Tuesday, November 25, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page ,5
1
So mmcln for socialism
Tlie Fountainhead holds to a refreshing dance sensibility
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The Red Hot
World 's blackest albino
to play at the Grove;
New legends at the 'Stick
Preview by
Charles Lieurance
Diversions Editor
There are two kinds of blues.
One, the more sanitized variation,
was played by black musicians who had
culturally capitulated to rich white
folks and mobsters. This cleaned-up
hybrid of blues and slick jumpin' jive
was the favorite at inherently racist,
ever-popular Harlem night spotS like
Band Previews
the Cotton Club. Here, black performers
like Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson and Duke Ellington catered
to the rich white whim and paved the
way for the virtually soulless Big Band
Era.
Differences
The other kind of blues was more
ragged, more rural and far more segre
gated. Listen to the difference between
the blues of Muddy Waters, Elmore
James, Big Bill Broonzy and Howlin'
Wolf and the blues of Big Joe Turner,
Count Basie, Jay McShann and Cab Cal
loway. Note the difference between the
jazz of Coltrane and Charlie Parker and
the jazz of Duke Ellington and Fats
Waller.
The blues of Waters, James and the
Wolf are underground, black music for
black people's whims and struggles. It
is full of images of hellhounds, murder,
damnation, adultery and self-destruction.
On the other side of the tracks the
music was full of hep jive that trans
lated to the vogue ear as "party 'til the
cows come home."
White people haven't done much in
the way of influencing the rough-hewn
urban or delta blues styles. At best
they've been financially fit enough to
produce albums by the struggling blues
artists or in the case of people like the
Rolling Stones, John Mayall and Eric
Clapton, popularize the form, diluting
it or jumping it up for whit e listeners.
Old Man Winter
Johnny Winter is an exception. Win
ter was able to popularize, to produce
and to innovate, to move the urban
blues forward to plateau that despitte
the integration it represented, was still
gut-wrenching and capable of writhing
'round every sinew of a person seriously
possessed by the blues.
To Muddy Waters' trademark stop
time electric blues, Winter added razor-
Courtesy of Willard Alexander, Inc.
Chili Peppers
edged spontaneous leads that pulled
the stop rhythm together and filled the
ominous spaces with hellfire, capable
of collapsing to an exhausted electric
whisper with the sudden changes in
mood that make the urban blues so
evocative.
For the clearest example of Winters'
artistry listen to the numerous versions
of Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" where
Winters is not on lead guitar. Then
check out "Muddy Waters Live" and
listen to the riff catch fire.
Winters' solo albums are constant
innovations of the standard urban blues
guitar style.
Winters will perform with his band
at the Royal Grove tonight. Despite the
venue, which caters mostly to rock
stars on the brink of extinction or ones
that should never have existed, the
albino brother of hitmaker Edgar Win
ter is still at the mighty height of his
powers.
The legend will cost you $10.
Peppers and monsters
If you tastes run to less traditional
forms of music, the Drumstick is host
ing a major musical event, a monster
jam featuring Thelonius Monster, TSOL
and in headline position Los Angeles'
Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Monster's debut LP came out this
year and featured some of the best wall-of-whiskey
sound to be captured on
vinyl since about ten million bands in
the late '60s backed their parents'
Chevy Bel Airs down the driveway and
turned the family garages into make
shift recording studios. Monster com
bines gutter blues, hardcore and blitz
pop in a frenzy of three buzzsaw guitars,
swarming around a storm-troopers-in-steel-culverts
beat.
TSOL were True Sounds of Liberty
back in the earlier days of hardcore and
. have now relinquished the old loud and
fast in favor of the new slow and menac
ing. The move seems mainly a matter of
changing haircuts, whereas the band's
lack of ideas was once camouflaged by
distortion and velocity, the new sound
shoves this fact right into the fore
ground. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are
raunch-funk, sort of a combination of
Iggy Pop and James Brown. Guitar
based jagged funklines rip up, down
and through the monstrous yelp and
rap of the big red pepper. In early times
white people with energy and soul like
this were put into hospitals.
S 10 for a legend and S8 for legends to
come. Shows start at 9 p.m.
By Chris McCubbin
Senior Reporter
Now that's something you don't see
every day in these parts Irishmen
playing gothic disco. Nope, we don't
see that too often at all.
In your English classes you may hae
run across Ayn Rand's socialistic novel,
"The Fountainhed." Well, the band The
Fountainhead, playing this Wednesday at
the Drumstick, 574 N. 48th St., has
nothing to do with that.
According to the band, they just
needed a name in a hurry, so they sent
their manager to thumb through the
Band Preview
dictionary. "The Fountainhead" looked
good. They'd never heard of the novel.
So much for socialism.
As a matter of fact, at a time when
Irish music is dominated by hyper
political bands like the Pogues and U2,
The Fountainhead's raw determination
to hold to a pure dance sensibility is
almost refreshing.
The Fountainhead is Pat O'Donnell
and Steve Belton. They started playng
together in Dublin in 1982. Their most
significant work at this time was pro
viding the sludgy production for the
novelty death-rock band, "The Virgin
Prunes."
By '83 they were, opening for major
acts like U2, Simple Minds and Depeche
Mode.
They dug up their name in '84 and
released their first single, "Rhythm
Method," which hit number five on the
Irish charts.
Their first album, "The Burning
Touch," came out last spring and made .
it to the U.S. this summer. On the
album they played all the instruments
themselves, but for their first American
tour they've put together a band,
O'Donnell and Belton handle guitars
and vocals, and they've brought a key
board player and rhythm section aboard.
The band said this tour is mostly
colleges and clubs. They said American
audiences are okay, but "They watch a
lot more than the crowds back home,"
O'Donnell said.
"They make you work," Belton added.
So far, the Fountainhead's gigs have
been confined to the coasts. Are they
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El belcho!
Daily Nebraskan staffers munched their way to victory over Pi Kappa Psi Sunday night at
Taco del Sol, 10th and Cornhusker. The two teams participated in "Ths Taco Sprints," a
Uico-esting contest held on vvssksnds. Tha DM tsam gobtlsd down 59 tcccs.
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The Fountainhead
apprehensive about coming here to the
home of John Cougar Mellencamp and
Charlie Daniels? ' !
"We really don't know what to
expect," they said, but the crew told
them people out here were friendly.
They said they're meshing well with
the new band and they'd probably keep
them around for the next album. Before
that happens there's a possibility they'll
cut a live EP of one of their LA. shows.
The Fountainhead's music is dance
rock in the CureDepeche Mode tradi
tion. Lyrically, the songs lie somewhere
between the former band's contrived
but clever spookiness and the later
band's utter vacuousness, quality-wise.
Courtesy of Chrysalis
When asked if other Irish bands res
ented The Fountainhead's very English
sound, O'Donnell dismissed the qus:
tons. "Essentially our sound is Irish,"
he said. "We come from Ireland."
"The Burning Touch" was an almost
unbearably snyth-heavy album, but both
of the frontmen say they only play gui
tar on tour, so no telling what it sounds
. like.
Prettyr derivative stuff, alt'toidBut
?whatthe-heck,"at least it's authentic.
The Cure or Depeche Mode aren't going
to be in town in the next couple weeks,
right? If you're into this kind of Brit
stuff this is probably as close as you're
going to get. c
Lindy StoryDaily Nebraskan
