primary ingredients of…
“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, too. We take joy in what we do, and there’s stuff that’s just crazy and funny. But we’re not a joke.” If Spencer…
Claw Hammer Thank the Holder Uppers (Interscope) Claw Hammer hits the majors with its sound unprettified, thank goodness. “Superthings” tips the bandmates’ hands: sloppy drumming (from Bob Lee), raucous guitar calisthenics (executed by Jon Wahl and Christopher Bagarozzi) and screamed vocals that suggest Robert Plant if someone really were squeezing…
“People can interpret labels in a specific sort of way,” says Andrew Gray, guitarist for England’s Wolfgang Press. “Like `gloom and doom’–they might think of raincoats, you know, or very serious people. Or with `dance,’ they think of rave music. But there’s more depth to what we do.” True, the…
“You can have every single thing against you in the entire world, but never give up. Don’t ever compromise,” advises jazz vocalist and pianist Denise Mangiardi. Speaking as much to herself as to her listener, she adds, “I have this continuing argument with people who say that I should be…
Lou Rawls, Friday, April 21, at the Odgen Theater, has been singing for over thirty years, and during that time he’s mastered an impressive variety of styles: gospel, R&B, Philly soul, smooth-talking pre-rap, blues, jazz and crossover pop. He got his start at Chicago’s Dunbar High School, where he polished…
According to Jon Wurster, drummer for North Carolina’s Superchunk, “We get mentioned whenever the big magazines do an article about vinyl or indie labels–that kind of thing. But they aren’t usually that interested in the band.” Strange, but true. In many ways, Superchunk is among the more influential musical collectives…
Electric Company A Pert Cyclic Omen (Onion/American) Thus far, the memorable work Brad Laner has produced under the auspices of his band, Medicine, has evaded the embrace of the mainstream: A cut on The Crow soundtrack does not a breakthrough make. But rather than up the pop quotient of his…
godheadSilo, with the Melvins, Wednesday, April 12, at the Fox Theatre, is the name chosen by two guys who don’t care much for musical frills like harmony and melody: They just wanna rock! Bassist Mike and drummer Dan–a duo so dynamic they don’t need a guitarist–kick out the sort of…
“I feel better the longer I’m alive,” says twelve-string guitar sorcerer Leo Kottke. “I think I was at my most unconscious in my late teens, early twenties. I was completely off. As a result, I didn’t think I felt bad–because I didn’t feel anything. And after that, when I started…
Norm Roberts, the only founding member still part of the Denver-based industrial band Ein Volk, has an admission to make. “People have basically told us we sucked,” he says. Indeed, Ein Volk–German for “one people”–has come in for more than its share of knocks, in large part because of its…
Imagine the most frustrating of all possible lives in the music business. Imagine making one, two, three brilliant albums that are all but ignored by the general public. Imagine being signed and then forgotten by record company after record company. Imagine casting about for new methods, new ideas, only to…
In the number “Smoke Rings,” conceptualist Laurie Anderson intones, “Well, I had a dream, and in it I went to a little town/And all the girls in town were named Betty.” By contrast, none of the members of the oddball trio BETTY sport this moniker. The New York-based act consists…
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 about it. “It’s so depressing to come back here at this time of the year,” the 27-year-old says from her comfortable Chicago home. “It’s so gray,…
“When most people come to see us play live for the first time, they expect us to be some strange, experimental band,” explains Robert Pollard, frontman for America’s latest garage-rock saviors, Guided by Voices. “But we’re a fucking power-pop band. When we play live, we really kick it out and…
“Thank God that metal is going back underground,” says Daniel Conca, vocalist for Colorado Springs’ Jag Panzer. “Back in the days of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, it was always underground, and it was great. And then MTV came along and destroyed it. But now that Headbanger’s Ball has been…
There are plenty of ways to kill a good group, and the members of Denver’s Freddi-Henchi Band have tried most of them. Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, death–the act’s history reads like a rhythm-and-blues version of Valley of the Dolls. So it’s something just short of a miracle that a viable…
Kevin Salem, with Carolyn’s Mother, Tuesday, April 4, at Herman’s Hideaway, is the sort of performer who gets overlooked by everyone other than reviewers–and they overlook him most of the time, too. That’s a pity, because Salem (onetime member of Boston’s late, occasionally lamented Dumptruck and sideman for, among others,…
Two hours before the first of three punk bands is scheduled to hit the stage for a mid-February concert at Denver’s Mammoth Events Center, the only people inside are musicians, crew members, promoter Doug Kauffman and a teenager named John Ferrucci whom Kaufmann has grown accustomed to seeing. “That little…
“I don’t really feel like ,” observes Chuck Cleaver, singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for Cincinnati, Ohio’s Ass Ponys. “With my physique, rock stardom doesn’t really come into the picture–unless maybe the Atlanta Rhythm Section look is getting big again.” Indeed, Cleaver hardly possesses the alterna-hunk good looks of, say,…
P.J. Harvey To Bring You My Love (Island) Polly Jean is an uncompromising cuss for the most part, but she’s not obstinate enough to commit career suicide just yet. So when 1993’s Rid of Me, produced for maximum skronk value by Steve Albini, turned off everyone within earshot other than…
