Twenty-two years ago, Steve Albini called the Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair “pandering sluts.” At least they didn’t turn out to be flavors of the week.
Tag: Hitsville
Posted inBlogs
More Falls fallout
The discussion about Bob Falls’s call to WBEZ critic Kelly Kleiman–and Tony Adler’s response to it–continues.
Posted inBlogs
Death or new life for film criticism?
Is film criticism dying, as Roger Ebert claims, or being born again on the Web?
Posted inBlogs
Bill Wyman on the Edwards love child and the MSM
Bill Wyman explains how the press might do a better job on the John Edwards love child story.
Posted inMusic
Notes of the Weird/Schmitsville
Notes of the Weird “It’s not about pointing out what’s theological about a technological upgrade,” explains Gastr del Sol’s David Grubbs, referring to the title of the group’s new album, Upgrade & Afterlife (Drag City). “It’s about pointing out what’s secular about something like afterlife. People now talk about the afterlife of computers, and I […]
Posted inMusic
Folk Heart
“1963 was the last time a great car was built in America & these Belvederes have it & they have it all.” So reads part of outsider folkster Michael Hurley’s most recent newsletter, in which he’s hawking a couple of Plymouths for $400 each. If it seems like a strange item to find in a […]
Posted inMusic
Hip-hop Heroes
Hip-hop Heroes A west-side hip-hop foursome with a slapdash “wild west” aesthetic is the first local rap group with a bona fide national hit. Since its April 23 release, Crucial Conflict’s “Hay,” a jaunty celebration of marijuana smoking set to a languid, shuffling groove, has climbed to number 2 on Billboard’s rap chart, number 15 […]
Posted inMusic
Something Like the Real Thing
Something Like the Real Thing In 1947 the Stanley Brothers reworked an old British folk song named “Oxford City” into a mountain murder ballad they called “Little Glass of Wine.” In their bluegrass version, which scored them a hit on the tiny Rich-R-Tone label (they re-recorded it for Columbia two years later), a jealous, impatient, […]
Posted inMusic
No Alternative
No Alternative Last Sunday I went to the New World Music Theatre for Q101’s Jamboree ’96, a veritable who’s who concert of the station’s current playlist. Since “alternative rock” was originally a marketing term and is now, among other things, a radio format encompassing everything from fun-wanting popster Sheryl Crow, who played at last year’s […]
Posted inMusic
Documenting Doo-wop/Schmitsville
Documenting Doo-wop To most people who remember doo-wop classics like the Spaniels’ “Goodnite Sweetheart, Goodnite” or the Dells’ “Oh What a Nite,” the sound is unmistakably of the past, a catalyst more for nostalgia than for the appreciation of artistic achievement. But to fanatics like writer Robert Pruter such crucial roots of rock ‘n’ roll […]
Posted inMusic
Fairy Tales Do Come True
Fairy Tales Do Come True As a recording engineer about town and one of the two partners behind Kingsize Sound Labs, Dave Trumfio has seen his share of starry-eyed naivete from young bands anxious to hitch a ride on the alternative-rock express. He even took a sarcastic jab at the careerist mind-set in “Owed to […]