It could be said that the Japanese have a better understanding of American culture than Americans do. Or, at least, that they’re better at assimilating and restyling our culture. What else could explain the ultra-American, sensational pop music of Japan’s Fantastic Plastic Machine? Fantastic Plastic Machine is, in fact, a…
For his first album in four years, KRS-One was faced with the same dilemma that his contemporaries from hip-hop’s so-called golden age (circa 1987) have had to deal with, to varying degrees of success. Following the major label A&R line that conscious rap is no longer relevant to the rap-buying…
It needs to be said: People who have heard Atom & His Package albums or seen him live and still think he is a no-talent geek, an absolute moron making dumb songs for dweebs, are probably mean to their parents and hate babies. On the other hand, fans of Atom…
If the thought of a “jam band” sends shivers down your spine because it immediately brings to mind the twirling masses that started following Phish after the Grateful Dead stopped touring, then congratulate yourself on being sane. But there’s a slightly new breed of instrumental joy starting to flow out…
Before we go any further, let’s get this out of the way: Actionslacks is a band. Four members are in the group now, there used to be three, and the number of members named Tim Scanlin remains at one. Remember that, and highlight or underline it if necessary. There are…
A few months ago, we hinted that The Adventures of Jet might be permanently grounded, calling it quits, breaking up, however you want to say it. Not true. Yes, the band has taken a break from live appearances, but AOJ is still very much in effect. The proof: A song…
In the Disco Biscuits’ kitchen, beneath the grimy glitterball that’s really a bong, roly-poly Phisheads and dead-headed trance fans take turns cutting the astral rug while scratching each others’ backs, humming a hymn of solidarity that’s like a solar sunspot with a touch of gray. The Pennsylvania-based granola godhead of…
Right about now, the joke’s getting old. That’s the unfortunate reality for Norman Cook, who spent the ’80s as a Housemartin and the ’90s as a household name, famous for bringing big beat to America’s alternative nation and for that horrendous line-dancing scene in that one Freddy Prinze Jr. movie…
It was sometime around 1977, Southern soul singer Millie Jackson recalls, when she realized she had “a reputation that preceded me.” “I was booked to appear on The Merv Griffin Show, and everybody was runnin’ around lookin’ scared,” she remembers. “I came on to sing Merle Haggard’s ‘If You’re Not…
Like DFW Airport is to travel, the ubiquitous ABC Radio Network is an international hub for standardized radio formats. And like DFW Airport, and unbeknownst to the listening public, the ABC Radio Network is based here, quietly nestled in North Dallas. The stations that broadcast from here are syndicated in…
Work with me here for a second. You’re up in the club, listening to the types of things that make clubs get crunk, sort of dancing, spilling your drink, paying too much attention to your shoes, when you suddenly realize you’re bored beyond belief. You’re uncomfortably numbed by one of…
So this band is doing pretty well–looks that way, at least–with everyone expressing high hopes, doing that extra little bit of work that might make all of the difference in the world, pushing, prodding, trying to make it happen. And then, suddenly, disaster strikes. Or does it? The band’s A&R…
From Metropolis to Star Wars, we’ve been tantalized by robots that can walk like us, talk like us, even look like us. Well, it’s 2001: Where are all the robots? Sure, they can weld a car door; so can a unibrowed high school dropout. Worse are the robots at shopping…
There’s an old adage of the music industry: Good music sells itself; build it and they will come. Of course, the whole notion of underground or alternative music markets rests on the fact that this flimsy A&R man’s pitch is complete horseshit. Artworks of the highest caliber consistently–some might argue…
Nashville is desperately seeking a male savior. The last year has seen jaw-dropping declines in radio listenership; sales are in the toilet for virtually all adult male artists, particularly when compared to the relatively robust totals rung up by tiny tyke Billy Gilman and chart-topping ladies Faith Hill, Shania Twain,…
A funny thing happened to mainstream hip-hop on indie hip-hop’s way to the mainstream: It became the new indie rock. Frustrated with the underground’s dogged insistence on rhymes and substance and all things anti-bling-bling, the pasty soundboys in T-shirts and wallet chains who have for years fetishized Steve Albini’s razor’s-edge…
Much has been, and will be, made of the fact that “Fair Touching,” the first song on Isolation Drills (the 12th album by Guided by Voices), includes the lyric, “And perhaps at last/The song you sing will have meaning.” Meaning: Frontman/heart-and-soul Bob Pollard is singing words you can understand for…
Elvis Costello knows what critics and fans will call For the Stars, the album he recorded with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter: a collection of covers of songs written by Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Tom Waits, ABBA, Ron Sexsmith and, yes, Elvis Costello. He doesn’t particularly mind that these…
Shawn Colvin does not give interviews; she holds conversations. She does not speak in the familiar language of the songwriter who insists on hiding behind her lyrics; she does not respond to pointed queries by telling you the song speaks for itself, so she doesn’t have to. Such, perhaps, is…
If Ken Burns’ recent epic documentary, Jazz, has had any lasting effect on the state of contemporary jazz, it’s ensuring that the face of jazz today is one of a neo-traditionalist vein epitomized by the meteoric 1980s rise and ensuing commercial and critical success of Wynton Marsalis. Thanks to Marsalis…
Stuart Goddard’s been out of sight for so long it’s tempting to let him remain there–good-bye, good rubbish, good God, does anyone still care? Last anyone heard from the bloke he was in the hospital, fending off rumors of depression and suicide attempts; hell of a way to ring in…
I don’t imagine that Richard Buckner was asked to contribute to Return of the Grievous Angel, the Gram Parsons tribute album old flame Emmylou Harris curated a few years ago, a record that spearheaded the latest Parsons craze in the ever-expanding alt-country biosphere. I have no doubt that he could’ve…
