Author Archives: Bill Wyman

Rock 101 The Beatles: Recording Sessions, subtitled “The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962-1970,” by Beatlesologist Mark Lewisohn, was published nearly ten years ago to practically no fanfare. The book, a painstaking journey through almost every take the group ever recorded, chronicles the band from their first venture inside the studio to play for […]

Nightlife Gets a Wake-up Call The story is admittedly hazy: one of the parties I couldn’t track down and the other was an undercover cop who wasn’t available for an interview. But to hear the head of a local bar owners’ group tell the tale, the bartender at Berlin that night was “sure he was […]

Of the great stars of the 1960s still with us today, Lou Reed is the least affected by the passage of time; his problems transcend age. Many of his compatriots from those days are merely ridiculous; those who maintain some semblance of dignity–Neil Young, say–still must define themselves and be defined by others as fighters […]

The Mistake Traveling across the U.S.A. It’s hard sometimes to keep it together… Find someone or you’ll be lost And you’re just the kind who’s liable to never be found. Those words come from Blackie Onassis’s plaintive “The Mistake,” the psychic centerpiece of Urge Overkill’s last album, the erratic but powerful Exit the Dragon. The […]

Poi Dog Days The biggest selling album by a local band at the Clark Street Tower Records during 1995 was the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The second biggest seller, however, was Pomegranate, from Poi Dog Pondering, a name that doesn’t show up too much when local bands are mentioned. After four […]

Way Off the Dial The vibe on Internet radio follows the pattern of a lot of discussion on Internet matters. The possibilities are endless–no need for $20 million broadcast licenses! Pretty soon kids’ll be programming great radio stations out of their dorm rooms! Yay! Then comes reality, which is somewhat different, adjusted to conform to […]

The Tower Wants More Power

“I hate it.” Wes Kidd has spent nearly a year in limbo. He’s been sitting on a record he’s proud of. The album is Triple Fast Action’s swaggery and punchy Broadcaster. In it Kidd’s guileless lyrics and snappy hooks and the quartet’s versatile and powerful attack marry to create a worthy postpunk successor to the […]

The bizarre parents who belong to the character Jo Carol in Jo Carol Pierce’s country song cycle, Bad Girls Upset by the Truth, are different from her real ones, she admits. “My momma wants it known that she is not that character,” Pierce laughs. Small wonder: On the record Dixie is an extravagant and well-known […]

“I knew Jimmie Dale Gilmore since before he was shorter’n me,” Jo Carol Pierce is saying. Her dulcet twang sails over the telephone line from the residence of an aunt she’s visiting in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas. The Austin singer-songwriter is reminiscing about another Austin singer-songwriter, the tall and graceful Gilmore, her first husband. […]