Without question, 2000 was a good year for local music, as familiar faces and genuine surprises delivered the rock and didn’t take it back. From The Rocket Summer’s teenage love rock to Centro-matic’s literate onslaught to Captain Audio’s well-intentioned pretensions to [DARYL]’s new new wave, there was more than enough…
Afew years ago, former New Times Los Angeles music editor Keven McAlester (who once held down the same post at the now-defunct Met) came up with a system to determine the worst albums of the year, a scientific formula that separated the chaff from the wheat with such precision, its…
Snoop Dogg: Like the dirty, unshaven uncle no one in your family will claim at the holiday dinner table, Snoop Dogg couldn’t give a shit if he’s outstayed his welcome or if you’re saving his seat for your damn grandma. But don’t playa-hate him ’cause he’s dutiful: The man is…
Much like the past few years, 2000 produced few records worthy of the coveted top-10 status. Which is why, as you’ll notice, I have listed only nine super-duper, blows-your-glitter-eye-shadow-off, bringing-it-to-the-grave releases, instead of 10. Honestly, I couldn’t come up with 10. Could I really, in good conscience, list Toni Braxton’s…
The Top Six Reasons Why the Year 2000 Made Me Think It’s Better to Be Blind Than to Be Deaf (But Not Really, Because I’m a Bit Neurotic, and That Kind of Proclamation Doesn’t Really Do a Karmic Body Good. I Mean Well. Good. Well.) 1. Coldplay, Parachutes (Parlophone/Nettwerk America):…
You never notice the smell of cigarettes until you stop smoking them, and even then it takes a while before you really start to notice the stale stench staining air and skin and anything else it comes in contact with. Kind of like breaking up with someone and not realizing…
“Everything right now with this album is basically a hell of a compromise,” says the Pharcyde’s Romye, who also goes by the name Booty Brown. Imani, the group’s other half, echoes the sentiment: “I’m not mad at it, but”–he pauses to hit a blunt–“yeah, it’s a compromise.” How’s that for…
How many versions of “Jingle Bells” does the average person need? Plenty, apparently. Each year, the recording industry unleashes a torrent of seasonal discs, most of them dominated by a humdrum repertoire of tunes–and each year a percentage of them sell well enough to justify a similar deluge 12 months…
We’ve been trying to tell people this for months, but now the national press has gotten involved: Alternative Press recently selected the pAper chAse as one of the “100 Bands You Need to Know About to Call Yourself a Music Fan.” The article hits newsstands in the March issue of…
Reportedly, the tracks on Brian Jonestown Massacre’s latest effort, Zero, are rejects from the powers that be at TVT Records. The band’s leader, only constant member, and resident madman, Anton Alfred Newcombe, apparently miffed that the suits failed to see his evolving brilliance, opted to exercise a clause in his…
Coming from the mouth of Zack de la Rocha, even a song as sardonically sly as Devo’s “Beautiful World” sounds like a subversive call-to-arms. The smirking irony of Devo’s robotic homage to domestic tranquility becomes, in the hands of de la Rocha and his Rage Against the Machine bandmates, a…
After spending the first part of his professional life performing at rodeos and Wild West shows as both rider and musician, then kicking around Nashville for six years (the telling title of his debut CD: VietNashville), Houston Marchman is only getting more seasoned the longer he lasts. “VietNashville is about…
God bless the BellRays, for they know what it means to rock. No, not “rock” in the same way as those bands slugging it out every weekend who think they rock because they have lots of tattoos, but in an honest and passionate way that blows the competition (if you…
There comes a time in the life of most artists when what they want to do is much more than what they’re allowed to do. When the artist no longer feels satisfied with the traditional instruments of design–the paint, the brush, even the canvas itself. When paint starts spilling over…
Laurie Anderson, you will not be surprised to learn, is a downright charming conversationalist. Furthermore, to the delight of anyone who has appreciated her 20-plus years of storytelling art, she often strays from the trajectory of the central topic to indulge in illustrative narratives that somehow provide the perfect foil…
Away from the spotlight, the former Brian Warner is as soft-spoken and thoughtful as his alter ego, Marilyn Manson, is outrageous and imposing. With a firm handshake and a preternaturally serene demeanor, Mr. Manson blends into the black leather sofa at the West Hollywood office of Post-Human, the record label…
While there are more than enough songs about Christmas, and more every year–Idol Records just released another 18 into the wild on Electric Ornaments, and that’s just locally–there aren’t very many about Chanukah. There’s Adam Sandler’s self-explanatory “The Chanukah Song” and…well…uh…hmmm…that’s about it, unless you wanna count “A Lonely Jew…
Pete sells out, and then some: Since opening his own Internet kiosk (www.eelpie.com), The Who’s songwriter-guitarist has opened the vaults and introduced American shoppers to the value of buying music by the pound (conversion rates being what they are). Earlier in the year, he finally unloaded the Lifehouse baggage he’s…
As the great David St. Hubbins once said, “There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.” The line is equally fine between charming and cheesy–stay on the right side of the line, and you’ve got The Smiths; stray over the line, and you end up with Air Supply. Manchester trio…
There he stands, the anonymous man bookended by two legends, two gods, two immortals. On his right is the man called Bird, with eyes shut and lips clasped around the reed of his alto sax; even in an old photo, you can hear his horn honking, squealing, bleating, blaring. On…
Maybe it was a bad idea to have DirecTV installed on that Saturday, but then again, how could I have known? After almost a year sans tube, I’d finally decided to jump into the 500-channel deep end, return once again to the magical world of nonstop Law & Order reruns…
In the midst of his sixth tour of the United States, Uz Jsme Doma singer-guitarist Miroslav (Mirek) Wanek says he has finally realized why the Prague band, which has visited this country to tour at least once a year since 1995, makes such a deliberate effort to drive a rental…
