B.A.L.L.

Everything you really need to know about B.A.L.L. is that Bird contains a smirking cover of George Harrison’s “Bangla Desh.” This dual swipe at rock star pomposity and sacred cow causes pretty much defines the B.A.L.L. worldview. How funny you find the joke depends on how resonant the whole post-Beatles era of rock self-importance was…

Human Sexual Response

Boston’s promising (but ultimately unsuccessful) seven-person Human Sexual Response (including four vocalists!) explored sexual identities, both physical and mental, on Figure 14, as on the wonderful “What Does Sex Mean to Me?” Elsewhere, there’s a healthy irreverence towards the famous and the neurotic, with sex never quite out of the picture. Leanings in the direction…

Arto Lindsay

Lindsay, an American who grew up in Brazil, came to New York in the mid-’70s intent on becoming an artist. Only later did he adopt music as his medium and develop a unique percussive style of singing and playing guitar — generally around the beat, seldom on it — and no melodies, thank you. His…

Death of Samantha

This Cleveland quartet won’t get anywhere on its clothes sense. The goofy garb displayed on record covers (drummer Steve-O’s wardrobe is particularly egregious) constantly undercuts the seriousness of purpose in their music, but maybe that’s the idea. Regardless, they’re one of the strongest rock bands around, with an ace double-guitar attack that can satisfy the…

Pussy Galore

The aesthetic dilemma presented by intentionally offensive and/or consciously anti-musical groups is probably best settled by a critical rumble in the alley. There’s certainly no rational way to discuss the potential merits of a record like this Washington, DC aim-to-offend quartet’s four-song 7-inch debut (Feel Good About Your Body) or the eight-song 12-inch Groovy Hate…

A.R.Kane

A.R.Kane, the London duo of Alex (Ayuli) and Rudy (Tambala), helped usher in two significant musical movements in England. The 12-inch dance single “Pump Up the Volume,” a 1987 collaboration with members of Colourbox in the ad hoc group M/A/R/R/S, introduced the scratching and sampling aesthetic of American hip-hop and house music to the British…

George Clinton

George Clinton will never lose the respect of the children of the P, not so long as hip-hoppers continue sampling such Rosetta Stones of funk as “Atomic Dog,” “Flashlight” and “One Nation Under a Groove.” Actually, that isn’t the point at all: his unassailable stature as the primary architect of booty-moving funk is as solid…

Diamanda Galás

Radical Southern California avant-garde diva Galás, the caterwauling post-opera vocalist, keyboardist, composer and political activist capable of the most unnerving vocal terror this side of grindcore movies, first unleashed herself on The Litanies of Satan, not a heavy-metal prayer but rather a vocal adaptation of a poem by Charles Baudelaire. Using many electronic modifications (many…

Swans

Play the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” at half-speed — go ahead, do it — and you’ve got Swans plus a sense of humor and the possibility that, if you just adjust the speed control, everything will get good. Take away the sense of humor and the speed control, and you’ve got Swans. In all probability,…

808 State

This four-man troupe of Manchester synthesists and sampler wizzes (who take their name from the Roland drum machine that can be heard in countless contemporary records) made its rep with “Pacific,” a soprano-sax-led instrumental dance groove that led to an unfortunate coinage, new age house. The mixture of Enoesque ambience and a solid beat proved…

Electric Eels

Recorded in 1975, Having a Philosophical Investigation With the Electric Eels is one lost recording by a legendary band that actually lives up to its hype. Cleveland’s Electric Eels bridge the gap between Trout Mask Replica-era Beefheart/Love It to Death-era Alice Cooper and punk rock proper. It would certainly be safe to say that there…

Lime Spiders

The excellent retro-rock that fills the Lime Spiders’ aptly titled Cave Comes Alive! album gleefully plunders various ’60s punk vaults. Rather than imitating any specific genre, this quartet from Sydney, Australia synthesizes an original version of that musical era with searing guitars, Tony Bambach’s exceptional bass work, occasional churning organ, raveup drumming and Mick Blood’s…

Luc Van Acker

Belgium’s Van Acker (a member of both the Revolting Cocks and Mussolini Headkick, leader of the short-lived 3 Angry Poles, etc.) is one of the few members of the Chicago/Brussels industrial axis willing to display a gentle side. The cover of his first solo album (aka The Ship) shows him smoothly decked out like a…

Contributors

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…