Forget about all that trendy “cocktail nation” stuff, the music of Esquivel is in a category of its own. The man made a slew of dynamic instrumental records in the Fifties and Sixties that utilized space-age stereo in a way no one ever had. Of course, you can find all…

Stop your average person on the street, pin him to the ground, hog-tie him and threaten to extinguish a cigar on a pink body part, and it’s still a pretty safe bet that he would not be able to tell you who Steve Ferguson is. If, however, Jimi Hendrix had…

“Man Collapses in Struggle With Police” was the headline of a recent Associated Press story that appeared in the Arizona Republic’s obituaries section. “Man” was one Kurt Mayberry, 39, who had stopped breathing at Maricopa Medical Center on June 13 after an apparent cocaine overdose. The article gave the gory…

You wanna talk influential bands? It’s gonna be a short conversation. What band has done more than KISS to influence everyone who’s anyone today–from Nirvana to Garth Brooks to the Gin Blossoms? That’s right, all none of ’em! KISS is legendary, this we know. And Gene Simmons knows it, too;…

The boys in Beats the Hell Out of Me are green! They’re babes in the woods of rock! They’re new to the ways of the Business, and by that, of course, I mean the Industry! Check this out: When I met the Tempe quintet–guitarists Tom Coffeen and Chris Bailey, bassist…

It’s not only beer that has made Milwaukee famous; the city that the Chamber of Commerce has dubbed “A Great Place on a Great Lake” can also claim Laverne & Shirley, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Spanic Boys. Of course, each of those big three exports bears certain elements of unreality:…

Do you know who the late Vivian Stanshall was? I didn’t, either, until I got a job working a 50-year-old switchboard in the Gralyn Hotel in Washington, D.C., and moved into a tiny room in the rear corner of the building. This was about 12 years ago. My space–which once…

Instead of the usual rambling nonsense on how I wasted my weekend (though this one did involve garlic, a mood ring, nausea, high-speed travel, and a fat, squirrelesque employee at a convenience store in Cottonwood with a pulsating red scar on his forehead), let’s head straight into what really matters:…

A few years back, Chris Mars played drums in a band that prided itself on having one of the nastiest reputations in rock. Drunk, sloppy, crude, unprofessional, even impolite–the Replacements pretty much cornered the market on undesirable adjectives. So what would you expect Chris Mars to be like? Obnoxious? Uncultured?…

The desert does not care if you live or die. It is a brutal, unforgiving place where Mother Nature plays hardened Bitch Goddess to the hilt and the only law is survival. And when the sun is busy redefining “broil”–which is all the time–that’s a law enforced in terms so…

Tom Petty occupies a strange place in our collective psyche. Because of his notable collaborations with respected rock elders like Bob Dylan, George Harrison and the late Del Shannon, we tend to view him as a rookie instead of the 20-year veteran that he is. When he and the Heartbreakers…

If the word “mambo” conjures up anything at all in an age when the most popular forms of dance are “line” and “slam,” it is probably some kind of slightly silly, Ricky Ricardoesque vision. There might be a couple of ladies wearing hats made of fresh fruit bumping and grinding…

Everybody loves chili with beans–sure thing! And everybody loves legendary country supergroup Alabama–I know you’re all with me on that! But what if you wanna combine your love of both in some kind of symbiotic power coupling? Sure, you could heat up a can of Hormel and throw on your…

Geraldo Rivera: GG, why do you feel the need to defecate onstage? GG Allin: My body is the rock ‘n’ roll temple and my flesh, blood and bodily fluids are a communion to the people whether they like it or not. I’m not out to please anybody; my rock ‘n’…

Though it was more than 20 years ago, I’ll never forget my first glimpse of Playboy Mansion West. The lush, green lawns, the exotic birds and animals wandering around, the waterfall cascading into the swimming pool, the stately House That Hef Built. All of which were nothing compared to the…

At last–I’ve found it! After years of vein-popping concentration searching for unique descriptions, after developing blisters on every finger from thumbing through thesauruses looking for new adjectives, I’ve discovered the ultimate way to determine whether a song is good. But I’ll give credit where credit is due: I owe it…

If there’s one place in a man’s home where he’s allowed to do whatever he wants–other than the bathroom–it’s his bedroom. And Prescott’s Chad Calhoun has chosen to utilize his as a recording studio. Calhoun (under the name Big Tin Cactus) sent in a six-song load titled Gravity that he’d…

South by Southwest. What does it all mean? Does anybody get anything accomplished there? Are careers made? Boosted? Ignored? Is it an invaluable chance to meet industry insiders and enhance one’s working knowledge of the music business? An opportunity to see the latest groundbreaking pop, rock and roots acts while…

If they gave out Grammys for ingenuous songwriting, dazzling lyrical word play, supreme originality and courteous telephone manners, Robyn Hitchcock would need a moving van to haul home his trophies. The Grammys being what they are, though, Hitchcock needn’t be reserving shelf space. But that shouldn’t stop you from rushing…

The homemade silver cross hanging from the dash-mounted compass swings back and forth as America’s Polka King barely keeps his Olds Cutlass within the white-lane lines of a road in Mesa. Frank Yankovic, 80 years old this July, is weaving tales from his 65-year reign (well, he wasn’t officially crowned…

The Beat Angels at Long Wong’s? Unthinkable? Impossible? Perhaps, considering the bile that the Angels’ fey, puckish singer Brian Smith has spewed on the Mill Avenue “scene” in these very pages. But apparently, Smith and the boys’ insatiable need to simply “entertain” won out; last Saturday, “bile” turned to “smile”…