I got over my problems reconciling blink-182’s quasi-libertarian attitude and its major-label affiliation the first time I learned how fond the trio is of big-bosomed porn stars–those women’s services don’t come cheap, so who better to finance the backstage peep show than MCA Records and its multinational parent corporation, Vivendi…
If the destruction of September 11 took with all the lives and the buildings America’s love affair with irony (as more than a few self-serving media types have opined), why didn’t it also subsume the self-perpetuating infantilization so many twentysomethings in rock bands seem to cling to like a life…
Twenty-three years after his band bowed with its John Cale-produced macho-fey punk-pop-a-roll, the Paul McCartney of Squeeze (not the John Lennon–too comfy-cozy for such nonsense) at last goes solo. Turns out old pal and partner Chris Difford, less performer than proud papa, couldn’t stomach the idea of hitting the road…
The last time we were at Dan’s Bar in Denton, we were sharing a table and a few beers with Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios owner Josh Baish and his girlfriend, talking about Baish’s troubles getting his own bar off the ground. The “Dan” in Dan’s Bar, Dan Mojica, had been…
In the mid- and late ’60s, Dave Davies’ riffs sprouted switchblades in brother Ray’s sad, literate pop gardens for tunes as tough, soulful, crisp, compact and brilliant as anything from the British invasion or subsequent rock incursions and coups. Give the People What We Want sports the good taste to…
Given the blissfully strung-out nature of the records he makes as Spiritualized–grandiose affairs in which the space-rock cosmos are studded with swirls of free-jazz skronk and warm gusts of gospel-music presence–you wouldn’t expect Jason Pierce to be an amped-up conversationalist, breathlessly regaling you with tales of rock-star debauchery (though they…
Every so often a record comes along that, no matter how much you want to hate it, you can’t help loving it. This year’s best example of that is Is This It, the maddeningly addictive debut album by the ludicrously hyped New York City band the Strokes. A close second,…
The last five years have been tough on the Butthole Surfers (who?). Their 1996 album Electric Larryland spawned the unlikely hit “Pepper,” an odd blend of rap and grunge that was the first taste of mainstream success for a group better known for scatological imagery and hair-raising orgies of psychedelic…
In 1997, Rebecca Gates became the last Spinane, as the departure of longtime musical partner Scott Plouf left her to craft the masterful Arches and Aisles alone. Arches and Aisles would itself become the Spinanes’ epitaph, followed only by The Imp Years, a collection of B-sides and rarities from the…
A dozen listens in, and the only criticism that can be leveled at I Might Be Wrong, Radiohead’s first live outing, is that it’s too short–eight songs in 40 minutes, barely enough time to get a swerve on. It’s disappointing only because Radiohead’s long been the best live rock outfit…
The wearying practice of cranking out local-band compilations has been left to local labels, often working with a theme (cf. Electric Ornaments, Idol Records’ excellent Christmas comp from last year) or with an agenda (promoting their own segment of the “scene” or their own stable of bands). To accuse Summer…
I’ve always believed that the humble Winedale Tavern, a shotgun railroad bar on Lower Greenville, attracts the most democratic mix of humanity of any club in Dallas. Both the homeless and the celebrated sit stool by stool, on even keel, protected by embryonic walls–a room that somehow amplifies the warmer…
From his seventh-floor loft office just south of downtown, The D.O.C. can see his grandmother’s house in West Dallas, just behind the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. From here, he can see it all. The city is his personal model train set. Reunion Tower looms close enough to palm like a…
If you’ve got the time and/or the money and/or the sanity to keep close tabs on America’s bustling indie-rock underground, you no doubt know that quite a few of the scruffy slouches who run things down there are double-dipping in an increasingly shallow artistic gene pool. Simply put, stagnation’s stinking…
The hits keep on coming. Well, depending on your definition of hits. Pleasant Grove is set to release its new album, Auscultation of the Heart, November 26 on Germany’s Glitterhouse Records, the same label that issued an expanded version of the group’s self-titled debut EP last year. Recorded by Matt…
Even the most jaded soul’s at least this bit interested in MJ’s latest–a disc three-plus years in the making, at the cost of some $30-$40 mil. Nostalgists wonder only what happened to the kid they once adored; they shake their head, cluck their tongues and lament how so vital a…
Masta Ace started his career impressively enough: He was a member of the Queensbridge Juice Crew and had first dibs on 1989’s “The Symphony,” arguably the best posse cut ever recorded. He went from Cold Chillin’ records to Delicious Vinyl to almost complete obscurity, leaving a faint trail of radio…
When you’re in a band, living and playing in a college town has one big benefit: Every four years or so, a new crop of students, 18-year-old kids ready for something new, is exposed to your music. At the same time, many of the ones you’ve won over in the…
First, there was Napster, which made it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to get thousands of songs for free. It was one of the Net’s true mass-market hits, landing its 19-year-old creator on the cover of Time while 30 million users traded nearly 3 billion songs a month…
The most beloved album of 2001–and rarely has a release received so much across-the-board praise, at least one without a $100 bill slipped inside–is also the most baffling. The concept of Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls, having a woman perform songs about women written by men, isn’t exactly novel, though…
For the first time since its 1998 inception, the hard-rocking, shit-talking Family Values Tour isn’t an entirely ironic venture. Sure, the lineup includes adventurously coiffed lunkheads Static-X and hip-hop-admiring lunkheads Linkin Park. But the tour’s two biggest names–nü-metal pilgrims Staind and grunge survivors Stone Temple Pilots–reflect hard rock’s increasingly fractured…
Back in the days when New Order was rising out of the ashes of Joy Division, dark and depressing subject matter in music was still absent enough in mainstream pop music that anyone addressing it in his music stood apart from the crowd. Of course, nowadays everyone’s whining about how…
