Email Author Michael Batty

1996 Stories by Michael Batty

• Recordings

  published December 25, 1996

  Come Near Life Experience (Matador) You are perhaps aware that this record has been available for conspicuous consumption for... More >>

• Hear This

  published December 25, 1996

  New Year's at Home With all due respect to my fellow critics (in this proud publication and elsewhere), the pickings for New Year's... More >>

• Hear This

  published December 18, 1996

  Metallica's Christmas Party Not that you could get in, or, if you're anything other than a PR pucker-up or a die-hard hair farmer, that... More >>

• Blah Blah Blah

  published December 18, 1996

  Rock Hardware: 40 Years of Rock Instrumentation Edited by Paul Trynka Miller Freeman 144 pages, $24.95 There may be no... More >>

• Recordings

  published December 11, 1996

  Bush Razorblade Suitcase (Trauma) Instead of making the obvious invocation here -- namely, the indignant, sputtering... More >>

• Samples

  published December 11, 1996

  Silence! Yeah, but weren't they asking for it? I mean, however noble the intentions of the many West Coast just-add-a-cause charity... More >>

• Mediocre Sickness

  published December 4, 1996

  "Wesley Willis Art Joyride" ArtRock Friday, Nov. 22 Yes, there was "art," and there was "music" -- punctuation essential -- and... More >>

• Recordings

  published December 4, 1996

  Stinky Puffs Songs and Advice for Kids Who Have Been Left Behind (Elemental) Making fun of a preteen's artistic efforts (or... More >>

• Recordings

  published November 27, 1996

  Star Pimp Docudrama (Kill Rock Stars) Many hipsters relish butt-ugly folk art of the sort that decorates the cover of Star... More >>

• Samples

  published November 27, 1996

  The Accidental Onanist Behold pandering-as-marketing for classical music (or vice versa): Classical Erotica II. Wow -- old "erotic"... More >>

• Hear This

  published November 27, 1996

  Groovie Ghoulies Well, obviously. (Not that there's some sort of hipster oblique going on here -- one of those situations where you're... More >>

• Recordings

  published November 20, 1996

  Rig Rock Deluxe: A Musical Salute to the American Truck Driver (Upstart/Diesel Only) One has to wonder who the intended... More >>

• Wammies 1996

  published November 13, 1996

  SF Weekly's Alternative Music Awards Saturday, November 16, 1996 7:30 p.m. at the Transmission Theater Celebration and... More >>

• Hear This

  published November 13, 1996

  The Lemonheads Sometimes rock star drug addictions can seem so ... convenient. Bubble-gum provocateur Evan Dando's career (and those of his... More >>

• Samples

  published November 13, 1996

  Classical Gas How deep does the mire of public taste and commercial interest suppurate? Sounding the very lightless estuarine bottom may... More >>

• Recordings

  published November 13, 1996

  NakedMan San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (KAO Info Systems) I liked opera until I read translations. What before had sounded... More >>

• Recordings

  published October 30, 1996

  Mark Snow The Truth and the Light: Music From The X-Files (Warner Bros.) Canoofle Unorganized Flying Objects (Lazy... More >>

• Quashing Analysis

  published October 30, 1996

  "Silk Road: Asian Concepts in Jazz" At the Herbst Theater, Thursday, Oct. 24. The first noticeable thing about the people who'd come to... More >>

• Drowning in Pop

  published October 23, 1996

  John Cale, Red House Painters At the Fillmore, Tuesday, Oct. 15. Before show's start at the Fillmore, rows of chandeliers hung purpled... More >>

• Hear This

  published October 16, 1996

  Tool You'll notice among many metal acts a bent for the scatological. Though more pronounced in the lyrics of eternal sophomores like... More >>

• Recordings

  published October 16, 1996

  ZZ Top Rhythmeen (RCA) Nasty is the word on the streets. Old-style is the buzz. Gone back to the Rio Grande mud, they say.... More >>

• Samples

  published October 16, 1996

  Glug, Glug, Glug Yes, a corporation that regularly unleashes foaming tsunami waves of cheap, skunky, alcohol-poor, gut-mutating domestic... More >>

• Hear This

  published October 9, 1996

  The Gun & Doll Show Consider that most baneful (yet dishwater-common) of the curses invoked by feisty pop critics to gulag objects of their... More >>

• Recordings

  published October 2, 1996

  Hampton Grease Band Music to Eat (Shotput/Columbia/Legacy) Obscurity is the true lucre of the rock collector. Grubby paper... More >>

• Hear This

  published October 2, 1996

  Giant Sand Settling to the bottom of a slow-tempo bill like a desert toad in a fish tank full of molasses, Giant Sand's unassuming,... More >>