The Bollard Bulletin for May 26, 2025
Local Music Monday: Dave Gutter's "stupid" solo album
Local Music Monday
Dave Gutter
The Music Industry Is Trying to Kill Me
self-released
There’s an entire sub-genre of music about how much the music industry sucks. It’s a tricky subject, as the public understandably has limited empathy for the problems of rock and hip-hop stars. But done well, it can be both highly enlightening and enjoyable. My personal favorite is The Kinks’ 1970 classic Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround, followed by Zappa’s Joe’s Garage, and now a third: Dave Gutter’s first solo album, The Music Industry Is Trying to Kill Me.
Gutter, who recently won a Grammy for co-writing a song with Aaron Neville, most famously fronts Rustic Overtones, which infamously got fucked over by record industry big-wigs a quarter-century ago. In a fair world, Gutter’s hard work, huge talent and dedication to his craft would earn him a comfortable living and sustained acclaim. In this one, we get Kill Me, the brilliant cri de coeur of a middle-aged rocker realizing the brass ring was never really within reach.
“I started playing music when I was very, very little, like eight years old,” Gutter says, stand-up comic–style, as the record begins. “I’ve really known nothing else. I have the résumé of an eleven-year-old boy…” Rim shot!
If Kill Me were a job application, though, any A&R man would be a fool not to sign Gutter (again). He deftly hopscotches across genres, maintaining the central concept while exploring other ugly aspects of the industry, like drug and alcohol abuse (“The elephant in the room”) and its obsessions with connections (“The Velvet rope”) and appearances (“#notsthenewhot”).
The short title track is, appropriately, circus music. “Elephant,” the first single, sounds the most like Rustic, and “Rope” is also a great rock song with sharp lines like “California is hella cold,” a perfect Mainer complaint.
“Stoned and lonely” is a Tex-Mex-inflected country ballad that would’ve fit on Gutter’s excellent co-production of Joel Thetford’s new album. “Artsy fartsy” recalls the early ’80s R&B that Graham Parker, another bitter industry refugee, was putting out. “Rock n roll ain’t cool” is, technically and fittingly, a polka.
“The pot at the end of the rainbow’s just weed,” Gutter observes on the last track, “Gold Records,” which also contains the acid remark that “gold records aren’t gold.”
“This genre mash-up is to intentionally underscore the album’s themes of contradiction and self-exploration,” the press materials state, further noting that Gutter explores “musical styles he had previously dismissed, or even disliked.
“‘I want it to sound stupid,’ he repeatedly advised the session musicians” — a group that included locally renowned players like Scott Mohler, Cam Jones and Ben Cosgrove.
Stupid is not the word I’d apply to their playing, but there’s no doubt they’re having fun, as is Gutter, despite the downer lyrical theme. They say you gotta laugh to keep from crying, but again, and don’t forget — in a fair society, we could all just laugh.
The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me comes out June 9.
Highlights
It’s a local movie doubleheader tonight at Eveningstar Cinema (149 Maine St., Brunswick) with The Mayor, a film about a man from Brunswick with a rare genetic disorder, and Tom the Bottleman, about a local guy who collects returnables and friends along the way, at 7 p.m. Tix: $14 ($12 seniors, $10 students).
Here’s another doubleheader! First, news that there’s another entertainment venue in Ogunquit besides Jonathan’s, called the Leavitt Theatre (259 Main St.), presenting jazz, folk, comedy and movies. Second, Maine folk star Dan Blakeslee is playing tonight on a double bill with Cryin Caleb Aaron at 8 p.m. It’s free (tips and reservations encouraged).