Super-prolific Chicago guitar improviser, keyboardist, tape manipulator, composer and producer Jim O’Rourke is most conveniently identified in rock terms as a core member of, first, Gastr del Sol and more recently Sonic Youth, but he has also recorded solo, served in Red Krayola, written for the Kronos Quartet, produced Faust, collaborated with Henry Kaiser and…
Though located squarely within the Amphetamine Reptile aesthetic — loud, loud guitars, lyrics full of hate (including self-hate) — Cows inject their little corner of the stable with more humor than such labelmates as Surgery and Vertigo. Taking a poke-in-the-eye approach to poking fun, the Minneapolis quartet aims to provoke its audience to express dissatisfaction…
New York’s casual and eccentric Uncle Wiggly gets its strength from the full creative participation of all three members; each holds up his corner of the triangle. It’s pretty easy to figure out who writes what. William Berger contributes krautish guitar-focused instrumentals and short pop songs. James Kavoussi creates fuzzy, crabbed meanderings in strange tunings.…
Terminals’ origins are in the Victor Dimisich Band, a Christchurch group focused more on garage than pop. When that outfit (which never included anyone named Victor Dimisich) broke apart, several members joined Bill Direen in the Bilders, while the majority became Terminals. Creating a niche of their own within the brainy, wistful New Zealand pop…
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 emigrated from Iowa in the mid-’80s and set up shop in San Francisco. Since then, they’ve become one of the most original, interesting collaborative groups of musicians in rock, locating and exploring the common ground between Can, Captain Beefheart and the Carpenters. The core group of Brian Hageman (guitar, mandolin,…
The McTells are the most significant (and prolific) band on the International Pop Underground affiliate Bi-Joopiter. Granted, that’s not saying much, but the English trio does what it does well. The band’s early work holds a British mirror up to Australia’s Cannanes, minus the anguish. Delivered as light pop, the songs are punctuated (well, dominated)…
Who would have imagined that four sisters and a pal from the South Bronx would emerge as one of the most dynamic bands that New York could offer at the top of the ’80s? (Or that they would pop up again in 1987…) Mixing a solid combination of dub, chant and beat, ESG — simply…
These folks either wrote reviews that appear on the site or wrote for Trouser Press magazine. If anyone listed below cares to E-mail us with a link you’d like added, just let us know. And ditto if anyone is AWOL from this list. Grant AldenDavid AntrobusJem AswadTroy J. AugustoMichael AzerradCary BakerMichael BakerEmily BeckerJohn BergstromArt BlackJohn…
