Monday, December 8, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 7
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' 11,1 " ' Brian MaryUarty Nuiin n ; , ( J I
The Smithereens, "Especially
for You," (Enigma Records).
These four guys from NewJerseyfuse
harmonic, retro-inspired basement gui
tar riffs with infectious vocals on their
first full-length LP. Their 1983 EP
"Beauty and Sadness" was an under
ground collection of catchy pop tunes
that failed to achieve much recognition.
With a few videos on MTV and some PR
hype, they are enjoying national success
with their latest opus. And they deserve
to. Their smooth melodic tales about
girls and youth contain shades of every
thing from the Smiths and REM to the
Hollies.
Pat DiNizio's vocals are reminiscent
of early Elvis Costello with their whiny,
resonant tonal qualities. Tracks like
"Behind the Wall of Sleep" and "Groovy
Tuesday" wouldn't look out of place at
a 1965 fraternity party, but the band
injects enough modern technical gloss
to give them an '80s premise.
Folksy chanteuse Suzanne Vega
makes a cameo appearance on "In a
Lonely Place," a sepulchral weeper
that easily rivals the scholcky Top-40
duets that pervade the airwaves these
days. Pop music is often discounted by
the high-brow set because of its inherent
vacousness. But the Smithereens prove
that pop can be complex and actually
contain something other than technopop
synthesizer backdrops and trite lyrics.
On "Especially For You," they use the
guitar to its highest potential, adding
both danceable fire and coarse bar
band atonalities to keep listeners
compelled. They probably aren't going
to seduce a new generation of listeners
and gain a cult following like REM, but
there's still a lot of potential here.
Their veracity may eventually find them
a place among the more progressive
corners of the new music scene.
Scott Harrah
The Beastie Boys, "Licensed to
111" (Def JamCapitol Records)
New York's Beastie Boys started out
as a hardcore band in 1979, then split
up, reformed and churned out an EP,
"Polly Wog Stew." Once the advent of
hip-hop and rap music started invading
the New York music sensibility in the
t
it
I
'
5s
i i
1
early '80s, they decided to jump on the
beat-laden black bandwagon and start
scratchin' for the ghetto's sake. But
wait a minute . . . these guys are white
boys from the suburbs. White boys
doing black rap and hip-hop? Sound
unusual? Of course, and that's why
"Licensed to 111" is such a quirky little
masterpiece. It's incongruous, inco
herent, ridiculous and totally obnox
ious . . . and those qualities are exactly
what make it a success,
Rap and hip-hop are the antithesis of
music. Forget guitars and other con
ventional instruments. Rap and hip
hop have never needed them. A good
rap song is completely non-musical,
brandishing an arsenal or eerie, throb
bing electronic nonsense, "scratches"
and prepared rhythm tracks with
dubbed dialogue from old TV shows
and songs. Critics often say that the
two genres are mindless, but they
actually reflect the chaos and confusion
of the world's subcultures, which give
them high appeal in the black, gay and
ethnic netherworlds of the south Bronx
and lower Manhattan.
The Beastie Boys lift rap to new
ludicrous pinnacles with exaggerated
heavy-metal guitar riffs, unrehearsed
lyrics and hyperbolic outbursts of
emotion that are both humorous and
hilarious.
Cuts like "Rhymin" and "Stealin," a
funky send-up of subcultural klepto
mania and Ali Baba, and "Hold it Now,
Hit It" are satirical slices of the genre's
absurdities. On one song, a Beastie Boy
suddenly stops the music and screams,
"hey, let me clear my throat!" That
unexplained conniption sums up the
spontaneous, yet inventive spirit that's
imbued throughout the album.
Run D.M.C. brought rap to the main
stream this summer, proving that the
genre is more than a passing under
ground gimmick. The Beastie Boys,
with their hardcore background and
incessant sense of wit, have embellished
the rap rose even more, giving it the
substance and whimsicality that will
take it into the future and polish it for
subversive posterity.
-Scott Harrah
See REVIEW BOARD on 8
V.
.if" 4
X
Courtesy of Enigma Records
World-renowned pianist
Andre-Michel Schub, grand prize
winner of the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition in 1981, will make
an unprecedented third appearance
with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra
on Tuesday. The performance will be at
8 p.m. at O'Donnell Auditorium, 50th &
Huntington streets.
The orchestra, under the direct ion of
Robert Emile, will open the program
with the overture to "Russian and
Ludmilla" by Glinka. Schub then will
play "Concerto No. 21 for Piano and
Orchestra, C Major" by Mozart, familiar
to many as the theme from the film
,cy.
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Covert. :;:..!: !L: :r.;w will te
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V Vw iiviy VJl IU U i l !1L J If
. MUJJ
vii'Llii U.
Now you can save
money on a PC and still
get IBM quality.
Because we're
selling the original IBM
Personal Computer
complete with two
diskette drives,
monochrome monitor
and adapter at our
lowest price ever.
50 it you n
in a crunch for a
computer, stop in.
We've got your
numbers.
Last chance for graduating seniors to buy at student prices!
THE COMPUTER SHOP
Nebraska Union Lower Level
"Elvira Madigan."
After intermission, Schub will be
heard in the "Symphonic Variations for
Piano" by Cesar Franck, described as
"a flawless work and as near perfection
as a human composer can hope to get
in a work of this nature (i.e., a con
certo)." The orchestra will conclude with the
colorful, spectacular tone poem "The
Pines of Rome" by Respighi.
The performance will be seen in a
delayed broadcast on NETV, channel
12, Dec. 20 and 23.
X.: Mother's Cij
iM:'.i-
f.dJ's t;;i:i TLrre's no cover.
"Sixteen Candles," the r.iovic thiit
made Ar.tho;y Mii-iuiel Hall, Molly
Rinjiu d.I and director John Hi;hes
famous, shows tonij;!.t ;;t 7 on V(JN
channel 1
The original "Beau Geste," st;:r
nr;j, ("terv Cooper, plays on V(iN
iiiiiillby.
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a niiiimiimiii
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to perform
In addition to his triumph at the Van
Cliburn competition, Andre-Michel
Schub won first prize at the 1974
Naumberg International Piano Competi
tion and received the Avery Fisher
Prize in 1977.
He has performed with the world's
leading orchestras, among them the
Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony,
Cleveland Orchestra, Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, New York Phil
harmonic and the Philadelphia Orch
estra. Liter j.t 11;:::) p.r.t.
1'NL ,slu.!rr,t IXUy .!. (l!i-!.:.i-)
Colbert, a rt-zzu-soprano, will -res-ent
a p'aduate recital at i:')s) p.m.
Tuesday in the West brook Music
Building recital hall. The program
will include Xavier Moutsalvatge's
"Cinco t-anciones N'egras," Cana
dian composer. Robert Flenuning's
'The CtmfeshioH Stone" and 'Tlie
Son-s of rav."
The Smithereens
