During the opening day of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, where Kim Fowley is still revered and everyone gets a backstage pass for a weekend, Randy Newman sat uncomfortably on a stage in the Austin Convention Center's ballroom. He was there ostensibly to promote...
Crocodile Cafe, 525 South Mill, Tempe, 966-5883. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Even though summer vacation is now in full swing, within a few weeks 40,000 ASU students will be drifting into Tempe, gearing up for...
Soundgarden Down on the Upside (A&M) Extract Soundgarden's DNA and you'll see Zeppelin molecules on one helix and Sabbath matter on the other. Keep looking and you'll uncover chunks of MC5 and the Stooges, and bits of the Beatles and Pink Floyd. You'll find, in short, the echoes of pregrunge...
Harvey McElhannon is 65 years old, a tall man with good posture, an open face, a sincere smile and a firm handshake. He is patriotic to a fault, though he'd probably say that no such thing is possible. Hanging on the walls of his office are beautifully framed copies of...
Like two boys at the swimming hole, Kieran Suckling and Peter Galvin pulled off their shorts and tee shirts and jumped feet-first and butt-naked into the coffee-with-cream-colored waters of the San Pedro River just east of Sierra Vista. It had been a hot-desert hike down from the main road. And...
Guided by Voices Under the Bushes Under the Stars (Matador) One listen to Guided by Voices' latest release, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, is convincing proof that GBV is something special. Front man Robert Pollard--a former high school football star and fourth-grade teacher turned general of the Ohio indie...
Live Tracks (Freedom) The Derailers Jackpot (Watermelon) These two albums prove that your arms are never too short to shake hands with the upper management of Hillbilly Heaven. How else do you explain the spirit of Buck Owens' majestic late guitarist Don Rich entering the body and fingers of the...
The Copper Club Restaurant, America West Arena, 201 East Jefferson, Phoenix, 379-7777. Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11a.m. to 2 p.m. Today's quiz: Choose the statement that best describes your downtown-job situation. 1. When you arrive at work, you pull into a parking spot with a) your name on it; b)...
Groupies are a sore subject in the Phantom Surfers' camp. "The only people who want to meet us are overweight record collectors looking for matrix numbers," says bassist Michael Lucas, sighing. "The women who attend our shows have a few drinks and leave. In that respect, surf shows are a...
Best Alternative Rock Beat Angels They may look and play like it, but the Beat Angels aren't really under the illusion that it's still 1979. They just don't think rock 'n' roll has gotten any better since then. "The way we look at it, there's this certain spirit that was...
If I owned an enormous, influential, major label, a lot of things would be different. For me, anyway; a bigger bank balance, more yes men, the finest aspirin money can buy, and--for the Beat Angels--there'd be a big, fat recording contract. This is one of the few tapes I've come...
Blow Pops American Beauties (Get Hip) There was an old Saturday Night Live joke between Chevy and Gilda that went like this: "Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Babs' uvula." "Babs' uvula who?" "I don't know, Babs . . ." That's sort of the way I feel about this album. Not because...
It was 10:40 p.m., and still no sign of any aging Kiss fans sporting painted cat faces. Nor would there be, but then again, maybe the sight of 35-year-old guys with beer guts and Kiss tee shirts should have been spectacle enough for one night. And judging by reactions to...
Yet another 12 months of popular song have come and gone--for many, a year of soul-touching hits, for others, an unfulfilling mess of redundant backwash. But one thing's for sure: 1994 was a year of events in the music world. Michael and Lisa Marie got together, Kurt and Courtney broke...
Suzzane Rivera knows people look at her funny sometimes. Maybe they feel threatened, think they see a hard-core gang member. She says to herself: Go ahead. Get a good look. See the bandanna, the proud tattoos, the dangling crucifix. I may surprise you. She sees the impressions form behind those...
There are movie columns that come free from the neon-lighted glare of the multiplex lobby, from the sweet smell of a thousand spilled kernels of stale popcorn. This is one of them. In June of 1995, I'm at my desk, looking at the blinking cursor on the computer screen before...
Cody Lundin, Primitive Guy, is ready to go. He is wearing no shoes in the parking lot of a Safeway store outside Prescott. This is a common thing for him, this not wearing shoes. He does not wear them at home, he does not wear them when he drives, he...
If you've never witnessed a 50-year-old Vandercook No. 232 Proof Press working at full-on, finger-crushing capacity, then you've never heard a noise like this: SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK. And you've never seen the primitive, industrial sensuality of rollers, bearings, plates, wheels and belts moving in...
Lord Mikolaj Alexis Vasilko looks as if he's going to vomit. He's fallen to his knees after getting hit in the crotch with a rattan sword, and his face turns several shades of red before he finally collapses in a heap on the grass field. A small crowd gathers to...
The Pink Cat slumps on a folding chair in a makeshift dressing room at Phoenix Civic Plaza. The small cuts beneath his eyes sting, his hands ache, his arms throb. But Scott Walker's pride hurts worse than his body. He heard the boos and the derisive meows from the small...
thursday november 9 Bob Dylan: The living legend, who was mumbling brilliantly while R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe was still in knickers, performs on Thursday at Symphony Hall, 225 East Adams; see Coda on page 106. Ian Moore Band shares the bill. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $26.50 and $30.50, available...
It's 10 a.m. and Terry Garvin of Zen Lunatics is cuckoo. For the munchy, crunchy, chocolatey taste of Cocoa Puffs, that is. It's an addiction that has reared its sugary head only in recent years. "I didn't eat breakfast cereals for the longest time because they would depress me. I...
