Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
In Hollywood, where every other person claims to be an actor, singer, model or screenwriter, actor Woody Harrelson doesn’t raise too many eyebrows when he jams with his group Manly Moondog and the Three Kool Kats. But when the “Cheers” star takes his 10-piece band out on the road, he attracts a crowd that’s made up of music lovers as well as a strong contingent of curiosity seekers who want to know if “the boy can really sing.”
You wouldn’t think that a name like the Hoodoo Gurus would need dressing up. But when the Australian rock band formed 10 years ago, they billed themselves as Le Hoodoo Gurus.
When Jim Ellison lived at home in west suburban Addison, his parents got used to waking up and finding teenage girls parked in front of their home, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Material Issue singer. When he was on the road touring, Ellison’s mom would walk past his bedroom and hear giggling fans leaving vaguely obscene messages on his answering machine.
“If I had my time again, I would do it all the same,” Mick Jones sang Saturday night at the Riviera. But with his superb band, Big Audio Dynamite II, Jones made it clear he had no interest in repeating anything musically. B.A.D. II’s guitar-heavy sound was augmented by a disc jockey and pre-recorded tapes that spit out hip-hop samples and keyboard tracks.
For all that’s been said about its innovative use of sampling, Jesus Jones ultimately is a taut rock ‘n’ roll band that gives concertgoers something worthwhile to look at, as well as listen to. Returning to Chicago for a sold-out gig Friday night at the Aragon Ballroom, the British group performed a confident, polished set that showed how much it matured musically since first touring the U.S. a year ago.
With Jesus Jones, what you hear isn’t always what you get. Spearheaded by songwriter-vocalist Mike Edwards, Jesus Jones is a band that uses sampling as an art form rather than an easy way out. The sound snippets Edwards selects to sample are rarely left in their original state. Rather, he creates new sounds by elongating sighs, changing pitches and distorting voices.
“I saw Jellyfish on David Letterman’s show and they were really, really good,” said Claire Massey, vocalist for TAMI Show, the Chicago-based pop-rock group. “(Their) being so good made me feel a little estranged from playing live and writing music because we’ve done so many things for radio and promotion that have been more of presentations than concerts. It has to be done, but it also gets a little frustrating sometimes.”
Music today looks better than ever, thanks to videos that airbrush ordinary-looking folks to pinup perfection and catapult so-so singers to superstar status. If looks can thrill, then MTV delivers the goods. The network has made music fair game for artists who sometimes control their visually enticing pecs better than their voices.
When the hard rock group Extreme boarded the Trinidad for an hourlong cruise along the Chicago River last week, several hundred fans, waiting on deck, were surprised that the band had four members. “Who’re those two guys?” one young woman said to no one in particular. “Are they roadies?”
Anyone who buys Extreme’s album solely on the strength of the Boston-based group’s No. 1 hit ballad “More Than Words” is going to be in for a big, loud surprise. The majority of the songs on “Extreme II Pornograffitti” are fast, raucous and hard-rocking.