Laurie Anderson, you will not be surprised to learn, is a downright charming conversationalist. Furthermore, to the delight of anyone who’s appreciated her 20-plus years of storytelling art, she often strays from the trajectory of the central topic to indulge in illustrative narratives that somehow provide the perfect foil for…
It’s November 9, two days after the American presidential election, and the media are simply delirious, scrambling to provide the latest updates on the as-yet-undecided race, reveling in the chance to use words like “historic” and “unprecedented.” Almost everyone in the United States has an eye on Florida, awaiting –…
Within the combat zone of punk rock, growing old, and yes, even growing up, can be painful, sometimes troublesome. How does one do it? Reunion cash-in tours (Pistols, Damned), movie careers (John Doe, Henry Rollins), the college lecture circuit (Jello Biafra, Lydia Lunch, the ever-versatile Henry Rollins), or the more…
Listed below are 17 pounds of new and worthwhile music books all you fact-obsessed tune junkies will need to buy and haul around every time you move for the rest of your lives. There’s no shortage of pointless Grateful Dead books littering the bargain tables in bookstores, outnumbered only by…
I often picture myself lying naked in my trailer with the worst records imaginable spread across the floor around me. Empty beer bottles everywhere. I see myself lying there dead with a Limp Bizkit jewel case next to my head. There’s also a couple of REO Speedwagon reissues. The new…
Why is it that, while America is a perfect breeding ground, glorious bands like the Shazam always seem to find their true cult followings in Europe, where they are loved, worshiped and adored? Cotton Mather opens for Oasis in Paris, but plays to 40 folks in Austin. Meanwhile, the Shazam…
Both of these acts belong in a rock ‘n’ roll museum — Bono’s fly specs and Liam Gallagher’s eyebrow, preserved in amber behind Plexiglas (most of Oasis’ riffs are already sealed and on display, under the Beatles exhibit). They belong to another era, a time when it was possible to…
Named after the nautical pleasurecraft of Emilio Largo, Bond supervillain in Thunderball, Disco Volante sounds more like the kind of music Miss Moneypenny might be tempted to blast in the office when M wasn’t around. On the surface, it’s worldly wise pop; the opening track, “146 Degrees,” takes “The Theme…
The template quality of the Pistoleros’ story thus far resembles the first half of nearly any episode of the increasingly irritating Behind the Music specials seen on VH1. Band forms and pays dues playing myriad local gigs. A loyal following blossoms. A founding member quits and later commits suicide. Band…
Based on his reputation, you’d think you’re at the wrong place. The old wood-frame house in the heart of the Tempe ‘hood has the feminine air of a homemaker, not that of a rock ‘n’ roll hellion. But sure enough, sitting in the living room on a large white leather…
Everyone might be entitled to 15 minutes of fame, but most people don’t have any say about when that window opens. If, as in the case of Bratmobile, fate calls on three college students, two of whom are based on the West Coast while the other is attending classes in…
No one likes to be seen as the roadblock to a revolution. The unfortunate soul — or the dumb bastard — who chooses to impede progress is likely to be mowed down by those charging toward tomorrow. He will become a thing to be wiped off the shoes of those…
We who labor under the auspices of the music desk at this here urban newsweekly have only your best interests at heart, and may God or Lilith or Zoaraster whap us with a bolt of lightning in the spleen if this isn’t the strict, unvarnished truth. We humbly consider ourselves…
Dwight Yoakam confounds me. Here’s a guy who, with very little variation, has recorded and performed the same letter-perfect honky-tonk music for well more than a decade. Fiddle, steel, keyboards, bass, electric guitar and drums, all lined up behind Yoakam with OCD-like precision, a formula that worked for Hank, Lefty,…
Sandwiched between his brassy recordings for Blue Note and his breathtaking work for Riverside, Thelonious Monk did a two-year stint with Prestige. Occasionally forgotten, sometimes overlooked, often dismissed, Monk’s work as a sideman for the label and the three albums he recorded under his own name there have always gotten…
This book . . . she’s so hea-veeeeee! Numerous sittings with this coffee-table tome have resulted in either my arms becoming numb, my chest getting pins and needles or my lap falling asleep. Sure, I’m getting old — we all are. And no one’s getting older than the surviving Beatles…
With the rising popularity of DVD, a format that allows recordings to be heard in 5.1 surround sound and offers features such as separate audio tracks and alternate viewing angles, it was just a matter of time before a musical act did something that used DVD’s full potential. Beastie Boys…
In a world where Metallica headlines radio festivals, it’s hard to believe there was once a time when the Pixies battled for airplay and bands like Depeche Mode and Echo and the Bunnymen ruled the alternative scene. These days anger is a gift, and the sweeping, introspective siren songs of…
Just as with the physical universe, experts these days can’t seem to agree about whether the hip-hop universe is shrinking or expanding. On the one hand, the music and the culture itself appears to be splintering into an infinite number of subgenre atoms that drift farther away from each other…
For every mountain I climb For every river that winds For every wind that will blow I will send out my prayers For the children below. — Bill Miller, “Every Mountain I Climb” These days, it’s hard enough for parents to generate enough moral and ethical background noise to partially…
As two-thirds of the critically hailed, commercially failed Galaxie 500 in the late ’80s, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Wang knew the frustration of having a unique and respected band and helplessly watching it dissipate. Reassembling briefly in 1991 as Pierre Etoile (sans Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham, who went on to…
Kay (pronounced kai, like sky) — who, like the other members of mostly punk outfit Sunshine, prefers to go by his first name — keeps apologizing for his English. “I’m sorry, it’s very difficult to speak on the phone with me,” he says for the third time. “Many people tell…
