Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1996)
Pag ember 13, The Battalion T 1 i !i !.. ji Page 3 Friday • December 1 3, 1996 36, a Christian ne Judy Markovitzi the vandalism. • 'ou don’t see son> d not do somethi:; did do something • neighbors. And On Thursday, the of the eight-day Je : Lights, 25 Chh; :he well-to-do neif menorahs burn® vs. vandals never retr| blossomed," said , a former policed from store to stc a roe menorahs for >lay before candelij at sundown. ‘I sat a menorah. I donil to help — but rra other person to tar- j t away.” , a 42-year-old mofi ted to the United S raine as a child ution in the former J larkovitz’s mother jrvivor, and her fat unable to practics s a Jew. not know of then no rah effort until me Sunday night! ige bulbs bumingl ly brought tears til' rvitz said. The Year In Review Mbvri Highs & Lows xlav’s Expected fir— 74°F might’s Hxpectec : Columnist roniorrow Nigi: Expected Lot John LeBas lunior Journalism Major 1996 held few musical surprises, except the deaths of many talented artists. Heroin is back and has again gnawed its way into pop culture. Violence contin ues to claim artists. And MTV still has its filthy clutches on all current popular music. The following may seem like a music eulogy, but is really just a protest. Take up my cause; get a hearty helping of this suggested music — they're good bands you probably didn't hear this year. Enjoy, and bring on 1997. 55°F courtesy of TAI® Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland had to enter rehab to battle his heroin addiction Costly Habit Bands suffer when musicians fall victim to drug addiction. s 1996 draws to a close, music is weeping. It has been five hiodem years since Nirvana brought grunge and alternative to the Forefront of music. Five years since music has been turned on its head. Music has come to a standstill. ' Maybe it has to do with all the heroin that’s been going around. As fyou needed a reminder, here’s a recap of “the year in junk”: Stone Temple Pilot’s lead singer Scott Weiland continued to struggle with his addiction. The band was forced to cancel its sum- ner tour opening for KISS. This coupled with bad publicity because rfthe heroin issue probably contributed to the disappointing sales )f Tiny Music ... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. It’s a shame, too, because STP was finally developing a more unique sound (see: “Big lang Baby”). But Stone Temple Pilots wasn’t the only group rocked by heroin use his year. The bigger story was probably Smashing Pumpkins. Also at a areer peak, the Pumpkins were touring in support of the hugely suc- essful double album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (one of the hggest double discs of all time at over 3 million copies sold) when hey lost keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin to an overdose July 12. Adding nsult to injury, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was arrested for heroin Possession and was subsequently booted out of the band. Sublime, an up-and-coming punk-ska combo out of southern Cali- wje?™ 3 ’ * ost * ts ^ ea< ^ s i n g er Brad Nowell to a heroin overdose in May. sBattalion.ForcamptR*® ^ was q U j te a t 00 because Sublime, released after Nowell’s leath, spawned the radio hit “What I Got.” Depeche Mode saw lead singer David Gahan’s addiction come to a lead this summer with his possession arrest following a cocaine- leroin overdose. While not the musical icon he used to be, Gahan of- ered the following in a July 21 article in the Los Angeles Times: “Peo- 8* Pie seem to believe the myth that if you do it just once, you’re fine, ind now many people seem to be going straight to heroin, bypassing ot and all that and going straight to the devil.” \smussen,CiiyEdi Sports Editor ie, Visual Arts EdWK g, Web Editor , Photo Editor eber, Cartoon Editoh senfluck, Melissa NuniW uff, John LeBas, Aaron W* remy Furtick, Colby Gain* Boldt, Bryan Goodwin,SI*' Stephen Llano, Sean ngie Rodgers D at James,. .. oonists: Michael Depot i the Division laid Building. Newsroom http://bat-web.ta™.e^l , ix: 845-2678. . i; up a single copy of Ike 8-' •ar.To charge by Visa, ill and spring semesters exam periods) atTexasW address -1111. Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was kicked out of the band after being caught with heroin by police. Pics of '96 Sting, Mercury Falling (A&M) — Not as good as Ten Summoners Tales, but more mature. Sting is a classic storyteller, and writes good studying music. Mercury Falling even includes some country-inspired tracks. Cannibal Corpse, Vile (Metal Blade) — Aggressive, revolting and oh so entertaining. Get past the screaming, and listen to the guitar work: pure genius, and more musical than might be expected. But be fore warned — Vile is only for the most hard-core of music fans. Surrender to the Air (Elektra) — One of the best experimental jazz al bums in recent years. Musicians and their instruments, nothing more. Young and fresh, it features such musical czars as Jon Fishman and Trey Anastasio of Phish and John Medeski of Medeski, Martin &Wood. MU330, Chumps on Parade (Dill ) — Wow! MU33Q proves there’s more to high energy music than techno. A good album for those who have never heard ska (a reggae-ish offshoot), because MIJ330 makes ska more palatable by including lots of rock and catchy horn tunes. For ska fans, MU330 finally takes the genre in a new, rhythm-pow ered direction. Descendents, Everything Sucks (Epitaph) Descen dents, pop punk rulers of the ’80s, returned this year after a eight-year hiatus to kick some sense into the overblown punk scene. If you like Green Day (or any pop punk, for that matter), you’ll like Descendents, because these guys did it first. Mike Patton, Adult Themes for Voice (Tzadic) — Raise your hand if you remember Faith No More. Mike Patton, that now- defunct band’s singer and frontman of Mr. Bungle, stretches the limits of listenabil- ity and sanity on this self-pro duced effort. Hey, there are no instruments — just pasted-to- gether samples of Patton’s vocal noise — but at least it’s original. Wesley Willis, Feel the Pow er (American) — Speaking of Beck! sanity, this guy has none. A paranoid schizophrenic, Willis belts out truly honest tunes about some of his favorite things. The music is exactly the same but is played at different tempos on all 20-something tracks. Tool, Mnima (Zoo) — Truly creepy. There’s no telling where Tool gets this stuff, but they can’t be beaten in the musical torture-evil-weird de partment. Marilyn Manson could learn from these guys: The reason Tool’s music is so disturbing is because they are for real. Beck!, Odelay (DGC) — Not what you might expect. In other words, this is no “I’m a Loser”-type record. This former Austin street musician turns the simplest sounds and beats into the catchiest tunes. Lots of swaggery hip-hop, some countiy. A great “chill” album. Fishbone, Chim Chi ms Bad Ass Revenge (Rowdy)—Yes, these guys are old, but they still rock like wired teenagers. Big drums, big guitars, big horns and big attitude. Very Fishbone. Enough said.