1989 will go down in history as the year racism came into vogue in pop music. Guns n’ Roses, Public Enemy and an ugly rash of skinhead bands have taken command of the public ear and commenced to babble on about the superiority of their own races. As these groups…
If you thought it was wacky, cool, normal or stupid when everyone in the world from critics to moshers started liking Led Zeppelin a few years ago, check this out: In the time since, “Zeppelin” has become an entire category of music, and scientists have come up with Zeppelogical studies…
For all its cross-cultural posturing, world-beat is still very much an American concept. The Bonedaddys, the current leading exponent of the genre, are ample proof. The eight-man band from Los Angeles does stew up some interesting blends of Caribbean, Latin American, and African music, but the meat of the soup…
To many of the tragically hip nightclub hoppers on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, the posters plastered all up and down the boulevard probably looked at first like advance publicity for a This Is Spinal Tap sequel. Picture it: Five typical-looking heavy-metal glamour boys in studded black leather trousers, shirts opened to…
Two years ago, Del Fuegos front man Dan Zanes stood in the place where he was and watched his world spring a major leak. “My band was falling apart, the record company situation was falling apart, and my songwriting was falling apart,” Zanes says. The band that had once thrilled…
When many listeners hear the term “new-age,” they immediately conjure up images of nuts-and-twigs folks hanging out in the wilderness playing nature-inspired ditties. Others think of the Windham Hill label, whose acts specialize in calming, atmospheric whooshes. But the description often turns out to be a misnomer. Promotional material for…
On the day after the earth moved and moved again under the feet of northern Californians, Yellowjackets bass player Jimmy Haslip worried for the families of his fellow band members who live in the area–until the news came that they were alive and well. “It was upsetting–pretty wild,” Haslip says…
No one would accuse Billy Squier of being a ground-breaking artist, or even one who swam against the tide of radio excessiveness. But the guitarist who reopened the Top 40 door to pop rock in the early Eighties is not exactly in the limelight these days. And though his music…
It wasn’t the voice of, well, rapture that you’d expect. From Deborah Harry’s tired, borderline cranky tone during the first few minutes of a phone call from her San Francisco hotel room, it’s hard to tell whether she’s lost about a week’s sleep or if she just hates interviews. It’s…
For a while, David Letterman would randomly run on his show the portion of Stevie Nicks’ 1986 “Talk to Me” video where she spins with incredible velocity and abandon, perched high on her platform boots and weighed down by yards of draped velvet. And if Stevie Nicks has been the…
Timbuk 3’s lead singer Pat MacDonald is unfazed that his band might have one of the most misunderstood hit singles of the decade. Although his 1985 hit “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” probably ranks right up there with R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t…
There’s a scene in the movie Tin Men where Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito are hanging out in a smoky, airport-type cocktail lounge filled with Baltimore suburbanites. It’s 1963, and this is the kind of place where you’d expect to be treated to a middle-aged crooner wheezing up Perry Como…
“Cycles. The return of that classic high-spirited, uninhibited, good time rock ‘n’ roll sound only the Doobie Brothers can create. Cycles. Reuniting the founding members of the legendary band. Cycles. Resulting in the same great guitar sounds, smooth ensemble vocals and sparkling songwriting. Cycles!” –from a recent Capitol Records press…
When Tucson’s River Roses put out their EP Phoenix 99 in 1987, it seemed to be imminent that the group would make an impact in locales far beyond the Old Pueblo. After all, the title song took its name from the road-mileage sign marking the exit out of Baja Arizona,…
Singer Cleo Laine speaks as she sings–her voice is deep, melodious, husky and honeyed. It’s one that’s retained its resonance and power through forty-plus years of performing. A fog-like quality creeps through her tone and adds a theatrical touch to her songs. “I make [each song] into a little play,…
Just about anyone under thirty has heard of the Cure. Many have seen front man Robert Smith and his giant haircut. Some can name songs, and be counted as fans. Unite all those people, something the Cure has managed to do, and you have a band that’s been able to…
Seeing as how heavy-metal in the Eighties has featured one Zeppelin-Aerosmith Xerox after another, it seems only a matter of time before hard rock chokes on its own redundant power chord philosophy. But right when you really think it’s over, there comes a voice from a suburban garage far away:…
Ask Jon Bon Jovi what kind of car he drives, and the 27-year-old rock superstar will tell you straight up, with no hesitation: “A Jeep.” It’s the kind of vehicle he feels comfortable with, probably because it fits in so well with the unassuming, regular guy image he’s always managed…
Back in 1972, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wrote country music’s New Testament with the album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Featuring a veritable Who’s Who of country music’s most venerable and esteemed instrumentalists, singers and songwriters (several of whom have since passed away), Circle was a real bridge between…
Where, in the name of dudehood, is the next Bob Dylan? Why, he’s cowering in the closet, right next to his out-of-tune acoustic guitar, that’s where. He’s been there for more than a decade now, suffering flashbacks of that awful scene from Animal House. You know the one: Pencil-mustached Stephen…
If it’s true that Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberal policies have made a burgeoning Soviet rock scene possible, why is it that we’ve heard so little of this rocknost in America? How come, for example, most of us wouldn’t be able to tell the premier Soviet rock star, Boris Grebenshikov, from Bullwinkle’s…
How do you classify the music of New York rock band Pussy Galore? Punk? Post-punk? Post-modern? Progressive? No, nope, uh-uh, and not even close. The band’s fans and foes alike have called it “loud,” “obscene,” and “obnoxious,” but anyone who’s ever sat through any of Pussy Galore’s first five releases…
