Ask John Herndon of Tortoise to list the three albums that best represent his band’s apparent progressive-rock mindset and you might be surprised at what he answers. Or, rather, what he doesn’t. Herndon won’t mention Can’s Tago Mago, even though Tortoise often plays the same kind of jazzy, repetitive riffs…
This is a historic moment. We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order, a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations. –President George Bush in his televised speech “The Liberation…
Bad Religion The Gray Race (Atlantic) In light of two decades of pithy punk sloganeering, in which the naked expression of rage is usually regarded as a substitute for logic, the eloquence of Greg Graffin has often been lauded as a much-needed voice of intelligence. As co-founder of SoCal punk…
Doin’ It to Death During a break from a 1989 recording-studio session in upstate New York, the alumni of arguably the finest band in American pop music gathered over soda and takeout Chinese to invoke the man who had dragged them all to greatness. No one in the room–not Bobby…
If Woody Guthrie and Jane Fonda had somehow spawned a daughter, she would probably look and act a lot like Ani DiFranco. Live, the dreadlocked, body-pierced singer/songwriter defies the folk-musician stereotype of a quiet presence on a stool. She plays like a woman possessed, kicking the air and clawing her…
Hootie and the Blowfish Fairweather Johnson (Atlantic) A central tenet of my belief system can be summed up in three words: “Hootie is evil.” Yet Hootie’s frat-pop folky jangle can be as alluring as a siren’s song along a rocky coast, beckoning rock critics to their doom. To my horror,…
Underworld has already showed European club kids that electric guitars and live vocals can peacefully co-exist with techno. Now the British trio is using the same music to teach us Yanks a different lesson–that techno can too rock. With the recent U.S. release of Second Toughest in the Infants, Underworld–Karl…
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…
