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(03/07/02 5:00am)
For the Blue Dogs, it's always been one big tour. Formed all the way back in 1987, these musical journeymen have paid their dues in a big way, pounding the pavement ever since, shuffling through several member changes and honing their craft in front of an audience that seems to grow with each performance. Perennial road warriors, the Charleston, S.C., band's infrequent lulls in touring have given them just enough time to cut six albums of original material, not to mention a handful of classic covers. Call it dogged dedication to a dog-and-pony show--these boys work hard.
(02/14/02 5:00am)
There's just something about Cracker that takes me back. I guess all that time spent jamming out to 1993's Kerosene Hat in carpool was an integral part of my development. Just listening to those witty Cracker diatribes was enough to make a sixth grader in the back of a Lumina awaiting his daily schoolyard pummeling for wearing sandals with socks feel strong--if only for a little while.
(02/07/02 5:00am)
It seems the NFL and its sponsors just can't get on the same page. After countless lackluster gridiron match-ups made tolerable by clever advertisements interspersed, the tables have been turned. The underdogs triumphed as time expired, capping the first real non-yawner in years, and--wouldn't you know it--the commercials sucked. Remember these advertising mishaps?:
(01/24/02 5:00am)
The newest name in indefinable music has just arrived, and it's drinking out of a Mason jar and spitting tobacco juice on your shoes.
(01/18/02 9:00am)
Like the White Stripes and the Strokes of this year, The Tyranny of Distance sounds like all the history of rock and roll, condensed and spit-shined into something raucous and livelier than ever. The hooks are crystal clear, the beats are booty-guaranteed, and the songs are rich with both tradition and ingenuity. Originally a punk himself, Leo leans here more towards the punchy power-pop of early Elvis Costello. Big Star and The Clash are also reference points, but Leo's oomph is too exhilarating to give a moment to sort it all out.
Songs like "Squeaky Fingers" sound like you've known them forever, even as they surprise with every kick and clap. The songwriting is so good that the progressive forces at play slip by almost unnoticed--"Stove By A Whale" and "St. John the Divine" take turns into dark sonics with muscular guitar drives, without losing the momentum of higher moments.
Leo's a veteran of the music scene and the album's craft shows it--still, it bursts with the spontaneity that comes only out of left field. The Tyranny of Distance should be considered up there with Is This It? and The New Pornographers' Mass Romantic in 2001's standing triumph of the power of pop.
--Greg Bloom
(11/30/01 5:00am)
After the huge success of 1998's Devil Without a Cause, it seems feasible that Kid Rock would at least try to write some fresh material. But for a guy who talks as much as he does, Rock sure doesn't have anything new or profound to say. After a good, solid listen, any kid who likes rock can figure out that Kid Rock has a lot of money, gets a lot of women, drinks a lot of booze, and repeats himself... a lot.
(11/16/01 5:00am)
Win a contest, get a record contract. That's the way it worked for Flickerstick, the victor of VH-1's "Bands on the Run," the network's contribution to the ever-increasing deluge of reality-based game shows. Beating out a handful of others, the Texas natives got $50,000 cash, $100,000 worth of equipment, the budget for their first music video and a valuable chance to strut their stuff (and their sex lives) on television. A record deal quickly followed, leading to the revamped re-release of their 2000 indie album Welcoming Home the Astronauts. So they've arrived. Next step: stick around.
(11/16/01 5:00am)
James Downey of Columbia, Mo., is a dreamer--with way too much time on his hands. The writer/artist is soliciting the help of everyone in the world to make his latest fantasy come true. On Nov. 24, Downey wants to "paint" a red dot on the dark portion of the first quarter moon using nothing but a whole hell of a lot of everyday laser pointers. Sure, why not?
(11/09/01 5:00am)
Lenny Kravitz is easily the craftiest chameleon in the music industry today. Since bursting onto the scene in 1989 with Let Love Rule, Kravitz has impressed with his impressions. From Hendrix to Prince, the resemblance talk has never ceased, and Lenny, with his Jimi-like guitar distortion and a probable penchant for Purple Rain, has begrudgingly assumed the role of reincarnated rock star. But he is a rock star nonetheless....
(10/26/01 4:00am)
Here at Recess, we get a lot of CDs in the mail. Some are good, some are bad and some just scare the piss out of us. To spare our readers and ourselves the torture of reviewing Norwegian death metal bands, we add them to the dusty stacks-o-crap against the office wall. There they sit, confined to their own special category of spiked-bracelet-wearing and pagan-beast-battling satanic suckiness. But this week, in honor of our favorite holiday, the music editors of Recess decided to dust off the cobwebs and unleash the hounds of hell so that you too may know the horrors that reside in the Recess rejects pile. So hide your Hanson and put away your DMB--we're going over to the dark side.
(10/26/01 4:00am)
Lit, the radio-friendly Orange County alt-rock ensemble, has potential to be pop music's savior. They just about have it down--the swingers-era attire, the martini-sipping mentality, the way too cool for you attitude--not to mention a hard-driving, air guitar-inspiring, chop-Oem-to-pieces style. With seven-inch sideburns, foot-long goatees and more tattoos than a calculator could count, they ooze rock star.
(10/26/01 4:00am)
With Halloween right around the corner, it's time to brush up on your trick-or-treating skills because, let's face it, there's nothing the average family likes to see more than a drunk college kid wearing a dirty bed sheet claiming to be a ghost and begging for juju fruits (you jackass!). Halloween Magazine to the rescue. Take their online quiz (www.halloweenmagazine.com) to learn all sorts of useful tips on the art of shameless candy grubbing.
(10/19/01 4:00am)
uestion: What do these three bands have in common: Phish, Primus and The Police?
(10/19/01 4:00am)
What happens when good Berts go bad? Well, Recess is shocked and saddened to report that one of our most treasured childhood heroes, in light of recent events, has turned his back on Sesame Street and hetero life-mate Ernie in favor of well-known terrorist and giant jackass, Osama bin Laden.
(10/05/01 4:00am)
"I'm a weenie in a bottle, baby. Come, come, come on and let me outÉ"
(10/05/01 4:00am)
Live's aptly titled fifth album, V, may sound a little different than their previous releases at first, but it doesn't last long. Temporarily abandoning their trademark other-worldly, super-spiritual rock-wailing, Live hits much harder right off the bat, employing the help of the excessively raspy rapper Tricky on the grinding first track, "Simple Creed."
(10/05/01 4:00am)
o refer to Jump, Little Children's new offering, Vertigo, as merely the "long-awaited follow-up to their last album" would be quite the understatement. Following their 1998 release, Magazine, the boys of J,LC seemed poised for super-stardom, or at least a healthy dose of radio time and some of the national recognition that had eluded them in the past. However, amidst all the anticipation, the train derailed along the way as their label, Breaking Records, was cut from its benefactor, Atlantic, leaving J,LC in the middle of a nasty divorce--and a finished Vertigo MIA in contractual purgatory.
(10/05/01 4:00am)
He wears a vial of wife Angelina Jolie's dried blood around his neck and fancies himself the reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin. He snacked on sticks of butter as a child and suffered malnutrition-induced heart failure back in O84 after a lengthy stint of eating only potatoes. Apparently he's even a singer now, as his first album, Private Radio, just hit stores. So what if we couldn't bear to listen long enough to actually review it--we still love to hear him babble! Billy Bob onÉ
(09/28/01 4:00am)
Last week Recess introduced you to the dark, sordid world of midget wrestling, and, in our opinion, that was the coolest thing happening between ring posts-until now. Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go back to your normal routine of the "big guys in sweaty spandex" world, there's more bad news.
(09/21/01 4:00am)
A simple formula: First, there was Ben Folds Five, which was actually comprised of only three members. Then, Ben Folds of Ben Folds Five dropped two of the original Five three, which left only one-- due to the fact that there were only three to begin with. So gone are the Five and two of the three, leaving simply one--Ben Folds.
