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…
Stretched out on his couch at his home in Swindon, England, Andy Partridge, the garrulous singer, guitarist, and songwriter for XTC, casually catalogs what he’s been up to for the last seven years. And that doesn’t include much lying on the couch. “Being on strike, getting divorced, raising my kids,…
Ani DiFranco Up Up Up Up Up Up (Righteous Babe) After nearly a decade and an even dozen releases, Ani DiFranco is not about to start sucking up to the recording industry for approval or legitimacy. By the same token, she’s not prone to begin pandering to her fans by…
Country singer Brian Eckert doesn’t have a hard time finding gigs these days, mostly because he’s part-owner of one of the more popular country and western bars in Broward County. Eckert and his wife, Nancy, bought into Desperado’s in Fort Lauderdale in 1997. A regular act there since the club…
Elinor Blake wants to meet at the library. She’s a frequent visitor there. Not necessarily for the books, though she’s an avid reader; it’s the music. Rows of used CDs await. Fine recordings of the European masters — Debussy, Chopin, and the like. So here she stands, out on Santa…
Sam Prekop Sam Prekop (Thrill Jockey) Even on his first solo record Sam Prekop (ex-Shrimp Boat frontman) can’t stay away from the postrock supergroup that he leads, the Sea and Cake of Chicago; two Cakers, percussionist John McEntire (also of Tortoise) and guitarist Archer Prewitt (late of the Coctails), assist…
