Joe Ehrbar

Cringe singer/guitarist/noise purveyor/studio owner John Salvo bears a lot of weight on his shoulders. For the last couple of years, the New York transplant has been juggling various roles as a husband, a father, a musician, a studio owner, a record label owner and a producer. That's enough to drive anyone one batty.

Let's face it. Good reggae shows don't come to Spokane very often. Fortunately, the Big Dipper has one booked for Tuesday. Nicodemus, a veteran dance-hall reggae singer from Kingston, Jamaica, will make a rare appearance in Washington.

If Seattle pop rock quartet the Best Kissers in the World, which plays the Big Dipper tonight, could only gain some momentum in its career, the band might actually go somewhere. For a number of reasons, that has yet to happen. First, over the last five years, the band has endured a string of lineup changes. Singer Gerald Collier remains as the lone original Best Kisser. Fortunately, the band's current lineup has stayed solid for about a year.

Burgeoning Minneapolis singer-songwriter Marlee MacLeod recorded her two albums with rock/country rock bands backing her. But now, while on the road supporting her new album, "Favorite Ball and Chain," MacLeod performs alone. She plays El Toreador tonight. "I prefer it," MacLeod said in a recent phone interview. "I am not a democracy."

A paragraph of Latimer's press biograhpy reads: "The names aren't changed, we just left them at a bus stop in Spokane." The three members of Latimer were referring to the fact they dropped their first names after playing a show with label-mate Low Pop Suicide and Compulsion in Spokane in April. "We did it right after that," said singer-guitarist G. Doring in a recent phone interview. "We excommunicated a member, so it was kind of strange times at the time. We were glad that we did it but it was terrible. So, we just felt like being anonymous. That's why we left our names there."

You first read about the New York rock band Bicycle, the trio that's touring the country on bicycles, a couple of weeks ago in Doug Clark's column. The band had made it to Minneapolis, the half-way mark of a journey that started June 19. By Tuesday, in time for a show at the Big Dipper, Bicycle will have pedaled to Spokane, en route to Seattle.

Former Iron Butterfly singer Darryl DeLoach plays the Cotton Club in Hayden, Idaho, on Thursday. DeLoach sang on the band's 1968 album "Heavy," but quit before the 1969 release of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," Iron Butterfly's best-selling record. His reason for leaving the band: "The reason why I quit is that the pace got too fast," said DeLoach. "Just like all the rest of them, we got burned out." Yet the vocalist has no regrets for quitting.

If you don't go to the Big Dipper on Saturday to see one of the premier live performances of a new/rock/jazz/R&B;/blues hybrid called Painted Rhythm, you'll probably regret it for the rest of your life. Really. Here's why. Painted Rhythm isn't your average, overly hyped new band. Rather, the five-piece unit is a super group featuring former members of Santana, the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Traffic, Oblivion Express and more.

OK Fine! used to be a familiar name on the local original music scene. After five years and five local tape releases, the hard-rock band, featuring drummer Steve Nelson, singer-guitarist Bob Patterson and bassist Paul Felicijan disbanded in 1994.

Remember that wart-ridden bully in elementary school who used to make a daily routine of stalking you, beating you up and stealing your lunch money, thus, permanently scarring you and leading you to seek many years of intensive and expensive counseling? Well, Fatty Lumpkin is the bully, sort of. Actually, Fatty Lumpkin is a band. But the five-piece thrash/ noise outfit, which plays Ichabod's North tonight, plays a sonically bruising, often unruly sound, which can make the audience feel like it's been pounded. The band features two irrational and unpredictable vocalists, Brian Monger and Sean Beightol. The duo inflicts their wrath on their mikes, themselves and those unfortunate souls at the front of the stage.

You'd think that after spending 15 years in the Fastbacks, bassist/vocalist Kim Warnick would be unconcerned about whether or not people will show up to the Fastbacks' show with Vatican 3 at Mother's Pub on Saturday. But she is a bit anxious. "You think people will go?" Warnick asked during a recent phone interview.

Brad Rudkin, singer of Snaut and former Outback Jack's promoter, will reopen the Big Dipper tonight. Rudkin, who was issued his alcohol permit by the state last Thursday, will lease the original music haven from Steve Spickard for the next 14 months. "My intentions are golden right now," said Rudkin. "I'm going to do the best I can to accommodate the bands and the people who pay to watch the bands."

The Rev. Del Walth is the new associate pastor of music and worship at Trinity Baptist Church, 6528 N. Monroe. An installation service and reception was held for him on June 4.

Those Inland Northwest nightclubbers seeking fun in the Valley now have a new destination to check out. This new hot spot is Bolo's Bar and Grill, which opened last weekend. Bolo's, 116 S. Best, operates as a a full-service restaurant with bar. It is open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day except for Sunday's midnight closing.

On their way to Canada after being kicked out of the Garageshock festival in Bellingham - an annual gathering of garage bands and surf bands - the Makers, who play Outback Jack's tonight, had a run-in with former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant. "All the Makers, of course, got pulled over with all the other questionable people at the border," said manager and honorary fifth member of the band Vic Mostly. "And one of the guys comes out of the bathroom and says 'Robert Plant's here.' "And then he comes out, strutting and hair bobbing."

FOR THE RECORD CORRECTION: The potential prize in a Frisbee toss tonight at the Spokane Indians baseball game is $10,000. The amount listed in Friday's Weekend entertainment section was incorrect. Correction published on June 17, 1995.

The irrepressibly zany Sweaty Nipples will blast its way into Mother's Pub on Saturday. So far, Sweaty Nipples has spent most of 1995 on the road supporting its debut long-player Bug Harvest, released last November.

It seems like local performances by Too Slim and the Taildraggers are becoming increasingly rare these days. Perhaps it's because the band has been maintaining an ambitious road schedule in recent months. Earlier this year, Too Slim and the Taildraggers played a blues festival in Belgium and spent a week playing in Hawaii. The threepiece blues band recently completed a three-week tour of the Midwest.

Two garage punk monsters, Spokane's Makers and Albuquerque's Drags, will lay their filth upon Outback Jack's on Monday. Both bands are featured at this weekend's Garage Shock festival in Bellingham. Garage Shock is an annual, weekend-long showcase of the current crop of underground garage bands.

Nightwatch

Sleep Capsule, a highly underrated and almost unknown Seattle band, plays Outback Jack's on Saturday night. Sleep Capsule is something of a misfit in the Northwest. And for good reason. Its sound. This power trio vents a discordant style of abrasive rock that's being carved out by numerous hard-hitting Minneapolis bands such as Hammerhead, Janitor Joe and Dumpster Juice. With the exception of Godheadsilo, Unwound and Karp, Sleep Capsule's style is still a strange phenomenon in the Northwest.

The last time Seattle's Green Apple Quickstep played in Spokane it was a Tuesday night at Outback Jack's and the event was a record release party for its major label debut, "Wonderful Virus." Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a party because only about 30 people were present, many of them members of the opening bands.

Pansy Division, which plays the Big Dipper on Saturday, is to queer-core as the Sex Pistols is to punk rock. Queer-core? What does that mean? A queer-core band is punk in style and is comprised entirely of homosexual band members. The nature of queer-core songs usually pursues homosexual issues such as lifestyle and homophobia.

It's been a while since we've heard from Jamaican transplant and reggae singer Raggs. Tonight, he and his band, Bush Doktor will play their first Spokane show in months at the Big Dipper. In what seems like a dream tour, Raggs recently arrived home to Spokane from a fourmonth, all-expenses-paid tour of Asia.