John Payne

Among the more pernicious theorems in rock criticism is the one that perpetuates the idea that music fans of integrity and taste must, by definition, feel deeply disdainful of middle-of-the-road sounds. MOR is said to be cheesy, corny, square; it doesn't challenge ethics and mores the way "the great rock......

In contrast to the grimly gangling scarecrow that peers from his album covers, singer-songwriter-novelist-poet-playwright and occasional actor Nick Cave seems, at the ripe old age of 41, a relatively happy man, inquisitive and full of dreams. Yes, he's had to work for it; no, it hasn't been easy. With the......

Beanfield: Beanfield (Streetbeat) Munich trip-hop techno-funk electro-whatsit trio, tres cool due to their ultra-controlled thoughts about the space surrounding their oily pulses and airy, mechanical voices. Beanfield's got plump synth bass and funk-not-hip-hop drum sequences, minimal parts drawing the essence from the classics for max effect. Tossing in the electric......

Sitting around House of Pies talking the big issues with Susan James, scorching guitarist, transcendent vocal stylist and ace musical thinker. Loaded with talent, she is, and a hard-charger, too: This week she’s releasing a new CD, Fantastic Voyage, on her own Red Letter label, and it’s a double album......

Kevin Ayers is a rather cultivated, somewhat self-effacing British man somewhere in his 50s. He is by occupation . . . call him a singer-songwriter. Which is to say, he does do that if pushed, but he'd much prefer to snorkel in the Mediterranean, sip a glass of sangria, read......

In Tehran, the graffiti appeared on a wall near the university: "Andy." Authorities scrubbed it away; it reappeared a day later. This went on for some time, and the phantom scribbler was never apprehended. So the wall was torn down. Young women in Tehran, on their way to forbidden private......

Holger Czukay vs. Dr. Walker: Clash (Tone Casualties) Basically, the editing of spontaneity marks the separating point of the new way of making music from the old, and Clash’s shaped explosions of freestyle electronics and beats are absolutely state of the art; each and every note counts, as in the......