[onday • May 1, 1995
^ggielife
The Battalion • Page 3
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By Wes Swift
The Battalion
I Village of the Damned
I Starring: Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley and Linda Kozlowski
H Directed by: John Carpenter
B Rated: R
I Showing at: Hollywood 16
■ 1/2 (out of five)
I Given John Carpenter’s recent movie flops, ViZZoge of the Damned
might have been an appropriate name for the longtime horror-film-
■aker’s hometown. But with his last film. In the Mouth of Madness,
ir d his latest attempt. Carpenter has tried to revamp his career
$3th little success.
Unfortunately, his creativity needs revamping before he can saT
ge his career.
Village is little more than Children of the Corn with a little more
ndow dressing. It’s the tired tale of a small town under siege by
Children with mystical powers.
I The film revolves around Midwich, Calif., a speed bump of a
ipastal town where nothing happens. But that changes when a
strange force engulfs the town and makes several of the town’s
vomen pregnant.
The plot putts along without a twist
or turn as the children grow up and be
gin showing abnormal abilities. They
can read your thoughts, and they have a
nasty streak when it comes to protecting
their own.
As the film winds on, it’s revealed
that the children, to no one’s surprise,
may not be from this world. The whole
tempest in a teapot moves towards an
inevitable confrontation between the
children and one of the townsfolk,
played by Christopher Reeve
{Superman). Big surprise again.
Village of the Damned relies more on Carpenter’s trademark shock
treatment and special effects than on a good plot, and the movie suffers
because of it. It is a plot as familiar as the back of your hand.
The refreshing twists present in Madness, whose plot kept you on
the edge of your seat, are absent in this film. Village only keeps you
interested to see when you’ll next be scared out of your seat by some
tired horror movie cliche (such as someone jumping into a doorway
right as the music reaches a climax — ho hum).
The plot even mars the efforts of an intriguing cast, which brings
The abnormal children in Carpenter’s latest film can read minds and are protective of their own.
back a mob of almost-forgotten film stars. Reeve returns to main
stream film audiences as Doug Chaffee, the small town doctor and
father of one of the children. Kirstie Alley stars as Dr. Sarah Verner,
a government scientist sent to monitor the children, and Linda Ko
zlowski (Crocodile Dundee) returns to the big screen as Jill Mc
Gowan, the local school principal. Even Mark Hamill gets in the act
as the town preacher.
Village of the Damned only proves that, perhaps, any rumors of
Carpenter’s career resurrection are greatly exaggerated.
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St. Johnny cooks up unique alternative sound
St. Johnny
By Kyle Littlefield
The Battalion
St. Johnny
Let It Come Doom
DGC Records
★ ★★ (out of five)
The soup in the alternative music kitchen is
boiling over. Seems the boys from St. Johnny have
thrown in a little bit of everything that was lying
around and let it cook too long. The result is a
warped exercise in 70s pop culture.
Let It Come Down is an eclectic assembly of
songs resembling the likes of Sonic Youth, Beck,
Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, the Velvet Under
ground and the music on a “Scoobie Doo” sound
track. By meshing all of these influences together,
St. Johnny comes up with a sound you’ve probably
never heard before. The second full-length release
from this Hartford, Conn, band contains all of the
fuzz and saccharin of an AM radio station at three
in the morning.
The album opens with “Scuba Diving,” a track
accompanied with the obligatory sounds of water
bubbling, and a catchy chorus of, “Money, Money,
Money / Pray to the dying radio star.” St. Johnny
is not above mocking itself or the music business.
Vocalist Bill Whitten sounds an awful lot like
Lou Reed and Stephen Malkmus. Whitten
whines but at the same time, you get the feeling
that he’s looking down on you in that pop star
fashion.
The appeal of St. Johnny is their diverse
sounds. One track will resemble the soul sounds of
Motowm and then the next like late 70s pop. “Hey
Teenager!” would be at home on the flip-side of a
Partridge Family record with its “groovy” guitars
and funky drum beat.
And St. Johnny has a unique sense of humor.
“Rip Off” begins with the band members cawing
like crows and fades into a sea of distorted har
monica and guitars.
St. Johnny has made an art out of acting the
fool, but does it seriously. The childish whistling
that dominates “Scuba Diving” is hard to swallow,
but gives the song a sort of early-Rolling Stones
quality. The Stones were known for taking some
thing simple and creating as whole song around it.
With its lively orchestration, “Bluebird” could
have been a Motown hit. Whitten sings, “Is a blue
bird really blue? / Does he know what it’s like to
be a fool? / Break his lover’s heart / To only always
fall apart.”
The lyrics are open for interpretation, but that’s
how St. Johnny planned it.
Lead guitarist Jim Roberto said in a press re
lease, “I’m not a big fan of happy-go-lucky songs,
but these aren’t the other extreme either. They’re
more ‘That’s the way it is’...”
Whitten likens Let It Come Down ‘s hodgepodge
of tracks to a Quentin Tarantino movie “without
the picture.” “If the album were a movie the over
all color would be cyanotic blue, and it would be
filled with car wrecks, fights and broken hearted
gas-station attendants. But there’s no plot. Unless
failure, loss and hopefully redemption is a plot,”
says Whitten.
Although the listener’s experience may not be
the same as Whitten’s, he or she will definitely
have an experience.
Whether it is your roommate throwing your
stereo down the stairs after you have listened to
St. Johnny’s habit-forming melodies for the
tenth time in a row, or your puzzled stare when
you hear the odd brilliance of St. Johnny’s
arrangements, you will either love or hate this
CD. It just depends on your favorite flavor of al
ternative soup.
At times, St. Johnny can be a bit over the top,
but it is still refreshing to hear old music re
vamped into something new.
cpOW president finds humor
Gingrich's threat to women's
—i ■
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — What’s Newt
V Bingrich to Patricia Ireland? “The best member-
4^ ship recruiter NOW ever had,” she says.
-g The National Organization for Women presi-
-dijsnt lambasted the conservative Republican with
—I ^hmor in a speech Saturday.
On the controversy over the House speaker’s
lother, Kathleen Gingrich, calling Hillary Rodham
|linton a nasty name, Ireland said that word was
acronym for “being in total control. Honey.”
Jokes aside, Ireland said women face serious
ttacks from Republicans, including a plan to con-
Newt
Gingrich
vert some welfare programs for poor women and children into block
grants to states.
“We have got to take them very seriously,” she said. “We’ve got to
organize as if our lives depend on it, because they do.”
Leno sweetens deal in Portland's
children's hospital fund raiser
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jay Leno took his show on the road and
ended up on the local morning news.
“The Tonight Show” host popped into the KGW-TV studio Satur
day, chatted with the anchor and delivered a cup of coffee to the
weatherman. The station was holding an auction to raise money for a
children’s hospital. Leno, in town to tape man-on-the-street segments,
sweetened the deal with tickets and a backstage pass to his show.
Ted Nugent defends gun enthusiasts
against recent negative backlash
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — Ted Nugent thinks the government
should leave his fellow gun enthusiasts alone.
“Law-abiding gun owners have done nothing wrong,” said the rock
er, who lives outside this southern Michigan city.
The 46-year-old Nugent, best known for the hits “Journey to the
Center of the Mind,” “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Cat Scratch Fever,”
said he supports the Michigan Militia, which was scrutinized after re
ports that suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing attended its meet
ings.
He called the Oklahoma blast “a demonic, cowardly, murderous
crime.” But he said people in the militia are not like that.
“I shoot with these people, I have been to target practice with them.
I find them professional, hard-working people,” Nugent said.
4S
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