The Driskill hotel in downtown Austin, Texas, was built in 1884, and, according to the American Registry of Haunted Places, it’s infested with ghosts. I stayed at the Driskill for five nights last week during the 11th Annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, and while I didn’t see…
If boxed sets are an honor and not just a sales ploy, then no contemporary artist deserves one more than Al Green, whose earliest and finest work is compiled in a four-disc set released on Valentine’s Day. The timing was right. Not only is Green the greatest living soul singer,…
I came to and the contents of my stomach made a bid for freedom. I stumbled to the toilet just in time to fill it with last night’s Old Milwaukee. Joy. I wiped the pungent fluid from my nose and mouth and braved the mirror. Not bad. Some shattered blood…
His suit is pinstriped and loud. His tie is high, wide and noisy. His shoes are gaudy, two-toned wing tips and his fedora is the size of a full-grown, fur-bearing mammal. His name is Scotty Morris, and he’s the front man for the exceedingly hip West Coast swing band Big…
The Offspring Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia) As music-industry success stories go, the Offspring’s quick ascent was an anomaly; selling eight and a half million records on an indie label was unheard of until Smash broke in 1994. Adolescent subject matter and a formulaic blend of Orange County punk and…
Guitar Wolf would really have to suck not to be cool. I mean, hey–a Japanese punk band called Guitar Wolf, whose members grease their hair into pompadours and wear black leather jackets? That’s cool by definition, if only because such flagrant individualism so satisfyingly blows away the American stereotype of…
Pat Cupp, Sonny Hall, Johnny Jano–where are they now? Burgeoning rockabilly stars once, they all had minor hits in the late 1950s. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone outside a small circle of obsessive collectors who knows they ever existed. All that’s left are a few yellowing promotional cards…
As the queer-core genre continues to expand, one band remains a touchstone–the homo-trinity of Pansy Division. Sure, there have been gays in rock since there was rock, but when it comes to singing the joys of rimming and the tribulations of leaving the closet at an early age, Pansy Division…
Bruce Cockburn The Charity of Night (Rykodisc) L. Ron Hubbard should be as cult an artist as Bruce Cockburn. Cockburn’s only “hit” singles are diametric opposites–1979’s “Wondering Where the Lions Are” was a jaunty bit of religious poetry, while 1984’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” threatened to blow up…
K mart is trying to spiff up its image, but it’s still the last place you’d expect to run into a rock star–unless, of course, that rock star is Bono. When U2 recently announced its new blue-light special at the Greenwich Village K mart, Bono graciously fielded questions and stopped…
Van Morrison The Healing Game (Polydor) When you’ve put out 27 studio albums, as Belfast’s finest has, your audience checks out every new release to gauge the subtle differences with past work. Here’s how The Healing Game stacks up to Morrison’s past triumphs: 1. Anyone who counted how many times…
David Bowie Earthling (Virgin) One of several striking, almost iconic images that adorn the self-designed cover of David Bowie’s new album, Earthling, is a “Kirlian photo” of a crucifix taken by Bowie in 1974. The Kirlian Camera is the infamous “aura camera” (featured recently on–where else–an X-Files episode) which purportedly…
Mountain-Vu Trailer Court. Apache Junction, Arizona. 2:30 a.m. I had the Clash going. Loud. The trailer was pumping. Pabst Blue Ribbon flowed freely through my veins, and the moon and stars shone with a vengeance. Everything made sense for a change. Until I heard Meth-Head Red, my illiterate, white-power neighbor,…
Once again, the Valley music scene took it on the chin from the showcase selection committee of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. No point in going off about it at length, ’cause it’s the same tired story, year after year. There’s one new twist for ’97–this time…
Beck Celebrity Theatre February 20, 1997 Beck’s not himself these days. The stage-frightened, rain-soaked, coffee-house kitten has turned into a blow-dried lion in white polyester. The muttering beatnik is now a rock star. This is the new Beck. Hear him roar. “Owwwww! Y’all lookin’ sexy!” Beck was half right. About…
Let the drums roll out, let the trumpet call while the people shout –strike up the band. –Ira Gershwin Gershwin probably had no idea that, 65 years later, the drums would still be rolling, the trumpets calling and the people–from KISS fans to stage-diving skaters–still shouting. Manning the vanguard of…
The red, white and blue Plymouth Reliant rolled off a Chrysler assembly line in 1982. Now, in the beer garden behind Boston’s, the family-size station wagon is meeting a most ignoble end. Several dozen fans and members of the modern-rock combo Jesus Chrysler Supercar rain blows on the highway titan…
Sleepy LaBeef is a rockabilly from Smackover, Arkansas. Think about it: Sleepy. LaBeef. Smackover. You probably won’t see a stranger, more evocative combination of words in a music story anytime soon, but in this case, it’s fitting. Among tightly slotted contemporary artists, LaBeef–who possesses one of the deepest voices in…
Aphex Twin Richard B. James (Sire/Elektra) Moby–who just yesterday was the poster boy for the ensuing techno revolution–is going mortal while everyone else goes dancing. Turning his back on techno, Moby now embraces Mission of Burma and speed metal and Public Image Ltd. as though he knew them all along…
1. Mae West–Way Out West! (Tower) 1966 Mae still had an hourglass figure, but the sands of time were quickly running out, if her manglings of beat favorites like “Day Tripper,” “Twist and Shout” and “You Turn Me On” are any indicator. This curio is like kissing Grandma and getting…
Pat Boone Pat Boone in a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy (Hip-O/MCA) Pat Boone is back in black, and God help us all. When a recording that’s so wrong in so many ways returns Pat Boone–Pat Boone–to the pop charts after 34 years in celebrity-golf-tournament exile, it’s time…
Critters Buggin Guest Host (LooseGroove) Shake the hand of fate for pushing Pearl Jam into the Pantheon. Because if Pearl Jam had never gotten huge, guitarist Stone Gossard wouldn’t have gotten rich. And if Stone Gossard had never gotten rich, he wouldn’t have started his own record label. And if…
