The twin pillars of the music business are talent and hype. Although talent gets all the respect, it’s hype-an art that bears no relation to taste, trends or the truthÏthat’s made the music business what it is. Make no mistake, hype is not easy. Press releases and other printed materials…

Eleven years ago, on New Year’s Eve, the Jetzons played their first gig. Next Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, all of the group’s original members will reunite after almost nine years apart to try to recapture a little of what made the Jetzons, for a time, the Valley’s biggest band. Cultivating…

The only thing worse than a Christmas fruitcake is Christmas music. The damned stuff is everywhere. Toddle down to your local ABCO these days, and each check-out line has a display of “specially priced” Christmas cassettes. Go fill your car up with super unleaded and what do you get? Exxon’s…

“Now, let’s get one thing straight–I’m really a pussycat,” Kim Wilson says, able to hold back the laughter for only a second. Considering the history of his band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a bulldog is closer to the truth. For 17 years, through good times and bad, Wilson has pushed an…

Although every record label wants to claim it was the first, no one really knows who invented the boxed set. Usually comprising a cardboard box, a handful of CDs and a book full of pictures, boxed sets focus on the music of a single artist, time period or genre. A…

AZMC ’91: PLAYING FOR KEEPS Ahhh . . . there’s nothing like a music conference. Musicians of every size, taste and hair style steal into town. Music-business people–everyone from writers and deejays to promoters and record-company executives–fly in and schmooze themselves silly. During the day, everyone drifts in and out…

The lights went down. From the buzzing P.A. system a voice requested, “Won’t you please welcome Nirvana!” The band ambled out onto the stage 15 minutes later. After the usual tuning of guitars and pounding of drum heads, Kurt Cobain leaned over the microphone stand, strummed the opening chords and…

It was Christmas night, 1976, and Freddie King was onstage at the New York Ballroom in south Dallas. A larger-than-life character, the hulking King was pouring on the Texas blues–his guitar screaming out the chunky lines that rock guitarists everywhere still lift, his powerful voice bouncing between a bellow and…

It’s prime time in some generic ‘burb in the eastern United States. Tired from the commute home, white-collar Joe plops down in front of the TV in time for the evening news. There, between reports of another bank failure and the ballooning deficit, are those ultraexpensive news-hour commercials: Depends, Preparation…

Same smoochy lips. Same stylized eye. Did the Arizona Lottery lift the ad campaign for its new “Lady Luck” game off the cover of the 18-year-old rock album Ladies Invited? In some ways it’s a perfect fit: the graphics of a long-out-of-print disc by a Boston boogie band, whose best…

Midway through his set, John Prine began to hear the noises, too. Opening for musical soul mate Bonnie Raitt, Prine was playing solo. Dressed in a blue silk shirt and jeans, he sported what has become his post-Seventies look: well-worn cowboy boots; mid-length dark and graying hair; and a soul…

Mario Moreno of Forbidden Pigs remembers one “discussion” he had with his wife about settling down and getting a real job. It sticks in his mind because it was the last time he saw his bajo sexto, his Mexican bass guitar, in one piece. Arriving home late and a little…

THE HEAT IS ON This was the summer of the lethal outdoor concert, the summer when the old adage, “Once you live here, you don’t notice the heat,” was put to the test. The adage lost. Standing in the broiling sun listening to music has its own kind of charm…

Billy Corgan is trying to stay humble, but it’s getting tough. The mercurial lead singer/songwriter/personality of the Smashing Pumpkins is becoming a rock star. The band’s debut record Gish is doing well, and the group is about to embark on its first national tour. Even critics love the Pumpkins. Actually,…

No one would have believed that the summer’s biggest tour would feature seven cult bands that don’t get a stitch of airplay. But a recession that’s turning tours into a rarity and the coming of age of punk have combined to make the twenty-city Lollapalooza spectacular the summer’s main event…

The shot on the cover of Divinyls has almost eclipsed the single “I Touch Myself” as the biggest reason to buy the record. It has launched a thousand concert tickets, not to mention the band’s career. The shot shows a profile of lead singer Chrissie Amphlett, swathed only in wide-wale…

It used to be that albums were named after their hit single. But then rock ‘n’ roll got meaningful, and choosing the title track became an art. Some groups stick with the hit. Others go for the most enigmatic or lyrically potent. Still others choose whatever hits them at 4…

The sweaty club in Tucson was only half full, but everyone inside was happy. Although the take at the door wasn’t overwhelming, the drinks were going down fast, so the club owner was smiling. White men who normally wouldn’t or couldn’t dance were bouncing and giggling and having a hell…

What makes a scene? No one knows for sure. In Austin it’s the mystique. In New York and L.A., it’s the mass of population. In Chicago and New Orleans, it’s the history. In this town, we’re still figuring that equation out. Sometimes it works and sometimes, well . . …