EGO STROKES...AND POKES
12-25-03
– 12/31/03
…We've
assembled track lists with the best songs from the best albums and artists for
situations you may encounter in the coming year -- a custom set of mix tapes
from us to you.
[snip]
Top Ten Songs for Playing Dress-Up
By John La Briola
[snip]
10.
"Little
People Sex Workers" from I
Want to Be a Billionaire, by Gregory Ego.
The industrious streetwalkers who frequent the Royal Court Motel are barely
legal, barely dressed and barely three foot five. Down on their heels in torn
fishnets with mismatching cuffs and collars, these tiny burlap sisters can all
attest to one thing: "We're not in Kansas anymore."
Punk
Planet
Jan./Feb.
2004
CD
Review: I Want To Be A Billionaire
By
Sean Moeller
Ego goes
cerebral and goofy in equal measures, like a Jonathan Richman/Atom And His
Package super-bot. An investment banker who kicks it to Dr. Demento during his
power lunches.
Punk Planet
Jan./Feb.
2004
CD
Review: Five Song CD
By
Don Irwin
A 1999
reissue consisting mostly of comedic and overly theatrical songs about
“Budapest” and “Senor Mysterioso.” One highlight from this mysterious
Denver, Colo., singer was a tribute to Neal Cassady, whom Jack Kerouac made
a legend.
Headpress: the journal of sex religion death #25
Gregory Ego
I WANT TO BE A BILLIONAIRE
Gregory Ego
FIVE SONG CD
By Anthony Petkovich:
I gotta stay indoors more often. Really. Every time I go outside, my ears are assailed by the thumpa-thumpa-thumpa of bass (or whatever it is) from rap music…played at blaring volume by niggaz and wiggaz alike, either in their cars (with rolled down windows, naturally) or on their monstrously sized ghetto-blasters. Sometimes you even get this overplayed music (or whatever it is) piped into malls. And it’s been going on for well over ten years now! Geesh! Talk about bloody-bleedin’ over-saturation. Even disco and punk had their days but, more or less, faded into the less intrusive regions of nostalgia.
But staying indoors these days isn’t so bad, either. Since that is, I’ve been listening to Gregory Ego tunes. Ahhh…lemme tell ya’, the stuff is audio-fucking-ambrosia. And Ego’s latest brace of CDs (a dozen songs in all, every one penned by the Denver guitarist himself) offer a delicious sound-cocktail of music – and musicianship! – including such varied styles as heavy metal (the fascinatingly thick texture’s of Billionaire’s Toast, which includes some marvelously twisted Robert Fripp-ish pickings), a little psychedelia (Five Song’s spooky, organ based Seńor Mysterioso), rock’n’roll (the intoxicatingly catchy guitar riff of Billionaire’s title track, with some twangy Stannard Ridgeway-like vocals thrown in), and some jazzy material, as well (the breezy yet strangely wicked flute interludes of Five Song’s Cassady).
Oh yes. Almost forgot. Ego is also a master satirist. The bloke pokes fun at everything from politically wishy-washy, ratings-obsessed, radio talk show hosts (i.e., media whores), to big-money eccentrics who’ve become as wigged-out, babbling, and stinky as insane homeless people, to what Ego – that mutated Byronic lover himself – sees as nauseatingly-fluffed romantic relationships (on Billionaire’s Toast, he croons to one targeted bird: “I’d butter you up, and gobble you down/Spreading your jelly around and around”). But maybe I’m reading the lyrics all wrong. I’m sure the proper interpretations are the total opposites of my analyses. Who knows? I certainly don’t. Either way, there’s still a magnetically sick charm to such verses as “If I was a billionaire/I’d bring my bastard son a bag of chips/And watch the smile form/On his tiny, Southeast-Asian lips.” Brilliant. These CDs are definitely the cure for the crappy-rap blues. Dynamite compositions, Mr. Ego. Write on, bruthuh!
Westword
March 20, 2003
Hit Pick
By John La Briola
Satirical tunesmith
Gregory Ego (who files his taxes under the name of Greg Daurer), laments failed
love, nicotine withdrawal and the divisive nature of talk radio. But the Vermont
native turned Denver resident certainly has good taste in shopping malls from
the days of yore: Cinderella City, once the crown jewel of cosmopolitan
Englewood, provides mythical significance for the 39-year-old rocker with its
bygone, shamrock-coded chasms of record stores, arcades and cheap eats at Taco
Bueno. Eulogized like a sacred, unearthed Whoopee Cushion from Spencer Gifts,
this lost empire receives its nostalgic comeuppance on I Want to Be a
Billionaire, Ego's newest seven-track release set for public unveiling
during a free performance on Saturday, March 22, at 3 p.m. at the Atrium Bar
& Grill (554 South Broadway).
A smart,
punk-spirited singer-songwriter, Ego, a former guitarist for Ham Hoc War Lox,
combines understated humor with hit-and-miss vocals for a uniquely amusing brand
of three chords and the truth. The self-described "theatrical shaman of
angst" aims to celebrate the upcoming vernal equinox by paying homage to
Neal Cassady ("the Johnny Appleseed of marijuana"), as well as
defending exploited midgets in the rousing "Little People Sex
Workers." (According to the unapologetic social critic, such silent victims
are "barely legal, barely three-foot-five.") Ego has planned a solo
acoustic set and an electrified one with bassist Allan Bumgartner and drummer
Tomás Salas for the Atrium gig, but he can also claim collaborations with
underground notables Johnny Strike of the Crime and local hipster Ralph Gean.
Gean actually recorded the Ego-penned "Kill for a Cigarette" recently
at the legendary Sun Studios -- a direct conduit between rock and roll's
birthplace and the Queen City if there ever was one. Says Ego, "It's just
fun for me knowing that my song's vibrations bounced off the same walls as
Johnny Cash's." By all accounts, the unholy union was smokin'.
There
are many ways to murder a guitar, and infinite ways to crucify words and torture
a song. GREGORY EGO has cornered the market.
If you think you have heard bad, then this CD is the baddest. In its field it is
perfection. GREGORY EGO is a master of low grunge. I can't say worse than that
otherwise it would be unkind of me.
You can't say to him don't sing Gregory. It only encourages him. He wants to be
a Billionaire so who am I to stand in his way? He seems to want to be a singer
too so he needs as much discouragement as we can give him. Anything for a quiet
life, eh?
Westword
October 17, 2002
By Laura Bond
A creatively charged trifecta takes over the 15th Street Tavern on Thursday, October 17, when songwriters/auteurs Gregory Ego and Ralph Gean appear with PW3. It's art, it's odd, it's a fine bill.
Westword
May 2-8, 2002
By Laura Bond
Gregory Ego, Ralph Gean and PW3 round out a pleasingly eccentric evening of music at the 15th Street Tavern on Saturday, May 4. Ego is preparing to release his latest CD, I Want to Be a Billionaire, next month; he promises the effort will include “Cinderella City,” a loving homage to the late, lamented Englewood shopping empire.
Westword
By Laura Bond
On "Denver Radio Talk Show," the first track off his five-song CD, titled, well, Five Song CD, Gregory Ego has got it in for a battery of local radio talk-show hosts. In fact, his thinly veiled indictments of the various disembodied voices that populate the airwaves are so detailed and venomous that one wonders whether Ego might be spending a little more time dialing in than is really good for him. He scores points for working curious British undergarments into a rhyme: "The scent of his Jaguar is up his nose/He calls knickers his favorite clothes." The song's chorus of "Hey-ho, ain't it so/You heard me say it on the Denver radio talk show" is what might have happened if Loudon Wainright III or Weird Al sat in with the Ramones on a particularly goofy day. Listen closely and you can even hear Ego suppressing a laugh. Five Song CD was recorded with the help of [Jon] Killough, the original drummer for Slim Cessna's Auto Club, former members of Boulder punk bands Ski Vietnam and Lobotomy Council, and Ego's compatriots Ham Hoc War Lox, and early-Nineties Denver outfit. Throughout this release, Ego prods listeners for a chortle; in a self-consciously strained voice, he sings about nicotine fits (the roving rockabilly of "Kill for a Cigarette") and psychic phenomenon (the truly humorous, accordion-tinged "Señor Myserioso"). Yet Ego is best when he doesn't forsake musicality for comedy; in the lovely dual violin parts on "Budapest," provided by Lakewood Symphony Orchestra member Clyde Becker, both elements work nicely together...And "Cassady" sounds like a countrified Lou Reed narrative (you know those songs where Reed tries to sing a little?) about Kerouac muse Neal Cassady as channeled through Nicolas Cage's character in Raising Arizona. This all combines to very pleasant effect, especially with the addition of James Nicholson's detail work on the flute. This is a fun record that, thankfully, refrains from trying to be too fun. (P.O. Box 481262, Denver, CO 80248.)
Go-Go Magazine
January 26 – February 8, 2000
By Catalina
…The opening song, “Denver Radio Talk Show,” is tongue-in-cheek, and fun! Playful guitar, a simple foot-tapping beat, and sarcastic lyrics are a great surprise. “Budapest” continues the entertainment, adding teasing violin pieces for atmosphere. “Kill for a Cigarette” reminds me of some like-styled ‘80s bands (anyone remember the song “Bitchin’ Camaro”??), and completely wins me over. The dance-hall piano takes this over the top, and I’m trying not to laugh out loud at this song. I’m eager to hear what they’ll do next, and “Cassady” does not disappoint…somehow even the flute part is funny! With a name like “Senor Myserioso,” the last track can’t go wrong. Plus it lists accordion player in the credits. This is great! Oh, sure, it’s probably not for music purists, or those without a sense of humor. But for the rest of us, it’s amusing as hell and something to put into regular listening rotation.