1st ANNUAL HARDSCRABBLE MUSIC FESTIVAL: Day 1
Join us for two days on Main Street August 28 & 29, 2021 for the ultimate celebration of music, art, food and everything we love about Helper, Utah. Get away to this premier destination, nestled below the sandstone cliffs and gray shales of ancient Cretaceous seas and enjoy live music, art galleries, vendors, camping and more amid the rich history of this old mining town.
*Balance Rock Stage tickets allow access to the Main Street Fair and both concert stages
Flamin' Groovies
The Flamin' Groovies story goes all the way back to 1965 when the band began as the Chosen Few in their hometown of San Francisco, California. After a name change and a self-released 10-inch album called "Sneakers", which sold amazingly well, the band caught the attention of Columbia who sent them into the studio with a big budget to record their first real album, "Supersnazz", on the Epic label. Their next two albums were on Kama Sutra (home of their heroes, The Lovin' Spoonful): "Flamingo", and the revered classic "Teenage Head".
Lead singer Roy Loney left the band right after that and lead guitarist Cyril Jordan moved the group to England with Chris Wilson (formerly of Loose Gravel) taking over as front man. They continued their style of straight ahead guitar driven rock & roll but this time with a more '60s rather than '50s influence. A few singles on United Artists, recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales with Dave Edmunds producing, followed in the early '70s. In 1976 they signed to Sire Records, who released three true gems of power pop: "Shake Some Action", "Flamin' Groovies Now", and "Jumpin' In The Night".
Another lineup change ensued, with Wilson moving to England and joining the Barracudas. The Groovies continued on through the 80s and into the early 90s touring Australia and Europe, putting out a fine but overlooked album called "Rock Juice" and then finally calling it quits. Jordan formed a new band called Magic Christian.
The band reunited in 2013, and toured and recorded for the past six years, they've played throughout the USA, including multiple tours of the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest, a dozen shows in the San Francisco Bay Area, several highly successful tours of Europe, and repeated visits to Japan. In 2016, they celebrated their 50th anniversary, and in 2017, they released a new album of all original material, "Fantastic Plastic", which ranks amongst their finest.
They have planned "a dream set list" including tracks from the album "Teenage Head", and other songs the band has never performed onstage. Newcomers are asking, "Why haven't I ever heard of this group?" It's hard to say just why the group hasn't received the attention they deserve (at least in the USA) but they're back to give everyone another chance at hearing and seeing just why those in the know consider them one of the greatest rock & roll bands ever.
Spindrift is a cinematically inspired rock band from Los Angeles, CA. Collectively, they’ve released over a dozen studio and soundtrack albums, many to critical acclaim and have been coined as “Heavy Western”, “psychedelic spaghetti western Rock n’ Roll”, or just plainly “psychedelic spaghetti”. They’ve also been described as a “60’s garage rock band performing as a mini orchestra stuck within a Tarantino film.”
Currently a quartet, the group is led by songwriter-producer-composer Kirpatrick Thomas on guitar, lead vocals, along with Portland based guitarist Becca Davidson; bass/baritone guitarist, producer, vocalist Riley Bray; and aerospace engineer Joe Zabielski on drums and electronics.
Howlin' Rain
On June 8, Oakland, California’s Howlin Rain return with The Alligator Bride, their fifth LP of swampy, ragged, unapologetic rock ’n roll. Led by Ethan Miller (co-founder of psych rockers Comets On Fire and Heron Oblivion), the band recorded the album with Eric “King Riff” Bauer at the Mansion in San Francisco, direct to tape, in one or two takes.
It’s their first major release on Silver Current Records, the artist-run label owned by Miller, and gleefully indebted to classic rock formations like the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 and Free’s masterpiece of atmospheric, minimalist blues, 1969’s Fire and Water. “The guiding principle for The Alligator Bride was to create ‘Neal Cassady Rock,’” says Miller. “Which is to say, high energy, good-times adventure music, driving the hippie bus, shirtless and stoned, up for four days straight, and extremely fuzzy around the edges.” It’s a fitting vision for the band: torn between eras, fuzzed out but full of soul, an epic perspective on what’s come before and what lies ahead, woven into a cosmic tapestry of riffs, rhymes, and resonant frequencies.
Glitter Wizard plays a unique brand of freak rock that Julian Cope once described as “unashamedly glamorous hard rock,” and he’s not wrong. These San Francisco longhairs from another dimension were raised on punk and mix screaming riffs with a high- octane stage show full of sequins, headbanging and a sonic attack that'll leave you dazed and ready for the next hit. Imagine the Stooges stole the outifts from the Spiders from Mars, synth man Dik Mik from Hawkwind and hit the stage on a speed bender.
They have assembled a legion of glitterati touring the US and Europe, playing club shows and festivals like Roadburn, Muskelrock, Duna Jam, Desert Fest, Burger Boogaloo, SXSW, Desert Daze, Psycho de Mayo and Heavy Days in Doomtown along the way. Their music has been featured in film, podcasts, the X Games, and even a low budget porno. Glitter Wizard have recorded four full-length albums and three EPs with Donny Newenhouse (The Coachwhips, Holly Golightly, Dead Ships, Hot Lunch) and are constantly working to keep the real spirit of rock n' roll undead and feasting on the brains of young and old alike.