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Nirvana
David Geffon Company
Seattle’s infamous Nirvana has
shoved its new release, “In Utero,”
in the face of all those who doubted
the band’s ability to recover from
the popularity pit of despair.
The album bursts with the ener
gy that has endeared Nirvana to so
many fans, and yet it continues the
band’s mission to re-alienate itself
in the music world.
“Scentless Apprentice” and
"Tourette’s” are two noisy, chaotic
songs sure to disgust subscribers to
Teen Beat magazine.
But the band has not abandoned
its proven formula heard again and
again on songs like “Rape Me” ami
“Frances Fanner Will Have Her
Revenge on Seattle.” “Heart
Shaped Box,” a likely choice for
the album’s first single, plays on
catchy but evil melodies under
scored by Kurt Cobain’s diseased,
growling vocals.
These songs enter in suspicious
ly calm, then commence with
Cobain’s guitar on puree and base
ball bats in drummer Dave Grohl’s
hands. It has become a predictable
formula—but it is as powerful and
effective as ever.
“In U tero” combines free-form,
all-out Nirvana with raw, simple
[ tunes like “Dumb,” harking back to
. —~ww. .. . . ^ ^
3 -
“Bleach,” the band’s first album.
And for all those who firmly
believe Cobain is the master spewer
of nonsense, his lyrics are reprinted
in the liner notes of “In Utero.”
They are scary, but they do make
sense in Cobain’s unique, twisted
world.
Cobain and Grohl, along with
bassist “Krist” Novoselic — the
man not afraid to break out the fuzz
bass—prevail not as precise musi
cal technicians but as a tight band
with raw emotional power rarely
seen.
Old-time fans may not want to
admit it,butNirvanahasrisenabove
its skyrocketed fame and returned
to the music that got them there.
— Glenn Antonucci
Courtesy of Dali Records .
“Happy Days Sweetheart”
Ethyl Meatplow
Dali Records
No matter who you are — or
what socioeconomic class you be
long to—you have better things to
do with your money than buy Ethyl
Meatplow’s debut LP, “Happy Days
Sweetheart."
Ethyl Meatplow is a Los Ange
les-based trio which is not Quite
industrial, not quite funk, and not
quite interesting enough to warrant
any further labeling.
---~s-~J.( ... -- ... • -j
Without any good music or lyr
ics on most of the album, the band
is forced to resort to sound effects
and obscenities to generate inter
est.
Still, the four-year-old band’s
wild stage reputation has enabled it
to gain enough of a following to get
“Happy Days Sweetheart” on the
Billboard dance charts.
But there are less than a handful
of moments on this disc that justify
such acclaim.
“Devil’s Johnson” is a catchy
pop song with anti-crack lyrics,
and “Feed” sounds like Snoop
Doggy Dog jamming with the cast
of Hee-Haw; but that’s as close as
Ethyl Meatplow gets to making
good music.
The disc starts and ends like a
punk record. The opening song,
“Suck,” features a lot of angry shout
ing and the closing song, “Sad
Bear,” is almost all feedback.
Although Ethyl Meatplow de
serves credit for trying something
different, they only prove that they
make as bad a thrash band as they
are a dance band.
The band tries in vain to hold the
listener’s attention with variations
of its industrial-funk style, includ
ing a remake of the Carpenter’s
“Close to You.”
It’s always fun to do covers of
cheesy ’70s songs, but this effort is
neither funny nor good, forcing one
to ask, “What’s the point?”
The press release for “Happy
Days Sweetheart” encourages the
listener to “Eat it, wear it, love it,
lick it.” That’s fine; just don’t buy
it.
—Bryce Glenn
New science-fiction
story twists, turns theme
i • * * ■ ■
“Virtual Girl”
Amy Thomson
Act Science Fiction
The story of man creating life in
his own image is the basis for one of
the oldest sci-fi tales, Mary Shelley’s
“Frankenstein.”
The theme is also the subject of
Amy Thomson’s redoing of that
theme, “Virtual Girl.” Despite the
vintage nature of the topic, Thomson
still gives it a good turn.
Set in a twenty-first-century world,
where global warming has inundated
coastal cities and Artificial Intelli
gences are outlawed, “Virtual Girl”
centers on the robot Maggie. Maggie
was constructed by computer genius
Arnold Brompton, who is in hiding
from his tyrant, billionaire father.
Unable to get along with most peo
ple, Brompton builds Maggie for com
panionship. He also creates the AI out
of a sense of pride and his general
tendency to break the law.
At first, Maggie’s programming
has a few bugs, but eventually
Brompton socializes her to the point
where she can pass for human. Forced
to flee from his father’s security,
Brompton and Maggie take to hop
ping freight trains.
Their luck runs out when they are
accosted by a mugger. When
Bromptom is severely wounded,
Maggie kills the mugger.
Thinking her creator is dead,
Maggie flees, losing part of her mem
ory in the process.
Her wanderings take her to the
remains of New Orleans, where she
meets Turing, another AI, who un
locks her memory and more fully
integrates her personality program
ming with her security codes.
Maggie discovers that Brompton
did not die and is now head of his
father’s corporation, which builds
computers. Under Brampton's guid
ance, the company tries to get the
robotics laws lifted—so the compa
ny can corner the market.
Maggie eventually is reunited with
Brompton, but it is a confused and
bittersweet reunion. Maggie gets an
overhaul, and she gives Turing a pro
totype body.
Thomson’s first novel is a worthy
debut with a readable style and just
enough computerspeak to make it
believable, but not so much as to
make it unintelligible.
Her characters,especially Maggie,
are well drawn, and the process by
which Maggie goes from complete
innocence to worldliness rings true.
“Virtual Girl" is an excellent short
read.
—Sam Kepfield
University Program Council
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