“Memphis” Charlie Musselwhite says the secret to happiness is to treat life like a harmonica solo. “You’ve just gotta find the right key and play all the notes in the chord,” says the veteran rock/blues harp player. “If you’ve got the right vibrations, then get in a groove, let it…
Meat Puppets No Joke! (London) Immediately after hearing this set’s chipper “Taste of the Sun” on the radio for the first time, I button-punched over to an oldies station and caught a blast of the Cyrkle’s 1966 hit “Red Rubber Ball.” Coincidence? I think not! Both songs share a peripheral…
Red Hot Chili Peppers One Hot Minute(Warner Bros.) The serrano boys have peeled the tube socks off their dicks and pulled on their thinking caps for this fire dance of an album–easily the band’s best since it put funk/punk on the map in 1985 with Freaky Styley. Four years back,…
Generiks Cactus Jelly-Jive? (World Records) I’m thinking Blue Cheer. I’m thinking Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. I’m thinking Feargal Sharkey. I’m thinking Nervous Norvus. I’m thinking everybody who’s ever sounded worried delivering a lyric. Whether Tempe’s Generiks are musing about being a fetus (“If I was a fetus, I’d probably make…
The Blue Meanies make it a practice to sleep with their fans. “We can’t afford hotels, so usually someone puts us up, people in the crowd we happen to meet,” says Bill Spunke, the Meanies’ 27-year-old lead singer. “Sometimes you luck out and stay with someone who lives in a…
“Should I get into the fact that producers and rockers really love Arizona because of the tit bars?” asks Jon Harris, owner of Phase Four Studios, a 24-track Phoenix recording facility. “And golf, too. I haven’t met a musician who doesn’t play golf. All these cats into heavy metal saying,…
