April 1987
CONTENTS
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Guitarist Bob Stinson is no longer with the Replacements, who will evidently continue as a three-piece. As we go to press, the ’Mats are at work on their next album for Sire—they’ve returned to Minneapolis’s Blackberry Way Studios, the site of their earlier recordings for Twin/Tone, including the masterful Let It Be.
CHRISSIE HYNDE, WITHOUT CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
deborah frost
There was the time, in 1975, Blue Oyster Cult was trying to have a peaceful dinner in Paris and this chick walked across the tables and their dinners...
Creem Profiles
OMD
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
LETTERS
On the surface your letter (CREEM, November 1986) justifying your campaign to censor rock was surprisingly convincing. I’d almost be ready to fall for your concerned mommy act if it weren’t for what your group says they really have in mind.
RECORDS
Jon Young
Amidst all the jabber about a resurgence in American music, have you noticed how timid a lot of the bands seem? Without mentioning names, it’s obvious our home-grown rising stars often have too strong a sense of history, think too much, and, above all, don’t know how to get down.
PRIME CUT
Billy Altman
With a client list that has included, over the last few years, the likes of Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Marshall Crenshaw, the BoDeans and Peter Case, TBone Burnett has rather emphatically established himself as one of the most important producers fighting the good fight for rock ’n’ roll in the 1980s.
HOW MANY LABELS MAKE FOUR?
Michael Davis
Traditionally—and what band is more tradition-minded than these guys?—the Kinks have always done good work when they’ve changed record labels. Muswell Hillbillies was probably their strongest album for RCA, while Sleepwalker, their Arista debut, sounded better than any of its immediate predecessors.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
ROBERT CHRISTGAU
The wisecracking arrogance of this record is the only rock ’n’ roll attitude that means diddley right now. With the mainstream claimed by sincere Craftspersons and the great tradition of Elvis Presley, Esquerita, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Madonna sucked into a cultural vacuum by nitwit anarchists and bohemian sourpusses, three white jerkoffs and their crazed producer are set to go platinum-plus with “black” music that’s radically original, childishly simple, hard to play, and accessible to anybody with two ears and an ass.
45 REVELATIONS
Swift kicks in the year-end (1986 in review): 1986 may have been the year I finally, after 26 years of devoted listening, started to sour on Top 40 radio. I’m sure it’s temporary—I still had plenty of CHR faves last year, and ’86s’ roster of hits is far superior to the entire decade of the 70s.
Rock-a-Rama
Rock-A-Rama
This month’s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Jon Young, Richard Riegel, Michael Davis, Dave Segal, Bill Holdship and Chuck Eddy
ELEGANZA
John Mendelssohn
We’re reading a recent Southern California edition of BAM, the free West Coast pop periodical to which so many of your fave CREEM contributors contribute so much. Rather than this particular issue’s wry look back at the ’70s, though, we’re looking at local clubs’ advertisements.
BRAGGING WITH BILLY
Ira Robbins
For a homely socialist who—literally— couldn’t get arrested in New York a few years ago, self-described spokesperson-for-a-generation Billy Bragg has done alright for himself. “My mum’ll be getting the third gold record by Christmas, I should imagine.”
BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE OPTS OUT
NDY HUGHES
As I walk through the doors of the cavernous nightclub that will be home to Big Audio Dynamite and friends for the next eight hours, I’m greeted by the usual visuals that accompany a touring band. There’s the dance floor littered with flight cases and spare guitars, clusters of fans chatting quietly together, waiting for the soundcheck to end so they can get their albums autographed, roadies walking purposefully towards the stage carrying rolls of cable, and a leather jacketed Mick Jones walking towards me carrying a bunch of roses.
GEORGIA SATELLITES
Jeff Tamarkin
But so much for nostalgia. Rick Richards and his band, the Georgia Satellites, don’t have much time for that right now. No looking backwards when your own gold record might be just around the next backstage corner. But that’ll have to wait until Dan Baird, the other guitarist and founder of the Georgia Satellites, finishes a little reminiscing of his own.
CYNDI LAUPER: DOING THAT PRIMITIVE THING
Sylvie Simmons
She would have been born in the back of a New York taxi if they hadn’t crossed her mother’s legs and stuffed her back in ’til the hospital.
CREEM APRIL 1987 BERLIN
THE 1986 READERS POLL
Well, another year—make that another wonderful year—has gone by and, as always, it’s time for the results of another wonderful CREEM Readers Poll! It’s our 11th annual survey, for those of you who keep track of such things, and we can honestly say that this year’s results are possibly the best we’ve ever had, maybe.
Into The Groove with Debbie Harry
Kris Needs
Between 1977 and '82, hers was the face that melted a million hearts and the voice that creamed a string of hits for Blondie.
CREEM SHOWCASE
Dan Hedges
He’s the Baryshnikov of the bass. The da Vinci of da bottom end. As the nuclear-strength lower register of David Lee Roth’s thrills-n-spilis kamikazi, bassist Billy Sheehan cops equally from Bach, Boeing, Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton. The proverbial pickless wonder, he’s got the fastest fingers in the neighborhood.
New Gear
NEW GEAR
SEYMOUR DUNCAN 60 WATT CONVERTIBLE AMP Already well-known for their pickups, Seymour Duncan is expanding their amplifier line. Their new 60 watt convertible amp incorporates a two channel design allowing the use of any of 13 Seymour Duncan modules for customizing each channel's sound.
TAKE A WALK ON THE SYNTH SIDE
There was a time when state-of-the-art rock keyboards began with Fafisa and ended with Vox. These days, manufacturers like Yamaha, Roland, and Korg are unveiling microchip-based instruments on an almost hourly basis, with on-board capabilities stopping just short of being able to perform brain surgery and chew gum at the same time.
Centerstage
Beerly Wild
Dave Segal
IGGY POP St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI November 8, 1986
Creemedia
Paid Up Everybody's Tab
Daniel Brogan
THE FILMING OF CHUCK BERRY'S HAIL, HAIL, ROCK 'N' ROLL
They Wed, Therefore They Am
Rick Johnson
THE NEW NEWLYWED GAME (Syndicated)
Prime Time
Bite The Wax Tadpole
Richard C. Walls
Media Cool
MEDIA COOL
This Month's Media Cool was written by Bill Holdship, Rick Johnson and Joanne Carnegie
This Month In TV History
Video Video
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Billy Altman
The last time I broached the topic of politics in this space was back in CREEM's April 86 issue, when I put in my two cents worth of dissenting opinion on the subject of Sun City.
THAT WAS NOW, THIS IS THEN
John Kordosh
That Was Now, This IS Then
Clips
CLIPS
This month's Clips were written by John Kordosh
Newbeats
NEWBEATS
Harold DeMuir
Andy and Ivor Perry, the politically-precocious Mancunian brothers who lead Easterhouse, relish a good argument. I know this because, A) Andy likens the band's appeal to that of a heated adversarial exchange, and B) Andy and Ivor spend much of our allotted interview time (and then some) squabbling over philosophical technicalities, with the sort of unrestrained, superficially-venomous fervor that only siblings seem capable of.
Backstage
Backstage
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down