I don’t adhere to any stoner-rock rules or bylaws,” Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme sneers, leveling in one fell swoop the burgeoning mini-genre that has sprung up around his feet. “You call it stoner rock if you want, but that’s got nothing to do with me.” Yowza…
Throw a stick, and you’re apt to hit someone who thinks the current pop scene is the worst ever! And who, other than nine-year-old white girls, could argue with that logic? Britney Spears and Celine Dion, to name just two, seem more like actors portraying musicians than the real thing…
Expect to see more bands perform at Smirnoff Music Centre than ever before, now that the Pierre Smirnoff Company has taken over title sponsorship of the venue from Coca-Cola. Reportedly, Smirnoff agreed to pick up the sponsorship rights (the company assumed them in June) only if the owner of the…
Shellac1000 Hurts(Touch and Go)Über-producer, general pain in the ass, and guitarist-engineer Steve Albini has a keen ear for abrasive sounds. During the mid-’80s, before his work with Nirvana, Bush, and PJ Harvey (and countless others) turned him into a minor celebrity among alternative-rock fans smart enough to read their liner…
DarlingtonLive Dallas 1999(Mutant Pop Records)Todd DeatherageTodd Deatherage(Self-released)Todd Deatherage and Darlington’s Steve Visneau and Christy Darlington have been buddies for years, beginning when they were part of the group of friends that used the now-defunct Orbit Room as their personal clubhouse, hanging out regardless of the occasion. More than a few…
Hanson Hanson has nothing more to prove, really. If a band’s fate is to be a one-hit wonder, it’s to their everlasting, heavenly glory to have that hit be one as transcendently, joyously dumb as “MMMBop.” Now, three years later (two lifetimes in teen boy-band years), they make their somewhat…
Mary J. Blige It may seem like an overstatement, but Mary J. Blige could be the best female soul singer since Aretha Franklin. There’s a smoothness to her voice that puts all her contemporaries and imitators to shame. Of course, it helps that she chooses to wrap that big, bad,…
OzzFest 2000 Ozzy and Pantera. Main stage, back to back, in Dallas, Pantera’s stomping grounds. That’s all that matters about OzzFest, regardless of what you might’ve heard about all the up-and-comers on this year’s bill. There’s no way to beat that, not even with a 10-foot line of fire ants…
What we will not spend a lot of time doing today is retelling the story of the Dixie Chicks, their rise from local kitsch-bluegrass babes to international country-music stars and Dairy Council spokesgals. In fact, we will discuss that for all of one sentence, which could be placed anywhere in…
It starts — surprisingly, frustratingly — with a question of etiquette, after half a dozen calls to the appropriate cell-phone number at the appropriate time, and the only thing picking up is a voice-mail greeting. Is it proper to leave a message at the end of each call, or hang…
Most observers regard the onslaught of teenage pop sensations like Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, and Christina Aguilera as proof positive of the cyclical nature of rock music. And like the big teen-idol boom of the early ’60s, all this smiling and dancing must mean that a renaissance…
Enon While Brainiac, which released several records on Touch and Go Records, never inked a deal with a major record label (DreamWorks was reportedly interested during the band’s final days), it was one of several great bands to emerge from Dayton in the early ’90s, alongside Guided by Voices and…
Fu Manchu “Stoner rock,” by any other name, is one of the more appropriate genre appellations to be employed by critics and fans alike since “industrial” in how it quickly suggests sound, attitude, and lifestyle. Think Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and Nebula — the last featuring three former…
Scene, heard After months of waiting, by him at least, Todd Deatherage’s new five-song CD is now available for purchase at Deatherage’s regular Wednesday gig at Lakewood Bar & Grill. But it’s not the record Deatherage has been waiting to put out. This disc is more or less a stopgap…
Confrontation CampObjects in the Mirror Are Closer than They Appear(Artemis Records) No wonder Chuck D’s all about free music, testifying before Congress about the evils of the RIAA and the benefits of Napster. Sooner or later, the only way Chuck’s gonna get his message to the masses is by giving…
Mark Kozelek Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer(Badman Recording Co. ) Depending on how you count, Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer is the second or third solo outing by Mark Kozelek, the songwriting arm of the Red House Painters. Although the RHP’s Ocean Beach (released in 1995) and Songs for a Blue Guitar…
When people see The Deathray Davies walk on stage for the first time, they might be a little puzzled, taken aback, perhaps, by the number of bodies onstage. After all, no one would expect this local pop-rock ensemble to be a sextet, complete with two guitars, bass, drums, keys, and,…
One afternoon, Brian Transeau received a phone call that would forever change his life, and without exaggeration, the nature of dance music all over the world. Really. “I was making records out of my bedroom in Maryland, never having heard English club music, and came up with [my first album]…
After practically inventing the hip-hop skit (on the landmark 3 Feet High and Rising, released in 1989), then spending the next decade turning it upside down (with a series of the-party’s-over records that few people actually remember), De La Soul had some serious steam to let off. For years–beginning with…
Despite the media attention that has surrounded U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel’s decision to close Napster’s file-sharing system last week, it’s clear that not everyone cares about the case. “Ahhh, I’m not staying around for this shit,” said one employee at the Gypsy Tea Room after learning that…
Elastica The Menace (Atlantic Records) In retrospect, it would have been better if Elastica had never been heard from again, if they disappeared inside a recording studio and didn’t come out until the world didn’t care anymore. Well, they actually did do part of that (save for blood relatives, does…
Kid Chaos Love in the Time of Scurvy (Vile Beat Records) I didn’t know much about Kid Chaos prior to receiving a copy of their new album, Love in the Time of Scurvy. About two or three years ago, I’d seen the band at Rick’s Place in Denton, show No…
