Search Results for "Jon Young"

Dirty rock’n’roller-hippie narcissist. Rockabilly hepcat-techno troubadour. Folkie romantic-bluesy bad boy. Harmony supergroup sore thumb-beloved bandleader. Cultural analyst-grandfather of grunge. Neil Young has been all of these things and more in the course of an insanely prolific solo career. Though his output during the ’80s was particularly erratic, he has never stopped placing personal expression before…

Cardiff’s Young Marble Giants — singer Alison Statton and the Moxham brothers, Philip (bass) and Stuart (guitar, organ) — managed to stay together long enough to produce one oddball album before apathy got the upper hand. Using few overdubs, Colossal Youth re-creates the mythical ambience of a beatnik coffeehouse. Statton’s gentleness and the soft accompaniment…

Like several other acts who arrived from somewhere else but thrived in the fabulous exaggerations of England’s glam era, Mott the Hoople had a strong impact on the new wave scene a few years later. These streetwise blokes voiced a sense of disillusionment and failure instead of indulging in the fantasy and self-aggrandizement typical of…

A remarkable performer with a cutting voice and a hugely original songwriting mind, Elvis Costello has charted a consistently fascinating course in an intensely productive career and shows no sign of fatigue. He’s arguably the most significant individual creative voice to emerge in rock’n’roll since Bob Dylan, and definitely one of pop music’s most unforgettable…

Glaswegian guitarist-singer-songwriter Roddy Frame was the leader of Aztec Camera, whose delicate pop conveyed his poetic sensibility and rampant originality. He trafficks in the corniest romantic clichés, yet somehow makes them seem original. His wistful crooning, lush melodies and endless obsession with love’s ups and downs make his flavorful light pop the attitudinal descendant of…

The world needs more bands like Madness. One of the original London perpetrators of the ska revival, they grew from a silly novelty group into full-scale international superstars, beloved by seemingly everyone in Europe, from tot to pensioner. Though diversity in contemporary music is generally laudable, the factionalism it sometimes engenders isn’t; Madness’ ability to…

The guitarist aging art-rockers turn to for a sublime and stirring mixture of solid chops and wild-eyed invention, Adrian Belew (born in Kentucky, raised in Ohio) has played a crucial long-term role in the careers of David Bowie and King Crimson, while also making important contributions to Frank Zappa (who gave him his first break),…

A crabby pug whose bark is every bit as ferocious as his talent, Graham Parker comes on like an arrogant bantam with the world’s bone up his butt — and then delivers the musical goods that justify his conceit and erase the ill will he so enthusiastically spreads. Remote and defensive in one song, Parker…

Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Snatches of Pink played a tasty blend of Stones raunch and punk insistence, well- crafted tunes delivered with jackhammer finesse on its debut, Send in the Clowns. Singer Andy McMillan is a young good-ol’-boy with an aching twang stuck in his throat, spurred to spill his guts by Michael Rank’s barbed…

Fervent young Germans with a love for English-speaking bands, Plan B have emerged from the shadows of heavies like U2 and the Clash to become solid rockers in their own right. The quintet’s debut EP is marked by good intentions and an obvious delight at being able to create a ruckus: “Gimme the Reason” is…

Transplant the early Velvet Underground to the late ’70s, trade that band’s kinkier concerns for conventional male-female issues, and you’ve got Kent, Ohio’s Human Switchboard in a nutshell. Repeated disclaimers aside, leader Bob Pfeifer sings in a dry, ironic style suggestive of young Lou Reed, and Myrna Marcarian’s wobbly organ playing adds an amateurish tint…

For the record, Icehouse began as Flowers. For its first Anglo-American album release, the Sydney, Australia band renamed itself after the title of the Flowers LP, subtracted one cut, remixed and resequenced it. Icehouse’s debut LP effectively mates emotional tension with the streamlined efficiency of modern synthesizer outfits. “Icehouse” and “Can’t Help Myself,” in particular,…

The look of a sensitive young Elvis…moody, atmospheric tunes…sweet, brooding vocals…heaps of twangy guitar. Chris Isaak has his shtick down cold, that’s for sure. Happily, this retro package offers more than selfconscious imagery: he walks the tightrope stretched between irony and sincerity as well as anyone. At his best, Isaak summons up the deep hurt…

Old-fashioned pop craftsmen saved from a workingman’s death in English pubs by the new wave, singer/guitarists Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook — the core of Squeeze — found their forte/niche in setting small dramas of British life to music that can be ebullient, reflective, gay or morose. Aided along the way by tasteful rhythm sections…

Decades from now, rock historians will scratch their heads in bewilderment that the Distractions’ fine body of work didn’t ensure the Manchester quintet a longer initial lifespan. (A return to activity in 2010 has resulted in an official website as well as the release of a few new and old recordings.) The 1979 EP (which…

Every decade’s snotty kids are the same, as Australia’s Saints handily proved. These Brisbane punks emerged in ’77 with a raw, driving sound recalling the Pretty Things of more than a decade earlier. On (I’m) Stranded, Chris Bailey sings with the same irritable snarl that band’s Phil May had back when he was considered competition…

These New Jerseyites are the stuff of legend and cults. Led by guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million (originally featuring future avant-star drummer Andy Fisher, aka Anton Fier), the Feelies dressed like nerdy preppies and paid only passing attention to the conventional demands of rock and roll. Even during the original band’s period of highest…