Rock stars are so self-regulating and image-conscious nowadays it’s hard to imagine even dreaming about one without being forced to pay for use of their overexposed likenesses. You’d probably have to sign waivers indemnifying them for any make-believe anguish they might cause you. Back in the days when rock stars…

In most professions, a deficiency of smarts would seem a serious liability. After all, don’t we insist on seeing every last medical diploma a doctor can tack up on his office walls, just to make sure we’re not about to be sliced and diced open by an uncertified moron? Don’t…

Poughkeepsie, New York, your time is gonna come. It almost came in 1988 when Poughkeepsie resident Rosy Carnemolla amassed 850 pounds of too solid flesh and snagged herself “the world’s heaviest woman” slot in the Guinness Book of Records. Matt Strangewayes, lead singer of Windigo, also happens to hail from…

You’re flying high in April–shot down in May! Ah well, at least Frank squeezed an extra nine months past the Sinatra Death Watch. For 10 months, the National Enquirer, The Globe and The Star held their ravenous vigil waiting for “The Voice” to give out. “Sinatra: The Last Sandwich! The…

“We accidentally had some hit records along the way, accidentally got lucky and had some television shows along the way and in the meantime my philosophy still holds: Just get on stage, have fun, create a party and that’s it.” Paul Revere’s pragmatic nature tends to downplay any talk of…

No question about it. Years from now, people will grill each other about it. “Where were you when you first heard the news?” And the response will go something like this: “Jeez, I was driving around in my car, I turn on the radio and I hear someone on there…

Nothing’s more frustrating than interviewing a rock band en masse. Everyone clusters around your tape recorder and blurts out stuff all at once, but rarely does anyone say anything revelatory. Generally too inhibited to criticize or too diplomatic to take all the credit for the sounds, musicians tend to respond…

Most people, especially those of you who just gawked at the photo on the right, wouldn’t disagree with the assessment that glam rock is dead. Few, however, might agree on what exactly is glam rock and when the bedecked patient actually stopped breathing. To some, it died when the New…

What separates truly gifted entertainers from (insert yawn) merely competent ones? It’s the ability to wrench liabilities into assets, turn catastrophes into calling cards. It’s the difference between merely recognizing chance and running chance down a dark street, then slapping it upside the head until chance screams for mercy. Chance…

I never thought I’d cut a record by myself. But I’ve got something to say, I wanna say it for Cher and I hope I say it for a lot of you. –“Laugh at Me” by Sonny Bono, 1965 Because Sonny Bono played such a convincing stooge, folks always credit…

Some people can maintain their composure in a burning skyscraper. But the average record-company exec, faced with a few months of flagging album sales, is liable to run naked through the nearest strip mall, brandishing an AK47 and screaming threats in some twisted form of pig Latin. So, in 1997,…

Why do they still bill James Brown as “The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business”? He’s barely broken into a cold sweat since dodging the police in the ’80s. Once, you could’ve given Dick Clark that title, but clearly someone behind the scenes must’ve forced him at gun point to give…

Prince Paul psychoanalysis (what is it?) (Tommy Boy Records) “As long as I can remember, people have hated me.” With that repetitive sample, Prince Paul sets the tone for his first solo album, psychoanalysis (what is it?). Beginning with that first track, “why must you hate me,” the listener is…

Tito & Tarantula Tarantism (Cockroach Records) Tito Larriva is the very definition of a rock ‘n’ roll journeyman. His stints with influential but obscure L.A. bands like the Plugz and the Cruzados long ago established his credentials as a roots-rock true believer, a guy long on heart if a bit…

I have come not only to mourn John Denver’s passing but to castigate his stinkin’ rotten legion of desertin’ fans. A few years back, Goldmine Magazine did a listing of albums most likely to turn up at Salvation Army or Goodwill stores. Amazingly, that listing just about holds true today…

Given our now fixed image of the press as ruthless invaders of privacy who hounded Princess Di into a premature grave, it hardly seems possible that once upon a time journalists and photographers actually worked in tandem to keep a celebrity’s Satyricon private life out of their pages. And no…

The Wilsons The Wilsons (Mercury Records) With the wretched Wilson Phillips, Carnie and Wendy Wilson–along with childhood chum Chynna Phillips–cashed in on a fleeting pop moment. At the dawn of this decade, progeny rock managed to unite proud baby boomers (who vicariously felt that they had raised these pampered superstar…

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…

Pollen would seem to have it all. Contracted to Wind-Up Records, a highly visible indie label with major label (BMG) distribution, Pollen is poised to tour extensively in support of its latest album Peach Tree this fall. In addition, Wind-Up is committed to financing a video, and several tracks off…

Eric Matthews The Lateness of the Hour (Sub Pop Records) Eric Matthews should be a major artist. He has all the credentials for critical deification. He’s a smart, young, classically trained singer/songwriter with an uncommon flair for arranging string and horn sections. Word has it that his mental pitchfork is…

To commemorate this week’s 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, MGM Home Entertainment has just released a video gift set containing all 31 of Elvis’ movies in a guitar case. Maybe it should have packaged them in a coffin, instead, since the balance of the King’s film output has more…

Super Deluxe via satellite (Revolution Records) Appealing and melodious though it may be, power pop has never been quite strong enough to stand on its own legs. Since it’s essentially always been an attempt to recapture the unpretentious three-minute epiphanies of pre-Sgt. Pepper ’60s guitar bands, its earliest musical joy…