Listen to the music The Sebadoh Sebadoh Sub Pop/Sire Records Lou Barlow became important without meaning to. He impressed others by recording his fragile, angry songs on whatever happened to be lying around, whether it was a four-track recorder or a busted Walkman. It didn’t matter, because at first, it…
It is a story too good to be true, something only a publicist could concoct during a fever dream–so much to hype, so little time. But it all happened, and it of course makes for great copy: The Hottest Band in Austin Gets Hotter, or something along those lines. Get…
Josh Baish has hardly begun to tell his story–how he recently bought half of Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton, how he wants to turn it from an occasional performance space into a full-time club, how he feels his adopted hometown of Denton is on the verge of something big–when…
Three left feet Eight Track Demos Jump Rope Girls One Ton Records At the end of 1997, Spin asked a slew of pop hipsters the question that seems to crop up every week or so: “Is rock dead?” Based on the dubious mainstream success of Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers,…
Bob Stinson died alone on February 18, 1995. He was discovered on the couch of his Minneapolis home, a syringe laying next to his slumped-over corpse. Nine years after being adiosed as the Replacements’ guitarist, good ol’ Bob–dress-wearing Bob, fun guy Bob, crazy fuckin’ Bob–kicked his drug habit the real…
Plastic letters from home No Exit Blondie Beyond Music Universal Madness Madness Golden Voice Recording Company There ought to be eight people in the world who give a real hot crap about a new Blondie record all these years later–four accountants, two lawyers, and maybe a couple of shut-ins who…
It is too hard to listen to the interview with one of the greatest singers of the 1960s–too hard, because the Southern-boy twang in Levon Helm’s voice has turned to mush, as though it has been filtered through granite and broken glass. The voice that comes through the phone lines…
On January 21, 500 record company employees were fired, told to gather up their personal belongings, turn in their company credit cards and security keys, shut down their computers, and be out of their offices by 5 p.m. More than 280 staffers were let go at Geffen and A&M Records,…
Ray, out west Live at Cibolo Creek Country Club Ray Wylie Hubbard Misery Loves Company Dallas native Ray Wylie Hubbard no doubt understands that mythology can be a very powerful and sometimes dangerous thing. One of the many Texas artists given the big-time music business shot in the early 1970s,…
The boy grew up believing his full name was Jegar Eugene Erickson. No one, not even his mother, Dana Gaines, told him otherwise–why would she? It wasn’t until four years ago that Jegar discovered he had a different first name: Roky. It is his father’s name, and it is the…
Coming up short Hedwig and the Angry Inch Original Cast Recording Atlantic Records Hedwig Schmidt’s ill-fated pecker is the biggest thing off Broadway in years. Apparently nothing gets the culturatti in the seats quicker than rock operas about botched sex changes, especially when the star of the show’s a guy…
Rockin’ bones Greatest Grooves “Groovey” Joe Poovey Dragon Street Records Joe Poovey died last October, just months before this gem of a retrospective hit stores, promising the comeback Poovey used to dream of. He proofread the liner notes, and then, that very night, checked out for good. Maybe he knew…
For such an evocative songwriter, Bill Callahan always gets painted in a bland shade of gray. In print, his name and his music come modified by the usual synonyms of introspection: “miserabilist,” “chronically depressed,” “depressive lonerism,” the unpardonable “sadcore.” This is likely because Callahan’s albums–all released under the band name…
Hall monitors Real: The Tom T. Hall Project Various artists Delmore/Sire Nobody writes songs like Tom T. Hall anymore–nobody save Hall himself, who keeps recording despite Nashville’s tendency to promote him as though he were dead. Maybe that’s because somewhere between 1967 and, oh, 1973 Tom T. did his best…
Editor’s note: Odie Hawkins was a member of the Watts Writers Workshop that spawned the Watts Prophets, a collection of spoken-word artists considered among the forbears of modern hip-hop. He is the author of such novels as Lost Angeles, Memoirs of a Black Casanova and Busting Out of an Ordinary…
George Reagan has been a musician for almost half his life, starting in 1985, when he was a 16-year-old Lewisville High School student playing with ex-Fever in the Funkhouse singer-guitarist Nick Brisco and former Tripping Daisy drummer Bryan Wakeland in a band called Aspirin Damage. He’s been in bands ever…
Jump, jive & sob Live at the Red Jacket Johnny Reno and the Lounge Kings Menthol Records This week, A&M Records is reissuing Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, the 1981 record that launched a thousand swing revivalists, even if nobody called it a trend when one bald Englishman was doing it…
You better, you Beck The Hi-Lo Country Various artists TVT Soundtrax It seems of late as though Willie Nelson’s career–one built on the resistance to fad or fashion coupled with the outlaw’s willingness to try anything once–has been reduced to a series of gimmicks. Namely: covering Peter Gabriel and Paul…
An old soul exudes a wisdom and clarity it couldn’t possibly have come by in a single lifetime. An old soul, a rare individual to stumble upon, isn’t one who speaks impulsively; his words surface carefully, from an amalgam of other times and worlds. There’s a peace, a thoughtfulness about…
It’s January 6, 1999–not January 6, 1979–and in the VIP room at Los Angeles’ Great Western Forum, rock stars are doing whatever rock stars usually do whenever they’re presented with an unlimited supply of liquor and old friends. It’s a very metal crowd: Paul Stanley of KISS kindly, patiently accepts…
The best music affects you on a physical level: Your spine melts, you feel yourself slinking to the music, becoming a part of it. Inhibitions break down as you become a marionette to the musicians’ Gepetto. It goes far beyond air-guitaring or beating the steering wheel as you drive; your…
Chris Lewellyn is one of the last true believers–one of the few people around who still sees Deep Ellum as a community, still thinks in terms of us instead of me, still believes in a scene. You’ve probably never heard of him, because as much as he loves music, the…
