Michael Franti, former leader of the brilliant hip-hop duo Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, still isn’t thrilled with all the ways of the world. But in his latest group, Spearhead, he’s found new ways to express his displeasure. “One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do with the political…
You’d anticipate that a guy born with a handle like Garrett Dutton III would wind up with a few affectations. What comes as a surprise, then, is not Dutton’s theatricality but his pose of choice. You see, young, white Garrett–aka G. Love, leader of the eccentric, entertaining three-piece G. Love…
“I don’t know what our sound is,” says Sebadoh singer/guitarist Lou Barlow. “We’ve always kind of consciously avoided having a sound.” And they’ve done a damned good job of it, too. Since Barlow and his fellow Sebs (bassist Jason Loewenstein and drummer Eric Gaffney, recently replaced by Bob Fay) started…
Little Axe The Wolf That House Built (OKeh/Epic) If you’re a purist, give this sucker wide berth, because it’s sure to piss you off. Yep, Little Axe uses the blues the way Enigma used Gregorian chants–as raw material for atmospheric samples. Which means, friends, that those raspy voices you hear…
Ruth McCardle, aka Lady Galore, considers herself to be healthy, not perverted. The lead singer of Belgium’s Lords of Acid writes off folks to the west of the Atlantic as being “too hung up about sex. Americans don’t teach children about sex. They forbid teenagers to have sex. It’s bollocks,…
As a devotee of from-the-gut tunesmiths, 25-year-old Pete Droge isn’t afraid to write songs in which he wears his heart on his flannel sleeve. But performing them before his musical idols is another story. For example, Droge found it “overwhelming” to appear at last year’s benefit for California’s Bridge School,…
Denver’s Lonnie Lynn hadn’t been planning to make his debut as a rapper. After all, Lynn’s game was basketball, not hip hop–and it had been nearly two decades since he’d shot hoops for a living. His son, Rashid, was the Lynn who specialized in rhyming: Operating under the name Common…
The stage antics that distinguish Denver’s Meanface–vocalist Dan Berger, guitarist Jeff Leddy and drummer Rick Layton–are far from G-rated. But shortly after the bandmembers added a bestiality video and autopsy slides to their onstage repertoire, they realized they’d gone too far. “We almost got in trouble over that,” Leddy explains…
Denver-based harmonica player Clay Kirkland is often described as having the fastest tongue in the West–a compliment based less on his style of speech than his atypical approach to blowing the harp. “Some harmonica players form an embouchure with their lips,” explains Kirkland, a Georgia native and son of a…
It’s a sorry time for those punk rockers who hoped their favorite music would remain forever underground. After all, Green Day’s major-label debut, Dookie, has just hit the quadruple-platinum mark, while Orange County’s Offspring have sold nearly as many discs on the way to becoming an impressive concert draw: For…
The final chapter of The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles collection (subtitled Volume 3: 1972-1975) is, in some ways, a cynical commercial ploy. After all, this 10-CD, 213-song opus will cost you big bucks at your friendly neighborhood music store, yet it contains only a bare handful of hits. Still, the…
Trenchmouth Trenchmouth vs. the Light of the Sun (East/West) Trenchmouth means to test just how far the millions of freshly minted “alternative” fans are willing to go: Are they drawn to new music simply because it’s fashionable, or are they genuinely committed to searching out innovative sounds? You and I…
The same folks who were appalled when John Lennon claimed that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ will no doubt be outraged by the five newest egomaniacs in town. They go by the name of Oasis, they hail from Manchester, England, and they’ve already been likened to the Fab…
“Everyone has been so wonderful to me,” says vocalist Lavelle White. “I love all of them–and I love you, too. I haven’t met you, but I love you dearly with all my heart.” Obviously, White is in a bubbly mood. And why not? In 1994, more than thirty years of…
Tonight, in untold thousands of bedrooms and garages across the country, musicians will gather to write and record songs. Many of these tunes will bite, of course, and many more will so closely resemble current or past hits that they’ll have little reason for being. And, lest we forget, a…
Slick Rick Behind Bars (Def Jam) Rick James Bustin’ Out: The Best of Rick James (Motown) With the Snoop Doggy Dogg trial looming and accused multiple murderer O.J. Simpson presently getting more press than he ever did for packing a pigskin, it’s no surprise that jailbirds everywhere have begun to…
In the media business, it’s considered suicidal to admit feeling panicked. But given the latest report from the Arbitron ratings service–a report that could portend the biggest power shift in Denver radio this decade–you can bet that more than a few local media pros are running scared. The reason? KXPK-FM/96.5…
Pianist, composer and New York-music-scene veteran Robin Connell has very little patience for musicians who whine. In fact, Connell–currently living in Greeley, where she’s working on a doctorate in musical composition at the University of Northern Colorado–has integrated a no-complaints philosophy into her outlook on both life and music. “A…
“I’ve had experiences,” recalls Corrina Peipon, singer and lyricist for the Denver postpunk band St. Andre, “where I’ve been at Kinko’s making fliers and people will look over my shoulder and say, `Oh, hey, are you a death-metal band?'” Misunderstandings like this are all too common for Peipon and her…
The people have spoken. At the conclusion of our recent list of pop history’s most overplayed classic-rock songs (“Stairway to Hell,” December 7), we invited you, our readers, to point out any tunes we might have overlooked. The response was voluminous. Either we struck a chord, or we did such…
As the sun sets and “apres-ski” begins at Acoustic Coffee and News, a snug hippie haunt in Nederland, clumps of snowboarders drag in and mix with other flannel-wearing Boulder refugees. It’s pretty typical as such scenes go–mellow people with stringy hair and baggy clothes serving coffee, the hiss of steam…
Various Artists The Colpix-Dimension Story (Rhino) On first listen, many of these forty cuts sound downright terrible–and they don’t improve with repeated plays. Nonetheless, this collection exerts a certain fascination, if only because it captures on plastic some of the more blatant attempts to put rock and roll on an…
