Long time coming, but Bergmann signs with Polygram

The Vancouver Sun
Saturday, June 8, 1991
By Greg Potter

IT'S BEEN a long time comin', but local singer/songwriter/guitarist and all 'round swell guy Art Bergmann has finally tied the knot with a major label, the blushing corporate bride being Polygram.

Negotiations in Toronto "went pretty quick" last week, says Bergmann, who notes that manager Sam Feldman "did all the talkin'. I didn't have to do a thing."

Bergmann, who released two highly acclaimed albums, Crawl With Me and Sexual Roulette, for the ill-fated Canadian label Duke Street, says that after all these years (remember the Schmorgs, Young Canadians, Los Popularos, etc.?), "it feels pretty good - but it's kinda late, isn't it guys?"

With his third album (working title: The Moist, Dark Thing Is Beautiful) all but completed, he returns to Toronto this coming week to finish mixing the tracks with producer Chris Wardman (who likewise produced Sexual Roulette). A rough mix of the album confirms that Bergmann's penchant for striking melodies, inventive song structures and thoughtful wordplay remains intact.

Longtime fans will recognize a rework of God's Little Gift from Poisoned, his 1984 solo cassette debut. And if cuts such as Marianne Faithful and Faithlessly Yours don't become chart-topping hit singles, radio programmers the world over should have their kneecaps smashed. The album is due out late in July.

Meanwhile, Art's acting debut in Bruce (Roadkill) MacDonald's hilariously twisted Highway 61 should hit Vancouver for the Film Festival in September. Bergmann plays a deranged, chicken-hunting, frozen-yogurt-machine-owning rock god who resides in a Memphis mansion with his catatonic girlfriend.