Search Results for "Jason Ferguson"

Richard Hell may have seen his as the blank generation, but it was Dr. Alex Paterson who assumed the mission of transforming his into the blankest generation with the ambient house soundscapes of the Orb. After roadying for Killing Joke, Paterson found his way into an A&R position at Brian Eno’s EG Records, where he…

Punk rock doesn’t usually need or encourage auteurs, but there’s no other word to describe New Yorker Ned Hayden, whose skeletal songs, raw Iggy-derived vocals and scrabbly guitar were the only constant element in the Action Swingers’ burnin’ garage. Joined by guitarist/singer Julia Cafritz (on her way out of Pussy Galore), bassist Pete Shore (of…

Although they were probably joking when they said it, the British duo of Mike Mason and Louise Trehy pretty much nailed it when, in an interview, they dubbed themselves the “Cockatoo Twins.” The music on Blow fits rather stereotypically into the 4AD stable of cosmic, guitar-based angel rock — so much so it’s almost (almost)…

Chastised as musique plastique by critics skeptical of both the band’s history and lack thereof, Curve’s auspicious debuts (a series of three accomplished EPs released in under seven months and collected on Pubic Fruit) helped deflect accusations of perfectionist hipness. However, the group’s core — bassist/guitarist Dean Garcia and vocalist Toni Halliday — was not…

British-born but raised in the Detroit suburb of Windsor, Ontario, Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman, got his start DJing in such Detroit clubs as the Shelter and the Music Institute. Influenced equally by local hardcore, ambient and house, the sound of Plastikman is that of acid house’s most sparse intensity, and it’s just as effective on…

Sometimes, being poised on the verge of success can be the most enlightening — and embittering — place for a rock band. For Poi Dog Pondering, the large and amorphous Chicago-via-Austin (but originally from Waikiki) ensemble led by singer/guitarist Frank Orrall, that’s one place they are unlikely to either be willing or welcome to visit…

Apparently unfamiliar with the rule that proclaims all young rock musicians lazy, Warren Defever has managed to find more than a little bit of truth in the adage “music is my life.” Although His Name Is Alive is ostensibly his main project, this resident of Livonia, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit), has made quite a…

Englishmen Andy Saunders and Richard Wolfson — Towering Inferno — began performing Kaddish, a thematic multi-media piece about the Holocaust, in 1993. (The title is the Jewish prayer for the dead). Such a violently engaging work, so heavily dependent upon visuals and the visceral impact of live amplitude to make its impact felt, would seem…

Although many towns claim pollutants in the water as the cause of local eccentricities, Austin’s resident heirs to the Butthole Surfers’ weird-rock crown say it’s actually the pollen that keeps the city’s music scene so, um, vibrant. Ragweed and sagebrush or not, it’s unlikely that Ed Hall’s dense, theatrical rock concrète could have manifested itself…

Based in Berlin and consisting of a German (singer/guitarist Sebastian Büttrich), a Dane (drummer Piet Bendtsen) and a Danish-German (singer/bassist Heike Rädeker), 18th Dye produces music that is far from the Teutonic sort of non-rock its heritage would imply. Rather, the trio warmly embraces American indie-pop stylings, framing them in the unique European context of…

This quartet from Ipswich recorded three EPs inside a year’s time and received an inordinate amount of British press accolades for them. Scoring an American deal with the soon-to-be-bankrupt Chameleon label, Bleach released a compilation of those EPs and then apparently disappeared off the face of the earth. An unenviable fate to be sure, but…

So stereotypically German as to be almost comical, the Düsseldorf duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma supposedly met at a death-metal show and began collaborating on expansive electronic music under the nom de tech Mouse on Mars. The pair’s music, while unabashedly rooted in such krautrock forebears as Kraftwerk and Neu!, wholeheartedly embraces…

This New York trio of singer/bassist Kerri Kenney (an actress on MTV’s The State), guitarist/singer Nina Hellman and drummer Jody Seifert revels in the sort of indie-rock simplicity that made the Breeders’ Pod such a shocking debut. Between Eli Janney’s sparkling, vocals-up-front production and the driving, fractured, short-song structures and lyrical absurdities (“your dad works…