Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of Sire
Royal Crescent Mob
Mob s talent fails to save boring release
By Carter Van Pelt
Staff Reporter
“Midnight Rose’s” marks the fourth
release from Columbus Ohio’s Royal
Crescent Mob, the first since 1989’s well
received “Spin the World.”
The group, which got its first studio
time by rigging a battle-of-the-bands
contest, has earned fame from intense live
shows and a sound that can’t quite be
pinned down. Unfortunately, its latest
release resembles a car’s reaction to
ethanol-blend gasoline. It basically just
sputters along and doesn’t really get
going.
“Midnight Rose’s” isn’t a bad album,
but it seems to lack any distinguishing
characteristics. The album does have an
almost unique sound, but this results from
a contradictory combination of elements.
Royal Crescent Mob has a reputation
for its rap/funk influences — it claims
The Ohio Players as its spiritual leaders
Royal Crescent Mob
“Midnight Rose’s”
Sire Records
Rating: 21/2
Ratings are 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent).
— but on “Midnight Rose’s,” that sound
is defeated by a sort of laid-back Texas/
Jack Daniels attitude. Both rap and funk
demand an intensity that just doesn’t mix
with lead singer David Ellison’s southern
drawl.
Not all of the songs are ruined by these
good-old- boyish overtones. The band
sobers up its sound enough by the end of
the album to produce the legitimately
I funky “Woodsnakc” and movin’-’n’
groovin’ “Timebomb,” both of which live
up to the band’s previous musical reputa
tion.
Looking for intellectual inspiration?
Don’t look here. The Mob admittedly
follows the age-old rule of writing about
ever-enlightening subjects — drinking,
cars and girls. The lack of profundity is
eloquently demonstrated by the redundant
“I’m sayin’,” in which Ellison repeatedly
bellows “I’ve got something to say/ But
the words ain’t coming my way/ I’m
sayin’.” It’s convincing after about the
second chorus of that kind of poetry.
The band can hold its own as far as
pure musicianship. All the songs, though
not musically complex, arc tight and fairly
well played.
However, good musicians and tight
playing are common enough these days
that they can’t be seen as this album’s
saving grace. Other than two good songs,
I “Midnight Rose’s” is basically a yawner.
Martial arts film
fails miserably
“The Perfect Weapon”
Starring Jeff Speakman, John Dye
Rated R
Rating 1 1/2
Ratings are 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent).
By Jim Hanna
Senior Reporter
Perhaps there is an unwritten Hollywood
maxim floating in the smog of Los Angeles that
says a person who is good in the martial arts
can’t be a good actor.
If so, it’s a damn sound maxim. There have
been no exceptions to this rule in the recent
history of American films. “Perfect Weapon”
is the latest movie to challenge this fundamen
tal law of nature and, like all attempts before it,
it fails.
Jeff Speakman joins his high-kicking bud
dies, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme
and Steven Seagal on the junk heap of miser
able martial arts movies.
Speakman stiffly portrays Jeff Sanders, a
character with the same first name (maybe he
couldn’t comprehend playing a person with a
different name).
banders is a driller who happens lo be a
master of kenpo karate. As the movie begins,
he drifts back to his hometown, Los Angeles,
and looks up his old mentor, Kim (Mako).
When Kim is killed by an organized crime
| thug, Sanders is naturally enraged and seeks to -
' dispense his own brand of kenpo justice.
Jeffs little brother Adam (John Dye) is now
a police officer in Los Angeles and his dad
(Beau Starr) is a police chief. They tell Jeff to
back off and let the law take care of Kim’s
murder. Oooh, that defiant Jeff will have none
of that, and he pursues Kim’s killers on his
own.
Along the way, he gets into a few violent
batdes with people who have nothing to do
with the story. Apparently, the movie’s crea
tors just wanted a few more fight scenes.
All of these unnecessary fights are but pre
cursors to the mother of all kenpo duels that
Jeff will have with Tanaka (Toru Tanaka), the
enormous, unbeatable bodyguard of the man
who ordered Kim’s death.
Movies like “Perfect Weapon” are sort of
like Mad-libs, those childhood puzzles where
you fill in the blanks to gel a different story.
This movie fits every formula cliche, from the
tough guy who is a renegade from the law to a
final battle with the ultimate bad guy (com
plete with a major fireball explosion) to an
unneeded love interest.
The film’s creators probably just look the
script from Jean Claude Van Demme’s last
movie, erased a few character names and changed
See PERFECT on 15
Brand spanking new Nova Mob
Ex-Husker vocalist resurfaces
By Michael Stock
Staff Reporter __
HUsker DU is back.
Sort of.
Sorry to get your hopes up — it’s
really Grant Hart’s brand spanking
new band, Nova Mob. It just sounds a
hell of a lot like HUsker DU.
“The Last Days of Pompeii” finds
ex-HUsker drummer/vocalist Hart
turning his talents to guitaring and
vocalizing. Nova Mob is a three-piece,
as all great Minneapolis bands should
be.
Hart’s first solo album from last
year, “Intolerance,” met mixed re
views. “Intolerance” featured some
great pieces of pop, but lacked the
direction in lyric- and songwriting
that Hart has found on “The Last
Days of Pompeii,” which is currently
on the British Top Ten album chart.
Nova Mob
“The Last Days of Pompeii"
Rough Trade
Rating: 4 1/2
Ratings are 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent).
Tracks on “Pompeii” vary from
the folksy acoustic strum of one gui
tar on “Introduction” and “Admiral
of the Sea (79 A.D.)” to the power
chords of “Wemher Von Braun” and
the title track.
The entirety of “Pompeii” is or
ganized like Hiisker Du s landmark
1983 concept double-album “Zen
Arcade.” Hart weaves a talc of post
war Germany and the destruction of
Pompeii to power his lyrics.
Songs like “Wernher Von Braun,”
“Where You Gonna Land (NextTime
You Fall Off Of Your Mountain),”
“Over My Head,” “Admiral of the
Sea” and “The Last Days of Pompeii”
Find Hail at his best as both a song
writer and guitarist/vocalist.
“Wernher Von Braun” opens with
a Hiiskcr-csque barrage of guitar power
chords. Michael Crcgo’s drums are
slammed and smacked in various ways
as Tom Merkl’s bass walt/cs a fancy
bass line.
Hart whips up a stirring, bitter
sweet love song in “Where You Gonna
Land,” conjuring images from “Back
See NOVA on 15
Courtesy of Rough Trade
