Various artists From Dusk Till Dawn (Epic) Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s stab at a vampire thriller turned out to be a wobbly stake in the heart, but the setting of its gore-fest finale–a cavernous, border-town bordello called the “Titty Twister” that’s infested with the undead–made a good excuse for a killer…
Peculiar, plastic things from strangers have recently become a motif in my life. The first was a Jesus-head Pez dispenser (yeah, I didn’t know they made ’em, either), mailed with no return address, phone number or accompanying explanation other than a crayoned note that read, “Sinners Re-Pez.” Next up, Big…
Theater Works used to be housed in a small, barnlike building on West Thunderbird Road, a facility which made up in charm some of what it lacked in space and flexibility. With the inventive sets and lighting designs of technical director Jim Hyte, the old barn made an excellent, intimate…
Name: Jason Finn Current occupation: A President of the United States of America (“I play drums”). Previous employment: Percussionist for grunge combo of note Love Battery; booking agent; bartender in Seattle, Washington. (“I’d still tend bar if I had the time. I can’t think of another job–except maybe the one…
Rock ‘n’ roll?? SXSW never heard of it! On February 1, I received a manila envelope in the mail. Inside were a few posters promoting the release of the Beat Angels’ coming debut album, Unhappy Hour (due out on Epiphany February 27); a demo from said release; and a note…
Ministry Filth Pig (Warner Bros.) Like a piece of heavy machinery commandeered by a speed freak, the Ministry juggernaut rolls into its 15th year, bestowing a kind of classic-rock status upon the synth-pop Euro poseurs turned foremen of the Chicago industrial scene. With several cuts on the new album clocking…
There used to be a place to go dance in this town … –“Used to Be,” the Red Dirt Rangers The throbbing hum of the nearby interstate, the occasional bark of a stray dog and the piercing whistle of the high desert wind are the only music playing tonight along…
Club Congress in Tucson is an intimate room with good acoustics that books important bands on a regular basis. For example, the Congress was one of the few places in the U.S. last year where Frank Black played before he went into the studio to record his new album, The…
I’d heard the stories about Mason Jar owner Franco Gagliano and his temperamental impersonation of Godzilla on coke (a shorter, squatter Godzilla, that is). But I didn’t believe them because I hadn’t experienced any firsthand. Now I do, because now I have. Here’s my story: It is Saturday night, February…
Tori Amos Boys for Pele (Atlantic) Kate Bush is the artist to whom Tori Amos is most often compared–usually in cynical accusations of aesthetic plagiarism and emotional fakery–but Jerry Lee Lewis makes a good, if not a better, parallel. Like Lewis, Amos is the rebellious, piano-playing child of a conservative…
Think the rock pantheon’s already overcrowded with mad musical geniuses, do you? Well, make way for England’s Joe Meek–the late, great Sixties record producer who merits an entire mental ward all for himself. Because he was highly eccentric and specialized in over-the-top production techniques, Meek is typically compared to his…
AC/DC Ballbreaker (AC/DC) AC/DC albums are about as interchangeable as Heinz Ketchup bottles on your grocer’s shelf, but you’d notice a quality-control problem right away if Heinz started making its condiment with the smelliest, most bruised tomatoes instock. And AC/DC screecher Brian Johnson has become onebad, battered tomato who’s been…
It’s one minute to sound check when Blort–a rather ugly converted airport shuttle bus that Chico, California’s Mother Hips call home on the road–scrapes the curb outside the Fillmore in San Francisco. It’s Friday night, the Hips are in town and the old room is sold out. Tim Bluhm, the…
Some nights I wonder why I even bother, and this is one of them. When the end is so obviously and rapidly approaching, what point is there in this? And by “this” I mean whatever you are doing right now, as I am writing this column. I don’t know how…
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…
By David Holthouse Various artists Exile on Cameron Harper Street (Epiphany) Exile on Cameron Harper Street–an ambitious compilation of Arizona bands produced by Planet magazine and (irony of ironies) released just before that publication folded onJanuary 17–is well worth the $10 asking price, if only for historical value. Ten months…
This interview, conducted by Bob Mack, is excerpted with permission from the Beastie Boys’ ‘zine Grand Royal. You remember the “Thrilla in Manila”? The third and final superfight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier? Well, what follows is more like the “Illa in Vanilla,” the worst, wettest, whitest exchange between…
“The worst thing about this whole Ice Cube thing,” says Cypress Hill rapper Louis “B-Real” Freese, “is that if this was back in the day, I would have taken care of him already.” A few definitions to clarify: “This whole Ice Cube thing” refers to Real’s recent accusation that fellow…
Mr. Mirainga Mr. Mirainga (Way Cool Records) Mamba-punk? Samba-core? That’s how the PR folks at Way Cool describe their label’s latest artistic acquisition. Considering that the mamba is a poisonous tree snake from Africa, it’s safe to assume they meant “mambo.” But that doesn’t really make sense, either, given that…
The Smithereens Attack of the Smithereens (Capitol) The same day Capitol issued its much-ballyhooed first installment of The Beatles Anthology, it also put out a cache of rare, unreleased Smithereens recordings. But unlike Anthology, which has the Beatles paying tribute to rock pioneers with covers of Chuck Berry, and the…
Peach Springs, Arizona, can be found where old Route 66 swings through the southern tip of the 993,000-acre Hualapai Indian reservation. The burg was originally a resting spot for railroad workers. Now, it’s a collection of several dozen prefab houses and dirt roads. When the wind howls through Peach Springs,…
Nestled within this year’s list of nominees for the Chicago-based Blues Foundation’s annual W.C. Handy Awards–which most blues artists and their industry kin rightly lend at least as much weight as the Grammys–is an item with a sharp local kick. You’ll find it in your program under category 19, “Traditional…
