Mojo Nixon & the Toadliquors The Real ASock Ray Blue! (Shanachie) An even dozen years have passed since Mojo Nixon and his erstwhile partner Skid Roper presented to the world an anthem to close the ’80s. The pure manic rockabilly energy groove of “Elvis Is Everywhere” captivated everyone from Graceland…
Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage: Animation Music (Flydaddy) Picking a song out of an Olivia Tremor Control disc for critical examination and singular praise is like choosing your favorite spot of color in a Seurat painting. To narrow your focus is to lose sight of the bigger picture. You can’t…
“Wow,” declares Derek Hyde, squinting at the vision of Will Trev’s black ’66 Plymouth Barracuda, as Hyde stumbles out of the darkness of the Creepy T’s rehearsal space in a Fort Lauderdale warehouse. Stooped over like some tall, walking question mark, the singer-guitarist’s face breaks into a crooked smile as…
The hip-hop nation has always operated within a different set of marketing parameters than other music forms. Except for the multiplatinum artists, hip-hop airplay on radio or MTV is almost nonexistent, and purveyors of the genre must use different strategies to succeed. The lifeblood of hip-hop is street promotion; artists…
It’s only 8:16 a.m., and the question put to the leader of the Genitorturers is this: “So, how did you get into S&M?” Three minutes later, she’s asked, “And, uh, how many piercings do you have?” Ah, rock ‘n’ roll, a truly American art form that encapsulates the highs and…
Playing songs in dark hole-in-the-wall bars for smatterings of drunks who’d just as soon listen to the second hand on their watches ticking…. Spending your days laboring over writing songs only to have bar proprietors tell you that you can’t play originals…. Watching bar patrons search for the table furthest…
The Make-Up I Want Some (K Records) Exchanging pith for pizzazz, three former members of the clever hard-core-renaissance quintet Nation of Ulysses joined with ex-Frumpies bassist Michelle Mae in 1995 to create the shtick-laden soul of the Make-Up. Considering the rudimentary R&B of the band’s early singles, few could expect…
Russ Rogers looks glum as he walks down an alley of metal garage doors, heading toward his band’s warehouse bay rehearsal space. Holding a bag of Kinko’s boxes containing dot Fash’s latest newsletter in one hand and a bag of bottled Heinekens in the other, he approaches drummer Phil Tucciarone…
Country Teasers Destroy All Human Life (Fat Possum) “Women and children first, then the faggots and the niggers,” slurs Ben Wallers, the surly, sleepy-voiced vocalist-guitarist for Edinburgh, Scotland’s Country Teasers. “Line them up against the wall and pull your fucking triggers.” When we think of misanthropic music, the first sounds…
Between I-95 and downtown Delray Beach on Atlantic Avenue, a road sign announces “Delray Beach is a quiet community” and advises would-be aural disrupters to turn the volume down. But Delray resident and enterprising music scenester Steve Rullman takes issue with the town’s dictum. “It’s not a quiet community anymore,”…
If you’re Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, you can have it both ways: Sign with a major label and keep your indie-rock credibility; maintain a successful band and a happy family without disrupting either; live in relative isolation in the cultural hinterland of Boise, Idaho, and still be one of…
“I brought my spandex tonight,” Crease vocalist Kelly Meister joked to his bandmates while hanging in the “backstage” corridors of Miami’s Bayside Hard Rock Cafe two Tuesday nights ago. Though Meister was kidding about the spandex, it was a telling statement about the current state of Crease’s impending rock stardom…
Burning Airlines Mission: Control! (DeSoto) Almost a supergroup of superunknowns, Burning Airlines reunites the rhythm section of Washington, D.C., ’80s punk band Government Issue: drummer Peter Moffett (who later joined Wool) and bassist (now guitarist) J. Robbins (who also fronted Jawbox), as well as Jawbox guitarist (now playing bass) Bill…
“I was hoping there would be a better turnout than this,” Dave Kronstat, owner of Home, a new Fort Lauderdale rock club, says as he surveys the 15 or so people huddled around the bar at 10:30 p.m. two Fridays ago. His disappointment is understandable; this is the first night…
Adrian Belew Salad Days (Thirsty Ear) Adrian Belew is the Jimmy Stewart of rock, a genuinely nice guy who does consistently great work across a variety of styles. Belew brings a wealth of talent and experience to each successive project that features his name on the marquee. Belew’s resume is…
In 1976 a six-year-old Eric Knight begged his father to take him to a Kiss concert. Dad gave in, and 23 years later Knight is a rock ‘n’ roller himself. And he’s never forgotten the value of inspiration. With that in mind, he and his new backup band — lead…
Because Miami Beach’s Winter Music Conference doesn’t cover rock ‘n’ roll, the Ear Infection staff traveled to Austin, Texas, last weekend to filter through the music-industry madness known as the South by Southwest Music Conference, and follow around South Florida’s single showcasing act, Miami’s ’77-style punkers the Crumbs. Unfortunately, just…
Various Artists Yoyo a Go Go, July 15-20, 1997 (Yoyo Recordings) While mainstream rock critics salivate over their keyboards and pat themselves on the backs for the unabashed praise they’ve heaped on Northwest indie-rock icons Sleater-Kinney and Built to Spill’s new records (The Hot Rock and Keep It Like a…
It’s Friday night, Young Circle in Hollywood, and Sushi Blues Cafe is jumping with bodies sloshing sake and gobbling hand rolls. Tonight, National Public Radio’s here to record Sushi Blues’ house band for a segment of Morning Edition, featuring avant-garde musician and local businessman, Keshavan Maslak, a.k.a. Kenny Millions. On…
The 14th annual Winter Music Conference (WMC) kicks off in Miami Beach this Saturday, bringing a flurry of DJs, artists, producers, and industry types to South Florida. Much like its monolithic cousins — the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin and the CMJ Music Marathon in New York –…
Frank Frost & Sam Carr The Jelly Roll Kings (Hightone) Modern blues musicians have a formidable challenge before them: to bring a fresh sound to a style of music that is formulaic by definition and has been exploited by American pop culture (in the form of rock ‘n’ roll) for…
Appropriating a fish-in-a-barrel stance with Korn would be the easiest, surest form of cheap laughs, for sure, and one, as Courtney Love recently said, that would be fun to do as well. Frankly, Korn is shit in warm-up suits and piercings. An overblown product of record company mechanics mixing with…
