Page 14 The Battalion Thursday, March 23,1989
Reviews
British industrial funk
by curt Wolfgang Press
lacks inspiration, spirit
By Keith Spera
REVIEWER
Austin’s Liberty Lunch is one of
those places that was made to host a
rock ’n’ roll show.
A sheet-metal skin, tattooed with
bizarre Impressionistic murals, is
tacked to a steel girder frame. The
cavernous shell of a building en
closes a space that can hold up to a
thousand people on its cement floor,
the hippie security guard who
couldn’t recall if he’d been working
there four or six years says.
A handful of wooden picnic tables
and a few metal chairs with worn vi
nyl cushions were scattered about
the interior.
Beer, at $2 a bottle, is the drink of
choice.
Given this atmosphere, where a
lively, sweaty show by the likes of
The Reivers or The Smithereens
would be right at home, the English
industrial funk band Wolfgang Press
seemed a tad out of place when they
appeared there earlier this month.
For those unfamiliar with Wolf
gang Press and its style of music, a
brief introduction is provided here.
Wolfgang Press is one of a num
ber of bands in the “industrial mu
sic” genre, which uses a repetitive
beat wrapped with an array of
usually haunting synthesizer sounds
and often harsh, abrasive feedback
laden guitar.
This style has been fused with
bass-driven funk by Wolfgang Press,
resulting in an a sound that is most
safely described as unusual.
Wolfgang Press reached this mile
stone in sound by way of a couple of
name and personnel changes.
Earlier versions included Rema
Rema, whose 1980 EP contained the
aptly-titled “The Feedback Song,”
and Mass, whose music can be de
scribed only as “death rock,” with its
dark, somber funeral dirge sound.
The first release under the name
Wolfgang Press came in 1983, when
an EP was released in England on
4AD Records.
4AD is npt^ypWf typical music la
bel. It specializes in industrial music
(besides Wolfgang Press, they carry
groups such as Xymox and the Coc
teau Twins), and is selective about
the bands it signs.
4AD downplays the identity of the
performers in its bands (it’s tough to
find pictures or even the names of
band members anywhere on their
records’ jackets).
Tim Davis, music director at
KANM, Texas A&M’s student-run
radio station, describes 4AD as “an
exclusive, elitist, independent record
label.”
He went on to say that 4AD re
leases have “a consistent overall
sound,” and for that reason, people
will buy a band’s records even with
out having heard them, just because
they are on 4AD.
Until this year, Wolfgang Press’s
records were available in the United
States only as imports.
In 1989, two of their records, the
EP Kansas and the LP Bird Wood
Cage, have been released jointly in
the U.S. by 4AD and Rough Trade
Records.
On the heels of these releases,
Wolfgang Press has come stateside
for a bit of a tour, which brought
them to Liberty Lunch on March 10.
After a so-so set of basic progres
sive rock by opening act The Last
Straw, with some bluesy guitar leads
tossed in by an Eric Johnson-clone
guest guitarist, the crowd of about
120 gathered at the edge of the stage
to await the appearance of Wolfgang
Press.
At about midnight, they came
onstage and proceeded to play some
songs.
Sort of.
While a vocalist was there doing
the singing, and a guitarist fiddled
with a guitar, and a keyboardist hit
some buttons, Mr. Technology, in
the form of prerecorded tapes, sup
plied the funky bass and pulsing
drum foundation on which most of
the songs were based.
If you’re going to do a concert, it
seems only appropriate that you’d
bring along actual persons to play
the instruments.
If not, then there’s really not
much point in playing “live” — it’s
the same as a club playing the music
on its sound system.
Keyboardist Andrew Gray said af
ter the show, “We just haven’t found
the right people to play with.
“We don’t want to just hire some
body to come out on tour with us.”
In five years, you guys haven’t
found someone to play with? I feel
sorry for you, I really do.
For the first portion of the show,
the crowd, who were more than
likely Wolfgang Press fans if they
paid $7 to see them, seemed, well,
kind of bored.
Maybe everyone was busy looking
for the bassist and drummer. Maybe
it was because the musicians who
were on stage were acting like they
were playing for an empty hall
(which they almost were).
Dull, irritating, and emotionless
are all words that come to mind.
Things picked up a bit when the
band launched into its cover of Are
tha Franklin’s “R-E-S-P-E-G-T” (rea
son for doing the song — “it’s a good
tune, ya know?” said Gray).
Vocalist Mark Cox, in a black wool
3-piece suit and t-shirt, started to get
into it a bit, hunching over and
pointing his head of short, spiky
dreadlocks at the crowd as he spat
out the lyrics to the next song, “Kan
sas,” which takes a cynical look at the
JFK assasination.
Closing out the brief 70-minute
set (were the bassist and drummer
tired?) was an encore performance
of “Cut the Tree,” an anti-bigotry
tune that appeared on the 4AD com
pilation album Lonely Is An Eyesore
, and whose video popped up on
MTV’s 120 Minutes show last year.
The band left the stage, and then
came back out a few minutes later
and started packing up their equip
ment with the same curt efficiency
they displayed while performing.
Throughout the show, the band
seemed completely disinterested in
what they were doing.
Gray chomped on a wad of gum
as he bustled about his keyboards
and synthesizers in a businesslike
manner.
Guitarist Mark Allen spent most
of the show staring at the effects
pedals at his feet, which he used to
make his gorgeous cherry-red hol
low-body Gibson guitar spew forth a
host of distortion and sounds.
He expression never changed —
he always appeared to be pro
foundly unhappy. His shaved head,
baggy tan shorts, clunky black shoes,
and pale, thin physique didn’t help
cheer anybody up.
Granted, this music isn’t all that
happy. And maybe the band was not
looking chipper because they knew
they’d have to pack and load all their
equipment after the show.
Of his emotionless expression.
Gray said he looks like he feels, and
he doesn’t just put on fake express
ions.
But a concert, at least in my opin
ion, should offer something more
than recordings.
It should be an interacting of
some sort between performer and
audience (with the performer at
least acknowledging the audience’s
presence). Emotions should be ex
pressed.
The musicians should be showcas
ing their skill (or lack thereof) by at
least attempting to perform their
parts live, and not relying on tapes.
I have no quarrel with their music
per se; that is not the focus of this re
view. I do, however, think that a con
cert by Wolfgang Press — at least the
one I saw — is a waste of time.
Previews
Players revive long love affair
The story of a twenty-five-year
love affair comes to Rudder Forum
Friday at 8 p.m. when the Aggie
Players present a version of the long-
running Broadway play, “Same
Time, Next Year.”
The play also will be presented
Saturday, March 30-31 and April 1
at 8 p.m.
Bernard Slade’s romantic comedy
tells the love story of George and
Doris, who meet at an inn in 1951
and continue their affair for one
weekend each year, even though
both have children and happy mar
riages.
The play shows the phases George
and Doris go through at different
stages of their lives.
Senior theater arts major Ginny
Green stars as Doris and Mark Had
ley, a graduate student in English,
stars as George. Theater arts profes
sor Robert Wenck directs.
Tickets are on sale at Rudder Box
Office for $4 for students and $5 for
the general public. For reservations,
call 845-1234.
The play replaces “A Question of
Identity” on the Aggie Players sea
son ticket subscription.
V
o
‘Immodest' proposal to divide Texas
treads on delicate political territorj
By Kelley Boylan
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
You won’t like it. Texas histo
rian Donald W. Whisenhunt, au
thor of “The Five States of Tex
as,” warns that his book may
alienate-its readers. His “immo
dest proposal” encourages the se
paration of Texas into 5 separate
states, an idea close to blasphemy
for the diehard Texan.
Many may not know that Texas
need not have been as large as it
is, nor need it remain so large.
The joint resolution of Congress
that brought Texas into the
Union in 1845 contained an in
teresting, yet unused proposition:
and where the state will break up
— does not begin until the third
chapter.
“Within the next few pages, I
will probably lose a number of
readers, especially Texans who
will be seriously offended by my
proposal,” he writes in the pref
ace. In particular, he fears he will
lose the proud Texans who live
and die by the word “Texas” and
do so mostly because of the state’s
size and heritage.
He is not worried about losing
those who have to deal with the
logistics of a state that’s about the
same size as France.
The problem he addresses,
simply stated, is that Texas is too
large and too diverse to be a sin
gle political unit.
“New States, of convenient
size, not exceeding four in num
ber, in addition to the state of
Texas, and having sufficient pop
ulation, may hereafter, by the
consent of the State, be formed
out of the territory thereof, which
shall be entitled to admission un
der the provisions of the federal
constitution (‘United States at
Large’ 5:797-798).”
That the state is almost ungov
ernable is his strongest case. He
cites not only the cost of moving
legislators when they’re in office
but the cost of getting into office.
In smaller states, one can travel
from city to city easily, can pur
chase air time on a single tele
dents have already broken Texas
into East Texas, West Texas and
the Hill Gountry, to name a few.
Each term, according to the au-
thor, represents and describes a
separate entity that should be
governed locally.
He points out that Texarkana
is closer to Chicago than it is to El
Paso, adding that Texarkana also
may have more in common with
Chicago than the desert south
west of El Paso, and El Paso is
more likely to be related to Phoe
nix. Still, both Texas cities receive
laws issued from Austin.
Whisenhunt adds that “Not
only was the mechanism pro
vided; most early Texans fully ex
pected the power to be exercised
shortly after annexation.” Texas
almost was five states.
Keeping a unit the size of
Texas tied together is no small
proposition. As pointed out pre
viously, many geographic areas
have little in common. Heritage,
which ties all loyal Texans to
gether, is also a tenuous connec
tion. Everyone remembers Ste
phen F. Austin, The Alamo and
Sam Houston, but the glorifica
tion of a specific area of history
will carry only so far.
Cveryone remembers
Stephen F. Austin, The
Alamo and Sam Houston,
but the glorification of a
specific area of history will
carry only so far.
Problems
The difficulties that would
arise in breaking up the stale
come from more than the almost
nationalist pride of its residents.
Some of the new states would
have mineral and forest wealth,
while others would be relatively
poor. Who would receive the
money, and how would it be dis
tributed?
vision station to cover the area,
and need only purchase ads in
one or two newspapers.
He provides other examples of
the state’s immensity. Texas is
larger than the United States’ 15
smallest states combined. In
Texas, one can drive the same
distance it is from New York to
St. Louis. Would anyone suggest
that everything between New
York and St. Louis be made one
state?
Whisenhunt notes that the av
erage Texan’s knowledge of state
history stops with Texas’ admis
sion to the Union or the Civil
War.
That Texas was the largest
state in the nation for many years
still contributes to state pride, but
that pride was damaged in 1959
with the admission of Alaska,
which is several times larger.
Texan candidates, however,
must cover thousands of miles be
tween cities, must purchase air
time on many television stations
and must choose which of the sev
eral state newspapers to advertise
in.
Once a candidate is elected to
office, he or she will be far from
the average Texan, both finan
cially and geographically. Few
Texans have the opportunity to
see their leaders or bureaucratic
policy makers face to face. Whi
senhunt asks whether a lawmaker
should be able to make rulings on
constituents who are not only far
away, but living in considerably
different conditions.
He addressed the problem of
the UT and Texas A&M Perma
nent University Fund. If Texas
was split up, who would receive
the income from the oil wealtli
that supplies that fund?
Answers are of fered to someof
these questions in the last thirdof
the book, though they are often
weak and he finds conflict within
his own answers. Overall, the
book lacks organization. The
chapter titles are unclear and
even misleading.
The second chapter, titled
“Why?” does not answer why the
state should be broken up, nor
does it offer evidence why not
leave it together. The third chap
ter, “Why Not" fails again to clar
ify which side he is presenting.
Break-up
The meat of the matter — how
The state’s self-named areas
demonstrate the diversity. Resi-
It is, nevertheless, an interest
ing book in that it brings up issues
that many loyal Texans prefer
not to address. The state has se
rious economic problems and a
very small number of people can
afford tea run for office. Whether
or not those leaders should be
able to legislate over such dis
tances is a serious issue.
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