Although it’s buried near the end of a CD EP and presented as a rough demo, “Happy Hour” may be the song that best explains at least part of the creative drive and artistic aesthetic behind the writing of Everclear auteur Art Alexakis. In it the 35-year-old Portland, Oregon, resident…
Like a lot of seventeen-year-old boys, Jonny Lang is having trouble waking up. It’s almost one o’clock in the afternoon, but Lang sounds groggy, distracted, still lost in dreams. Unlike most seventeen-year-old boys, Lang has a pretty good excuse: He spent the previous evening opening for the Rolling Stones in…
Sax player Eric Allison, looking casual yet distinguished in a black jacket, a light-gray collarless shirt with the top button opened, and dark gray slacks, is in a good mood. Heading toward an outdoor table for a pre-gig meal at Sterling Worth Cafe in Plantation, where he is scheduled to…
Groovie Ghoulies Re-Animation Festival (Lookout!) The Donnas American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine (Lookout!) Rock shtick has a short radioactive half-life. For example: When was the last time you listened to late-Eighties English dipsticks Gaye Bykers on Acid’s Drill Your Own Hole? Somehow, Sacramento-based schlock-rock trio Groovie Ghoulies (bassist-vocalist Kepi,…
Various Artists !Ay Califas! Raza Rock: The ’70s & ’80s (Rhino/Zyanya) To the listening public, new directions in music often seem like Athena sprung fully armed out of … nowhere. But musicians know better. They’ve seen, and often adored, the hidden head of Zeus. For example, few of the musicians…
To the uninitiated, the X-ecutioners’ preference for the term “turntablists” rather than “DJs” might seem an affectation, or might at least come across as a bit uptight. But this winter, on their first American tour, the New York City crew feels validated by the many satisfied customers who have told…
On January 22 the world watched as the pope homilized in Cuba, but for maestro Frank Emilio Flynn and his friends, the truly historic event was happening on this side of the strait. That night the influential 77-year-old Cuban pianist, whose rhapsodical playing reflects a lifelong passion for American jazz,…
Various Artists Good Will Hunting (Capitol Records) Most movie soundtrack albums function more as marketing ploys than coherent musical statements. Songs are either tagged on as blatant record-company favors or used to sell a piece of Hollywood hackwork on VH1. Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting is a different story…
We’re barely into 1998 and, much like the year that preceded it, death has already tainted its arrival, an unfortunate but inevitable continuance of 1997’s massive body count. That year was kicked off by the January 1 death of singer-songwriter and cult icon Townes Van Zandt. By the end of…
You Am I Hourly, Daily (Sire Records) You Am I is a Sydney, Australia, trio that has achieved an oddly impressive distinction during its six-year history: It has somehow managed to build a zealous American fan base without actually releasing anything in America. Hourly, Daily, its third album (following hard-to-find…
Night falls loudly on a recent Sunday evening in Riverside, the downtown barrio wedged between the Miami River and Flagler Street. The sizzle of frying food and snatches of Spanish-movie dialogue leak from the windows of faded stucco apartments, as dogs bark behind chainlink fences surrounding small, shaggy yards. Bass-heavy…
A few weeks ago I was watching MTV, and Kurt Loder was interviewing Marilyn Manson on the subject of Hanson. The esteemed Mr. Manson, unbloodied for the moment but still sporting that corpse-white glow, had this to say: “Those little boys scare me…. I think they’re instruments of the devil.”…
In their classic soul ballad, the Persuaders persuaded pop fans that “there’s a thin line between love and hate.” In their fine cover of that classic soul ballad, Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders pretended to agree. But the truth of the matter is that there’s a wide gulf between love…
Metallica Reload (Elektra) Put plainly, Metallica’s last album, 1996’s Load, made me angry: To see a band that I had always valued for its integrity change its music for what appeared to be commercial reasons was deeply frustrating. But after catching the quartet in concert earlier this year, I was…
Museums tend to be quiet places, but the silence that gripped the galleries of the Lowe Museum on a recent visit seemed out of sync with the exhibition, “It’s Only Rock and Roll.” This ambitious if ultimately ungainly effort showcases contemporary art inspired by music, yet it wants some sort…
Who do you think of when you hear the song “Dude (Looks like a Lady)”? Regrettably enough, you probably think of Steven Tyler, the scrawny, fat-lipped lead singer of Aerosmith. If someone asked you who wrote the song, you’d probably assume Tyler. One thing’s for sure: The name Desmond Child…
Lisa Loeb Firecracker (Geffen) What’s been so refreshing about Lisa Loeb up to now is that she has never tried to sell anyone false goods. Unlike Alanis or Courtney or any of rock’s other young women, Loeb never pretended to be angry. Rocketing to fame on the strength of her…
Tucked away in a courtyard off Lincoln Road, between Euclid and Pennsylvania avenues, the Bee Hive Lounge has the look and feel of a comfy dungeon. Lit mostly by candles perched on shaky iron stands, the small room features a row of large windows shielded by white gauzy curtains. Two…
Fulano de Tal Normal (BMG) Pepe Alva y Alma Raymi Pa’ Mostrarte Mi Amor (Alma Raymi Music) Over the past year, the mainstream media discovered rock en espanol, with wide-eyed items about Latin American bands appearing in Spin, Newsweek, and even USA Today. Of course, this was old news in…
It’s the official season of yuletide and cross-promotion, in case you hadn’t noticed. And, because Jesus Christ was such a huge music fan, record companies have seen fit to dump the expected cavalcade of crap unto us, the wee consumers. If we were feeling less feisty, we might have filled…
It was the day my Ray Charles Genius & Soul: 50th Anniversary Collection five-CD box set arrived in the mail from Rhino Records and I was telling this friend of mine about it over the phone. It’s great, I told him, tremendous. He said something about a green chicken. I…
Various Artists Cuban Gold 4: !Fuego, Candela! The Smokin’ ’70s (Qbadisc) The utopian balladeers of the earlier years of the Cuban revolution — Silvio Rodriguez et al. — became worldwide ideological icons, and they have remained enduring symbols of their place and time. Meanwhile, the funk of the same era…
