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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1995)
iTTAI.ION • P; ay • July 18,1 ecori Jick Rodnicki,Th;: Feam has ho?: aut the trail them parti, [inze said. ; facility like elps us toS:- • GREAT rack and fie, ’.en home to of all time. exas 26-10 1/2 fee: ck record, ft nd Browns a: VJFL. ^ersity set the 71-4 2/4 fee rhich he liversity i the world of’ y Burrell and a 100-meter i onships. d bac They rei ly starti- fans the; back afl said “ E: William^ tie EXE, t <!■« hi. s for The Battalion • Page 3 Tuesday • July 18, 1995 Fanclub, start your engines Band kicks off tour to promote Grand Prix By Kyle Littlefield The Battalion W ith its latest album. Grand Prix, just hitting the record stores. Teenage Fanclub is revving up for its tour with Weezer which starts this Friday. By embodying the melodic highs of the Beatles, the jangle of the Byrds and the naivete and vulnerability of ob scure ’70s band. Big Star, Teenage Fanclub has gained fans for four years who have seen past the popularity of Nirvana or Pearl Jam. The band, which hails from Scotland, surfaced on the British and Ameri can independent ^ scenes with 1990’s A Catholic Education. The album’s first single “Everything Flows” appeared on the indie top 15, and the album hit No. 3 on the indie charts. In 1991, the band’s quick start got it signed to DGC, and its album Band- wagonesque landed them a performance on “Saturday Night Live” and the re spect of Spin magazine, which called the record “the best record white people have made this year.” In 1993, the band spent eight months recording its third album “Thir teen” which received mixed reviews,and obscured the band’s image in America. For Grand Prix and the coming tour, the band has enlisted a veteran produc er and replaced its original drummer. EOPLE IN Shepherd drops $2.8 million on new villa LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ac tress Cybill Shepherd can moon light as a wine taster, car collec tor or even sharpshooter in her new S2.8 million home. Shepherd recently purchased a Mediterranean-style villa on 1.5 acres in Encino, 17 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. The 9,000-square-foot home boasts a panoramic mountain view, six bedrooms, a tennis court, basement wine cellar, a courtyard that can accommodate more than 10 cars and a pistol shooting range. The house was recently leased to actor Burt Reynolds for $20,000 a month. Shepherd, who found televi sion stardom on the comedy hit “Moonlighting,” stars in the CBS sitcom “Cybill.” Therapy helps O'Connor change LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sinead O’Connor feels so differ ent. After three years of therapy, the Irish singer is back on the music scene, sporting a pix ie-style hair cut and a new outlook on life. O’Connor, 28, is per forming this summer with other acts as part of the Lollapalooza ’95 tour. It marks her first U.S. appearance since the then-bald singer was booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert three years ago, after tearing up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” O’Connor is now singing about her struggles as a victim of child abuse. “I was in a bad way as a re sult of what was going on within my family, so I had to take a few years to recover from that basi cally,” she said. “The thing that saved me was therapy.” Flutist sees show's cancellation as a sign WANTAGH, N.Y. (AP) — A violent thunderstorm halted The Chieftains’ first concert of their U.S. tour to promote The Long Black Veil. “It’s the first time in 32 In a telephone interview before boarding a plane to the states, Ray mond McGinely, guitarist for Teenage Fanclub, took some time to talk about the band. Because it can either attract or scare away fans, McGinely said he sometimes has to explain how the band got its name. “We just wanted to get something re ally stupid sounding that would eventu ally become associated with the band,” McGinely said. “It doesn’t mean anything.” Teenage Fanclub has a history of pok ing fun at itself. In 1991 the band recorded Madon na’s “Like a Vir gin,” and the title of the album Bandwagonesque ^ is a slight to the music business. The title of the new album Grand Prix is' a contradiction that fits with this history. “We thought that the sort of irony of the imagery of formula-one car racing was exactly the opposite of everything that we’re like,” McGinely said. Recording Grand Prix, which was pro duced by veteran producer David Bianco, who has produced Mick Jagger, Tom Pet ty and Frank Black, was a virtually stress-free process, McGinely said. “It was the experience that he (Bian co) brought that meant that we could just relax, because we knew it would sound good,” McGinely said. “There wouldn’t be any problems on any tech nical or stupid level, so we could just Vertical Horizon has the love but lacks the lyrics Raymond McGiney and Teenage Fanclub start touring this Friday with Weezer. get along with recording the songs.” When Teenage Fanclub released Bandwagonesque, critics accused them of not only being influenced by bands such as Big Star, but of copying those bands as well. “I think we just made an album naively, which is the way we always try to approach things,” McGinely said. The band members even met the man behind Big Star, Alex Chilton, who told them that he was accused of simi lar musical crimes. “He (Chilton) said to us, ‘You know, I don’t think you ripped us off at all. Peo ple used to say I ripped off the Kinks See TEENAGE FANCLUB, Page 4 Album Review Vertical Horizon Running On Men Rhythmic Records (out of five) By Libe Goad The Battalion Keith Kane and Matthew Scannell could write a book about love. The simple, four-letter word appears in almost every song on Vertical Horizon’s new 14-song release, Running on Ice. The acoustic duo that found a follow ing while touring with crowd-pleaser Jackopierce, enhances its simplistic love- struck songs with the addition of bass guitars and drums. From the welcomed skills of talented guest artists springs a musically di verse album. Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band joins the journey and in tensifies the band’s soft acoustic sounds with his steady percussion. Beauford’s well-seasoned drumming escalates the happy-go-luckiness of “Fa mous” and “Candyman.” The upbeat rhythms in both songs add a welcome layer of happy emotions over the duo’s straightforward lyrics about the L-word. “Candyman” especial ly contrasts the soft sound of the band s first album. Back and There Again. Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce of Jack opierce also appeared on the album in “Reprise,” a short and inventive hidden track. The choral effect of harmonizing voices gives “Reprise” a twist of darkness, creating a hope that Vertical Horizon will experiment more with future songs. See VERTICAL HORIZON, Page 4 Movie ads can deceive “AlSj O'Connor years we’ve ever missed a con cert,” the Celtic band’s spokesman, Charles Comer, said Sunday. The Chieftains were in the middle of their fifth song at an outdoor theater Saturday night on Long Island when the storm hit. Officials quickly sent home the 9,000 fans. Flutist Matt Malloy took the thunder and lightning with good humor. “You see, God was listening to me with my flute,” Malloy said. “It was a sign of heavenly approval.” The Chieftains continue their tour on Tuesday at Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass. Evert never went easy on Bush's tennis NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — For mer President George Bush may have a mean swing, but how’s his backhand? He got to demonstrate Sunday at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, after he presented the hall’s newest member, Chris Evert, with her enshrine ment certifi cate. Bush told a packed stadi um that he and Evert have played tennis at the White House, Camp David and his home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He said his sometime partner always admonished him: “Bend your knees. Stay behind me. Get up to the net.” “As president, people would give me long putts,” Bush said. “When I’d throw up a lousy lob, people would give me back a kinder, gentler return. Chris Evert never understood that.” Bush and Evert later moved to a practice court where they de feated her husband, former Olympic skier Andy Mill, and his partner, Pam Shriver. Queen Latifah survives carjacking NEW YORK (AP) — Two gunmen commandeered rapper Queen Latifah’s car in Harlem, critically injuring a friend, po lice said. Queen Latifah, who stars on Fox television’s “Living Single,” and a third person in the car were not hurt, but one of the carj ackers shot and critically wounded 22-year-old Sean Moon, said police spokesman Valerie St. Rose. Michael Landauer Aggielife Editor ‘“MOVE OVER BATMAN,’ IT’S THE ‘EXCELLENT,’ ‘SUSPENSEFUL,’ ‘ACTION- PACKEDf,’ ‘FEEL-GOOD MOVIE OF THE SUMMER’ ’ THAT ‘THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN ENJOY.’” T oo often, movie advertisements sound like the one above and could make peo ple think the movie must be the next Forrest Gump. But it could also be the next Ishtar — we just can’t tell until we go see it. Or can we? Soundbites, brief exclama tions created by “TVff vrrn” SLESP Bush yanking small phrases from other people’s work, are the cornerstone of modern movie ad vertising. No one wants to read an entire movie review these days, so the nice advertising ex ecutives read them for us and tell us what they say by pulling out one or two key words. This service is unnecessary and often decep tive. There is nothing wrong with pulling quotes from reviews to sell a product as long as the quote is reprinted in all capital letters with as many exclamation marks as possi ble. Otherwise, readers get confused and think the reviewer is not too excited about the movie. Of course, maybe they aren’t. SVC” The way the ads are now presented makes potential audiences think reviewers are really excited about the movie when the opposite could be true. Someone could calmly sit down and write, “Movie X was a huge disappointment, but the original score was excel lent and deserves an Academy Award.” This shows up in Movie Xs ads as, “EXCELLENT ... DESERVES AN ACADEMY AWARD!!!” Most reviewers find something nice to say about any movie. Although a review may be entirely negative, it could get the proverbial “thumbs up.” For example, Siskel and Ebert gave Under Siege II “two thumbs up” but didn’t say much positive about the film. They merely said viewers in the mood for sense less violence who could overlook weak acting and direction might enjoy the film. But the ads won’t say all that. To get the whole story, movie goers need to go about things the old-fashioned way — they need to read and think for themselves. Too often we are guilty of only seeing films in terms of stars and thumbs, but words can say so much more. A good reviewer anticipates what the reader wants to know. They don’t just write in anticipation of having a few words chosen as a soundbite. Reviewers go into detail about the aspects of a film that make it good or bad. TH,i >LL£B$ Ns Ei Reviewers do more than tell you that a movie “sizzles” — they tell exactly why it sizzles and if that sizzle is enough to make it worth seeing. No one can look at stars or thumbs and say, “Well, it looks like another solid perfor mance by Keanu Reeves” — especially since Reeves has been in several entertaining films without ever turning out a solid per formance. Audiences should be careful with what they read, and they need to be neurotically doubtful about soundbites. Taking the time to read about a movie’s strengths and weaknesses before casting judgment on a film will help audiences choose films they will enjoy. Reviews actually say something. Sound bites try to, but what exactly is a sleeper? It means nothing to be the “feel-good” any thing. To find out what writ ers meant by these terms, audiences have to look beyond the sound bite. Just because a movie is “action-packed” does not mean that it is entertaining. We should at least act like we can think for ourselves without soundbites — that would be a performance worth two thumbs up. “A FIRST- CLASS WINNER FROM START TO FINISH!” Student Appreciation Night Every Wednesday Free Pool w/ college ID 7 pm-1 am Happy Hour 4-7 pm M-F $1.00 Draft $1.25 Longnecks $2.00 Chuggers $1.75 Well OPEN DART TOURNAMENT Every Ttiesday starting at 8:00 p.m $5 entry fee • Double elimination • 1st, 2nd & 3rd place prizes • Bud Light Chuggers $2.00 ‘One thing true Aggies shouldn’t be without’ O RDER YOUR COPY of the 1996 Aggieland when you register for fall classes. Don’t miss the chance to own the nation’s largest yearbook — an 664-page record of the 1995-96 Texas A&M school year. Simply select fee option 16. Just *30 + tax. 1996 Aggieland INFECTED WOUND STUDY VIP Research is seeking individuals with infected cuts, scrapes, or sutured wounds for a 3-week research study of an investigational antibiotical cream. Qualified participants will receive free study medication, study supplies and medical exams. $100 will be paid to qualified volunteers to enroll and complete this study. HERPES VACCINE STUDY VIP Research is seeking couples to participate in a 19 month research study of an investigational herpes vaccine. To be considered for study participation, one partner must have genital herpes while the other partner must not carry the virus which cause genital or oral herpes (cold sores/fever blisters). $500 will be paid to each qualified couple that enroll and complete this study. VIP Research, Inc. For more information call (409) 776-1417 4 K London Paris $329* Madrid $389* Frankfurt $396* Tokyo $478* Costa Rica $170* Caracas $199* •Fares are each way from Houston based on a roundtrip purchase. Restrictionsapplyand taxes not included. Call for other worldwide destinations. Council Travel 2000 Guadalupe St. Austin, IX 78705 512-472-4931 Eurailpasses issued on-the-spot!