Album interesting, not great
Phranc LP's concern for issues
uncommonly honest, rebellious
By Carter Van Pelt
Staff Reporter
I really didn’t have any idea what
I was getting into when I picked this
album from the A&E editor’s stack of
promotional CDs. I was in for a big
surprise.
Some of you may already be fa
miliar with Phranc, but I wasn’t. The
first thing that hit me when listening
to “Positively Phranc” was Phranc’s
very high voice. After about three
songs and a little reading of the lyrics
on die liner notes, it hit me: Phranc is
a she.
Lesbianism is an important
theme in all of her work.
Phranc’s music is nothing to scream
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Courtesy of Island Records
about from a technical point of view.
Most of the tracks feature Phranc
strumming an acoustic guitar and
singing. If one were forced to catego
rize her music, it would fall under
lesbian folk surfer music, an obscure
category to be sure.
Her music initially reminds one of
the Indigo Girls, but Phranc fails to
capture the quality vocals and guitar
playing found in the Indigo Girls’
music. The strength of the album is
in the honest lyrical content. Phranc’s
outspokenness of her lesbianism may
turn off the record-buying public, but
it is that outspokenness that is the
album’s main strength.
She deals honestly with her feel
“Positively Phranc”
Phranc
Island Records
Rating: 2 1/2
Ratings are 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent).
ings about other women on tracks
such as “Hitchcock,” where she
compares the woman she lows to
actress Kim Novak from the classic
film “Vertigo.”
One touching song is a ballad to
Billy Tipton, who was a “woman who
lived as a man.” Phranc’s admiration
of Tipton is shown with such lines as
“Billy, Billy Lee, Billy/God you were
brave,” and “I know how people judge/
and the mean things that they say/and
how being a woman can stand in your
way.”
Another interesting song is the
openly rebellious “Dress Code” in
which Phranc commands, “Don’t tell
me what to do/.. .Don’t tell me what
to wear/.. .Because I know who I am/
. . .And I’m outspoken and say that
I’m a lesbian.”
The album also contains an amus
ing tribute to writer/feminist Gertrude
Stein and a beautiful all-vocal cover
of the Beach Boys “Surfer Girl,” which
takes on new meaning when sung by
Phranc and her harmonic accompa
nist.
All things considered, “Positively
Phranc” as a musical work is not
necessarily great, but it is definitely
interesting. Phranc deals with issues
in an honestly rebellious way that
most modem rocksters don’t even
approach. This is admirable.
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Arb
Continued from Page 9
makes this song scary.
Whoever told Ko Ko she should
do the raps on “Cuttin’ Like Jason”
was wrong.
The best dar.ce track on the album
is definitely “Bump V Grind.” The
lyrics get a little bit racy as Ko Ko
raps about doing a bump and grind
dance. Besides being danceable, the
band uses some jazzy horns to make
the tunc more enjoyable.
The final song showcases band
member Idris Muhammad’s talents.
He is otherwise known as X-Calibur.
And the boy can rap. “X Marks the
Spot” is made up of a great dance beat
and flowing rhymes.
But once again, ARB borrows a
line. Remember the old Batman sc
'ries when the announcer says “the
same Bat lime, same Bat channel?”
Well, X-Calibur alters this to “the
same X time, the same X channel.”
ARB’s “The Hard and Soft” is an
upbeat and very danceable albu.a. Its
elements come together to create a
work that is, at most times, very en
joyable.
China
Continued from Page 9
soldiers on the joys of communism.
Then the trouble really begins. She
is accused of being a Christian, a
charge she never effectively rebuts.
So she gets kicked around a bunch,
almost loses the baby she’s pregnant
with and is forced to write a lengthy
rebuttal of her Christian upbringing.
Lam is granted a visitation visa to
go to Hong Kong. To assure his re
turn, Neng Yee is forced into a labor
camp until he comes back. The rest of
the movie details her efforts to escape
to Hong Kong with her remaining
child.
The story, which probably was
interesting when it first happened for
real, translates poorly to the screen.
It’s a good idea that is poorly exe
cuted.
Crossing
Continued from Page 9
the club seen in Prince’s “Purple
Rain” and has played host to the
likes of U2 and The Church. At
Seventh Street, they discovered that
a band was needed to play that
evening, and they agreed to till the
spot.
At the show, their sound was
mixed by Htisker Du’s old sound
man, who told tales of Grant Hart’s
heroin use and the band’s demise.
The show impressed the club’s man
agement, and their booking agent
asked them to come back and play
a show with his band.
Guitarist Adams said he felt Sev
enth Street “was the best gig, be
cause it was such an energy rush
(to play on the spur of the mo
ment).”
After spending Thursday in Min
neapolis, they departed for Mil
waukee in the evening and arrived
early Friday morning with a full
day before gig at the Unicom that
evening. The band wasn’t as pleased
with its performance that night,
which Adams said was hurt by a
combination of exhaustion and loo
much Mexican food. Irvin blamed
the free drinks.
Despite the mediocre showing,
the management was impressed
enough to want them to return.
The last date was set for Satur
day night at Chicago’s famous
Medusa’s. Adams said he felt it
was the most interesting show
mainly because of the culture.
“There were a lot of W.O.B.s
(wearers of black),” Irvin said.
Most of the crowd was there to
dance to recorded music and didn’t
- u
/ know everything I
need to know about
how to get along with
the other guys. It was a
lot of hard work, but it
was the good kind of
hard work.
Adams, guitarist
about first tour
-1» -
take much interest in a live band.
“Depeche Mode could have
played there live and people would
have rather been listening to re
corded music,” Adams said.
However, the show went well
enough and by that time the band
had already accomplished what it
set out to do. As an added bonus,
they met a guy named Terry who
was a former member of The Min
istry, U.K. Subsand Broken Bones.
Guitarist Arsenault said he thinks
the confidence level of the band
has increased a lot, and all band
members said they were pleased at
how well they got along over the
six days on the road.
“I all of a sudden noticed that
we had been together four days and
didn’t hate each other,” Irvin said.
Adams said he was encouraged
by the band’s tour.
“I learned a lot,” he said. ‘‘I
know everything I need to know
about how to get along with the
other guys. It was a lot of hard
work, but it was the good kind of
hard work.
“I definitely see a future in it,
now that we know we can do it.”
Morrison
Continued from Page 9
ballads to be recorded in a long time.
This is great tonsil massage music.
As good as the first side is, the
second is even better. Morrison’s
arranging is fantastic, as is his play
ing. These tracks contain some of the
cleanest big band sounds to be laid
down. One would think it would be
easy to do that with overdubbing, but
it really isn’t. It’s actually harder to
gel separate tracks to match up at
tacks and releases than it is to get a
group to do it at once. Knowing this,
it makes the big band tunes sound
even better.
Again, Morrison demonstrates his
versatility and virtuosity, soloing on
many different instruments. He also
plays many different styles within the
big band genre. Starting off with “Le
Belleclairc Blues,” he demonstrates
great understanding of the limits and
potential of the big band, using sev
eral traditional motifs from the swing
era. Morrison also adds a very swing
ing tenor sax solo.
When Morrison switches to the
big band bal lad, he prod uces a smooth
sound, second to none. His piano and
alto saxophone solos are right at home
and play to his strengths in the “en
semble.”
The third cut on this side, an origi
nal arrangement of Antonio Carlos
Jobim’s “No More Blues,” is just
incredible. Morrison creates a eupho
nium “choir” to create a full, yet
smooth sounding backing for his solo
wont, rooming uxeims has ever been
heard.
On the final track, “Old Rugged
Cross,” Morrison perfectly re-creates
the sounds of a New Orleans funeral
march band. His soloing is unobtru
sive, and the brass choir plays with
incredible melancholy without being
depressing.
Morrison’s ability to solo on all
the different instruments is amazing.
Many people can play more than one
instrument, but few can attain ade
quate confidence and ability to feel
comfortable soloing as Morrison does.
However, Morrison is most at ease
when he is soloing on trumpet, as
evidenced by his ability to stick a
screaming G to open the album with
“You Are My Sunshine.” Through
out the album, the trumpet licks are
more impressive and noticeable than
the other instruments—but Morrison
plays so well, it doesn’t matter.
Maybe what makes this album work
so well is that Morrison stays within
himself. He never tries to do things
that are beyond his ability, especially
when he tries other instruments. Many
jazz players seem to think that to play
well, they have to have perfect tech
nique and be able to play extremely
difficult licks. Morrison realizes that
the beauty of jazz is feeling and get
ting inside of the music, not playing
higher, faster, louder.
This album has something for
everyone. Morrison truly understands
jazz, and he understands technology.
He has embraced both, and brought
them together to create a superb al
bum steeped in tradition — but only
possible in the ’90s.
An entirely subjective and over
used complaint about any movie is
that the acting was bad, but never has
such a judgment been more appropri
ate. “China Cry” re-defines the arena
of miserably acted films. There is
scarcely a believable performance in
the whole movie.
Nickson-Soul and Wong arc per
haps the best two actors in the show
but that’s not saying much. Choosing
the best actor in this movie would be
like choosing the best pimple on your
chin. To say the acting was stilled is
almost a compliment when compared
to the film’s other performers.
Like most American movies that
involve foreign locales and foreign
languages, the dialogue is in English.
The problem is that the background
dialogue is almost always Chinese.
This results in scenes where two major
characters are chatting along in Eng
lish while the people around them are
speaking Chinese. This inconsistency
is distracting.
The movie drags and drags, mak
ing its point far too well. It becomes
obvious that some bad things hap
pened during the revolution but the
movie seems intent only on proving
just how bad it was.
There are several scenes that arc
entirely irrelevant to the development
of the main story line. In one such
scene, we see an army commander
fighting with one of his soldiers. Sure,
he kicks the hell outof him and maybe
it’s really cool, but the scene has
absolutely nothing to do with the rest
of the movie.
The two-hour movie (though it
feels like four) plods along to its
totally lame ending and is entirely
unsatisfying. If you desperately need
to waste $5, start that bonfire — but
do not go see “China Cry.”
“China Cry” is playing at the Plaza
4 Theatres, 201 N, 12th St.