Page 10
Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, February 24, 1982
Arts & Entertainment
'Glassworks': Violins and hoagies
By Bob Crisler
Philip G lassG "lassworksCliS
As one whose idea of culture is a bot
tle of Foster's Lager over a table lit by
the sweet ambience of a Fourth of July
sparkler, with a Tee-Vee Records Tchai
kovsky collection spinning softly in the
background, I was amazed that I actual
ly liked Philip Glass's latest album,
Glassworks.
Violins, woodwinds, and other in
struments of the symphony I usually
associate with highbrow efforts, out of
touch with reality. High art is high art,
but the great majority of symphonic
compositions written nowadays amount
to nothing more than elaborate musical
masturbation.
Not so with Philip Glass. He is aloof
from the stuffy modern-day conven
tions, yet not so far out in left Field that
Carnegie Hall doesn't book him occa
sionally. Far out enough, though, that
he is a major draw at chic Manhattan
venues such as the Peppermint Lounge.
Philip Glass is not preoccupied with
what has been done before. Instead of
regurgitating old ideas and themes,
Philip Glass creates art that is distinct
ly his and his alone.
The Julliard grad and consummate
artist (he has also composed a pair of
operas, Einstein on the Beach and Sat
yagraha) was quoted in a Life magazine
interview as saying "I'm not worried
about immortality. Let other people
worry about such things. Some compos
ers are always concerned about where
they rank next to Beethoven and
Brahms. I have other things on my
mind, like putting my kids through
school and paying the taxes."
Philip Glass has his feet on the
ground, and from there his musical spir
it roams free. His compositions begin
simplistically, repeating a harmony or
progression over and over until he has
the notes dancing in the air, echoing off
the glass-and-steel walls of Manhattan,
where he lives.
Too often "serious" composers be
come caught up in the world of their
high-society following. According to the
Life account, a Wednesday afternoon
found Glass hanging out on the Lower
East Side, in T-shirt and jeans, eating a
hoagie. Ya gotta love 'im.
Glass reflects the starkness of urban
America in his works and through them
carries the pulse of the big city to any
one who might want to listen1.
Listening alone is not enough. Glass
works involves; it hypnotizes. Repeti
tion is not often considered an attri
bute, but Glass takes simple harmonies,
bends them, pokes at them, until they
are finally metamorphosed into some
thing on a much grander scale than their
humble beginnings.
Glass is often called a minimalist, and
for good reason. His productions are
spare and introspective - engaging not
for their rhythms, but rather for their
simple beauty.
To promote the new LP, Glass be
gan a Glassworks tour in February, and
according to the presskit, will make an
appearance in Lawrence, Kan., Saturday.
f) Album
y Review
7 V 1
I i
z L ri y
Philip
'Nick the Knife'
sure to contain
Top-10 hit songs
By Pat Higgins
Nick LoweNick The KnifeColumbia
Nick Lowe is Avis to Paul McCart
ney's Hertz. Lowe tries harder. Nick the
Knife is the latest in pleasant, listenable
solo records by Lowe, who may well be
the best pop craftsman around.
It could be that the mass success of
Lowe's hit last year, "Cruel to be Kind,"
(it was even on KFOR) has been the chief
inspiration for Nick the Knife. Potential
pop hits are all over the album. About the
only drawback is that Lowe has lost his
sense of humor and irony , which used to
be his forte. Conventional pop songs with a
twisted sense of humor are fun.
Lowe has had great taste in associates
over the last five years. He produces Elvis
Costello and does a superb job of it. Rock
pile, his previous group, was th great
mainstream hope for championship status
in rock 'n' roll. Unfortunately, they fell
apart due to the usual personality conflicts.
iTKMnvf
i! !! ft
Photo courtesy of CBS Records
Glass
His wife, Carlene Carter, is a descendant of
the Carter family and stepdaughter of
Johnny Cash. Lowe also produces her rec
ords. Wife sings backup
The basic band on Nick the Knife in
cludes Carter on backing vocals and ex
Rockpilers Terry Williams on drum and
Billy Bremmer on guitar. Elvis Costello's
Attraction Steve Nieve is on keyboards and
Marty Belmont of Graham Parker and Gar
land Jeffrey's Rumour is on guitar.
As could be expected from Lowe's
prowess as a producer, the overall sound is
crisp and clear. The redeeming rocking
value is chiefly provided by the drums of
Terry Williams, which consistently boom
out during even the most cloying pop
songs.
If AM radio programmers have any
brains, which of course is debatable, most
of the songs could be monster hits as they
combine wholesome "Moon-June" type of
lyrics with Lowe's sincere vocals. Personal
ly, I miss him singing "Crest Motel . . .on
drugs," but that isn't the way to get Top
10 exposure.
Wholesome approach
Two songs have the word "heart" and
two have the word "kiss" in the titles, a
complete indication of Lowe's wholesome
approach. "Heart" is a remake of the
Rockpile song and is done in a pseudo
reggae manner. The only drawback is that
Nick enunciates too well for reggae. "Zu
lu Kiss'' is a fast and loud tale of tribal lust
with appropriate jungle moans.
"Stick It Where the Sun Don't Shine"
is the most straightforward rocker on Nick
the Knife. It has a sing-along chorus con
cerning gossip and innuendo. Lowe rocks
so well that he should do it more often.
This is a good, well-polished record. Per
haps Lowe should try for some more spon
taneity and rough edges - but that is only
a quibble. In the record jacket it says to
file Nick the Knife under "popular vocal
ist," and that is absolutely on target.
'Slow Children'
sounds derivative
despite freshness
By David Wood
Slow ChildrenSlow Children I Ensign
The album Slow Children should have
come out at the time its songs were being
written, two and three years ago. It would
have been better to have heard it at a time
when Slow Children would have sounded
contemporary with the same bands of
which they now seem derivative.
For they are not latter generation New
Wave eclectics, the slow children of the
style. They have a good sound, an excell
ent sound even, when you keep in mind
the copyrights.
The music has a character of its own,
yet is in much the same spirit as early
Talking Heads or XTC. You can sense
the members are artist types, as indeed
they are.
Pal Shazar was doing illustration in
Los Angeles and Andrew Chinich, a New
Yorker, was an assistant to a Polish film
director when the duo met in 1976. When
Shazar later realized she liked Chinich's
song-writing and taste in literature, the
Slow Children team was created.
In 1978 they had a single out in Brit
ain, in 1980 an album. Jules Shear and Ste
phen Hague, formerly of Jules and the
Polar Bears, produced the discs and, to
gether with ex-Polar Bears drummer David
Beebe, provided much of the music for the
songs written and sung by Shazar and
Chinich.
But in this world, when the time is
right, new inventions often arise simultan
eously from unrelated sources. The happy,
dissected music of Talking Heads and
others had opened new expanses to be
explored.
Slow Children toyed with longer mel
ody lines, more Devo-esque electronics
and girl-boy harmonies a la the B-52s.
Yet on the other side of the globe, pursu
ing similar things, were the Plastics, Japan's
top new music act which one day, last
year, would appear at Lincoln's own
Drumstick.
Some of Slow Children's glory was lost
in its late release. At times the music
sounds like the Plastics might if they could
speak English better. Regardless, many of
the album's songs can stand on their own
enervated feet. Cuts like "Staring at the
Ceiling," "Brazilian Magazines," "President
Am I" and 'Too Weak at Eat" remain
catchy and fresh.
Others, because some of their catchiness
is borrowed, lose a little freshness in the
dea1. The chorus of 'Talk About Horses"
includes a few cords taken from the Cars,
and the opening of "She's Like America"
is lifted straight from Patti Smith.
The American release is only slightly
different from its British predecessor.
Two songs were dropped, all were re
mixed. At the time RCA decided to distri
bute the album, Slow Children were work
ing on a second album. A song from that
session is included on Slow Oiildren.
"Spring in Fialta" is fast, fun and remini
scent of Lene Lovich.
"Kicked out of school seventeenThey
say that I have got a plagiaristic tendency,"
Shazar sings on another song. "The profess
or is wrongI got a good mindI got a good
mind," the chorus argues. In the end, that
seems a fair assessment.
