Get in the Van Blarcum The Shopping Sessions Pump’n Ethyl Thrift Towne Records On Thank God I’m Livin’ in the U.S.A.!, Pump’n Ethyl’s 1996 debut, singer Turner Van Blarcum lined up the whole world against the wall and mowed ’em down one by one with three-minute blasts of chainsaw guitar…
Last year, Peter Case sat holed up in a tiny studio in Santa Monica, California, finishing work on the third Plimsouls album–the band’s first in 14 years, and one Case didn’t think you would ever hear. Clad all in black–from his faded T-shirt and leather vest to his jeans and…
Hero worship is not such an easy thing for rock-and-roll fans. To adore a songwriter or a performer from afar for so many years is to be disappointed once too often; there’s nothing worse than witnessing the immortal who becomes all too human. Musical heroes are perhaps the most fragile…
Hype factor nine Psyence Fiction UNKLE London/Mo’ Wax When it was just on import, this was the most beloved record album of the year–which, of course, is bound to be the case when Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft, Beastie Boy Mike D, and a host of other mall-stars…
Ten years ago, an interview with one of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Reid brothers, Jim and William, would have been a train wreck–especially if the interview took place at 10 a.m. At that hour, the boys would be either shaking off a hangover or starting on a new one;…
Words up The Right to Remain Silent… cottonmouth, texas HEIRESS-aesthetic Jeff Liles’ reputation has always surpassed his commercial success. Such, perhaps, are the rewards bestowed upon artists who turn ambition into art. They think they’re forever moving forward without realizing there’s someone behind them twisting a knife in their back…
Bernie Worrell knew that listeners outside the United States had long treated classic American music more honorably than had those within it. Likewise, he’d heard plenty of stories about veteran jazz, country, or rockabilly artists who’d either moved to foreign locales or made most of their money overseas. But as…
LOS ANGELES–Heading north on Highland Avenue, 7/10/98, 8:49 p.m.: En route to first Bauhaus show in 15 years. Thought: If most recent spate of high-profile band reunions has proven anything, it’s that phenomena of simpering nostalgia and artistic desperation are not unique to any specific generation. Used to be that…
Bobgoblin’s appearance at this year’s EdgeFest should have been the finest moment of the band’s five-year career, proof that the band’s uphill struggle against apathetic audiences and an indifferent record label was worth it. Worth the indignity of playing shows to four walls and a couple of bouncers on a…
John Freeman was here yesterday, picking up Blue Oyster Cult CDs; today, he browses Borders’ bargain bins and fingers a couple of Hawkwind discs, cut to half price. This is how Freeman likes to spend his time, skipping through the dustbins of history–surely there’s something in here he can use…
Singles going steady First Love, Last Rites Shudder to Think Sony Music Soundtrax Those who would refer to Shudder to Think as just an avant-hard-rock band miss the point: Any band that covers Jimi Hendrix and the Atlantic Rhythm Section wants to be known as more than just a highbrow…
Fog lights We Were Sent For The Danes Red Crown Records My Bloody Valentine’s 1991 album Loveless set a new standard for pop, breaking songs into a million pieces and then reassembling them in a different order, creating a warped replica that both embraced and rejected pop’s conventions. Unfortunately, Loveless…
Before the interview is to begin with Knack frontman Doug Fieger, the man would first like to ask his own question. “I was wondering, why do you want to do an interview with me?” he says, his voice full of anger and confusion. Because, I tell him, I love the…
I know I love Jo despite all the things I hate about her. I know I love her with as much certainty as I love Belle and Sebastian. –From Belle Lettres, a Web site of original fiction inspired by Belle and Sebastian (http://www.virtual-pc.com/tangent/belle_ lettres/) There are records that have been…
Past perfect Cocktail Country The Lucky Pierres Self-released On the back cover of Cocktail Country–the debut full-length by The Lucky Pierres–there is a photograph of the band sitting around a table at Sons of Hermann Hall, decked out in their retro finest. Taken out of context, the band in the…
Pretty on the outside Celebrity Skin Hole Geffen Records Here, after four years and one shotgun blast, is the most awaited and debated record of the year; no more talking about who wrote what, about how she looks today, about anything besides the music. Some day, Courtney Love might regret…
Frank Black doesn’t like to talk about the Pixies very much, maybe because he knows that almost everyone would rather listen to any Pixies record than one of his own solo albums. Black probably realizes that his former band’s legacy is as inescapable to him as walking, but he doesn’t…
All morning long, KTXQ-FM staff members–on-air personalities, sales personnel, and receptionists alike–wandered through the radio station’s frigid corridors, saying little and wearing faces so long, they damn near brushed against the carpet. When they spoke, they offered only curt words and dark jokes. “You leaving?” a receptionist asked one of…
Slick Willie Teatro Willie Nelson Island Records Willie Nelson has more music inside him than white blood cells. For him, making up this genius stuff is easier than blinking. Which is why Teatro–the sound made when you get Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball and Nelson’s own Spirit into bed and turn…
Relentless teenager Jonathan Richman looks old. At 47, he still has the thin hips and short, curly hair he had as an impish rocker in the early 1970s. But now his face is a little leathery, his cheeks are rough with a 3 o’clock shadow, and the crow’s-feet around his…
Brandon Boyer looks distracted, and a little bit embarrassed, when he opens the door to his Denton apartment. “Sorry,” he says sheepishly as we walk into his living room. “Iwas in the middle of a game.” Boyer waves an arm toward the source of his embarrassment, a Sony PlayStation, and…
Rap it up Down By Sound: KNON Hip-Hop Compilation Various Artists KNON A few years ago, Mad Flava had a deal with Priority Records, but record contracts are only good as long as the band is, and honestly, Mad Flava was never that great. So here they are, no longer…
