Beck.
“Midnite Vultures**
DGC Records
Grade: A+
Top 10 Pickup Lines from
Beck’s New Album
1. “Touch my ass if you’re quali
fied” - “Get Real Paid”
2. “I said lady, step inside my
Hyundai”-“Debra”
3. “You look good in that sweater
and that aluminum crutch” -
“Peaches & Cream”
4. “I stepped to you with a fresh
pack of gum, somehow I
knew you were lookin’ for
some” - “Debra”
5. “I’ll feed you fruit that don’t
exist” - “Nicotine & Gravy”
6. “Satin sheets, tropical oils, turn
up the heat till the swimming
pool boils” - “Hollywood
Freaks”
7. “We’re on the good ship
menage a trois” - “Peaches &
Cream”
8. “I’ll leave graffiti where you’ve
never been kissed” -
“Nicotine & Gravy”
9. “Touch it real good if you want
a piece” - “Hollywood
I
Freaks”
10. “I’ll let you be my chaperone
at the halfway home” -
Jl “Sexx Laws”
Beck has made die last great party
album of our beloved 1900s, but
never mind the millennium. “Midnite
Vultures” is what happens when Beck
parties like it’s 1975, 1984 and 2525
at the same time.
The rhymes are silly, the lyrics are
laugh-out-loud funny, and the music
is more suitable for rump-shaking
than armchair brooding, but the
album hardly lacks substance or
depth.
That’s because Beck is an original
rock ‘n’ roll weirdo, a deeply strange
artist with a singular vision who has
actually been able to resonate with
the mainstream.
With his sixth.great album in a
row, Beck has joined the company of
other rock weirdos with huge audi
ences, such as Little Richard, John
Lennon, Bob Dylan, James Brown,
David Byrne, Michael Jackson and
Prince.
Beck has never sounded more
assured and confident than he does
on “Midnite Vultures.” On previous
Beat
B
!
Tuesday, Dec 7th
7pm • Neihardt Blue TV Lounge
9pm *HS§ 24 Hour Study Room
Wednesday, Dec 8th
3pm • Culture Center Upper Multi-Purpose Room
7pm • City Union
Thursday, Dec 9th
6pm • East Campus Union
10pm • Abel/Sandoz Ballroom
Wednesday, Jan 12th
3:30pm • City Union
Thursday, Jan 13th <
7pm • Selleck Large CDR
Information and applications are also available at
www.unl.edu/housing/Be.an.RA
■2232228
albums, Beck seemed a little uncom
fortable when he kicked the hip hop,
funk and soul. It was almost as if he
was a little insecure at appropriating
black culture, the skinny white boy
gate crashing the soul revue.
But Beck has always been in love
with all music, and the soul and hip
hop he heard growing up in Los
Angeles are just as important to his
sound as the classic rock, punk, folk
and country elements. And this time
around, he dives full-on into his soul
jones.
Beck is no longer the loser, baby,
who wants you to kill him. He’s a
swaggering, cocky loverman who
says “there is so much to do before
you die” on “Get Real Paid.”
Beck has been exploring the dif
ferent facets of sound for much of the
’90s, sometimes all at once. He’s got
both a minimalist and maximalist
aesthetic, alternating between his
acoustic folk and everything-but-the
family-dog styles on every other
album.
Just taking apart all the pieces of a
song like “Broken Train” can be a
chore. A John Lennon melody rests
on a Motown bassline and techno
drumbeats, bolstered by funky ’70s
clavinet that escaped from a Stevie
Wonder album, with a Dylan har
monica floating around.
“Milk & Honey” surprises with a
chorus that sounds like a cross
between the Steve Miller Band and
Grand Funk Railroad, but Beck’s deft
touch makes the song airy and light,
unlike the oafish clumsiness that
Miller and Grand Funk would have
used to destroy it under their leaden
dinosaur rock boots.
“Beautiful Way” is a country rock
ballad, and “Pressure Zone” is great
straight-ahead guitar rock, but the
rest of the album is straight-up party
music.
The first half of “Vultures” is
loaded with an R&B vibe. “Sexx
Laws” has Stax horns and soul
grooves, “Nicotine & Gravy” kicks it
disco-tastic, and “Mixed Bizness” is
pine Me. “Get Real Paid” brings to
mind late *70s/early ’80s electro-pop
pioneers such as Kraftwerk and Devo
as well as “Dirty Mind”-era Prince.
“Hollywood Freaks” is a parody of
Master P and gangsta'rap that actual
ly works as a real song, and “Peaches
& Cream” and “Debra” are fat slices
of soul, sung in a falsetto.
The slow jam, “Debra,” which
Beck has been performing live for
years, has some of the best lines on
the album. “I saw you at JC Penney/I
think your name tag said Jenny,”
Beck croons. “I wanna get with you
Ccijbtesy Photo
and your sister/I think her name’s
Debra.”
“Midnite Vultures” gives
shoutouts to the Manthing, b-boys,
lesbians, Norman Schwartzkopf, Old
Navy and Hollywood nuns before the
album is even half over, so everyone
is invited to the party.
Beck, the musical king of post
modern pastiche, has delivered an
album guaranteed to remove the Y2K
Bug from your ass.
-Josh Knauter
I p
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anne
Marie Johnson, who has a recurring rol<
on the television show “JAG,” says sh<
has had repeated casting difficultie:
because ofher light skin tone.
“I’m very tired of being too blacl
for a white project and too white for s
black project,” Johnson said Monday a
a TV diversity forum organized by the
NAACP.
Minorities have complained about;
perceived lack of progress and ever
indifference to improving the depictior
and employment of blacks, Asian
Americans, Hispanics, Americar
Indians and other ethnic groups on TV
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People said ii
will decide by the end of Decembei
whether to follow through on threats oi
boycotts and demonstrations if the
largest networks don’t quickly put more
I
- minorities in front of and behind the
: cameras.
i “They then run the real risk of a sus
> tained, focused and continuous con
sumer action in the form of repetitive
: boycotts, picketing and large-scale
l demonstrations in front of their network
t headquarters, the offices of netwoik
i owned affiliates and in front of the
offices of their major and largest adver
i tisers,” said Kweisi Mfume, the group’s
i president
i Boycotts and other action would
come during television’s critical ratings
i sweeps period in February, which is
used to set broadcast advertising rates,
s Mfume said.
The NAACP invited top executives
of die four big networks to the forum,
' but only CBS Television President
Leslie Moonves showed up. ABC, NBC
and Fox all sent broadcast content and
Mistakes Happen....
Emergency Contraception is available
at Planned Parenthood. For more
information call:
2246 "O” Street Clinic - 441-3300
3705 South Street Clinic - 441-3333
www.teenwire.com
www.piannedparenthood.org
0 Planned Parenthood®
of Lincoln
• Caring • Affordable • Confidential •
standards executives.
Moonves touted CBS’s success at
improving its depiction of minorities,
including producer Steven Bochco’s
upcom ing series, “City of Angels,”
about an inner-city hospital. The cast
and crew are mostly minorities.
“This show is an important effort in
bringing down barriers in Hollywood,”
Moonves said.
However, actor Blair Underwood, a
star of “City of Angels” who was a reg
ular on “L. A. Law,” told the panel the
issue goes far deeper than minorities’
on-screen roles. Putting more minori
ties in decision-making jobs is critical to
improving the situation, he said.
“When we are not seen in front of
the camera, it’s just the tip of the ice
berg,” Underwood said. “It’s almost like
‘The Wizard of Oz.’When you pull back
the curtain, you see it’s a much bigger
problem.”
Moonves said CBS is trying to
improve its percentage of minorities in
the top ranks.
Wftiile 21.5, percent of the network’s
employees are minorities, only 14.8 per
cent of its executives are minorities, “an
area where we clearly need to improve
and where we will improve,” Moonves
said.
Esteban Torres, a retired congress
man, said if network minority hiring
doesn’t improve, findings from the
hearing would be turned over to the U.S.
Justice Department and the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
for investigation.
Actors at Monday’s panel discus
sion said the problem even goes beyond
employment numbers to racial stereo
types that have persisted in Hollywood
for years.
Calvin Jung, a Chinese-American .
actor whose TV credits include
“Cheers” and the movie “The Day
After,” said Asian actors usually are
asked to do accents at casting calls.