Beck, Friday, April 15, at Ground Zero, has presented a quandary to music-scene observers. They wonder: Is he the new Bob Dylan or the Vanilla Ice of slack? The verdict’s not in yet, but it seems clear from the early reactions to Mellow Gold, the anti-album just released on the…
Fans are comparing him to dead rock stars of the past. Commentators are claiming that his demise stands as the perfect symbol for a generation marked by lowered expectations and a nihilistic world view. Pundits are picking apart his lyrics in search of clues to his desperate final solution. And…
No one can accuse Jello Biafra of being less than bipartisan. His archenemy, George Bush, was ousted from office, but the former Dead Kennedys frontman remains as outraged as ever at the White House’s current resident. “Even I had a little bit of hope this time around, although I couldn’t…
Ted Hawkins The Next Hundred Years (DGC) You would be perfectly justified in assuming that any good reviews given this album would be inspired less by the music than by the personal life of Ted Hawkins, a street performer who has spent most of the past several decades subsisting on…
Oh, my God! They’re coming back! Yes, the bands that ruled the touring circuit during the Seventies and Eighties are returning this summer to a football stadium near you. Set to visit Mile High on June 18 is Pink Floyd, a group that did its best work in the late…
Most members of the Beavis and Butt-head generation believe that when it comes to rock and roll, words suck. It’s hard to argue the contrary: Wretched lyrics abound, from new-age prattle and sleazy backseat boasts to juvenile political pouting. It’s enough to make you wish that more singers would follow…
“We find ourselves caught in the middle of a lot of things,” says Dave Shouse of the Memphis quartet called the Grifters–and considering the guitarist’s gift for making music that borders on the schizophrenic, this claim is a wild understatement. Shouse and his bandmates (guitarist Scott Taylor, bassist Tripp Lampkins…
Elvis Costello Brutal Youth (Warner Bros.) Of course you’ve read those interviews in which Mr. McManus has claimed that this reunion with his original band (the Attractions) and his original producer (Nick Lowe, here relegated to sideman status) was motivated by musical forces, not commercial ones. Still, there’s no denying…
There undoubtedly are some artists from days gone by whose out-of-print recordings haven’t been reissued in the past year, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out who they are. Because of the continuing popularity of the compact-disc revolution, a startling panoply of material is descending upon us–much of…
David Roback, the guitarist and conceptualist behind the mood band Mazzy Star, doesn’t reveal much about himself–and you get the feeling that he’d like to retract the little he accidentally divulges. When penning songs, he leaves the lyrics to his co-writer, vocalist Hope Sandoval, and when responding to questions he…
Chandelaria, back-up chanteuse for the Boulder-based quintet called the Letches, puts it succinctly: “The Letches are a slap in the face to the music industry.” The group’s gift for overstatement aside, she may be right. While the Letches (Chandelaria, vocalist Zaid Muhammad Aziz, guitarist Diggie Diamond, bassist Danny Kaye and…
Acetone, Friday, April 1, at the Boulder Theater, is opening for Mazzy Star during its upcoming appearance in Colorado, but the band is more than interesting enough to justify getting to the show a little early. Cindy, Acetone’s debut on Vernon Yard (a spinoff of the Virgin label), is a…
Beck Mellow Gold (DGC) Yes, this is a complete mess: sloppy, sometimes incoherent, always erratic. Yet these very qualities make Beck Hansen, most recent beneficiary of David Geffen’s frightening hype machine, worthy of your attention. Because of the success of “Loser,” an indie single that manages to be amusing without…
If the Crash Test Dummies’ Brad Roberts sounds more like a philosophy major than a rock star, blame his extensive education. Roberts’s quest for a master’s degree in English literature was sidetracked when his half-serious band caught the attention of some record-company representatives. Still, he obviously learned something from his…
Things have changed for Simon Raymonde, the multi-instrumentalist, co-songwriter and most forthcoming member of Britain’s Cocteau Twins. After confronting ordeals ranging from soured label relations to the drug addiction of bandmate Robin Guthrie, Raymonde exudes a sense of inner peace and seems to feel safe while undergoing public scrutiny. “We…
Julie Derby, bassist and lead singer for the melodic, hard-driving Denver band Love Sandwich, isn’t your average alternative rocker. Sure, when 24-year-old Derby is on stage at the Lion’s Lair, only a few feet from boozy barflies and a convenient display of Alka-Seltzer packets, she seems every inch the punky…
Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral (Nothing/TVT/Interscope) There’s nothing you can do to make Trent Reznor happy. Give him a million dollars and he’ll hate you for trying to buy his affection. Introduce him to the world’s most beautiful woman and he’ll suspect that she’s diseased. Share with him the…
Johnny Ramone is a Republican. Actually, Johnny prefers the term “conservative American,” but in a pinch, “Republican” is fine by him. And while he still wears a black leather jacket and tattered jeans while performing classic punk-rock songs such as “I Wanna Be Sedated” before throngs of dope-using hooligans, he…
David Wilcox–known for his adventurous guitar tunings and sensitive-guy song stylings–seeks to take listeners to a higher plane not just musically, but personally. “I don’t mean to sound presumptuous, but there is some music that just kind of says, `We won’t solve these problems, but we can anesthetize,'” he notes…
John Rogers, guitarist, lead vocalist and extremely bright spokesman for the fledgling Denver-based trio Swoon, is on a quest. “We’re in search of the biggest groove,” he says. “A monster groove. A groove better than sex.” He’s definitely on the right track. Attending a live performance by Rogers and his…
Richard Thompson Mirror Blue (Capitol) What a bizarre fix Richard Thompson is in. This extraordinary guitarist, vocalist and songwriter has released outstanding discs since his Sixties stint with Fairport Convention; likely no other popular-music artist performing during the same period has produced so undeniably consistent a body of work. Sure,…
Tyson Meade, the singer, main songwriter and key creative force behind the twisted pop quintet Chainsaw Kittens, was on the receiving end of literal and figurative brickbats for much of his youth. Considering where he grew up, however, it’s not surprising that he had a rough adolescence. In the small…
