L.A. Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978. It is now available in an online edition.
235 articles
List of articles in the library
Willie Nelson: Willie And Family Live (Columbia KC2-35642)
Review by Stephen K. Peeples, L.A. Weekly, 21 December 1978
WILLIE NELSON, whose maverick approach to country music helped him achieve widespread popularity in the last four years, is finally represented accurately on an album. ...
Linda Ronstadt: The Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, L.A. Weekly, 4 January 1979
Linda Ronstadt: Going Strong ...
The Clash In L.A.: Just The Best
Live Review by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 23 February 1979
THE ARRIVAL in LA of The Clash, the hot English rock band, had been eagerly anticipated by local hard-core rockers ever since the release of ...
Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels: Mitch Ryder At The Whisky
Live Review by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 9 March 1979
AT HIS FAMOUS ROXY GIG of three-and-a-half years ago, Bruce Springsteen prefaced a superb encore of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels' greatest hits by ...
Rodney Bingenheimer: A Child of the Myth
Profile and Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, L.A. Weekly, May 1979
KEEPING MY fingers on the minimal pulse of the musical movement in L.A. which, gratefully, is growing, I cannot ignore one of its prime gardeners. ...
Cheap Trick Meet The Dream Police
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, L.A. Weekly, 21 September 1979
IN THE conference room of Epic Records in Century City, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen is good-naturedly taunting the group's producer, Tom Werman, who can't ...
Review by Phast Phreddie Patterson, L.A. Weekly, 26 October 1979
TWO YEARS ago, when the Germs first hit the struggling L.A. punk circuit, this writer figured they would soon give up and return to the ...
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 3 January 1980
AMERICAN PUNKS strike the Gang of Four, Britain's punk agitprop band, as people who aren't quite sure what they're rebelling against. "These California surf punks ...
Ornette Coleman: Homage To Ornette Coleman
Profile by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 20 March 1980
TEN YEARS ago my curiosity was piqued by some favorable jazz reviews in Rolling Stone. (This, of course, was an era when RS recommendations meant ...
John Cale: Still Ready For War
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 10 April 1980
"THERE'S GOING to be trouble." The Welsh rock 'n' roller, a seasoned vet of 15 years on the front line, is quietly emphatic about it ...
The Go-Go's: Squealin' With A Feelin'
Interview by Mark Williams, L.A. Weekly, 10 April 1980
IT HARDLY seems right that five diminutive females dwarfed behind guitars and drums would be showing the door to half of Southern California's elder statesmen ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 17 April 1980
A YEAR AGO, Etta James stopped time as surely as if she had point-blanked a Timex with a .357. ...
Miles Davis, Jack DeJohnette: Jack DeJohnette: More Than One Way
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 1 May 1980
"PEOPLE ARE beginning to take notice that I'm not just a drummer who plays piano or a piano player who plays drums," says Jack DeJohnette. ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 May 1980
THE LATE sixties were a time for guitars, and five musicians — fifty fingers — appeared to naturally jump to the center of attention: Jimi ...
Burning Spear: A Talk with Burning Spear
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
"HELLO, DON. Burning Spear is in town, in Los Angeles, and I'd like very much for you to do an interview with him." ...
Angry Samoans: Comers: Angry Samoans
Profile by Mark Leviton, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
PEOPLE GET upset by the Angry Samoans. It's not just that this feisty five-piece group trashes every cherished ideal of the middle class in language ...
The Neville Brothers: Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
Neville Brothers: The fire this time ...
The Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Good Word
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 20 June 1980
THANK GOD, I guess, for reality. ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 25 July 1980
THEY'RE EVERYWHERE, and it is beginning to feel a little bit like old home week as they get together to show they're still around. Ruth ...
T Bone Burnett: Born Again, But Still Looking
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 August 1980
IT HAPPENS nearly every year, and usually when you least expect it. From left field, you find a new record and end up with a ...
John Hiatt: Rock 'n' Roll Or Else
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 29 August 1980
HE'S OUT there, in his old white Volvo, trying to come in from the cold. It's not an easy job, and the odds of ever ...
The Sir Douglas Quintet: Sir Douglas: Still Moving
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 30 January 1981
THE MAN that producer Jerry Wexler, himself tagged the "godfather of rhythm & blues," recently described as the "best all-around rock musician" playing, is one ...
Phast Phreddie & Thee Precisions: Phast Phreddie Finds His Calling
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 27 February 1981
PHAST PHREDDIE, one of rock & roll's die-hard enthusiasts and actual true believers in the power of American jungle music to transform workaday stiffs to ...
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 April 1981
DEATH HAS no mercy. It's a blues line that applies to everyone, naturally, just as it did to Bob Hite, 38, leader and "Bear" extraordinaire ...
Garland Jeffreys: A Fan Meets the Ghost Writer, Garland Jeffreys
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 21 May 1981
Airborne, May 7, 1981 ...
Overview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 4 June 1981
Rock & roll, being the proud music of America's young, has always had a happy association with the beginning of summer: no school, warm nights ...
Smart Radio — Fun at the Low End of the Dial
Report and Interview by Tom Nolan, L.A. Weekly, 3 September 1981
KCRW: Cutting Through The Hum And The Humdrumby ...
Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Rodney Crowell: Country's New Laureate?
Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, L.A. Weekly, 1 October 1981
"I EXPECTED him to be more of a household word than he is now," admits Emmylou Harris, echoing the opinion of some of the world's ...
Retrospective by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 29 October 1981
RITCHIE VALENS, born Richard Valenzuela in Pacoima, California, on May 13, 1941, cut three hit records before he finished high school: 'Come On Let's Go', ...
Chuck E. Weiss: Chuck E.'s On Wax
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 26 November 1981
NOT SURPRISINGLY, Tom Waits provides the best introduction to his erstwhile running partner, Chuck E. Weiss, giving him a snappy street-smart hello in song. It's ...
Lester Bangs: Jook Savages on the Brazos (Live Wire Records)
Review by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 7 May 1982
Lester Bangs Writes a Good 'Un ...
Talking Heads: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads (Sire)
Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 3 June 1982
Talking Heads: Form Meets Funk(tion) ...
The Flesh Eaters: Chris D. On The Ways Of Flesh (And Spirit)
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 22 July 1982
"THE FLESH Eaters?... It's not some gory, horror-movie-title thing. The spirit is what's eating the flesh." ...
Ashford & Simpson: Hope Is Where You Find It
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 9 September 1982
AFTER 18 YEARS, seven hit singles and three gold albums, Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson are probably best known for starring in a Coca-Cola commercial. ...
Frank Sinatra: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 30 September 1982
Sinatra at the Amphitheatre: The Voice of America ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Visitors: George Thorogood
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 14 October 1982
IF GEORGE Thorogood didn't exist, a true-blue rock & roll fan would be tempted to invent him. The guy obviously believes Chuck Berry created the ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry Leaves His Heart In Avalon
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 4 November 1982
"I'M BASICALLY very shy," Bryan Ferry tells me with a mock chuckle — or is it a nervous laugh? Welcome to Roxy Music-land, where intergalactic ...
The Neville Brothers: Shaking Off Limbo
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 4 November 1982
MAY 1981: ART Neville and I stand outside his home in uptown New Orleans. The annual Jazz & Heritage festival is just now over, and ...
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 11 November 1982
RIOT LOOK like a more wretched New York Dolls and play powerhouse meatrock, and as meatrock bands go, they are enchanting. The singer yodels in ...
Captain Beefheart Kids Himself Gracefully
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 2 December 1982
SEARCHING FOR the sense of Captain Beefheart is a lot like taking a ride on Mobius strip. Once you get used to the fact that ...
Shirley Caesar: Thanksgiving Gospel Caravan, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 December 1982
GOSPEL MUSIC, that great conveyer of soul that expresses every emotion as a joyous affirmation, has come to my rescue. Many's the time I've yearned ...
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 23 December 1982
LET'S COME clean and confess that nowadays Christmas has about as much to do with baby Jesus' birthday as E.T. does with the Pope. Consumerism ...
ABC: The Next Big Thing Redisappears
Profile by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 30 December 1982
ABC Easy as 1-2-3 As simple as do-re-mi ABC 1-2-3 Baby, you and me, girl... —The Jackson Five, 1970 ...
Charles Brown: Brown Christmas
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 30 December 1982
THERE ARE a lot of ways to tell when it's time for Santa's sleigh to make its annual orbit. In black nightclubs across the country, ...
George Clinton: The Gangster Of Funk
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 3 March 1983
IF THE name George Clinton means anything to you, then you probably know him as Uncle Jam, the man with the plan, the songwriter-producer-vocalist-conceptualist for ...
The Minutemen: Through Time With The Minutemen
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 25 March 1983
OFTEN THE mention of a band will bring a visual and/or sonic image to the tip of one's lobe. The words 'Mau Mau' are spake ...
Lone Justice: Country Not For Clods
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 14 July 1983
THERE'S A scene in The Last Picture Show in which Ben Johnson confronts a crowd of kids who, as a prank, have set up a ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Double Your Trouble, Double Your Fun
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 25 August 1983
AS THE irascible rhythm & blues guru of New Orleans, Ernie K-Doe, is wont to say when seized by a philosophical spirit, "It's not understanding ...
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 September 1983
IF MUSICAL pioneer Roy Milton had never put soul to sound, we might all have had to become insurance salesmen. And though that may be ...
Elvis Costello: Every Day A Different Book
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 22 September 1983
THE SCENE: Austin, Texas. The overbearing Texan had buttonholed Elvis Costello's flamboyant manager, Jake Riviera, at a party in Los Angeles a couple of years ...
Rick Nelson: The Irrepressible Ricky
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 27 October 1983
RICK NELSON is not an easily understood rock & roller, and even he's not sure why. Maybe it's because his initial prominence came from The ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 11 November 1983
If you've tapped into the East Coast/international jazz press recently, you've no doubt seen Ronald Shannon Jackson touted as "the future of jazz drumming" and ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson: Fascinating Rhythm: Ronald Shannon Jackson & The Decoding Society
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 17 November 1983
IF YOU'VE tapped into the East Coast/intemational jazz press recently, you've no doubt seen Ronald Shannon Jackson touted as "the future of jazz drumming" and ...
James Booker, 1939-1983 — "Piano Prince" of New Orleans
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 December 1983
JAMES BOOKER cut a broad swath. As a piano-playing fool, he had no equal in New Orleans — which is somewhat like saying there wasn't ...
B.B. King: A True Blues Christmas
Memoir by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 29 December 1983
HOW MANY memories can one man have? My own mind often feels like an overworked runway at LAX, with a million details buzz-bombing the brain, ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson, 1944-1983
Obituary by Bill Bentley, Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 12 January 1984
Give The Drummer Some by Bill Bentley ...
Circle Jerks: Real Men Don't Paint Themselves Into Corners: The Circle Jerks Story
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 13 January 1984
It probably isn't very easy to be the Circle Jerks. What with all the jaded Angelenos pulling their pinkies out of their pupiks every waking ...
Leaving Trains: Six Articles In Search Of Leaving Trains
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 24 February 1984
CHUGGACCHUGGACHUGGA CHOOCHOO: Y' know, this rock & roll critic stuff is not nearly what I bargained for. Here I am with about five, ...
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 12 April 1984
THE ART Ensemble of Chicago — Lester Bowie (trumpet), Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Malachi Favors Maghostut (bass) and Famoudou Don Moye (percussion) — ...
Ornette Coleman, Jamaaladeen Tacuma: Jamaaladeen Tacuma: The Bass Electric
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 31 May 1984
PREDICTING THAT Jamaaladeen Tacuma will be one of the premier bassists of the decade will not get you into the Guinness Book of World Records ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers Will Pose Nude In Public...
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 31 May 1984
THERE WAS gonna be a free newfangled video-disc taped to the cover of this Weekly . Yes, we music critters in the business (we in ...
Ruth Brown: Miss (Ruth) Brown To You
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 28 June 1984
IT HURTS the heart to have to drive by the remains of the Parisian Room, festering in the summer sun like some fenced-off sore on ...
The Gun Club: Gun Club: Idiot Savants In a Cruel and Unusual World
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 10 August 1984
You know... IDIOT SAVANTS. Those people who can’t complete a simple sentence or add two and two but effortlessly create anatomically PERFECT works of art. ...
Big Mama Thornton: Willie Mae Thornton: Big Mama to the end
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 August 1984
WILLIE MAE Thornton, called Big Mama by friends and fans, sang the sort of boisterous blues that made one want to roll around in the ...
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 24 August 1984
LET'S SEE, NOW...Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Keith Jarrett, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Curtis Fuller, Johnny Griffin, Reggie Workman, Branford Marsalis, Woody ...
Ornette Coleman: Doctor Unorthodox
Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 13 September 1984
I WAS working in a Licorice Pizza in North Hollywood six years ago, when I decided to play my Best of Ornette Coleman album (Atlantic) ...
Morris Day, The Time: The Time: Day's New Dawning
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 13 September 1984
"THE BAND used to always try to smell the clothes before I put them on," says Time leader Morris Day, talking about how he first ...
Little Richard, Earl Palmer, Bruce Springsteen: Earl Palmer: Palmer Days
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 November 1984
WAY BACK when rock & roll radio was first coming into its own, stuffing listener's ears with the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 22 November 1984
EVEN WITH the so called cow-punk semi-stampede started in '82 by Rank & File, country music hasn't made any significant inroads into the life of ...
The Long Ryders: Long-Haul Ryders
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 1984
IF ROCK & roll were baseball, the Long Ryders would surely receive the Most Improved Players award. Two years ago, the group was little more ...
Malcolm McLaren: Building Better Bandwagons
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 22 March 1985
Me on Malcolm: Just in case you’ve been on Pluto or in Fresno for the last eight years, Malcolm McLaren is news with a capital ...
Sandy Nelson: The Beat Goes On
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 11 April 1985
QUICK. HOW many rock & roll drummers had two Top-Ten hits? If you guessed none, you wouldn't he far wrong, because only one has ever ...
The Velvet Underground: Sterling Behavior
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 18 April 1985
An Interview With the Most Hermetic Velvet, Sterling Morrison ...
The Blasters: Blasters Blather: The Book of David
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 2 May 1985
"MUSIC LIKE this is not dependent on age or looks or a trend," says Blasters guitarist-songwriter Dave Alvin, taking a hard line on rock & ...
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 3 May 1985
Al Einstein, man? He had it all wrong! E isn’t the thing that equals mc2. Fishbone’s riding high off a self-titled cbs ep, rocking down ...
The Replacements: Pop Perplexity — Disintegrating the Replacements Way
Interview by Roy Trakin, L.A. Weekly, 9 May 1985
And if I act a bit obscene, That's just because I'm a human being. — New York Dolls, 'Human Being' Somewhere there's somebody throwin' up. — ...
Jerry Lynn Williams: Jerry Williams, Forever Man
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 5 September 1985
WHEN ERSTWHILE English guitar hero Eric Clapton came out for his first encore number on opening night in L.A. a few weeks ago, he dedicated ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 28 November 1985
THE EAGLE-eyed crew in the music business is predicting hard times for country music, saying that instead of selling millions of albums, Nashville superstars will ...
Trouble Funk: Go-Going in Style
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 5 December 1985
Getting Small With Trouble Funk ...
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 9 January 1986
The Swans' concept of rock & roll ain't pretty. ...
Madonna: True Blue (Warner Bros.)
Review by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 18 July 1986
Meditations on Madonna ...
Simply Red: Up the English Soul
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 31 July 1986
Mick Hucknall in L.A. ...
Big Black's Incendiary Devices
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 15 August 1986
THERE ARE any number of questions that people ask about Big Black: Why does Steve Albini cut his hair with a saber saw? How do ...
Black Flag: SST Records: Working Muscles, Packaged Wallop
Report and Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 5 September 1986
YOU COULD SAY this is the darkest Dark Age the music world has seen yet, what with commercial radio more dead than death itself and ...
Gene Clark, Carla Olson: Gene Clark and Carla Olson: At My Place, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 2 April 1987
"IT'S JUST a little folk music," Gene Clark deadpans to the packed house in Santa Monica, and he couldn't have been more self-deprecating. This was ...
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 11 September 1987
IN A BUCOLIC canyon were the faithful gathered, the black-garbed and the henna-haired and the anorexic trendoids baring their nightclub tans, all earnest supplicants at ...
10,000 Maniacs: Variety Arts Center, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 2 October 1987
THEY WERE 9,995 maniacs short on stage, but a winsome chanteuse compensated for the missing madmen, and no link was missed. Natalie Merchant is enchanting, ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 9 October 1987
THE EVENING before our 6.1 rumble, somebody new rolled into town and left his mark more indelibly than all the debris in Whittier. ...
Aerosmith, The Cult, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake: Heavy Metal: The Sound Too Dense to Die
Comment by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 16 October 1987
TWENTY SUMMERS ago, it was love. In 1987 it was metal, pop-metal, ushered in by Bon Jovi's much less musicianly 7-mil play on Van Halen's ...
Simply Red: Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 22 October 1987
OPENING YOUR show with a nearly a cappella version of Ray Charles' 'Drown in My Own Tears' takes a lotta nerve. It also takes industrial-strength ...
Alex Chilton, Scruffy the Cat: Variety Arts Center, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 6 November 1987
NO LONGER a Box Top or a Big Star, though after all these years maybe someday he'll be a big star, Alex Chilton showed his ...
R.E.M.: Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 26 November 1987
WHEN WAS the last time a real live rock band came through town with a Top 20 record and didn't bother to perform the future ...
The Replacements: Palladium, Hollywood CA
Live Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 17 December 1987
MAYBE IT was Paul Westerberg's case of the flu. Maybe it was the Hollywood Palladium, up to its usual acousticks. But if this was the ...
Book Review by Mark Dery, L.A. Weekly, 24 December 1987
Bang's Big Theory ...
The Rainmakers: Palomino, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 12 February 1988
A NAME LIKE the Rainmakers infers a drenching of liberating rock & roll sanctification. Tough luck, because tonight wasn't the night. ...
Public Enemy: Westwood Plaza, UCLA, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 4 March 1988
THE IRONY being that I had to ditch Afro-American History to see Public Enemy play for free, sponsored by the Black Student Alliance, I think ...
INXS, Sting, U2: The Major Rock Stars Who Make My Life Miserable
Comment by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 4 March 1988
MUSIC, THEY say, is all a matter of mathematics. Numbers combine, add up, subtract or divide to make tones, chords, harmonies, etc., etc. Music criticism, ...
The Gun Club: Gun Club: You Can't Go Home Again
Interview by Phast Phreddie Patterson, L.A. Weekly, 7 April 1988
STRANGERS IN their own land, expatriates Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers — of that wondrous raucous-and-rhythm ensemble, the Gun Club — were recently ...
Overview by Mark Dery, L.A. Weekly, 21 April 1988
THE CHAIN linking performance art and pop music is 75 years long this March. It's a tangled, meandering chain, stretching all the way from Italian ...
Redd Kross, Howling Dogs: Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 30 June 1988
THERE MUST be hundreds of bands out there like the Howling Dogs: normal-guy foursomes who work hard and veer toward '66/77 power pop with melodic ...
Tiffany: Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 15 July 1988
BARELY ANYONE I know likes Tiffany, where they might at least appreciate someone like Debbie Gibson who writes her own songs or someone like Leslie ...
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 21 July 1988
JESSE ED Davis was the only person I ever saw who smiled while he sang. Some shut their eyes. Others grimace or maybe grin. But ...
Nelson George: The Death Of Rhythm & Blues (Pantheon, 256 pages, $18.95 hardcover)
Book Review by Mark Dery, L.A. Weekly, 28 July 1988
SOLD BROTHERS ...
The Dickies, Metal MC, Pigmy Love Circus: Scream, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 29 July 1988
TEN YEARS of anything is a lot... usually too much. When I was younger, I worshiped the Dickies as the overlords of my conscience, wrote ...
J.J. Fad, N.W.A: J.J. Fad: Fadmania
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 18 August 1988
L.A. Rappers Pop Hip Hop to the Top ...
Crowded House: Whisky, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bud Scoppa, L.A. Weekly, 22 September 1988
GOOD TUNES, good singin', good playin'. These are the seemingly modest virtues presented by Crowded House. But, as they amply demonstrated throughout their superb 16-song ...
Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim: Abdullah Ibrahim: Out of (South) Africa
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 6 October 1988
FUNNY THAT you never hear Abdullah Ibrahim's name mentioned in post-Graceland discussions of contemporary South African music. The 54-year-old pianist/composer (who performed as Dollar Brand ...
The Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique (Capitol)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 20 July 1989
THE BEASTIE Boys make an unbelievable transition here, from juvenile delinquents to psychedelic gurus, from the vulgar to the sublime. This record will quite likely ...
Cutting Crew: The Scattering (Virgin)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 3 August 1989
NOTHING WHATSOEVER is cutting about this Crew except for maybe the incisively average music they make, or the little 14-year-old girls' hearts they plan to ...
Amina Claudine Myers: In Touch (Novus/RCA)
Review by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 31 August 1989
INSTANT DANGER signal: the word that a musician associated with the freewheeling end of the jazz spectrum is messing with things like pop-song structures and ...
The D.O.C.: No One Can Do It Better (Ruthless)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 1 September 1989
THIS IS the first album to come out of Ruthless Records and the N.W.A. crew since they became an international press phenomenon as the meanest, ...
The Beastie Boys: Boogie and the Beast: Mike D, MCA and King Ad-Rock on U2, Aunt Bea and the Ozone
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 7 September 1989
"REAL LIFE is much stranger than fiction, man." Mike D speaks from the turntables in the den of King Ad-Rock's Hollywood apartment. He haphazardly scratches ...
Lenny Kravitz: Let Love Rule (Virgin)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 5 October 1989
WHEN I first heard that Lisa Bonet's husband (who was then calling himself Romeo Blue) was working on a debut album, it seemed a vanity ...
Malcolm McLaren: Deep in Vogue
Profile by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 5 October 1989
Malcolm McLaren looses another musical mutant ...
Chris & Cosey: Chris and Cosey: Trust (Capitol)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 12 October 1989
IT'S A beautiful world, where Chris and Cosey can inhabit the same record store as, say, Slim Whitman. Frigid and anti-human, and at the same ...
Lucinda Williams: Passionate Kisses (Rough Trade)
Review by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 19 October 1989
IN AUSTIN, Texas, where I live, a considerable number of people spend a considerable amount of time wondering when Lucinda's gonna come back home from ...
Sir Mix-A-Lot: Beepers (Nastymix video)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 23 November 1989
YOU GOTTA have guys like Sir Mix-a-Lot in the world of pop music, guys who jumped the trend-train so late, and imitated their predecessors so ...
The Waterboys: Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Holdship, L.A. Weekly, 23 November 1989
IN A WORD, beautiful. ...
Madonna: A Madonna Discography: The First Decade
Guide by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 1990
THE ABBREVIATED HISTORY of music: first some guy banged on a rock in a cave somewhere: later there was Missing Persons, and now there’s Madonna. ...
Eric Clapton: Journeyman (Warner Bros.)/Homeboy (Virgin soundtrack)
Review by Don Snowden, L.A. Weekly, 18 January 1990
SOMEBODY EXPLAIN this to me – why do so many venerable rock icons keep coming up with album or song titles that just beg for ...
Ice Cube, N.W.A: Straight Outta Here? Legal war erupts in N.W.A.
Report by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 8 February 1990
IT'S LIKE the Sex Pistols all over again. NWA, rappers from Compton, generate a huge word-of-mouth reputation, they put out a careening album quickly banned ...
Obituary by Bill Holdship, L.A. Weekly, 22 February 1990
THE MOST tragic thing would be for Del Shannon to be lumped with, as he sometimes was in the past, all the Bobbys and Frankies ...
Soundgarden, Voivoid: Voivoid: Totally Wired
Profile by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 1 March 1990
Voivod's cyberpunk rock ...
Report by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 8 March 1990
The LAPD drops in on Public Enemy at the PALACE ...
2 Live Crew, Ice Cube: 2 Live Crew: Express Yourself
Report by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 21 June 1990
AS WE go to press there is a Sheriff's Department search on inBroward County, Fla., for the two members of salacious rap group 2 Live ...
Comment by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 5 July 1990
WHEN RUDY Ray Moore talked dirty to the house parties, when Dolomite told inner-city movie audiences "fucking up motherfuckers is my game," when Redd Foxx ...
Essay by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 4 October 1990
RJ Smith on Living Colour and pop's buried history ...
Roky Erickson, 13th Floor Elevators: Roky Erickson: I Walked With a Zombie
Retrospective and Interview by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 22 November 1990
Roky Erickson, at ultra-high frequency ...
Will to Power: Gimme Back My Bullets: Will to Power shoot for disco Valhalla
Profile by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 17 January 1991
ON NEW YEAR'S Eve, I stayed home and went to bed early, as anybody with respect for planetary alignment and his own safety and disrespect ...
Eddie Hinton: Cry and Moan (Rounder/Bullseye Blues)
Review by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 11 April 1991
CRY AND Moan opens with a shimmering, aching backwoods guitar line that will break normal hearts in two, and then Eddie Hinton turns up the ...
James Brown: Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 20 June 1991
Living in America: James Brown's defiant return ...
Womack And Womack: Family Spirit (RCA/BMG)
Review by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 27 June 1991
Shiver and Shake: Womack & Womack's family entertainment ...
Celebrity Skin: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 4 July 1991
You too can be like Celebrity Skin ...
Robert Johnson: The Devil's Work: The plundering of Robert Johnson
Special Feature by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 4 July 1991
THE SUN did not shine but it was hot as hell the day a memorial stone was unveiled for bluesman Robert Johnson near a country ...
The KLF: The White Room (Arista); Chill Out (Wax Trax)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 11 July 1991
JIMMY CAUTY and Bill Drummond are two pretentious con men from England who think they can "subvert" popular music by taking pieces of old records ...
Vanilla Ice: Extremely Live (SBK)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 18 July 1991
FACE THE fact, Jack — Vanilla Ice got a bum rap. Give or take Cool J's 'Boomin' System', 'Ice Ice Baby' is as catchy and ...
Overview by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 1 August 1991
"I FIND A lot of heavy-metal stuff to not really be from the heart and not dealing with, like, real problems. I mean, some of ...
Guns N' Roses: The Last Angry White Man
Essay by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 10 October 1991
A RED STATION wagon slows down in front of Tower Records on Sunset. It nuzzles up near the curb, where a line of people wait ...
Review by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 24 October 1991
Beyond the Bullet: Two L.A. rap records go outside the 'hood ...
Ice Cube: Death Certificate (Priority)
Review by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 21 November 1991
The Racist You Love To Hate Ice Cube has his reasons ...
Bad Religion, Dag Nasty: Bad Religion: Generator (Epitaph); Dag Nasty: Four on the Floor (Epitaph)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 12 March 1992
HARDCORE PUNK happened more than 10 years ago, meant less than it wanted to then, and means less than nothing now. Bad Religion and Dag ...
Otis Clay: The Real Deal: Otis Clay stokes the home fires
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 7 May 1992
Singing soul like it never really went away ...
Fred Wesley: Comme Ci Comme Ça (Antilles)
Review by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 14 May 1992
LIKE HIS fellow James Brown alumnus Maceo Parker, trombonist Fred Wesley returns to the jazz of his youth to prove that there is life after ...
Buffalo Tom, Giant Sand, Sebadoh: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Kemp, L.A. Weekly, 4 June 1992
IN A PERFECT world, this hot bill would have been inverted. Sincere as Buffalo Tom is, the group's latest album, Let Me Come Over, doesn't ...
Sophie B. Hawkins: Tongues and Tails (Columbia)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 18 June 1992
SOPHIE B. HAWKINS is a former New York performance artist and world-beat drummer whose confidential-singer-songstress debut, Tongues and Tails, is currently selling like hot cakes ...
Alejandro Escovedo: Down to Earth
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 2 July 1992
Alejandro Escovedo puts his arm around a memory ...
Utah Saints: Something Good (London)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 10 September 1992
ACID HOUSE was maybe an intriguing new clang when Phuture and Derek May squeaked it out of the Midwest a half-decade ago, but by the ...
Review by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 22 October 1992
Sweet and Low: Bob Mould's contentment ...
R.E.M.: Automatic for the People (Warner Bros.)
Review by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 5 November 1992
Andy, Can You Hear Me? R.E.M. speaks of the dead ...
The Black Crowes: Good Olde Boys: The Black Crowes didn't do it
Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, L.A. Weekly, 19 November 1992
The point is that, like Richard Hell says, rock'n'roll is an arena in which you re-create yourself, and all this blathering about authenticity is just ...
Live Review by Mark Kemp, L.A. Weekly, 17 December 1992
IN MARKED contrast to Nirvana, Rocket From the Crypt's five clean-cut jocks looked like working-class heroes when they walked onstage Sunday night. They had short ...
Obituary by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 7 January 1993
ALBERT KING performed in overalls to the very end, even when he wore a tux. Like his music, King was urban but not ashamed of ...
Bloods & Crips: Speech As a Weapon: Crips and Bloods become rappers
Report and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 22 April 1993
TEN BLOODS pose near a cold 1962 Chevy Impala. The men and boys wear red bandannas, bandit-style, to conceal their faces. Women and their children ...
James Carr: At the Dark End of the Soul
Profile and Interview by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, May 1993
THE WALLS OF the office are mostly bare, the blue carpeting subdued. The fax machine in the corner seems like an anachronism. Only the large ...
Review by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 27 May 1993
BOTH THESE albums go to great lengths to take listeners to new places. Producer Robert Palmer fabricated a studio environment in the former sanctified church ...
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 17 June 1993
One Nation Under An Overpass ...
Kurt Cobain, The Melvins: The Melvins: Slacking Toward Platinum
Report and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, L.A. Weekly, 17 June 1993
The Melvins and Kurt are asleep at the wheel of fortune ...
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, L.A. Weekly, 8 July 1993
PASSING THROUGH San Francisco (the fourth stop on the tour) last Tuesday, Lollapalooza '93 showed signs of going to seed: the electronic billboard above the ...
Babes In Toyland: Painkillers (Reprise)
Review by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 15 July 1993
HOLE'S COURTNEY Love, L7's Jennifer Finch and Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland joined onstage in the Frisco band Sugar Babylon in the mid '80s. But while ...
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, L.A. Weekly, 16 September 1993
But Junior Brown can make a guit-steel sing ...
Seven Year Bitch: 7 Year Bitch: A Vindication of the Rights of Bitches
Report and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 25 November 1993
7 Year Bitch know nice girls finish last ...
Live Review by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 13 January 1994
"UH, DO you like to rock?" Kurt Cobain asked the audience in a wimpy voice and slack-kneed stance. His chatty, I'm-one-of-you-guys, ongoing banter with the ...
Ben Harper: Crossroads at Sunset: Ben Harper speaks to strangers
Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 24 February 1994
BEN HARPER stands beside a palm free on Pasadena Avenue in a navy thermal shirt, royal-blue Adidas and the green chinos he always wears. "I ...
Pavement: Mind Games Forever — Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Matador)
Review by Eric Weisbard, L.A. Weekly, 24 March 1994
Pavement's fan-boy secrets from the corporate ledge ...
Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Skip Spence: Skip Spence: The Next Big That Never Was
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Angel, L.A. Weekly, 25 March 1994
IT'S EARLY December, 1966, at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom. The Summer of Love is a good seven months off, the Avalon scene still small and ...
Ace Of Base: The Sign (Arista)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 21 April 1994
AS FAR AS I can remember, 'All That She Wants' by Ace of Base is the only hit single ever to talk about a lady ...
The Mekons: Retreat From Memphis (Touch and Go/Quarterstick)
Review by Robert Gordon, L.A. Weekly, 26 May 1994
The Glory of Shopping and... the Mekons' pleasure pleasure ...
Profile and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 9 June 1994
Ted Hawkins faces down the next hundred years ...
Stone Temple Pilots: Purple (Atlantic)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 4 August 1994
AFTER ONE of my brother-in-law's Thursday-night poker games, the 20-somethings there played Pearl Jam's first album repeatedly until people got tired of it. So they ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 20 October 1994
OKAY, FIRST off the individuals who used to call themselves Jim Morrison. Elvis Costello and Prince were all the same person! Their music all featured ...
Leadbelly: The Long Goodbye: Huddie Ledbetter’s Living Will
Essay by Carol Cooper, L.A. Weekly, 24 November 1994
According to their most recent videos, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Madonna all aspire to the power, wisdom and durability ...
Report by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 7 March 1995
IN A CITY where racial tensions are concealed until they erupt, the public schools are where Angelenos deal straight-up with their differences. And in a ...
Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, N.W.A: Eazy-E and Ruthless Records: The body rests as the battles begin
Report by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 20 April 1995
FRIDAY MORNING, April 7, friends, family and more than 2,000 fans filed through Los Angeles' First AME church for an open pre-service viewing of the ...
Luniz: Brothers With Potential
Profile and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 21 September 1995
The Luniz have realism and the radio ...
Call O' Da Wild, Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill, Call O' Da Wild: House of Blues, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 4 January 1996
CYPRESS HILL, formerly masters at sculpting the dark depths with danky-ass beats and oldies loops, have become the kings of regurgitation. Listen to Temple of ...
JT the Bigga Figga: J.T. the Bigga Figga: 'Mo Critical
Profile and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 1 February 1996
J.T. puts Fillmore on the map ...
Ruth Ruth: The Little Death (Epitaph/Deep Elm EP)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 12 September 1996
Uninvited: Revenge rock in re Ruth Ruth ...
Fluffy: 5 Live (The Enclave EP); Black Eye (The Enclave)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 19 September 1996
A Magnificent Package — Fluffy: Gold dust women of '96 ...
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Now I Got Worry (Matador)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 24 October 1996
'CAN'T STOP', a kitschy sort of Booker T and the MGs-style green-onion-and-mushroom-salad keyboard excursion on former Pussy Galore pottymouth Jon Spencer's latest Blues Explosion album, ...
Girls Against Boys: Disco 666 (Touch and Go EP)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 7 November 1996
IN FRONT of the third stage at the Kansas City opening installment of this summer's Loliapalooza tour, some apparent ex-Deadhead with burgeoning middle-age spread asked ...
Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson: Marilyn Manson: Wrong Is Right
Essay by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 19 December 1996
Marilyn Manson's diet for an evil new planet ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 2 January 1997
Teen Machines ...
Elliott Smith: Something Happened: Elliott Smith's real-life blur
Interview by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, May 1997
BORED BY stories, interested in the unruliness of things. Portland's Elliott Smith is a singer-songwriter suspicious of singer-songwriter certainties. Angles, hypotheses, probabilities, lucid emotions arising ...
Gina G, Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: Spice (Virgin); Gina G: Fresh! (Eternal/Warner Bros.)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 8 May 1997
They Know What They Really Really Want and They Know How To Get It. Spice Girls, Gina G: If they could do it all over ...
Live Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 22 May 1997
KIM DEAL of the Breeders is the anti-Madonna (and Madonna is the postmod Charo) She's so unpretentious, so lacking in showbiz guile, so kid-sisterly And ...
Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 5 June 1997
Brother Wayne Kramer's automythological masterpiece ...
Guided By Voices: Mag Earwhig! (Matador)
Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 19 June 1997
GUIDED BY Voices leader Bob Pollard is either an authentic American eccentric genius or the toppermost underachiever in pop music. Married, with two kids and ...
Charles Brown: Honey Dripper: Charles Brown caresses the blues
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 31 July 1997
THE MAN locking eyes with you from the cover of Charles Brown's last album is the kind of rogue so elegant he barely cocks his ...
Negativland: Siedpsip (Seeland Records)
Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 11 September 1997
If the Medium is the Mess, thank the maker of Negativland. ...
Janet Jackson: Brave Heart: Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, November 1997
ACCORDING TO Ralph Ellison in Shadow and Act, no jazz musician struggled harder to escape the role of grinning minstrel than Charlie Parker, with the ...
Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 4 December 1997
Green Day is maturing, like cheese ...
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 26 March 1998
A HANDFUL of the best hip-hop records to be produced in the '90s includes TLC's Crazysexycool, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, Mary J. Blige's My Life and ...
De La Soul, Puff Daddy, Run-DMC, Wu-Tang Clan: All About the Benjamins
Essay by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 2 April 1998
Hip-hop: The need, not the greed ...
Lenny Kravitz: Flower Of Power: Lenny Kravitz's 5
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, June 1998
'ROUND MIDNIGHT on December 20, 1989, at The World in downtown Manhattan's Alphabet City, Terence Trent D'Arby trooped back onstage to perform an obligatory encore ...
Total: Kima, Keisha & Pam (Bad Boy/Arista)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 17 December 1998
TOTAL, THE Bad Boy Entertainment girl group promoted as "Puffy's angels," never quite reached gold status with their eponymous 1996 debut. The backlash against Bad ...
Foxy Brown: Myth Master: Foxy Brown: Chyna Doll
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 10 February 1999
The fabrication of Ms. Foxy Brown ...
Foxy Brown, Nas: Myth Master: The fabrication of Ms. Foxy Brown
Profile by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 18 February 1999
FOXY BROWN is a chickenhead. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Sara Scribner, L.A. Weekly, 25 March 1999
SOMETHING ABOUT Arthur Lee invites myth. Lee – the cantankerous, charismatic singer and guitarist of the groundbreaking yet largely forgotten band Love – inspires tales ...
Nas: A Dollar A Holler: Nas: I Am
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 28 April 1999
Two sides of Nas' coin ...
The Holy Modal Rounders: Grin 'n' Spin: Millennial Yarns from the Holy Modal Rounders
Profile and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 2 September 1999
DURING THE early stages of a hallucinogenic drug trip, the voyager experiences giddiness and a vision of existence as a zany, absurdist cartoon. Eccentricity in ...
Dr. Dre: Still D.R.E.: Dr Dre: 2001
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 24 November 1999
WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED defines the all-American midlife crisis as a period of psychological stress occurring in middle age, thought to be triggered by a physical, occupational ...
The Notorious B.I.G.: Word According to B.I.G.: Notorious B.I.G.: Born Again
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 12 January 2000
AND SO WAS WRITTEN the MC genealogy of the late Notorious B.I.G.: Grandmaster Caz was the father of Grandmaster Melle Mel, Grandmaster Melle Mel the ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Machina/The Machines of God
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, March 2000
CURRENT ROCK carries the air of an apprehensive lover who's lately been having a bit of trouble maintaining an erection, fretfully wondering, "Will I be ...
Beachwood Sparks: Sons of The Pioneers: Beachwood Sparks
Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 3 March 2000
THE SOUND was pure post-Sunset Strip riot chillout, a yanking of the reins away from pop chaos. It was all sweet, mournful harmonies, the plaintive ...
Grateful Dead, Phish: The Grateful Dead: So Many Roads (1965–1995)/Phish: Hampton Comes Alive
Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 26 April 2000
ONE MORE NEGATIVE remark about hippies or the Grateful Dead and you punk-rock bullies will have petunias shoved down your throats. ...
Travis: Luv Hurts: Travis' The Man Who
Review by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 17 May 2000
POP RECORDS can come with some pretty heavy reps. Travis' The Man Who appears in the U.S. after moving two and a half million copies ...
Hanson: Boys Are for Noise: Hanson Busts Out
Profile by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 9 June 2000
LIKE MANY of us, comedian Jay Mohr has a Hanson fixation. "That’s the hottest kid I’ve seen in my life," he said, referring to vocalist ...
Jimi Hendrix: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 29 November 2000
Heroes are important. They make you want to stay alive when you aren't sure whether you've been left behind, or are about to be run ...
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 2000
YOUR MOUTH IS contorted into a G. Dubya-worthy smirk. Your mind is flooded with the sights and scents of your adolescence: your senior prom, that ...
Wu-Tang Clan: Can't Go to Sleep
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, January 2001
WHAT THE HELL is going on with hiphop right about now? Rap's most popular, most talented MC â€" at one point in the running to ...
The Electric Prunes: Too Much To Dream
Retrospective by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 15 June 2001
FROM THE "mind-expanding" flight of the 2,000-pound bumblebee opening to the liquid, screaming, droning guitars to the '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'-derived drums, the Electric ...
Maxwell: Now's the Time? Maxwell's Now
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, September 2001
MAXWELL. Not D'Angelo-Maxwell. Not Bilal-Maxwell. Not Musiq Soulchild, even. Maxwell. ...
The Deviants, Mick Farren: Mick Farren on the Deviants, Fantasy Fiction and Blowing Things Up
Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 23 November 2001
PUBLISHING MOGUL Felix Dennis was staring at the Caribbean Sea a few months ago, sucking down cocktails with fellow gazillionaires at Basil's Bar on the ...
Alanis Morissette: Under Rug Swept (Maverick/Warner Bros.)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 13 March 2002
ONCE UPON A TIME, Alanis Morissette was God. Not just in her role as the Almighty in director Kevin Smith's Dogma, but to the 16 ...
Steve Earle: Country Maverick Steve Earle vs. The Nashville Machine
Report and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 2002
"LATELY I FEEL like the loneliest man in America," writes Steve Earle in the liner notes of his most recent album, Jerusalem (Artemis). ...
Comment by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, March 2003
Jaded Hiphop-Purist Insight #1: You cannot spit in the wind without being hit by 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. ...
Burt Bacharach: Little Big Things: Burt Bacharach's What the World Needs Now
Review by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 28 April 2003
IN THE LATE '80s, I sat with the great Japanese pop artist and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on a hotel rooftop in L.A. talking about Burt ...
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, August 2003
EDDIE VEDDER CARES. If the casual music enthusiast remembers nothing else about Pearl Jam beyond their Beatles/Rolling Stones polarization with Nirvana in the early '90s, ...
N.E.R.D., Pharrell Williams: N.E.R.D.: Recombinators
Profile and Interview by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 22 April 2004
PHARRELL WILLIAMS doesn't shout. Today, the co-producer of Jay-Z and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake and No Doubt (and others) is sort of urgently whispering ...
Review by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 20 May 2004
VAN LEAR ROSE is an album of 13 songs explosively written and sung by Loretta Lynn. Jack White, of the White Stripes, produced it. Eric ...
New Orleans: The Heart of the Matter
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 September 2005
"I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans."–Ernie K-Doe, 1979 * ...
A Half-Century of McCabe's Guitar Shop
Report by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 25 September 2008
Little shop of adorers ...
Chris Darrow, Kaleidoscope: Chris Darrow's Kaleidoscopic Vision
Profile and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 25 February 2009
HE HAS AN upcoming tribute concert and box-set release and yet the question many will ask is, "Who is Chris Darrow?" ...
Grateful Dead: Dead Without Garcia: Is It Worth the Effort, or a Waste of Time?
Comment by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 6 May 2009
"THE FIRST Prankster ruleis that nothing lasts forever," said Merry Prankster chieftain Ken Kesey in 1966, the same year the Grateful Dead, the in-house band ...
Sunny War: Songstress-Musician Sunny War
Profile and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 15 July 2009
ON THE TINY YouTube screen is a close-up of a diminutive black woman who looks about 12 but is, in the video, 16. Her hair's ...
The Runaways: Wild Thing — How Sandy West Was Lost
Retrospective by Evelyn McDonnell, L.A. Weekly, 18 March 2010
ON A SUMMER day in 1975, a 16-year-old girl carrying a Silvertone guitar took four public buses from Canoga Park to a two-story house in ...
Kinky Friedman: I Was a Texas Jewboy
Memoir by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 29 July 2010
MY FIRST LIVE sighting of Richard "Kinky" "Big Dick" Friedman was at Max's Kansas City in New York in 1973. He was headlining Upstairs at ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 12 May 2011
I'M 56 YEARS old. Old enough to remember one president's assassination and another's resignation, black people getting beaten for insisting on the right to vote ...
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, L.A. Weekly, 19 January 2012
BANDLEADER, drummer/pianist, talent scout, club owner, broadcaster, recording executive, writer, and recording artist Johnny Otis passed away Jan. 17 at the age of 90 in ...
Eden Ahbez: Legend of The Lost
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, L.A. Weekly, 8 July 2016
SOME PEOPLE only have one hit record in them. History's one-hit wonders make up a long, sometimes colorful and often tragic legion. Eden Ahbez got ...
Afghan Whigs, Usher: Afghan Whigs: How Usher Helped Revive '90s Alt-Rock Heroes Afghan Whigs
Interview by Jeff Weiss, L.A. Weekly, 4 May 2017
WHEN THE AFGHAN WHIGS DISSOLVED in 2001, no one would have guessed that Usher would be the catalyst for their reunion — Usher being the ...
André Cymone, Prince: André Cymone: Keeping the Purple One's Spirit Alive
Interview by Jeff Weiss, L.A. Weekly, 17 May 2017
IT'S BEEN NEARLY 400 DAYS since Prince passed and his former bandmate, surrogate brother and best friend still can't quite believe that he's gone. To ...
Jurassic 5: 20 Years Ago, Jurassic 5's Debut EP Made Underground Rap the Place to Be
Comment by Jeff Weiss, L.A. Weekly, 11 October 2017
DURING THE LATE '90S AND EARLY '00S, you could amble into almost any college dorm in Southern California, press play on Jurassic 5's self-titled debut, ...
Joan Baez: Royce Hall, Los Angeles
Live Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 13 November 2018
ON SATURDAY, NOV. 10, Royce Hall at UCLA was sold out for Joan Baez's Fare Thee Well… Tour 2018. At the age of 77, the ...
Nirvana: Danny Goldberg: Serving the Servant – Remembering Kurt Cobain (Ecco)
Book Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 12 April 2019
MUSIC BIZ macher, political activist and author Danny Goldberg's new book is Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain (Ecco), a reminiscence of his time as ...
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