In November 1996, New York Times reporter and rock critic Neil Strauss crawled into the hot tub at a Holiday Inn in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with desperate-to-shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Strauss was there to write an article for Rolling Stone, and Manson was ready to take full advantage of the…
Why’s that girl? Ray of Light Madonna Maverick/Warner Bros. It has been a long time since Madonna was depicted as a musician. For so long now, her albums have seemed like afterthought attempts to keep her day job alive in case the acting thing really doesn’t pan out. It has…
Static electricity It wouldn’t be worth putting up with all the ugliness of Come–the raspy howl of Thalia Zedek’s voice, the ring and roar of Chris Brokaw’s guitar–if there weren’t a certain pop genius lurking just below the surface, almost afraid to show itself. Such has been the case since…
Nashville women Wide Open Spaces Dixie Chicks Monument/Sony After so many years of looking for the big break and finding little breakups instead, the Dixie Chicks now sit near the top of the charts: Last week, the band’s major-label debut, Wide Open Spaces, sat perched at No. 17 on Billboard’s…
Lots of things look different on paper. The new puppy’s errors in judgment, for one thing. Another was the Insane Clown Posse’s show at the Bronco Bowl last Friday, February 27. On paper, it read like one of the more interesting concerts this year. ICP is a Detroit-spawned rap group…
Three’s a charm Sing It! Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, and Tracy Nelson Rounder Records Perhaps it’s something about the implied cooperation and common cause it takes to get three divas together and on the same track, but such efforts produce unusually attractive music. Witness Trio, the 1987 album that combined…
Nicholas Broomfield’s biggest asset is his ability to keep a straight face. The British documentary-maker’s several films about transgressive women–Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam; Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer; and the new Kurt and Courtney, which despite its title is thematically about Courtney Love–are thrilling tabloid rides and…
The Dominoes effect Eric Clapton Pilgrim Reprise Records To those for whom the 1960s are less a memory than a myth, to those who believe yesterday never means as much as tomorrow, Eric Clapton barely exists. His post-’80s output contains scarcely the hint of an echo of what he created…
Mary Lou Lord’s story almost sounds like the plot of a Dickens novel, or at least the bastardized Hollywood version of a Dickens novel: a scrappy, waif-like street musician plucked out of near-obscurity and–after dogged pursuit by countless labels–is signed to a major recording contract. At the very least, her…
Blow, cat, blow Guitarists and keyboard players have all manner of tricky amps and special effects devices to diddle with, but if harmonica players use such stuff they–if you will–blow their whole deal. The harp-honker’s ethos calls for instruments to be played with no more sonic alteration than the nominal…
Oh the doo-dah day Quake before the wrath of the conservative moralists, whose censure and condemnation can banish a topless girl from an album cover, deny the fertile outlets of Wal-Mart to a corrupting influence, or–in the case of the Insane Clown Posse–give a flaccidly idiotic rip-off act the bad-boy…
Write “blues” on your butt, bare it, and blues critics will surpass the speed of light to kiss it. Slag old-guard critics for being hidebound and reactionary if you choose, but they served the idiom and its fans better than the present crop of cheerleaders, who seem likely to shake…
In a city like Austin, the so-called “Live Music Capital of the World,” it’s easy for a band to get lost in the shuffle. There are scores of clubs, twice as many bands, and every week it seems as though a new band is the darling of the scene, touted…
Heaven on the ground Strange Angels Kristin Hersh Rykodisc Rhode Island band Throwing Muses didn’t officially break up until last April, but their relevance was eclipsed as early as the 1994 release of leader Kristin Hersh’s successful solo record Hips & Makers. Now that the deck is clear for a…
The “bone house” in lowest Greenville at the corner of Oram and Matilda–the white clapboard rent house that once had enough steer pelvises, cow skulls, ribs, and femurs hung on its exterior to qualify as an ossuary–is now bereft of the skeletal decorations that used to adorn it. Once the…
Twang dynasty The Derailers Reverb Deluxe Watermelon/Sire Records This Austin band’s name is one of the coolest in new Texas music. Yet as well as it works for them, it’s something of a misnomer: The Derailers actually follow the C&W track as steadily and true as any of their peers,…
Mike Snider, still stinging a bit from his ouster as the principal booking agent at the popular Sons of Hermann Hall, has landed on his feet, hooking up with Deep Ellum power Wood Management (Trees, the Green Room, and the Dark Room). Together the two are taking over the old…
Mark Rubin is in the very stages of mixing and mastering his album, which has a release date only weeks away. He has guarded his record from its inception through its completion, selecting every song, arranging almost every note, and hiring almost every musician. Yet he is still frightened that…
All the world Pukar (Calling You) Najma Di Efchon (With Blessings) Haris Alexiou E Bercy (Live at Bercy) I Muvrini Mondo Melodia Touring America can be a great ego-controller for international pop artists. Sell millions in Europe or Asia, play live to tens of thousands in your own country, then…
Longtime fans still come up to Texas guitar hero Bugs Henderson, asking why he’s not a bigger star, why he’s not enshrined on Mount Hendrix with rightful peers like Stevie Ray, Roy Buchanan, or Danny Gatton. It doesn’t bother Henderson that much. For one thing, all the above-mentioned guitar gods…
Town and country England–particularly London–has long served reggae in much the same way as Chicago served the blues: the place you go to acquire sophistication and polish. As a result, English reggae acts tend to be slicker than their Jamaican cousins; they also tend to be more liberal stylistically. British…
The Sybil of rock More Miles than Money Alejandro Escovedo Bloodshot Records Like most of us, Alejandro Escovedo–founding punk, germinal roots-rocker, and widely acclaimed singer-songwriter–is a conflicted man, containing in his person a number of opposite identities: pavement hound, earth child, father, rocker, monk, martyr, and maintenance man. He’s seen…
