White Zombie bassist Sean Yseult speaks in the whiskey-and-cigarettes drawl of a heavy-metal road warrior, a title she’s earned after nearly four years of constant touring in support of her band’s 1992 major-label debut, La Sexorcisto, and last year’s follow-up, Astro-Creep: 2000. Over that time, Yseult says she’s learned a…

The Refreshments Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big & Buzzy (Mercury) There’s nothing like success to bring out the muttering bastards. Instead of celebrating this ubiquitous Tempe bar band’s major-label debut on Mercury, outspoken members and fans of less-fortunate local acts have taken to branding the three-year-old quartet’s sudden success as grossly undeserved…

Ministry Filth Pig (Warner Bros.) Like a piece of heavy machinery commandeered by a speed freak, the Ministry juggernaut rolls into its 15th year, bestowing a kind of classic-rock status upon the synth-pop Euro poseurs turned foremen of the Chicago industrial scene. With several cuts on the new album clocking…

Mr. Mirainga Mr. Mirainga (Way Cool Records) Mamba-punk? Samba-core? That’s how the PR folks at Way Cool describe their label’s latest artistic acquisition. Considering that the mamba is a poisonous tree snake from Africa, it’s safe to assume they meant “mambo.” But that doesn’t really make sense, either, given that…

Peach Springs, Arizona, can be found where old Route 66 swings through the southern tip of the 993,000-acre Hualapai Indian reservation. The burg was originally a resting spot for railroad workers. Now, it’s a collection of several dozen prefab houses and dirt roads. When the wind howls through Peach Springs,…

… And Who Could Forget About These Great Hits? (The Ten Best Albums of 1995) 1. P.J. Harvey To Bring You My Love (Island) Britain’s Gen-X version of Patti Smith gets gruff and bluesy on her latest set of psyche-aerobics. It’s not exactly easy listening–first-person songs about drowning one’s children…

Melissa Etheridge Your Little Secret (Island) What’s almost better than a box of sugar cereal with a prize at the bottom? Melissa Etheridge’s new disc, with cute and clever liner notes that double as an interactive puzzle! Anyone who buys Your Little Secret might as well take full and immediate…

The Amps Pacer (4AD) It’s easy to look back on Kim Deal’s checkered musical past and feel pity mixedwith admiration: She’s continually stymied by the company she keeps. After watching her play George Harrison to Black Francis’ Lennon/McCartney, Dylan to Tanya Donelly’s Donovan and, in the latest chapter of this…

The Slims Slow Road to Hell (Mainliner Music) Slims drummer Scott Seymann sports a “London Calling” tee shirt in this CD’s insert photo. That’s tres cool, but the Clash is light-years from the Slims’ stripped-down, medium-tempo fare, which more easily recalls the Feelies. Greg Simmons’ guitar unfurls melodic lines with…

Don’t expect any clowns at the Jim Rose Circus. Ninjas with machetes, maybe, but no clowns. Trained poodles? Try maggots and scorpions. And, in lieu of a tightrope walker, look for the guy who balances a running lawn mower on his lip while dodging vegetables. Ringling Bros., this ain’t. “We’re…

Green Day Insomniac (Sire) I admit it: I was a punk rocker in the early ’80s. I had my shoulder dislocated in the pit at a Dead Kennedys concert; I sipped out of the same longneck Bud as Exene Cervenka in the sweaty aftermath of an X show; and I…

P.M. Dawn Jesus Wept (Gee Street) Maybe it says something about rap’s creative limitations that so many of its top artists feel the need to move beyond the form as they refine their vision. The Beastie Boys’ ongoing journey back to second-wave punk is an example. In any case, the…

The members of KMFDM think they’re funny guys–despite the leather and the Hamburg accents so guttural they make Schwarzenegger sound like a girlie man. In fact, group founder and keyboardist Sascha Konietzko says KMFDM’s sense of humor is spread all over Nihil, the German quintet’s latest blend of techno, industrial…

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…

Dressed completely in black and sporting tinted shades that never come off, Hans Olson looks like the understudy for Death in a Bergman flick. His ominous appearance and growling baritone are tempered by a nostalgic smile as he ticks off the legends with whom he’s shared a stage: Muddy Waters,…

When most slackers get sick, they lie in bed hoping for codeine. Soul Coughing spits up a song. “Super Bon Bon,” for example, was spawned by an allergic reaction. “I threw this sneeze across the room,” says keyboardist/sample maestro M’ark De Gili Antoni, “and all of a sudden we were…

The Jesus Lizard’s David Yow moans, yells, squeals and sweats his way through a concert, surfing the mosh pit in a violent effort to prove that, even if he can’t sing a lick, he’s still got more balls than anyone this side of Henry Rollins. In fact, for the price…

With “alternative” music festivals proliferating like intestinal bacteria, Saturday’s “KUKQ Fest 1995” is trying to be something different: “A duel in the fucking desert.” At least, that’s how “antifest” evil genius and KUKQ program director Jonathan L. describes his latest brain child, which features dual headliners Circle Jerks and Skankin’…

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters (Roswell/Capitol) “Now what?” God, how Dave Grohl must have grown to loathe that query over the last year. At least now he’s finally come up with an answer, and a good one at that. With his new band’s eponymous debut release, Nirvana’s former drummer has stepped…

Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Free Like We Want 2 B (Elektra) Winning a Grammy is the artistic equivalent of contracting a venereal disease. The Melody Makers have two. Grammies, that is. But there’s no confusing these reggae revolutionaries with the soulless dregs found “entertaining” industry hotshots on awards…

Not too long ago, Tempe angst-rock quartet Brick Chair bought a van from an old guy in a Glendale trailer park. Big deal, you say. But wait a second, for you are about to find out how the grizzled gent became a metaphor for the Chair’s from-the-heart approach to music…

Techno composer Moby is a hypocrite, but he’s the first to admit it. “Everything I do is contradiction, and it’s laden with hypocrisy,” says the vegan and environmentalist. Moby, a.k.a. Richard Melville Hall, speaks out against a number of issues, including toxic waste and cattle ranching. Pretty much everything about…