Johnny Cash Unchained (American Recordings) Just when his myth was in danger of being destroyed by too many mediocre albums–and too many wonderful albums underpublicized by uncaring labels and ignored by country radio–Johnny Cash was rescued from the country-music trash heap and restored to the sort of honorary status afforded…
Smokin’ Joe Kubek and his band have terrific timing. Although Kubek and singer Bnois King are music-biz vets, their first album appeared only five years ago–just in time to surf the new wave of interest in blues. “Thank God,” Kubek says from his Dallas home. “Several years ago, I was…
On New Year’s Eve, Deon Foreman and a sport-utility-vehicle load of fellow Tempe ravers arrived at the Grand Olympic Auditorium near downtown Los Angeles about an hour before midnight. Shit was hectic. “There were cops on the freeway trying to block the auditorium exit, and looking down you could see…
Wilco Being There (Reprise Records) The cynics who would dismiss rock ‘n’ roll–the formula kind, the guitar-vocals-bass-drum kind, the kind Chuck Berry created and the Beatles and Brian Wilson made perfect–look instead toward a rave new world; they write off rock as a dead form to be discarded like a…
The Beach Boys single-handedly popularized surf culture in America. Fine. The Beach Boys were the West Coast nemesis of the Beatles. Great. The Beach Boys are the commercial inseminators of surf rock. Yippee-skip. I know, I’ve read the books. But I’m sorry–to anyone under 30, the Beach Boys mean little…
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Emancipation (NPG/EMI Records) Now that Madonna’s a stylish new mom and Michael Jackson is trying to pass himself off as a father-to-be, it’s fitting that The Artist Formerly Known As Prince has settled into domestic bliss as well. All three are ’80s icons in…
If 1991 was the year punk broke, then 1996 was the year punk died–killed by both the Sex Pistols and the weight of its own success. Of course, the Pistols always exploited the whole concept of “punk,” but this year they mocked it as well, rising up like the corpse…
Dr. Dre’s decision to bounce from Suge Knight’s enclave and renounce gangsta rap gets my nod for story of the year. Whether he was motivated by moral revelation, simple business acumen, artistic instinct or merely a desire to keep breathing doesn’t really matter. Bottom line: Kids in Ahwatukee may still…
1. Warrant, Belly to Belly (CMC/BMG) Duh. 2. Great White, Let It Rock (Imago) Long since abandoned by fans and glory, these bloated, balding bozos are still searching for that lost Mott/Bad Company riff and any stripper who still cares. 3. KISS, Unplugged (Mercury) Weren’t the lunchboxes, TV shows, comic…
Of the few musicians who can challenge R.L. Burnside’s stature as prime evangelist of dark, Southern blues, one, his neighbor Junior Kimbrough, will play with Burnside New Year’s Day at the Rhythm Room, making this appearance of the Fat Possum Mississippi Juke Joint Revue easily one of the most important…
“Cut! Take nine!” The black Dodge Ram lumbers across the desert floor and stutters to a stop. Inside, the four members of Crushed are laughing so hard, tears cut trails through the dust and makeup caked on their faces. Filming for the hard-rock outfit’s forthcoming CD-ROM has been under way…
The Grinch says Hell is other people’s music. Anyone who’s ever worked in a mall at Christmas understands: That sugary choir doing “Winter Wonderland” could make Santa reach for a revolver. And a small Central American country used to employ “Jingle Bell Rock” during rebel interrogations (it often worked). But…
Inertia chain-smokes when he spins. He buys Marlboro reds, the sharpest of coffin nails, and furiously drives them into his lungs whenever he’s behind a pair of turntables at a rave. It’s the only stress fracture in a facade that’s otherwise solid ice. Unlike a lot of deejays, Inertia doesn’t…
Trunk Federation front man Jim Andreas says he should have known the deal his band got on its tour van–an ’88 Ford Econoline–was a little too sweet to be true. Low mileage, room for a crash mattress and gear, no serious mechanical problems, and some really bitchin,’ glass-encased running lights…
Luscious Jackson Fever In, Fever Out (Grand Royal/Capitol) On their first two releases, the 1992 EP In Search of Manny and the ’94 full-length Natural Ingredients, Luscious Jackson’s four-tough-New York-women onslaught jumped and grooved. It worked, and not in a try-to-be-black (they aren’t) funkster wanna-be kind of way, either. Luscious…
Ginger Baker Trio Falling Off the Roof (Atlantic) You can take the drummer out of the rock band, but can you take the rock out of the drummer? On Falling Off the Roof, Baker explores that question once again, with bass compass man Charlie Haden and six-string cartographer Bill Frisell…
Smashing Pumpkins America West Arena December 7, 1996 Billy Corgan’s legs were slack in his shiny silver pants as he smiled for the first time all night. “I feel no pain,” the great Pumpkin informed a near capacity crowd at America West Arena. “I feel no pain.” Seven minutes earlier,…
His upper teeth are nearly gone now; they have been replaced by tiny slivers of off-white that peek through rotten gums. His lower teeth, thin and brown, appear ready to fall out if he so much as coughs too hard. His lips are pale and dry, coated with spit so…
Bush Razorblade Suitcase (Trauma/Interscope) First, Gavin Rossdale stole Kurt Cobain’s sound, right down to the last sad-but-fuzzy guitar chord and strangled vocal growl. Then he and his hired helpers rode it to a quintuple-platinum hit with Sixteen Stone, primarily because modern rock radio programmers were damned if they were going…
Seven inches of hard, black plastic, shaped to satisfy. The seven-inch record remains the driving force of the indie ethic–the only format that anyone with heart and scarce dough can afford to produce, and any gutter punk can “spare change” enough to purchase. The vinyl single is also a classic…
Van Halen Best of, Volume 1 (Warner Bros.) Warner Bros. has already released volume one in the Van Halen best-of series: It was called Van Halen, and it hit stores in 1978. Volume two, the following year, was called, well, Van Halen II; volume three was 1984 in, well, 1984…
In February of 1989, Billy Corgan gave me a copy of a self-titled, eight-track mini-release Smashing Pumpkins had just put out in Chicago. I was in a Champaign, Illinois-based band called Stark at the time, and we played with the Pumpkins occasionally. Smashing Pumpkins was a cheesy-looking cassette with hand-drawn…
