Ralph Traitor

American Music Club: Ace of Clubs: American Music Club

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1988

IF YOU’VE EVER walked down a big city street and narrowed your vision to exclude everything except the garbage, savouring the contradiction between wealth and ...

American Music Club: Club Class: Fly AMC to California

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, March 1989

"ELEKTRA WERE GONNA give us a 300,000 dollar distribution deal through Frontier so we had full artistic control. Then they saw a video of an ...

BALL, Bongwater : Kramer Versus Kramer

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, April 1989

Ex-Butthole Surfer mark Kramer turns both cheeks — BALL and Bongwater — to Ralph Traitor. ...

Birthday Party, The: After The Pope's Blood: Gatecrashing The Birthday Party

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, April 1982

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY? Well, yeah, like in blowing out candles on a cake. This party is a crashed party and anyone with a part of ...

Blasters, The: Blasters: The Blasters

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, May 1982

PLAY IT on mono and it could be 1956, just play it once and you could find yourself buying a gross of Brylcreem, a shipment ...

Alex Chilton: Wildman On The Edge

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1988

In spite of his reputation as a cult artist, ALEX CHILTON likes to see himself in terms of a hit singles factory. Here he discusses ...

Christian Death: Only Theatre Of Pain (Frontier)

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, April 1982

HERE I sit, twiddling my thumbs, meanwhile – "Incurable disease on the day of rest/Walking on the water in a sea of incest/I've got the ...

dBs, The: The dBs: Repercussion (Albion)

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, February 1982

THE dB's PANDER to no-one, patronise no single style, are interdependent on each other and independent of just about everyone else. Repercussion is better than ...

Dinosaur Jr.: Green Mind (Blanco Y Negro) ****

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, February 1991

J MASCIS' propensity for slothfulness is legendary, so it's reassuring to see that, with the end of the century – and possibly civilisation as we ...

Steve Earle: Highway Patrolman

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, June 1987

STEVE EARLE is the outlaw who's going to give Bruce Springsteen a run for his money. On the eve of his UK tour and the ...

Steve Earle: The Country Outlaw Turns Rock Renegade

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, October 1988

Not only has Steve Earle recently been on the wrong side of the law, but now he's risking his neck further by turning his back ...

Green On Red: Ugly But Honest

Profile and Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1989

DAN STUART IS about to take his beat-up '65 Dodge across a Tucson railway crossing when a Southern Pacific freight train begins crawling by. Stuart ...

The Gun Club: Fire Of Love (New Rose Records)

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, February 1982

FIRST THERE was The Flesheaters, carving Americana with a lurid libido and off-colour arcana. Now the same frame of mind and music has thrown up ...

Jesus & Mary Chain, The: The Jesus And Mary Chain: ICA, London

Live Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, December 1984

THE MUSIC of the Jesus And Mary Chain as a subject for intellection and rationale is a total non sequitur. There isn't any. However, as ...

Lemonheads, The: The Lemonheads: The Big Squeeze

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, July 1989

LEMONHEADS' RENOWN on the American underground scene originally derived from their tender ages. When Hate Your Friends, their Taang! debut, was released, they were all ...

Long Ryders, The: The Long Ryders: Happy Trails

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, October 1985

THE LONG RYDERS might be all things to all men. An article of faith to those who have waited, unrequited but unbowed, for the advent ...

Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine (Island) ****

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, February 1991

NINE INCH Nails is Trent Reznor, and it's fitting that his surname borders on 'razor' because Pretty Hate Machine is musical mutilation of the first ...

Psychic TV: Force The Hand Of Chance (Some Bizzarre)***

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, November 1982

IMITATING COUNTLESS gurus before him, Genesis P-Orridge embarks here and now on a cynical and puerile journey to the heart of pantomime profundity, stopping at ...

Michelle Shocked: Shock Tactics

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, October 1988

With her synthesis of folk and hardcore, Michelle Shocked has successfully created a new vehicle for political pop. Ralph Traitor tunes into the voice of ...

Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth (Neutral Records Import)***1/2

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, June 1982

SONIC YOUTH, the first release on avant-garde missionary Glenn Branca's Neutral Records, is an EP in LP's clothing, and in many ways the music it ...

Spacemen 3: God Only Knows

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, March 1989

THE MORNING before my interview with Spacemen 3, as I'm rewinding their new LP, Playing With Fire, my Walkman starts to emit a peculiar pulsing ...

Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren: Nils Desperandum

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, July 1985

On the eve of Springsteen’s London dates Ralph Traitor tracks down Nils Lofgren, the latest resident on E street. ...

Suicide: A Matter Of Life And Death

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1989

It’s midweek, midday, underneath Times Square, aboard a filthy express subway train. ...

Suicide: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, September 1988

SUICIDE, ALAN Vega more than Marty Rev, have drawn some flak for looking/being old. Vega, his black, tightly-curled pompadour resembling a cheap hooker's wig, lets ...

Textones, The: The Textones: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 1984

THE WORLD'S just one big bar room to The Textones, a very American band whose shortcomings in content are made up for by the zeal ...

The Church: The Blurred Crusade

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, July 1982

THE CHURCH, by christening their second album The Blurred Crusade, provide us with an emblematic image of their music which, like so many churches throughout ...

These Immortal Souls: Lost Souls

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, December 1987

Rowland S. Howard turns singer and leads his cohorts from crime and the city to become These Immortal Souls. Then he meets... Ralph Traitor ...

Alan Vega: Collision Drive (Celluloid)

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1982

ALAN VEGA'S recent departure into ersatz neo-rockabilly will elicit a variety of responses from his admirers. Some will call it a sell-out, but that's a ...

Mari Wilson: 101 Wilsations

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, June 1982

TRY NOT TO laugh...Curt, one of The Marines currently on manoeuvres with Mari Wilson, is telling me wryly straight-faced that when the name game that ...

Wipers: Youth Of America (Park Avenue)***½

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, January 1982

THE WIPERS come from Seattle Washington, deep in the great American Northwest, home previously to the likes of The Sonics and Paul Revere and the ...

Tipper Gore and the PMRC: Not In Front Of The Parents

Report and Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, September 1988

The PMRC scored major brownie points recently when its chief, Tipper Gore, appeared on MTV. RALPH TRAITOR hears the woman who Guns N' Roses' Slash ...

Trash: A Spanner In The Works

Report and Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, April 1983

ONE DAY soon the borough fathers of Brixton will unveil a plaque outside the Garage, Friday night fixture at The Frontline Theatre. A dignified crowd, ...