Van Dyke Parks does not talk. He speaks, pronounces, proclaims, mumbles and grumbles, chuckles and chortles. But he does not merely talk to waste his words; every syllable has meaning, every breath great implication, every silence great weight. Wearing a red-and-blue striped polo shirt and penny loafers (with pennies in…
Birds of a feather Deep Fantastic Blue Darden Smith Plump Records Baptist Hospital Boo Hewerdine Discovery/Warner Brothers Darden Smith and Boo Hewerdine are the Hardy Boys of the modern singer-songwriter set. The two pals–who frequently tour and record together–utilize silken tunecraft, cotton-candy melodies, and crisp, mountain-air vocals to solve the…
The apartment complex that Dewaylon McCoy, his mother Eva, and little sister Nashayla share isn’t really scary–it’s just a little bit overpacked and anonymous, one of those places that compel you to say “oh, it isn’t that bad” when greeting first-time visitors. Residents eye each other warily from behind their…
More than skin deep Now that Nashville is only slightly less beauty-conscious than the fashion industry–to make it in pop country these days, you gotta be a cute li’l ol’ thang with a perfect figure, bright eyes, flawless hair, and a stunning smile (the girls have to be prettier still)–it…
The rain bombs out the street before Peter Thomas, and he wonders if the adverse weather will significantly affect the turnout this Saturday night. He and two bandmates, Aaron Lyons and Mark Sodders, stand under the overhang of the Dogstar, one of the few dives where a local band can…
The big bang Jesus Christ Superstars Laibach Mute Records Sinsational Pig Nothing/Interscope Records If the world were about to end in a tremendous bang, Laibach would be the first in line to write the soundtrack–such is their scope and ambition. Some bands think big; this cryptic Slovenian quartet thinks colossal…
From Ziklag to Zion Nobody But You Slim and the Supreme Angels Intersound Records Living on the Other Side IIIrd Tyme Out Rounder Records The African-American gospel quartet tradition has had an enormous impact on pop music: The vocal stylings live on in soul and R&B, and the idea of…
It’s summer, 1994, and Pervis is headlining an MCA Records showcase at Trees. Co-sirens Rachael Strauss and Cristina Harrison writhe, high-kick, and caterwaul to the punk-metal rumble of their three male counterparts. “Slut rock,” one naysayer snarls, echoing the common kiss-off above the din of a full house. “They’re just…
Local tidings A Loving Christmas Mark Loving Independent release Mark Loving is a music critic’s worst nightmare: a man who’s always singing to himself around the house and at work, so family and friends finally prevail on him to make an album. Probably a really nice guy. Fingers tremble as…
“Naomi’s is absolutely my favorite place in the world to play,” says roots-country hotshot Mary Cutrufello about her return to the club December 14–her first visit since June. “The people there are really salt-of-the-earth types, and I’d do anything to help them out.” Cutrufello has a brilliant new album out–Who…
Singing in the rain I’m not sure why Weezer’s music isn’t silly; it certainly sounds like it should be. Their rhythmic, nearly sing-songy tunes communicate a jaunty popular-music temperament, and their topics tend toward banal (if often universal) themes of love and relationships. With such credentials, you might expect Weezer…
There are moments of almost primal resonance that can come upon you at elemental times: when watching moving water–surf or stream–or fire, or the wind play across fields of dense grass. In those moments you can suddenly feel connected to the thousands upon thousands of generations before you who have…
Sometimes we don’t really see ourselves until we glimpse our reflection in someone else’s eyes. Or in their mirrored sunglasses: Noted Scottish author and western swing fan Duncan McLean–in town soon for a series of readings and to host a show featuring some of the surviving greats of western swing–traveled…
Commerce and Christmas have long been linked; heck, at the end of A Christmas Carol Ebenezer Scrooge still had to buy the Cratchits that turkey, and in fact how he handled his money was one of the primary ways in which we could tell the change the spirits had wrought…
A bird in the hand Ah, the ’70s, when the road of excess led not to the palace of wisdom but to the amphitheater of even more excess and the cradle of southern boogie. With 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker the Crowes re-invigorated the genre, pulling it out of the…
Asked if anyone in history has played bass more than himself–in terms of sheer numbers of successful records–Chuck Rainey shrugs. “I don’t think so,” he says. Rainey’s bass work appears on essential albums by Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, King Curtis, the Rascals, the Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, and…
Across the spectrum A Charmed Life Joe LoCascio Trio Tafford Music Improvisation and innovation in jazz are somewhat akin to a squelch knob on a radio–turn it up high enough and it becomes impossible to listen to. The challenge has always been to stimulate and challenge while at the same…
Jeff “Chate” Liles is one of the few people who appears in Street Beat and has had enough. Exposure, that is–the swimming pools and movie stars of the glamorous music biz. “Oh, man, don’t put that in,” he said when discussing his move out to Los Angeles a few months…
Historia de la musica rock Now I Got Worry, the latest Blues Explosion album, kicks off with Jon Spencer letting out a primal scream that sounds like a young James Brown on amphetamines. Then the album explodes–pun intended–into a frenzy of swaggering riffs, primordial 4/4 beats, and some of the…
A murder of two Recovering the Satellites Counting Crows Geffen Records Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow A&M Records These two sophomore albums are attempts at redefinition, but the efforts work for one–to a degree–and fail the other. Counting Crows’ debut persona was that of the outsider, and their use of mandolins…
Removable labels Dem’s Good Beeble The Gourds Munich Records Authenticity as a concept has been something of a bugaboo since before Ry Cooder started imitating dust-bowl farmers and African-American Pullman porters. Nowadays–with retro Americana all the rage–its boundaries are even more blurred. But just as a guy in an Armani…
Although the current lounge revival seems to be everywhere–one half-expects to see squirrels wearing tiny smoking jackets and clutching wee martini glasses as they dart about burying their nuts for the winter–keyboardist and Fort Worth native Red Young remembers when popular appreciation for the sophisticated, swing-oriented music of the ’40s…
