John Payne

article placeholder

The Idea Machine

John Payne
SITTING DOWN TO CREATIVE WORK OFTEN MEANS A CONFRONTATION with a hideous beast -- the blank page. You probably like particular sounds, rhythmic patterns or melodic schemes; color combinations, subject matter or formal techniques; or lyrical concerns and beat-flows. Yet the need to proceed makes you wish that, at least......

Bring the Noise

John Payne
Photo by Michael Levine TRYING TO PIN DOWN SOME SORT OF VIEWPOINT or philosophy behind UCLA's All Tomorrow's Parties music festival is a bit of a head-scratcher, so you know they've gotta be on to something. An outgrowth of David Sefton's annual concerts at London's Royal Festival Hall, which throw......

Practically Perfect

John Payne
Bad Religion The Process of Belief (Epitaph) Not to sound too prog about it, but, within the tiny confines of the melodic punk genre they chiefly created, Bad Religion’s new CD finds the band, yes, subtly stretching musical borders and further expanding on the style’s required constituent parts. It’s real......

Tiresome Things: 2001 and Beyond

John Payne
BRILLIANT FUCKING BOREDOM 1. People using the word brilliant to describe anything at all that’s pretty good: “He ended his set with a cover of Nick Drake’s ‘Northern Sky.’ Brilliant.” “That car is brilliant.” “His hair is fucking brilliant.” People here use that word brilliant ’cause they want to sound......

Good Things 2001

John Payne
And for always, maybe 1. Thora Birch. 2. Bread. The food item, though David Gates is fine. 3. 1985 Toyota Camry. 4. Cliff Martinez — makes film-soundtrack music (Traffic) so good you don’t remember hearing any. 5. Roland V-Drums w/ headphones. Lash out at life without antagonizing your cats. 6......
article placeholder

The Deep End

John Payne
You might call Diamanda Galas a singer, but that’d be a paltry account of it. Singers make us snap our fingers and tap our toes, even fill us with joy and all that. Galas can play that role, but she does it as the bearer of really bad news. Yes,......

Music of the Heart and Other Organs

John Payne
Comes right down to it, the dance imperative is a bossy thing. YOU MUST DANCE, this music tells us. So we sheepishly dance -- often quite badly -- and we suffer. But some of us don‘t lightly cotton to being bossed. And we especially don’t enjoy being harassed into making......
article placeholder

LAWMA Rama

John Payne
The ’01 L.A. Weekly Music Awards (LAWMA) were held at Ruby nightclub on Wednesday, June 27, and all things considered were pretty much a smash(ed) success. A packed house of jolly music-bizzers and those who love them enjoyed an evening of glad-handing, milling about and general frivolity, as well as......
article placeholder

Fog Heart

John Payne
Self Gizmodgery (Spongebath) Gag me with a tune, he played all his rock music on toy instruments, and what a meaty, squishy sound. This Tennessee peckerwood’s pudding pop is promising, he packs loads of good ideas in his breeches, big-ballin’ thrash-psych-hop beats and brevity, even polytonality, and everywhere: XTC/Beck hover......
article placeholder

Burning Man

John Payne
Photo by Derth Adams Moris Tepper and I are sitting in his back yard in Mar Vista. It’s a crisp fall day, slight breeze. Turtles nip gently at my toes. Feels good. Tepper points at his pets: “These guys, I need ’em so bad. If they weren’t here, I’d be......