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…
part 1 of 1 The display contained the kind of paperwork most of us accumulate as we move from conception to death. A birth certificate from 1943. A doctor’s report on the newborn; under the heading “Shape of Head,” a nurse had typed, “First day–Idaho potato.” A hospital bill–it cost…
part 2 of 2 That afternoon the press was invited to enjoy free grub on a pleasure boat, the Goodtime III, rented for the evening by Radio Shack. There was finger food and liquor aplenty, as well as a band featuring a man in a sailor uniform playing Kenny G…
Steve Turre, Wednesday, September 13, at the Mount Vernon Country Club, is best known to television audiences for his stint as a trombonist in the Saturday Night Live band. But in jazz circles, he’s revered for his collaborations with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ralph Moore and Woody Shaw, and…
Henry Threadgill Makin’ a Move (Columbia) That Threadgill–a jazz-based saxophonist whose work with the trio Air and a variety of bands that have borne his name has ranged from the indescribably beautiful to the merely gorgeous–keeps landing on major labels is a credit to his perseverance. Clearly, he’s not in…
As what was once called alternative rock has become the music of the majority, Hollywood–our national trend barometer–has jumped onto the bandwagon with its usual gusto. While challenging post-punkers and their ilk once were as likely to land a slot on the soundtrack to a mainstream blockbuster as was Lawrence…
Acoustifuxx, Tuesday, September 12, at the Lion’s Lair, is one of two bands to feature Denver original Big Mike–the other, Splatterhouse, is at the Lair on Wednesday, September 6. But under whatever moniker Mike chooses to perform, you can be guaranteed that you’ll get a lot more than the government-recommended…
