Friday Night Retro

Welcome once more to everybody's favorite weekend diversion - Friday Nite Retro at Left in Aboite! Tonight's artist is a trio from Colorado who formed in 1986 and have developed a sizable live following, especially in their home region. Big Head Todd and the Monsters is fronted by Todd Park Mohr on guitar and vocals, with Brian Nevin on drums and vocals and Rob Squires on bass and vocals. The trio had attended Columbine High School together and formed a band at the University of Colorado. The band name is a tribute to legendary blues/jazz "heads" (eg. Eddy Clean-head Vincent, etc.) It was actually just a fluke - they were scheduled to perform their first gig, but had no name...Todd came up with that at the spur of the moment and it stuck.

The band soon built up a following in Denver and Boulder. They toured extensively throughout the Mountain States and West Coast of the United States in their van dubbed "The Colonel", which clocked up over 400,000 miles.

In 1989, the band formed Big Records and released their first album, Another Mayberry. Midnight Radio was released the following year. In 1993, they signed with Giant Records and recorded Sister Sweetly. This album went platinum and spawned three singles that made the rock charts including "Bittersweet", "Circle" and "Brokenhearted Saviour".

Bittersweet


Broken Hearted Savior


Circle


Mohr produced the next album Strategem released in 1994. It reached #30 on the Billboard album charts but didn't sell as well as its predecessors due to the lack of a hit single from the album.

The band also contributed the song Tangerine to the 1995 Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin.

Jerry Harrison, formerly of the Talking Heads, produced the next album released in 1997. Blues legend John Lee Hooker was recording an album in the same studio and played with the band on a version of his best-known song "Boom Boom". Rob Squires described the recording of the track on the band's website. "Hooker has just this incredible presence. He walked into the room and literally everyone was intimidated including our producer and the people who work in the studio." Bernie Worrell, formerly of P-Funk, played keyboards on the albums title track "Beautiful World". The album spawned two hit singles on the rock charts namely "Boom Boom" and "Resignation Superman". The Live Monsters album followed in 1998.

In the Morning


Resignation Superman


Please Don't Tell Her


Todd and the boys are still recording and touring today. Check out their official site for more information.