Twice Wilted

For the average music listener Twice Wilted had a confounding sound that was initially difficult to assimilate, but as fans discovered ,deep inside their walls of distortion were melodies of incredible beauty and lyrics of rare poetry. They also had a penchant for radical dynamic changes long before that trick became the signature alt/rock sound through bands such as Jane's Addiction and Nirvana. Wilted's locomotive distortion would come to screeching halts, then begin again in explosions of sound so loud it was like standing in the face of a shock wave. If they had anything called a hit, it was the song 'Brighter" in which Ottaway's deft lyrical skills peaked with line like"....she comes tripping like a sugar storm.... " Wilted fans used to sing the soaring chorus along with the band, imparting a magic to performances of "Brighter" usually reserved for million- selling rock singles." Take us brighter than the error before us..... brighter than the day....In my jealous sea of misery....I will never be the same.."But Music isn't often allowed to be as challenging as Twice Wilted's. After a west coast swing many years ago, their then-manager spoke of how they played the Whisky-a-Go-Go and literally knocked the crowd back with their first chord. "They'd never heard anything like it before" I remember him saying. and it was true- never had a band sounded more like the end of the world than Twice Wilted. They sounded like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the flaming death of angels all at once. In nearly 10 years of attending live shows in Seattle, L.A., Texas, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and many places in between for my buck Twice Wilted was one of the best bands I’d ever heard, standard bearers of what many considered a signature Denver sound of "pop gloom". Most of those pop gloom bands have already gone the way of the wilts and with those bands much of the best music in town. Fortunately there are many great bands still left making different kinds of music now, and everyday I tell the East and West coast publicists and musicians I speak with the same thing.Sid Davis- Pulp Magazine April 1996This profile was edited with Thomas' myspace editor™ V2.5