In case you missed all six hours of The Beatles Anthology and its accompanying hoopla (what are you, living in a Turkish prison?), just accept this premise: The Beatles are still the yardstick by which all pop music is measured. Whenever some shlub of a group scores a breakthrough hit,…
Programmed by Mac and Strong, KUKQ is the place to find music devoid of commercial influences Somebody hold a wake, because “alternative” is dead–gone the way of all labels that catch fire and fry in marketing hell. Ten years ago, the battle lines were clear: There was commercial radio and…
Vince Welnick was never cut out to be a Deadhead. While the young “beautiful people” of the Sixties were hitching rides to San Francisco, wearing flowers in their hair, Vince was cruising Phoenix’s Central Avenue with his older twin brothers, packing a tear-gas pistol in his belt. Sure, he had…
Bill Davis got the thrill of his five-year rock ‘n’ roll career recently. Answering the phone at the band’s New Orleans headquarters, the Dash Rip Rock lead singer-guitarist heard an unmistakable, molasses-sweet drawl on the other line that made him positively weak in the knees. The Southern belle in question?…
The Slims Slow Road to Hell (Mainliner Music) Slims drummer Scott Seymann sports a “London Calling” tee shirt in this CD’s insert photo. That’s tres cool, but the Clash is light-years from the Slims’ stripped-down, medium-tempo fare, which more easily recalls the Feelies. Greg Simmons’ guitar unfurls melodic lines with…
They were about halfway through a take in the video shoot for Pam Tillis’ recent hit “MiVida Loca” when the country diva suddenly directed the camera crew to stop filming, turned to Dale Watson and told him to flatten his pompadour. “She had a problem with my hair,” remembers Watson…
The Amps Pacer (4AD) It’s easy to look back on Kim Deal’s checkered musical past and feel pity mixedwith admiration: She’s continually stymied by the company she keeps. After watching her play George Harrison to Black Francis’ Lennon/McCartney, Dylan to Tanya Donelly’s Donovan and, in the latest chapter of this…
Quick–name one rock band with a black woman for a lead singer. I dare you. Hell, I double-dare you. What’s that? Tina Turner? Get outta here. Sure, she can strut as hard as Mick Jagger, but have you heard that song she has in the new Bond flick? I don’tknow…
Green Day Insomniac (Sire) I admit it: I was a punk rocker in the early ’80s. I had my shoulder dislocated in the pit at a Dead Kennedys concert; I sipped out of the same longneck Bud as Exene Cervenka in the sweaty aftermath of an X show; and I…
Not Miranda, you fool, Mirainga. After a week spent skipping down more blind alleys than an Alphabet City speed freak, I’ve called off the hounds. At this point, I’m willing to confirm status upon Mr. Mirainga as “the band from nowhere.” Make that everywhere. The publicity flacks at MCA still…
Because disco music was largely the product of assembly-line craftsmanship–conceived by megalomaniac producers and executed by anonymous session musicians–few superstars emerged from the genre. And those who did probably wish now they weren’t so closely identified with that thump thump thumpity thump. Take the Bee Gees, who are still feeling…
Don’t expect any clowns at the Jim Rose Circus. Ninjas with machetes, maybe, but no clowns. Trained poodles? Try maggots and scorpions. And, in lieu of a tightrope walker, look for the guy who balances a running lawn mower on his lip while dodging vegetables. Ringling Bros., this ain’t. “We’re…
P.M. Dawn Jesus Wept (Gee Street) Maybe it says something about rap’s creative limitations that so many of its top artists feel the need to move beyond the form as they refine their vision. The Beastie Boys’ ongoing journey back to second-wave punk is an example. In any case, the…
Lloyd Cole doesn’t consider New York City part of America. “It’s more like Cuba,” says the British singer/songwriter, “sort of an island off the coast.” Cole moved to Manhattan in 1989, shortly after he disbanded Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, a group, founded with some university mates in 1979, that…
Attention, CD shoppers: Manson may be lurking somewhere in your disc collection. If you’re one of the four million souls to throw down for a copy of Blues Traveler’s Four so far, cue up the last cut on the album (“Brother John”) and wait for one Jono Manson to make…
This is a story about a rock ‘n’ roll tour. There will be no Lear jets and limo rides, however, no five-star suites, cock-crazed groupies, six-figure cocaine binges or cadres of bodyguards. No TVs will be thrown from windows, no furniture will be splintered. This is a story about five…
The question of the hour is a two-parter: Who the hell is Mr. Mirainga, and what was he doing besting Alanis Morissette and Smashing Pumpkins in last week’s list of most-added alternative-rock radio singles in the country? MCA Records media reps in New York will tell you that Mr. Mirainga…
Eric Bachmann has had a whiff of success, and he says the smell is not so sweet, after all. “All of a sudden you can’t get a free moment at a show ’cause you have to talk to the publishing people, the tee-shirt people, the record-label people, whatever,” says the…
1. He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. 2. He started playing guitar when he was 12. 3. He wrote in his 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook that he planned “to join Little Richard.” 4. He moved to New York City in January 1961…
Candlebox Lucy (Maverick) Candlebox is back, but we never knew it was gone. How could we? The band’s eponymous debut has sold almost four million copies and stayed in heavy rotation on MTV and commercial radio like an old sweat sock that someone keeps forgetting to take out of the…
If you believe in forever, you may also believe that somewhere beyond the stars is a rock ‘n’ roll heaven with one hell of a band. Rest assured, you’re not alone. Though it’s still too soon for Blind Melon fans to put a silver-lining spin on the latest rock ‘n’…
Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic (Warner Bros.) Let’s play free association. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think “Oklahoma City”? Right-wing kooks with fertilizer bombs? The site of the world’s tallest radio tower (KOMA)? The famed test market for both McRibs and MTV? Not if you’re…
