“I’m only going to play bowling alleys from now on.” With that sentiment, Bruce Springsteen christened the new Bronco Bowl–one more legendary memory heaped upon so many old ghosts that still haunt the place, which is still Dallas’ last, best mid-sized concert hall. But that January 26 show seems like…
Like members of some secret society, people in the music industry speak in code. This is especially true in Nashville, which in some ways is like a charismatic cult within the already alien world of the music business at large. The latest phrase on the lips of Nashville record companies…
Speaking to England’s New Musical Express earlier this year, Stereolab mastermind Tim Gane announced that the Beach Boys is his favorite band. It was an unequivocal claim–“It all sounds brilliant,” he insisted–even if it didn’t make much sense at first. After all, Stereolab–which is fronted by a Brit (Gane) and…
Waymore or less Right for the Time Waylon Jennings Justice Records Willie Nelson makes his “comeback” doing Paul Simon’s “An American Tune” and “Graceland” on Across the Borderline in 1993, then Waylon turns around three years later and digs up “The Boxer” to resuscitate a career on life support. Nelson…
Flame on Clouds Taste Metallic, the latest Flaming Lips album, sounds like it was recorded in a toy store: Cheap bells and whistles tinkle in the background as unidentifiable sounds whiz by like wind-up toys, mixing together until they become an integral part of the band’s psychedelia. Even after 10…
Survival of the fittest Just Rockin’ and Rollin’ Ronnie Dawson Upstart Records The once and future Blond Bomber makes his national debut for the second time in his career, 40 years after he hit it small with “Action Packed” and signed to Columbia–as a black singer, no less. But this…
Three years ago, Neal Caldwell sold VVV Records and thought he was done with the store forever. Caldwell, among the key members of Dallas’ new-wave scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s as a member of N.C.M., had opened VVV in 1979 to import impossible-to-find British and Jamaican albums,…
God bless Al Green When Al Green stepped off the concert stage in 1979 and took his place behind the pulpit, the greatest singer alive never once tried to reconcile the disparities: His soul belonged to God, his heart belonged to the ladies, and never the twain shall meet as…
Trendy bastards The Great Southern Trendkill Pantera East West Records Pantera used to moan they never got any media attention, but now, like true platinum punks who’ve discovered any rage is good rage at the cash register, they bitch about what coverage they have gotten: “Every fucking second, the pathetic…
When Greg Dulli first went off to college in 1983, he packed two posters to put on his wall there. One was of Aerosmith; the other, Earth, Wind and Fire. Thirteen years later, it’s evident from the music of his band the Afghan Whigs–a judicious blend of hard rock, soul,…
Singles going steady Down on the Upside Soundgarden A&M Records Superunknown wasn’t a consistently great album, but every time you heard a single on the radio, Soundgarden managed to make everything around it seem thin and inconsequential; Soundgarden is a rock-and-roll band that wins by comparison, meaning you’ve heard it…
This year marks British punk rock’s 20th birthday, but the Sex Pistols reunion tour hangs in the air like the stench of death–or at least the suspicious smell of a million moldy dollar bills. As John Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock prepare to kick off their tour…
Adding to subtract Crow Pot Pie Slobberbone Doolittle Records This isn’t to be confused with Slobberbone’s same-titled, Sam McCall-produced debut of last year, but that won’t be a problem because the “new” version bears only a slight resemblance to the “old” one. They’re both still called Crow Pot Pie, seven…
Melting the wax museum Austin’s never going to land an alternative-rock band anywhere except in the cut-out bins; Spoon (whose first four albums I owned when they were called the Pixies) and Sincola and Prescott Curlywolf are this year’s Glass Eye and Zeitgeist and Wild Seeds, which isn’t necessarily a…
Ten years ago it would’ve been a major event in my life–receiving a new Elvis Costello album in the mail–but when I got All This Useless Beauty last month, it just went in the big pile. After a few days I finally got around to listening to the Costello LP,…
Odds and sods All This Useless Beauty Elvis Costello Warner Bros. Records Deep Dead Blue Elvis Costello/Bill Frisell Warner Bros. Records/Nonesuch Warner Bros. has no intention of releasing the Costello/Frisell collaboration in the States, though it has landed over here as an overpriced import worth its price. Recorded in front…
In Sam Myers’ East Dallas space-age bachelor-pad apartment, the bluesman keeps vintage 1950s LPs of Louis Jordan, Percy Mayfield, T-Bone Walker, and, of course, his old partner in music and moonshine, guitar great Elmore James. An honorary lifetime-achievement award from the Sonny Boy Blues Society and three W.C. Handy Awards…
In the 14 years during which East Texas State University has been holding its “Five Star Concert Series,” never once has a rock-and-roll band graced the school’s stage. There have been country bands (Bryan White, who’s “country” only between the quotation marks), comedians (such as Sinbad), even the occasional R&B…
Ghost of a band 3 Pound Universe Wes Martin CMP Records Wes Martin, the last-minute New Bohemian guitarist added shortly after the band got signed to Geffen in 1987, wrote most of this material five years ago, as the Bos were going bust; it was recorded in 1993 in Germany…
Glam dancing There’s not one damned original thing about Spacehog. The ambisexual clothing is lifted straight from the glam section of the history books, as is most of the music–sort of operatic Mott the Hoople metal with a pogo beat–and the shtick is punk even if the execution is pure…
In the musical mythology, Austin is one of the coolest, most laid-back music towns on the planet, a Central Texas bohemia where slack and good vibes rule. But just beneath the seeming bonhomie, one finds a voracious creature that eats its own–and frequently its best. When Stevie Ray Vaughan got…
Big green Blow it Out Your Ass Veruca Salt DGC Records Steve Albini goes for the gold and grabs at straws: Whether the former Big Black frontman now lends his precious name to the likes of Veruca Salt and Bush for pop prestige (theirs, not his) or because it’s some…
