Denver’s Zoon Politikon has been playing catchy power pop in seedy area clubs and crowded living rooms since 1989, but its members still haven’t received their fair share of acclaim. Maybe this has something to do with the players’ professed laziness with regard to booking shows. Possibly it’s because the…
It was a scene to warm the heart of anyone fearful that the generation gap has widened into an unbridgeable chasm. There, on May 8, in the parking lot of McNichols Arena half an hour prior to the not-quite Led Zeppelin reunion, was a mother on the cusp of forty…
“I don’t really know any musical terms,” concedes Kembra Pfahler, the woman behind the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. “I identify with someone like Chubby Checker, who went into rehearsal and described how he wanted a song to sound without getting technical–he would say, `Make this one sound fat and…
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…
A confused businessman recently got lost in the Capitol Hill area. Looking for help, he stumbled into the basement of a nondescript office building, which was at that moment being used as a practice space by the Denver-based punk quintet Hell’s Half Acre. Clutching his briefcase, he looked around the…
During the mid-Seventies, a handful of New Orleans natives armed with kazoos and a small drum earned a reputation, and a few cheap thrills, by tagging along at the end of parades. Initially, this routine was considered a good-timey joke, but over the course of several years, the punchline gave…
M. Doughty, the mind behind the magnetic, brainy amalgamation called Soul Coughing, didn’t attend Juilliard or a pricey guitar institute. No, he received his musical education at the Knitting Factory, an avant-garde breeding ground in New York City. And he got paid for the privilege. “Yeah, I worked there,” Doughty…
“I’m having a bad day from hell,” says Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM. “It’s technical stuff–my modem blew up this morning. I’m gonna grab me a cigarette.” Clearly, this man does not need any more responsibilities. He’s become an in-demand producer thanks to his work with cutting-edge acts such as Front…
Elastica Elastica (DGC) All right, I give up. Rather than whining about the fact that half the allegedly new music being released right now sounds like it was recorded in 1982, I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. Hell, I liked a lot of the music from…
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…
After 1994’s summer concert season (the most lucrative for promoters in recent memory), this year’s announced dates seem modest by comparison. There are few multigenerational must-see performances–meaning that consumers will have to peruse the schedule more closely than ever to find those gigs that are right for them. In an…
You don’t have to be young to love Crestfallen–but it helps. In fact, most of this Denver band’s biggest fans are barely able to drive, let alone drink. “For some reason, our music appeals to younger people,” says bassist Jason Heller, 23. “We play all-ages shows whenever we can, even…
Type O Negative, with Queensryche, Tuesday, May 9, at McNichols Arena, looks like your average hard-rock band–its members sport hair as long as Crystal Gayle’s, the requisite tattoos and puckered sneers that say to young, alienated sorts, “We still remember how terrible our lives were before floozies began throwing themselves…
Jazz Lee Alston Jazz Lee Alston (Rhyme Cartel/American) The attention-getter here is “Love…Never That,” based on a poem Alston wrote in honor of her cousin Jacqueline Alexander, who was shot to death two days after Christmas 1992, while Alston was visiting. (Alexander’s estranged husband, Paul, is wanted for the crime…
When we last looked in on All (“All for One,” December 8, 1993), the band–which descended from the Descendents, among the best, and best-remembered, of the original Los Angeles punk bands–was living in tiny Brookfield, Missouri, population 4,000. Why? Back then, bassist Karl Alvarez explained, “In L.A., we were living…
Archers of Loaf, with the Flaming Lips and Beatnik Film Stars, Tuesday, May 2, at the Ogden Theatre, seem to be at their best when they’re beating the crap out of poor, defenseless guitar-pop melodies. The band’s 1993 debut, Icky Mettle (on Alias Records), kicked and spit with so much…
“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…
