Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1989)
SOUNDbites Throwing Muses Hunkpapa The 11 anginal songs on Hunttptps range horn deep and melancholy lo edgy and upbeat Augment mg Throwing Muses tierce musical loundahon ate outstanding guests, including a Ml horn section Hunkp»p» is Ihe most polished ottering from an ensemble that has always exhibited complex aesthe tic and emotional intensity aSancha Ogniz, The UCSD Guardian, U of California, San Diego The Reivers End 01 The Day The Reivers used to be a band called fartgetsl but they took a break and resurfaced as The Reivers However, they still mesmerize with killer guitar hooks and melodies that sweep you away With lovely acoustic simplicity, songs like "He Will Settle It" maid together piano and guitar Mo a very fluid sound The best track here, though, has to be Dis content ot Winter ” • Tracey Pepper, The Observer, Tuft* U., MA Thu Fin Calm Animals CMm Anknift certainly features more calm than animat, leaving it loo tranqu?' lor its own good The band's tiffi) efton sutlers from weak lyrics, dreary melodies and unimpressive guitar work, lacking the energy and spirit ot old Though The Fixx don't seem me type ot band to tade away easily, they will need some revamping to compete with the creative new music out today ■ Con Taratoot, The Eagle, American U., DC c MIUIS Tesla tunes in with a blistering assault on hard rock monotony By Robert Ellenstein ■ The Stale News Michigan State U. As a large new influx of would-be rock bands appear, few are proving worthin ess and the bulk are just showing flash Tesla, however, is near the top of the heap, playing hard-core rock with raw guitar power. The Sacramento, Calif, quintet gleaned its name from Nikola Tesla, in ventor of the Tesla coil used in most radio and television sets. History and the band say the scientist never re ceived the credit he deserved. So far, neither has Tesla. Their 1986 debut album, Mechanical Resonance, launched one m^jor hit in “Modern Day Cowboy." The band's latest release, The Great Radio Con troi’ersy is a little shy on hits, but it is a more solid effort than its predecessor This album rocks hard with a de ceivingly simple guitar, bass and drums attack Songs like “Hang Tough," “Makin' Magic" and “Party’s Over" are prime examples of Tesla's catchy and impressive musicianship Nearly every song is built around a blistering guitar solo, alternately performed by Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch. The first single is “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)." The real surprise of The Great Radio Controversy is its ballads. “The Way It Is* is a strong, slow-moving tune. If Guns N1 Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine" can dent Billboard’s Top 40, this song should be a favorite of every radio sta tion in the country. Tesla has earned a little respect It’s too bad that impressive music like this won’t break MIVs rotation, but instead be exiled to their once-a-week “heavy metal" program “Headbanger’s Ball.” Hie Replacements clean up their act a bit By Stef McDonald ■ The Albany Student Press State U. of Now York, Albany It may be that The Replacements have grown up. Maybe they are tak ing their job a bit more seriously, or just having fun. Whatever the mo tive, Don't Tell A Soul, the band’s latest album, is a step up for a band that has, until now, never really tried to be a band for the sake of making music. *1 guess in a way it looks like we've grown up, but it isn’t really like that,” said bassist Tommy Stinson. For a long time the band was confronta tional just for the heck of it, and after a while “that got boring,” he said. Don't Tell A Soul is indeed a more ‘mature* record for The Replace ments, whose previous albums have sported such irreverent titles as The Replacements Stink. Although Stin son argued that “we’re the same band we’ve always been,” he admitted that the band has cleaned up its act. “It’s a growth just because we’re stepping into musical shoes as opposed to atti tude shoes,” he said. In my waxed up hair and my tainted shoes /1 got an offer that you might refuse / Tonight tonight we're gonna take a stab I... uv're playing at the talent show / Cheek us out. here we go ... — from “Talent Show" According to Stinson, it all came down to The Replacements wanting to be musicians; a desire to walk out on their alcoholic persona and into a serious musical frame of mind. “Musically, we’ve sobered up ... to the fact that we want to write and play music," Stinson said. “And we don't want to pretend that we're not artists, that we don’t want to get ahead ’ Don’t Tell A Soul, as Stinson de scribes it, is “subtle.” And while the tempo is slower than past records, it’s Tha Raplacamants: Chris Man. Paul Wastartoarg, Slim Dunlap and Tommy Stinson. not sluggish. It is perhaps their most frank and approachable record to date. They don't play drunk, or even too loud. There are a handful of bal lads, a few slowed-down rockers, and even a dance song. “I mean, we know how to tum the amps way up and know how to play real fast and thrash around ... it got dull,” Stinson said. In defense of Don’t Tell A Soul, which has been perceived by many to be a sell-out, The Replacements hold that it's not — that they’re satisfied with the record and that it stands up to their past work. “I’m certain that it’s a better record than we've ever made, I think it is a very good representation of where we stand now,” Stinson said. ”... We used to live up to the image that we were drunks, but that’s stupid.” Look at me now / No one here to raise a toast / Take me by the hand, man, raise a toast. — from “Rock and Roll Ghost" The whisper songwriter Paul Wes terberg uses for the line ‘Look at me now* is, in all of its softness, the greatest hint that The Replacements are a bit more serious these days. “There’s a lot of gut in that song,” Stinson said In fact, Don't Tell A Soul is packed with songs that make a point of not repeating the typical raucous ways of their past. Songs like “We’ll Inherit the Earth" and “Back to Back" — which churns from the onset, then quickly acquiesces to include a softer acoustic side — balance the rock and acoustic factions while remaining in tense. The demands made upon you / are so hard to live up to / it's futile to try and deny / And the things you hold dearly / are scoffed at and yearly I judged once and then left aside / 'cause they're blind. — from “They’re Blind* Stinson holds that most of Don't Tell A Soul is not autobiographical. “They’re Blind" causes one to wonder. ‘It's like a working man’s song,” he said. “They’re blind 'cause they don’t see you’re full potential." Maybe The Replacements are just seeking to fulfill their potential. Lou Rood Reed’s ‘New York’ is powerful music with a message By Steve Cruse ■ The Daily Iowan U. of Iowa Lou Reed's New York is a big, clen ched fist of a record. It was made specifi cally to let us know how mad Reed’s become in the past year. At first, it may sound like old tricks; the former leader of The Velvet Under ground still observes such urban nice ties as murder and drug addiction with a perversely nonchalant eye. But there’s more to this album than tabloid style ramblings. When Reed sings about poverty, anti-Semitism or environmen tal breakdown, the result is some of the most powerful music of his career. Reed has also assembled his best band in years. Guitarist Mike Rathke and drummer Fred Mahrer especially stand out, giving the music a fierce, bristling sound. But the record is dominated by Reed’s expansive and sar donic voice. “Romeo Had Juliette,” the album’s knockout opener, starts off with scraping guitars and a whomping backbeat, then suddenly adds Reed’s vibrant monotone to the mix to tell a convoluted tale of love and death in the slums. It’s a hair-raising moment, even for those who have heard “Walk On The Wild Side" a thousand times. less capuvtuuig is uivu., a furious expose of the horrors facing the urban impoverished, which includes a malicious reference to the “Statue of Bigotry." The song even includes back ground vocals from Dion, injecting real desperation into the protagonist's wish to “fly, fly away.” You can’t depend on Reed for journa listic accuracy — he once refers to Iran Contra conspirator Richard Secord as William — but it’s impossible not to feel the urgent pull of these songs. There is an enormous amount of music on this album — 14 songs in 58 minutes. Not all of it works, but for ev ery misfire, there are several moments when Reed is right on target — includ ing a chilling ode to AIDS victims, “Halloween Parade," and the gruesome laugh riot, “Sick Of You.” In this age of overmixed techno-pop, Lou Reed continues to demonstrate the power of simple, unadorned rock and roll. On the album’s back cover he writes, “You can’t beat two guitars, bass and drum." And on New York, he proves it.
