Unconscious in heaven Unplugged in New York Nirvana DGC Records It’s a split decision: underneath the noise and distortion and hoarse growl that defined Nirvana lay finely constructed pop songs, catchy melodies that underscored (perhaps even usurped) the intensity of the lyrics Kurt Cobain choked out. But what made Nirvana…
The walls of Tony Zoppi’s North Dallas townhouse apartment keep track of history better than any journal or book of newspaper clippings. It’s as if the past 40 years have been preserved in this place–a shrine to celebrities and presidents and infamous figures who, even in death or old age,…
Ted Hawkins was born in 1936 to a father he never knew and an alcoholic mother in Lakeshore, Mississippi, a speck of a town defined by its desolation and poverty. He spent most of his teens bouncing in and out of reform schools, then jails, and on chain gangs picking…
All is forgiven Return of the Valley of the Go-Go’s The Go-Go’s I.R.S. Records Fourteen songs into this 36-song retrospective, and you’re still not to the first Hit. In fact, maybe five of the selections could have been considered Hit Singles; the rest went largely unheard or unheeded by an…
Over the past four decades, a million rock and roll bands have made a hundred million rock and roll records. Some go on to sell millions of copies; some, a few thousand; most, maybe a few dozen cassettes. If, tomorrow, most of the would-be Neil Youngs and Kurt Cobains and…
Joe Butcher, the lead singer and guitar player for UFOFU, leans on the microphone and asks the Club Clearview audience if they would prefer a Gordon Lightfoot or a Buzzcocks cover song. It is close to the end of the night’s set, and almost everyone is grinning with something that…
Arresting development Cop Shoot Cop’s “Last Legs,” off their recently released Release, is probably the best nonhit single of the year. It packs the same wallop as the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” both songs linked by their similarity to TV cop-show themes of the late ’60s and early ’70s, but goes…
The end of a local band often comes and goes with little notice or mention; as one implodes, another comes along to take its place, filling a void no one knew was empty. But the passing of Killbilly, which will play the final show of its seven-plus-year career this Saturday…
