In their dreams young musicians bask comfortably and happily in the luxury of immense success. Those REM-induced illusions can be mapped out fairly easily: Critical acclaim and financial reward have settled on them like UV rays on a sunny day, rooms packed with beautiful new friends fall hushed in silent…
Pearl Jam’s got it bad. Unquestionably the most interesting of the grunge bands to follow in Nirvana’s wake, Pearl Jam has suffered at the hands of everyone. Even with all manner of concessions to the marketplace — a video, a tour with the help of arch nemesis Ticketmaster, a solid…
Elliott Smith XO (Dreamworks) When singer-songwriter Elliott Smith performed his Oscar-nominated tune, “Miss Misery,” on the glitzy award-show telecast last spring, it was a scene worthy of A Star Is Born. Alone at center stage, and looking out of place with his untamed hair and simple white suit, he proceeded…
Nanci Griffith Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) (Elektra) Nanci Griffith has provided yeoman’s service to the culture at large with her 15th album, Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) — a followup to Other Voices, Other Rooms (1993) — by tastefully selecting 19 more obscure…
It’s a sign of the times that a band can achieve success with a song called “Sell Out,” which claims that the band has done just that and urges its fans to do the same. But are the band members sincere, or are they just making a joke? Reel Big…
The Jimi Hendrix Experience BBC Sessions (MCA/Experience Hendrix) Back in 1988, when Rykodisc first issued some of the BBC recordings made in the late ’60s by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, it seemed impossible to imagine there was a facet of Hendrix’s legacy that hadn’t been documented ad nauseum in the…
Ever heard of dot Fash? If you haven’t, good. That’s what the Fort Lauderdale-based rock quartet is counting on. A few years ago, Russ Rogers (vocals, guitar), James Coyle (guitar), Jarrett S. (bass), and Phil T. (drums) were known as the Pheromones. Then they discovered another band was already using…
It’s a broiling 92-degree Miami day. Fish are sweating, but Grant Livingston isn’t. He’s leaning back in a white plastic chair, sipping from a vat of iced tea. Shielded from the searing sun by his Panama hat and the green-and-white-striped umbrella overhead that resembles the pattern of his short-sleeve shirt,…
Billy Bragg & Wilco Mermaid Avenue (Elektra) Here’s a collaboration for you: the English punk veteran Billy Bragg, the American postgrunge band Wilco, and Woody Guthrie. Right, that Woody Guthrie. His daughter Nora gave Bragg some of Guthrie’s unknown lyrics, and he composed tunes for them with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy…
Everybody’s trying to get a smile out of Brian Wilson. He’s nearing the end of a photo session, sitting on a stool in the spacious, cluttered garage of his Los Angeles home, and his face is like iron. The photographer is running him through a series of poses — arms…
Ah, the weekend road trip. A customized excursion to forget about work, responsibilities, and life. Just get in the car and drive. Find a beach and relax. Sounds like a perfect minivacation, right? Not for Miami folk singer-guitarist Jayne Margo-Reby. Her weekends are different. Margo-Reby has been playing gigs in…
In the ’80s, vocalist Teri Wilson’s feisty demos — blends of new wave and funk — were deemed “not mainstream enough” by Warner Bros., Arista, and Virgin Records. Some artists might have given up at that point. But not Wilson. “They didn’t feel that kind of anger coming from a…
If you’ve been staying up late recently with only the glow of HBO to comfort you, then you might have seen a straight-to-cable film called Butter, a limp action-thriller. Its only saving grace is that New Kid-turned-thespian Donnie Wahlberg plays a shady villain. In the movie a suave-but-naive A&R guy…
The Figgs Couldn’t Get High… (Absolute A Go Go) The Figgs are rock ‘n’ roll graybeards by any measure; they’ve toughed it out on the bar and college circuit for 11 years, been signed and dropped by a major label, and come within spitting distance of fame as Graham Parker’s…
Natalie Merchant Ophelia (Elektra) The old-time twirl girl is back. And so is her unmistakable, ethereal voice and lush, sing-along melodies. On Ophelia, Natalie Merchant plays bandleader and matchmaker, changing the lineup of musicians from song to song, yet somehow maintaining the same trancelike atmosphere throughout the album. It’s an…
Robbie Gennet’s piano melodies are disarming little devils. The creamy rhapsodies trickling from his keyboard sound so classically familiar, so refreshingly catchy. Those rich tones emanating from his Fender Rhodes electric piano reverberate with such comfort, yet feel so vibrant. At first encounter Rudy, the quartet Gennet fronts with unmitigated…
Last Wednesday evening at Sirone’s in Pompano Beach, Elvis was in the building. So were Dion, Tom Jones, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, and even Marilyn Monroe. OK, maybe they weren’t actually in South Florida (half of them are dead, after all), but that didn’t stop the Ronnie Davis Revue from…
Various Artists Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous: Songs of Elvis Costello (Rhino) Although it’s meant to further illuminate the songwriting genius of Elvis Costello, the uneven, erratic Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous instead chronicles the artistic demise of a once-great wordsmith. Because it pulls Costello-penned cuts…
Keeping track of the lineup changes in Yes is like trying to list all of Saturday Night Live’s cast members since the days of John Belushi or keeping track of who’s sleeping with whom on your favorite soap opera. Since the release of the band’s debut album, Yes, in 1969,…
If you’re a musician and a stranger listens to your music at a performance, then walks away feeling moved in some way, the gig was worthwhile. Last Thursday a bearded, homeless man wearing a backpack stopped along Hollywood Boulevard to listen to the comforting sounds of Peter Betan and Marc…
The Headhunters Return of the Headhunters! (Verve) Herbie Hancock turned the jazz world on its ear in 1973 when he recorded Headhunters, an album that combined jazz and funk with the then-outlandish sounds of the synthesizer, an instrument with which Hancock had never before recorded. Headhunters became the best-selling jazz…
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies vocalist Steve Perry — not to be confused with the Journey frontman of the same name — just got off the stage. As part of the punk- and ska-flavored Warped Tour, his band finished performing at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City minutes ago, and…
