“Other people had hits with her songs” was the sentence just beneath the headline in USA Today that announced musician Laura Nyro had died. She succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 49. This was the most depressingly predictable of epitaphs for Nyro, whose flirtation with media celebrity flared…
When the Dallas Observer ran a preview a few weeks ago announcing an upcoming Monte Warden show, said preview mentioned that Warden–like our own Colin Boyd–seemed to be haunted by the ghost of a certain bespectacled pop genius named Buddy. It was a nice bit of affirmation, then, when Boyd…
Service with a smile Satellitely Quickserv Johnny Rainmaker Records Quickserv Johnny, to paraphrase the Tom Hanks character in That Thing You Do, is the latest star in the Rainmaker Records galaxy–blasting through the same platinum-filled universe as Deep Blue Something. QJ has already been introduced to statewide radio audiences through…
For much of the ’90s, rock ‘n’ roll scenesters–from Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson to Alex Chilton and Peter Buck–have moved to New Orleans, drawn as much by the city’s Flowers of Evil darkness and spirit of perpetual carnival as by its musical heritage. It’s interesting, then, that Cowboy Mouth,…
Thinking man’s headbangers Aftertaste Helmet Interscope Records Helmet has long been promising to inject hard rock with new life: A combo led by a jazz guitarist who plays tight, economical, and subtly brutal metallic rock looks great on paper, and the underlying intelligence is another feather in leader Page Hamilton’s…
Even if the competition is not exactly fierce, to be nominated in the Dallas Observer’s “Best Rap/Hip-Hop” category two years in a row is no small feat. Denton’s Bassx walked away winners in 1995; in 1996, prior to the ballot counting, the band packed it up and moved to New…
Honky-tonk hero If you’re one of those folks who’s just a-brim with good intentions as far as live music goes, yet always ends up feeling bad when you don’t quite make it out to see show X or Y (especially when listening to everybody rave about it the next day),…
Running around Deep Ellum frantically on this cold and drizzly morning, Gordo “Buzz” Gibson (aka Michael Gibson) is a poster child for all that is unresolved. He’s been up all night, working on final mixes for his band’s soon-to-be-released debut album, but he’s just shy of finishing. He’s got record…
Jump for joy Before the term “guitar hero” existed, Guitar Shorty was one. His ear-reaming tones were a known influence on Jimi Hendrix, who may have lent an eye to Shorty’s showmanship as well. Born in Houston, Shorty took up music in Florida; in Louisiana he opened shows for Guitar…
Entrepreneur Mark Begelman–the man who answered the question “I wonder what a 75-foot-high stack of calculators looks like?” when he was in charge of Office Depot–has taken his pallet-intensive retail philosophy and applied it to MARS, which is now to be known as the Musicians’ Planet. Planets are usually quite…
Look upon my works King of the World Horseshoe Hiccup Records In this age of calculated maneuver, it’s nice to occasionally see something like creativity unhinged, like Tom Hulce’s Mozart in Amadeus. Houstonians Scott Daniels, Greg Wood, and Eddie Hawkins are vets of late and largely unlamented bayou city bands…
“Dedicated to all people who feel obliged to space,” reads the note on the original sleeve of Tangerine Dream’s Alpha Centauri, made in 1971. A quarter of a century later, four young metroplex musicians have taken this statement to heart, creating an album steeped in the spirit of German cosmic…
American Gothic Mirador Tarnation Reprise Records You can picture Tarnation singer Paula Frazer’s living room: a tattered Patsy Cline biography on the coffee table next to a Faulkner novel, a Johnny Guitar movie poster on the wall, a video of For a Few Dollars More playing with the sound turned…
That’s w-o-m-a-n Maria Muldaur is one of the music industry’s most frustrating phenomena: the artist who never really lived up to her early potential, who had one quick period of pop dominance surrounded by early struggle and later popular decline. In this she reminds you most sharply of Nicolette Larson,…
The Man From Mars Smokey Wilson Bullseye Blues Records The old saw about not playing catch-up with the times, but relaxing and allowing the times to eventually catch up with you, has worked well for Smokey Wilson. Once too strident for the blues mainstream, his guitar sound now finds itself…
After the heart-rending breakup of Killbilly–not long after a wildly successful tour of mainland China, no less–many folk pinned their homegrown alt-country hopes on the Cartwrights, a group that included ex-‘billy Alan Wooley, longtime local light Barry Kooda (Nervebreakers, Yeah Yeah Yeah), and Donny Ray Ford, one of the purest…
“It’s an experiment in the works,” Will Johnson says with a warm laugh. Although he is supposed to be shedding some light on Centro-matic, his solo musical guise, and Redo the Stacks, the band’s “warts-and-all” debut out on steve records, he may well be referring to the coagulating queso dip…
More than a bunch of ‘toons Songs in the Key of Springfield Original music from the TV series Rhino Records Back in 1990 there were two shows on the Fox network that turned the sitcom on its ear. Married: With Children and the brand-new The Simpsons presented the American family…
The Moon Festival churns out an impressive brand of vintage pop music, but, apparently, they can’t dance. At least not the delicately timed ballet required by the Dallas musical community, where their efforts to fit in resemble nothing so much as Shawn Bradley stumbling through a two-step on Thorazine. Despite…
The way of rights Animal Rights Moby Elektra Records Some of the hype regarding techno guru Moby’s new release Animal Rights is a bit misleading. A series of shockwaves followed a report that Moby had suddenly ditched dance music in favor of hard rock. Well, first off, Animal Rights is…
A red warning light is glowing above the doorway at Last Beat studios, indicating that recording is under way. If you were to ease the door open, you’d find the Toadies camped around an ice chest full of Budweiser, and immediately feel a sense of ease and relaxation. If it…
The grungy guy in the practice room talking to Sharon Brown, publicist for the Dallas gospel group Greg O’Quin and Joyful Noyze, is quite a contrast to the rest of the folks gathered for rehearsal. He’s tall, lanky, and white; the sides of his head are shaved, while on top…
