Every year at Austin’s South by Southwest music conference, the who’s-hot buzz quotient gets a little more frenzied. Usually it goes something like this: “Have you heard about the urban-death-pop band from Shreveport whose lead vocalist plays spoons on his genitalia while singing The Way You Look Tonight’? “No, well,…

The first thing you hear are the rhythms: bass drums, snare drums, high-hat cymbals, rattles, even stamping feet. Then the guitars begin–intricate melodies, picked instead of strummed, repeated until they become a groove. In the background, a bass guitar rumbles just behind the beat. Finally, a singer begins to sing,…

While all those unshaven, unwashed weenies from the Northwest are busy bowing down to Greg Sage in TK’s new boxed set, Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers, the old master himself is here in the Valley making plans. Sage has purchased a parcel of land near 32nd Street…

If you’ve been in line at the grocery store lately, scanning the magazine covers while you wait, you may have noticed a trend. Down below the tabloids screaming, “World’s Fattest Cat Saves Babies From Burning Building” or “Aliens Meet With Ross Perot,” are the serious mags. Almost all of them…

A friend of mine tells a story about his first King Sunny Ade concert. It was the friend’s first date with the woman who would later become his wife. Anticipating the usual droning, chunk-a-chunk-a-chunk reggae show, he had taken care to alter his consciousness before entering the arena. Pleasurable as…

One of the most frequently used phrases in the peculiar lexicon of the music business is “touring in support of.” What that deceptively clinical term means is that a record label is forcing a band to sleep in rickety vans, play empty clubs and do long-distance telephone interviews for the…

Having a pop song with the word “teen” in it can be a scary thing these days. Just ask David Lowery. Last fall the leader of now-extinct pop eccentrics Camper Van Beethoven re-emerged with a new band, Cracker. After the group completed its self-titled debut in September, it had to…

Have you noticed that the EP, that five-song minialbum once considered a strictly European innovation, has come back into its own after years of disfavor? Why EPs, one of many now-extinct New Wave-inspired phenomena, lost favor in the mid-Eighties remains a mystery. But today they’re back with a vengeance, both…

What would it take for you to believe there was a conspiracy against you? One involving the U.S. government? One in which your loved ones had been murdered? Wherever John Trudell’s life leads, he will always be able to close his eyes and return to February 1979. Twelve hours after…

This installment in New Times’ occasional review of local music product could be called “The Young and the Restless.” Along with a couple of debut tapes by young bands, we also take a look at a tape and a single by the recently split Cryptics, led by Valley music veteran…

Although he’s being diplomatic, Jason Newsted is thinking something a little more pointed about people who say Metallica’s gone soft. Part of his frustration comes from having to answer questions about how big the band has become, how tunes like “Enter Sandman” are pop and why the band that defined…

It seems like only yesterday that the once-rebellious Mick Jagger uttered those portentous words, “I don’t want to be doing this when I’m 40.” Or was it 50? Either way, Jagger was speaking about music, of course, not business. Because when it comes to business, the Stones will never retire…

Becoming famous overnight can be hell. Just ask Nirvana. Or Teenage Fanclub. Two years ago, both groups were struggling indie bands whose latest records, while not stiffs, were not setting the world on fire. Still, these discs, Bleach and A Catholic Education, respectively, were solid enough to warrant A&R flybys…

Art and Aaron Neville were standing in the tunnel leading to the Celebrity Theatre stage. Like most headliners who take on local bands to fill out the bill, the Nevilles rarely know, let alone watch, their openers. But this night, the brothers had been drawn out of their dressing room…

As promised, here is the second half of the local tape and CD roundup, the first installment of which ran in February. Given the volume of local music we’ve been receiving, this feature may have to become a continuing series. To those bands wondering where the reviews of their cassettes…

In the mid-Sixties, Roosevelt Nettles had a future in music. A doo-wop/R&B singer in Phoenix, he was a regular on the local club scene. His first record, “Matilda,” was a regional hit. He was touring with national acts like Sam Cooke. To top it off, he inked a deal with…

It’s time for a long-overdue look at what kind of “product” is coming out of the local music scene. The number of tapes submitted was so large this time that one week won’t cover them all. Be prepared for a second installment to run soon. The variety of local music…

In 1986, as American singer/songwriter Paul Simon was about to release his Afro-pop manifesto Graceland, one of Simon’s inspirations was about to hang it up. Born Simon Nkabinde, but known by his stage name Mahlathini, this spry, 55-year-old Zulu is to African popular music what Dylan or the Beatles are…

For most bands, playing songs by other songwriters is a mark of shame, a sign that they don’t have enough original material. But for the Neville Brothers, the opposite is true. Despite excellent original material, they want to sing other writers’ songs. It gives them a chance to hone their…