n Public Enemy’s revolutionary 1988 LP, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, head M.C. Chuck D roared through one black-power anthem after another, fashioning an aural altar to Louis Farrakhan here and a sonic testimonial to Malcolm X there. Then came the last song and its…
Comedians are the poor, deprived children of the entertainment world. At least when compared to their siblings in rock ‘n’ roll they are. For every household Jay Leno, a dozen Def Leppards–five anonymous names and faces (to the general public, anyway)–manage to sell fourteen million or so records. Whereas records…
first, it feels like an earthquake with a sense of rhythm or Dom DeLuise and David Crosby walking up the driveway in ski boots. BOOM! BOOM! The refrigerator begins wiggling around the kitchen like Jerry Lewis conducting a rhumba band. BOOM! BOOM! The coffee table hovers across the living-room parquet…
The group that’s established itself as the most important in pop music during the past year doesn’t even play instruments. The only noise its members make is the sound of thoughtful hand clapping or finger snapping. Without further introduction, then, meet the Guilty White Liberals. Why did the music world…
It’s a common adage in the music business that the toughest gig is in your own hometown. That is especially true here in the Valley, where local pride is no more than a wistful memory that every April the snowbirds take back with them to Wisconsin and New York. In…
Poor, deprived Tommy Stinson. Twenty-two years old, he’s been a slave to rock ‘n’ roll and the Replacements–the grown-up garage gods he plays bass for–nigh on ten years now. As of last year, between rehearsals, recording sessions and gigs, not once did little Tommy ever make it to Disneyland. Then,…
The voice wriggles out of radio speakers quietly at first, like a stealthy alley cat stalking its prey. Husky, urgent and infused with enough racing hormones to stage its own libidinal grand prix, the voice delivers the song’s pleading tale of unrequited lust for an underage temptress with ever-escalating fervor,…
In her eight years of trying to shame the drug-loving youths of America into throwing away their needles, blotters and bongs, it’s a pity that Nancy Reagan never saw a show by Okie fuzz rockers the Flaming Lips. The Lips–if their show at the Sun Club last Saturday is any…
A scene from a recent Miami Vice nailed it perfectly. Exterior: A chic poolside party for the art world’s local elite. Startling expressionistic creations by this year’s Warhols slicing up the stark-blue skyline–unframed abstracts in vivid, high-gloss colors beside sharp, looming sculptures. Deathly solemn, culturally overbred men and women–looking like…
he problem with today’s music, as Throwing Muses’ lead singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh sees it, is simple: too much warp-speed guitar wanking and crotch-grabbing braggadocio and not enough thoughtful, intricate strumming and quiet introspection. Or, in the language of the Chinese cosmology that the singer is prone to spout, “too much…
Even under the best of circumstances, operating an independent/alternative/underground record label is more often than not fraught with trauma–distribution problems, tour hassles, a minuscule advertising budget, getting bands to the recording studio, you name it. Add to that the amount of time it takes to establish a track record of…
In August, Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante uttered the words that foot-lunches are made of. A press release issued by his record company had him saying, “Anthrax aren’t a band that relies on . . . MTV. We’re not going to sell out for them.” For all of this month and…
All the gushing articles on Irish bands we’ve been seeing in the music rags lately have been enough to make Irish-born singer Pierce Turner ashamed of his pedigree. Turner finds these stories, especially the ones calling Hothouse Flowers’ singer and fanzine centerfold Liam O’Maonlai the next Bono, to be something…
Are you mad as hell at City Hall? Are you sick of its taxpayer-funded megalomania? Are you pissed about potholes, craven politicians and taxes? Are you ready to revolt? The two are leading a voter initiative drive that is rapidly making hay of all the undirected angst simmering out there…
Looking at vibist Gary Burton, you’d swear he’s a professorial kind of guy. Sometimes bespectacled and sporting a bushy, well-groomed mustache, Burton seems the scientific type, someone who’d be given to inventing, experimenting and creating. In fact, Burton is a professor–a dean of curriculum at Berklee College of Music in…
If you’re not exactly sure what South by Southwest is, you’re not in the record biz, pal. This year’s SXSW music and media conference, the third, was similar to the SXSW confabs of the other two years. In short, it’s this “thing” held in Austin, Texas, for four days in…
Kevin Ryder had already played the new Madonna single, “Like a Prayer,” three times in a row when he started taking calls from the listeners frantically lighting up the phone lines in the broadcast booth. “KZZP, hi,” said the nighttime deejay and assistant program director for Phoenix’s top-rated contemporary-hits station…
You take a quick glance at the Adolescents’ latest release, Balboa Fun Zone, and at least one cynical question comes to mind. That is, shouldn’t this original SoCal punk band have hung it up already? After all, each of the group’s members is pushing the big three-0. But give a…
Nashville, the center of the country music business, guards its power jealously. It gives nothing away for free, and it doesn’t sell low. If you want to get some, boy, you’d better play by the rules, and then, if they like you, you just might get a bone or two…
Let’s face it. If James Dean were alive today, he’d be about as svelte as Marlon Brando and nearly as sexy as Gavin MacLeod. If Jimi Hendrix were still around, ten to one he’d be about as revolutionary as Eric Clapton. In other words, “Spuds” Hendrix. Hey, no one wants…
Take 6 yawns and stretches. It is Friday, February 24, and the a cappella gospel-jazz-blues-soul-pop-doo-wop group is paying the price after winning two Grammys only 48 hours earlier. After collecting the prestigious hardware (one for jazz vocals and one for soul gospel) at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown L.A. on…
In Britain it’s shaken up music, fashion and virtually the whole of U.K. youth culture. In Italy, its synthesis of classic funk samples and trippy techno-beats has been mesmerizing discophiles for almost a year. In cities like New York and L.A. it’s considered to be the hippest thing to happen…
