Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1989)
Page 10 The Battalion Monday, April 17,1989 Reviews Latest release by drivin'‘n' cryin’ recalls old R.E.M., shows promise Drivin’W cryin’ (I to r): Jeff Sullivan, Tim Nielson, Buren Fowler and Kevin Kinney. By Keith Spera STAFF WRITER Knowing full well that it’s been said about at least 100 other bands, I’m going to say that drivin’‘n’ cryin’ sound a bit like R.E.M. Or rather, they do sometimes. Or better yet, they sometimes sound like R.E.M. used to sound, back before the “Stand” days. Saying that a group sounds like R.E.M. is no longer all that descrip tive, for it has become the musical equivalent of saying that some sort of meat “tastes like chicken.” R.E.M. has come to be the stan dard by w'hich all other folksy guitar rock bands are judged, just like chicken is the meat with which ev erything from rattlesnake steaks to frog legs is compared. Still, drivin’ ‘n’ cryin’ have more of a legitimate claim to that description than most other bands do. It’s no surprise that some of their just-released third album, Mystery Road, has an R.E.M. feel to it. Both bands hail from the same part of the country (R.E.M. is from Athens and drivin’ ‘n’ cryin’ are from Atlanta, just down the road). The “R.E.M. office” is thanked on the back of the record. R.E.M. gui tarist Peter Buck is credited as hav ing played the electric dulcimer on Mystery Road. Buren Fowler, drivin’ ‘n’ cryin’s guitarist, formerly worked as an R.E.M. guitar technician. On tracks such as “House for Sa le” and the excellent acoustic “With the People,” the much missed sound of R.E.M. classics like Reckoning and Life’s Rich Pageant is resur rected. But then, drivin ‘n’ cryin’ whips out the hard-rock rifts, all drawn-out and grungy. “Toy Never Played With,” “Wild Dog Moon” and “Syl lables” could have been on a mid-70s Aerosmith album. The rifts are right, but vocalist Kevin Kenney is no Steven Tyler. Tyler’s raw, hoarse voice can hang with Aerosmith’s guitar sound, but Kenney’s voice is just too high and smooth. It comes across as strained and extremely unnatural when he tries to go down in the gutter with the guitar. His voice is suited just fine for the rest of the songs. On “Honeysuckle Blue,” he uses just a bit of coarse ness, la Jon Bon Jovi, to stand vo cally above the song’s blend of acous tic and electric guitar. He trades notes with a fiddle on the album’s opening cut, “Ain’t It Strange,” coming across at just the right level to complement the fid dle’s strings and give the song an overall mountain-music sound. Besides R.E.M. pickin’ and Aeros mith strummin,’ drivin’ ‘n’ cryin’ also take a stab at sounding like Johnny Cash, with the rolling-train rhythm, tale-of-the-Old-West lyrics and deep-voice vocals of “Peacemaker.” “Straight to Hell” is a fun little tongue-in-cheek sing-along tale of a hypocritical momma and her com- ing-of-age son. “Son, won’t you go outside/ I got a man cornin’ over tonight,” she asks her son in the first verse. Not an un reasonable request, except that this man is “the seventh one in seven days.” The obedient son heads out the door, and hangs out with friends until 5 a.m. When he comes home, his mom is waiting for him on the porch, and chastises him, saying he’s “no good, ’cause you’re runnin’ around with out love.” So into the chorus we go, singing merrily, with more than a hint of sarcasm, “I’m goin’ straight to hell, just like my momma says.” The rest of the album’s lyrics range from your basic rock n’ roll standard fare to idyllic comments about Southern living (we hear about the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chattahoochee river, and old men running and lovers kissing and such). The Mystery Road tunes on which the band tries to be something they aren’t detract from the rest of the al bum. This band is still young, how ever, and they’re still trying to find their niche, so a' little experimenta tion is only natural. A Rolling Stone magazine poll of college-music programmers called drivin ‘n’ cryin’ one of the nation’s nine most promising bands, a vote of confidence that indicates this band has some people out there who know they can make it. Judging from the high points on Mystery Road , they can. When this band does what it does best, and when Kinney stays within his vocal range, they can come up with rock ’n’ roll songs that are full of feeling and emotion, with some not-too- shabby musicianship thrown in to boot. They’re not breaking new ground, but they’re planting some thing pretty good in the old plot. Rolling Stone magazine poll of college-music programmers called drivin ‘n’ cryin’ one of the nation’s nine most promising bands, a vote of confidence that indicates this band has some people out there who know they can make it.Judging from the high points on Mystery Road, they can. Texas tradition of rockabilly, blues comes to life on veteran Fort Worth band’s new album, Live Live! The Juke Jumpers Amazing Records ★★★•/a By Shane Hall REVIEWER club Caravan of Dreams on Dec. 25-26, 1987, Live is nine songs of energetic rhythm and blues and rockabilly. This is the kind of al bum that sounds right at home with recordings by Texas blues legends such as T-Bone Walker and Freddie King. the yuletide season blues of “Merry Christmas Baby.” On the latter, he plays a fluid, jazzy solo much in the vein of Texas blues- man T-Bone Walker, whom Bru ton cites as a major influence. Live closes with the roadhouse blues of “Bluebird Boogie,” the guys’ musical salute to the Bluebird, a Fort Worth blues nightclub with a history that dates to the 1940s. For Texas music that is a good time from start to finish, Live is the album to get. The Juke Jumpers, with their combination of rhythm and blues, rockabilly and jazz, vir tually personify the eclecticism that is Texas music. For more than 10 years the Fort Worth band has performed its style of Texas rhythm and blues. The band’s lineup consists of Jim Colegrove, guitar, vocals; Sumter Bruton, guitar; Craig Simecheck, keyboards; Jim Mi lan, bass; Rene Ozuna, saxo phone; Robert Harwell, saxo phone; and Doyle Bramhall, drums. Like so many blues bands, the best way to hear these guys is in a live setting. Unfortunately for music fans in Bryan-College Sta tion, the Juke Jumpers have not yet made it down here. So you can either go up to Fort Worth and see what you’ve been missing, or pick up a copy of the band’s third Amazing Records al bum, Live. Recorded at Fort Worth night- Live has so many great mo ments it would be difficult to list them all here. For starters, there’s the hillbilly rock ’n’ roll of “Hot Dog” (a Buck Owens song). The rockabilly guitar lines of Cole- grove and Bruton sound as au thentic as anything ever put on vi nyl in the 1950s. One of my favorites is the Cole- grove-penned “Lips ‘n’ Fingers Bar-B-Que,” an uptempo piece of rhythm and blues in which Cole- grove sings of the kind of place where one can go to be satisfied “on red-hot blues or chicken fried.” Colegrove’s vocals combined with the band’s jump and jive sounds are just right for the kind of place where the food is fried and the music is loud. Other examples of the Juke Jumpers’ blend of blues/rocka billy are “Rocket In My Pocket” and their version of Jimmy Mc- Cracklin’s “Georgia Slop.” Bruton best shows his guitar skills on songs such as “Somebo dy’s Been Rockin’ My Boat” and "Superior Service for Today*s Cars..." • On Board Computer and Electronics Repair • Fuel Injection Diagnosis and Repair • ASE Certified Technicians • Full Service - From Oil Changes to Overhauls • Satisfaction Guaranteed! 111 Royal, Bryan (Across S. College from Tom’s BBQ) 846-5344 SUPERIOR AUTO SERVICE DEFENSIVE DRIVING CLASS TICKET DISMISSAL—INSURANCE DISCOUNT April 19, 20 (6-10 p.m. & 6-10 p.m.) April 28, 29 (6-10 p.m. & 8:30 a.m.) RLuis 845 - 1631 Swingle Singers bring orchestra to stage, using voices, not instruments By Suzanne Hoechstetter REVIEWER Imagine singing the theme from “Peter Gunn.” The tune that was made popular a few years ago by The Art of Noise ac tually was sungby eight musicians with incredible voices at Saturday night’s final OPAS presentation for the year. The Swingle Singers gave a performance that ended the sea-^ son on a high note — sometimes an unbelievably high note. The Swingle Singers is a group from England that specializes in scat singing, a technique used by many jazz musicians when they sing meaningless lines like, “Do be do do da ma da.” Many of the songs combined barbershop-style harmonizing with jazz. The Swingle Singers sing the lyrics to classical, modern and folk songs, and they sing the instrumentation to each piece. For instance, when they sang “El Paisenito,” an Argentinian folk song, two Swingle members sang the lyrics while the other six each “played” one string on the guitar. If you closed your eyes, it really sounded like a guitar, but this en ergetic show was as fun to watch as it was to listen to. The performance was one of pure entertainment that the per formers seemed to enjoy as much as the audience. The fast-paced show included dancing, acting, comedy, and of course, singing. They barely paused between songs, and the show ended all too soon. The group has performed with the London Symphony Orches tra, the Royal Philharmonic Or chestra, and the Houston Sym phony Orchestra, but Saturday’s performance was a cappella. It was like watching a human symphony. The most entertain ing piece was Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” the final song of the night. Singer Andrew Busher got the audience laughing w'hen he introduced the number by saying, “I’m sure you’ll be re lieved to know we’ve shortened it a bit. We’ve also had to do some special arrangements since Tchai kovsky wrote it for a symphon- y...and a brass band...and canon- s...and church bells.” Since Rudder Auditorium had no sym phony or cannons that night, the Swingle Singers made up lor that lack by singing those parts. The singers reproduced the vi olin section by waggling their tongues up and down between their lips. T hey “swished” to cre ate sounds like cymbals, fhe bell tolling gave Busher a chance to get another laugh from the audi ence when he acted like the Hun- chback of Notre Dame while cre ating the bell sounds. When all these unusual musical methods were combined it really sounded like a live symphony was playing instead of eight vocalists. The audience was on its feet be fore the overture was finished. After a minute or two, the Swingle Singers reappeared onstage for the encore, which was a medley of American folk songs arranged by the groups founder, Ward Swingle. The program included a vari ety of songs from all times and genres. The first half of the fea tured mostly classical and folk songs. The first song was Mo zart's overture to “The Marriage of Figaro.” A few minutes later they sang “Coventry Carol,” an English folk song that allowed the group to show off their talents for harmonizing. The songs progressed to some by more contemporary compos ers like Irving Berlin’s “Putting on the Ritz” and “It’s a Lovely Day Today!” in which finger snapping made the sounds of a tap dance routine. After intermission they sang “Fool on the Hill” and “Lady Ma donna," both by the Beatles. The guys in the group then gave a special performance of “Natural ly” by Huey Lewis that was ar ranged by Swingle member Ben Parry. All the Swingle Singers mem bers have conservatory training. Members Parry and Jonathan Rathbone arranged most of the music for the group. The concert was a perfect fi nale for the 1988-89 OPAS sea son. With songs by Mozart to Ber lin to the Beatles, there was something for everyone to enjoy. ‘Hope and Glory’ looks at war from child’s comic perspective “Hope and Glory,” a 1987 Aca demy Award nominee for best pic ture, will be Tuesday night’s feature in the MSG Aggie Cinema interna tional series. Directed by John Boorman (“Ex- calibur,” “Deliverance”), “Hope and Glory” is a humorous and moving look at World War II through the eyes of a child. The film follows the experiences of the Rohan family, an English fam ily coping with the war. For Billy Ro han and his younger sister, Sue, the war seems like a party. Billy and his friends collect shrapnel, play in bombed-out houses and smash up any intact objects in them. For them, the war provides an outlet for fun. In a scene near the end of the film, we see the children jumping for joy and cheering at the sight ol their school, which is on fire after being hit by a German bomb. A scene where the Germansboml) London sums up the child’s eye view of the war. In the dark background we see homes wrapped in flames. Dawn, Billy’s older sister, calls for him to “come see the fireworks.” However, in showing the war through a child’s eye, Boorman never forgets war’s truly tragic na ture. We see homes destroyed and families lost. Overall, however, “Hope and Glory” is a lighthearted look at life during the war. There are numerous comic moments that make for an enjoyable experience. “Hope and Glory” will be pre sented Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Rud der Auditorium. Admission is $2.50. ITOYOTAI Of COMfVOE STUDENT PURCHASE AND COLLEGE GRADUATE BUYER S PROGRAM WELL BUY YOUR GAS JUST FOR COMING TO WESTERN FOR A TEST DRIVE. STUDENT I.D. REQUIRED 1409 I-45 NORTH IN CONROE HWY. 105 TO 1-45, THEN NORTH 1/2 MILE TO WILSON RD„ LEFT UNDER BRIDGE & BACK ON 1-45 SERVICE RD. M-F 8:30am - 9:00pm SAT. 8:30am - 7:00pm (409)539-9191 WESTON, Con tor Stanley Mason the world’s first ware, the squeeza and the granola 1 things, says he’s se dollar ideas get los of vision in corpor, Like the dispos; signed. Mason, who’s Wizard of Weston part to remedy tha with a course on cr ingto graduate hi the University Stamford campus. The inventor h; a two-story barn w and secret — ex progress. Mason isn’t tryii dents into Thoma does think he can i curiosity and abil lively, which he c patents he holds. "In large comp divided up inter de] so insular, they i what goes on in th< son said at Simco development com in 1973 after a cor] "They don’t unc ity, the continuun between products he said. “It’s possible, i teach people how live way, how to point of view abou not to be so damn thing.” Norman C. Pa Calif., president Congress of Invent calls Mason “one c respected inventor Mason’s work, h Steps (Continued from f eye, which he lik On some shows, t from scratch, anc tumes are built on for other shows. “The students w costumes are the those students whe to Theater or a co says. "They put froi hours a week build some work more h< “On really big s two seamstresses w and work on more parts.” Technical crew: theater arts majors “Some students ; in acting and work says. “Others do a and act in the next “We have differ ferent callings sue! lighting, costumes (dismantling) the s< “People do diffet the show run smooi The budget for depending on the t “Period pieces cost more,” Porno s If five weeks to sounds like a rush, direcor, cast and overtime to get the “Five weeks is p says. “But we are 1 some very dedicate willing to put in the show. “If you are a th are completely ded ater. “The theater is pr MSC Political Forum sov TES 1 DR. A This program and does not con T