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2006  ROCK CITY

MUSIC AWARDS

THE ROCKIES

WINNERS 

(Announced Dec. 6, 2006)

1. Outstanding Band Name of The Year: Suicide Holiday

2. Outstanding New Band of The Year: Summer Rose

3. Outstanding Male Solo Artist of The Year: Nikki Ferarri

3. Outstanding Female Solo Artist of The Year: Cherish Alexander

4. Outstanding Alternative Band of The Year: The Faded

5a. Outstanding Country Band of The Year: Jason & the Punknecks

5b. Outstanding Folk Band of The Year: Javelyn

6. Outstanding Rock Video of The Year: (not awarded)

6. Outstanding Songwriter of The Year: Alestar Digby

7. Outstanding Female Bass of The Year: Beth-Ami/Hardly Dangerous

8. Outstanding Male Bass of The Year: Mr. Rust/Rusty Eye

9a. Outstanding Rock D.J. of The Year: Colonel Clique

9b. Outstanding Psychedelic Band of The Year: Nektare

9c. Outstanding Melodic/Instrumental: Apeyga

10. Outstanding Drummer of The Year: Kenny Burns/Happenin Harry Band
Jimmy Chronic

11. Outstanding Female Drumer of The Year: NIki Suicide/Suicide Holiday

12. Outstanding Punk Band of The Year: Double Zero

13. Outstanding Hardcore Band of The Year: Heavenly Trip to Hell (H.T.T.H)

14. Outstanding Valley Band of The Year: Elegant Bastards

15. Outstanding Hollywood Band of The Year: Trace Devai

16. Outstanding Modern Rock Band of The Year: 10 Count Junkie

17. Outstanding Blues Band of The Year: Jimmy Steiger Blues Connection

18. Outstanding Guitar Player of The Year: Jeff Duncan/Happenin Harry Band

19. Outstanding Female Guitar of The Year: Nancy Luca/Superlark

20. Most Psychotic Band of The Year: Kettle Cadaver

21. Outstanding Male Vocals of The Year: Happenin Harry

21b. Outstanding O.C. Male Vocals of The Year: Clint/Dirty Water

21b. Outstanding Frontperson of The Year: Mandy Lion 

22. Outstanding Female Vocals of The Year: Coreen/WholeLottaRosies

22b. Outstanding Female Frontperson of The Year: Melanie/Superna

23. Outstanding Girl Fronted Band of The Year: Clandestine

23b. Outstanding All Girl Band of The Year: Jaggedy Ann

24. Outstanding Metal Band of The Year: Atomic

25a. Outstanding Electro Band of The Year: Ooze

25c. Outstanding Cover Band of The Year: Moby Chick

26. Outstanding Female Tribute Band of The Year: Whole Lotta Rosies

27. Outstanding Tribute Band of The Year: Rock N Roll Junkies

28. Outstanding Hard Rock Band of The Year: Old Fashioned Beatdown

29. Outstanding Stage Show of The Year: Nightmare/Alice Cooper

30. Outstanding O.C. Band of The Year: Dirty Water

31. Outstanding Glam Band of The Year: Revlon Red

32. Outstanding Goth Band of The Year: Silenced Within

33. Outstanding Keyboardist of The Year: The Faded

35. Outstanding Inland Empire Band of The Year: Waiting For Decay, Sangre

36. Best Rhythm Soul Band: Sugar Bitch

37. Outstanding Political Band of The Year: H.T.T.H.

MORE AWARDS

Career Achievement Award: Mitch Perry

Career Achievement Award: Bang Tango

Best Southern Rock Band: Jason Von Presley

Best Touring Act: Rainshine

Lord of the Strings Award: Thorn

Best High Desert Metal Band: Warhead

A Different Kind of Band: Rover's Pinky

Album of the Year: John Pieplow

World Artist of the Year: Jimmy Lee Young

Best Single of the Year: Jimmy Lee Young

Music Executive of the Year: Al Bowman/L.A. Music Awards

Best Heavy Metal Radio Station: KNAC

Outstanding Performance of the Year: Ted Shred/Vamphear Circus

Best Comedy Performance: Count Smokula

Outstanding Rock TV Show: The Johnny Gunn Show, The Metal Scene Show

Outstanding Music Production: Hollywood Music

Outstanding Rock Product: Coffin Case

Person of the Year: Mojo El Diablo

The Hollywood Award: Tequila Mockingbird

Trophy Model of the Year: Cheetah Mama

Outstanding Photo Journalism: Revn Kevin  

RAR NOTE: Rock City News is a free publication that is a must read for information on the Los Angeles music community. The editors of the paper state it is - "Aimed at Nightclubers & Rock lovers citywide, Rock City News targets readers that rock! The young, party animals of today! RCN is designed to influence those with influence, on the streets citywide as well as at all the major record companies in L.A."

The influence-oriented publication has a targeted bi-weekly circulation of 15,000, and its staff provides the music section for the L.A. Xpress, which has a weekly circulation of 150,000.

Subscribe to Rock City world wide! $75 (U.S.) per year. Go to http://www.rockcitynews.com/ to make arrangements.

LEVI DEXTER

www.levidexter.com
LEVI DEXTER made a strong showing in the 2006 Rock City News Awards in the Outstanding Psychobilly and Outstanding Roots Americana categories, if you can call polling 24 or 25 votes strong. It was enough to finish at the top in both categories, which probably says something about the turf Levi trods. Rockabilly just isn’t the rage it once was, but how about Levi Dexter being around doing it after all these years? Rock on Levi!

Levi, you might recall, first appeared on the scene in the late-‘70s, a little ahead of the Stray Cats and the mini-rockabilly craze that flashed briefly at the dawn of MTV. Rockabilly got another round of life several years later when the swing dance craze hit, but not so much for Levi. He was long ago consigned to a ghetto of kitsch and nostalgia, a perception he attempted to blunt by booking himself among acts associated with less-retro genres, punk for awhile, then modern rock. He has traveled under various names, including Levi & the Rockats, Levi Dexter & the Ripchords, and Levi Dexter & Magic. Moving in on 50 years of age now, but preternaturally youthful looking and sounding, the London-born Levi feels more at home on a bill with rockabilly performers now than he used to, and he counts Rip Carson, Ray Condo, the Hyperions and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys as rockabilly bretheren.

This Paul Bakan photograph on Levi's website is titled "LongGoneLeviDexter. " The notion of being "long gone," as the term was used in the '50s, seems quaint now. But that is how it looks when you get there. Cool, eh? Iconic. Levi has contributed.

It looks like Roy and wife Ganell are headed for the hills - or mountains, actually. They have their Novato, California home on the market and they are moving to the Lake Tahoe area.

I am taken by this story in that for a lot of people who grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area, as Roy did, Tahoe is that place they all went on family vacations when they were kids. And when they got out of college, many of them went and got jobs in Tahoe while they figured out what they were going to do with themselves as adults. And then they moved away and got real jobs but still return to Tahoe regularly, and they conceive children there - it's like a spawning ground. My wife was conceived there, as was one of my kids. Tahoe is the Rivendale of Northern California, and apparently Roy is going native.

I also like this story because I think people outside of California will find it interesting to see what you can buy in this state for this price. It is a topic that never ceases to inspire wonder - as in, I wonder why anyone would live there (in California)? 

Californians can give you one million three-hundred-ninety-five thousand reasons - or whatever amount they are trying to qualify for a mortgage.

Features:

• 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths

• 1.488 acres of private, prime real estate....Close to the Best of Novato and Award-winning Schools

• Custom one-level ranch home with valley views, gardens and nature..plus 2 offices and a 2-car garage

• Living room made for entertaining; 

• Italian country-style dining room; 2 fireplaces; Hardwood floors
• Family room with French doors opens onto the pool; Robert Tenaka designed large deck
• Rare opportunity: Create a vineyard, compound, new residence..or keep your horse on the property
• MLS# 20633812
• View Listing Details

http://profile.myspace.com/barbeekilledkenn1

Between 1999 and 2002, BARBEE KILLED KENN was a lot of people's favorite San Francisco punk-rock band. Fronted by Miss Dian, a former Vegas flamenco dancer and beauty pageant contestant, BKK was a high-energy, up tempo and largely upbeat "mostly all-girl" group. Together, Dian and bassist Athena are some of the best songwriters I have encountered in my 20-plus years in the Bay Area. Seem implausible? Listen to the MP3s below, which I love for their energy, intelligence, sense of humor, surprising melodic changes, and because they are just plain fetching. (Okay, so I'm weak for girl groups.) Barbee Killed Kenn isn't really a group anymore, at least not in any steady way. Athena has moved to Southern California and previous to that they lost guitarist Ruba F. Tuesday (see profile below), whom they tried unsuccessfully to replace, and her departure seemed to dissolve the band. (I met them through a classified listing as they advertised for someone to fill their Ruba-vacated guitar slot, unlikely as that is to imagine. Note to SFMusician ad posters - a little more detail, please.) I hadn't heard of them in a couple years, then heard that they had recently played a reunion gig in San Francisco and found them - where else? - on myspace. I listened to their songs and am blown away all over again. Their time as a prominent act in San Francisco was just after the millennium, and even then their sound seemed unstuck in time. They really belong musically to the new wave of the early '80s. They put me to mind of a louder Josie Cotton or The Waitresses, with a kind of a camp punk musical edge. In a kitschy way, though, the songs work.

As good as the songs are, they wouldn't work as well as they do if it wasn't for front person Dian, who has a really appealing pop voice and likeable stage presence. She is self-possessed and projects fun and star quality. Dian and Athena have recently "resurfaced" with a new unit - The Unprofessionals. The songwriting duo is providing the material for the new band, but it sounds to me like their pop-punk days may be behind them. The new sound is more acoustic and thoughtful, more aged in some ways, but still good. Ruba has gone off in different directions, finding modest success with some good groups - The Zodiac Killers, Dead Vanity and Subimage.

Dian - Athena - Ruba

On stage at the Paradise Lounge, San Francisco

BARBEE KILLED KENN MP3s:

Staring Problem

Head Over Heels

Something Better

Unglued 

Copyright © 2006-2007 Barbee Killed Kenn, all rights reserved 

"I'm a friend of Dian's (from Barbee Killed Kenn).
I've known her for years and she used to sing back up
in my old band, The Servants.  I totally agree with
everything you said about her.  She's got that star
quality and presence that you can't buy." - Dave Rude

www.rubatuesday.com

You see this girl RUBA F. TUESDAY... As a punk-metal guitarist, she was the music engine of Barbee Killed Ken. That's her revving up the BKK MP3s above. 

As I recall, she left that band to concentrate on school, an effort that apparently paid off handsomely. She earned a degree in molecular biology and is now a manager in an engineer recruitment firm. But that hasn't diminished her focus on thrashing guitar. She has gone right into three excellent follow-up bands to her BKK experience: Zodiac Killers, with whom she released three LPs and toured Europe; Dead Vanity, which had a great sound and was really her band - hear the MP3s offered here; and now Subimage, in which Ruba resumes a supporting role, backing songwriter Chris. (Apparently surnames weren't being issued to people born during a certain period or after a certain date. The brainy Ruba apparently thought to make one up.) They are all great bands that carry a certain Ruba stamp. (As she says on her myspace site - "More than hard core - it's Ruba core.") This is one to keep an eye on. Mad skills.

Dead Vanity

Dead Vanity MP3s:

Character

Before I Fall

4 a.m. Love Song

Wantoned

Copyright © Dead Vanity, all rights reserved

Dead Vanity was Ruba's "baby" - the band in which she surfaced as a primary songwriter.

Subimage

Zodiac Killers

The charming Ms. Tuesday wrote an email message to me the other day describing her music career to date.

"BKK was my first band - when I first started I had only previously played in my bedroom and could barely even play guitar standing up. Songwriting - I couldn't even fathom it. Eventually, after playing 173598716716 gigs and working with Athena and Dian who are very talented songwriters, I started to pick up on it. I made a significant contribution to several (BKK) songs including "Head Over Heels", "U-Turn", and "Rockstar Boy" with some other contribution on the other songs.

"After BKK, I got a 4-track, a drum machine, a microphone, and a bass and I started working on my songwriting skills. Eventually, I wanted to do something with my creations so I formed Dead Vanity through networking, word-of-mouth and the help of the internet. A year into it, our singer, Daija, was going through a transitional period in life when she decided she wasn't in a spot where she could give the band her all so we split for a while. When things settled down in her life, we tried to get the band back together but by then, our bass player had committed to another band and could not accommodate the dual band schedules.

"As far as how I see myself, I really like the description 'Super side-person' - it fits nicely. I like to work with really charismatic frontpersons and play off their personalities. Dian from BKK, Greg from Zodiac Killers, Daija from Dead Vanity, and Chris from Subimage are all very special and have great styles and ways about them. I can't be in a band with a bland front person because I feel like I have to hold back. I tried to be a front person for a while but I'm more comfortable in a supporting role...and plus I can't really sing that well unless I'm harmonizing with someone. :)

"With Subimage, it's definitely a 'fun-thing.' I'm committed to my career as a professional sales representative which keeps me busy 50-60 hours a week. I don't have much time to song-write these days so I've hooked up with someone who does and who's style I really like and who is open to my contributions. It works out nicely. I'm having fun exploring the more 'stylish' side of my musical tastes and less of the 'aggressive stuff,' but part of me misses jumping off drum risers and participating in relentless headbanging....I may go back to that someday...:)"

This is Gary Swan's autographed Tommy Chong photo. Gary has been Tommy's music director for many years. He says Tommy has only tried weed twice...but did not inhale.

www.myspace.com/coldbloodmusic 

Some time earlier this year my wife came home from a weekend in the Sierras where, as she reported with great excitement - "I ran into Lydia Pense!" I immediately thought that she meant that literally, because we had occasionally suffered vehicle damage with the wife behind the wheel. I mean, she doesn't actually know Lydia Pense. Except that, everyone who was in the San Francisco/Oakland area between 1967 and 1977 feels that they do, because musically speaking they all grew up with Lydia Pense. She, to this day, is the female voice of San Francisco, even more so than Joplin ever was because Janice left, and then she left forever, and Lydia remains.

Lydia disappeared for awhile in the '80s and early '90s, taking time out to raise a daughter, but she came back with the same energy and voice to resurrect Cold Blood, which she built anew around the Bone" to great effect.

ABOVE: Lydia with Cold Blood (clockwise from far left) - Rob Zuckerman (sax), Steve Dunne (guitar), Donnie Baldwin (drums), Steve Stalinas (keys), Rich Armstrong (trumpet) and Evan Palmerston (bass). LEFT: Playing a sold out show at the Fillmore.

There is a review of Transfusion at http://www.jazzreview.com/cd/review-17215.html. 

LYDIA PENSE AND COLD BLOOD MP3:

Face the Music - From Transfusion - Lydia Pense (vocals), Steve Salinas (keyboards), Mike Morgan (percussion), Steve Dunne (guitar), Rich Armstrong (trumpet, percussion), Evan Palmerston (bass), Rob Zuckerman (alto, tenor, baritone saxes), Donny Baldwin (drums). Plus 14 guest artists including Skip Mesquite, Lenny Williams, Michelle Shocked, David Garibaldi, Bobby Vega, Mic Gillette, Dennis Cruzan, Roger Smith, Raul Matute, David Kessner, Mike Rose, Michael Carrabello, Jeff Tamelier and Joel Behrman.

Copyright © 2006 Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, all rights reserved 

THE WORLD'S GREATEST DEEJAY  

- BIG RICK STUART

The Oakland Tribune recently did a feature on Big Rick, which he seems to be happy with - it is posted on his blog (see below) - but to me it almost completely missed the point. The focus of the article was on how much Big Rick loves music and radio. Big Woop. I would imagine every deejay on every station more or less loves music and radio, maybe some more than others. The thing that makes Rick Stuart special - and he is special, easily the greatest disc jockey I have ever heard, bar none - is that he is Big Rick, the finest tongue-in-cheek monologist I have ever heard anywhere. He practices his endearing silliness between songs, and even through commercial spots, virtually non-stop during each of his six-hour air stints. He does it with such humorous aplomb, matching nuance and subtlety with occasional bursts of obvious buffoonery, that I listen wondering how many radio listeners are really getting how great he is. Big Rick, flat out, is a master.

I think of Big Rick Stuart as the anti-deejay, the one who is so distinctly different, so flaunting of commercial radio's ridiculous conventions that he stands apart from it like a touchstone to intelligence and perspective.
I first heard Big Rick 20 years ago when he was with The Quake, which was San Francisco's short-lived modern rock station. That station was just great, about the closest thing to commercial radio playing college radio play lists that I had ever heard, but it didn't last long before the station went belly up. For awhile all we had in San Francisco was San Francisco State's KUSF college station, which coincidentally gave Big Rick his start. It's play list was spotty, its deejays amateurs, and the signal was weak, so we yearned for a commercial alternative.

While The Quake became a footnote in San Francisco radio history, Big Rick moved on to the then-new SF radio station KITS, otherwise known as "Live 105," which filled the modern rock void left by The Quake. Though it was and is part of a Philadelphia-based syndicate of stations that has since gone into the pooper, it was great in its early years in the mid-80s. It was the place where you could hear Nina Haagen and Guadacanal Diary, acts that existed almost exclusively on college radio and in the clubs of Europe. Big Rick had the great good fortune to be surrounded with an on-air staff - like Roland West the reggae aficionado, and super mix master and music director Steve Masters - that made Live 105 a cutting edge place. Steve Masters was bringing back music from Europe, which gave the station an eclectic and wild play list, particularly for the evening shifts (Big Rick's drive-time and later), and Big Rick was just smoking with hilarious banter.

Big Rick seems totally unscripted - he just starts talking and keeps it up until his spot is over, and listening to him is akin to watching a high wire act. Sometimes he slips, starts to fall, but catches himself. He's a little like Johnny Carson use to be - at his funniest when he is struggling. Other times he is flat-out brilliant, weaving his stories and insights through intricate turnbacks and asides, and somehow wrapping them up in neat bundles just in time for the next segment. And none of it is serious, it's all for laughs. Big Rick is endearingly self-effacing, the target of much of his own humor. He'll get on kicks that he will revisit - he used to go on forever about his "pea-sized brain" - but there is nothing pea-sized about this guy. Remember that Ellen Barkin line in Buckaroo Bonzai - "You're like Jerry Lewis - you give me hope to carry on." That's Big Rick Stuart to me, a sign of intelligent life in the universe. Sure, he loves radio and music, but he also sees right through it, or sees it for what it is, and he is forever puncturing pomposity and self-importance, not with snotty attitude and cheap insight, but with an "everyman's" humor that is so sharp that I'm not sure "everyman" gets it.

As "Live 105" went into decline I became bored with the station and stopped listening, then after a time learned that Big Rick had moved on himself, landing at the venerable San Francisco adult-rock station KFOG. The first time I heard his familiar voice on KFOG I could hardly believe it, because KFOG for years was a really musty old dinosaur (though it premiered in the '80s around the same time as "Live 105) that played a lot of classic rock, including the Grateful Dead and other bands closely associated with '60s San Francisco. My first thought was that Big Rick didn't sound very happy at the sleepy station, which played music that he had poked fun at for years. But it wasn't long before he became himself again, and now he is pretty much the same guy he always was - older but as funny and loveable as ever. He seems to find things to like about the KFOG play list, though I sense he recognizes that he is no longer associated with cutting edge radio. Still, the radio personality Big Rick Stuart is always worth the listen.

Big Rick has a blog at http://www.bigrick.fm/blog/blog1.html that you may find entertaining, particularly if you are familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area.

www.jinxjones.com

There may be cooler guys in the world than Jinx Jones but...well, probably not. He's pretty unstoppable on the strength of his rippin' guitar work and his too cool name. A Denver native, now a resident of San Francisco, Jinx was showing up on the Boulder scene around the time I was heading for the West Coast. I had known him only by reputation but recently made his acquaintance through Jerry Kazzaz of Denver's Latitude Experience vocal jazz band (see the Colorado Links). You want versatility? Jinx, the rockabilly wonder, played on Latitude's recent CD. Hard to imagine greater range and versatility, but then this is the guy who played both guitar and bass on En Vogue's triple platinum Funky Divas release.

Before exploding onto the Boulder scene nearing the mid-1980s, Jinx had already been around. In 1976 he toured with Solomon Burke, the "King of Rock and Soul," and backed soul-singer Howard Bomar in opening slots for Johnny Taylor, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the Dells, the Sylvers, and Hot Chocolate. The following winter, Jinx was a member of the R&B group Distinctive Movement who performed concert dates with Natalie Cole.

Jinx toured the United States as part of Tom Slick's doo-wop show band in 1978 and between 1979 and 1988 performed regularly with rock pioneer Chuck Berry as a member of one of Berry’s regional touring bands.

Jinx left Boulder for the West Coast in the late '80s. From his website (with really good biographical information) - "During 1991 and 1992 Jinx played with R&B superstars En Vogue on their triple platinum album Funky Divas, and played both guitar and bass on their signature hit 'Free Your Mind.' Other sessions with En Vogue followed, but Jinx Jones was then moving into another musical direction, and his days as a sideman for hire were quickly taking a back seat to his pursuit of a solo career."

Jinx has a great rockabilly album out, License to Twang, which the San Francisco critics are digging.

Jinx Jones MP3s:

Bumble Boogie

Need A Good Girl Bad

Copyright © Jinx Jones, All Rights Reserved

A young Jinx Jones on stage with the legendary Roy Buchanan at Sam's Ballroom in Fort Collins, 1985

JINX JONES - ON BOULDER AND ROY BUCHANAN

Writes Jinx - "Wow, reading your links page sure takes me back. Many of the names are ones I hadn’t heard in quite a spell, and I enjoyed many a misspent evening cranking out loud rock music at the Blue Note, the Walrus, the Olympic, and even the Skunk Creek Inn when I was younger. Some of my old bands like the Tel Rays, Jinx Jones and the Jaguars, and later on Jinx Jones and Friends were regulars at the Blue Note, one of the better Colorado venues for both good sound and a great scene. Do you remember Craig the sound man at the Blue Note? He was awesome."

"One of my fondest memories of playing in Boulder was my first night on stage with the great Roy Buchanan. I was hired to be part of his backing band for several dates in Colorado about two weeks ahead of time, and had spent most of those fourteen days trying to learn as much of his material as I could, and generally freaking out over the thought of being on stage with him. The first date was at the Olympic in August of 1984.

"On the night of the show, I was assured that we’d have a proper rehearsal at sound check and that we would have a few hours to kill in which I could ask Roy a few questions about what we’d play that night. The promoter came in at about 7 PM and said that Roy’s plane was late and that he’d be just barely able to make the show on time, without a sound check or rehearsal. I was already nervous as I could be, so when Roy finally walked in (about five minutes before we were to go on), I approached him and said , “Uhh, excuse me Mr. Buchanan, could you tell me which songs you’ll be playing?” He just calmly looked at me and said, “You know, we’ll just go out there and play, and it’ll be all right.” Something about his stoic demeanor and soft spoken charm totally relaxed me and we did just as he said we’d do. It turned out to be one of the most important encounters of my life, and I treasure every moment I spent on and off stage with Roy Buchanan."

Announcing "Power Rock Guitarist!" Jinx at The Walrus in Boulder circa 1983

www.jillcarole.com

JILL CAROLE has been on the edge of stardom since her 1998 signing with England's Mystic Records and subsequent tours of the U.K. She toured with Al Stewart, the "Year of the Cat" guy who has developed quite a connection to Bay Area artists (see Paul Robinson's profile below), and Colin Blunstone, who was once lead singer for the '60s band the Zombies, as well as Byrds founder Roger McGuinn. Jill has also toured with Suzzy Roche of the Roches (now there's your Boulder, Colorado link, the Roches being long-time residents). She had a minor hit, in the fall of 1999, with her single "Every Now and Then," which did well on adult contemporary charts. From her website - "She also received airplay for her witty and topical tune, 'I Slept With Kenneth Starr' on San Francisco radio stations KGO-AM and KPFA-FM. Larry Kelp, music critic for the Oakland Tribune and host of 'Sing Out' on KPFA in Berkeley, called the unreleased political thriller 'one of my favorite songs of 1999.'" (And in a political sense, there's your Bay Area link.)

The Alabama native, but long-time Bay Area resident, grew up in rarified air similar to Deborah Winters, profiled above. Jill's mother was an opera singer and Jill apparently inherited her three-octave range. From her website - "(Jill) left the South to study at Amherst College and then at The Berklee College of Music, where she twice received the top singer-songwriter award. She migrated to California, trading her acoustic guitar for an electric, and rekindling her affair with the piano."

Jill's music is hard to classify, but it is certainly wild and sex charged, a sort of adult pop-punk. The themes are adult (marriage, infidelity, cultural iconography) and manipulative but tasteful and certainly smart. They are produced for a modern audience, maybe even a modern rock audience with their emphasis on techno effects and club-inspired spatial choreography. (Scot Mathews produced her Trophy Wife LP.)

RAR Note - I am really not sure how active Jill is these days. At one time she was playing SF clubs with her rock band The Contrarians, but I haven't heard of them being around for awhile. I hope to find out more about this talented singer/songwriter and update this profile in the future.

BELOW: Jill Carole's Trophy Wife was released in 2002. The Easter Bunny, Sex and Santa Claus was released in 1998.

Jill Carole MP3s can be heard from the CDs page of her site.

The Irresistible Squeaks is a four-girl San Francisco punk-rock band in need of help - songwriting help. This quartet literally came together on the streets of the City, each having drifted in from other locales. You get different stories about who they are, and the stories keep changing. The only thing that is certain is that they are young - in some cases, probably too young to be in the city trying to make it on their own. Somehow in their shrouded pasts they picked up some musical ability. They've been living in a SOMA loft space with four or five other street kids, struggling to pay the rent, and they work low paid customer service jobs and practice at night to the chagrin of their neighbors. The Squeaks are cute but loud. They favor tube driven Marshall half-stacks and Gibson SGs. Their musical tastes fall between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Garbage. Two guitars, a bass, and drums, that's what they offer. They all sing and they all share the same Poly Styrene vocal sensibilities. These ain't the Bangles, these are The Irresistible Squeaks. For various legitimate reasons that can't be divulged, the Squeaks cannot be photographed - not yet. It could create legal problems for some, real dangers for others, and I watch things for the Squeaks pretty closely. They need some guidance - and songs. They are developing as songwriters, but these girls are young. They'll develop, but in the mean time they need some rockers, because they did a loft showcase recently, played covers and generated label interest. The Squeaks aren't ready to play out yet, but they are poised to take over the world. If you have songs that you feel might be right for the girls - have the right edge, the right lyrical charm, the squeak that makes people smile and fall in love - send an email to Rick@RARWRITER.com and I'll see that your tune gets to the band. Thanks for your support of The Irresistible Squeaks!

FIREFALL

www.firefall.com

Here's one from the fantasy cab of every rock'n roll kid who ever lived - a group of young about-to-happen rock'n roll stars poolside. In this case it is a photograph sent by Jim Mason, who wrote - 

"Ok, here's one more for the archives. I was just cleaning my desk, and came across this old pic from Miami, Dec '76. It was the sessions for the first Firefall album, (which did pretty well, as I recall) ...from L to R...Jim Mason, Larry Burnett, Rick Roberts, Bobby Beigle (road crew-deceased), Michael Clarke (d.), David Muse, Mark Andes, Jock's first wife (pregnant w/their son Jamie) and Jock Bartley...we were havin' fun, lemme tell you...".

RAR - In putting together the Colorado Links it feels to me that much of Boulder, Colorado's "golden period" was driven by the personalities in and around the band Firefall. In fact, a significant part of the history of the country-rock wave of the 1970s (the precursor to the "modern country" movement) connects in some way to the Boulder-based band. To illustrate the point, here is the FIREFALL timeline, with additional notes of interest and names highlighted:

* * * * *

1968
· Former Byrds CHRIS HILLMAN and MICHAEL CLARKE reunite in The Flying Burrito Brothers - also in the Burrito Brothers is singer/songwriter RICK ROBERTS, who replaced the ill-fated Gram Parsons

1971
· Rick Roberts moves to Colorado and signs with Stephen Stills' publishing company - Stills' business is in part managed by Buddy Zoloth
· JOCK BARTLEY ends his stint as the Tommy Bolin replacement in Zephyr

1972
· Rick Roberts releases a solo album