Just north of New Orleans on Highway 61, the swamps give way to the pines, and “dirt for sale” signs dot the countryside. Logging trucks race from what used to be thick forests to paper mills. Antebellum homes and plantations line the way. As the four lanes narrow to two,…
It’s too bad we can’t take a Soundscan of all the lives the recent $10.4 billion merger of PolyGram and Universal Music will ruin. Sure, we can do a feasible head count of the hundreds of artists and managers whose necks will meet the chopping block, and those ratzafriggin’ bean…
To an outsider, the rave culture probably looks a bit like an impenetrable, monolithic beast composed of blissed-out, glow-stick kids who’ll respond to any beat that jumps off a turntable. It’s a bit like the perspective that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had on the Communist bloc in the…
Jesus, I had never enjoyed a beer less. The stuff went into my overheated and plugged head, fizzed in the brassy confines of my mouth and crept past the burnt spot in my throat–the part that is swollen just enough to allow only liquid to pass. The agony of my…
New Radicals Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too (MCA Records) I’ve never had a lot of faith in the old adage about not judging a book by its cover. This has been especially true when it comes to music. I’ve always believed that if they look like a “hair band” and…
If you want to get in the game at the Winter Music Conference–the electronic dance music industry and club culture’s annual mecca in Miami–then you have to be where the players are. Poolside. Specifically, poolside on the opulent deck outside the Fontainebleau Hotel, Winter Music’s social nexus and command center…
Ahmad Jamal is reminiscing about Pittsburgh. Known to much of the world simply as a grimy steel town, Pittsburgh has also been one of the great breeding grounds for jazz. It’s a city whose musical legacy is so imposing that Andre Previn turned down other offers for a chance to…
Bldg 5 is not the most serious band in the world. If you spend any time at all with this funky hard-rock quartet, you’ll find that practically every topic–from the group’s recent road mishaps in snowy Colorado to its contempt for conservative state authorities to its collective appreciation for the…
Jimmy Eat World Jimmy Eat World (Fueled by Ramen) Local bands haven’t gotten much love from major labels lately. Jimmy Eat World is relatively lucky, since it hasn’t been axed like so many other Valley bands, but the band’s crystalline new LP, Clarity, has been sitting on the shelves at…
A few months ago, when rumors were floating around that Toolies Country might be on the verge of closing after 17 years, owner Bill Bachand offered an unusually intriguing denial. Toolies wasn’t going to close, Bachand said, but if any change did happen, it would be in the form of…
Fear of Pop Fear of Pop (550 Music) In the middle of a recent interview with Spin magazine, Korn’s voluble front man Jonathan Davis blurted out a kind of off-the-cuff mission statement for his band. Davis said he wants to “bring heavy back into rock ‘n’ roll. Because goddamned Ben…
Four years ago, I briefly met Peter Guralnick at a book signing in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time, Guralnick–one of the few great chroniclers of American music–was basking in considerable acclaim for Last Train to Memphis, the first volume of his Elvis Presley biography. The book, arguably the first legit…
If you’ve caught a recent show featuring the “Maximum Pop” sound of the Zen Lunatics or their alter ego and frequent opening band the Cartwheels, you may have noticed a big similarity. It’s not the fact that both groups wear sharp ’60s-style matching suits, or even that three-fourths of the…
At the record company meeting On their hands–at last–a dead star! Best of! Most of! Satiate the need Slip them into different sleeves Buy both, and be deceived. So sang Morrissey on The Smiths’ final album, which was immediately followed by the obligatory live album and then The Smiths’ Volumes…
Koko Taylor has a touch of the flu. She assures me she’s feeling fine, but earlier in the day she was concerned enough about the possibility of pneumonia that she postponed our interview to go see a doctor. Sure enough, Taylor’s voice is a little softer than you’d expect from…
Checking the vital signs for guitar-based rock has long been an ongoing preoccupation for critics. Still, you knew something was a bit different this year when new releases by Hole, Marilyn Manson and even the sample-heavy Garbage were judged not merely for their musical merits but for their potential to…
1. Tricky at the Cajun House: A mesmerizing performer and innovator who kicked butt in front of a few hundred people. By contract, only had to play for 45 minutes. Played hard for two hours. 2. Mose Allison at Timothy’s: Mose Allison at age 70. Great pianist. Great vocals. Great…
December at night around here, where the houses have wheels and the cars do not, the magical sparkle of Christmas lights blends with the beer. Tin sides of trailers reflect cheerful glimpses of green and red and a boozy jangle of sleigh bells promises childhood dreams like hope and Santa…
It’s hardly a news flash that all-ages shows are a hassle for clubs in this state. Recent history suggests that local bars strongly associated with all-ages events, from The Heat to Electric Ballroom, are all the more likely to wind up on the wrong side of state authorities, particularly if…
Jewel Spirit (Atlantic Records) Jewel Kilcher may have made a mint by marketing guilelessness, but she’s a bit savvier than she lets on. Consider that her latest single, the characteristically preachy “Hands,” instructs listeners that “only kindness matters.” Of course, a pesky music fan wouldn’t be out of line to…
Elvis Costello once sang about a fictional couple who had “songs for every occasion.” You could make the case that Jamal Ruhe has bands for every occasion, or at the very least, bands for every type of song he wants to play. Ruhe, guitarist for the late, lamented Tempe band…
As the film world’s foremost peddler of nostalgia-driven baby-boomer romanticism, Nora Ephron is acutely aware of the crucial role that music plays in selling her three-hanky tales. The soundtrack to her 1993 megahit Sleepless in Seattle not only enhanced that film’s sentimental mood, it sold more than two million copies…
