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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1991)
3408 201 Live Oak College Station, TX 77840 Behind La Quinta 696-3411 Poi Dog to play at Deware Friday By Kevin Robinson If one new band personifies the rich Austin music scene to the rest of the country, it would probably be Poi Dog Pondering. For the past four years, Poi Dog has grown from be ing a free-form Hawaiian street band to being one of the most visible members of the current Texas music community. College Station music fans will get a chance to see the band for themselves when Poi Dog returns to town Friday at Deware Fieldhouse. Lead songwriter Frank Orrall has brought together eight musicians with backgrounds as varied and as unconventional as the music they play. After the release of their first two EPs in 1988 and 1989, Poi Dog tightened up its sound on tours with Camper Van Beethoven, Throwing Muses, and Robin Hitchcock. Their unique sound, a mixing pot of Amer ican folk, soul, and a multicultural beat, accompanied by acoustic gui tars, mandolin, and the occasional tin whistle, earned them a contract with Columbia Records. The two Columbia albums, Poi Dog Pondering and Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea, have received favorable coverage from both Rolling Stone and Spin. Singles like “Living With the Dreamy Body”, "Postcard From a Dream" and "Everybody's Trying” have given Poi Dog a reputation across the nation. This only adds to the exposure of MTV videos, an appearance on Da vid Lynch and Mark Frost's contro versial American Chronicles, and a track on a recent Roky Erickson trib ute album, alongside R.E.M., the Je sus and Mary Chain, and fellow Texas rockers, ZZ Top. Add this to constant touring, and it seems Poi Dog Pondering is quickly becoming famous in more than their adopted state. Opening for Poi Dog is Davd Garza, formerly of Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom, who played a well recieved show in College Station last semester. Although the mem bers of Twang Twang have gone their seperate ways, word from Aus tin reassures that Davd Garza and the Lovebeads retain the qualities that made Twang Twang one of the most popular Austin bands of the past year. Garza and company have also just released their first cassette, Just Say Love. Poi Dog Pondering will play the Deware Fieldhouse on Friday. Doors open at 8:00. Tickets are available at the MSC box office and are $7 for students and $10 for non-students. Orchestre de Paris to perform tonight The Orchestre de Paris, featuring pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque, will perform tonight at 8 in Rudder Auditorium. Katia and Marielle Labeque are known for the extraordinary scope of their repertoire and their superlative musicianship. Semyon Bychkov is the music di rector and conductor for the orches tra. He began his first American tour with the orchestra this month. The Orchestre de Paris was founded in 1828 and performs regu larly throughout France and interna tionally, appearing in the world's mu sic capitals and at major festivals. The goals of the orchestra include providing leadership in French mu sical life and representing the musi cal prestige of France abroad. MSC OPAS is presenting the con cert. For ticket information about to night’s performance, contact the MSC Box Office at 845-1234 or Fo ley’s in Post Oak Mall. page 2 February 28,1991, Above: Eleventh Dream Day Below: Blue Rodeo. Eleventh Dream Day rocks head to toe By Rob Newberry Eleventh Dream Day Lived To Tell Atlantic Chicago's Eleventh Dream Day kicks off 1991 with their sophomore major-label effort, Lived To Tell. Summed up: the album rocks from head to toe. Kicking off with the three-chord grinder, “Rose of Jericho,” the al bum sets a pace that just never stops. Next up, “Dream of a Sleep ing Sheep" continues with guitar screeches and pounding drums from end to end. Songwriting credits go to every member of the band, contributing to the record's feel of a true band effort. Vocalist Rick Rizzo pens five of the 13 songs on his own, and drummer Janet Beveridge Bean (Rizzo’s wife) contributes four. Bassist Douglas McCombs throws in “Frozen Mile,” one of the slower, bluesier numbers, but the tune still features one hell of a guitar solo. Guitarist Baird Figi adds "Trouble" to the record, but the song doesn't cause any trouble for the band —they tear through it just like the others. EDO’s real strength is the blend of screeching, > grinding guitars by Rizzo and Figi. The riffs that open up "I Could Be Lost" and “It’s Not My World" are distorted and melodic at the same time, and there’s never a shortage of solos. The drum and bass rhythms that carry the guitars and vocals stick out best on tracks like “You Know What It Is.” Lyrically, EDO’s spirit is a mix of Rizzo’s disillusionment and Bean’s pseudo-optimism. In “It’s Not My World,” Rizzo chants (with Bean on harmony) "The world might be chan ging, outside that door, But that’s not my world anymore.” Bean’s ly rics are a little more uplifting, like "All you did was drink up, link up, Now you better think up a new attitude, Before you’re all unglued” from “You Know What It Is”. Lived To Te//covers all the bases in rock ’n’ roll. Guitars, harmonies, melodies, more guitars, blues riffs, straight-forward lyrics and still more guitars — EDD doesn’t relax for a moment all the way through. Blue Rodeo Casino East West America Blue Rodeo, the country-rock five-piece from Canada, cleans up and focuses its style for its third ma jor release, Casino. Country and rock influences are still present, but the lyrical balance has lined itself up on the pop side more than previous efforts. The album opens with the first sin gle, “Til I Am Myself Again.” The song uncovers both depression and bittersweet optimism from a scene in a hotel room, with heavy play on har monies by guitarists-vocalists-song- writers Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. The album’s slower, more-countri fied songs are reminiscent of popu lar country on today’s radio — not my favorite type of music at all, but fans of the style are likely to find a crossover to the more rock ’n’ roll side of country through tunes like “Last Laugh” and "5 A.M. (a love song).” The music behind Blue Rodeo en compasses a lot, but it keeps its ba sis in the rhythmic acoustic guitars and standard four-four drum pat terns. There’s no shortage of instru ments — piano, organs, harmonica, and accordian accompany the stan dard rock guitars, bass and drums. The second side of the album opens with “Trust Yourself,” my fave track off the disc. Opening with a slow electric piano solo, the tune kicks into some driving electric gui tar and harsh, bluesy rhythms. The advice in the song might not be the most original, but the music is defi nitely strong. Fans of contemporary country meets pop-rock should enjoy most of the harmonic tunes on Casino. Blue Rodeo doesn’t rock out, but they don’t get stuck in country mush either — they keep a foot on either side of the fence musically, with ly rics right in the mainstream. Life Style magazine page 11