Shortly after signing the group to his Grand Royal Records label, Beastie Boy Mike D said the young members of Bis were the richest kids in the music business. Reminded of this statement a few years later, Bis’ Amanda MacKinnon, a.k.a. Manda Rin, busts Mike D for “lying a lot…
In May 1997, singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley put on his best thrift-store suit and got a friend to drive him to the Memphis Zoo. Buckley, an ascendant alternative-rock icon and reluctant heartthrob, had decided to apply for a job as a zookeeper. The 30-year-old Buckley had temporarily relocated from New York…
After months (and months and months) of speculation, it appears that Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios is finally on the verge of opening its long-promised bar. According to the club’s Robin Phillips, the bar (beer and wine only for now, it seems) will begin operating nightly in late July–in other words,…
Down to the Promised Land: 5 Years of Bloodshot Records Various artists (Bloodshot Records) Maybe it’s the novelty freak speaking, but this fifth-anniversary pat-on-the-ass boils down to one contribution from a little outfit called The Unholy Trio. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” turned into…
Hank Thompson Seven Decades (HighTone Records) There is perhaps nothing sadder than seeing a great musician who’s stayed in the spotlight just a little too long, tripping at the foot of the stage instead of making a graceful exit. And since musicians never seem to retire, you see it far…
Marky Ramone & The Intruders As anyone not currently suffering from a coma knows, summers in Texas can be hot. So hot you’re sweating by the time you reach your car when leaving home. So hot you can become a dehydrated mess, dazed by the sunlight and wondering how in…
End hits Since just more than a year has passed since we took over the reins of Street Beat, we feel it’s time for a bit of reflection. Keep in mind that what follows was written under the duress of excruciating pain in our back and lower extremities, to the…
When attacking the music business, one need not even break a sweat. After all, how hard is it to land a punch or a thousand upon a bloated carcass that can no longer move? In the not-so-distant future–maybe a decade from now, or a year from now, or the day…
Bourbonitis Blues, Alejandro Escovedo’s sixth and most recent solo album, is the culmination of a life spent growing up in public. It wasn’t an easy growth–his path has been pockmarked with deaths, births, and changes in musical styles to match–but between the album’s swelling strings, ebullient country stomps, and meditations…
I’m not at all homesick, but that night his words hit home, maybe harder than they should have. “I mean, you get to England, and you expect the bands to be as good as the Beatles, as good as the Kinks, and that’s just not the case.” Rhett Miller, frontman…
Matt and Bubba Kadane said that they would continue to make music together when they decided to break up Bedhead in 1998. In April, they made good on that promise with Macha Loved Bedhead/Bedhead Loved Macha, a one-off collaboration with their old buddies from Wichita Falls, Josh and Mischo McKay,…
Sinead O’Connor Faith and Courage (Atlantic Records) It’s little surprise that Sinead O’Connor would come out in the new issue of Curve magazine (dunno, never heard of it): She’s been little thought of since the release of I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got a decade ago, except as…
Merge Local Access Sessions: Vol. 1 Various Artists (Atlantic Records) If nothing else, Chip Adams has done his best to promote local bands and musicians, using Local Access, his hour-long Sunday-night show on Merge Radio (93.3 FM), to spotlight as much area talent as 60 minutes will allow. Sure, Cary…
The Jayhawks It was the perfect setup, at least on the exterior: They shared songwriting credits, shared lead vocals, and shared the stage until it was difficult to discern just who brought what to the party. With their old buddies in Uncle Tupelo, you could easily spot where A met…
Boy Sets Fire Endlessly driving across America, limping from basements to run-down club to rented VFW hall, sometimes finding tons of kids milling around waiting for you to play and other times showing up only to find out the show was canceled is often a frustrating, painful exercise. Well-promoted and…
The Waxwings Lord knows every song that appears on The Waxwings’ just-released debut, Low to the Ground, has appeared elsewhere at least once or twice, or maybe a hundred times. To believe otherwise, you’d have to rid record stores of every copy of Odyssey & Oracle, Pet Sounds, Walk Away…
The following is an expurgated transcript of a Britney Spears phone press conference held last week, in advance of her summer tour. By expurgated, I mean we have deleted some of the more banal questions and duller responses–but not all, since we’d have only six words left once all the…
You don’t see the phrase “simultaneous two new album release” every day, and with good reason. For one thing, it’s as tricky to pull off as it is to say. 1991: Nobody can convince Axl Rose to pare down a pair of new Guns N’ Roses albums, each CD with…
So last night I’m sitting down watching digital cable at about 3 a.m. In hopes of catching a rerun of Behind the Music’s profile of Vanilla Ice, I flip to VH1, only to find an early-a.m. montage of pop videos. Just before I head over to MTV to check up…
Even in his hometown of Dallas, the news of Johnnie Taylor’s death of a heart attack on May 31 at age 62 was hardly news. In a way, it’s fitting the city that never knew what it had in Taylor when he was alive and recording didn’t know what it…
Sunny Day Real Estate The Rising Tide (Time Bomb Recordings) For some reason, Sunny Day Real Estate’s 1998 album How It Feels to Be Something On was treated as if it were a one-time-only reunion, 10 new songs found while the members of the band sifted through the ashes of…
[DARYL] Communication: Duration (Urinine Records) Months ago, a friend leaned over to me at a club to say that if someone had predicted years ago that today she’d be watching (and, more important, loving) a band with keyboards, the suggestion would have been met with either violence or laughter, depending…
