Who in the hell sucked out the feeling? Four and a half years ago, Knoxville power-poppers Superdrag had a hit single on the radio and a multi-album deal with Elektra to show Mom and Dad. Now it’s 2001 and about six people (the band and, I suspect, Mom and Dad)…
Listening to this new collection of John Prine’s sparse, gravel-and-molasses renditions of his own early material, it brings to mind how popular music has changed during the past three decades. When Prine first recorded most of these songs, serious-minded “singer-songwriters” were everywhere, soothing the battered spirits of aging hippies with…
It’s difficult to step into the future, or even the present, without one longing look at the past, one final backwards glance. Whether you’re casting off a terrible 12 months or simply afraid to leave behind such a perfect year, it’s natural–and necessary–to pause and reflect. OK, we’re really just…
During the five-year period he spent in seclusion at his home in New York’s Dakota Building, John Lennon periodically issued dispatches to the outside world confirming that he was content to be a devoted bread-baking husband who never left the house. The reality, as author Robert Rosen tells it in…
This could have been better. Should have been better. Why postpone the obvious? Two years ago, even last year, there was no reason to expect much/anything from Fixture. Why would you? All they had to show for themselves was 1998’s ultra=sound, which wasn’t much, but hey, they were just starting…
He wanders into the lobby of the Dallas Observer looking not a little lost and anonymous. It’s little surprise that no one asks him his business or offers him assistance, as his is not a recognizable face, and even when it’s revealed to a couple of curious passers-by who he…
December and January don’t really exist. Not in the music industry, anyway. There, the year is 10 months long, beginning–in Hallmark terms–just before Valentine’s Day, and ending around Thanksgiving. Why don’t December and January count, you ask? Let us ‘splain: People don’t buy new albums during those two months. Oh…
Right now, there’s a high-school kid somewhere perfecting a file-sharing system that makes Napster look like Columbia House. There are students working in college dorm rooms on file-compressing software that would render MP3s the equivalent of eight-track tapes. In a few years–or a few months, possibly–there will be technology on…
It’s a beautiful day in a beautiful world, or so it seems when listening to U2’s “Beautiful Day” (“It’s a beautiful day,” insists Bono, “don’t let it go away”) and Coldplay’s “Don’t Panic” (“We live in a beautiful world,” moans Chris Martin, “yeah, we do”) back to back…and back to…
Guitar Rock Is Dead: The Need, The Need is Dead; Thrones, White Rabbit and Sperm Whale EPs; Chicks on Speed, The Rereleases of the Unreleases; Shellac, 1000 Hurts; !!!, !!!; Mens Recovery Project; XBXRX; Lightning Bolt; When Babies Eat Pennies. Need I say more? Madonna, Music (Maverick): August: Sleater-Kinney had…
1. Badly Drawn Boy, The Hour of Bewilderbeast (XL Recordings): Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, is mopey and sad; he’s the art-school kid who always got his ass kicked. He spilled out all of his emotional baggage on The Hour of Bewilderbeast, and it amounts to the best album…
Without question, 2000 was a good year for local music, as familiar faces and genuine surprises delivered the rock and didn’t take it back. From The Rocket Summer’s teenage love rock to Centro-matic’s literate onslaught to Captain Audio’s well-intentioned pretensions to [DARYL]’s new new wave, there was more than enough…
Afew years ago, former New Times Los Angeles music editor Keven McAlester (who once held down the same post at the now-defunct Met) came up with a system to determine the worst albums of the year, a scientific formula that separated the chaff from the wheat with such precision, its…
Snoop Dogg: Like the dirty, unshaven uncle no one in your family will claim at the holiday dinner table, Snoop Dogg couldn’t give a shit if he’s outstayed his welcome or if you’re saving his seat for your damn grandma. But don’t playa-hate him ’cause he’s dutiful: The man is…
Much like the past few years, 2000 produced few records worthy of the coveted top-10 status. Which is why, as you’ll notice, I have listed only nine super-duper, blows-your-glitter-eye-shadow-off, bringing-it-to-the-grave releases, instead of 10. Honestly, I couldn’t come up with 10. Could I really, in good conscience, list Toni Braxton’s…
The Top Six Reasons Why the Year 2000 Made Me Think It’s Better to Be Blind Than to Be Deaf (But Not Really, Because I’m a Bit Neurotic, and That Kind of Proclamation Doesn’t Really Do a Karmic Body Good. I Mean Well. Good. Well.) 1. Coldplay, Parachutes (Parlophone/Nettwerk America):…
You never notice the smell of cigarettes until you stop smoking them, and even then it takes a while before you really start to notice the stale stench staining air and skin and anything else it comes in contact with. Kind of like breaking up with someone and not realizing…
“Everything right now with this album is basically a hell of a compromise,” says the Pharcyde’s Romye, who also goes by the name Booty Brown. Imani, the group’s other half, echoes the sentiment: “I’m not mad at it, but”–he pauses to hit a blunt–“yeah, it’s a compromise.” How’s that for…
How many versions of “Jingle Bells” does the average person need? Plenty, apparently. Each year, the recording industry unleashes a torrent of seasonal discs, most of them dominated by a humdrum repertoire of tunes–and each year a percentage of them sell well enough to justify a similar deluge 12 months…
We’ve been trying to tell people this for months, but now the national press has gotten involved: Alternative Press recently selected the pAper chAse as one of the “100 Bands You Need to Know About to Call Yourself a Music Fan.” The article hits newsstands in the March issue of…
Reportedly, the tracks on Brian Jonestown Massacre’s latest effort, Zero, are rejects from the powers that be at TVT Records. The band’s leader, only constant member, and resident madman, Anton Alfred Newcombe, apparently miffed that the suits failed to see his evolving brilliance, opted to exercise a clause in his…
Coming from the mouth of Zack de la Rocha, even a song as sardonically sly as Devo’s “Beautiful World” sounds like a subversive call-to-arms. The smirking irony of Devo’s robotic homage to domestic tranquility becomes, in the hands of de la Rocha and his Rage Against the Machine bandmates, a…
