New Age musicians exhibit classic talent
By Cindy McMillian
Tuesday night found the usual OPAS
crowd milling about the lobby of Rud
der Center. Well-to-do patrons and
season ticket holders were on hand—
the women wore fur wraps and black
patent heels, the men wore coats and
ties.
The night's entertainment, how
ever, definitely was not the standard
fare. Steam rose from the stage as Liz
Story, Philip Aaberg and Night Noise
drifted one by one into the spotlights
and began the opening number.
These musicians exhibited techni
cal skills to rival those of many classi
cal artists. Their mastery combined
with soaring expressiveness, freedom
of form, and audience communication
painted an exquisite, ethereal and
moving portrait of beauty.
And humor. Story, a solo pianist,
used a mixture of sentimental and
quirky anecdotes to introduce her
songs from the recent album. Escape
of the Circus Ponies. The three Celtic
members of Night Noise (the fourth is
a New Yorker) made several Irish
cracks, one of which led into the best
musical moment of the evening.
After preparing the audience for an
Irish tune (“It was written by an Irish
man,” explained flautist Brian Dun
ning), two members of Night Noise be
gan a rendition of Van Morrison’s
“Moondance” that amazed the crowd.
Dunning began on alto flute with a low,
mournful version of the melody, then
switched to C flute and picked up the
tempo with smooth glissandos and
jazzy slides. Michael O’Domhnaill
played guitar, and both performers
were on fire. Dunning’s energy was
the highlight of the evening.
Aaberg’s solo segment was another
crowd pleaser. Along with some beau
tiful piano work, his humor stole the
show. He would begin with some
shimmery opening chords and then
break into a kind of surreal boogie-
woogie. His version of the Christmas
classic The Nutcracker sounded like
Jerry Lee Lewis’ soul playing in
Claude Debussy’s body.
Story’s performance was serious
business — beautiful and moving.
Rich bass lines supported soaring
melodies in her solo selections, and
her duet with Aaberg was rhythmic
and exciting.
Though it ran a bit long, the show
was interesting, moving and enjoya
ble. Some audience members accus
tomed to more traditional perfor
mances from the MSC Opera and
Performing Arts Society may have
been surprised, but I doubt many were
disappointed.
The three acts toured together to
promote a compilation album of sea
sonal New Age music. The album,
Winter Solstice III, /'s available on the
Windham Hill label.
. Liz Story chats with the crowd during a performance Tuesday night in Rudder tower.
a look at Liz Story
Liz Story took some time out from Tuesday's soundcheck to share a few thoughts about
performing and her career as a soloist.
'Traveling’s tough,’ she says. Though she started touring several years ago with
romanticized visions of seeing city after city, life on the road is often “just a series of airports
and motel rooms.’
But performing for an audience has its rewards, she says. In a sense, performing live is
the way music should be, and studio work can be an attempt to simulate live music.
Studio work has its moments of excitement, like when she knows the tape has started
and she’s actually putting something down on vinyl, she says. But her favorite is “live
performing, by far.’
Liz Story’s last visit to College Station was on Valentine’s Day, 1989, when she
performed a solo show in Rudder Auditorium. For the last two years, she has been travelling
with two other Windham Hill acts, Philip Aaberg and Night Noise, playing selections from the
second and third Winter Solstice albums.
She has fun with the group and enjoys not being by herself. The change has been worth
it, she says, but logistics can be a problem.
'When you travel with a group, the whole style of touring completely changes,” she says.
Trying to follow a group pattern is often difficult — more hotel rooms, longer soundchecks,
more waiting. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time wandering around backstage,” she says.
Story’s most recent release, Escape of the Circus Ponies, is all solo piano music. On her
next album, she plans to work with other musicians.
She has done three out of five albums without accompaniment, but becoming a solo
artist ‘just kind of happened.’
When she first approached Windham Hill with her music, Story had a job in a French
restaurant playing solo piano, so all her music was written as a soloist. She signed and
toured alone, but not because she set out to, she says. That’s just how her career worked
out.
The combination of opportunity, direction and circumstance determines what careers
most of us find, in the arts and in other areas, she says.
‘You go in the general direction of what you want to do,” she explains. “I wanted to play
piano.* —c.m.
Mutilated thumbs up to Skinny Puppy tour
You’re in a crowded room. There's
a man on a stage with a gas mask on
who keeps knocking himself to the
floor with his fist. He struggles back to
his feet, blood-soaked and scream
ing.
As he becomes more enraged, he
reaches into a sac, a marsupium-like
appendage attatched at his belly, and
tugs a squirming fetus by its umbilical
chord from it. He bites into the fetus,
spits a chunk toward you and then
sticks the dismembered figure back in
its pouch.
Above him and to his side lie a
dozen screens and television sets
with disturbing visions of open-heart
surgery, abortions, slit throats and tor
tured animals. Perched behind him is
an ominous tree, engendered with
vacillating limbs and a hinged open
ing, entombed with death and rebirth.
The tree, as him, is cloaked by a thick
fog and dark, flashing lights. Directly
above the madmen awaits a noose,
limply swaying in spell-like fashion. It
is from this noose that the madman
will soon hang.
By this point, you’re wondering a)
what in the hell am I doing here, and
b) how in the hell do I get out? For the
capacity crowd at Houston's Num
bers, the last thing wished was an es
cape from this macabre freak show.
Vincent Price, himself, couldn't have
devised a more perfect setting for
By John Righter
those intrigued by the dark and unor
dinary, and for those who find them
selves enchanted by a voluminous
imagination.
Skinny Puppy does not feature to
day’s most entertaining musicians.
But the Canadian band quite possibly
performs the most entertaining set.
Utilizing their trademark "audio sculp
ture," the homogenizing of visual,
sound and message, Nivek Ogre,
Dwayne Rudolph Goettel and cEVIN
KEY are dead serious about Puppy’s
music and message. Without prior
knowledge of the method that belies
Ogre’s madness, Puppy's songwriter
and center-stage madman, the show
is a deeply disturbing spectacle.
Alice Cooper was a campy side
show. Cooper might procure an occa
sional wince, but largely he was left
with the laughter of spectators that
grew up watching Christopher Lee,
Vincent Price and Peter Cushing.
Skinny Puppy goes far beyond a few,
cheap gimmicks and instead, at
tempts to forge a complete aura.
In the same vein as GWAR and the
Butthole Surfers, Puppy strives for fas
cist, violent images to derive their par
adoxically positive messages. While
most bands eye for the margins,
Skinny Puppy grovels for the center
sludge.
In this sense, the group is much
closer to the aforementioned GWAR
and Surfers then to Ministry and the
Revolting Cocks. In fact, the group
performed the mettalish “Tin Omen”
as its second song to rid themselves
of the proverbial slam. “Omen” was
the lone song that aroused the audi
ence enough for a true pit.
The rest of the show was spent star
gazing at disturbing images, robotic
limbs that transformed Ogre into a gi
ant, and the degrading sight of Ogre
cutting himself and forcing up his own
vomit with his fingers. Pleasantries
were few and far between.
Skinny Puppy is a band that tours
infrequently and performs limited en
gagements. The reason is obvious —
Ogre literally mutilates himself on
stage. The man must be physically
and psychologically devastated by
set’s end. It was Ogre’s breakdown
that led to the cancellation of last
year’s tour when he temporarily left
Skinny Puppy to join Al Jourgensen
and Ministry (who produced part of
Rabies).
I can’t in good conscience make a
sweeping recommendation for Skinny
Puppy. But, fortunately, I really don’t
need to.
Those accustomed to the rebellious
underground scene will find nothing
particularly shocking by the perfor
mance. Music-goers that are more ig
norant to the wonders of avante
shows, will probably freak. Me, I give it
a mutilated thumbs up.
c
m
Top 10 albums of 1990
Every reviewer usually feels the
need to do a top ten list for the year,
be it in movies, records, books, what
ever. I guess the main reason is that
it’s the ultimate ego trip to place in
print what you’ve personally been en
joying for the past twelve months. It
gives the reader a taste of what the re
viewers themselves enjoy, and judge
by that whether or not their opinion
means a whole lot to them.
If you go by my tastes, 1990 was
one of the best years for music in a
long time. Acts that I’ve waited years
for a second album finally put them
out. Groups like Public Enemy, Sinead
O'Conner, and Jane’s Addiction finally
got the recognition they deserved.
Most of all, it seems that the so-called
“underground” is finally moving for
ward into popularity.
For what it’s worth, here are my top
ten of 1990. They're in no particular
order. Sinead O’Conner and Fugazi
may have the same haircuts, but to
compare the two is silly.
1) Lou Reed and John Cale- Songs
for Drella : Although vastly under
rated, the Velvet Underground were
probably the most influential rock band
ever, outside of the Beatles. Songs for
Drella reunites two of the founding
members in a touching tribute to their
former friend/mentor/producer, Andy
Warhol.
2) Public Enemy- Fear of a Black
Planet : I agree, most rap is in the
same adolescent mindset as most
heavy metal. One of the few excep
tions is Public Enemy, a group that
honestly turns rap into an artform and
has plenty to say while they're at it.
Don’t believe the hype!
3) Jane’s Addiction- Ritual de la Ha
bitual \ Mrighl most people don’t con
sider this as good as Nothing Shock
ing, but I see it as an expansion from
their art-metal basics. With a fierce
originality, continued exposure and a
cult of fans that’s been growing for
four years now, Jane's is soon going
to be huge. That is, if they don’t break
up first.
4) Bongwater- Too Much Sleep : If
the Beatles had made “Sgt. Pepper’s”
in 1990, it may have sounded some
thing like this. Vocalist/ Performance
artist Ann Magnuson and Musician-
/Producer Kramer create a musical
collage of psychedelic sounds, sur
realistic lyrics and bizarre samples.
5) Sinead O’Conner- / Do Not Want
What I Haven't Got: I was beginnning
to think that Sinead would never make
another album. This record still
doesn’t live up to her classic The Lion
and the Cobra from 1987, but it’s still a
beautiful album in its own right. In case
you’re wondering, yes, I got sick of
“that song” too.
6) The Glove- Blue Sunshine: I
guess it’s cheating to include an al
bum originally released in 1983, but
this year was the first time that the
Glove project had been released in
the United States and was brand new
to most people. A collaboration be
tween Robert Smith of the Cure and
Steve Severin of Siouxie and the
Banshees (which Smith was a tempo
rary member in at the time), the Glove
project is the ultimate psychedelic al
bum, which probably reflects more on
the massive amounts of hallucino
genic drugs that both members were
consuming than anything else.
7) Fugazi- Repeater : I’ve always
liked Fugazi because while they still
incorporate their no-drugs, no-alco
hol, no-sex lifestyle into their songs,’
they don't seem as preachy as many
other straight-edge, hardcore bands.
Also setting them apart from most of
their contemporaries is their fluid,
hook-ridden music, which is just as
much a joy to listen to as the lyrics.
8) Dead Can Dance- Aion: This little
gem is available only as an import
from 4AD records right now, which is
a shame. Combining ethereal melo
dies reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins
with the occasional 14th century
Spanish piece or a traditional Middle
Eastern melody makes for some of the
most unusual sounds I've heard in a
while.
9) Revolting Cocks- Beers, Steers,
and Queers : The good news here is
that frontman Al Jourgensen is finally
having some fun again. The Cocks
new album puts him back in the party
mode after the heavy grunge of the
last two Ministry albums. After putting
up with weak “industrial pop” from
Nitzer Ebb and Nine Inch Nails, it’s
nice to see the Cocks back in action.
By the way, the title tune was written
by the Skatenigs about everyone’s fa
vorite rival university.
10) Brian Eno and John Cale-
Wrong Way Up: Who would have
thought that a John Cale project
would have made it on a top ten list
twice? The big news here, though, is
Brian Eno’s return to vocal music after
more than 13 years of making ambient
albums and producing and playing
with Ultravox, Talking Heads, U2 and
others. This album makes it seem like
he never left and “Spinning Away” is
one of the best songs he’s ever writ
ten.
Among those that didn’t make the
list, but deserve to be mentioned any
way include new efforts by the Re
placements, Pogues, Skinny Puppy,
William S. Burroughs and the Digital
Underground. Has this been a great
year or what? Let's just hope that the
rest of decade lives up to it.