Not just an artist, mind you, but “The Artist.” That’s what the 9,000 tickets said. You have to admit, no matter how deep you’re into his (His?) music, that’s just a little pretentious. “Everybody always asks me what your name is now,” said The Artist Who Performed at America West…
Grrls and boyz, we have a winner. Well, 13 winners. One each for the 12 genre-specific categories in the second annual New Times Music Awards Showcase, plus Yoko Love, write-in victor for “Most Likely to Make It Big.” I compliment our readers on their taste, but I think they might…
The second annual New Times Music Awards Showcase is history. And–let’s see, how can I put this delicately?–it kicked total ass. Just more than 11,000 people came to the party, most venues were consistently packed, the DJ showcase went off, and, overall, we’re feeling about like the girl with the…
Several London dance clubs can lay claim to the title “England [and therefore the world]’s First Underground House Music Club.” But only one–a South London spot called Heaven–has clear bragging rights to “England [and therefore the world]’s First Chill-Out Room.” It also can lay claim to helping bring about the…
Bzzzt. Pop. Check. Check. So how’s everybody doing out there? I said . . . how’s everybody doing out there!? All right! Are you ready for the second annual New Times Music Awards Showcase!? Coooool. Before we get started, I’d like to take a second and thank our sponsors. Especially…
The Chemical Brothers Dig Your Own Hole (Astralwerks) Attention, white boys: You can now, for the first time, bump Schooly D in your ride with subcultural authority. It’s the new Chemical Brothers, opening cut, “Block Rockin’ Beats,” and it goes a little somethin’ like this: First, an ominous drone rises…
Fair’s fair. A few pages ago, I dissed Rolling Stone for breaking out the Jimi Hendrix comparisons in a recent review of the new Chemical Brothers (no, really). But on the flip side, I have to commend the pop-music mag of record for recognizing home-grown Valley hip-hop DJ Z-Trip in…
Although it took several weeks for news to jump the pond, Sweet front man Brian Connolly died of liver failure last month in Slough, England. Here’s why you should care: For better or worse, Connolly was the godfather of glam–the first rock star to put glitter on his face, wear…
The Driskill hotel in downtown Austin, Texas, was built in 1884, and, according to the American Registry of Haunted Places, it’s infested with ghosts. I stayed at the Driskill for five nights last week during the 11th Annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, and while I didn’t see…
Guitar Wolf would really have to suck not to be cool. I mean, hey–a Japanese punk band called Guitar Wolf, whose members grease their hair into pompadours and wear black leather jackets? That’s cool by definition, if only because such flagrant individualism so satisfyingly blows away the American stereotype of…
Willobee Carlan marches around the main floor of the Dragonflye, clutching a guest list that reads like a headhunter’s guide to music-industry lawyers, agents, A&R reps and midlevel record-company managers. His hair is slicked back. He is wearing sunglasses. He looks tense. Willobee manages a rock band. The band calls…
Beck Celebrity Theatre February 20, 1997 Beck’s not himself these days. The stage-frightened, rain-soaked, coffee-house kitten has turned into a blow-dried lion in white polyester. The muttering beatnik is now a rock star. This is the new Beck. Hear him roar. “Owwwww! Y’all lookin’ sexy!” Beck was half right. About…
Once again, the Valley music scene took it on the chin from the showcase selection committee of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. No point in going off about it at length, ’cause it’s the same tired story, year after year. There’s one new twist for ’97–this time…
Pat Boone Pat Boone in a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy (Hip-O/MCA) Pat Boone is back in black, and God help us all. When a recording that’s so wrong in so many ways returns Pat Boone–Pat Boone–to the pop charts after 34 years in celebrity-golf-tournament exile, it’s time…
On a one to 10, with half points, here’s how the gala debut of Utopia–the first real attempt to translate underground dance culture into a legal, nightclub setting in the Valley–scored in the following critical areas: Music: 9.0 Resident DJ R.C. Lair started spinning around 10 and, intelligently, cast a…
Critters Buggin Guest Host (LooseGroove) Shake the hand of fate for pushing Pearl Jam into the Pantheon. Because if Pearl Jam had never gotten huge, guitarist Stone Gossard wouldn’t have gotten rich. And if Stone Gossard had never gotten rich, he wouldn’t have started his own record label. And if…
“Welcome to the Nappy Jungle.” Black Moon Graffiti vocalist Napoleon “Leo” Powell divides the air with his hand, magician style, and whisks open the door to his Tucson home. From the emerald abundance of plant life inside, it’s clear where the “jungle” comes from, but what’s up with “nappy”? Powell…
Bjork Telegraph (Elektra) Bjork’s the fairy queen of post-rock pop, and on Telegraph, several of the finest producers and DJs in the European club, underground dance and hip-hop scenes attend to her at court. The former Sugarcube’s third solo release is mostly remixes of material from her second, Post. Nonetheless,…
Supersuckers Nita’s Hideaway January 21, 1997 “Welcome to the rock show,” Supersuckers singer/spokesman Eddie Spaghetti exhorted a packed house from behind his “rock-star shades.” Looking a lot like Andy Kaufman in a cowboy hat, Spaghetti kept the absurdity level high throughout his band’s roller-coaster set of hillbilly hard-core. “Here’s a…
Marilyn Manson’s children of the scorn bustled about their suburban bedrooms early in the evening of Friday, January 24, applying makeup and fish net in prep for the pop-industrial-shock artist’s first Valley concert since his new recording, Antichrist Superstar, was released last October and went insta-platinum. Then they flocked by…
Q: What did the snail say on the turtle’s back? A: “Wheeeeeee!” If you were at Hollywood Alley last Saturday night (January 18), you probably heard Les Payne Project guitarist James Karnes tell that one. I was, and I did. And I’m glad for it, because I also heard Karnes…
Music and language. Tracks and lyrics. Beats and rhymes. East Coast. Queensbridge, motherfucker–the brutal public-housing projects in Long Island City where the fundamentals of hip-hop never fell out of flavor. The Juice Crew’s Marley Marl and MC Shan immortalized “The Bridge” with their 1986 cut of the same name. But…
