Email Author Adam St. James

1998 Stories by Adam St. James

• Rotations

  published December 3, 1998

  Jonny Lang Wander This World (A&M) Pop culture mavens are always looking for a pretty new face on which to pin their fortunes.... More >>

• Swing Thing

  published November 5, 1998

  It's always tough being ahead of your time, even if you get there by reaching into the past and pulling your shtick from the archives. The swing... More >>

• The Breath of the Blues

  published November 5, 1998

  The harmonica is a curious instrument. Palm-size and usually made without moving parts, it looks so simple, like a toy. Mastering one should... More >>

• Clamor

  published October 29, 1998

  So how do you get your band on VH1? An October 8 appearance on the national cable network by local rockers the Goods was highly anticipated by... More >>

• Exhibitionist Tendencies

  published October 22, 1998

  "Folk art" is a term that terrifies many urban dwellers. Utter those otherwise harmless words in the company of your big-city friends and images... More >>

• Rotations

  published October 15, 1998

  Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Left of Cool (Warner Bros.) Outside the bluegrass world and the few bluegrass-inspired,... More >>

• Growing Pains

  published October 8, 1998

  Bands' Websites come in many configurations: from lifeless layers of static pages hyping outdated tour schedules and lame photos to tantalizing,... More >>

• Live Music: Dead on Arrival

  published September 24, 1998

  It's Friday night at Churchill's Hideaway and two guitarists stand onstage tearing into their strings; amplified moans and wails burst from the... More >>

• Balancing Act

  published September 24, 1998

  In their dreams young musicians bask comfortably and happily in the luxury of immense success. Those REM-induced illusions can be mapped out... More >>

• Get Back at the Shack

  published September 3, 1998

  Hialeah is home to many a rickety warehouse. Most of the buildings contain gritty auto- and electronic-repair facilities, small machine shops, and... More >>

• Rude, Rude Rudy

  published August 13, 1998

  Robbie Gennet's piano melodies are disarming little devils. The creamy rhapsodies trickling from his keyboard sound so classically familiar, so... More >>

• Can't Silence This Monk

  published August 6, 1998

  Jazz is terminally ill. That most American of musical genres is in serious danger of dropping dead, struck down by an incurable condition known as... More >>

• Pseudointellectuals Don't Get the Blues

  published July 30, 1998

  Evolution, blues purists believe, is for the birds. What the creators of modern blues should do, they'll tell you, is leave well enough alone.... More >>

• Zoot Up, Punk

  published July 30, 1998

  Rarely has it been ultimately advantageous for a band to affiliate with a suddenly hip musical movement. Cool, maybe, sometimes even financially... More >>

• Careful with That Ax, Lilith

  published July 23, 1998

  Meredith Brooks is livid. After a good twelve months of touring and national TV appearances, and after selling more than a million copies of... More >>

• Come and Get Your Love

  published July 16, 1998

  Nowhere in the owner's manual that came with South Florida music promoter Chrystal Hartigan does it say, "She can't do that." If those words ever... More >>

• Rotations

  published July 9, 1998

  Neil Finn Try Whistling This (Work) New Zealand singer/guitarist Neil Finn has probably forgotten more aching, beautiful... More >>

• Still Can't Hear You, Buddy

  published July 9, 1998

  Buddy Guy has been waiting, frustrated yet determined, since the days when record stores carried only vinyl. Waiting for the day he can switch on... More >>

• Rotations

  published July 2, 1998

  Ritchie Valens Come On, Let's Go! (Del-Fi) Whether or not listeners understand the Spanish lyrics that follow, the five-second... More >>

• Could It Be ... Satan?

  published July 2, 1998

  Devil worshippers, they said. In their naive enthusiasm, the four Californian musicians were adamant about their devotion to that baddest of all... More >>

• Still Smokin'

  published June 25, 1998

  Crabapple, Georgia, isn't exactly a hotbed of musical inspiration. It's not crawling with cutting-edge, college-age scenesters pushing the... More >>

• Rotations

  published June 25, 1998

  Garbage Version 2.0 (Almo Sounds) Almost three years have passed since Garbage's self-titled debut blew a hole through the... More >>

• One More Reason to Live

  published June 18, 1998

  A lesson from Music Biz 101: Profit margin is not part of the equation when an unknown, greenhorn punk band leaves home for that first... More >>

• Rotations

  published June 18, 1998

  Jerry Cantrell Boggy Depot (Columbia) After five platinum-selling records with hard rock gladiators Alice in Chains,... More >>

• Rotations

  published June 11, 1998

  Public Enemy He Got Game Soundtrack (DefJam/Polygram) Various Artists Bulworth Soundtrack (Interscope/Fox) Rap... More >>