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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1996)
Music Reviews Blue Rodeo '‘Nowhere to Here” Warner Bros. Grade: C+ Blue Rodeo has two different personalities, one wanting to be Garth Brooks’ backup band, the other succeeding in imitating Sarah McLachlan. Whatever their ultimate fate, the masterminds behind Blue Rodeo seem to sense this band needs a gimmick. Half of the songs are only a steel guitar away from the coun try charts, wallowing in the pleas ant, medium-paced, and utterly for gettable world of middle-aged mu sic fans who love the Eagles and Eric Clapton. The words ‘Tile under rock” are printed on the back of the CD, as if the musicians are clinging desper ately to their mediocrity as a prin ciple. But other songs show fairly good mastery of the Tori Amos school of pretty, anticlimactic wispiness. McLachlan herself sings on three of the tracks. Her contribu tions are lovely and singable, with multi-layered instrumentation amounting to a very spacious sound. But the words she sings are another matter. The lyrics are mind-numbingly average, invariably in the second person. They invariably imply that the band is sorry it broke up with me and hopes we’ll get back to gether, and then occasionally ac cepting its fete bravely. “Save Myself’ is the best song. It has a haunting sound that almost makes you feel guilty for turning it off; but not quite as it wears on to ward its sixth repetitious minute. Blue Rodeo seems to have been afflicted by the same banality that is now infecting a lot of office ra dio rock. File under “uninspiring.” — Kathleen Pel strap Halo Benders “Don’t TeD Me Now” K Records Grade: A Apparently, making an album ain’t nothing but a thing for Calvin Johnson. When he’s not making the Beat happen with Bret and Heather or pioneering the unique indie pop of his label, K, or doing cameo appear ances with the 75 other bands he knows, one would assume he’s sleeping during the remaining two hours of the day. I guess not. Instead, he’s hanging out with Doug Martsh from Built to Spill, who is also seemingly suffering from insomnia. But they’re not j ust playing cards to pass the time. As if they haven’t made enough music already, they’ve formed the Halo Benders. Fran the depths of Dub Narcotic studios in Olympia, Wash., comes their sophomore release, “Don’t Tell Me Now,” the follow-up to one of the best records of 1994, “God Don’t Make No Junk.” Calvin, Doug, keyboardist Steve Fisk and some Boise chums are banging out poplicious basement punk again. The formula, simple as it may be, is still very tasty. Clock this. You get a guy with a very low, sensual voice and a bunch of clever lyrics, Calvin, and let his talents counteract with Doug’s dis tinctive whine and guitar arrange ments. Then you top it off with some bouncy drumming and Wayne Flower’s catchy little bass lines. Their second effort is pretty much up to par with their last record, with gems like “Halo Bender,” “Planned Obsolescence” and “Volume Mode” maintaining the sound one has come to expect from their collaboration. “Bombshelter Prt. 1” is dyna mite, its chaotic opening quickly tripping into a song reminiscent of “Three Years Ago” from BTS’s de but. Without a doubt, Steve Fisk’s best contribution is his Velvet Un derground-meets-the-theme-from “Thxi” keyboard work on the dark guitar number, “Crankenstein.” Anyway, word to your moms, they came to drop bombs, so you better get your halo bent in prepa ration. Actually, don’t bother; Calvin can just come over and do it for you. He’s not too busy. — Matt Kudlacz Harmony Rockets “Paralyzed Mind of the Archan gel Void” Excelsior Records Grade: B Harmony Rockets really may be the musicians who form Mercury Rev, but this is certainly not the type of thing you would find on a Mer cury Rev record. Mercury Rev is a band that writes songs, with a great deal of sound/noise, that sound great. This recording, which was done live at the Rhinecliff Hotel, is some where between ambient and chaos, something akin to an orchestra and a rock band fusing together. I can make out a french horn, a drum set, some guitar work, maybe a synthesizer, possibly a clarinet and once in a while the occasional vocal, but only toward the begin ning. Only one track long (granted, it is a 41-minute track), the sound builds and builds, almost like mu sical intercourse, giving release about 38 minutes into the perfor mance, then allowing a little time to come down. “Paralyzed Mind of the Archan gel Void,” however, is not some thing to which you can listen fre quently. After your first listen, put it away for a while and let it sit. Then, one night when you’ve got nothing else to do, turn out the lights, plug in your headphones, put in this record and sit there while lis tening to it. If you want nothing but a pure wall of sound for 41 minutes, here’s your record. But when you’re not in the mood, go back to Mercury Rev’s “See You On The Other Side” and “Boces.” — Cliff Hicks invasion or ibsts Carman “R.I.O.T. (Righteous Invasion of TV-uthr Sparrow Grade: D Carman’s newest release, “R.I.Q.T.,” had possibilities. It re ally did. By making the press re lease jacket out of corrugated card board, someone was making a unique statement. Unfortunately, the rest of the world never will be privy to that statement because the actual com pact disc case is really boring (and not constructed of corrugated card board). Even though Carman can sing (which is quite an accomplish ment), his gimmicks overshadow any singing, rapping or talk-sing ing that appears on the album. The songs where Carman doesn’t rap are not too bad, but not too good, either. They’re just sig nature Carman stuff. “Seven Ways 2 Praise” does have some musicality in it, just not of Carman’s making; a trumpet ap pears as part of the gimmick-laden background and is extremely worthwhile. “Whiter Than Snow” is a great ballad. Unfortunately, it is nine min utes of ballad, but the gospel choir and organ accompaniment really adds to Carman’s vocals. “Amen” again features a gospel choir, which adds immense texture and is arguably the best track on the , entire disc. “Step of Faith” is also notable because Carman presents an almost passable country imitation in a song that’s packaged extremely well. Fortunately, three of the four songs just mentioned are available on singles, so the listener can choose to avoid Carman’s “R.I.O.T.” — Emily Wray The Drovers “Little High Sky Show” Tantrum Records Grade: A The sound of The Drovers is hard to describe. The band sounds very mellow, very sound oriented, with a good dosage of melodical ex perimentation and Celtic rooting. By combining traditional rock instruments such as guitars with not-so-traditional instruments like violin, mandola d’more, tin whistle and pump organ, the emergent sound is fascinating indeed. One of the most impressive as pects of the album, however, is its seamless sound. If you listen to it, it’s difficult to tell when songs have changed because of the smooth way the album flows. The vocals fade in and out, of ten into the background, with the focus on the feel of the music and the sound itself, rather than on the verse-chorus-verse structure. The Drovers don’t really fit into any set category, taking aspects from both folk music and the dreampop movement and blending them together. “Little High Sky Show” proves that sound-based music doesn’t have to be loud to be effective, nor does it have to be based on heavily distorted guitars. The Drovers take music down a path that’s very rarely walked, if at all. That’s a shame because the way is splendid and makes for marvel ous listening. Cliff Hicks Faust Continued from Page 12 crammed with detail; every hand in the crowd and dog in the back ground is meant to be inspected and enjoyed by itself. Although heavily influenced by Albrecht Durer, Cornelius’ own unique sense of humanistic pathos is easy to recognize. In one of the best in the series, “Prelude on the Stage,” Cornelius depicts Goethe being assaulted by an artist, a theater manager and a common man, each of them de manding he write a different sort of play. While the writer tries to accom modate them all, the demons, an gels and other actors in the play al ready are studying their lines and straightening their outfits back stage. Only Lucifer peers through the curtain of the outdoor stage, to joke with the audience waiting to be entertained on a lazy afternoon. Once the play begins, though, Faust becomes an agitated, intense student of a comic Satan, learning about the joy of love and life only on his way to damnation. And un like Charles Dickens* “A Christmas Carol” self-discovery ends not in redemption, but tragedy. In the last picture of the series, “Scene in Prison,” Faust and his new-found love, Gretchen, are be ing led away in different directions: he by Satan, and she by an angel of God. Even in that final moment, the scholar is still full of Germanic se i Arrow Continued from Page 13 Slater is great as the student tumed-hero, sliding into the role with particular ease. Between this and “Bed of Roses,” he should be enjoying the sweet smell of success for a while. Mathis is also pretty good as the reluctant heroine. The chemistry between her and Slater is very good, and it should be; this is their third film together. (“Pump Up The Vol ume” and “Femgully: The Last Rainforest” were the first two.) Also, look for appearances by Kurtwood Smith (“Robocop”), Frank Whaley (“Pulp Fiction”) and Bob Gunton (“The Shawshank Re demption”). Travolta is the master of this film, though. His maniacal, wise cracking bad guy is completely over the top (another Woo require ment) and Travolta looks as though he’s loving every minute of it. The mixed responses to “Get Shorty” and lukewarm reviews of “White Man’s Burden” are cast to the way side. Travolta, as the ear-to-ear grin- " ning nuclear terrorist, conveys atti tude just by the way he smokes a cigarette. Over-the-top performances, ac tion and violence all come together to make “Broken Arrow” an incred ible film. Down some extra caffeine just to give the action a little extra kick. Imax Continued from Page 12 (OK, OK. He read the paper. I napped.) , By 6 p.m., it was time to go in for the movie I had awaited all day with eager anticipation. We showed up early because the museum people said “Rolling Stones: At The Max” was an almost sold-out show, and they were right—it was pretty much elbow-to-elbow all the way around. At 90 minutes, the show also lasted a lot longer than other IMAX films. It was also the first IMAX fea ture-length film. It wasn’t just “a concert film,” but a total experience. The cameras take you up on the stage — both in front and in back — during overseas performances of the Rolling Stones’ “Steel Wheels” and “Urban Jungle” tours. These guys make rock ‘n’ roll look easy already, but “Rolling Stones: At The Max” makes you a part of the group’s party. The immensity of the concert can only be enjoyed in an IMAX setting, showing you what Mick Jagger of ten sees as he is jumping and pranc ing about: sometimes a sea of black ness, other times thousands upon thousands of fans, all clapping and moving in unison. This was also a great showing for the IMAX six-channel surround sound system, which not only gave you the crystal-clear tunes of the Stones, but put the sound of the au dience all around you to give the “you-are-there” feel. Granted, the $ 12 admission price seemed a bit steep for a 90-minute movie, but in the end, it was defi nitely worth it. So that was it. Three IMAX films and a full day in Hastings were be hind us as we headed north to Inter state 80, with BobJSeger tunes fol lowing us along. We made it. DmtKmv About 1-800-DIABETES * a program of XV.American Diabetes Association.