Jill by night Jill Sobule’s is a life told in stories–some her own, some borrowed from others, some true, some manufactured and built upon exaggeration, some quite fantastic, and some quite real. They are simple stories–short, to the point, bouncy even when sad, sung in the pretty voice of a…
Four months after the Toadies began their careers as major-label artists, joining a roster that includes such superstars as Nine Inch Nails and Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre, the band members found themselves back in town last Christmas contemplating finding day jobs. Their major-label debut, Rubberneck–which was originally scheduled…
An hour before Tripping Daisy is set to take the stage, the line wraps entirely around Trees, spilling into the alley behind the club. The show has long been sold out, and by the time the 11:30 rolls around on this Thursday night, dozens of folks still mill around the…
JoJo the Laughing Boy Those who love Jonathan Richman cite his wide-eyed naivete, his eternal youth, his winsome innocence, his ability to make childlike what is so adult, his talent for finding poetry in the banal and everyday. Appropriately, his detractors cite those same qualities as the reason they don’t…
Simon Le Bon loves to bathe in the limelight. Over the phone from London, Duran Duran’s lead singer–one of the last famous international playboys, to use Morrissey’s lyric–is jovial and seems to relish talking to the press. He doesn’t even hesitate to reveal what kind of music he likes to…
Lost in the bayou Wish You Were Here Right Now Bobby Charles Stony Plain Records Robert Charles Guidry doesn’t show up in the history books, not even as a footnote. Were it not for a couple of hits–for other people, most notably Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans”–he’d have dissipated…
If one were to design an ideal new rock band for the current alternative Zeitgeist, one couldn’t do much better than Austin’s Sincola. This co-ed, multi-ethnic, democratic quintet includes women both gay and straight, and at least one guy (hetero) who’s been known to wear a dress and even drop…
Isaac Hayes answers the door, his bald head down and his eyes sagging. By way of introduction, he yawns and apologizes for being so damned tired, and ushers his guest into the room with a limp raising of his left arm. He wears black pants and a black pullover, and…
On her just-released debut album Relish, singer-songwriter Joan Osborne has included a song so quietly amazing it likely will go unnoticed or just plain ignored. At first, “One of Us” sounds like the ironically quirky, almost naive musings of a Julianna Hatfield or Jill Sobule, a woman asking her funny,…
Wicked shame Forever Blue Chris Isaak Reprise/Warner Bros. Isaak sounds like Roy Orbison, looks like Chet Baker, wants to be Elvis Presley–and, as usual, the equation adds up to gloomy, romantic, somber, moody rockabilly-pop that depends as much on sheer atmosphere as upon the words crooned. And damn it all…
Mention the name Moon Festival to those who know or care about such things, and probably they will half-remember the name, maybe even a song, but little more. If the band ever made an impression to begin with, it has been washed away by tides of new bands and new…
Jam out the kicks From 1968 to 1971, Wayne Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith were men who defined and defiled rock and roll from the fringes, creating a music that would provide the howling sound track for a city as it burned. The MC5–among the most-cited and least-heard influences on…
The temple of womb Vibrator Terence Trent D’Arby WORK/Columbia Records He’s full of shit, full of himself, full of genius. D’Arby’s sly pretensions–here, a concept album about spirituality titled Terence Trent D’Arby’s Vibrator; digs at supermodels next to pleas for resurrection; Memphis horns intertwined with metal guitar–have always confounded the…
Splendor in the bluegrass Sometimes, it seems there’s not a Texas band in which Mark Rubin hasn’t played, nor a style of music he has not performed. He was a member of the original incarnation of Killbilly, handling his antique upright bass like Hank Aaron handled a bat; for Rubin,…
Branford Marsalis has often heard the complaints, and he has always ignored them. He has listened as critics, fans, even his own brother have labeled him a sell-out, a traitor; he has withstood attacks on his credibility and defied them with the courage of convictions. Though he is perhaps the…
In Taiwan, perhaps, there is someone sitting in front of a home computer reading Funland’s band bio. In Australia, a record fanatic might be searching George Gimarc’s Record Collectors home page, scouring the catalogs for some obscure psychedelic 7-inch single from the 1960s. Down the street, some kid might be…
For several months, rumors have circulated throughout the music industry and among die-hard Replacements fans that the band would reunite–for a show, perhaps even for an entire album. A reunion only made sense, reasoned some: each member’s solo albums sold poorly, some failing to live up to the potential and…
A few years ago, a perplexed music writer asked Joey Ramone the $64,000 question: how can the Ramones write all these songs when they only seem to use three chords? The reply was typical Joey: “Because we only know three chords; it just happens they’re the right ones.” Ramones songs…
The name Grover Lewis means almost nothing to those outside journalism, and even then, only a handful of writers could claim to know him well or even know of him. I actually considered him something of a mentor, and yet I barely knew Grover; and now, I will never know…
Swervin’ from side to side When Jeff Tweedy performs, holding an acoustic guitar with the word “Wilco” painted between the frets, a broad smile spreads across his face. He says he’s embarrassed by photos from live shows that bear this image–he’s afraid it makes him look “goofy and grinning.” But…
The songs are 40 years old, their echoes already fading from our collective memory; they are rarely listened to anymore, needles hardly ever running through their grooves. But the music created in 1955 at places like Sun Records or at Chess Records still rings with as much power, as much…
Taking liberties Kojak Variety Elvis Costello Warner Bros. Records Recorded immediately after 1991’s Mighty Like a Rose and before The Juliet Letters with the Brodsky Quartet, this all-covers disc instead recalls the E.C. of old–the man who released Get Happy! and Taking Liberties, the would-be soul singer, the rock revisionist,…
