It’s stiflingly hot outside the airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a guy clad all in khaki has just pulled up in a minivan to take you to the hotel. He looks like he should be riding an elephant, with a little native kid named Kiki at his side…
Border crossing Literature has always been a prime source of inspiration for musicians, although–like films made from novels–the results are rarely as impressive and are frequently bizarre. Blue Oyster Cult, for example, cited William Blake as the source for their remarkable but hardly profound Secret Treaties. Jim Morrison was also…
Opportunity under heaven Symphony 1997 (Heaven Earth Mankind) Tan Dun and Yo-Yo Ma Sony Classical There’s a scene in Fellini’s great movie of childhood memory, Amarcord, in which the inhabitants of a small rural village, hearing about the passage of a great ocean liner close to them, go to the…
Occasionally an album comes along that completely screws up an editor’s greatest comfort–the orderly scheduling of attention and consideration for the next several issues. You’ve got all the big artists covered, all the important demographics have been given their moment in the spotlight, all your ducks are in a row,…
“Hopefully, this’ll be the one that does it,” says local singer-songwriter, guitarist, and occasional Observer music section contributor Josh Alan, referring to his new album and its chances of getting him the kind of market clout that enables artists to write their own ticket. If nothing else, however, the album’s…
Business as usual Hogs on the Highway Bad Livers Sugar Hill Records I Hate These Songs Dale Watson Hightone Records At times our need for–or at least appreciation of–the brand-new and different leads us into a baby-bathwater scenario, particularly in the realm of music. If an artist or act does…
Fourteen years is a mighty long time, a lifetime in rock years–enough to put out a few albums, a greatest hits package, break up a couple of times, and do at least one reunion tour. Maybe even record an “Unplugged” album when finances get tough and inspiration goes soft. But…
Manifest destiny It Had to Happen James McMurtry Sugar Hill Records In 1995 two songs came out that were sharp expressions of the burden that the freewheeling ’60s left its children: the Charlie Sexton Sextet’s “Plain Bad Luck and Innocent Mistakes” and James McMurtry’s “Fuller Brush Man.” McMurtry continues to…
In the past, shows by the avant-garde performance group ComaTheatre could approach a delightful stimulus overload as musicians played tape loops, sequencers, actual instruments, and prepared tracks while a series of images–clips from movies and newsreels, paintings on a slowly advancing roll of transparent film, and still photos–flashed about them…
Citizen Lane may well slay audiences with their three-ring-circus approach to music and performance–incorporating ska, white-boy funk, salsa, Cole Porter, Dada, and P.T. Barnum–but in this age of The Pitch, the hard sell is going to be to the record labels. To envision the average A&R stooge trying to describe…
The divine Miss La B. Tina Turner may have the el grande stage show, the magazine covers, and the movies (both starring her and about her), but there’s something about the Big Time that leaches some of the personality out of soul music and takes it a bit too far…
Sharp-dressed men Scotch and Milk Cecil Payne Deemus Barrett Deems Delmark Records I have this theory: The worse a musician dresses, the more I like him. When a man goes on stage in a plaid jacket with lapels the size of Dumbo’s ears and striped pants, you know he follows…
A steady rolling man In May, W.C. Clark’s album Texas Soul, on the Black Top label, won a W.C. Handy Award in the Best Soul-Blues Album category over stiff competition from Tutu Jones, Sam McClain, Johnny Adams, and genre giant Johnnie Taylor. They call Clark the Godfather of Austin Blues…
In RainMaker Records’ lofty Deep Ellum offices, company co-founder Paul Nugent flashes a Jerry Maguire smile and announces, “Guys, you won a Clio.” The members of the Austin-based rock band Soak don’t quite know what to make of this. “What the hell is a Clio?” asks singer-guitarist Jason Demetri. “Do…
Kids incorporated The New Transistor Heroes Bis Grand Royal Records When Soundgarden broke up a month or so ago, many in criticdom–never ones to make a bold prediction unless someone else has made it first–were finally able to go out on a fairly sturdy limb to pronounce the death of…
Asked how he’s feeling before he and his band, Doosu, hit the stage at Trees, Casey Hess–speaking over his shoulder as he bolts toward the men’s room to relieve his bladder–says that he’s relaxed. Later, in the club’s backstage “green room,” the adrenaline builds. Drummer Todd Harwell talks of how…
Leonard Maltin’s Movies on Video called it a “silly period piece”; Video Hound Golden Movie Retriever termed it “weak” and advised that “it probably isn’t worth your time.” It got attention on It Came From Hollywood, a video collection of cinematic wretchedness, and another video guide awarded it negative stars…
Shake it all about Group Dance Epidemic Brave Combo Rounder Records It’s always been easy to miss (or misapprehend) Brave Combo’s point, so unfamiliar are we with bands that actually have one. Many who prefer a more reflexive, less thoughtful approach to music–just rock me, dude!–are put off by the…
Rickie Lee Jones doesn’t want to be here. Well, here, maybe–in the Novel Cafe on Main Street in Santa Monica, a nice site for a cup of coffee or a light lunch. Rare and used books line the walls, and patrons keep to themselves. It’s a pleasant enough spot to…
Sarcophagus rock Flaming Pie Paul McCartney Capitol Records Blue Moon Swamp John Fogerty Warner Brothers Records Neither John Fogerty nor Paul McCartney need prove anything. Fogerty may well have invented roots-rock, and McCartney has proven himself a pop classicist; new releases from both reveal their makers as masters. Unfortunately, both…
That a solo, acoustic singer-songwriter will open Friday night’s Cowboy Mouth/Sister Hazel concert at Trees is a bit incongruous. After all, The Mouth, in all their frenzied, sweat-slingin’ passion, is one of the greatest live rock ‘n’ roll bands in the solar system. As such, to book one of those…
Every dog has its day With numerous side projects (the Rentals, Zee Malibu Kidz),guest appearances (Beck, Susanna Hoffs, Ben Lee), and solo albums (violinist Petra Haden’s Imaginaryland), That Dog could provide MTV’s 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield–known for his near-obsessive between-video babblings about side projects and other band minutiae–with a…
