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…
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…
Mention the term “singer-songwriter” and immediately the image appears: an excessively serious soul–acoustic guitar in hand–singing an excessively serious song. Wally Pleasant may actually be a singer-songwriter, but you won’t hear about Tom Dooley’s long black veil from him: Instead of whining about a world gone to hell, Pleasant uses…
After seeing the Sex Pistols spit and sneer their way across America, it might be easy for jaded mosh pit denizens and music critics alike to dismiss the new Descendents album, Everything Sucks, as yet another moneymaking scheme aimed at the ears and wallets of the burgeoning suburban mall punk…
Everything Sucks Descendents Epitaph Records Call it charisma. Or attitude. Whatever it is, it is essential to the role of frontman. Milo Aukerman has it, but when he left the Descendents to pursue a career in biochemistry, he took it with him. For eight years, the band (renamed “All” in…
New Country The Picketts Euphonium Rounder Records “Euphony” is a pleasant concordance of sound, but with this, their third album, the Picketts have done more than fall easy on the ears: They’ve made one of the most affecting arguments for country as white folks’ soul music to come down the…
Australian for ‘pop’ If Angie Hart sang any more angelically, you would expect her band to include John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix. Like Sinead O’Connor, the vocalist for Australia’s Frente possesses pipes that don’t need to scream to be heard. When she sings in her childlike soprano about…
Don’t fence me in TheitGirl Sleeper Arista Records When Sleeper’s debut album, Smart, came out last year, the band was lumped together with Elastica and Menswear under the banner of the New Wave of New Wave movement. Well, it wasn’t really a movement and–for Sleeper especially–it was a misnomer. While…
An odd assortment of street-corner punks and suburban kids in suits and skinny ties were on hand at Emo’s Alternative Lounge last Saturday night two weeks ago to pay tribute and say goodbye to Denton ska band the Grown-Ups. The crowd reflected the revival of ska music in its latest…
In the United States, a country where b-boy cool has become de rigueur in white suburbia and psychedelic punks the Butthole Surfers have seen their first taste of Top 10 success come from–of all things–a rap song, lines have blurred. Call it the lollapollution of America. Since 1991, when Perry…
The freshness test open rubberbullet Last Beat Records Welcome to the modern world, rubberbullet version: a crashing, dissonant place where things either happen so fast that they’re past before perceived or they grind along glacially, with no change discerned. Open would be a fitting soundtrack for an angry traffic jam…
Here comes the misery Some people spend $100 an hour to sit on a plush couch and tell a stranger their problems in an effort to sort through life’s various tragedies and traumas. Andy Cairns, singer-guitarist of Ireland’s Therapy?, prefers standing in front of a microphone, guitar in hand, to…
The woods to the glory hole birch county birch county Pilot Records When the members of birch county–formerly Wonderland–worked on an album last year with a friend producing gratis, they weren’t exactly thrilled with the results and scrapped it. This five-song EP is proof that no work is ever really…
Over and under Moss Elixir Robyn Hitchcock Warner Brothers Genius is the main ingredient in rock eccentricity: Without it, you’re Sammy Hagar; too much, and you’re Brian Wilson. Robyn Hitchcock has always been one of rock’s great eccentrics, writing songs with a point of view that seems to float out…
It seems like every week a new band is the darling of the fickle British press: A look, an attitude, and a halfway decent single is enough to generate a healthy buzz from Melody Maker or New Musical Express. Bands come along with the regularity of the morning paper, each…
The 1980s were a decade of excess, a hedonistic period obsessed with the high life, both figuratively and literally. Musically it was a time of overindulgence as well, full of hyperproduced albums and splendid, over-the-top concerts. Probably no other band exemplifies this decade more than “the heavy metal Beach Boys,”…
Medicine Bag Bag of Fear Bag Lost Records Bag–unabashed fans of acid rock working in conjunction with mainstays of the local psychedelic garage-band scene like Burnin’ Rain’s Mike Pemberton–has come up with a late-’60s template that’s been scanned, morphed, and manipulated into the ’90s. Shimmering roller-rink keyboards, portentous vocals delivering…
Heart of the Congos The Congos Blood and Fire Given that most of what passes for rhythm and blues today has neither, the reissue of this 20-year-old reggae masterpiece by the sublime vocal duo the Congos is a reminder and a godsend. One of the most crucial reggae albums ever…
Customers wandering into VVV Records last week found one of Dallas’ more venerable music stores in its death throes. Tables were cluttered with merchandise and five-for-one specials, and price tags hung from everything that could be hauled away. There was a distinctive smell in the air, a musty odor of…
One of the loudest pop bands to come out of Dallas is back; Hagfish, Dallas’ beloved band of dorks-in-suits, is returning to Deep Ellum after a year that has seen the band do everything from working with its musical idols on its first major-label album to rubbing elbows on the…
The men with the Midas touch Utilizing its ska-influenced sound to stand out from the rest of the pop-punk pack, Goldfinger has come out of nowhere (Los Angeles, actually) to land its first single, “Here In Your Bedroom,” on MTV and radio stations across the country. If there’s indeed a…
The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center was hailed as a “world-class hall” and “one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in the world” by the media when it opened in September 1989 to the cheers of champagne-sipping socialites and other lovers of the fine arts. I.M. Pei’s masterpiece was…
