T.O. NOTES

Upcoming, Katie Griffin

Although Katie Griffin's upcoming CD release gig at the Rivoli Friday (May 16) marks the first time she's offered up her tunes for public display, the bubbly local singer/songwriter is used to rabid fans. They've just usually never seen her face. The actor and voice-over dynamo has been slogging through the showbiz trenches since she was a kid. She''s done stints in movies of the week and cracked jokes with Billy Ray Cyrus in the Doc TV series. But Griffin''s greatest claim to fame comes from providing the voice of Sailor Moon''s cohort Sailor Mars on the cult cartoon series.

"Oh yeah," laughs Griffin, "we used to go to signings for Sailor Moon, and there were, like, 25-year-old guys there, and we''d get a little freaked out. Thousands of them would show up. I mean, I like cartoons, too, but not that much!"

Her new album, Kiss Me Chaos, was originally only intended as a demo for voice-over and acting work. But when Griffin showed off her songs to producer Rob Plowman, he introduced her to Michael Kulas, the local musical whirlwind formerly of Britpop heroes James. Griffin was thrilled.

"Honestly, I was a big fan of James to begin with, so when Rob told me that was Michael''s former band, it seemed like the biggest score. All my songs were written acoustically before, but I didn''t want to be a folk singer. I wanted to play rock ''n'' roll, and Michael transformed my songs from these little acoustic things to awesome rock ''n'' roll tunes. I just think they''re awesome ''cause I worked so hard on them."

The tunes on Kiss Me Chaos are sweetly resonant rockers with a definite nod to the epic Britpop ethos of the mid-90s. And although Griffin doesn''t contribute any guitar chords to the album – wisely deferring to Kulas – she promises to rock the Rivoli.T.O.

music notes

NOW | MAY 15 - 21, 2003 | VOL. 22 NO. 37

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