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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2000)
s iiirsih). Apr AGGIELIFE il 6. 2000 THE BATTALION Page 5 Thursday OArcrt* Austin band makes stop in College Station N BY CHRIS CARTER The Battalion I o, “Fritz Beer” is not just a clever stage name. The lead singer of the I Austin-based pop/altemative band Punchy laughs at the question. “My real name is Fredrick Beer, but everyone has called me ‘Fritz’ since I was a child,” he said. “I come from a long line of Fredricks, obviously Gennan, and all of them have been called Fritz.” For the past two and a half years. Beer has led Punchy through the release of their debut EP and hundreds of shows. “We nonnally play about live shows a week,” Beer said. “It’s usually a couple during the week and then traveling around on the weekend playing a few more.” Beer is definitely no stranger to the stage. The former lead singer of the St. Louis-based band. The Bishops, has racked up more than 2,500 gigs over the past eight years. While in St. Louis, The Bishops practiced playing rock in the Midwestern-style of Husker Du, Soul Asylum and the Replacements, and released two albums. Nothing seri ous came of this outing, however. After it became apparent some of the other members of the band were not as serious about The Bishops so Beer decided to pack up and move to Austin. “1 had been to Austin a couple times before to see some friends and was like, ‘Wow, this is great!’” he said. “I final ly moved down here and I love it. Now I get to just play my ass off!” Once in Austin, Beer teamed up with friend Daniel Bull, a bassist, and they ran an advertisement in the paper for a drummer. Instead, they got gui tarist Errol Siegel. “Errol saw the add and said he liked the singer/songwriter philosophy we had,” Beer said. “He turned out to work real well for us as a group, and for a while we played sets as just two guitars and a bass with out a drummer.” Today, Punchy still consists of Beer and Siegel, but they have since added drummer Armando Reyes, and replaced bassist Bull with Lee Abramson. Beer hesitates to describe Punchy’s musical style, but is very clear on his musical philosophy. “Someone compared us to Elvis Costello the other day,” Beer mused. “I guess 1 can hear that, but I like concen trating on the songwriting aspect of this music. 1 don’t want to do the folk thing, but writing a good rock song is a great feeling.” Punchy will bring its stripped-down style of rock music to College Station this weekend. “We’re excited about coming back to College Station,” Beer said. “We’ve been there several times over the past few months, and we’ve had a good time every time we’ve played there.” Punchy will play an acoustic set on Saturday at Sweet Eugene’s. Cover at the door is $1 and they will begin to play at 9 p.m. V Outdoor Fiesta Saturday, May 6 th 3pm - Midnight KTSR 92.1fm will be broadcasting Live - 'k Live Music k Miss Cinco de Mayo Bikini Contest (must pre-register) k Beer & Margaritas k Grilled burgers, hot dogs, & nachos Call 693-6684for more details! 1912 South Texas Ave. (under the water tower) PHOTO COURTESY OF BITTERKITTEN RECORDS Guitarist Errol Siegel. PHOTO COURTESY OF BITTERKITTEN RECORDS Drummer Armando Reyes. Punchy Punchy CD Courtesy of Bitterkitten Records Straight from the clubs of Austin, Punchy offers a cheap, mindless sort of genre-dodging rock that can be as confusing as it is oddly appealing. Throughout the eight songs on this CD, there seems to be a common theme in songwriting — repetition. Though many of the cuts on this release have a good mix of electric and acoustic guitars with a solid rhythm lineup, the songwriting itself is sim plistic at best. This simplicity does lend itself to some catchy tunes such as “Daddy’s a Postman,” and “ 16 Shades of Gray,” but the overly repetitive nature of the lyrics and weak musical style of songs like “Spray Job” and “Crawl” ultimately weight this CD down. The overall sound of Punchy is a toned-down, Midwestem- rock sound, sans the ever-present ode to post-evolved punk rock, such as Soul Asylum, Local H or the Replacements. Though they pay homage to this school of rock and would fit very well in the clubs of Minneapolis or Cleveland, they are right at home in Austin, being much closer to the musical style of fellow Austin natives, Fastball. All in all, this music sounds like it would be much better if it were not confined to the medi um of a compact disc, but brought to life through a solid perfor mance. [Grade: C+] Director Applications Available 0 IS 2 SCSI T U D EE IM TT FOUNDATION Applications may be picked up at the 12th Man Student Foundation Cube located in the Student Activities Department inside Koldus. Interviews will be conducted on April 12-13. Applications are due April 7! Questions'! E-mail us at: student@twelfthman.tamu.edu RTY M % '03! U X H 3 IS A&M US il ' hwest 5 STflTi m a 04 Attention JUNIORS Applications are being accepted through December 15, 2000, for the Master of Physical Therapy class beginning in July 2001 The 3+3 MPT Program allows admission after completion of your junior year and prerequisite course work ■ MPT classes begin July 6,2001 ■ Scholarships covering tuition and fees are available to qualified students ■ The CAPTE preaccreditation site visit has been completed* To Become a Part of ASU’s MPT Program, college juniors must: ■ Have completed 90 SCH of undergraduate and prerequisite course work by June 30, 2001 ■ Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale ■ Have a minimum grade of B in all physical therapy prerequisites H Submit admission materials to the ASU Graduate Office by December 15,2000 ■ Have completed 75 observation or employment hours in 3 different areas of clinical practice by March 16,2001 ■ Have taken the GRE by December 15,2000 MPT Angelo State University is one of Texas’ premier regional universities. Located in scenic and historic San Angelo, ASU offers a pleasant learning environment where personal attention and mentoring enhance the educational experience for students. *For additional information concerning accreditation, admission or the MPT Program, contact the ASU Graduate Office at 915-942-2169 or Physical Therapy Department at 915-942-2545. Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. angelo.edu/dept/physther Email: ptdept@angelo.edu A MEMBER OF THE TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM ANGELO STATE UNIVERSITY