More than a bunch of ‘toons Songs in the Key of Springfield Original music from the TV series Rhino Records Back in 1990 there were two shows on the Fox network that turned the sitcom on its ear. Married: With Children and the brand-new The Simpsons presented the American family…
The Moon Festival churns out an impressive brand of vintage pop music, but, apparently, they can’t dance. At least not the delicately timed ballet required by the Dallas musical community, where their efforts to fit in resemble nothing so much as Shawn Bradley stumbling through a two-step on Thorazine. Despite…
The way of rights Animal Rights Moby Elektra Records Some of the hype regarding techno guru Moby’s new release Animal Rights is a bit misleading. A series of shockwaves followed a report that Moby had suddenly ditched dance music in favor of hard rock. Well, first off, Animal Rights is…
A red warning light is glowing above the doorway at Last Beat studios, indicating that recording is under way. If you were to ease the door open, you’d find the Toadies camped around an ice chest full of Budweiser, and immediately feel a sense of ease and relaxation. If it…
The grungy guy in the practice room talking to Sharon Brown, publicist for the Dallas gospel group Greg O’Quin and Joyful Noyze, is quite a contrast to the rest of the folks gathered for rehearsal. He’s tall, lanky, and white; the sides of his head are shaved, while on top…
Good for what ails ya UFOFU UFOFU The Medicine Label When UFOFU started out, lead singer Joe Butcher was living in his van, pawning his guitar every other week, battling a serious problem with heroin, and giving guys blow-jobs in public parks to support himself. And yet to talk to…
Vast stretches of miles between Jimmy LaFave is the kind of artist a category like “folk-rock” was invented for: a clever, empathetic artist who knows that if you lean into it, tried and true need not mean dusty. LaFave may be the master of existing forms–cliches, if you’re feeling less…
Charon’s song The Boatman’s Call Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Mute Records When Nick Cave spoke to the Dallas Observer a year ago, he made it clear that he doesn’t wish to be a part of pop culture. Describing most contemporary recordings as “music for kids,” he disassociated himself…
If you live in Austin, it’s easy to grow weary of that town’s annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference: Downtown becomes impassable, restaurants and clubs are clogged, and the myriad ways in which the shindig makes clear the differences between those with wristbands (for common folk and other peons…
The rain and cold don’t stop Solomon Burke. He’s an hour late for the rendezvous, in the parking lot of the red-ribboned church at the intersection of Franklin and Highland in Los Angeles in the heart of Hollywood, and he hastily apologizes for the tardiness. But Solomon Burke has been…
Son of Blind Joe Death Few career arcs break the way Leo Kottke’s did–starting out as a so-folk-he’s-jazz prodigy on 6 and 12 String Guitar, his definitive (and once ubiquitous, though now out of print) 1970 Takoma release. Kottke was at first an instrumentalist, his fingers seemingly doing eight things…
Though many were surprised by the unexpected break-up of Tablet last week–including some band members–it did not come as a surprise to Tablet frontman Steven Holt. “It was something I’d been thinking about for a long time,” Holt says. “It wasn’t an emotional, sudden decision.” Holt, who formed the band…
Action-packed There are artists who carry with them a sense (and sensibility) of time and place, like a living time capsule. In Muddy Waters, you can hear the great migration from the Deep South to the factories and mills of Chicago; in Dick Dale, the boundless electricity of the California…
You’d think after 20 years, a nightspot would acquire ambience. Not Poor David’s Pub: The day it opened at 1924 Greenville, it looked like storage space for broken restaurant furniture, and it still looks that way. There is no jukebox, no pool table, no “decor.” When the Pub is open,…
Mothers of re-invention Pop U2 Island Records They probably never thought of themselves as an ordinary outfit, but ever since 1990 and Achtung Baby, it’s been obvious that U2 have aspirations (far) beyond that of your standard rawkenroll band, pushing themselves toward something more reflective of the life around them,…
This is country music? An institution so distanced from its past that it won’t allow living legends such as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings airplay and ignores the heritage of past masters like the Carter Family? An industry that paves over its roots, the better to make way for the…
Hit and mess Come And Get It — A Tribute To Badfinger Various Artists Copper Records Do Me Baby! Austin Does Prince Various Artists Fume Records Forget, for a moment, that artist-based compilation albums are very much a disease foisted upon the listening public for a variety of generally greedy…
Sound and color Marisa Monte A Great Noise Metro Blue Records With A Great Noise, Brazil’s Marisa Monte announces herself as queen of MPB, or Musica Popular Brasileira. The album, half live and half studio, is a condensation of a much more elaborate two-disc package from her home. It’s not…
R.O.C.K. in the Americas If you ever wax nostalgic for rock the way it used to be–concerts as major events, music that isn’t afraid to act like it’s willing to assume a major role in your life, passion rather than posing–you should look to the nascent rock en espanol or…
What a difference a year makes. Last June 13, when Cake played the Galaxy Club, there were perhaps two dozen people in the audience–if you count each person who came and went and came back again twice. Local act UFOFU played an absolutely ragged set right before the Sacramento quintet…
Ever since The Concert for Bangladesh, albums aimed at benefiting worthy causes have been suspect, either as collections of inferior live versions of songs you already have or material adjudged not good enough for purely commercial purposes. If a Tree Falls–a collection of tunes abundant in chlorophyll and message from…
Attack of the killer indies They come in all colors: purple, yellow, blue, orange, even black vinyl. An assortment of moods and aspirations, these five 7″ singles paint a big part of the local music picture as it expands within the here and now while drawing influences from there and…
