Before we dip into the treasure chest of sound this month, let me tell you to go see the Fastbacks. Simply one of the best bands ever to emerge from the Pacific Northwest (that means Seattle). That’s at Boston’s on Tuesday, with Jeff Dahl. And, on the home front, Idols…
You may know that Tiny Tim was one of the most aberrant things to emerge from the Sixties. You may know that two and a half decades ago, he took his long hair, ukulele and piercing falsetto to international prominence, that he married a 17-year-old named Miss Vicky on The…
No doubt it’s a bit late in the game to begin a Gin Blossoms story with the headline “Local Band Makes Good.” The saga of the Tempe quintet–from the early days at Mill Avenue beer joints through the tours and Letterman appearances to the suicide of Doug Hopkins last December…
So there I was driving down Van Buren on my way to work, mind numb as usual, when I saw it. It was huge. It was grinning. It nearly made me lose control of my vehicle. It was Linda McCartney. Well, a billboard with her picture on it, but still–what…
Tom Jones The Lead and How to Swing It (Interscope) For millions of females over the last several decades, Tom Jones has been a seething, pulsating mass of unbridled sexuality, the consummate stud with a throat of leather. For millions of others, he has been the ultimate camp joke with…
It is Sunday as I write this, and when I stepped out of my house at the crack of noon, I found more than just the Arizona Republic waiting for me. There was a roll of toilet paper in a plastic bag hanging from my doorknob. (Wickeder wags than me…
He’s got those little round glasses, that soaring tenor and a knack for hooky melodies that could choke a whale. Way back in the early Eighties, critics slobbered all over him for the pure pop magnificence of his debut album, Marshall Crenshaw. And if you haven’t guessed the identity of…
If you know anything about Grant Hart, it’s probably that he was the singer/songwriter/drummer in one of the definitive bands of the Eighties, Husker Du. He also got a lot of press for being a junkie. Not just any junkie, but an irresponsible junkie. Showed up late, missed gigs entirely,…
Liz Phair Whip Smart (Matador) Just because her first album was Exile on Main Street with a Tampax doesn’t mean this is Phair’s Goat’s Head douche. If anything, “Super Nova” and “May Queen” are what “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” might have sounded like if Lesley Gore had been singing instead of…
Juanita Najera swears she is not fanatical about Marty Robbins. A fan, yes, but not fanatical. Yet it is because of Marty Robbins that she moved from back East to Glendale to live in the town of Robbins’ birth–to live, in fact, in the house formerly occupied by Robbins’ twin…
Random Reviews Various Artists You Got Lucky–A Tribute to Tom Petty (Backyard) You can’t polish a turd, as Eleanor Roosevelt used to say, and that’s one of the main problems with so many “tribute” albums these days. Sure, the Carpenters had a couple of great, ultralite pop songs, but most…
He may not be out there peeing in public, he doesn’t have his own brand of self-named beer, and he hasn’t taken any personal loans from Libya. But that doesn’t mean Roger Clinton is any less noticeable than the last notorious presidential brother, lovable buffoon Billy Carter. Goodness knows (that’s…
War of the Super Buses–The Confrontation: Last week on these very pages, you were promised the titillating lowdown on the ultimate grudge race to the death–the power-packed, diesel-only dirt on a new low in merchandising gimmickry. That’s right, the toy replicas of the mighty touring coaches of country legends Billy…
If you haven’t figured it out, I’m old. And I’ll tell you something else: I have a tough time getting it up for great, big rock n’ roll shows anymore. But I’ve had my fun in the past, sure. For example: I got smashed against the front wall, stoned out…
At almost any given moment during the last 40 years, while most Americans have been doing things like going to the dentist, balancing checkbooks, eating toast or snoozing soundly in their very own beds, a man named Sleepy LaBeef has been at the wheel of some large vehicle barreling down…
If you must hate someone, if you must point a finger of blame, if you must direct the seething waves of unspeakable anger that have been washing over you since hearing the news that the Rolling Stones have canceled their Phoenix dates, then the people of Oakland, California, should be…
Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge (Virgin) It’s the Stones. It’s great. Buy it. Little Jimmy Scott Dream (Sire) America is a wonderful place. A country that, no matter how much misfortune comes your way, no matter how much you just plain fuck up, if you hang around long enough, things just…
All right. Before we dive into the always controversial and titillating world of local reviews, let me tell you this: I went to see rockabilly shouter Robert Gordon at the fine establishment that is the Rockin’ Horse the other night. Some of you were there, too, a handful of Gordon…
The only negative thing I can say about Joe Myers’ new release is that you might get splinters from it. The guitarist has gone all out with the packaging of Sonoran Snake Lady, creating a roughly hewn wooden box for his second CD to live in. And before you begin…
Dazzling Pantene spokesmodel Kelly LeBrock once said, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Maybe LeBrock’s plea was less breathtakingly presumptuous than it seems. Perhaps it was a simple assessment of a basic human attitude toward the naturally gifted, a little naive noblesse oblige from someone born to the runway. Let’s…
When you think of Laughlin, Nevada, you think of: Slots! Blackjack! Dice! Drinks! Action! And Girls! Girls! Girls! But that’s not all there is in Laughlin, Nevada; I have two words for you: American Superstars. A fake Roy Orbison, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Charlie Daniels, Blues Brothers (not to mention…
Week after week, I spout off about what I like and don’t like here in this column, and, while it may be hard for the legions of Screed loyalists out there to comprehend, there are some who do not always agree with my opinions. Believe me, for every teeming mail…
