Matt Zane, director of the new Pimpadelic video, is busy arranging the buttocks of a nubile starlet. After four run-throughs, all body parts seem to be in the right place. Encouraging his cameraman to close in on a tight shot of the female’s posterior, the director claps his hands and…
It used to be that such terms as “folk singer” and “country songwriter” carried some weight with right-thinking folks. But that was before folk was co-opted by the post-collegiate commercial poets, the feel-good liberal crowd, and the tediously self-involved, and before country songwriting was corrupted by a suburban family-values banality…
In their 20-plus years as a unit, the Mekons have been British punks; British post-punks; a “dance band on the edge of time”; a stumbling-drunk traveling-miscreant caravan; the first alternative-country band; a rock-and-roll band; a drunken-loser country band featuring a former member of the Pretty Things; the last punk band;…
When Jeff Whittington got back into playing music, after a brief hiatus when his previous group Adam’s Farm broke up, he wanted to be in a band again. But he didn’t want to take on the same role he did with Adam’s Farm, playing the part of frontman — writing…
Broadcast The Noise Made by People (Warp Records) Rarely does an original idea crop up in modern music, and even less frequently does a good one come along. Yet originality still counts for a quite a bit, or at the very least, the arrangement of previously ungrouped elements earns points…
The Nixons Latest Thing (KOCH Records MCA Records should be kicking itself right about now, because Latest Thing, for worse or worse, should be a hit. Not that much of it is any good, but hey, that’s what’s called quality these days. Its songs will fit nicely on KDGE-FM’s playlist…
Warren Zevon Only a few weeks ago, Warren Zevon released his finest album since, well, let’s just say 1987’s Sentimental Hygiene. (There have been great records since then, among them 1991’s Mr. Bad Example, and songs better than the albums on which they appeared, such as “Monkey Wash Donkey Rinse”…
Suicide Machines There has always been grumbling about the Suicide Machines. After releasing two demo cassettes, Green World and The Essential Kevorkian, in their native Detroit, the group shortened their name from Jack Kevorkian and The Suicide Machines and signed to Hollywood Records. Problem was, Hollywood Records is owned by…
Scene, heard Though we feel we’ve already explained it thoroughly, there still seems to be some confusion regarding the ballot for the 2000 Dallas Observer Music Awards. One amateur conspiracy theorist has raised the question of whether the ballot was designed so that voters would select the nominees that the…
There are more people outside the club than in it. Dozens of them loiter about as they try to catch a whiff of what’s cooking behind those closed doors. They lean against the outside walls, putting their ears to the bricks to hear just a little of what’s going on…
No one told Bob Nanna that trying to watch 365 movies in a year was a good idea. In fact, most of his friends attempted to talk him out of it by trying to lure him out of the house and the theaters to do something, anything, else. But for…
The saying goes something along the lines of “no press is bad press,” but that maxim is surely put to the test by the cover story in the April edition of D Magazine, “Dallas City Limits.” Hey, no reason to argue with someone claiming that Dallas’ music scene outranks the…
Lou Reed Ecstasy (Reprise Records) Last time out, Lou Reed played the sweetheart and crank. Set the Twilight Reeling — the title felt cozy and not a little defiant: Here’s Uncle Lou, growing old and soft, his worn edges now tattered by the warm breeze of middle age and contentment…
Gropius Indelicate (Self-released) I am not completely convinced that Gropius’ new album isn’t one long song, one tiresome, meandering, second-encore rendition of “Gold Dust Woman,” or maybe “Gypsy.” (Actually, anything by Stevie Nicks would fit the bill.) Maybe I just keep losing my place among the nine tracks on Indelicate,…
The Flaming Lips A few weeks ago, the Dallas Observer came into possession of an e-mailed memorandum, ostensibly written by Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, describing plans for the band’s sets on the second leg of its North American tour. At first, we were skeptical about the document’s veracity, what…
KISS What follows is a list of actual KISS memorabilia available through www.kissonline.com — “The site that clicks ass!” — and the accompanying descriptions, verbatim. A set of six die-cast KISS pick-up trucks. “Breaker, breaker, good buddy! These 1:64-scale big rigs are sure to please all you KISS fans out…
To set the record straight, no, it is not a mistake if your band or venue does not appear on the 2000 Dallas Observer Music Awards ballot. What it means is that you, as deserving as you think you are, were not nominated. It does not matter if you advertise…
At least one good thing emerged out of South By Southwest’s drunken haze: The Adventure Club/Dallas Observer Charity Bowling Tournament. We haven’t decided on a clever name yet for the whole affair, picked a charity, or even solidified teams as of yet, but this much is certain: We’ll be getting…
The history books are written with his blood and the blood of half a dozen men just like him, fathers sacrificed on the altar. They created this thing called rock and roll, snatched it from thin air and gave it shape and breath and voice, and then they were gone…
You can go home again, but chances are you’ll get lost, turned around, embarrassed that such simple directions can result in an hour-long marathon of wrong choices and missed streets and an overbearing amount of cursing. You can go home again, but home, more often than not, will not be…
It was only appropriate that my South By Southwest experience end like this — stuck in the rain and hail, waiting for a cab, praying to God the lightning would strike me dead before the band inside finishes. Inside the Continental Club on South Congress Avenue, a blues trio named…
The storm blew in and rained down on Austin with a swift fury, for the second year in a row, on the second day of the South By Southwest musical dog-and-pony show. Perhaps it was a warning from above to the festival organizers for trying to shoehorn a record 960-plus…
