Arts ©Entertainment
Tuesday, October 25,1994 Page 6
- Singer’s breakfast gives food for thought
By Paula Lavlgn*
Senior Reporter
It’s amazing the value of a good
breakfast.
Thoughts of the parallels be
tween the psychotic and psyche
delic experience and reincarnation
of a soul exposed to the truth en
tered Glen Phillips’ mind over his
morning bowl of cornflakes.
Phillips, lead singer for Toad
the Wet Sprocket, took these
thoughts and put them into “Rein
carnation Song,” the last track on
Toad’s new album, “Dulcinca.”
“It’s pretty whimsical,” Phillips
said during a telephone interview
from New Mexico. “It’s just about
the poor little souls who can’t hack
it.”
The Santa Barbara, £alif., na
tives — bassist/keyboardist Dean
Dinning, drummer Randy Guss.
vocalist/guitarist Todd Nichols and
Phillips — will perform in Memo
rial Hall Wednesday night in Kan
sas City, Kan.
Phillips said Toad s new album
expressed “feeling kind of stuck or
out of it” in a positive way.
“You know when you wake up
and feel *1 have to do all these
things I’ve been planning to do for
a year,’ or you could sit on the
porch and have a cigarette and do
the dishes later.”
He said Toad’s choice was sit
ting on the porch with the ciga
rette.
— “It’s that kind of a feeling,” he
said. “Putting everything in the
future all the time and never living
in the moment.”
“Dulcinea” (which means
“beautiful one”) came from the
name of a character in Cervantes’
“Don Quixote” — a woman imag
ined by Quixote to be beautiful and
pure who real ly is a kitchen wench.
“It was the idea of creating in
spiration when nothing is offering
itself to you. It’s an allegory for
faith in God,” Phillips said. “It’s
when you can take something that
docs not lode great and make it
great.”
Toad has a tradition of doing
this. Their name came from Monty
Python’s “Contractual Obliga
Toad tho Wot Sprocket, a band from Santa Barbara, Calif., will play tonight at Memorial Hall In Kansas City, Kan. Tho
band’s mombors are, from loft: Todd Nichols, Randy Quss, Doan Dinning and Qlon Phillips.
lions” album, which ranked the
worst band names ever. Toad the
Wet Sprocket was at the top, or
bottom, of the listing.
Phillips and his bandmatcs took
“the worst band name ever” and
made it great.
“I guess there was a really bad
’70s heavy metal band in north
England who used it too,” he said.
Toad the Wet Sprocket plugged
in when the four high school bud
dies made their first album for $650
in a cramped living room in Santa
Barbara.
The band went on to release
“Pale” in 1988 and “Fear” in 1991
and sign with Columbia Records.
In the past nine years, Phillips said
he and the band had progressed
from their melancholy “Bread and
Circus” days.
Phillips was 17 years old when
he wrote the lyrics for the band’s
first album. Now in his late 20s,
things have changed.
“I talk sometimes about teen
age depression as a particular kind
of drug. ‘Hey, I’m alive, and I can
feel really depressed,’” he said. **...
It's a long-time concept of being
very deeply concerned and tortured
about things, and that came out in
the songs.”
Phillips is still capable of writ
ing melancholy songs, he said, but
he has a different outlook now that
led to“Dulcinea’s” more rock-ori
ented format.
As a band. Toad also has grown
from its tadpole days.
“We’ve learned to give each
other space for different tastes to
come together in the music,”
Phillips said.
Spending every day with the
same four people can tire anyone
out, Phillips said. His analysis de
fined Toad as a case where the
parts were greater than the whole.
Even though musicians work
together in a band, Phillips said the
creativity rested within the indi
vidual musicians.
“It’s always four people work
ing on something with four differ
ent opinions.”
Even now, Phillips said, he
doesn't really know what makes
Toad tick.
“We got together on a whim,
and hopefully tnat’s what’s kept it
Show: Toad the Wet
Sprocket
At: Memorial Hall, Kansas
City, Kan.
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday
Tickets: $15 in advance,
$17.50 on day of show;
available through
Tickctmaster
together and kept it working," he
said. “We got involved chasing
after the carrot on the string thing.
Everything just kind of happened
to us."
Now, Phillips said, he would
like to take some time off and go
home to his wife Laurel, settle down
to homemade pasta and have a few
children.
For Phillips, the only thing that
makes touring worthwhile is play
ing for an hour-and-a-half to two
hours, not waiting around doing
promos and signing autographs.
He said he was looking for a
way to keep Toad together, while
not letting it destroy his life.
“Everything built up around
rock music is supposed to be no
madic. You know ‘sex. drugs and
rockand roll,”’ he said. “You could
do it indefinitely if you had no
personal life and spent your time
drinking, snorting and screwing to
keep from realizing how lonely
you arc.”
For rock music as a whole,
Phillips wants to see an end to
making musicians a commodity.
Toad’s sardonic video for
“Something’s Always Wrong” puts
the band on a home-shopping net
work where scapegoats and uncon
ditional love are for sale.
“In the video, we played a game
and at the end we’re sold out,” he
said, “and I think it’s a game that’s
hurt music.”
Toad the Wet Sprocket will per
form at Kansas City’s Memorial .
Hall at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 in
advance and $17.50 the day of
show and are available through
Ticketmaster.
11191 I®.
“I Love Everybody”
Lyle Lovett
MCA Records *
Grade: B
In the past year, Lyle Lovett has
gone from an obscure coijntry
crooner to the weird guy with the
hair who married Julia Roberts.
On his new release, “I Love Every
body,” Lovett makes clear that his
talent transcends his hype.
It is not that difficult to see “I
Love Everybody” as a collection of
sonnets for his muse. Like
Shakespeare’s immortalized son
nets, Lovett’s are short medita
tions on every aspect of love, from
longing to lust.
“Everybody” is stripped of the
full orchestral ensembles that domi
nated his previous releases. Instead,
the disc’s focus is on Lovett’s voice.
Songs like “Penguins” and “Old
Friend” confirm Lovett as one of
the most original voices in music.
“Skinny Legs,” “Fat Babies” and
‘The Fat Girl” all touch on Lovett’s
fascination with physical beauty.
Though the message of “beauty
doesn’t matter” may be hard to
' v"' ' ' <
comprehend after taking a look at
Julia Roberts, he makes each lyric
totally believable.
Lovett’s constant hopping from
genre to genre makes categorizing
his music an impossibility. With
“Everybody,” Lovett wants to be a
lounge crooner and a barren coun
try singer at the same time. Unfor
tunately, some of the songs have
the annoying twangish sound that
defines the worst in country music.
Mellow, intimate and relaxed,
"I Love Everybody” is the type of
disc that you would buy for a girl or
guy that you’re blindly in love with.
— Sean McCarthy
“No Need to Argue**
The Cranberries
Island Records
Grade: A
It’s only been a year since the
Cranberries exploded onto the al
ternative music scene with their
debut album, “Everyone Else is
Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” and
they have already released their1
sophomore effort.
Their new album, “No Need to
77
Argue,” picks up right where “Ev
eryone” left off and promises to
permanently establish the Cran
berries as one of the great alterna
tive bands.
The opening track is “Ode to
My Family,” a wonderful song that
deals with family relationships. It
is followed by “I Can’t Be With
You” and “Twenty One,” which
are also excellent songs. The Cran
berries really don’t try anything
new with these opening songs; in
stead, they stick to the formula that
made their last album such a suc
cess.
“Zombie” is the next song and
the first single released from the
album. At first, this song seems
somewhat forced and pretentious.
After a few listens, however, it
really starts to grow on the listener.
“Zombie” is also the hardest song
probably ever produced by the band,
as the guitars are heavily distorted.
Beautiful grunge music — what a
concept.
The remaining nine songs on
the disc show some experimenta
tion by the band and include the
song “The Icicle Melts,” which
seems to be trying to deal with
abortion while still remaining
vague
The true appeal to the Cranber
ries is singer Dolores O’Riordan.
Her voice is simply amazing. I
would buy an album of just her
singing, with no instruments.
If you liked “Everyone,” you
will definitely want “No Need to
Argue.” It’s an awesome album by
a truly talented band.
— William Harms
“Question the Answers”
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Put irds
The boys in plaid are back, and
this time the Mighty Mighty
Bosstones have some questions for
your answers.
Their unique brand of blending
never-die ska and slam-your-head
thrash is alive and kicking hard on
their latest release, “Question the
Answers.”
They’ve got another dozen songs
that make the listener want to do
the Ben Carr knee-pump dance.
The album starts off with
“Kinder Words,” a heavier song
that advocates a more benevolent
approach to life.
Most of the songs are pretty
hard-core with the exception of a
couple of mellower tunes, “Sad
Silence” and ‘Toxic Toast.” “SS”
is a message to kids getting caught
up in gangs and drugs, and “TT’ is
a get wild, party song.
“A Dollar and a Dream” is a
great tune that goes through a Jekyll
and Hyde. The “dollar” portion of
the song is scream-it-out thrash,
and the “dream” half is almost a
whispered melody. It demonstrates
the diversity of this unusual band
and shows that it can play almost
anything.
There’s a great mix of songs ,
with social statements and songs
that say get messed up and forget
everybody else’s problems.
The Bosstones are always on a
perpetual tour, but if you can’t wait
for them to get here, get a copy of
this album. It should tide you over.
— Joel Strauch
