The king of soca Calypso–laden as it is with intimations of day-o, the limbo, and un-cola nuts–is one of the few musical forms that can credit its genesis to fuel oil. With roots in the rhythmic patterns and music of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, calypso’s antecedents were forbidden…
When she’s not on the road, Marcia Ball–the white-chick R&B pianist with Tina Turner’s legs and Professor Longhair’s fingers–divides her time between her Austin headquarters and the French Quarter’s Bienville House hotel. But that’s just occupying physical space. Listening to Let Me Play With Your Poodle, the latest in her…
The Lilith Fair is the winner so far in what music wonks like to paint as the Battle of the Summer Mega-tours. Lollapalooza, on August 2, was no different than any other concert this year; it might have been even less inspiring than your typical show. The atmosphere reeked of…
Sugar and salt Riot Squad Riot Squad Golden Energy The Tomorrowpeople Last Beat Records With a record industry at the zenith of its powers to control, exploit, and vulgarize any genuine ideals–or ideas–left in rock ‘n’ roll, it stands to reason that there should be a resurgence of underground punk…
Nobody ever said that punk rock and subtlety made good bedfellows, and Exene Cervenkova, the erstwhile singer of Los Angeles’ legendary X, doesn’t mince her words. She finds that poetic license and subtlety are often lost on those with deficient attention spans. With her new band, Auntie Christ–in which she…
Great expectations Do It Yourself The Seahorses Geffen Records Dissent Linoleum DGC Records The sad demise of the Stone Roses last year–on the heels of the incredible Second Coming–left guitarist John Squire alone to prove that he was indeed the driving force behind that Manchester band. It was his songs…
Onzy Matthews is in high dudgeon. His mellifluous voice can’t hide the fact that he’s wire-taut. His triumphs, he’ll barely discuss. His woes, he’ll chronicle so minutely that it interrupts the flow of whatever tale he’s telling, a narrative tack that’s quite at odds with Matthews’ measured, linear style as…
Start talking about Spanish-language pop around the Dallas-Fort Worth area and most people will nod thoughtfully and say something like “oh, yes–Tejano.” While not to dis the phenomenal growth that Tejano music has enjoyed in the last five years, there’s much more to Latin pop: Witness the Rock en Espanol…
Le grand Mac Rockabilly Uprising: The Best of Mac Curtis Mac Curtis Rollin’ Rock/HighTone Records With this disc, Bedford resident Mac Curtis joins Ronnie Dawson and the newly re-emergent Gene Summers as the third part of the North Texas rockabilly trinity–no offense meant to lesser-known lights like Groovy Joe Poovey…
Your first clue as to what to expect from Austin’s Therapy Sisters comes when you dial their number and get their answering machine: To leave a message for Lisa, press one; to leave a message for Maurine, press two. For the Therapy Sisters, it depends: If you’re obsessive-compulsive, press one…
The trend a while ago AMP Various artists Caroline/MTV There’s still one good reason to tune in to MTV: the late-night weekend show of new electronica called AMP. An hour-long excursion into the near future of music, AMP caters to progressive tastes in both music and visuals, provoking many of…
Rotten no more Exactly a year ago, John Lydon donned his punk costume and Rotten persona and toured with the rest of the beer-bellied Sex Pistols for big bucks–cash from chaos, indeed. He admitted it, and people still bought; audiences flocked to witness what punk rock was all about. Lydon…
The new collection Songs of Janis Joplin: Blues Down Deep is merely the latest in a series of outrages foisted upon a gullible public by the House of Blues, a nightclub chain and music label that seems to think we were all born yesterday; but for sheer chutzpah, it may…
Endurance as protest Senor Blues Taj Mahal Private Music The Will to Live Ben Harper Virgin Records Neither Taj Mahal nor Ben Harper could really be considered bluesmen in the traditional sense, although the blues forms the core of each one’s vision. Mahal has traveled along the roots of American…
Room to mood Melatonin Bullet EP Transona Five Sandwich Records From Our Living Room to Yours american analog set Emperor Jones/Trance Syndicate How much structure can you subvert, how much melody can you deconstruct, and how many found sounds can you bend to a song’s will before it stops being…
Deadheads are a persnickety, obsessive bunch; the only group with a comparable fascination with minutiae, trivia, and detail are baseball announcers: “Sorry, Clint, I doubt it–the Dead have rarely gone from a second-set-opening ‘China-Rider’ directly into ‘Dark Star’ when ‘Deal’ closed the first set, and never on a summer tour!”…
Area rockabilly hero Gene Summers and Sisyphus (star of Greek mythology) could probably kill a few hours together comparing notes. The latter, you may recall, was an ancient king of Corinth damned to an eternity of rolling a heavy stone up a hill, only to have it roll back down…
Numbers too big to ignore–they’re outselling ROAR! It has always seemed to me that the male human–apparently genetically predisposed to risk everything in the name of a little sweaty, sniggering fun–would be a natural for constantly pushing the boundaries of sex roles. Why, then, aren’t there more guys out there…
Soulful surprise Soul of the Bee Gees Various Artists The Right Stuff/Capitol Records Although it seems yet another pop culture recycled-trash recipe, this new compilation of Bee Gees covers is one of the best tributes I’ve seen. Whether you think of the Bee Gees as childhood icons or music-industry Antichrists…
Jack Bruce–singer, songwriter, composer, bassist, and elder statesman of rock–says people wrongly assume that British rockers of the ’60s all know each other, like some elite club of ex-prime ministers. It’s an impression that Bruce’s last American appearance–as part of Ringo Starr’s recent All-Starr (and almost all-Brit; saxman Mark Rivera…
What’s that on your head? I believe it was Roy Blount Jr. who, while meditating upon the cowboy hat–that most essentially American thing to place atop your head (with the possible exception of a lampshade)–said that while having actually grown up working on ranches and riding horses enabled him to…
Like most quests, the most recent mission of James “Big Bucks” Burnett–to make his very first album–has mystical beginnings. Known to most as the driving force behind a uniquely hands-on brand of fandom that has found fruition in “Edstock,” a salute to Wilbur’s talking TV horse (of course) and “Tinypalooza,”…
