Riverside

by Michael Sutton
The ringing guitars and British-styled alternative pop of Riverside echoed the Anglophiliac passions of another Pennsylvania combo, the Ocean Blue. Not surprisingly, Riverside's debut album, One, was produced by former Ocean Blue keyboardist Steve Lau. When One was released on Sire Records in 1992, Riverside was virtually alone in their unyielding devotion to the mid-'80s jangle of the Railway Children and the Smiths. Featuring Keith Kochanowicz (vocals, guitar, organ) and his brother Glenn Kochanowicz (bass, vocals), Kenneth Jackson (guitars), and Geoff Verne (drums), Riverside formed in the wrong decade. The heavy metal thunder of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains had punctured holes in new wave's domination of alternative radio, and Riverside's dreamy melodies were simply too polite to attract attention. The video for "Waterfall" appeared on MTV's 120 Minutes and then swiftly vanished. If the album had been released four years earlier, perhaps it could've found the audience it deserved; however, tastes changed, and One was dead on arrival.
Riverside recorded a second album, Taste, for Sire, but they were dropped by the label before it landed on the shelves. Glenn Kochanowicz (bass, vocals) eventually sold cassette copies of the album through the Internet. Placing Riverside on hiatus, the Kochanowicz brothers formed the group Deluxe.