John Cale Walking on Locusts (Rykodisc) When John Cale is in his deep and heavy mode, no one in rock ‘n’ roll is deeper and heavier. His old partner Lou Reed has to dress like a college professor, read his lyrics from a music stand and write dry, boring pieces…
Still Chirpin’ In 1973, the a cappella group the Persuasions released an album titled We Still Ain’t Got No Band. They ought to use that name for all their albums, and just add exclamation marks as they improve with age. One nice thing about soul, blues and R&B is there’s…
Valley rave promoters and other denizens of the local dance-culture underground are breathing a tentative sigh of relief after a recent online statement by a Phoenix police officer that denies any organized law enforcement effort to stamp out the Valley rave scene. “The truth about the anti-rave task force is…
Breakfast, Fred Green style: “Take a whole bag–stem, buds, seeds, everything–and cook it with a block of butter until it all burns down. Then you put the butter in the freezer and later, when you spread the butter on a piece of toast, you don’t waste any of the goods.”…
John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey Dance Hall at Louse Point (Island) Wherever Louse Point is, it’s nowhere near the sheep farms of Yeovil, where Polly Jean Harvey grew up, or the English beach house she currently calls home. From this recording, it more closely resembles the battle-torn landscape of…
More than a decade ago, the divine ones of punk rock sent forth a messenger to spread the virtues of three chords, sneers and six-packs; a proverbial vessel to carry on the proud missionary tradition of the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Beach Boys. Its name was the Queers,…
Toots and the Maytals Time Tough: The Anthology (Island) The 30-year career of Frederick “Toots” Hibbert and his band the Maytals traces the story of Jamaican pop music. A ska originator who initially nudged early ’60s soul into an irresistible island groove, Toots later slowed ska’s staccato chops and shuffle…
Rumor(s): The Gin Blossoms have broken up; the Gin Blossoms have decided to release one more album and then break up; the Gin Blossoms will never play in public again. True or false: Tough call. Several Tempe sources close to the band say consistently that the Gin Blossoms are together…
Who didn’t do a double take last October, when reports came that Tupac Shakur was newly on Death Row? It turned out to be the record label, of course, not the cellblock–ha-ha-ha–and even the company’s no-shit publicity department had some fun with the moment of uncertainty created by the word…
In 1987, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult invaded a fledgling American industrial scene with a dark beat and a sample-heavy melange of sex, Satan and pop culture. Originally conceived to write the soundtrack for an underground film (titled guess what . . . ), core musicians Buzz McCoy…
R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.) Midway through R.E.M.’s new album, a perplexed Michael Stipe figuratively rubs his big, bald head and ponders, “This fate thing. I don’t get it.” Welcome to the occupation, Michael. Stipe’s professed befuddlement is understandable. After all, he and two of his bandmates, bassist…
Tom Morello, 31: a leftist radical with a seven-digit savings balance. A Harvard graduate (1986, with honors) who plays guitar for a platinum-selling band with hit songs that advocate class warfare. A reformed metalhead who was born in Harlem. A public supporter of both Amnesty International and the Shining Path,…
By design, bootlegs are supposed to be against the rules–people pay top dollar for the illicit thrill of hearing music not meant for world consumption. Tacking an “official” seal onto the forbidden fruit leaves a bad aftertaste, like parents telling their teenage son it’s okay to smoke dope and have…
Bruce Hamblin, 1950-1996 The common wisdom among members of the Valley’s rockabilly, blues, roots and country music scenes last week was that some band in heaven just picked up one hell of a standup bass player. Longtime Valley musician Bruce Hamblin died September 18 of liver failure. He was 45…
As a musical label, “rock” has long since passed into the realm of hazy, general nothingness. Divisions and subdivisions abound–sometimes providing focus in a bewildering maze of new music, sometimes only fueling petty, elitist wars of words and pigeonholing. One sect, industrial rock, has been divided and subdivided ad nauseam,…
Call it crusty garage rock, or high-octane, drag-race punk. Dave Crider, founder/owner of Estrus Records and front man for the Monomen, doesn’t care what label you slap on his record company, or his band. He “just wants to rock.” Since 1987, Crider and his wife, Becky, have been pressing records…
Admit it. You want the Macarena to be over as much as the media do. Even Regis and Kathie Lee recently informed their viewers that the Macarena was nearly a dead item. Then when nighttime rolled around, David Letterman did his part by shoving a Macareniac into a waiting cab…
During the opening day of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, where Kim Fowley is still revered and everyone gets a backstage pass for a weekend, Randy Newman sat uncomfortably on a stage in the Austin Convention Center’s ballroom. He was there ostensibly to promote…
WORST REVIEW OF A LOCAL BAND PRINTED OUTSIDE THE VALLEY Review of Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy June issue of Grid The Refreshments continue to bubble along nicely–with a new video in rotation on MTV and a recent glowing write-up in Rolling Stone–but the Tempe outfit took it on the…
Pearl Jam No Code (Epic) One of my best friends, the head sports photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently told a revealing story about Eddie Vedder. A longtime basketball fan who still roots for his former hometown team, the Chicago Bulls, Vedder naturally had courtside seats for the championship series…
When the great revolutionary poet Pablo Neruda was a young man, he served Chile as consul to a series of desperately poor countries. He was amazed to find mass starvation in “the golden age of world poetry.” “While the new songs are hunted down,” he wrote, “a million men sleep…
And now a word about continuing higher education from Shamsi Ruhe, lead singer of the Tempe rock group One. “Me and Shahzad are going back to school. No more of this slacker/dropout business.” She grins before turning dead serious. “It’d be great if the music thing worked out, but if…
