CONTENTS
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Now that all the worlds have blurred, this would be a fine time to check out Scout, a comic published by the high-quality Eclipse line. Lately the storyline has revolved around a burgeoning battle-of-the-blues-bands in a near-future Earth—a future in which the United States has degenerated, if you can believe it, into a third world country.
Features
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOUTHERN DEATH?
Kris Needs
The Cult have been onstage for half an hour now.
LETTERS
In regard to Deborah Frost’s unwarranted attack on Chrissie Hynde (CREEM, April ’87), and her accusation that Ms. Hynde “may help set the women’s movement back another hundred years,” I must say, I was appalled at Ms. Frost’s short-sightedness.
Records
AND THE GODS MADE LOVE...
Ira Robbins
Like some stray dog you find in an alley, Minneapolis’s Replacements are a scruffy mongrel of a band.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
ROBERT CHRISTGAU
Below find detailed explanations of why I like one Warner Bros. Minneapolis two-LP tour de force more than the other. But let me put it this way—the Prince has better lyrics. BAD BRAINS “I Against I" (SST) As a reggae band, they were a hardcore band with a change-up; as a metal band, they’re a hardcore band with a great windup and no follow-through.
45 REVELATIONS
KEN BARNES
It’s not as if I haven’t seen it coming. But the 7” 45 revoiution-per-minute single is welt and truly up against the wall now, and, as the Beach Boys once prognosticated about Wendy’s new boyfriend, its future looks awful dim. Part of me, the part that squirrels away thousands of 45s and attempts to write a column about them, against the tide of all American music journalism in the last two decades, is upset.
ROCK • A • RAMA
Richard Riegel
These guys used to be lost in the postNew Romantic ozone, but in a move worthy of Dylan himself, they’ve abruptly recreated themselves as feedback grunge masters, a hitherto under-represented faction among the psychedelic revivalists.
Eleganza
The Usual Batch Of Character Assassinations
John Mendelssohn
The principal singer and keyboardist of the KBC Band, Marty Balin and Tim Gorman, look, respectively, like Vidal Sassoon after a rough week and the bank teller you see picking his nose behind the “Business” section of USA Today on the bus to work every morning.
Double Or Nothing? It's The Thompson Twins
J. Kordosh
Question: “So do you get a thrill out of hearing your records on the radio?” Answer: “Thrill? We get a check!” Alannah: “Thomas!” And so it goes with the Thompson Twins, that “lyrics by Alannah, music by Tom” combo. The “Hold Me Now” hitmakers.
Suzanne Vega And The (Un)common Folk
Mark Jenkins
Suzanne Vega was a weird kid, by all accounts.
HIT THE ROAD WITH THE CULT
FIRST PRIZE Hang out with THE CULT!
HIPSWAY TAKES THE PLLINGE CROTCH DEEP IN THE HOOPLA
Bud Scoppa
How sweet it is to be wanted—first by lotsa major-label A&R types, then by radio programmers, and finally by people with cash in their pockets. So far, everything’s been falling nicely into place for the three (formerly four, but the bass player and his brother the manager got sacked at the same time) Glaswegian funkateers who call themselves Hipsway.
CALENDAR
TOM PETTY & The HEARTBREAKERS: LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS
Bud Scoppa
The two Petty girls are having a little disagreement somewhere on the grounds of the family estate.
Bachelor #2: Bob Pfeifer
Bill Holdship
There’s a new scientific report out that suggests a broken heart can actually lead to a fatal heart attack. Whatever the case, it’s true that heartbreak is a real drag, but it’s also true that art—both the creation and experience of it—can be real cathartic and helpful when it comes to dealing with (sigh) the end of a relationship.
Lou Gramm: A Jaunt To Dimension Solo
Chuck Eddy
Best way to kick this off is to can the corny suspense and letcha in on what the man told me, which I’m sure as shaving cream is what yer dyin’ to know: Foreigner is no more, kaput, zilch, a thing of the past, at least as far as Lou Gramm is concerned.
CREEM SHOWCASE
Billy Cioffi
How did you get involved with the Violent Femmes? Part of if was they were from Milwaukee. I had been working on my last solo album—which should be out soon, it’s all done—in Milwaukee because I had to go back and take care of my mother who had cancer, so I got to know them just a little bit.
CENTERSTAGE
Roy Trakin
Somebody up there must really like U2. Of all their contemporaries, from the Psychedelic Furs to the Smiths, from Big Country to Simple Minds, U2 has emerged as rock ’n’ roll’s great torchbearers, the band to transport us back to a time when music really mattered, when being a rock star meant a little more than hawking yer wares on a Honda commerical.
CREEMEDIA
Richard C. Walls
There�s something to be said for explicitness. This morning on the news I saw a story about a group in Alabama which won a court case in their ongoing effort to have religion �restored� to the public schools, particularly in the history classes where, they say, God has become a non-Person and the glories of His Earthly hierarchy remain unsung.
PRIME TIME
Richard C. Walls
True, cable has its limits. It�s best for watching movies, old and new, usually uncut and uninterrupted. It�s good for confirming one�s suspicion that the wonderful world of politics is dominated by scoundrels and idiots and their admirers.
MEDIA COOL
Michael Lipton
13TH ANNUAL CRITTER DINNER CREEM readers undoubtedly remember last year�s coverage of this spectacular event in scenic Dunbar, West Virginia. Well, the pomp and circumstance surrounding the 13th annual critter feast proved that this is an event whose time has come.
This Month In TV History
Creem Profiles
LOS LOBOS
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
Video Video
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
Billy Altman
I've been thinking lately that one of the more distressing signs that the music video scene has gotten itself stuck in neutral gear is the fact that the medium has, to date, produced so few real stylists.
NEWBEATS
Drew Wheeler
Saint Julian. Hmmm, that sure has a nice ring to it, but who am I kidding? The Pope�s not gonna go for this in a million years. In fact, if there�s only one sliver of truth to the stories about Julian Cope, former leader of Liverpudlian psychedelicists The Teardrop Explodes, then his chances for sainthood have already gone kablooey.
Backstage
Backstage
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down