Last Thursday, my telephone rang and on the other end was Yoko Ono. Some of you out there may be scoffing, maybe you don’t think that’s a big deal. Scoff all you want; she used to be married to my hero–Tony Cox. Only kidding! Mrs. Lennon was on the horn…
It starts in the parking lot. Drive in behind the wheel of something small, some damn Japanese car, and you feel like a fish out of water. But it’s more than that; you feel almost unpatriotic. The lot of Phoenix Civic Plaza is filled with four-wheel-drive monsters, many of which…
This is how an interview with Howe Gelb begins. Question: How are you doing? Gelb: (17 seconds of silence.) Q: Did I wake you up? Gelb: No. I thought you were talking. Then you just stopped. Q: I was. I said, ‘How are you doing?’ Gelb: Oh. You needed a…
When the Piersons formed two years ago, its members had two major things in common: a distaste for the live music in Tempe bars and the inability to play their instruments. And the Piersons had a goal, too. To play a single night–any night–onstage at Long Wong’s, the dark and…
Once again, we take a look at what a few local humans liked and didn’t like in the music world this year. From fabulous celebrities such as Charles Barkley and Barry Goldwater to everyday folks you may have seen at your local Circle K or topless bar (Dave and Mariah,…
For as long as there has been a Ramones, there have been critics calling it a three-chord, one-joke band. Maybe so, but it’s a joke that works; 1994 marks the 20th anniversary of the quartet’s inception as ber group of the New York underground. Over the years, the Ramones have…
Three tiers of exotic plants, two fish in a big aquarium and a bright green bird are the things that greet you upon entering the home of King Karl. Karl is a soul singer from Opelousas, Louisiana, moved up here to Mesa a few months ago for his health. He…
I first came to Phoenix in late September, and I had three days to find a place to live before returning back East to get my stuff and move out here permanently. I stayed with my friend, Wes, the only person in town I knew, in his apartment on University…
Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, but at Christmastime, big packages look a whole lot better under a tree than little ones do. Back in the old days, when Santa left a 12×12 LP, it was a mouth-watering sight the next morning. Sure, CDs may sound…
The artistry of Don Rickles has spanned not only the decades, but virtually all mediums of entertainment. From the seminal years of the Hello Dummy album, to the film work (Kelly’s Heroes, Beach Blanket Bingo), to television’s lauded C.P.O. Sharkey and Kibbee Hates Fitch–the 1965 sitcom pilot that is now…
There is a 77-year-old man onstage dressed in a tuxedo. He wears a toupee and sings songs that were hits for him decades ago. He may forget a line or two, might miss a cue, his voice may be slightly ragged. But he’s still the best singer this country ever…
So you think rock n’ roll has fostered some pretty rough characters, eh? Some real wicked mothers, huh? Forget about it. Frank Sinatra did it bigger, badder, more atrociously and with more inspired outrage than any mere rock upstart. And he did it first, blazing a trail for the wanton…
Steve Diggle’s name-dropping again. The Buzzcocks’ guitarist is lounging around a Cleveland hotel room, telephone in hand, mentioning how he’s still “mates” with Clash co-founders Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. “I run into them in clubs now and then,” Diggle says, shrugging. “It’s always a pleasure to see em.” Diggle’s…
With names like Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen Jr. and Guy Clark signed to recording contracts, you might think Sugar Hill Records was housed next to some barbecue joint in Austin, Texas. It ain’t. And although it once harbored current Music City stalwarts like Ricky Skaggs and hillbilly rocker…
Jim Rose was born and raised in Phoenix. Now he hammers nails into his nose and eats light bulbs for a living. Simple coincidence? Cause and effect? Maybe a little of both. Rose is the ringleader, the boss, the master of scarimonies of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, a group…
God is in everything, as the good book says, and He’s especially in the conversation of Bad Brains’ bassist, Darryl Jenifer. Strange as it may seem, the group that essentially created the punk/funk/ethno-metal/reggae sound 16 years ago has something in common with gleaming-white vocalist Pat Boone: an unfailing belief in…
Violent Femmes vocalist Gordon Gano is smoking something in a fancy hotel room somewhere in Cincinnati. His drags are too long for a cigarette, and it can’t be a pipe. Not enough sucking noises. One deep, long, exaggerated whoosh. “It’s a cigaaaar,” Gano breathes passionately. He’s sucking on an Ashton,…
Ask any big star about telephone interviews, and he’ll tell you that there’s an art to blowing them off. The trick, from a musician’s point of view, is to dust off a writer without stirring up a grudge. After all, you never know when your tour or album might need…
Pearl Jam Vs. (Epic) They’re back for round two, folks. Vs., the second album from Pearl Jam, finds the Seattle grunge men cranking it out in top form. Though Eddie Vedder’s voice has always been the band’s main feature–the vibrating, gut-driven growls of one white boy’s angst–the guitars of Stone…
It’s hard to believe that in 1906, the term “funk” referred to sexual body odors, and only some 50 years later to a music that sounded just as dirty. No one in yer grandma’s lifetime has done as much as George Clinton, the Parliament/Funkadelic kingpin, to supply a soundtrack for…
Time and rhythms are fluid for George Clinton. His clock and metronome have always ticked at speeds different than the remainder of humanity’s. “Damn, was ‘Up for the Down Stroke’ 20 years ago?” the father of funk asks by telephone from the Detroit studio where he’s producing a duo of…
The rules of music promotion force stars to help sell their products by declaring each new album to be a) a work of genius, or b) different from anything they’ve done before. Both are malarkey–but time-tested, effective malarkey–concocted to make record buyers feel better about paying for something their favorite…
