Gary Martin’s eyes are getting big again. They tend to do that when Martin shows off his music collection. He’ll point with passion at familiar recordings from the classic-rock era. He’ll wave his arms and give pithy sermons on the merits of fusion-jazz titles from the early Seventies. Gary Martin’s…

Throw a rock at any group of music fans and you’ll likely hit someone who claims to enjoy minimalism. Someone who’ll rattle off the charms of a three-hour, “plink-plink” piano piece and act bemused if you don’t agree. He’ll blather on about spirits set free by minimalism’s incessant repetition, using…

The record company is “shocked.” Classical-music minds call it “freakish.” Skeptics are crying “fad,” and cynics are thinking “Faust.” The hubbub concerns an inexplicably best-selling CD of Gregorian chant performed by a heretofore little-known group of Benedictine monks in Spain. The CD is titled Chant, and quite simply, it consists…

David Harrington remembers the exact moment he decided to change the face of classical music. It was Seattle, 1973. Harrington was 23 years old. He was home, listening to the radio, when his speakers suddenly jumped with the anxious squawks of stringed instruments. It sounded like a plague of insects…

David Harrington remembers the exact moment he decided to change the face of classical music. It was Seattle, 1973. Harrington was 23 years old. He was home, listening to the radio, when his speakers suddenly jumped with the anxious squawks of stringed instruments. It sounded like a plague of insects…

It’s not easy being a horse’s ass. It certainly hasn’t been easy for Miles Hunt. The lead singer and chief wise guy for England’s alterna-pop band the Wonder Stuff has developed quite a rsum as a snotty, grade-A jerk. “I pay no attention to it, really,” Hunt sniffs. “It’s just…

Once again, we take a look at what a few local humans liked and didn’t like in the music world this year. From fabulous celebrities such as Charles Barkley and Barry Goldwater to everyday folks you may have seen at your local Circle K or topless bar (Dave and Mariah,…

Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, but at Christmastime, big packages look a whole lot better under a tree than little ones do. Back in the old days, when Santa left a 12×12 LP, it was a mouth-watering sight the next morning. Sure, CDs may sound…

Steve Diggle’s name-dropping again. The Buzzcocks’ guitarist is lounging around a Cleveland hotel room, telephone in hand, mentioning how he’s still “mates” with Clash co-founders Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. “I run into them in clubs now and then,” Diggle says, shrugging. “It’s always a pleasure to see em.” Diggle’s…

Matthew Sweet is chuckling. At times, he’s even laughing. Sprinkle in some giggles, a chortle and an occasional “tee-hee,” and you pretty much get the picture: Matthew Sweet, one of the darkest songwriters in pop, is, in person, about as glum and gloomy as a high school cheerleader. “People always…

It’s bad enough that the band calls itself the Posies. It doesn’t help that one of the Posies is named Ken Stringfellow. And it certainly makes for dubious PR when another rock performer, Bob Forrest of Thelonious Monster, refers in song to his ex-girlfriend “walking off with some faggot from…

Hype can be a beautiful thing. A peculiar beauty, to be sure, but perversely attractive in a variety of ways. Hype is especially awe-inspiring in the music business. An overactive promotions department, assisted by a fawning, wide-eyed media, can turn even the most pedestrian of poseurs into front-page news with…

Attention! The prophet Qa’Sepel is about to speak: “It shocks me when people seriously think I have answers to anything,” says the tongue-in-cheek, self-anointed seer. “No one has all the answers. No one ever reaches their ultimate destination. And in a way, I’m kind of glad of that.” Qa’Sepel, better…

Various Artists The Genius of Dave Bartholomew (EMI) Smiley Lewis The Best of Smiley Lewis: I Hear You Knocking (EMI) One listen is all it takes to understand why New Orleans music dominated the R&B charts in the mid-Fifties. With its steady backbeat, wailing sax breaks and bluesy vocals, it…

Your name is Freedy Johnston. You’re a singer-songwriter from Hoboken, New Jersey, by way of Kinsley, Kansas (population 2,000). Your first album, 1990’s The Trouble Tree, concerned life and loss and repeated attempts at redemption. You placed these themes in scenarios ranging from a melancholy take on relationships to an…

It’s 9 a.m. on a Saturday, and Danny Wilde is pooped. After all, he’s a working musician. He’s not usually awake at this hour. Especially on weekends. “Who set this thing up, anyway?” Wilde grumbles good-naturedly about the early-morning interview. The answer, provided by an equally groggy music writer, is…

After 365 days and nearly that many albums listened to, the Sun Tracks staff (with a little help from their friends) gets serious and decides on the best of 1992. Robert Baird Sun Tracks editor 1. Jimmy Scott, All the Way (Reprise). Album of the millennium. Lured out of retirement…

“I don’t want to be just a drummer,” says Phil Leavitt, the accomplished if reluctant stick figure for promising new pop band Dada. “Songwriting is what’s ultimately important to me. Drums are just an instrument I grew up playing. It doesn’t matter to me what other drummers are doing, who’s…

Green Jello may be the absolute worst band ever to sign a recording deal. And that may be too generous. The lead singer can’t sing. The band can’t play. And what’s worse, the Green Jello song list is an utterly inane collection of insipid, sophomoric, neonovelty songs based on the…

Justin Harwood sounds concerned. He’s musing over the apparent success of his new band, the critically acclaimed Luna2. “Everyone seems to be really happy,” Harwood says of himself and bandmates Dean Wareham and Stan Demeski. But Harwood quickly adds, “We’re still a little cynical. It’s like, ‘This is all too…