Green Day Insomniac (Sire) I admit it: I was a punk rocker in the early ’80s. I had my shoulder dislocated in the pit at a Dead Kennedys concert; I sipped out of the same longneck Bud as Exene Cervenka in the sweaty aftermath of an X show; and I…
Not Miranda, you fool, Mirainga. After a week spent skipping down more blind alleys than an Alphabet City speed freak, I’ve called off the hounds. At this point, I’m willing to confirm status upon Mr. Mirainga as “the band from nowhere.” Make that everywhere. The publicity flacks at MCA still…
Because disco music was largely the product of assembly-line craftsmanship–conceived by megalomaniac producers and executed by anonymous session musicians–few superstars emerged from the genre. And those who did probably wish now they weren’t so closely identified with that thump thump thumpity thump. Take the Bee Gees, who are still feeling…
Don’t expect any clowns at the Jim Rose Circus. Ninjas with machetes, maybe, but no clowns. Trained poodles? Try maggots and scorpions. And, in lieu of a tightrope walker, look for the guy who balances a running lawn mower on his lip while dodging vegetables. Ringling Bros., this ain’t. “We’re…
P.M. Dawn Jesus Wept (Gee Street) Maybe it says something about rap’s creative limitations that so many of its top artists feel the need to move beyond the form as they refine their vision. The Beastie Boys’ ongoing journey back to second-wave punk is an example. In any case, the…
Lloyd Cole doesn’t consider New York City part of America. “It’s more like Cuba,” says the British singer/songwriter, “sort of an island off the coast.” Cole moved to Manhattan in 1989, shortly after he disbanded Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, a group, founded with some university mates in 1979, that…
Attention, CD shoppers: Manson may be lurking somewhere in your disc collection. If you’re one of the four million souls to throw down for a copy of Blues Traveler’s Four so far, cue up the last cut on the album (“Brother John”) and wait for one Jono Manson to make…
This is a story about a rock ‘n’ roll tour. There will be no Lear jets and limo rides, however, no five-star suites, cock-crazed groupies, six-figure cocaine binges or cadres of bodyguards. No TVs will be thrown from windows, no furniture will be splintered. This is a story about five…
The question of the hour is a two-parter: Who the hell is Mr. Mirainga, and what was he doing besting Alanis Morissette and Smashing Pumpkins in last week’s list of most-added alternative-rock radio singles in the country? MCA Records media reps in New York will tell you that Mr. Mirainga…
Eric Bachmann has had a whiff of success, and he says the smell is not so sweet, after all. “All of a sudden you can’t get a free moment at a show ’cause you have to talk to the publishing people, the tee-shirt people, the record-label people, whatever,” says the…
1. He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. 2. He started playing guitar when he was 12. 3. He wrote in his 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook that he planned “to join Little Richard.” 4. He moved to New York City in January 1961…
Candlebox Lucy (Maverick) Candlebox is back, but we never knew it was gone. How could we? The band’s eponymous debut has sold almost four million copies and stayed in heavy rotation on MTV and commercial radio like an old sweat sock that someone keeps forgetting to take out of the…
If you believe in forever, you may also believe that somewhere beyond the stars is a rock ‘n’ roll heaven with one hell of a band. Rest assured, you’re not alone. Though it’s still too soon for Blind Melon fans to put a silver-lining spin on the latest rock ‘n’…
Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic (Warner Bros.) Let’s play free association. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think “Oklahoma City”? Right-wing kooks with fertilizer bombs? The site of the world’s tallest radio tower (KOMA)? The famed test market for both McRibs and MTV? Not if you’re…
The members of KMFDM think they’re funny guys–despite the leather and the Hamburg accents so guttural they make Schwarzenegger sound like a girlie man. In fact, group founder and keyboardist Sascha Konietzko says KMFDM’s sense of humor is spread all over Nihil, the German quintet’s latest blend of techno, industrial…
It’s October 26, and the four women of Luscious Jackson have hopped into a limo in Greenwich Village bound for La Guardia Airport and a flight to Las Vegas, where they will open for R.E.M. the next night at the 12,000-seat Thomas & Mack Center. Cruising down Fifth Avenue, guitarist…
To be honest, it was the whole image thing that roped in Luca Hassard at the age of 12. Beautiful and famous, yet warm, down-to-earth and close to her family–that was the image of Selena Quintanilla Perez, the Mexican pop superstar who earned widespread admiration among fans in the U.S.-Mexico…
David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails Desert Sky Pavilion October 18, 1995 David Bowie’s career has always been a masquerade. Most U.S. fans first encountered the D-man when he strutted about saying he was Ziggy Stardust, rock ‘n’ roll messiah from Mars. Adopting that persona was hardly a boost to Bowie’s credibility,…
Meat Puppets No Joke! (London) Immediately after hearing this set’s chipper “Taste of the Sun” on the radio for the first time, I button-punched over to an oldies station and caught a blast of the Cyrkle’s 1966 hit “Red Rubber Ball.” Coincidence? I think not! Both songs share a peripheral…
Believe it or not, some audiophiles weren’t immendiately captivated by the sleek look and pristine sound of the compact disc. Some of them actually held off on buying a CD player well into the Ninties! Close your eyes, if you will,, and imagine such a creature – waving his arms…
“Memphis” Charlie Musselwhite says the secret to happiness is to treat life like a harmonica solo. “You’ve just gotta find the right key and play all the notes in the chord,” says the veteran rock/blues harp player. “If you’ve got the right vibrations, then get in a groove, let it…
Red Hot Chili Peppers One Hot Minute(Warner Bros.) The serrano boys have peeled the tube socks off their dicks and pulled on their thinking caps for this fire dance of an album–easily the band’s best since it put funk/punk on the map in 1985 with Freaky Styley. Four years back,…
