Ruth McCardle, aka Lady Galore, considers herself to be healthy, not perverted. The lead singer of Belgium’s Lords of Acid writes off folks to the west of the Atlantic as being “too hung up about sex. Americans don’t teach children about sex. They forbid teenagers to have sex. It’s bollocks,…

The same folks who were appalled when John Lennon claimed that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ will no doubt be outraged by the five newest egomaniacs in town. They go by the name of Oasis, they hail from Manchester, England, and they’ve already been likened to the Fab…

Various Artists Woodstock ’94 (A&M) Didn’t I read about this on a Pepsi twelve-pack?–Michael Roberts Sade The Best of Sade (Epic) The lukewarm smooch tracks from this babe probably couldn’t even get a rise from the inmates at Denver County Jail.–John Jesitus Collective Soul Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid…

“I think there’s an art involved in bringing all of these people together under the Pigface umbrella,” says Martin Atkins, drummer and founder of the industrial supergroup called, yes, Pigface. Fighting to be heard over the buzz of a bad connection (he’s calling from a pay phone on a pedestrian…

Right now, most alternative musicians seem to think that it’s hip to be depressed. But according to Nicholas Hexum, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the funky, danceable group 311, happiness is the best policy. “It seems like you could get caught up in the drama of lamenting about…

In an age when rock and roll strikes some observers as increasingly passe, the members of Denver’s Boss 302 still believe it’s worthy of praise. Lead singer Rich Groskopf takes every available opportunity to call rock “the premier music genre.” Later, when Groskopf and the other Bosses (guitarists Garrett Brittenham…

Sinead O’Connor Universal Mother (Chrysalis) This album is so incredibly bad that it’s actually something of an achievement. O’Connor is a performer known for wearing her heart on her sleeve, but on Universal Mother, her heart’s everywhere–and a frighteningly self-pitying organ it is. Hardly a song goes by without her…

Oasis, Tuesday, October 4, at the Mercury Cafe, arrives in Colorado intent on substantiating the beliefs of those who feel the band is the next big thing to come out of Manchester, England. The Epic release Definitely Maybe features “Shakermaker,” a sardonic twisting of the old Coke jingle “I’d Like…

Eric Clapton From the Cradle (Reprise) This blues tribute disc was a good idea for three reasons: Much of Clapton’s best work has been in the idiom; following up the incredibly successful (and massively overrated) Unplugged with an album of covers automatically lowers expectations; and the format ensures that nothing…

Vince Bell Phoenix (Watermelon) Bell’s singing is quite ordinary: He delivers most of these eleven fascinating songs in a voice he seemingly forgot to clear several years ago. And that, believe it or don’t, is one of the primary reasons Phoenix is so effective. The musicians who accompany this obscure…

Various Artists What Is Bhangra? (I.R.S.) Bhangra, according to this disc’s liner, is traditional music from the Punjab region of northern India that immigrants to England subsequently tricked up with pop, hip-hop and house touches. Sounds crummy, I know, but as judged by this compilation, the style is compelling in…

“I am the undisputed world champion of this band,” says Mike Kirschmann about his group, the Christines. “And I play guitar and sing.” As any good bandleader should, Kirschmann has surrounded himself with talented musicians who are so happy to play together that the warm fuzzies could fly all afternoon…

Primal Scream, Thursday, May 26, at Fiddler’s Green, with Depeche Mode and Stabbing Westward, has little in common with either of the bands on its current tour. In contrast to the keyboard-tapping Modes or Westward’s junior Trent Reznors, the Screamers combine Scottish roots, British dance rhythms and American gospel into…

Kokane Funk Upon a Rhyme (Ruthless/Relativity) I admit it: When I saw the cover of this album, I figured that the disc would bite. The reason was simple–there’s too much lame, redundant, boneheaded gangsta rap out there right now, and a recording by someone named Kokane (real name: Jerry Long)…

Maggie Estep No More Mister Nice Girl (NuYo/Imago) Calling Ms. Estep a spoken-word artist is tantamount to describing Richard Nixon as a former congressman from California: It doesn’t exactly tell the whole story. Sure, Estep speaks a lot of words–as a former student at Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied…

John Porcellino is the Denver music scene’s latest renaissance man. He’s best known as the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the Felt Pilotes, a jangly local pop band whose other members, like Porcellino, hail from DeKalb, Illinois. But he also runs his own independent record company (Spit and a…

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…

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…

Machines of Loving Grace, with Course of Empire and Stabbing Westward, Saturday, February 26, at the Mercury Cafe, is one of those bands that PMRC moms have to listen to several times before figuring out all the lyrics. But even if Tipper Gore wannabes catch the few dirty words on…

Miles Hunt, the lead singer-songwriter for the wiseacre Brit-pop group the Wonder Stuff, claims that he gets too embarrassed to sing love songs, but that’s not entirely accurate. True, most of the songs on the four albums his band has recorded for the Polygram label since 1986 avoid sappy lyrics…

Alice in Chains Jar of Flies (Columbia) Wherein another conglomeration of grunge heroes tries to prevent its career from dribbling away into an increasingly irrelevant pool of stereotypes. But unlike Nirvana, which established its credibility last time around by releasing a disc (In Utero) so calculatingly grating that it separated…

Pat Boone Pat Boone’s Greatest Hits (MCA) I know that the rise of the compact disc has meant the rerelease of plenty of older material, but does everything have to be rereleased? I mean, are there really thousands of Pat Boone fans out there who have been counting the days…