Jim Yelenik is rock ‘n’ roll royalty. He’s a punk from the old days, and he’s roadied and played all over the world.
He has counted Joe Strummer and the guys from Agent Orange among his inner circle of friends – and influences. He’s played with too many bands to list, ranging from the sweat-soaked rock of Jet Black Joy to the insane silliness of his Turbonegro cover band, Zillion Dollar Sadists.
But Yelenik’s most persistent musical project is Sputnik Slovenia, an alter ego of sorts that is as much a fixture on the Colorado music scene as Denver Joe. Slovenia still plays Friday-night happy hours at the Larimer Lounge, and while sometimes the sets are sparsely attended, others are elbow-
throwing singalongs worthy of Dublin’s finest pubs.
Yelenik is working on three records, all for different bands – including one Slovenia album made up of mostly originals. He took time from the madness to talk with us about his humble beginnings, old friends and future exploits.
Q: Why Sputnik Slovenia?
A: Well Sputnik means satellite, and Slovenia is where my grandfather was from. It’s like I’m a satellite of Slovenia.
Q: How and when did you first start playing?
A: I was roadie-ing for a band called Horace Pinker, an old pop-punk band, and the lead singer got chicken pox in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (I eventually got them too.) They were doing an in-store, and he couldn’t do the show, and they asked me if I wanted to go up there and play for 20 minutes.
Q: And so you did, but did you know how to play?
A: I knew a few chords from college, but no, not really. But I still played, just making songs up off the top of my head, and the crowd was dumbfounded and they were looking at me and like, “What the (expletive)?”
Q: It went well, then.
A: Yeah, and then the band asked me, “Do you wanna go ahead and open up our world tour?” I was like, “Yeah, why not.” I also toured half the U.S. with Agent Orange – just me and a guitar doing Clash tribute songs. I played in New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and 90 days in Europe, and the band got another roadie from their label.
Q: So you were playing punk rock solo and acoustic?
A: Exactly. I’d be up there playing Stiff Little Fingers and Clash, and they loved it so much. Nobody was doing that at the time, acoustic punk tributes.
Q: And you’re still playing a lot of those songs.
A: Yeah, but it can change from week to week, depending on how much booze there is and depending on the time of year and what’s going on downtown that night. One week will be like playing tea at the Brown Palace. And the next week, it’s like mini-ramps and skateboards and bikes and slam-
dancing to acoustic punk rock. It’s likely why I’ve lasted so long doing the happy hour.
Q: Give me the set list you’d throw down if you were playing right now.
A: Britney’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time;” Cheap Trick, “Surrender;” Clash, “White Riot;” a traditional Irish drinking song called “Wild Rover;” the TV theme to “Rawhide;” “Gin and Juice” by Snoop Dogg; “Our Lips Are Sealed” by the Go-Gos; Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” which is one that people usually like, and … I don’t know, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats.
Q: And all of this from somebody who knew Joe Strummer? Tell me how you met the Clash frontman.
A: I met Strummer in 1989. I was living in Rome and going to school over there, but at the time I was in Paris with a couple friends doing a weekend trip, and we’re getting on the train to go back to Rome, whipping through the subway, and one of us sees a posted bill that says, “Joe Strummer.” …
Joe is the nicest guy in the world. We’re (backstage) having drinks. I’m talking about Colorado. He talks about Red Rocks and the hotel by Mile High Stadium. We ended up running around that night, and as the years went by, we talked and e-mailed. When he got to (Las) Vegas with Mescaleros, and I drove out there to see him – and we also hung out when he was in Denver playing the Ogden the next night.
The Denver show was great, packed house … At the end of the show, I went back to the dressing rooms. He wanted to go boozing, but it was bar time. (Concert promoter/Lion’s Lair owner) Doug Kaufman was sitting in the corner, and I invited Doug over to meet one of my friends. I introduced them and said, “We have a little place we could go and have a nice afterhours and get to know some people,” and so we took him over to the Lion’s Lair and spent all night there with Joe like an old grandfather up there telling stories. Before we knew it we’d gone through a bottle of tequila.
Q: The Clash was pretty influential to you. This must have been huge.
A: I wouldn’t even be playing guitar if it wasn’t for The Clash. I learned a B chord and an A chord. I had no musical training, but I knew how The Clash songs went.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
Sputnik Slovenia
ACOUSTIC PUNK ROCK|Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St.; 6 p.m. Fridays with revolving guests at the happy hour bar|FREE|larimerlounge.com
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– Ricardo Baca
