!Don’t you step on my huaraches azules! The line that divides style and shtick can be razor-thin, and if you introduce the Elvis Dimension it can be buried completely beneath deep drifts of Velveeta. It would be a mistake, however, to lump Los Angeles artist El Vez (nee Robert Lopez)…
How do you solve a problem like this introduction? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? 1996 was many things–a flibbertigibbet, a will o’ the wisp, a clown–but more than anything for music, it was a time of transition. With “alternative” rock still spinning off hundreds of…
If 1995 was the year of the umpteenth British Invasion (Oasis, Blur, etc.) and the domination of the true underground by the amazing cross-pollinations of dance music, 1996 wasn’t far behind in brilliance. In ’96, the feeling that pop music still has the power to stimulate, instigate, and propagate remained…
As Eric Halfvarson savors his plate of beef mole at cvila’s restaurant on Maple Avenue, the Dallas-based international opera star ponders a dilemma: Although many bookings in the classical music business occur far in advance (he’s presently working out an offer for the year 2000), his immediate concerns are no…
Electra glide in blue Small Spinning Ginny Last Beat Records There truly is nothing new under the sun anymore, and to describe a band by placing it in a handy niche is no longer tantamount to calling it unoriginal, but the only way to deal with the staggering amount of…
Sound and fury… Test for Echo Rush Anthem/Atlantic The think-rock of Rush has always been problematic. Early masterworks like 2112 (1976) succeeded even if they are lyrical Cliffs Notes for college freshmen. (2112 is based on Ayn Rand’s Anthem; 1978’s Hemispheres explores right-left brain phenomena.) At worst, Rush is a…
Looking quite the quintessential young punk rocker–bright red Docs, platinum spiked hair, dark and mangled clothing–Benji Bollox could well be mistaken for the typical misguided suburban kid, half-heartedly chasing after the mirage of a lifestyle 20 years too late. In fact, it’s a fate he narrowly avoided. Were it not…
First, a clarification: It appears that when Street Beat relayed–rather breathlessly–that popular Beatles cover band Hard Night’s Day had moved into the big time by taking off on a brief national tour, it was having its perineum tickled by new handler-agent Traci Parsons. What seemed to be club dates are…
You don’t miss your water New Year’s Eve gigs are plums for musicians and bands. Banner business nights, they usually pay quite well, and the band that lands one close to home can usually minimize road expenses while spending most of the holidays with friends and family. So when Moon…
Emmylou Harris has been a respected country artist since her first major label release, 1975’s Pieces of the Sky. Arriving right in time for the advent of country-rock and enjoying a hefty batch of advance credibility through her association with Gram Parsons, Harris has always been one of the most…
A flat natural-born good timin’ man “Every day I tell myself it’s temporary,” Gary Stewart sings at the beginning of his 1974 hit “Drinkin’ Thing,” a monument to self-delusion and dependency written by Wayne Carson, who also wrote another Stewart classic, “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinking Doubles).” His other hits–“Out…
Out of the initial chaos of seemingly unrelated instrumental noodling that is slowly rising this Friday night at the State Bar, a sound is taking shape and gathering momentum. It’s the sound of a 1957 Cadillac being started in Tibet on a cold day, fed through a sequencer and slowed…
“EEEeeeeeeuuuggghhhh!” Playing opposite to type, the local music writer is utterly sincere as she twists her face into a rictus of pure disgust. The effort–which pulls the corners of her mouth down and the cartilage around her nostrils up, and for a moment makes her face look like one of…
Cult of personality Evita Cast recording/soundtrack Warner Brothers Records Whatever you may think of her personally, Madonna’s credentials in the realm of popular music are unimpeachable. She began her career as a coy teen queen singing trendy, digestible songs and parlayed early success into an entertainment empire. Along the way,…
Queso que nada? Cosa Caliente The Recliners RCM Recordings One of the hardest things to get a sense of is humor, which many people confuse with mockery, forgetting that making fun has always been territory staked out by those who can’t quite make do. Nothing has borne this out quite…
Van Dyke Parks does not talk. He speaks, pronounces, proclaims, mumbles and grumbles, chuckles and chortles. But he does not merely talk to waste his words; every syllable has meaning, every breath great implication, every silence great weight. Wearing a red-and-blue striped polo shirt and penny loafers (with pennies in…
Birds of a feather Deep Fantastic Blue Darden Smith Plump Records Baptist Hospital Boo Hewerdine Discovery/Warner Brothers Darden Smith and Boo Hewerdine are the Hardy Boys of the modern singer-songwriter set. The two pals–who frequently tour and record together–utilize silken tunecraft, cotton-candy melodies, and crisp, mountain-air vocals to solve the…
The apartment complex that Dewaylon McCoy, his mother Eva, and little sister Nashayla share isn’t really scary–it’s just a little bit overpacked and anonymous, one of those places that compel you to say “oh, it isn’t that bad” when greeting first-time visitors. Residents eye each other warily from behind their…
More than skin deep Now that Nashville is only slightly less beauty-conscious than the fashion industry–to make it in pop country these days, you gotta be a cute li’l ol’ thang with a perfect figure, bright eyes, flawless hair, and a stunning smile (the girls have to be prettier still)–it…
The rain bombs out the street before Peter Thomas, and he wonders if the adverse weather will significantly affect the turnout this Saturday night. He and two bandmates, Aaron Lyons and Mark Sodders, stand under the overhang of the Dogstar, one of the few dives where a local band can…
The big bang Jesus Christ Superstars Laibach Mute Records Sinsational Pig Nothing/Interscope Records If the world were about to end in a tremendous bang, Laibach would be the first in line to write the soundtrack–such is their scope and ambition. Some bands think big; this cryptic Slovenian quartet thinks colossal…
From Ziklag to Zion Nobody But You Slim and the Supreme Angels Intersound Records Living on the Other Side IIIrd Tyme Out Rounder Records The African-American gospel quartet tradition has had an enormous impact on pop music: The vocal stylings live on in soul and R&B, and the idea of…
