DAVE ALVIN FIGURES HE’S BEEN AN UP-AND-COMING artist for about 18 years now. Those who look to mainstream radio for new music may have never heard his California-inspired Americana folk rock stylings. But critics who have are mentioning Alvin’s name…

BRIAN MOLKO, FLAMBOYANT FRONTMAN FOR inventive London psyche-rockers Placebo, swears that North America is safe from his band’s reported debauchery. His agent, Rob Prinz of Creative Artists Agency, need not worry about his client. Despite U.K. press reports of excessive…

IN THE QUIET TOWN OF KENTWOOD, LA., WITH its population of less than 3,000 residents, two events marked the middle of 1998: State lottery records revealed Swifty’s gas station was the top seller of Powerball tickets for the second quarter,…

LIFE HAS CERTAINLY CHANGED RADICALLY for Shawn Mullins. Not too long ago, he was pulling his van into a city, finding a campground, spending the day checking out the town with his dog, Roadie, and then wandering down to the…

NEW RADICALS’ MASTERMIND GREGG Alexander is on a mission. The Michigan-born singer, songwriter and producer is determined to use music as a platform from which to speak his mind, air his grievances, shake up the system and talk some sense…