There was a time not long ago when Mike Dillon was regarded as a buffoon–a talented musician who hid his prodigious gifts behind bongos, ridiculous antics, and a heroin habit that became the stuff of infamy around Deep Ellum. As frontman for the more-funk-than-metal Billy Goat, Dillon once wasted his…
History lessons The Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum is fast becoming a Texas-music museum, where the state’s best (and the rest, God bless Tommy Alverson and Ed Burleson forever) are on a permanently rotating display that changes every weekend. The best live-music venue in town–a nearly century-old German…
Wallowing in mud Filth Pig Ministry Warner Bros. Records The appeal of so-called industrial is the noise and nothing beyond it; it’s release without any of the unnecessary tension build-up, metal without the hang-ups but just as death-obsessed, anger and angst between the ironic quotation marks. Al Jourgenson’s genius is…
It’s just before New Year’s Eve, and Roger Morgan is packing up his home, along with boxes of singles and CDs, moving his Unclean Records label from Austin to San Antonio. As career moves go, it’s hardly an obvious one, but Morgan has no problem leaving the town that calls…
Bark at the goon Ozzy Osbourne’s not a man of his word. A couple of years ago, the former Black Sabbath frontman announced his retirement. The world yawned, and it was just as well. His day had come and gone, his demon-metal shtick gone to hell and then some. Whatever…
Howard Stern is more likely to come to Dallas in this lifetime than Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg. It doesn’t matter if a hip-hop act is booked and advertised in this city, there’s no guarantee the show will go on until the act’s on stage–anyone who went to see…
White laugh riot The Undying Breed Riot Squad Last Beat Records There’s no writing off Riot Squad as just another punk band, though they try hard on The Undying Breed to pander to punk cliches and caricatures–drawings of the Anarchy symbol and mohawked men, which ar scattered throughout the disc’s…
Buddy Holly and Willie Nelson could not be more different. Holly was a pop star reared on country, a country boy who craved the big city. Nelson is a country legend influenced by pop, a man more comfortable wrestling in the dirt than dancing on marble. Holly projected the wholesome…
In love alone 60 Watt Silver Lining Mark Eitzel Warner Bros. Records Mark Eitzel, who carved out a career fronting American Music Club as a post-punk lounge singer with a broken heart of gold, finds romance in a rainy day and heartbreak in the sunshine. He mopes, whines, begs, cries,…
It comes in cycles, this “year-in-music” stuff, and 1995 had the misfortune of following one of the most dramatic years in a long time, when such rock monoliths as Pink Floyd, the Eagles, and the Rolling Stones broke box-office records, while a disillusioned youth market shouted out, “Who killed Kurt…
Happy blew year A more overrated holiday you won’t find, when the whole world becomes one sloppy-drunk frat party. Call me old-fashioned, but if someone’s gonna vomit on me, I’d prefer to know them–or at least be sleeping with them. While I can’t think of anything better than bidding farewell…
The rock and roll made in 1995 leaves in its wake a noxious odor (which might be coming from sweaty Blues Traveler John Popper) that will surely hang over 1996 like a black cloud. The bands that will ultimately represent 1995–the superstars and chart-toppers, the major-label success stories and indie-label…
1. Refried Ectoplasm (Drag City) and Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center (Duophonic, import), Stereolab. A collection of stray singles, revamped tracks, and unreleased treats, Refried Ectoplasm makes a more instant impact than any previous Stereolab offering, highlighting the dead-on pop sensibility usually obscured by the enlightened drone of…
1. Jerry Garcia. It was fitting that the man who specialized in 15-minute guitar solos would die in his sleep. 2. Selena. The assassination of Tejano’s once and future queen transformed Selena into a momentary superstar and the eternal martyr. She was number one with a bullet, quite literally: In…
Every band is a local band somewhere. So with that in mind, as we look back at 1995 and pat ourselves on the back for making the Toadies gold, launching Deep Blue Something to top-of-the-pops domination, and landing Tripping Daisy on MTV and Reverend Horton Heat on every sound track…
It must be Brave Combo They start arriving in stores in late October, those early Christmas presents better known as the fruitcake of the record industry–Christmas albums, that is, lumps of coal to be played as you and yours trim the tree and gulp down eggnog and wait for that…
Did you hear the one about the Jew who played in a bluegrass band? This Jewish musician was proficient at his trade, a banjo player highly respected among his peers, many of whom had grown up in Kentucky and were reared on a steady diet of traditional music. The bluegrass…
Art for pop’s sake Exploring a Diverse Universe Broose Carpe Diem Records When he performs alone, on a stage with nothing but his acoustic guitar to prop him up, Bruce Dickinson (so called “Broose” so there’s no confusing him with Iron Maiden’s frontman, as though that were possible) comes off…
The yokel yenta Bad Girls Upset by the Truth Jo Carol Pierce Monkey Hill Records When Jo Carol Pierce and the rest of her Lubbock Mob (Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, etc.) debuted their collaborative “musical” Chippy, about a Depression-era boomtown whore, at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center last year, the…
With rare exceptions, Al Green has not stepped onto a concert stage since 1979. Sixteen years ago, during a concert in Cincinnati, he fell 12 feet off a stage and barely missed being seriously injured. Already a disciple of the Lord, preaching in front of his Memphis congregation most every…
All honky, no tonk Stormy John B. Wells Kansa Records Back when Jim Beck ruled Ross Avenue, recording the likes of Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price and Marty Robbins for Uncle Art Satherly at Columbia, Dallas was on its way to becoming the industry’s Nashville when Nashville was just a pit-stop…
Paper thin A singer-songwriter better known as the latter but desperate to be famous as the former, John Hiatt stages more comebacks than George Foreman. It happened first in 1987 (Bring the Family, with Nick Lowe and Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner as his pro “studio sidemen”), then in ’90…
