Hey Mikey–pick up the phone. . . . I guess you’re not home. Why don’t you come out tonight, baby. We’re either going to the Lava Lounge for Sinatra night or the Derby for the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We might also check out Swing Night at the Viper. So…

Just a short time ago, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland were flat broke. The digital duo had to bum rides to and from work in their hometown of Las Vegas from a girl named Crystal. But in Vegas the drinks are cheap, and the couple were able to drown their…

A definition of irony proved to be too enigmatic for Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) in the alterna-classic movie Reality Bites. She tells her would-be employer that she “knows irony when she sees it,” but such an answer denies her any chance of being hired for a position in the newsroom…

Paul Simon Songs From the Capeman (Warner Bros. Records) Forget Happy Days. Rock ‘n’ roll and doo-wop pounded through the commercial and racial barriers of the ’50s because turmoil churned beneath America’s placid Leave It to Beaver surface. Racism, drugs, unemployment and juvenile gangs plagued the life of urban teens…

Don’t utter his name in vain. The Artist–or whatever he chooses to call himself–is once again part of a revolution. The Minneapolitan maestro has moved into a brave new world, and he sends a message: For fans, The Artist still wants to party until 1999 with his new concert tour…

Cornershop When I Was Born for the 7th Time (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros. Records) During the latter stages of Michael Dukakis’ disastrous 1988 run for the Oval Office, an old friend snidely remarked, “I knew him before he was Greek.” The rude–if bull’s-eye–implication was that for the Duke, ethnicity was an…

Music Editor’s Note–This week I turn over Coda to local hip-hop impresario Mr. P-Body Scott, who observes that some of the urban club patrons who complain about club closings are the same ones contributing to the negativity surrounding hip-hop/R&B events. The characters in his time line are fictional, and any…

1. Warrant, Belly to Belly (CMC/BMG) Duh. 2. Great White, Let It Rock (Imago) Long since abandoned by fans and glory, these bloated, balding bozos are still searching for that lost Mott/Bad Company riff and any stripper who still cares. 3. KISS, Unplugged (Mercury) Weren’t the lunchboxes, TV shows, comic…