■JsgSig. Akts^ENTERTAINMENT
Energetic Dead Milkmen rouse, punish crowd
Concert
review
Thcrc’sno crying over spilled milk.
The Dead Milkmen provided a big
reality check for the crowd gathered
at the Ranch Bowl on Monday night.
The entire concert was a twisted pub
lic service message dragged over 90
minutes of really eclectic music.
To prove their reality, the band
was mingling with the crowd before
the concert. Guitarist and vocalist
Butterfly Fairweather lingered in the
back, telling the story of the band’s
near fiasco in Yugoslavia.
After chastising Pearl Jam and their
loyal fans, lead singer and keyboardist
Rodney “Anonymous” said he had to
punish the crowd for flocking after
flaky bands such as the Spin Doctors.
“Well, Ethel, sell the bowlin’ ball,
we need tickets to the Spin Doctors!”
he screamed during the encore.
Rodney’s method of torture was
reading passages from his “favorite”
book, ajournal by Suzanne Sommers
Rodney proceeded to narrate some
interesting parts from the book high
lighting Sommers’ anatomical chal
lenges and triumphs.
Seeming irate, Rodney imperson
ated two of his other “most hated
musicians,” Bono and Frank Sinatra.
He had them driving away in Sinatra’s
car, which was, ironically, a“Bitchin’
Camaro,” the Milkmen’s most popu
lar college-radio hit single.
Rodney looked like someone still
recovering from a disco-fever/beat
nik parentage, and the rest of his crew
who all showed evidence of “travel
ing fatigue,” especially bean-pole
bassist 11070 (Dave Blood).
The Milkmen played a sporadic
run-through of songs from their first
album “Big Lizard in My Backyard,”
to their most recent “Not R ichard, But
Dick.”
Placing the band in a category is
virtually impossible. Although their
performance and musical style was
teetering on the edge of “modem
rock” alternative, they weren’t.
From Rodney’s harmonica solos
and psychedelic keyboard manipula
tions, to Fairweather’s almost cajun
guitar style, The Dead Milkmen were
alive with variety.
Rodney was very associated with
his audience. At one point he took the
initiative to bless his “disciples” with
a rather vogue-ish sign of the cross.
A very caffeinated band and one
most parents wouldn’t invite over for
dinner, The Dead Milkmen were so
down to Earth, they just may have
reached the core.
As for the opening band, Possum
Dixon, they sounded as if they spent
most of the ’70s locked in a basement
listening to Velvet Underground. If
Lou Reed and Kim Deal were to have
an illegitimate child; he would be
Possum Dixon’s lead singer.
Aside from looking like anemic
bleach boys, their musical and lyrical
talent was impressive. The Velvet
Underground must have helped.
Of course, touring with The Dead
Milkmen couldn’t hurt either.
— Paula Lavigne
Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman star in the tear-jerker “My Life.”
Manipulative filmdelivers desired affects
Comical elements,
Keaton add splash
“My Life”
“My Life” is a manipulative movie. The
story, the direction, the music — they all
manipulate the audience.
And that’s annoying.
Unfortunately, for the most part, the
manipulation works. The audience laughs.
and the audience cries. And it’s certainly not
because of the cardboard characters.
Michael Keaton is Bob Jones, a public
relations specialist who finds he’s afflicted
with incurable cancer. His lovely, young
wife—a terribly wooden Nicole Kidman—
is pregnant with their first child.
When Bob finds he’s going to die, he
decides to make a videotape for his unborn
child. Over the course of the movie, that one
tape turns into many, many tapes. In order to
explain to his child who he is, Bob must face
his family and his past.
Not an easy task for a man who cut
himself off from his blue-collar family in an
attempt to make himself a better person.
When all traditional medicine fails,
concerned wife Gail lakes Bob to a Chinese
doctor who attempts to help Bob release his
anger, accept his faith and find peace.
Another tough job for a guy like Bob.
Written and directed by “Ghost” creator
Bruce Joel Rubin, “My Life” is one
manipulative moment after another. Rubin
works tirelessly to wring a tear or a laugh out
of virtually every scene. Just because he was
successful writing “Ghost,” he shouldn’t
think he can direct.
Keaton is terrific and does as much as he
can with the little he is given, but he’s forced
toplay opposite Kidman, who walks through
her role. Every line is delivered with the
same flat, lackluster tone — even the ones
supposedly rife with passion or anger.
To its credit, the movie docs have some
nice comic elements, which is not a
particularly easy thing to accomplish in a
picture about dying. Also, Keaton’s final
scene was obviously written—and acted—
by someone who had witnessed death by
cancer. Keaton’s acting was realistic enough
to give chills.
But everything else in “My Life” is an
exercise in audience manipulation. And being
manipulated is one of the least satisfactory
experiences for a movie goer—no one goes
to the theater to get jerked around.
— Anne Steyer
Beavis, Butt-Head
break out of TV,
enter bookstands
“This Book Sucks”
Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil
Pocket Books
The Butt-Head blitz begins.
MTV’s popular show, “Beavis and Butt
Head” has moved from television into other
media markets — starting with the publishing
world — with their first book, published by
Pocket Books.
The book, appropriately titled, “This Book
Sucks,” is Beavis and Butt-Head’s first stab at
a market other than television.
The book offers a nearly flawless transition
from television to the written word. Unlike
many other popular shows that make the jump
to paperback — “Wayne’s World” and
“Coneheads” to name two—“This Book Sucks”
actually offers an extended vision of the
animated duo.
The reader reads the semi-accurate theory
that Beavis and Butt-Head are actually brothers.
We even get to see journals and reports about
Beavis and Butt-Head as they grew up.
Journal contributors include Mr. Buzzcut, a
militant hygiene teacher, Mr. Van Driessen, the
eternal hippie, and Stuart Stevenson, a perfect
mannered teenager who is desperately trying
—and failing—to become a cool rebel like our
heroes.
The book manages to capture some of the
cartoon’s realistic but satirical take on
adolescence.
Whether you think Beavis and Butt-Head
are just idiots who glorify senseless violence or
you think the show is the boldest, most
imaginative one on television, you have to face
a terrifying reality: You know these characters.
They have populated suburban junior high
and high schools for decades—long before the
show ever aired.
There have always been students who were
cast out by the popular cliques in school. They
rebelled by wearing black t-shirts, listening to
heavy metal and blowing things up. Their
desire for destruction was only matched by
their growing sex drives.
One great example of this satirical realism is
their “instant band name chart,” which allows
See BUTT-HEAD on 10
Guitarists go beyond unplugged I
Thackery, Mooney
release “Sideways”
Blues guitarists Jimmy Thackery
and John Mooney departed from the
usual acoustic album to give “un
plugged” a new meaning with the re
release of “Sideways in Paradise.”
During an interview, Thackery,
who has entertained the local Zoo Bar
crowd more than once with his hot
rod electric blues, said “Sideways”
was actually released in 1985 with a
wide range of assorted stringed in
struments.
“Everybody’s under the impres
sion that it’s some sort of new thing,”
Thackcry said, “but the fact of the
matter is I did this record way before
any of these unplugged jerks even got
the idea. I did it back in 1985 with
John Mooney.”
When Thackcry was first ap
proached todo an all-acoustic album,
he asked Mooney to fly to Jamaica
and collaborate with him on the record.
“Moon Man is one of the best
acoustic blues guys as far as doing
that Delta-blues stuff like Robert
Johnson and Skip James. This guy is
as authentic as it gets,” Thackcry said.
While Thackery’s grinding bass
vocals arc distinctively heard on the
album, especially on the slower-paced
cut, “I’ll Come Running,” the deep
richness of Mooney’s vocals domi
nate most of the songs.
Other songs like “Jamaican Mess
Around,” “Oh, Louise,” the candid
“Eliza” and the breathless six-minute
“Jitterbug Swing” show what hap
pens when cool Mississippi blues meet
the transparent blues of the Caribbean
waters.
The laid-back album look four days
to cut, Thackery said.
“We had so much fun with it,” he
said. “We didn’t just use guitars, we
used some old 1925 Stella acoustic
12-strings; we used some 1920s Na
See THACKERY on 10
. Courtesy of Piedmont Talent
Jimmy Thackery
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