Search Results for: JOHN

PAVEMENT @ ROSELAND BALLROOM

Live Reviews

Pavement / Roseland Ballroom / May 11, 1997

 

Historic Roseland Ballroom may be the most sterile sounding New York venue due to its monstrously high ceilings and under-whelming sound system. Happily, Pavement and their sound crew did enough solid preparation to overcome any venue limitations. Mixing in tunes from ‘97s Brighten The Corners alongside several fan faves, the critically raved Pavement proved to be at the top of their game on the way to glorious alt-rock heaven.

Dressed in …

SONIC YOUTH HAUNTINGLY EMTOMB ‘NYC GHOSTS AND FLOWERS’

Interviews, ,

FOREWORD: Whenever you get the chance to interview an iconic band at the peak of their powers, you’re a lucky man, even if you’re a band hound such as myself. So when the chance came to talk with co-composing Sonic Youth drummer, Steve Shelley, I was happy as a pig in shit. After all, Sonic Youth enviously inspired two trademark generational scenes of historic proportions: England’s ‘80s shoegaze spectacle and ‘90s grunge mania. Relying on noisily distorted guitar disruptions, these

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LAGWAGON / TRANSPLANTS @ IRVING PLAZA

Live Reviews

Lagwagon/ Transplants / Irving Plaza / May 5, 2002

A few stalwart Cali-punk veterans trekked East for Manhattan’s Irving Plaza to unleash highly energetic sets of post-hardcore aggression this warm spring night. East Bay guitarist-singer Tim Armstrong (ex-Operation Ivy punk-ska progenitor and present Rancid frontman) hooked up with former AFI roadie Rob Ashton for transitional quartet, the Transplants, a stylish working class outfit inspired by punk hellraisers G.B.H. and The Sham. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara’s decade-old Lagwagon relied on the amusing, …

THE NOTWIST: GERMANY’S UNKNOWN MUSIC MASTERS

Interviews

FOREWORD: Experimental German Industrialists, The Notwist, comingle Jazz, rock, soul, and noise elements to perfection. Though they only recieve limited underground support in the States, those in-the-know will tell you they’re an experienced combo with great shelf life. I’ve included my ’02 article promoting the sterling Neon Golden and an ’08 piece admiring its belated follow-up, The Devil You + Me. These articles originally appreated in Aquarian Weekly.

THE NOTWIST HIT STRIDE ON ‘NEON GOLDEN’

Arguably the most innovative German …

FIREWATER ‘GET OFF CROSS’ TO SEEK ‘PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: I’d become friendly with Firewater brainchild, Tod Ashley, pre-911, before he moved out of the World Trade Center-cited apartment shared with his Jetset Records-owning girlfriend and into the safer confines of Brooklyn. His underrated klezmer-gypsy-inspired band, Firewater, prefigured like-minded multi-ethnic Americanized combos Gogol Bordello and DeVotchka. A veritable supergroup of smartly collected indie rock talent worked with Tod throughout his career.

Their ’96 show at the Knitting Factory was a complete knockout. I’d first spoke to the former Cop

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ENON’S ‘BELIEVO!’ CATEGORIZED UNDER NONE OF THE ABOVE

Interviews

FOREWORD: Avant-pop New York-originated combo, Enon, came together after the tragic death of Brainiac leader, Timmy Taylor. That’s when Taylor’s ex-band mate, John Schmersal, left Ohio for the Big Apple to start a band with ex-Skeleton Key members Rick Lee and Steve Calhoun (who left early on). After Enon’s convincing ’99 debut, Believo!, was recorded, Calhoun left to be replaced by Blonde Redhead bassist, Toko Yasuda. ‘02s High Society and ‘03s Hocus Pocus went unheard, but I doubt they top

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FOLK IMPLOSION FIGHT THE BACKLASH

Interviews, ,

FOREWORD: What happens to a side project that has a freakish hit single from a movie soundtrack? They break up when further success proves unattainable. Sebadoh lo-fi prince, Lou Barlow, began Folk Implosion with pen pal fan, John Davis, scoring big with the anodyne “Natural One” and then fading into underground obscurity.

I had interviewed John Davis after work at my Lodi, New Jersey office – which would be flooded with ten feet of water by the next morning. If

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JOLIE HOLLAND MOVES PAST ‘CATALPA’ TO ‘ESCONDIDA’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Texas-bred singer-guitarist-violist, Jolie Holland, champions superannuated old timey music for newly enthralled mods. In ’04, I caught up with the amiable bespectacled gal at Maxwells in Hoboken to promote her second LP, Escondida. She has since continued to gain popularity, as ‘06s Springtime Can Kill You and ‘08s The Living And The Dead (with guitarists’ M. Ward and Marc Ribot onboard) received critical plaudits. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Sometimes the past refuses to recede into our …

OLD 97’S: TOO FAR TO CARE

Interviews,
FOREWORD: Old 97’s could’ve and should’ve been the band that blew open Country radio’s doors for the entire independent ‘alt-Country’ scene to come rushing through. In a fair world, Old ‘97s and their deserving contemporaries (Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Ryan Adams’ Whiskeytown) would’ve been the cream of the crop and picked to click at Country radio.
But the conservative twits at commercially-sponsored Country radio in the ‘90s would never offer airtime to rock-leaning contemporary artists that’d put a strain on the

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GRIFTERS CHALLENGING AS HELL ‘FULL BLOWN POSSESSION’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Rousing Memphis-based ‘90s band, the Grifters, loved using subpar equipment to put across coarsely skewed, roughly hewn, Stones-copped slop-rock. I got to interview co-composing bassist Tripp Lampkins in ’98 when their final album, the corruptive Full Blown Possession, hit the streets. Utmost mofo bohos to the end, the Grifters didn’t last a decade but those who saw ‘em will never forget ‘em. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

 

Borrowing their latest three-word title from The Exorcist, the Memphis-based …

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH @ JANE STREET THEATRE

Live Reviews

Hedwig And The Angry Inch / Jane Street Theatre / March 13, 1999

Located at the historic Hotel Riverview (which lodged Titanic survivors in 1912), NYC’s Jane Street Theatre currently hosts John Cameron Mitchell’s provocative Hedwig And The Angry Inch. Charismatic actor Michael Cerveris takes on the role of botched sex change victim, Hedwig, an East German immigrant confused by his father’s sexual advances and scorned by his overbearing mother. A cheesy glimmer rock wannabe, Hedwig’s musical career suffers a …

ROBERT EARL KEEN WORKING AGAINST ‘GRAVITATIONAL FORCES’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Houston-born singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen was one of the most significant independent Country & Western finds in the ‘80s. He made good on that promise with several ambitious albums, leading to ’01s delightful Gravitational Forces. Slowing down on recording sessions thereafter, Keen continues to live off his solid rep in concert, releasing occasional studio albums (‘03s Farm Fresh Onions and ‘05s What I Really Mean). This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

 

Reputable singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen began playing …