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…
Keb’ Mo’, Monday, July 25, at the Fox Theatre, with Koko Taylor, got his start as a multitalented L.A. session player and sideman to Papa John Creach and Monk Higgins. His first album, Rainmaker, appeared in 1980 on Chocolate City, a defunct division of Casablanca Records, under his given name,…
Speaking about the work of the San Francisco-based band known as Swell, bassist Monte Vallier says, “I think it’s really colorful music, and I hope listeners would just let it take them away on a journey. Or else put it in the car stereo, open all the windows and drive…
Brian Setzer, former leader of the Stray Cats, admits that he’s no jazz-and-blues expert. “I don’t know a lot of those songs, to be honest with you,” he says. “But I think all that stuff is great, and it is there as a foundation. You take from it and learn…
“I’ve been playing golf for a little over a year,” says Vinnie Paul, drummer and producer for the Texas thrash-metal band called Pantera, “and if I hit the first ball of the day good, I can hit them all good all day long. The key is that I generally don’t…
“It’s strange to think that a year from now I might be doing what the people that I think of as rock stars are doing.” So says Rob Schneider, the unassuming frontman for the Denver-based pop quartet called the Apples. But while it’s presently difficult to imagine Schneider and his…
Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge (Virgin) Of course, no one expected that this band would sound all that different without Bill Wyman–except maybe Bill Wyman, that is. And it doesn’t: Clearly, the Stones that remain have decided that they’re better off doing what they’ve done since time immemorial. Hence, Mick Jagger…
Jeff Buckley, Thursday, July 14, at the Bug, is the son of Sixties contemporary-folk stalwart Tim Buckley, but you’d never know it by listening to his music. Although this Manhattan-based singer/songwriter (second from left) usually performs as a coffeehouse solo act, his angelic avant-rock compositions have more in common with…
Many of us who grew up in the Seventies are convinced that the pop music of that decade is universally wretched. Of course, this isn’t entirely true, but it is true enough: Listen to most of the smashes from that era and you’ll find it all but impossible not to…
King Sunny Ade was worldbeat before worldbeat was cool. A legend in his native Nigeria, where he began working as a professional musician more than a quarter century ago, Ade made his American debut in 1983 and quickly became a cause celebre among aficionados of African styles. His first tour…
Slim Cessna, leader and namesake of the Denver-based combo Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, is sitting in the cozy living room of his Englewood home, listening to a Lefty Frizzell record with a beatific smile on his face. His wife, Victoria, isn’t nearly so happy. She loves Frizzell, too, but she…
Michael Hill’s Blues Mob Bloodlines (Alligator) In blues circles, Michael Hill is being lauded as a musical revolutionary, and given how resistant to change most of the genre’s practitioners are, maybe he is. This young guitarist is no James “Blood” Ulmer (he’s clearly interested in selling a few records), but…
Call the Denver rock scene incestuous and you’ll likely get no argument from the members of Somebody’s Sister. In retelling the group’s history, founders/ spouses Doug and Annette Conlon drop more band names than the autobiography of professional groupie Pamela Des Barres. Doug, in particular, has plenty of experience on…
Right now, jazz pianist Cecil Taylor doesn’t feel much like talking. I know–because I found out the hard way. It’s easy to understand why I thought chatting with Taylor would be divine. Throughout his forty-year career in jazz, he’s remained among the most challenging practitioners of avant-garde sounds, redefining song…
“We fit in everywhere but nowhere,” says Eye Yamatsuka, the mad scientist behind the avant-garde pop vivisectionists known as the Boredoms. What the wiry young vocalist is trying to convey by this statement is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain: Early arrivers at this year’s Lollapalooza festival are in…
The songs recorded by the talented quartet called Luscious Jackson feature some of the freshest, least categorizable music heard during the past several years. But because the four bandmembers are all women, they’re finding that getting respect from the male-dominated rock press isn’t easy. They’ve gotten great reviews for their…
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…
Vassar Clements looks sturdy and functional, like a small-town mechanic who’s never too busy to stop and chat while pumping your gas. A man with a strong Southern accent and the manner of a kindly grandpa, he uses expletives such as “dad gum it” and generally addresses women–even strangers–as “hon.”…
Gil Scott-Heron, Friday, June 24, at the Ogden Theatre, may not be the father of rap music, but he’s certainly been a major influence on those current hip-hoppers who are trying to push the genre forward. Scott-Heron was combining jazzy music and spoken/sung poetics a generation ago, and his current…
If the members of the Denver-based party band called Lovebuzz seem a little too close-knit, blame it on childhood development. “I’ve been friends with Jason since the fourth grade,” explains guitarist/vocalist Brian Hendrick. “And then we met Shane after Jason and I got in a fight with him. Shane was…
For anyone who thought that punk rock would destroy the popular music of the Seventies, last week was an enormous repudiation. The Eagles, who appeared June 14 through June 16 at Fiddler’s Green, and Pink Floyd, who headlined at Mile High Stadium June 18, played before a cumulative total of…
Cynic, Monday, June 20, at the Gothic Theatre, with Cannibal Corpse and Sinister, looks like your standard-issue death-rock act, from the players’ long hair to their sullen expressions. Fortunately, the bandmembers offer more than Lurch-like vocals, amelodic guitar barrages, lyrics about bowel obstructions and other stereotypes of the genre. On…
