As the ashes from the Seattle music-scene explosion settle, record company executives and journalists are clawing through the debris in search of the next hotbed of underground music. So far, Chicago, Portland and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, have all been considered potential usurpers to the throne. And now, thanks in…
Material Hallucination Engine (Axiom) Producer/bassist Bill Laswell is a major talent, but his conceptual skills are spotty: For every intriguing album he’s put together under the Material banner, there’s another one that never lived up to expectations. So it comes as a wonderful surprise that Hallucination Engine stands as Laswell’s…
While most musicians don’t mind getting great reviews, they’re not nearly so enthusiastic about being saddled with a reputation as a so-called “critics’ band.” The reason? Printed praise from erudite little twerps like yours truly may be good for the ego, but it seldom translates into simoleons. Moreover, the people…
“I still don’t know why you want to talk to me,” says Denver singer-songwriter-producer Bob Tyler. “I don’t feel famous.” Perhaps not, but he certainly is busy. When it comes to Colorado’s music scene, Tyler’s got his hand in more pies than Marie Callender. He hosts the Swallow Hill Music…
“It seems like a lot of bands are in the grunge mode–everyone’s pissed and angry and punk,” says Rob Zabrecky, bassist/vocalist for a pleasantly strange new act called Possum Dixon. “But you can do all that and still have a sense of humor.” The ability to laugh is a requirement…
Donald Kinsey is happy being a family man. And what a family. Donald, a multifaceted, complex and unfathomably deep blues guitarist/vocalist, plays with his brothers, bassist Kenneth and drummer Ralph, in the Kinsey Report, among the finest modern blues trios. In addition, the bandmembers frequently provide the sonic backing for…
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…
Sun Ra, the eclectic extraterrestrial of the jazz world, may have died last year, but one of his cosmic siblings is alive and well and living in Boulder. Exuma, the Obeah Man, like Ra during his time on this planet, enjoys decking himself out in colorful clothes and weaving mysticism…
“When I talked to my dad about the record,” a laughing Kathy Mattea says about Good News, her recently issued Christmas album, “he told me, `You know, honey, I heard it and then I looked at your mother and said, “Ruth, it’ll never sell.”‘” Mattea has heard similar remarks throughout…
Apathy is one ailment from which the veteran punk rockers in Los Angeles-based Bad Religion have never suffered. But Jay Bentley, the band’s bassist, knows why so many other people in his generation do. “Say you get a voter information packet,” he notes from his Hollywood home, “and it says,…
Denver is the home of two radio broadcasters–KUVO-FM 89.3 and KHIH-FM 95.7–that promote themselves as jazz outlets. Which is why it’s something of a surprise that the best three hours of jazz on the local airwaves can be found on a rock station. The jazz show on KBCO-FM 97.3, heard…
The Velvet Underground Live MCMXCIII (Sire/Warner Bros.) Big Star Columbia: Live at Missouri University 5/25/93 (Zoo) The double-record set 1969 Velvet Underground Live, released in 1974, has gotten reams of critical praise over the years, in part because most reviewers have neglected to mention one important thing: It sounds terrible…
Dr. Dre has worked long and hard to establish himself as the epitome of hardcore rap. Hence the following line from his multiplatinum album The Chronic: “This is dedicated to the niggaz that was down from day one.” Whether Dre himself fits that description is a matter of some debate,…
Denver-based Martha’s Wake is a refreshing reminder that the devalued term “alternative rock” can mean more than loud, anguished guitar bands from Seattle. The music made by the group–which guitarist Jon Nichols jokingly calls “Egyptian death funk”–is a legitimate alternative to just about every other sound in town. The Wake’s…
Like all of Elliott Smith’s best songs, “Junk Bond Trader,” a key track on Figure 8, his fine new album, is more than its title indicates; instead of merely telling the story of a Wall Street bottom-feeder, it uses such an individual as a jumping-off point for a more personal…
John Mooney doesn’t give a damn about blues “purity,” whatever that is. While many of his peers have stuck to just one brand of blue-hued music to the point of repetition, Mooney has spent the past thirty years deftly melding two disparate forms: straight-from-the-fields Delta blues and complex New Orleans…
The Virgin Suicides: Original Motion Picture Score(Astralwerks)Although “soundtracky” isn’t a term recognized by the folks at Webster’s, everyone knows what it means — instrumental music that may work when paired with cinematic imagery but seems empty and uninteresting without it. Detractors of Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, a French twosome…
Helium(Angel)Taking cues from the late Argentine tango wizard Astor Piazzolla, the three conservatory-trained East Coast musicians who make up the Tin Hat Trio continue to tinker with “world music” — and boy, do they like to tinker. Recorded almost completely without overdubs, Helium marks the skilled followup to the group’s…
Equally Cursed and Blessed(Atlantic)Catatonia’s second effort to see American release combines the Welsh band’s sarcasm, gravelly vocals, smartly overplayed pop and an attitude that reeks of cigarettes, hard liquor and the morning after to give lightheartedness a swift kick in the groin. When lead singer Cerys Matthews sings “Ooh sha…
