Sometimes success ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s what Johnny Rzeznik, the singer and primary songwriter for the Goo Goo Dolls found out when he tried to compose songs for the follow-up to the band’s 1995 breakthrough album, A Boy Named Goo. After ten years of respectable record…
Country music in the ’90s is Alan Jackson inexplicably hyping Ford trucks via a rewritten version of “Mercury Blues,” a venerable number covered during the early ’70s by Steve Miller (a space cowboy rather than the ropin’ and ridin’ kind). It’s Shania Twain, a singer whose producer/husband/Svengali, Robert “Mutt” Lange,…
Lhasa La Llorona (Atlantic) Like seasoned songsters more than twice her age, Lhasa evokes an idyllic past that’s tucked away in the folds of our collective musical consciousness. Borrowing from the vocal styles of jazz singers, cabaret divas, and traditional balladeers, the 25-year-old, Mexican-American singer brings to mind the likes…
U2 The Best of 1980-1990 (Island) U2 is no stranger to division. During its early days, the band engaged in an internecine dispute over whether its sound should hew to the punk or Christian genres. (Thankfully it’s fully neither.) The religious split in U2’s homeland has clearly inspired the band…
If Howard Stern still believes he carries the burden of being “King of All Media,” he should pick up a copy of the urban-music bible The Source sometime. He’ll find that many of today’s rap impresarios are kicking his ass in that department, probing any hot spot they can find…
A tinsel-decked Christmas tree overwhelms the living room of Atlanta’s upstanding Freitag family. The ceiling-scraping spruce is about to be topped by a star until one of the characters declares that “Jewish Christmas trees don’t have stars.” How the Freitags come to have this gold ornament packed away among their…
Although they’re signed to the venerable jazz label Blue Note and have a name that sounds like a law firm, Medeski, Martin, and Wood are not your father’s idea of jazz. They’re more likely your Beastie Boys-loving, younger sister’s kind of thing. Still, they are pretty much a jazz band…
Fatboy Slim You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (Astralwerks) As the hype surrounding electronica fades, the most inventive artists will start to stand out from the bandwagon-jumpers. Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, is one of the few who’ve been able to steer clear of overexposure while gaining fans and doing…
In the spectrum of British female pop phenoms, Shirley Bassey has legs. She has endured the icy rigors of record-industry bandwagoning, color barriers, fleeting trends, and fickle fans. Like fellow Brit Dusty Springfield, who rode the hit parade with songs like “Son of a Preacher Man,” Bassey emerged from the…
R.E.M. Up (Warner Bros.) R.E.M. has been a lot of things since its well-documented, small-town beginnings: underground college-radio favorite; above-ground music-industry manipulator; international pop icon. But one element in the band’s long journey has remained constant: its lineup. Until now. Up is R.E.M.’s first album since the departure of drummer…
Various Artists for the MASSES (1500/A&M) Certain signs indicate that a band is aging: Instead of new material, it releases “best of” compilations, B-side collections, rare recordings, and the obligatory live album; at least one member goes through either a 12-step program or rehab; and earnest up-and-comers obsessively cite the…
After almost a decade, Barenaked Ladies’ slow and steady wooing of America finally came to fruition this past summer. Stunt, the Canadian band’s fourth full-length CD, debuted at No. 3 in July — not bad when you consider its predecessor, Born on a Pirate Ship (1996), was a commercial disappointment…
The harmonica is a curious instrument. Palm-size and usually made without moving parts, it looks so simple, like a toy. Mastering one should require no more than inhaling, exhaling, and fluttering a finger or two. But the innocuous little thing has frightened many a would-be musician into a life of…
Aerosmith A Little South of Sanity (Geffen) Ever wonder what an Aerosmith concert is like? If so, A Little South of Sanity, the band’s new live double album, will answer any and all of your questions. You won’t be surprised. (That’s never been one of Aerosmith’s objectives.) Here are the…
PJ Harvey Is This Desire? (Island) Two-time Grammy nominee Polly Harvey is one of a handful of artists who consistently reinvent and redefine their sounds without losing sight of themselves. Previously she’s been a bit of a groovy riot grrrl, a Steve Albini-produced postgrunger, a low-fi home recorder, and a…
Dishwalla’s new album, their second, is entitled And You Think You Know What Life’s About. The title is a sarcastic one, because after releasing what would become Billboard Magazine’s Rock Song of the Year in 1996, the band toured for two and a half years and realized how little they…
If Them Ickies singer/songwriter/guitarist Mickey Zetts hadn’t watched the Marx Brothers movie Monkey Business with some friends while under the influence of LSD, South Florida might have been deprived of one of its most colorful and inventive bands. “I was watching the movie and tripping and saying, ‘Oh my god,…
’68 Comeback A Bridge Too Fuckin’ Far (Sympathy For the Record Industry) He isn’t a household name even in his adopted home of Memphis, let alone among the hipsters of indie-rock, yet Monsieur Jeffrey Evans is arguably the greatest roots-rocker ever spit from the rock ‘n’ roll underground. From his…
Q-Burns Abstract Message Feng Shui (Astralwerks) Michael Donaldson, the DJ-songwriter known as Q-Burns Abstract Message, can’t be terribly serious about practicing feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of arranging furniture to create maximum environmental harmony. Q-Burns lives and records and keeps a weekly DJ gig in Orlando, the home of…
For six years Girls Against Boys (GVSB to its fans) has been laying down reality-noir soundtracks that openly embrace and explore the lusty, dirty, and hidden sides of human nature. But during a performance on the Late Night With Conan O’Brien show this past summer, the Washington, D.C., band displayed…
Gillian Welch Hell Among the Yearlings (Almo Sounds) Revival, Gillian Welch’s brilliant 1996 debut album, had an old-time, hardwood simplicity about it: The two voices and two acoustic guitars did the majority of the work but were supported on several songs by bass and drums. For her followup, Hell Among…
Peter Frampton, the man responsible for one of the most successful live recordings of all time, is talking about setting up college funds for his kids as if it’s a big challenge. The ’70s rock god is the proud father of four, and these days he discusses his career in…
