1. Refried Ectoplasm (Drag City) and Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center (Duophonic, import), Stereolab. A collection of stray singles, revamped tracks, and unreleased treats, Refried Ectoplasm makes a more instant impact than any previous Stereolab offering, highlighting the dead-on pop sensibility usually obscured by the enlightened drone of…
1. Jerry Garcia. It was fitting that the man who specialized in 15-minute guitar solos would die in his sleep. 2. Selena. The assassination of Tejano’s once and future queen transformed Selena into a momentary superstar and the eternal martyr. She was number one with a bullet, quite literally: In…
Every band is a local band somewhere. So with that in mind, as we look back at 1995 and pat ourselves on the back for making the Toadies gold, launching Deep Blue Something to top-of-the-pops domination, and landing Tripping Daisy on MTV and Reverend Horton Heat on every sound track…
It must be Brave Combo They start arriving in stores in late October, those early Christmas presents better known as the fruitcake of the record industry–Christmas albums, that is, lumps of coal to be played as you and yours trim the tree and gulp down eggnog and wait for that…
Did you hear the one about the Jew who played in a bluegrass band? This Jewish musician was proficient at his trade, a banjo player highly respected among his peers, many of whom had grown up in Kentucky and were reared on a steady diet of traditional music. The bluegrass…
Art for pop’s sake Exploring a Diverse Universe Broose Carpe Diem Records When he performs alone, on a stage with nothing but his acoustic guitar to prop him up, Bruce Dickinson (so called “Broose” so there’s no confusing him with Iron Maiden’s frontman, as though that were possible) comes off…
The yokel yenta Bad Girls Upset by the Truth Jo Carol Pierce Monkey Hill Records When Jo Carol Pierce and the rest of her Lubbock Mob (Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, etc.) debuted their collaborative “musical” Chippy, about a Depression-era boomtown whore, at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center last year, the…
With rare exceptions, Al Green has not stepped onto a concert stage since 1979. Sixteen years ago, during a concert in Cincinnati, he fell 12 feet off a stage and barely missed being seriously injured. Already a disciple of the Lord, preaching in front of his Memphis congregation most every…
All honky, no tonk Stormy John B. Wells Kansa Records Back when Jim Beck ruled Ross Avenue, recording the likes of Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price and Marty Robbins for Uncle Art Satherly at Columbia, Dallas was on its way to becoming the industry’s Nashville when Nashville was just a pit-stop…
Paper thin A singer-songwriter better known as the latter but desperate to be famous as the former, John Hiatt stages more comebacks than George Foreman. It happened first in 1987 (Bring the Family, with Nick Lowe and Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner as his pro “studio sidemen”), then in ’90…
Paul Nugent sits across the table eating sushi during a lunch interview he initially was skeptical about attending. Nugent, who’s co-owner of the local Rainmaker Records label, was hesitant to show up because he figured he was just being set up, duped into another opportunity to dump on two of…
On the surface Retrospective Rosanne Cash Columbia Records Rosanne Cash, despite her Nashville-bred instincts, has never been a singles artist: She’s got the songs (“I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” “Rosie Strike Back,” “Seven Year Ache,” “Hold On”–none of which are included here), but she succeeds when they’re…
Rock and roll exists today only because so many have decided they’re going to be rock stars or they’re going to make a living as accessories to rock stars. They don’t realize the era of the rock star is over. We’ve seen all the clothes and poses and we’ve heard…
The man known as Little Jack Melody is flattered by the nice mention in a recent issue of New York magazine, a write-up promoting several shows in Manhattan; the writer referred to the band as “one of the lovelier pop combos in the land…also one of the oddest,” paying particular…
“I’m a firm believer that at least half of the population is mentally retarded, and I think I’m being kind of nice to tell you the truth. That’s from a personal perspective. I’ve seen a lot of morons.” At the moment, Green Day’s lead singer and peroxided frontman Billie Joe…
“Every time Mr. Sinatra was performing in Vegas, he would come to see me. He always came to the shows with a movie star like Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. I knew when he was there because he would hand the waitress a note to give me, and he…
Ripping Daisy There The Big Train Independent release The boys in Big Train sent out a resume with the CD, complete with a list of influences that are no doubt meant to fill in the huge blanks left by the music: Frank Zappa, Jesus Lizard, Led Zeppelin, Jane’s Addiction, Joni…
Though T-shirts and joints of cheap Mexican pot still typify the Austin music-scene ambience, dinner jackets and expensive cigars are the style at Cedar Street, a downtown jazz bar that boasts a long line of patrons awaiting admission every weekend, all of them eager to quaff martinis and tap their…
The Devil’s advocate Speaking to the Observer a year ago to promote the release of his two-CD retrospective Seducing Down the Door, John Cale was as eloquent and dizzying as his music–alternately poetic and blunt, approachable but only from a distance. He spoke of his initial reaction to Lou Reed’s…
Brought the noise Def Jam Music 10th Year Anniversary Various artists Def Jam If hip-hop has becomes its own worst enemy, reduced to self-parody by money-hungry hacks toting plastic pistols, here’s a reminder of a time when the music compromised nothing. It was tough but not tough-guy, hard but not…
“Anything that we didn’t record, we erased or got rid of, so there isn’t that much outtakes…A lot of it is just alternate takes that we turned down, and they’re bringing them back and calling them interesting takes. They’re actually the takes we rejected. They could get a real nice…
For more than three years, Naomi’s Lounge on Canton has been the focal point for the local “Honky-Tonk Underground” movement that has spawned the likes of Cowboys and Indians, The Old 97’s, Liberty Valance, The Cartwrights, Lone Star Trio, Tex Edwards and the Swinging Cornflake Killers, and even Houston’s Mary…
