Ronnie Dawson is talking about his dad. The 58-year-old Texas rockabilly legend is explaining the thrill he felt as a youngster whenever he saw his father, Pinky, a Western-swing bandleader in the ’30s and ’40s, kick into a tune. But whenever Dawson describes his dad, he could just as easily…
Let’s say that you’re a regular at Nita’s Hideaway. You leave town for a couple of months, and, upon your return, you decide to step into the club for a Thursday-night drink. As you pass through the doorway, you expect to hear roots-rock or classic soul pumping from the sound…
Being the best that never was can be a drag. Just ask Dead Hot Workshop. They’ve been Tempe’s top alternative band for almost a decade. They’ve wowed critics, won (and lost) record contracts and watched their work championed by “lesser” local bands like the Gin Blossoms–Robin Wilson wore a Dead…
Propellerheads Decksanddrumsandrockandroll (DreamWorks Records) At first glance, the title of the debut album by Propellerheads seems like a self-conscious attempt to coin an unwieldy phrase. Upon repeated listenings, however, this album actually starts to sound like what its name suggests: a multihued, state-of-the-art crash course on every imaginable flavor of…
Sonic Youth wasn’t hitting the stage for another hour, but by 6 p.m. the line outside La Zona Rosa stretched all the way around the block, and halfway up to Tarrant County. Meanwhile, two guys in huge paper hats strolled by, selling ear plugs with the panache of a hot…
“It started out as a joke, then it got real, then it got resolved, then it got real again.” That’s the way Chris Pomerenke, drummer for the Les Payne Product, defined the mercurial “feud” that developed over the past couple of weeks between his band and Trunk Federation. From the…
The South by Southwest conference held in Austin, Texas, each year is the music industry’s most massive gathering. Now in its 12th year, the conference purports to be the mecca of the biz, a place where unknown bands will find their A&R guy in shining armor and ride off with…
The High Llamas Cold and Bouncy (V2 Records) In a 1995 documentary about Brian Wilson, Tom Petty put his finger on what set Wilson apart as an artist. Petty said that what always astonished him about Wilson’s Beach Boys productions was not the sound of any one instrument, but the…
The garish rock ‘n’ roll bar, painted an eyesore “rock dude” purple, is fittingly situated in the company of half-empty strip malls, failing video-rental franchises and vacated car lots on a horrible, comfort-free city thoroughfare designed strictly for utilitarian purposes. It’s the kind of street that had its fiscal heyday…
Bill Laswell is like mercury, quick and dangerous, a threat to those who want to keep the recording industry segregated into easily marketable categories. The notorious NYC producer/bassist typically juggles several projects–funk, dub, jazz, whatever–at once, dissolving genres in constant pursuit of music’s far boundaries. He talks about the power…
There’s a strange paradox at work in the local club scene. It’s not necessarily new, but it has come into sharper focus in recent months. Basically, there are what seem to be a million clubs scattered throughout the Valley, yet people regularly complain that there are no places for bands…
Natalie Imbruglia Left of the Middle (RCA Records) Natalie Imbruglia radiates star power. A common first reaction to the video for “Torn”–a much-recorded song that Imbruglia has now made her property–has been, “I don’t know who she is, but she’s gonna be huge.” Imbruglia is an Australian model/singer whose chiseled…
John Lee Hooker, the King of the Boogie, rarely plays outside of the Bay Area these days. The 80-year-old blues legend can be excused for a somewhat leisurely schedule. After all, he’s spent the last half-century crisscrossing the country and cutting more than 100 albums, many of them filled with…
It’s almost too easy to slam South by Southwest. The cynical among us–and how can you observe the music industry at close range and not be cynical?–like to hold up the annual Austin confab as a case study of how greed and bloated ambition can submerge good intentions. You know…
Nothing’s more frustrating than interviewing a rock band en masse. Everyone clusters around your tape recorder and blurts out stuff all at once, but rarely does anyone say anything revelatory. Generally too inhibited to criticize or too diplomatic to take all the credit for the sounds, musicians tend to respond…
Hey Mikey–pick up the phone. . . . I guess you’re not home. Why don’t you come out tonight, baby. We’re either going to the Lava Lounge for Sinatra night or the Derby for the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We might also check out Swing Night at the Viper. So…
The Phoenix Symphony’s Finova Classics concert on January 8 was titled “Love Duets.” Keith Lockhart, famous as the Boston Pops Orchestra’s conductor, led the PSO in a program that included love duets from opera and ballet, as well as purely orchestral music. The opera portions were sung by a Canadian…
Most people take a job in the music business because they secretly want to be rock singers. Mary Lou Lord became a rock singer because she secretly wants a job in the music business. “I want to have a baby, I want to have a real life,” says Lord, at…
When guitarist Steve Larson celebrated his departure from Dead Hot Workshop last June by setting fire to his guitar at a Gibson’s farewell gig, many assumed that the veteran Tempe band’s future had likewise been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash. After nine years of ups and downs, a…
There’s no denying that we live in a superficial culture, but it’s still a bit much to swallow when every couple of years the media collectively gush that Madonna has “reinvented” herself. What this profound reinvention usually amounts to is a new hairdo and a different Gautier ensemble. Beneath the…
When Franklin Roosevelt did it, they called it “packing the court.” When Richard Daley did it, it was known as “stuffing the ballot box.” In either case, it meant a way of massaging the numbers to guarantee the desired results. At the H.O.R.D.E. Band to Band Combat show on February…
In a world where Hanson outsells Fugazi and “girl power” conjures images of the Spice Girls rather than Bikini Kill, there’s a smug sense of satisfaction when entertainment institutions unwittingly recognize anyone from the indie-ground. Nearly a year ago, Elliott Smith was on the front porch of Revolver HQ, playing…
