page 8
Wednesday, March 3, 1982
Daily Ncbraskan
Arts & Entertainment
Did Burton record an album or what?!?!
By Bob Crisler
Is That Charlie Burton . . . Or What?!?!
Charlie liurton & the CutoutsWild
To set the record straight, I've been a
Charlie Burton fan ever since I overcame
puberty.
In those post-adolescent years, for want
of something better to do, I'd hang out by
the door of the Drumstick or Zoo Bar as
Rock Therapy rattled the windows to get
the aural fix that kept my rock 'n' roll zy
gotes alive.
In time I acquired all three Rock Ther
apy singles, which are, incidentally, either
great or very good.
Since I turned 19 a few years back (with
a special "inhale my exhaust" to one Ralph
Kelly), I've been part of Charlie Burton's
loyal local following.
It is because of these allegiances that I
wired a polygraph (lie-o-meter for non
engineers) into the sensitive nerve tissue of
my earlobes to write this bit of rock 'n' roll
arbitration.
So every time I inscribe some outland
ishly adulatory comment about Is That
Charlie liurton . . . Or What?!?! the needle
leaps like a spastic kangaroo, and I "X" it
out. Honest. So here goes nothin'.
Cutouts vs. Rock Therapy
The first subject that must be addressed
here is the obvious and inevitable compari
son between the Cutouts and Rock" Therapy-
n
Basically, the difference lies in two gui
tarists and two styles of guitar playing.
Butch Berman gave Rock Therapy its
chops in a hot, prickly style that lent a
certain nostalgic rockabilly flavor to their
sound. Berman's still a force to be reckon
ed with locally, fronting the Excessives.
Phil Shoemaker,- the Cutouts' lead axe
man, was once drummer for the Boys, a
formulaic local band with a false-superstar
aura. Shoemaker is a fine guitarist, provid
ing a downhome, but nonetheless heavy
metal sound easily more accessible to the
masses than Berman's.
Bassist G. "Otto" Spalti and drummer
Dave "Rebel" Robel are thankfully still
slapping in the solid bottom and back that
is the foundation for everything else here.
Comparison to Jim Morrison
In the area, Burton's impassioned vocal
style and manic stage demeanor are legend.
Not too surprisingly, the national rock
press often compares him to Jim Morrison,
an exercise which is not totally off base.
Both exhibit(ed) an almost electric pres
ence, but where Morrison was self-aggrandizing,
Burton is self-effacing; he at least
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doen't sound like he is taking himself seri
ously. Of course, subject matter may have
something to do with that. Morrison's
songs were moody, mystical hymns, where
as Burton's arc always spiced with a shot
of humor, no matter the topic. They
sprout from his heart and take root in the
breadbasket of the Bible Belt.
Textbook rock Vroll
If there was a textbook definition of
rock V roll, Funk and Wagnalls might well
run a photo next to the entry in one of
2z
Album
Review
their future editions. Because he's a born-and-raised
Midwesterner, his music lacks
the pretensions of big city Megalopolis, and
is rock as folk music.
Everything here burns.
"All Gone" delivers a hellish thrust in a
chunka-chunka chuckwagon style, which
leads into the country love song authenti
city of "Even As We Speak".
What makes this the record that it is is
an exhibition of many styles; sometimes on
their own, sometimes in combination with
other scraps of musical history and innate
creativity.
"Rabies Shot" slows the band down a
bit for a flourishing flamenco guitar from
Phil Shoemaker that perfectly comple-
Photo by D. Eric Kircher
Burton
merits the lunacy of the song.
"Breathe For Me, Presley!" is an epic. A
tongue-in-cheek story of the death of the
King, it features some of the best lyrics
ever. One of my fave lines is this: "Deep
fried food made Elvis sick And too many
drugs from Dr. Nick!" The intent here is
not to make fun of Elvis; he did an ade
quate job of that himself in his later years.
Though most Burton songs germinate in
his imagination, "Rattle OK!" concerns a
current social issue. The song is about blue
collar America and going nowhere in labor
ious factory jobs.
When he writes a "love song", it's not a
ballad about drippy teenage romance or
any other tired theme. "1 Found My Baby
At A Garage Sale" is not a scenario that
comes to mind immediately when yours
truly thinks of "love", anyway.
The band's signature song, "Rock N'
Roll Behavior", doesn't sound quite as
primitive as it did on Rock Therapy's first
45, but its driving power is not diminished.
A bonus here is the enclosed, lyric sheet.
Burton's songs are invariably witty and in
telligent, but the raw energy he and the
Cutouts radiate live sometimes serves to
muddle the words.
Great concentration is evident on this
recording to make the pronunciation as
comprehensible as possible.
Is That Charlie Burton . . . Or What?!?!
is the best record I've heard in recent his
tory, maybe all history. Is this a great al
bum ... or what?
Value emerges
from third side
of XTC import
By David Wood
XTC English Settlement Virgin
The pepped-out pop of XTC retains
its shape and color in repeated wash
ings. Five albums later, it conies out
fresh. For XTC. to mature and to re
main porgressive have not been separate
directions. English Settlement, a double
album, attests to that fact.
Much of the music seems to be spruc
ing up earlier ideas - fine stuff, but
sometimes predictable. But jump to side
three. These four songs show a studied
sensitivity to many modern styles. XTC
magically fuses it all neatly into the dis
tinct style that certifies every song XTC
- good, choice and prime.
This stamp on the music doesn't de
fine the songs or limit them. Rather, the
songs define it. Their quality adds to its
value. And with the release of English
Settlement, shares should hold steady or
rise.
XTC's first album made a big splash
in small circles. When the second album
came outT the group had a regular fol
lowing, because of the cerebral artistry
and neighborly vivacity of the music,
some considered XTC to be England's
Talking Heads.
But with the third album, the com
parison ended. Talking Heads, expand
ing, broke through on their third take.
XTC meantime contracted. The music
became so obsessively clever it lost its
relevance. It didn't speak.
When the time was right, XTC miss
ed and remained cult. But the next al
bum, Black Sea, pushed the group clos
er to breakthrough success, and English
Settlement should do the same.
Side three should be made side one
verbatim. While I'm at it, "Melt the
Guns" - a six-and-a-half minute an
them, complete with dub dissolves and
rap breaks - should be a hit single, too.
As much as any song, "Melt the
Guns" shows a turn for the better that
that's heard throughout English Settle
ment. It speaks. It voices a medieval sec
ularism and guns-and-butter political
stand along the hard lines of the Band
of Four. But instead of sharp-toothed
dissonance, XTC's fatigues are melody
and How.
Two other songs show a second poli
tical allegiance, this one to English fav
orites, the Specials. "Leisure" shambles
into the issue of unemployment - "So
now I'm permanently drunk like the
rest of the race with Leisure" while
"Knuckle Down" takes on racial tension
with disarming good nature. The ska
beat kicks perfectly in step with the
XTC stamp of excellence.
Weaving in another brand of new
beat, the global poly rhythms of Talking
Heads' last album, is "It's Nearly Afri
ca." Jungle drums carry the message of
apocalypse - "Our civilization car is
running wildWho did you give the
wheel to? The fat man driving us over
edge of the nearest el iff -face. "
Tush sparks life, laughs into early morning TV
By Pat Clark
Bill Tush is back where he belongs, on early mornings
on WTBS Atlanta (Channel 8 on the Lincoln cable system).
Television Review
You probably don't know very much about Bill Tush;
there's no particular reason why you should, except that
he is a better entertainer than his anonymity would sug
gest. Tush has been the resident gadfly on Ted Turner's
Superstation for several years now. He is in the curious
status of being the man that Ted Turner likes too much to
get rid of, but not enough to leave at a steady job.
His current Droiect is The LiehterSide. a Sundav morn
ing stew of comic vignettes, a little bit of news, an old
movie, and just about anything else Tush wants to do (and
that Turner will let him do).
Insomniacs will recall Tush as the guy who a few years
ago read the early morning news for the Superstation. By
early, I mean 6 ajn. Atlanta time, 4 a.m. Lincoln time.
Tush lacked the grave demeanor and deadpan delivery as
sociated with the news, however. When it was mentioned
to him that he should have a co-anchor, like most news
shows have, he got a dog. Gave it a little suit and every
thing. Next came a nighttime effort called Tush, which was
kind of a poor man's Saturday Night Live. It wasn't a bad
show, but it suffered from head-to-head confrontations
with Sunday night homework, Sunday night dinner and
60 Minutes. So, Tush metamorphosed as a master of cere
monies on the ill-fated A tlantie City Alive variety show.
From there he rediscovered morning work on The Lighter
Side.
With The Lighter Side's format, Tush might have final
ly found his niche. That shouldn't be too surprising be
cause he writes all of the material for the show. He has the
rare advantage of knowing what he can and cannot do
Tush is best playing a kind of everyday, straight man
character opposite a series of fringe lunatics; or, converse
ly, as a character who for all intents and purposes looks
and acts like a straight man, but whose words and
thoughts belie a subsurface lunacy. He is also best off
when these characterizations don't last very long- 1C
would not for example, be able to parlay this character
into a half-hour show. With The Lighter Side, he doesn't
have to, as the format turns him from spotlight performer
to traffic cop before things get too bogged down But it's
hard to tell whether he will be piven enough of a clnnce
to succeed with this one, either.