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' * By Paul Winner
Staff Reporter__
^ Hello, Cleveland . . . After a seven-year
absence, the legendary British rockers of
Spinal Tap are on the eve of releasing their
^ 13th album, “Break Like The Wind.” After
y reuniting at ex-manager Ian Faith’s funeral,
the boys found they weren’t doing much
lately and decided they’d better get back
> together in order to pay the bills. Apparently
Faith owed them a great deal of cash.
Nigel, David and Derek auditioned hun
^ dreds of drummers to fill the ever-vacant
spot leftopcn by the previous members. The
only requirements were both to know and
study the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Black
► Sabbath, and to be totally inflammable.
— Spinal Tap newsletter
Soul diva Whitney Houston is rumored to be
* with child these days. It seems the only
public company she’s been keeping has
been with other soul diva Bobby Brown...
► . Every little step he takes, indeed.
— Rolling Slone
In a surprising bid for artistic credibility,
^ teen dream Debbie Gibson took over the
I role of Eponinc, the angel with the dirty
.. I
Michael Weixel/DN
face, in the Broadway production of “Les
Miserables.” The only snag in the show was
the fact that hundreds of 12-year-old girls
were ticked because she didn’t do an encore
of “Shake Your Love.”
—Newsweek
Hard-core West Coast rappers Cypress Hill
have loaned their names and support to the
National Organization for the Reformation
of Marijuana Laws. NORML execs were
apparently pleased with the acquisition, since
previous celebrity Will Smith had to back
out of the deal. The news sent a shock
through the hard-core rap community, for
apparently, they were surprised that a group
of cx-gang members would support some
thing completely illegal. Well, duh.
— Much Music Fax
Protesters gathered outside of singer Paul
Simon’s final concert of his reunited
Graccland Tour in Johannesburg, South
Africa. Simon escaped from the fracas with
only a shoulder wound from a thrown rock.
Rumor has it that Art Garfunkcl was vaca
tioning there during the alleged incident.
Hmm . ‘. "
— Much Music Fax
OFFICER OF MARINES
-ELIGIBILITY
-TRAINING
-OBLIGATION
-GUARANTEED OPTIONS
STARTING SALARY
FULL TIME COLLEGE STUDENT
OR COLLEGE GRADUATE
ATTEND OFFICER CANDIDATES SCHOOL
NONE. UNLESS YOU ACCEPT A
COMMISSION UPON GRADUATTON
FROM OCS
AVIATION, GROUND OR LAW
UP TO $26^000
A REPRESENTATIVE WILL BE AT THE NEBRASKA UNION
FEBRUARY 5, FROM 10:00 A.M. TO 3:00 P.M. AND AT THE
MINORITY CAREER NIGHT FROM 5:30 TO 8:30 P.M.
OFFICER SELECTION OFFICE OMAHA, NE 221-3400
' * • . i ., f 4 * ‘ * . i.v Ulr • 4 «'*• i
' * • \ *
i Folk group’s overdone album
I leaves listener feeling flat
“Still Feel Gone”
Uncle Tupelo
Rockville Records
►
When Soul Asylum extinguished its own
punk fire and moved on to twang, it set in
k. motion a trend of country/rock fusion that
would be the staple of countless bands to fol
low (both in and outside of M inneapolis). Uncle
Tupelo, a St. Louis trio that writes folk songs
* within the framework of rock, is one of the
many acts to successfully mimic SA.
“Still Feel Gone,” is Uncle Tupelo’s follow
k. up to last year’s promising “No Depression,”
an interesting exploration of college rock themes:
alienation, remorse, alcohol, etc. By compari
son, “Still Feel Gone” is a major drag, flat from
the first track to the last, with only a couple of
good tunes in between.
In fact, the most that can be said for the
^ songs on “Still Feel Gone” is that they are
| amiable, which is a horrible thing to say about
any artist’s work. And unlike Soul Asylum or
even the Jayhawks, UT’s fetish for multiple
instruments (banjo, mandolin, accordion and
harmonica find their way into nearly all the
tunes) seems contrived and the clcctric/acous
tic tempo changes have no sense of urgency.
Instead the tracks just poke along at a pace that
is predictable and dull, dull, dull.
The herky-jerky “Watch Me Fall” and the
sometimes calchy “Still Be Around” aren’t
bad, despite being overloaded with drummer
Mike Hcidom’s staccato fills.
Ditto for “Punch Drunk,” a drinking anthem
that bounces between R.E.M. harmonics and
the slash and bum guitar noise of Dinosaur Jr.
The best of the lot is “Postcard,” which
features some nice lead work by frontman Jay
Farrar, whose thick, three-chord intro provides
one of the album’s few exciting moments. He
even manages to sound like SA’s Dave Pimcr
when he sings about “postcards from Hell.”
But the rest of “Still Feel Gone” is a mess,
lyrically overwrought with self-importance and
musically over-produced (A band with basi
cally folic roots should never sound slick).
For a rawer, truer sound, Uncle Tupelo’s
debut is a better listen. And for true art rock
passion, not to mention innovation, well, there’s
always Soul Asylum.
—John Payne
Book
Continued from Page 9
* pens 10 people.
It’s this very detachment that gives his writ
ing its impact. He refuses to force the reactions
k. of his readers.
Underlying everything is the sneaking sus
picion that merely by participating in our
“consumer culture,” we arc supporting the
r exploitation of the powerless.
i
But he’s struggling in these stories to bridge
the gap between what we believe and the things
we secretly know. He likely succeeds more in
some stories than others.
“In The Ait,” then, is hard to judge as
literature. It is much more an exploration of our
collective cultural unconscious. It’s a kind of
psychoanalysis of America.
Its stories serve as a powerful prescription
for the “sleeping giant” that is the United
States: Take two a day while symptoms of
apathy last.
-1
i wr .
Courtesy of Charisma
Buckwheat Zydeco’s “On Track” features the soul sounds of New Orleans and
lyrical blues.
Accordion artist on track
with cheery, spirited work
[
“On Track”
Buckwheat Zydeco
Charisma Records
In this age in which “industrial aggravated
techno-dance polka” is considered to be a le
gitimate musical classification, it’s nice to run
across simple music that you can inhale like a
breath of fresh air.
Zydcco can do that to you, sometimes.
Zydcco is a form of music that relics on the
sweet soul sounds of New Orleans and the
lyrical blues that come with them. If you’ve
ever heard of zydeco, there’s a good chance
you’ve heard the name Buckwheat right before
it. This is because accordion player Stanley
Dural Jr. has been using that moniker and
creating joyous tunes for years in the French
Quarter.
With his latest album, “On Track,” Buck
wheat Zydeco continues a long streak of creat
ing albums that attempt to capture, on a disc,
zydcco’s uplifting and rocking spirit. It’s a
dying art, and one that extremely few artists
attempt, but it still sounds pretty darn good.
Buckwheat’s strengths lie in his back-up
J band and the lightness with which it plays.
• III VI . - >
Both drummer Kevin Menard and bassist Lee
Allen Zeno construct a bubbling foundation
underneath Dural’s prickly accordion,creating
an intriguing sound of extreme opposites. They
arc balanced by Michael Mclchionc’s under
stated staccato guitar work, and the warm pocket
created by vocalists Angie Stone and Debbie
Cole.
The band jumps through arrangements with
laid-back ease, as when it takes on the tradi
tional “Midnight Special” and jams with trade
mark joy. The original compositions work fairly
well, with the tight “Funky Filly” being one of
the standouts. The only real misstep in the
collection is Buckwheat’s choice to cover the
Hendrix classic, “Hey Joe.” Hendrix through
an accordion? Not a pretty thing to hear. (Well,
actually, it’s pretty funny.)
If there is a definite problem with “On
Track,” then it is the fact that music like this
just sometimes docs not translate well from the
stage. The vibe created by musicians doing
bluesy jigs comes from actually being there
and witnessing what all the fuss is about. Al
bums do not do zydcco bands much justice.
Buckwheat is not likely to care, however.
He makes albums that bubble with his spirit, if
not his talent. Mark this as one of his better
attempts.
—Paul Winner
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