Prior to the early Seventies, the struggle for power between record companies and artists wasn’t much of a contest. Because imprints held the winning hands in virtually every contractual dispute, performers frequently became the equivalent of indentured servants. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t jump ship. But while…
There are certain things Dave Pirner, the singer, songwriter and cover boy for Soul Asylum, would prefer not to discuss, especially at such an ungodly hour as one o’clock in the afternoon. So please, no questions about what it’s like being seen by the tabloid press as Mr. Winona Ryder…
The Christines, with Johnny Clueless, Thursday, October 5, at 13th Avenue Bar & Grill, won the honor of opening for Oasis at the Bluebird Theater in February–and now they’ve been chosen to warm the stage for the Minneapolis version of the Partridge Family. Why has this talented Denver foursome gotten…
Heather Nova, Friday, October 6, with Ben Folds Five, at the Mercury Cafe, has one of those voices that makes you forget everything else around you. On her current Columbia/Work CD, Oyster, Nova’s singing, which recalls both the belting of the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan and the wailing of Sinead O’Connor,…
Lead singers are often noted for their “stage presence”–but Dave Desch of Denver’s Dead City Radio takes the concept to extremes. On slower DCR songs, Desch looks and sounds similar to Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk; his slightly shrill voice can seem soft and melodic without losing its intensity. But this…
So your small-time rock-and-roll band has signed a big-money deal with a large record label. Does that mean you have to alter your personal hygiene habits? Not if you’re Seaweed guitarist Wade Neal. “My goal for today is to put on clean socks,” he reports from Austin, Texas, a stop…
Some musicians become successful despite themselves. Take the members of the Presidents of the United States of America, for example. The trio’s self-titled debut for Columbia Records includes the announcement “We’re not going to make it!” while another lyric admits, “There are a million better bands/With a million better songs.”…
One thing you cannot call the onstage version of Polly Jean Harvey is shy. Easily one of the most inspiring musical artists to emerge in the Nineties, Harvey in performance is a five-foot, four-inch explosion on two legs, alternately crooning, belting or shrieking words suffused with emotions–Love, Hate, Jealousy, Obsession–that…
Brian Wilson I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times (MCA) In his liner notes, producer Don Was writes, “When we started to mess around in the studio, it became clear that was capable of making a record every bit as complex and beautiful as Pet Sounds whenever he felt like…
Keith Elam has a healthy sense of self-esteem. A man confident enough about his skills with a microphone to call himself GURU (an acronym for “Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal”), he talks some mighty large talk–but he has the chops to back it up. “People have always known me as a…
’57 Lesbian, with the Rok Tots, Friday, September 29, at the Lion’s Lair, has gone through more changes than Dr. Renee Richards, but one thing’s remained constant: Matt Bischoff. A veteran of the Frantics and the late, lamented Fluid, Bischoff initially saw ’57 Lesbian as a side project and a…
Sweet Water, Saturday, September 30, at the Bluebird Theater, has one of those biographies you’ve read a million damn times over the past several years: It’s a quartet whose members were raised in Seattle, where they hung out with the guys in Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone, listened to a…
The members of Boulder’s Love Lies are performers first and foremost. But they’re also businessmen. As guitarist Duane Caraballo notes, “We’re one of the few bands that carries a briefcase and a guitar case.” Indeed, Caraballo and his associates (singer Christian Dicharry, bassist Jeff Lipton and drummer Donovan Stuart) know…
Guitarist/vocalist/composer Luther Allison sees a parallel between himself and the fictitious Jake and Elwood Blues. “I guess I’m like the Blues Brothers said,” he suggests. “I’m on a mission–a mission from God–to make things work. I am very proud to know that the world is supposed to belong to me…
Los Straitjackets The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Unbelievable Sound of Los Straitjackets (Upstart) The Aqua Velvets Surfmania (Mesa) Friends of Dean Martinez The Shadow of Your Smile (Sub Pop) If Dick Dale can return from terminal obscurity (thank you, Quentin Tarantino), then why not a comeback for instrumental rock in…
Thanks to a current tour and a new CD (New Dark Ages) on a new label (Boulder’s W.A.R.? imprint), the Radiators have been busier than ever–so busy, in fact, that the government has taken notice. “The IRS is on my back about my ’94 taxes, which I still haven’t filed,”…
Over the years, critical reverence for the Velvet Underground (celebrated in the new five-CD boxed set Peel Slowly and See, to be released by Polydor September 26) has become a bit of a joke among rock-scene observers. Sometimes it seems that a fondness for the group is a prerequisite for…
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…
16 Horsepower, Friday and Saturday, September 22 and 23, at the Bluebird Theater, is in town to celebrate the release of an EP (issued by Ricochet Records) that is meant to introduce the band to a larger public prior to its full-length debut on a major label, A&M. But for…
Low, with Soul Coughing, Friday, September 27, at the Ogden Theatre, likes to take things slow. Really slow. Imagine the Cowboy Junkies performing from the depths of the LaBrea tar pits and you’ll get a rough idea of what this trio of minimalists from Duluth, Minnesota, is all about. Long…
Harmonica player Mark Bell is an aging baby-boomer who picked up his first harp in 1973, when he was seventeen. For Bell, it was an epiphany. “I played John Mayall’s `Room to Move’ by ear,” he says, “and I’ve been cursed with it ever since.” Bell’s way with a harmonica…
Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass, Sunday, September 17, at the Denver University athletic fields, is far from the only act to appear at the second annual Rocky Mountain Music Association Musicfest; the bill also includes Chaos Theory, the AUTONO, Jux County, Avatar, the Hillbilly Hellcats and twelve…
