During the late Eighties, people interested in working at the Kansas City branch of the Internal Revenue Service probably spoke with Kevin Mahogany. A onetime employee in the IRS’s mail room, Mahogany climbed up the government-employee ladder to a comfortable slot in the personnel department, where he interviewed people eager…
As Jim Thomas, string-shredder for the guitar-crazy California trio called the Mermen, is being fetched to the phone for an interview, Mermen bassist Allen Whitman grabs the receiver. “Jim has been very abusive to me lately,” he says in a deadpan voice. “Could you please call the police?” Upon being…
Sidney Louie Gunter settles into an overstuffed chair in the living room of his spectacular Golden home and stakes his claim to pop-cultural immortality. “On my new CD we’re saying that I’m the man who named the music rock and roll, and I really believe I am,” he purrs in…
Kurt Ohlen is a rockabilly connoisseur. He works at Wax Trax’s oldies branch, collects rockabilly recordings and fronts his own authentic rockabilly band, the Dalhart Imperials. But even so committed a bop cat as Ohlen is, he was in the dark until recently concerning the whereabouts of Hardrock Gunter (see…
Terry Allen Human Remains (Sugar Hill) Allen, a country songwriter and Lubbock native who’s earned critical acclaim and practically no real money, reassures fans that he won’t trade his credibility for commercial success with this album’s very first line: He barks, “Hey, I don’t need no chickenshit businessman tellin’ me…
In 1990, Sun Ra–the jazz innovator and native (he claimed) of Saturn–spoke of being “a pioneer going through the forest, not really knowing who is there or what’s in the forest. That’s all I know to be and I know what I’m supposed to be.” Three years later, Ra departed…
This spring, Los Angeles-based Cypress Hill will be honored with what’s become a symbol of pop-cultural hipness: an animated guest appearance on The Simpsons. The pot-loving crew–front man B-Real, rapper Sen Dog, DJ Muggs and new percussionist Eric Bobo–have been turned into cartoons for the show’s upcoming Lollapalooza episode, and…
“It’s the singer, not the song” is a phrase the average critic applies too narrowly. The expression is generally hauled out of mothballs to compliment vocalists whose technically impeccable voices and unique, intuitive phrasing can render questions about a ditty’s merit moot. But perhaps more intriguing are those entertainers who…
“When we started out, our major goal was to do a regular night at the Holiday Inn,” says the Gambler, drummer for Denver’s Ruby My Dear. “That would be the pinnacle of success for us.” “And if we really made it,” pianist Simon Cushing adds, “a night at the Brown…
Meet Joe Christ. Mr. Christ, as the New York Times would refer to him, is a musician and filmmaker to whom the term “notorious” may safely be applied. Communion in Room 410, the 1988 short film that made him a hero to gore cognoscenti, is a case in point. “I…
Salif Keita “Folon”…the Past (Mango) Observers who argue that blending music from different regions or cultures can’t help but dilute its impact should spend an hour or so with this disc, a global hodgepodge of sounds and influences that is marvelously inventive and undeniably coherent. Keita, an Albino activist from…
The ‘Vengers, Friday, February 16, at Soapy Smith’s, make music that’s tough to sit through: The combination of their burbling ska riddims, infectious horn blats, spirited singing and commitment to constant onstage motion is capable of causing even the most devoted wallflower to get up and skank. The act’s debut…
“I hear they’ve got some phat rides in Japan,” says Paul Lopez, aka Pauli P, half of the Denver rap duo called Deuce Mob. “Yeah, they’re shipping cars over from here,” elaborates Pauli’s partner, Fabian Garcia (stage moniker: DJ Fame). “They’ve got, like, $80,000 Impalas there, and all the guys…
“People come to me when they need a certain type of spiritual help,” says the Reverend Dr. Marjorie Williams-Cooper. “What I do is cast out devils, stuff like that. That area. People come to me saying they are being oppressed, attacked or even possessed by demons. Or maybe their house…
Arlo Guthrie, Saturday, February 17, at the Boulder Theater, has accomplished far more in his career than writing “Alice’s Restaurant” nearly thirty years ago. He’s also created a body of work strong enough to move him out of the enormous shadow cast by his father, folk legend Woody Guthrie. His…
Pizzicato Five The Sound of Music by Pizzicato Five (Matador) Self-conscious camp is a volatile commodity. If practitioners of same spend too much time winking at their audience, they wind up as more intellectual versions of “Weird” Al Yankovic (and we all know how sought-after that distinction is). But a…
The morning after, Lemmy Kilmister, age fifty, is doing his best to remember the night before. As usual, Lemmy’s band, Motorhead, is on tour, but there was no show the previous evening. Rather than catch up on his rest, however, Lemmy abandoned his New Orleans hotel around nightfall and cruised…
Chris Romero, frontman for the Brighton-based band Sick, may not be the only rocker to support his music by doubling as a hit man, but he’s probably the first to boast about it. Of course, Romero’s work as an assassin is only an act; he has a small but important…
Irene Farrera, Friday, February 9, at Swallow Hill Music Hall, is certainly ambitious; the singer/guitarist says her main musical objective is to “change the minds of the world’s racists, homophobes and political and religious fanatics.” Fortunately, this heavy agenda is presented in a fascinating manner. Born in Venezuela but based…
Celeste Krenz, Saturday, February 10, at the Bluebird Theater, with the Tyler Brothers, is slowly but surely gaining acceptance from a notoriously fickle segment of her audience: radio programmers. Slow Burning Flame, Krenz’s latest CD, has found favor at stations experimenting with Americana, a format that’s proven to be a…
Genius/GZA Liquid Swords (Geffen) Hip-hop’s in a bad place right now. There’s still plenty of kick left in the style, but by using up the prevalent imagery before they’d found something to take its place, new rappers and old have painted themselves into a creative corner. This self-proclaimed Genius (a…
Damon Albarn, lead singer and songwriter for England’s Blur, is sitting on a London film set, where the video for his band’s next single, “Charmless Man” (from last year’s album The Great Escape), is being shot. Albarn acknowledges that the clip–which involves “a slightly psychotic twentysomething businessman who’s haunted by…
