You wanna play Xmas with me, buckwheat, I’ll play ya some freakin’ Xmas. So it turns out Luke Campbell is a nigger. Jesus Christ — speaking of which, Jesus was a black man, but no one disses Him (especially this time of year), although the government did back then –…
There is one good thing about this. People can find me. Even if I’m not lost, were that ever the case. I try to avoid righting, or writing, or usually ranting, about racism. Don’t believe in it. All blood’s mixed. Stop me if you’ve heard this one — so these…
How cold is it in Milwaukee? “Too cold,” says Inner Circle’s Ian Lewis, on the phone from a suburb of the Wisconsin city. Of course, it’s cold in Sweden, too. Inner Circle, on the other hand, couldn’t be hotter. And, for not the first time, the popular Miami-based reggae outfit…
Yeah, so there’s this thing, like when you ask someone if they like a certain song, say Joshua Kadison’s “Jessie” (yo, Brother Chuck, check it, that’s the best I can do to plug the tune you turned me onto ’cause I think it’s overproduced, but it’s nice, bro, a tinge…
They made a record and it went in the chart The sky was the limit Their A&R man said, “I don’t hear a single” The future was wide open –Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne People who know me, or claim to, people in the “biz,” often hit me with an offhand comment…
The other day I received one of the most articulate and thoughtful letters I’ve ever got and I wish I had space to sling the whole thing. Reis Baron wrote it to tell me how stupid I am to use the phrase “hottest street buzz in town” to describe bands…
This political correctness thing’s gotten so out of hand there aren’t too many words left that won’t offend someone somewhere. Americans don’t call themselves Americans any more, they come up with ethnic hyphenations. You better not call a woman anything more affectionate than “woman.” And people lacking certain senses or…
This is time for no rock and roll, it’s time for gluttony and invasion. Time for football and fawning over whichever grandfather has the most money. Pass the mashed and die. Thanks. I’m lucky enough to have some corn (liquor) and to be lost in this maize. And to have…
Like the members of any decent self-made band, these four guys need to go out flyering soon. They do that a lot, flyering, spreading the good word about their live shows through the mass distribution of handbills. For a little while on this recent weeknight, though, they find time to…
For the next six weeks or so, Americans will occasionally and collectively be nice to each other. It happens every year around the time it starts getting dark early — give, be generous, be kind, care, Thanksgiving, Xmas, all that rot. Pangaea lead singer Ani Espriella will begin appearing on…
A whole new era for “Program Notes.” Yes, kids, we’ve moved up to baby photos. Oh, stop crying. In September 1989 Meat Loaf told me about his latest project, an album being written by Jim Steinman, who had authored the monster smash Bat out of Hell LP in 1977. It…
The last two hours of October 28 sounded like death. Anyone listening that night to 88.3 FM (home of pirate Radio X) heard a grueling, cacophonous dirge — as if someone had locked a gang of Gregorian chanters on acid in a room with a symphony of drunks, recorded every…
Miami’ll drink to that! Having won the Southeast regional semifinals of the Tanqueray Rocks talent contest at the Stephen Talkhouse on South Beach (after a technicality disqualified top vote getter Nil Lara and Beluga Blue), Natural Causes jetted to New York City last week and came back with something fine,…
The best thing that happened to me last week was getting to see my dad. Trust me, you don’t want to hear about the worst. That Natural Causes thing’s pretty cool, they won some money and support from Tanqueray, good for them, they deserve it. Just one little payback is…
Now do I get it, now do I have a clue? Doubtful, but I heard hope. Lots of it. I was pretending I was dreaming that I was a normal person, heading out after work for a few beers (very few, actually) and to hear some people play guitar and…
Dumb it down, mainstream it, keep it safe, and corral the masses for your advertisers. The mentality of commercial radio programmers explains why people walk around mumbling “radio sucks” and it’s also one reason Big A and 30 cohorts have relaunched the pirate station Radio X, at 88.3 on your…
The Top Ten By Greg Baker Not a sound is heard from the music industry that isn’t calculated. Artists are not signed, records are not released, videos are not made — unless the suits are certain a promising marketing strategy is in place and that much money can be made…
Forgot all about this nonsense, didn’tcha? In between the $250 brake job (first estimate: six bills) at Meineke (where you pay less or they screw you) and the home fuel-pump replacement (thanks for the assist, Carlos), my wife and I sought brief respite in Naples, and no I don’t mean…
Each year, out of the goodness of their promotion-hungry hearts, booze giant Tanqueray sponsors Tanqueray Rocks, a national battle of the bands that yields a compilation CD, juicy prizes, and, for the top five bands, a trip to New York City for the finals. This year one of the five…
At the tunnel-light end of the Seventies, Ted Gottfried was working as a water-meter reader for Dade County. Leslie Wimmer was employed at a bookstore near her home in Deerfield Beach. Along with a close friendship, Gottfried and Wimmer shared a passionate curiosity about the revolution in rock. Disco was…
Near the end of some of his live shows Steve Forbert sings about how “you cannot win if you do not play.” Being a certified loser, I wouldn’t know. In the summer season of the Southwest YMCA basketball league, the New Times team won its conference and played last Thursday…
The other night about 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. at Spo-dee-o-dee, just for fun — I wasn’t on X, I wasn’t even ecstatic — I kept hugging people. I can’t remember everyone I hugged, although I do recall a warm embrace with fellow slacker-critic-poseur-writer Mike “Teddy Bear” Burrell, because he’s really…
