9,000,000 beats per minute The Undulating Band Aaron Avenue Records It’s the Catch-22 that lurks at the heart of every Local Band Hell: Stick around for awhile, play regularly, and in a couple of years people will either take you for granted or view you with thinly veiled contempt. Brad…
One of the big pitfalls lurking under the surface of most versions of romantic love is an implied masochism, an idea that suffering is somehow relative to emotional depth. It’s what scuttles most of what could be referred to (sneeringly or not) as “sensitive” music, songs that deal with emotions…
Unsealed indictment When the Revolution Comes Lord High Fixers Au-go-go Records The breaking down of the blues into its most basic components is nothing new, thanks to the efforts of primitivists such as Mississippi’s Fat Possum Records (R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford) and theatrical pretenders such as Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion,…
The repetitive patterns in rock and the blues are really not that far removed from the drumming that many “primitive” societies employ for social and religious purposes. The steadily increasing popularity of “jam bands”–improvisational groups that build their musical explorations on a foundation of those rhythms–is an undeniable pop culture…
Check the oil 24 Hours a Day The Bottle Rockets Atlantic Records Third albums are gateway albums, the point where you find out if you’re shtick is getting stale or if you have what it takes to go the long haul. With 24 Hours a Day, the Bottle Rockets manage…
The Rolling Stones–an atmospheric disturbance more predictable and (nowadays, at least) considerably less disruptive than El Nino–blew through the area last week, playing Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma, on Tuesday, October 28, and Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway the following Saturday. Although much of the dark menace that once surrounded…
Addressee unknown Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses The Residents Rykodisc You don’t have to dip too deeply into the musical avant-garde to realize that the Residents–the anonymous, tuxedo-clad, eyeball-headed musicians–aren’t all that intense, especially when compared to the relentlessness of Helden or the mechanistic clank of Can. Still,…
Neil Young has been so many things–a pink-suited and pompadoured rockabilly cat, a founding member of the SoCal folk sound of the ’70s, a tireless campaigner for the separation of art and commerce, a cyber-geek years ahead of his time, a lounge-jazz wannabe, and a relentless rocker–that it’s hard to…
Reputation and fame–how many people will show up for your show, or buy a souvenir–are two sides of the same coin in the world of rock and roll, and proper attention to one can make up for deficiencies in the other. With the possible exception of Some Girls, The Rolling…
Thanatos ‘n’ roll Are You Dead Yet? The Necro Tonz Last Beat Records Any time a band develops a personal style past the jeans ‘n’ T-shirt mainstream that prevails in rock music, they run the risk of being labeled–and dismissed–as a novelty act. While the premise behind the Necro Tonz…
In the old days, rock and roll was an alternative to school, the spirit of rebellion and the defiance of convention. That’s all well and good for audience members, but what those trying to make a living in the rock world soon found out was that certain “square” guidelines–write things…
Electronica meets Judaica The Covenant Wally Brill Island Records The idea of mixing old and new is only slightly less obvious than the peanut butter/chocolate pairing that so revolutionized confectionary science. This is why–musically–so much of that hybrid breed (certain types of new age music, Enigma, and any non-liturgical chanting)…
Through the past Texas Compilation (Mark’s Dream) Various Artists Mind and Eye Records Mark Migliore–who took his own life a little over a year ago–had a profound influence on the local music scene, both individually and through his Rockadelic Records, a vinyl-only label dedicated to sounds that could broadly be…
The story is so old, so familiar, as to border on the trite: A young man grows up in a poorer neighborhood, where the most affordable entertainment is the sound of his own voice, joined with those of his friends. He studies his heroes, the soul singers he admires, voices…
Aged in the cask Barrel Chested Slobberbone Doolittle Records Slobberbone never quite fit into any of the usual country-rock categories, and there always was a suspicion that the songs of leader Brent Best encompassed a bit too much for that kind of easy treatment. Barrel Chested confirms it, and makes…
It’s an age-old trade-off that exists in most art forms, but music probably illustrates it better than most: Work at the local level and enjoy the support of people who are familiar with you, who understand your vision and your process, and who have a personal interest in your success…
He’s the man Frank Sinatra called “the only genius in our business.” He’s written some of the greatest pop songs of our era, yet has never really considered himself a writer, saying that he did it merely to put bread on the table. His history is full of diverse, often…
If at first you don’t succeed… The first time Ray Condo and his Ricochets toured Texas, things didn’t go so well. The gig previous to their appearance in Dallas–in Bryan-College Station–had been less than auspicious. “They can pull in a couple hundred people out here on the coast,” Jeff Richardson…
You hate to hold trying hard against someone, but on his smoothly polished (you might even say slick) debut, King for a Day, local swingster Hunter Sullivan turns in something so utterly well done–yet somehow lacking an attractive warmth–that it compels an examination of the entire lounge/swing phenomenon. It’s not…
Vital preservation That’s What Daddy Wants Wayne Hancock Ark 21 Records In the Spirit of the Sharecroppers Good Medicine Band Captive Audience Records Given the rate at which pop culture chews through things, it’s hard to argue with the concept of preservation, even if it does conjure up images of…
Shake your Soul Finger Like sacred relics during the middle ages–wherein St. Agnes had so many sanctified finger- and toe-bones that she must’ve resembled a millipede more than a martyr–bands with long-running names and reputations often have the most tenuous links with their original incarnations. Even revered names like the…
Crowley, Chomsky, black and white magic, books of crime-scene pictures, Beat literature and world-beat music guides, outre and obscure videos, odd niche periodicals: For six years now, Forbidden Books–nestled in the heart of Fair Park at 835 Exposition Ave.–has provided Dallas with access to media that you could lump together…
