When Shonen Knife parlayed a bubblehead image and clumsy fascination with American pop culture into cult-favorite status with downtown Manhattan hipsters in the late ’80s, the trio of Osaka housewives set a regrettable standard for Japanese girl bands. They were all giggle and no grit, play-acting the silly little Asian…
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…
In what could prove to be either a groundbreaking stroke of genius or a decision of such vicious stupidity that a certain local power-pop band could get drawn and quartered by pickup trucks in Apache Junction, Evening Star has booked the Beat Angels to open for the Scorpions and Alice…
DJ Krush Meiso (Axiom) Various artists Axiom Altered Beats: Assassin Knowledges of the Remanipulated (Axiom) Available mostly in specialty shops, surreptitiously packaged in black record jackets, the art of the deejay has spent years in the underground. Finally, the record industry is warming to the deejay trade, and the result…
I used to have a friend who had a lot of mottoes. One of his best was “Life’s a team sport.” Which means at least play like it is. Share your water at a rave, or buy an extra ticket to give away at a Phish show. Sure, you might…
“I think anytime you make a record, it’s got to be a leap of faith,” contends Emmylou Harris. “Because you never know how it’s going to turn out.” Harris has plummeted into the unknown on numerous occasions during her more-than-quarter-century career, with mostly positive results. But even longtime supporters were…
All stories have a beginning, but if the story is about ska music, it’s hard to say just when and where that is. In America, ska music began in 1982 with the Toasters, a multiracial group of Manhattan hepcats who introduced U.S. audiences to the frenetic mix of American R&B…
The Native Americans are restless. It’s a chilly January night at CJ’s Coyote Lounge, a tee-shirt-and-jeans tavern where dollar bills paper the ceiling behind the bar. The Dallas Cowboys have just won the Super Bowl, and the crowd is in a dancing mood. But so far there is no sign…
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…
Girls Against Boys Gibson’s April 30, 1996 When I was 21, it was a very good year. I spent a third of my time in New York City, subsisting on cheap Indian food and crashing in a prewar walkup in the heart of the East Village. My place was right…
“Stormy, husky, brawling/Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action/Building, breaking, rebuilding.” The words which poet Carl Sandburg used to describe Chicago 80 years ago apply today to Ministry front man Al Jourgensen, the godfather of that city’s industrial scene, and something of a maniac. How the dreadlocked Ubermensch’s…
Consider this a call to arms. Alternative is a lie. Rock radio is a tool in the hands of the military-industrial-entertainment complex. Music is ideology. And if the System controls your stereo, the System controls your mind. The System knows this, and likes it. We must defend ourselves. Tear down…
When Jewel Kilcher quit the nine-to-five life in early 1994 and moved into the cramped comforts of a ’79 Volkswagen van, all she wanted to do was play music, surf and stay fed. Since then, however, Jewel has racked up credentials that evoke the envy of seasoned music veterans. Her…
Tyree Michael Carter has many pictures of himself on the walls of his office, but only one in which he’s smiling. It’s a shot from last Halloween, and Ty is dressed like a blaxploitation-flick pimp–a veritable mack daddy. The outfit took 13 thrift stores, $100 and two weeks to put…
First, rhythm and blues begat “rock ‘n’ roll,” a term that still has cachet in a few crumbling, former Soviet republics. Then came all of rock ‘n’ roll’s bastard offspring–folk rock, acid rock, hard rock, progressive rock, country rock, punk rock–everywhere a rock, rock. But if rock became too vague…
The Jesus Lizard Shot (Capitol) With Shot, the Jesus Lizard has made quite a leap–not only jumping ship from longtime indie Touch and Go to Capitol Records, but also taking one giant step forward as a rock ‘n’ roll band. God knows the Lizard has always used ammo crates of…
The defining moment of the first New Times Music Awards Showcase came, for me, almost two weeks before the actual event. It was a Tuesday night and New Times was hosting a logistics summit meeting upstairs at Minder Binder’s in Tempe. Representatives from all 36 bands in 11 showcase categories…
Well, stick a monkey in front of a typewriter and sooner or later he’ll write a haiku. Four years into a career ignited as a lark, and fueled on hype and connections, 7 Year Bitch has finally come up with a few decent garage-punk songs. And, Christ, how hard can…
Seattle punk songstress Mia Zapata got famous for the most evil of reasons–not because of her singing, which was good, but because of her death, which was horrible. On the night of July 7, 1993, Zapata had a few beers with some friends at the Comet Tavern on Pike Street,…
Live Tracks (Freedom) The Derailers Jackpot (Watermelon) These two albums prove that your arms are never too short to shake hands with the upper management of Hillbilly Heaven. How else do you explain the spirit of Buck Owens’ majestic late guitarist Don Rich entering the body and fingers of the…
The first band I ever went to see in the Valley was Dead Hot Workshop. I could relate to the name. It was last year, on a Friday night in mid-July. I had just moved here from Alaska and promptly discovered that hangovers are even worse when you are dehydrated…
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…
