Performing their 1990 classic album "Midnight Radio" in its entirety...
Big Head Todd And The Monsters
Roger Clyne
- Crystal Hotel & Ballroom - Crystal Ballroom |
- Friday, February 17
- 8 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show |
- $25 advance, $27 day of show |
- 21 and over
Tickets on sale now!
Diehard BHTM fans know the band's 1990 Midnight Radio to be one of its most emblematic and timeless releases. Todd and the guys will be performing the entire album in its entirety at the Portland show, something they are doing at only a handful of locations on this tour ... Don't miss a chance to hear some of the band's earliest works performed live!
About Big Head Todd And The Monsters
Big Head Todd and The Monsters' ninth studio album Rocksteady finds the veteran Colorado band returning to their DIY roots and forging into surprising musical territory.
Funky, lilting, and melodic, Rocksteady features founding members Todd Park Mohr (lead vocals and guitars), Rob Squires (bass), and Brian Nevin (drums), with keyboardist, steel guitarist, and backup vocalist Jeremy Lawton, who joined The Monsters in January 2004. Lawton produced and mixed the album.
Rocksteady cuts across a broad swath of stylistic terrain. "Beautiful," the set's first single, offers a sunny Caribbean vibe, as does the band's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden," long a concert staple. "Back to the Garden" and the homage "Muhammad Ali" pulse with a roots rock groove, while the set's title track is based in the like-named, revved-up Jamaican style that preceded reggae's arrival in the late ‘60s. "I Hate It When You're Gone," dressed with a full horn section, is blazing old-school R&B, while a version of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" is burning Chicago blues in a Monsters pocket.
"It's a soul/Caribbean record that rocks," Mohr says. "We almost went out of our way to take all the rock out of it, but it really rocks. It's the very first album we've ever done that's this cohesive and focused. That's what makes it shine and stand out from our other albums."
Rocksteady is the latest chapter in a rock ‘n' roll career that stretches back nearly 25 years. Founded in 1986 by Mohr, Squires, and Nevin, then University of Colorado students, Big Head Todd and The Monsters became one of the region's most popular acts through constant touring. After issuing two popular independent releases on their Big imprint, the band hooked up with Irving Azoff's Giant Records for the platinum album Sister Sweetly (1993). The Monsters issued four chart albums on Giant and Warner Bros.
Their formidable reputation rests on their stage performances; Big Head Todd and The Monsters Live was recorded on the fabled H.O.R.D.E. tour. Over the years, the group has developed a close relationship with their fans: Their last album, All the Love You Need, was released as a free download, and was snapped up by half a million of The Monsters' followers.
Rocksteady can be seen as Act One of a two-act Big Head Todd spectacular, since the band cut enough tracks to fill two CDs. A projected future release will include the sessions' more hard-edged material.
Mohr says, "We went into the studio and recorded over thirty songs. We've always been a versatile group with a wide range of influences and so our albums tend to be an eclectic mix of different genres of music. Somewhere along the line we realized we had a group of songs that fit together really well as a soul/R&B/Carribian kind of thing. So we set aside some of the harder rock stuff in order to focus on a soulful, danceable sound."
Lawton adds, "We were noticing we had these two different directions in songs. Big Head Todd albums are always like a buffet - there's always a rocker, and then there are a couple of mood songs, and then there are some R&B/soul songs. We said, ‘Let's try to concentrate on one of the branches of the tree.' We went towards this fun, happy R&B kind of sound."
Mohr attributes some of the funk in the Rocksteady sound to the influence of the late Nigerian Afrobeat titan Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his son Femi Kuti, whose work he had been listening to deeply, and to his ongoing fascination with reggae and its intersection with punk rock.
While Big Head Todd and The Monsters have worked with such well-known producers as David Bianco, Jerry Harrison, and David Z, the band found their sound refreshed by working essentially on their own with Lawton at the helm in his home studio, recording on their own schedule.
"Obviously, I have high regard for producers," Mohr says. "In this case, I didn't think anybody else was going to put the time into it - into following each strand. And being able to decide in the middle of something that you have two albums instead of one isn't something you normally can do in a producer scenario. There is just too much pressure and not enough time. For me it's all about being able to have the time and the resources to do things your way, and the right way. It's only when you do it yourself that you have that luxury."
As ever, the hard-touring Monsters will go out to meet the fans this summer. "The quality of the relationship between the band and the fan is the most important aspect of our career," says Mohr. "We've always realized that. That's why we do cruises with fans, and we sign autographs after shows. We still try to play every request. We listen to our audience and do whatever we can to acknowledge that relationship."
- website:
- http://www.bigheadtodd.com/
About Roger Clyne
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (RCPM) are proof that the crazy, reckless, restless, swaggering soul of American rock is still burning a hole in the night sky...guitars blaze, quake and quiver, drums slip, thud and thunder with killer melodies and hooks and the occasional reggae or mariachi rhythm laced through the middle to keep it all honest and interesting." - Paste Magazine?
Roger Clyne doesn't like serving the musical version of junk food. "I like to put a little more heart into my cooking than that," Clyne said.
For over a decade, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have avoided unnecessary additives, preservatives and sugary substances that may initially be satisfying, but ultimately provide no sustenance. Instead, they have been serving up nothing but uncompromised, unadulterated, pure rock-n-roll. RCPM have stuck to their credo of letting art lead commerce by mixing relentless guitar licks, four part harmonies and thought-provoking lyrics.
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have released six consecutive albums that have debuted in the top 10 on Billboard's Internet Sales chart, the first independent band to ever accomplish that feat. Two of those albums, 1999's Honky Tonk Union and 2004's ¡Americano!, debuted at #1. That streak of creating timeless rock music continues with RCPM's long awaited sixth studio album, Unida Cantina.
Roger Clyne, guitarist Jim Dalton, drummer PH Naffah and bassist Nick Scropos are renowned as one of the tightest, most exciting live acts on the road today. Over the past year, The Peacemakers have toured the U.S. several times over, traveled south of the border to play in Mexico and completed their first ever tour of the United Kingdom. The energy between the band members, experience and comradeship shine on Unida Cantina, the most upbeat and collaborative effort yet for the band.
"It's been 3 years since we've released a studio album," Clyne said. "During that time, we've incorporated Jim Dalton into RPCM and he brings a unique magic to our chemistry. It took some time to know ourselves again. It's always a challenge to remain consistent without being predictable; to create something novel, but not novelty; to appreciate success without becoming complacent. With Unida Cantina, we took our time and poured our hearts into it. Now that we're ready to share it. ...it's almost a rebirth for me."
On Unida Cantina, RCPM teamed up with producer/engineer/mixer and long time friend Clif Norrell (The Refreshments, Rush, No Doubt, R.E.M) to record 13 new songs. Collectively, the songs on Unida Cantina represent both the disillusionment and enlightenment of where Clyne's life is today compared to where he thought he would be when he was in his "immortal 20s." In many ways, it turned out different than he thought it would. But it also turned out better than could have imagined.
RCPM look to share those feelings of coming to terms with the differences between the expectations of youth and the reality of emerging adulthood on Unida Cantina. But in spreading that message, the Peacemakers also wanted to rock. Like their past albums, RCPM hope Unida Cantina will bring people together and unify those of like mind and heart. Sometimes people need a unification point or a place where they know they're not alone to face certain challenges, like a cantina. "My music will often bring people to that cantina," Clyne said. "If you need a cantina, you can put on Unida Cantina."
Unida Cantina is Clyne's most infectious record since he and Naffah released their 1996 cult-classic, Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy with their previous band, The Refreshments, on Mercury Records. Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy was Radio & Record's ninth Best-Selling Debut Album of the Year, went to #1 on Billboard's Heatseeker Chart and spawned two popular radio hits, "Banditos" and "Down Together." The Refreshments performed on national late-night shows and Clyne wrote and performed the King of the Hill theme song with the band.
With Unida Cantina, Clyne found his songwriting soulmate in Dalton. "For the very first time, I found someone's inclusion that didn't chase me or put me off my artistic vision. It opened the world to possibilities rather than close it. I felt magic," Clyne said.
Likewise, Clyne said he was more open from gathering input from everyone in the band than he has been on any other record. Both Scropos and Naffah, childhood friends originally hailing from The Windy City, had big input on the final production of Unida Cantina.
The result is pure American guitar-driven roots rock-n-roll. "All Over the Radio" is the album's first track, mixing the classic elements of RCPM music in crunching guitars and mariachi horn section. Other rockin' songs soon to become instant RCPM classics include "Dinero," "Heaven on a Paper Plate" and "Go With the Flow," the first song Clyne and Dalton ever wrote together.
The Spanish-influenced "Marie" has already become a fan favorite thanks to an acoustic recording session with MusicFog during the Steamboat Music Festival and a video that was released on the Internet.
The beautifully written "Small World" touches on the difficult task of showing the ultimate act of love for someone by letting go.
As Clyne sings on "Paper Airplanes," 'if you're feeling like you're too small for this world, or if you're feeling you're talking but there's no one there to listen,' sometimes you just need a place you can unify with other like minded people to weather the storm. And you may just find Unida Cantina.
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