Imperial Drag Imperial Drag (Work/Sony) Yet another Jellyfish offshoot, Imperial Drag sounds like it was shipwrecked on a desert island starting in 1970, and the only things that washed ashore for the next five years were cheesy K-Tel albums. This self-titled debut offers a skewered view of Led Zeppelin and…
Soundgarden Down on the Upside (A&M) Extract Soundgarden’s DNA and you’ll see Zeppelin molecules on one helix and Sabbath matter on the other. Keep looking and you’ll uncover chunks of MC5 and the Stooges, and bits of the Beatles and Pink Floyd. You’ll find, in short, the echoes of pregrunge…
Ask John Herndon of Tortoise to list the three albums that best represent his band’s apparent progressive-rock mindset and you might be surprised at what he answers. Or, rather, what he doesn’t. Herndon won’t mention Can’s Tago Mago, even though Tortoise often plays the same kind of jazzy, repetitive riffs…
Paul Westerberg Eventually (Reprise) Bob Mould Bob Mould (Rykodisc) They’re twin pillars, bookend icons, the longtime alpha wolves of the alternative pack. Their style of music, considered left of the dial when Generation X was only halfway through the alphabet, is now in heavy rotation, and they’d be as wealthy…
Guided by Voices Under the Bushes Under the Stars (Matador) One listen to Guided by Voices’ latest release, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, is convincing proof that GBV is something special. Front man Robert Pollard–a former high school football star and fourth-grade teacher turned general of the Ohio indie…
Best Alternative Rock Beat Angels They may look and play like it, but the Beat Angels aren’t really under the illusion that it’s still 1979. They just don’t think rock ‘n’ roll has gotten any better since then. “The way we look at it, there’s this certain spirit that was…
Iggy Pop Naughty Little Doggie (Virgin) It’s 1968 and James Osterberg, a white-trash trailer-park kid from Michigan, unwittingly helps invent punk rock. He does so by christening himself Iggy Pop and gracing the concert halls of America with a live act that features the excitable Iggy in various stages of…
Dadawa Sister Drum (Sire) Her name is Dadawa. She’s the 25-year-old singing daughter of a science magazine editor in the Canton province of the People’s Republic of China. And she’s about the biggest thing to come up in her homeland since the Great Wall. Dadawa is the People’s choice by…
Silly Rabbit Dust (Orphan Boy) The experimental rockers in Silly Rabbit make it one of the most danceable groups to emerge from Seattle’s postgrunge wasteland. This eight-piece urban groove machine consists of guitars, sequencers, an unstoppable rhythm section and something called a psychedelic illuminator (an elaborate, lighting-video rig designed to…
The Mermen Songs of the Cows (Mesa/Bluemoon) San Francisco’s Mermen take the concept of instrumental surf music so far from shore that something new comes bubbling to the surface. It’s the audio equivalent of Dick Dale poached in psychedelics, a strum and twang that’s both invigorating and mesmerizing as it…
Jay Farrar isn’t much of a talker. Son Volt’s 29-year-old singer/songwriter comes across in conversation like a man in desperate need of a nap. His voice is low and lazy, his thick, Midwestern drawl stretching what few words he utters into slow, groggy sentences. “It’s safe to say I’m not…
Kronos Quartet Kronos Released: 1985-1995 (Nonesuch) After ten years of forcing the issue, the relentlessly eclectic Kronos Quartet can safely consider itself the hippest, baddest, most adventurous and unsettling string quartet in classical music. Which isn’t saying much. After all, the competition has been minimal. Most other string quartets are…
Goldie Timeless (ffrr) Timeless indeed, but also precisely of the moment, the 30-year-old mixed-race London deejay/graffiti artist named Goldie has accomplished something exceedingly rare with his debut album: Like Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and maybe a handful of other recordings, Timeless firmly plants itself for the…
… And Who Could Forget About These Great Hits? (The Ten Best Albums of 1995) 1. P.J. Harvey To Bring You My Love (Island) Britain’s Gen-X version of Patti Smith gets gruff and bluesy on her latest set of psyche-aerobics. It’s not exactly easy listening–first-person songs about drowning one’s children…
Tony Bennett Here’s to the Ladies (Columbia) Tony Bennett’s unlikely ascent from has-been to hipster continues to be one of the coolest, if most puzzling, success stories in pop. Somehow, Bennett has gone from one of mom and dad’s favorite artists to a fave with the kids, without appreciably altering…
Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Virgin) There he is: Billy Corgan. The Baby Huey of modern rock. The Pillsbury Dough Boy with chops. The pudgy-faced 800-pound gorilla who can sit anywhere he damn well wants. Corgan and his band, Smashing Pumpkins, are currently squatting atop the heap…
Meat Puppets No Joke! (London) Immediately after hearing this set’s chipper “Taste of the Sun” on the radio for the first time, I button-punched over to an oldies station and caught a blast of the Cyrkle’s 1966 hit “Red Rubber Ball.” Coincidence? I think not! Both songs share a peripheral…
Eddie Spaghetti is homesick. At the mere mention of Arizona, his voice goes limp as his mind hearkens to happy childhood memories. Like the other members of the Seattle-based hillbilly hard-core band Supersuckers, Spaghetti was born and raised in Arizona. Along with original guitarists Dan Bolton and Ron Heathman and…
His name is CoCo the Electronic Monkey Wizard. He says he came from outer space. He says he’s masquerading as a musician who plays in an instrumental surf-rock band based in Alabama. CoCo says his bandmates are all aliens, too. CoCo the Electronic Monkey Wizard is calling from a roadside…
Think of the conventional rock ‘n’ roll ne’er-do-well of recent generations: the angry greaser, the macho rocker, the sneering punk. Mix their DNAs and saddle the results with a guitar. You’ll get something that looks a lot like Keith Jackson. That’s him leaning against a wall in the parking lot…
It’s a breezy night at Club Rio in Tempe. The courtyard in the back is framed with lazy, swaying palms. A stage is set up at the east side of the patio. In front of the stage, there’s a large, ornate fountain gurgling water on itself. Behind the stage are…
You’re Dead Hot Workshop. You’re a hometown hit in Tempe. The locals consider you the Valley’s next prime music export. You’ve recently signed a major-label deal and you’re starting out on an extended tour designed to introduce yourself to the great American masses. That’s you, a day and a half…
