mday • February 16, 1998 The Battalion ndie *^Och 'n 1tY'in imA, aiternatives ter PHttin&treftm w » Chris Martin \taff writer I was sitting on a park bench the other day, next to Local Yokel, discussing the agony and ec stasy of the music business. “I find myself drawn to the freedom and emotion of indie rock," I said. “Uh, izzat bangin’ around from up them boys in Indianer?" Yokel asked, and resumed strug gling with the sunflower-seed husk wedged between his upper- right incisors. “No sir,” I said, “it’s short for in- ndent rock. Music free from corporate control, ge bands, punks, poets and nuts writing, recording distributing their own unique sounds.” [Say, I’m not familiar with indie rock,” he said, eye 's arched like an a-frame roof. “How can I learn «‘bout indie rock’s special brand of autonomous lanship and do-it-yourself ethic?” [Mister,” I said, “you sure picked the right park bench.” you think modem rock radio is the home of cut- |-edge music, then you’re merely a pawn in the ie. Like the punk-rock renaissance of ’77, the ’90s he golden age of independent music. It used to take |e chords to make a record. Thousands of indie |ds now don’t even know that many. But they do something to say, and it’s worth the journey to ex- e their world. what becomes indie rock most? Is it merely un- ularity? Sloppy musicianship? Tape hiss? No. It’s a thing called “indie cred,” short for credibility, the commodity and holy grail of indie rock. Like brain i, you are bom with a set amount of indie cred, ch, when abused, will diminish to never be regained A good example of losing one’s indie cred comes Pat Smear. Step one: Pat helps found \A proto-punk band ms. Indie cred high. Step two: Pat becomes second guitarist for Nirvana iium tours. Cred steady, but faltering. Step three: Pat joins Foo Fighters. Cred quickly fading. Step three: Pat becomes regular on MTY/’s “House of ;e.” Cred who? aking the leap from commercial to indie rock is ainly one of faith. Since indie rock has no regula- i, be warned that for every Guided by Voices there 40 Eve’s Plumbs. Consider the following list a “Cliffs :es” guide to indie rock. • Indie Pop fyou like: the Beatles, the Beach Boys. fou might enjoy: Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Ho tel, Beulah, Cardinal, Elf Power, Marbles, Baby Bird, the Lilys, High Llamas, Heavenly, Orange Cake Mix. Pop is back and it’s fizzier than ever. Arid when shop ping for indie pop, there’s only one label to look for - Ele phant 6, home of the sweetest sugar and saltiest tears. • Indie Rawk If you like: the Who, the Ramones, Nirvana, the Kinks. Try out: Guided by Voices, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Billy Childish, Sleather-Kinney, lllyah Kuryahkin, Lenola, Polvo, the Wedding Present. Do not be frightened by the lack of production value - look for the heart. Most indie bands follow the lo-fi ethic, recording songs on whatever equipment is handy, including Walkmans, answering machines or Edison wax rolls. • Emo Should you enjoy: Paul Simon, Mazzy Star, Bob Dylan. Perhaps you would like: Elliot Smith, Sebadoh, Beth Orton, Tobin Sprout, East River Pipe, Barbara Manning, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Dump, Belle and Sebastain. Emo, short for emotional, often takes two, three or 30 listens before the power of the song snags your heart. These backwoods rivers run deep. • Indie Saves Say you listen to: Jars of Clay, old U2, DC Talk. Check out: Starflyer 59, Soul Junk, and the wonder fully bizarre Danielson Family. All Christians. All indie. All ready to rock you with the rock of ages. Moses felt God in a whisper, these bands feel God in the feedback. • No Depression If you have albums by: Johnny Cash, Waylon, Willie and the Boys. Try these: Silver Jews, Will Oldham, Smog, Uncle Tli- pelo, Palace, Edith Frost, Grifters, Gillian Welch. It’s about time someone put emotion back into country music. If candy-coated neo-Nashville makes your skin crawl, take a walk off the beaten path with these bands. • Wow and Flutter If you groove to: Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Bjork. Then perhaps try: Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, Stereolab, Squarepusher, Tortoise, Turn On. Not all electronica is bad. Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields makes it organic. These bands can’t leave a good sound alone. Please see Rock on Page 5. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Samuel L. Jackson and Liev Sc Directed by Barry Levinson Rated R Playing at Hollywood 16 Critique: A- . : z : James Francis aggielife editor I t seems these days, since the film Con tact was released, the move ment to have sci ence-fic tion films exude in telligence has become a unique ingredi ent for filmmakers to imple ment into their projects. In that respect, it would seem Sphere is this year’s Con tact. While both films are simi lar in premise, that being the first contact with alien life, the overall theme of Sphere puts it more in the thriller genre than that of drama. In the film, Sharon Stone (as the biochemist, Beth Halpern), Samuel L. Jackson (as the mathematician, Harry Adams), Dustin Hoffman (as the psy chologist, Dr. Norman Good man) and Liev Schreiber (as the astrophysicist, Dr. Ted Fielding) are thrown together as a crack team of specialists, summoned by the govern ment, to investigate an alien spacecraft located 1,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean. Stationed aboard an under water facility the government constructed for the team, the specialists are soon able to en ter the spacecraft, where they find a mystical sphere. Not knowing the sphere’s function and not fully compre hending how the spacecraft got to be at the bottom of the ocean without a single scratch on it, the team soon loses contact with the surface. Before long, nightmarish incidents begin to take place, and they only can be explained as physical manifes tations of dreams and fears each team member possesses. In the end, trust becomes the issue and the film delivers a poignant theme about the role mankind plays in the “big pic ture” of time, space and beyond. As headliners of the film, Stone, Hoffman and Jackson deliver what audiences should expect — powerful perfor mances ’til the end. But in their backgrounds, Schreiber and Peter Coyote, who portrays the team leader sent by a secret government agency, hold their own, offer ing the film a diverse range of character portrayals. Also in the film, recording artist and actress Queen Lati- fah takes on the role of Fletchr er, one of two station workers for the underground Habitat the team members reside on. Although many people might be skeptical about a Michael Crichton bestseller be ing turned into a film these days,. Sphere erases any doubt that sometimes a work of liter ature can be transformed into a thought-provoking film. As director, Barry Levinson has given audiences a film that will engage the mind, keep the heart at a constant hummingbird rate of speed and stay in memory even after the lights come up. Samuel 1_ Jackson, Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman stand in bewilderment when they discover the sphere. Spring Business Career Fair *98!! -» February 16 th - 19' h A Below are the companies attending the Career Fair and the days their booths will be set up: (booths will be in Wehner Bldg., West Campus) th Tuesday the 17 Aerotek, Inc. Alltel Andersen Consulting Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention ARCO Information Technology Baker & Botts, LLP Bear Creek Corporation Becker CPA Review C.H. Robinson Co. Career Center Cintas Corporation Consolidated Stores Corporation The Container Store Continental Airlines Coopers & Lybrand LLP Dealer Solutions Deloitte & Touche LLP Duke Energy Corporation Enron Corporation Enterprise Rent-A-Car Ernst & Young FootAction USA Halliburton/B&R Hastings Entertainment HEB Hewitt Associates IKON Office Solutions IMG Financial Group Kids “R” Us/Babies “R” Us Koch Industries. Inc. KPMG Peat Marwick LLP Kroger Corporation Mervyn’s California Neiman Marcus Northwestern Mutual Life Office Depot OLDE Discount Corporation Price Waterhouse LLP Price Waterhouse Management Consulting Rexton Interactive Royce Homes Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sewell Motor Company Sherwin-Williams Smith & Associates Stage Stores, Inc. State Farm Insurance Toys ‘R’ Us Wal-Mart Walgreens th Wednesday the 18 Aerotek. Inc. Alltel Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention The Associates Baker & Botts LLP BDO Seidman LLP Beazer Homes, Texas B ridges tone/F irestone C.H. Robinson Co. Career Center CarMax, The Auto Superstore Cintas Corporation Consolidate Graphics Consolidated Stores Corporation Eddie Bauer, Inc. EDS Edward Jones Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Foley’s General Mills, Inc. Grant Thornton LLP Great-West Employee Benefits Halliburton/B&R Hastings Entertainment Houston Chronicle IKON Office Solutions InfoTech Solutions Group International Paper JC Penney Co. JDA Software Group John Deere Company Kids “R” Us/Babies “R” Us KPMG Peat Marwick LLP Kroger Co. Kurt Salmon Associates Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse Mervyn’s California National Instruments NationsBank Northwestern Mutual Life OLDE Discount Corporation Platinum Technology Sears Tire Group Smith and Associates Tbys ‘R’ Us TTI, Inc. Var-Tec Telecom, Inc. Wal-Mart Walgreens White Petrov McHone th Thursday the 19 Aerotek, Inc. AIM Management Group, Inc. Albertson’s Arthur Andersen LLP Ashland Chemical Company BANC ONE Corporate Audit Blockbuster Entertainment Career Center Central Intelligence Agency Chevron Circuit City Stores, Inc. Compaq Computer Corporation CompuServe Network Services Conoco, Inc. Conviser Duffy CPA Review Dell Computer Company Delta Dallas Staffing DHL Worldwide Express EDS EQUIS Expo Group Federal Reserve Bank Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. Fidelity Investments Frito-Lay Grant Thornton LLP The Home Depot IKON Office Solutions JDA Software Group JPI Keane, Inc. MassMutual - The Wilson Agency Melrose Apartments/Integroup Property Management National Instruments Norwest Financial Payless Shoe Source Pier 1 Imports Prudential Preferred Financial Services Ryan & Company PC Smith & Associates Southwestern Bell The Summit Group, Inc. Tactica Technology Group Target TeleCheck International United States Gypsum Co. USAA Veeder-Root Walgreens Wells-Fargo Bank 'k Dress in business attire when speaking with companies at their booths k Prepare and bring resumes. Resume Help? Contact the Career Center: 845-5139. Any other questions?? Try the BSC Website: http://wehner.tamu.edu/BSC