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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1995)
i uaiy l?, 1) Tuesday • January 17, 1995 t’m _ drink ]% hat time ^’s Resols' onger that ometipstt healthier ork. First, tf you are l first ana' Id find ' age, body n the topi nderstan: st for you saknesses attitudes i are very be hones your ow. on. Once ife, it car. hewi ■ way to process ced per- s apm- Beutei >le omehow or another, we all found time to listen to them whine. When it came time to choose an artist of the year in the world of music, one band immediately was the obvious choice. Not because of sheer talent, but because for most of the year you couldn’t step out of your house or turn on the tube without get ting a daily dose of “Dookie.” Yes, Green Day is the choice for artist of the year. After minimal success with their first two independent releases, their third album, “Dookie,” sold much better than the ... title might suggest. MTV got a hold of the video for “Longview” and the rest is history. After airing that and the “Basket Case” video on ridiculous max-rotation for months at a time, the album has sold more than 3,000,000 copies. And their spot on the Lol- lapalooza tour and infamous Woodstock mudfight set has only increased their ex treme exposure. For many, the big question is why? The lyrics aren’t exactly the most intelligent, the music is dominated by three chord gui tar rock that is repetitive at best, and lead singer Billie Joe looks like he’s having seizures when he sings, complete with air borne saliva. Simply put, Greem Day is just fun music. Of course Billie Joe’6 lyrics won’t be as deep as Eddie Vedder’s or Kurt Cobain’s. And the band’s pastel flavor is nothing like the popular darkness of Billy Corgan and Trent Reznor. Green Day is fast, danceablq/mosh- able music that is flat-out good to listen to. The other big question that surrounds Green Day is whether or not it is feasible to classify the band as punk. The fact is, it’s too pop to be punk. Johnny Rotten wouldn’t have been caught dead singing “I’m so damn bored I’m going blind and I smell like sh—” or “I sit around and watch the tube but nothing’s on.” Punk influence? Yes. Punk music? Nope. There’s just no pop in punk. At this summer’s Lollapalooza tour, I had the opportunity to interview the band, an opportunity that I relished. Unfortu nately, the band members take themselves a bit too seriously as rebel punks. See Clark/Page 4 The Battalion • Page 3 By Rob Clark The Battalion 1994 — the year punk came back from the dead in the body of pop music, rap was barely heard over the scream of police sirens, music legends re turned for massive albums and tours and the rock world lost one of its most talented and innovative artists to suicide. Women in Rock The year started out promising enough, with the release of the best album of the year. Tori Amos’ “Under the Pink.” An astonishing achieve ment, the album was a melodic feast with Amos’ exquisite piano skills and stunning voice. It was no holds barred on this album, as Amos questioned religion on “God” (“God sometimes you just don’t come through / Do you need a woman to look after you?”) and the discovery of masturbation on “Ici cle.” But Amos wasn’t the only woman pushing the envelope in lyrical content. Liz Phair’s sophomore effort “Whip Smart” wasn’t quite the f-word fest that her 1993 debut “Exile in Guyville” was, but her clever guitar skills and sassy attitude vaulted her to the cover of Rolling Stone. In fact, 1994 was a banner year for women in rock. From the acoustic stylings of Sheryl Crow and her monster hit “AJ1 I Wanna Do” to the urban alternafunk of Luscious Jackson, women made more noise than ever in ’94. Live Through This Tragedy struck the rock ranks with the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Cobain’s body was found in his Seattle home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 8. And as conservative media critics such as Andy Rooney scoffed at Cobain’s importance, young America mourned the loss of perhaps the most cre ative and innovative artist of our time. Nirvana changed the face of music with their explosive 1991 debut “Nevermind,” capturing the ideology of teenage angst in the grunge style that became the blueprint for success for the rest of the so-called alternative groups. Success came fast and furious for Nirvana, and ultimately became a major thorn in Cobain’s side. His life was tormented enough with a heroin ad diction and a seemingly continual state of hope lessness, combined with the sudden extreme de mands of being a rock star. Cobain’s “escape” left Nirvana without a leader, Courtney Love without a husband, and Frances Bean Cobain without a fa ther. But the end of the year brought the release of Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” album, providing the world with one last listen to Cobain’s immense tal ent. Meanwhile, Courtney Love was left to pick up the pieces. Her band Hole’s debut album “Live Through This” was a smash with the critics and had just taken off commercially at the time of Cobain’s death. Tragedy struck again with the death of Hole bass guitarist Kristen FTaff. Late in the year, a second single “Doll Parts” was released and the video was played on maximum rotation on MTV. And after a few brief appearances on the summer Lollapalooza tour. Hole was back on the road at the end of ’94. The Return of Punk One of the most talked about events in ’94 was the revival of punk music. Green Day and Off spring were the two bands most associated with resuscitating the loud, frenzied style of The Sex Pistols and The Clash. But the ’90s style of punk had one element dis tinctly different than ’70s punk — the power of pop. There is no question that Green Day’s music has that fast guitar sound, but the melodies are strictly Top 40 territory. Green Day and Offspring capitalized on MTV’s fascination with the punk re vival, with the videos for “Basket Case” and “Self Esteem” playing slightly more than 17 times an hour. The Year in Rap — It's a Doggy Dogg World Between Snoop Doggy Dogg’s murder and drug charges, Tupac Shakur’s murder, assault and sex ual abuse charges, Lisa Lopes’ arson charges and Flavor Flav’s assault charges, rappers found them selves taking Ice Cube’s song “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” a bit too far. When rappers weren’t making headlines in po lice reports, the most noise came from the West Coast where the Dr. Drq/Snoop Doggy Dogg gangs- ta style reigned supreme. Dre’s half-brother War ren G. hit it big with “Regulate” but slipped with his terribly tuneless “Do You See.” Fellow west coast rapper Coolio had the surprise hit of the year with “Fantastic Voyage.” In other rap news, the most disappointing al bum of the year had to be Public Enemy’s “Muse- Sick ’N’ Hour Mess Age.” After ruling over the rap world for five years, PE fell from the throne with a rather unceremonious thud. The best in rap this year came from the Brook lyn trio A Tribe Called Quest. While supporting their “Midnight Marauders” album, the group em barked on a tour with De La Soul and the summer Lollapalooza tour. '80s stars fall It seems only yesterday that albums like “Pur ple Rain,” “Like A Virgin” and “Thriller” were at the top of the charts. But in ’94, FYince, Madonna and Michael Jackson found out the success of the ’80s does not translate into success in the ’90s. Still reeling from criticism of his bizarre symbol name change, FYince released two albums last year, the awful “Come” and the classic “Black Al bum.” But only one song hit the top 10 — the dis gustingly sugary-sweet “The Most Beautiful Girl In the World.” Madonna continued her downward spiral with a ridiculous appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and a mediocre response to her new romantic side on her “Bedtime Stories” album. But if it was a bad year for anyone, it had to be Michael Jackson. Child molestation charges and an addiction to painkillers kept Jackson plastered on tabloid covers all year. And the weirdest mar riage in years to Lisa Marie Presley kept America wondering how that cute little kid could grow up to be so damn weird. Geritol Rock A number of older rockers put away their rock ers and wheelchairs and came back to perform in monster tours. The Rolling Stones returned with Kurt Cobain their strongest album in years and their “Voodoo Lounge” tour was the highest grossing tour of the year. But close be hind were Pink Floyd and their “Division Bell” album and tour. Perhaps the most an ticipated reunions were the Eagles and Led Zep pelin. With the help of “MTV Unplugged” ses sions, the ’70s veterans returned to the top of the charts. Ticket to Ride Pearl Jam took on the world in 1994, especially with their battle with Ticketmaster over service charges on the band’s concert tickets. Gui tarists Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard testified before Congress in July against Ticketmaster in an attempt to keep ticket prices affordable for their fans. With Kurt Cobain gone, many placed the un fair title of “voice of our generation” on the hefty but unwilling shoulders of Pearl Jam. The band responded by releasing “Vitalogy,” an album that was more experimental than their first two. mainstream? Will the Billboard charts and Grammy Awards still be dominated by pop or will creative al ternative and rap music be embraced? Listen and find out. We’ll keep you posted. It ought to be interesting. The Mudfight in Saugerties / N.Y. Woodstock’94 overcame the label of being too corporate and a sellout version of the original when 350,000 people journeyed to Saugerties, N.Y. for three more days of peace and mu sic. Performances from artists as di verse as Nine Inch Nails, Salt TN’ Pepa, Live, Bob Dylan, Green Day, Porno for I^yros and Sheryl Crow kept the massive audience enter tained while rain poured down, cre ating a haven for those with an ap preciation for mud. A Look Forward What will 1995 hold? Look for tours from R.E.M., Pearl Jam and possibly even the artist formerly known as Prince. The big rap news will come from the Dr. Drq/lce Cube album “Helter Skelter” and the con tinuing trials of Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur. Will Green Day continue its mass market ascent? Will Nine Inch Nails be the next big alternative act to make it into the A Tribe Called Quest performed on the Lollapalooza tour and had one of the best albums of the year with “Midnight Marauders.” Tori Amos’ “Under the Pink” album was the top album of 1994. The 10 best albums of the year 1. Tori Amos — "Under the Pink" 2. Nirvana — "MTV Unplugged in New York" 3. Liz Phair — "Whip Smart" 4. Green Day — "Dookie" 5. A Tribe Called Quest — "Midnight Marauders" 6. Hole — "Live Through This" 7. Sheryl Crow — "Tuesday Night Mu sic Club" 8. R.E.M. — "Monster" 9. Luscious Jackson — "Natural Ingre dients" 10. Nine Inch Nails — "The Downward Spiral" The 1 0 worst albums of the year 1. Salt 'N' Pepa — "Very Necessary" 2. Public Enemy — "Muse-Sick 'N' Hour Mess-Age" 3. Candlebox — "Candlebox" 4. Collective Soul — "Hints, Allega tions, and Things Left Unsaid" 5. Boyz II Men — "II" 6. Prince — "Come" 7. Da Brat — "Funkdafied" 8. Offspring — "Smash" 9. Snoop Doggy Dogg — "Doggystyle" 10. Anything by Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton or Whitney Houston