To make a point about a song on his new album Gone, to underline how easy it would be to make a rock song sound like a country song sound like a bluegrass song, Dwight Yoakam uses as an example the works of Swiss-born abstract expressionist Hans Burkhardt. It’s a…
Heartland, but no soul Walk On John Hiatt Capitol Records A perennial journeyman on his fourth label in 20-plus years, Hiatt has seen his shots at fame come and go; once a new-waver pegged as the Elvis Costello of the Heartland, later resurrected as a roots-rocker with influential friends, he’s…
“I’m a martyr. It’s part of my insanity.” –Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan in the December 1994 Spin Billy Corgan is not the average, anonymous and faceless Rock Star. His offstage persona can’t be separated from his music because who he is in “real life” informs who he is on album–a…
Diva do and don’t Since departing the Supremes in 1970 and parting company with the talents of Motown’s hit-making songwriting factory (Holland-Dozier-Holland), Diana Ross has soared upon and sunk beneath the crashing waves of Stardom. She has been an adult-contemporary hit maker (“Touch Me in the Morning”), a disco diva…
Heavy, not metal Love American Style Caulk One Ton Records Caulk’s debut EP Learn to Take wasn’t metal, not really, though the novice could mistake it for such; it was actually pure noise heaped upon impure noise, and if there was an actual song to be found anywhere on the…
It’s a Tuesday afternoon, and singer Toni Price has just arrived at the back door of the Continental Club in Austin to play her weekly after-work gig known to its regulars as “Hippie Hour.” Up the hill behind the roots music haven, bulldozers and backhoes are clearing away the remains…
When his phone rings at the allotted time–precisely at midnight, as per his request–Will Johnson is fast asleep. His voice groggy, his words at first a random mishmash of syllables and hazy thought, Johnson explains he got home from the library earlier than he expected and went right to bed…
Looking back, forward Rollin’ Blues The Hash Brown Band Browntone Records If rock and roll’s stuck in low gear, if jazz is for snobs, if country’s gone pop and pop’s gone south, if R&B’s turned into barber-shop-quartet-soul, then the electric blues is really screwed: This music hasn’t changed in decades,…
Critics like to say the Velvet Underground is the second most influential band of the ’60s behind the Beatles, which is fine enough if you believe the Rolling Stones or the Who or even the Jefferson Airplane didn’t spawn their own evil brood in equal numbers. There’s the old saw…
The artist still known The Gold Experience Prince Warner Bros./NPG Written off as dead or dying by those who proclaimed him a genius just a few years ago, Prince (pronounced “Prince”) is now just another R&B artist who releases albums with prolific regularity; there’s no longer any hype or hoopla…
Aden Holt stretches out his 6-foot-9 frame on the floor, lying on his back with his Subway dinner in his lap and his head propped up on the back of a futon. Underneath shocks of messy blond hair, clad in his homemade “Deep Blow Someone” T-shirt and black jeans, Holt…
Scary Monster The Concept Album is a frightening beast that allows an artist to live out his most self-indulgent tendencies; if the pop-musician writes short and self-contained songs that are meant to tell a story, the creator of the Concept Album considers himself a bona fide artist who resides above…
It was early in January of 1995, and way too early in the morning, when Tenderloin lead singer Ernie Locke received the call. His head groggy with sleep and the irritation that someone would ring him up at 4 a.m., Locke answered the phone to discover a very drunk Patrick…
Sucking in the ’70s Exit the Dragon Urge Overkill Geffen Records If Saturation was the good KISS album Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley never made because they couldn’t, then Exit the Dragon is the bad album KISS made over and over again. “This Is No Place” sounds like an outtake…
Eat the impeach Yet another of modern-rock radio’s sudden one-hit wonders, the Presidents of the United States rose from obscurity in Seattle to ubiquity on radio and television without a moment’s notice. It’s a funny thing about so-called “alternative radio” and the record industry: One minute a band is slugging…
Boy George has about a half hour to spare on the way back to his New York hotel, but he sounds as though the morning has treated him well. Speaking on a phone from the back of his limousine, he laughs often and speaks bluntly, not hesitating to deflect a…
The so-called punk revolution of the ’70s has given way to the punk ad campaign of the ’90s: Mohawks and green hair and tattoos are back (did they ever really go away?), short and sharp songs are the order of the day, and “anarchy” has become synonymous with multi-platinum fame…
Growing pains Shoegazer Buck Jones Independent release A band that has changed lineups more times than Johnny Oates’ Texas Rangers–they have been, at various times, a four-piece with two female singers, a three-piece with a male and a female singer, and a four-piece with everyone singing–Buck Jones is one of…
“We’re not looking for a shot at the big time. We just want to make great music.” Funland singer-guitarist Peter Schmidt says he likes to do interviews, if only because they force him to think about the things he has often relegated to memory. As he sits on a couch…
Country radio does not exist. It’s a misnomer, a myth, the great lie–Top 40 hiding behind a Resistol hat and a pair of Tony Lamas. Country music itself is an antiquated term, a marketing tool–pop music hiding behind twangs and pedal steel guitars and fiddles. Country radio and country music…
You’re a poet and you know that Heather Nova is a woman of pedigree – claims the Velvet Underground and Neil Young as childhhood heroes, shares bills with Pearl Jam Neil Young and Pavement and Bob Mould, records with sometime-U2 producer Youth. She’s been compared to everyone from Sinead O’Connor…
One year ago, Lisa Loeb became the first musician ever to land a song at the top of the pop charts without a record deal or a manager. She was a freak occurrence in the music business, able to achieve in a split second what most musicians grasp for in…
