Letters to Cleo, Sunday, October 22, at the Bluebird Theater, is built around the girlish, quirky, pissed-off voice of singer Kay Hanley–an instrument that contrasts nicely with Hanley’s pin-up looks and Gidget-style pigtails. As for the band’s music, it’s marked by the kind of full-bodied guitar hooks and clever riffs…
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…
By definition, Boulder recording artist Jayson Munly Thompson, aka Munly, is a singer-songwriter: He writes and sings his own material, he plays guitar, and–most important–he does it all by himself. Ask the twentysomething musician what he thinks of the tag, however, and you’re likely to get an earful. “It’s kind…
As composer Philip Glass holds a phone to his ear on one level of his spacious New York City home, a film crew from the Bravo cable network is setting up a shoot on the floor beneath him. “I don’t know exactly what they’re doing,” Glass admits, exuding an air…
Barry Black Barry Black (Alias) Even those of you familiar with the odd pop games played by the Archers of Loaf may be taken aback by this solo project put together by the band’s frontman, Eric Bachmann. For one thing, this singer doesn’t do much singing: Barry Black is dominated…
The members of Denver’s Brethren Fast are more than mere instrumentalists. They’re showmen, damn it, and they’d like everyone to know it. “To be a successful band, you’ve got to have more than just music,” states bassist Mik Messina. “If you’re going to see a band, it should be something…
In the biography Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, by Nick Tosches, Dean Martin comes across as far more than comedian Jerry Lewis’s straight man. Rather, Tosches sees him as an empty vessel who, when filled with the hopes, fantasies and aspirations of those who revered him,…
Tenor saxophonist David S. Ware is a survivor. Now 46, he’s spent more than two decades in the mine-laden battlefield that is the New York avant-garde-jazz scene. And he’s lived to tell the tale. “Life’s discouragements can get to you,” he admits. “And when that happens, you start destroying yourself…
The Ginger Baker Quartet, Saturday, October 14, at the National Western Events Center (call 337-1731 for more information), is a fine foursome: Membership consists of Ron Miles, Artie Moore, Jerry Hahn and the aforementioned Mr. Baker, whose recent album Going Back Home, on Atlantic Records, demonstrates that he can cook…
David Bowie, with Nine Inch Nails and Prick, Monday, October 16, at McNichols Arena, has managed to hang on to plenty of credibility for a guy who’s played as many roles in his lengthy career as Tommy Lee Jones and Michael Caine combined. While he’s an inherently commercial artist unembarrassed…
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…
