“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 of crudely painted farm scenes and hand-sewn rag dolls will leap almost telepathically from one troubled cranium to the next. Misconceptions about the true definition of…
Agnostic Front Something’s Gotta Give (Epitaph) Hardcore bands aren’t known for their longevity. Performing semi-harmonious riffs at supersonic speed and living a rebellious, less-than-healthy lifestyle causes most punks to either crash and burn, fade into obscurity, or, usually, mellow with age. Just ask GG Allen, Jello Biafra, or Henry Rollins…
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Left of Cool (Warner Bros.) Outside the bluegrass world and the few bluegrass-inspired, traditional country recording sessions that must still be booked occasionally somewhere, banjo players are pretty rare birds. Consequently, even if he were only a mediocre instrumentalist, Bela Fleck would stand out in…
Mentioning the name Vanilla Ice usually elicits looks of disgust, mistrust, and runaway cheeseball feelings. But there’s a new sheriff in Ice Land and he’s laying down tracks that could start to melt even the most skeptical attitude. Vanilla Ice, a.k.a. Rob Van Winkle, has a new CD, Hard to…
As controversial in Cuba as he is popular, Manuel Gonzalez Hernandez is a sign of his times. Gonzalez, known as Manolin, sings in a soft voice, performing catchy dance tunes that employ a rather formulaic mix of peppery percussion, punchy horns, and repetitive, chanted choruses. At his packed concerts in…
“What time is the PTA meeting?” asks the resonant voice on the other end of the phone, posing the question to someone in the same room. It’s not an unusual concern, seeing that the person being queried is Jane Thomas, schoolteacher and mother of five-year-old Spencer. The person doing the…
Bob Marley and the Wailers The Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers: 1967 to 1972, Part II (JAD) This treasure-filled three-CD box set, which showcases Bob Marley and the Wailers’ work with legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry in 1970 and 1971, is the second installment of JAD Records’ projected ten-CD…
For a while back in the mid-Sixties, it seemed like every city in the United States had one: a group of four or five guys so enamored of the reworkings of American rock and R&B by the British Invasion’s front line that they had to take a stab at it…
Bands’ Websites come in many configurations: from lifeless layers of static pages hyping outdated tour schedules and lame photos to tantalizing, up-to-date, Java-enhanced affairs with eye-popping graphics, video clips, and megabytes of press clippings. The occasional site even connects to its own chat room, where die-hard fans can debate the…
There’s always been an unflinching quality to Jay Farrar’s songs, a refusal to romanticize the facts into an ego-sparing balm or a conscience- calming salve. Not that he isn’t a romantic; like many other great lyricists, he attempts to transcend in song the weight of the everyday. The dignity of…
Mana is indisputably the commercial giant of Latin rock. The first rock en espanol group to score a gold album in the United States, the band’s status is truly — and internationally — gargantuan. Accordingly, it was apropos that, after an arty, soft-core porn video played on two huge screens…
Hole Celebrity Skin (DGC) Courtney Love’s glamorously defiant look on the cover of Celebrity Skin, the latest CD by her band Hole, fits with her penchant for blissful contradiction. Her tousled hair and skimpy see-through T-shirt are as punk and stylish as the burning trees behind her, but the antihero…
In their dreams young musicians bask comfortably and happily in the luxury of immense success. Those REM-induced illusions can be mapped out fairly easily: Critical acclaim and financial reward have settled on them like UV rays on a sunny day, rooms packed with beautiful new friends fall hushed in silent…
The emerging rap star known as Mos Def is a goofball. Usually, interviewing rap stars is an exercise in cliche recitation, with both parties agreeing about the need to take hip-hop to the “next level,” and to “stop the violence.” For a few moments Mos Def and I speak along…
John Hiatt The Best Of John Hiatt (Capitol Records) Few singer-songwriters exude the piss and vinegar of John Hiatt — not to mention a dastardly wit and hearty guffaw. Since the Seventies, while under contract to numerous record labels, this Music City-based songsmith has written and sung about oddball themes…
Marshall Crenshaw The 9 Volt Years: Battery Powered Home Demos & Curios 1970-198?) (Razor & Tie) Marshall Crenshaw is one of rock and roll’s unsung heroes; he first beautified the airwaves in 1982 with his modest hit “Someday Someway.” Amid the postpunk new-wave pop of Joe Jackson and Split Enz,…
Riley “B.B.” King presides so dominantly over the past and present of modern blues that his influence, innovations, and massive talents are easily taken for granted, and at worst overlooked. The most visible and commercially successful blues artist of all time, King has practically always been within earshot and eyesight,…
Pearl Jam’s got it bad. Unquestionably the most interesting of the grunge bands to follow in Nirvana’s wake, Pearl Jam has suffered at the hands of everyone. Even with all manner of concessions to the marketplace — a video, a tour with the help of arch nemesis Ticketmaster, a solid…
In the bowels of Miami Beach’s Marlin Hotel is a small, exotic, denlike space. Narrow and dark, the room is painted a rich wine color. Strips of mirror cover the ceiling and stretch down the walls, alternating with billowing burgundy and navy batik curtains. Banquettes strewn with huge cushions line…
Battering-ram six-string power and inescapable melody have long been the tools of Bob Mould’s trade. Through the hostile punk punches of his HYsker DY days in the Eighties and the sublime soaring of his pop-leaning early-Nineties excursion with Sugar, Mould crafted a body of work that elevates the bone-pounding possibilities…
Bauhaus Crackle (Beggars Banquet) Bauhaus’s revered position in the world of gothic music has an auspicious origin. Their debut single from 1979 was a nine-minute, tongue-in-cheek horror-fest homage to Bela Lugosi, the actor best known for his 1931 portrayal of Count Dracula. Although lead vocalist Peter Murphy has admitted his…
A lot of groups would love to be given credit for having started an entire genre of music, but Bristol, England’s Massive Attack has neither the time nor the inclination to bask in its status as the “Godfathers of Trip-Hop.” As the British and American press heap praise on them,…
