Pet Shop Boys give white rapper some gay lovin’
It would be hard to argue
against the fact that Eminem is
a controversial dude. With
songs about killing his girl
friend and his mother being a drug
fiend, the guy is just asking for trou
ble. And few things have gotten
Marshall Mathers into hotter water
than his unfavorable depiction of
homosexuality in his music.
While many people have pub
licly decried Eminem’s point of
view (with the notable exception of
Elton John, who actually performed
onstage with Eminem last year), I’ve
yet to come across any songs by gays
or lesbians that directly strike back
at Eminem on his own turf.
Until now. The upcoming album
by the openly gay dance/pop duo
the Pet Shop Boys contains a song
called “The Night I Fell In Love,” in
which a young homosexual boy at
tends a concert by a rap star. After
the show is over, the two go back to
the rapper’s hotel room, and some
hot lovin’ ensues.
Eminem isn’t explicitly men
hair cofajr
nipe — '
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tioned in the song, but lyrics like
“hey man, your name isn’t Stan, is
it?” and “we joked about Dre and
his homies” pretty much spell out
the intent.
Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Ten
nant explained to MTV news that
“Eminem’s defense of the homo
phobic lyrics on his albums has al
ways been that he’s not speaking as
himself, he’s speaking as a charac
ter... I thought it would be quite in
teresting to take that method and
just to imagine a scene where a boy
meets a famous rap star backstage
at his concert and is surprised to
discover he’s gay and ends up
sleeping with him. Just to present
rap in this homosexual context. ”
In related news, the Pet Shop
Boys are very funny people.
Fans of weird, psychedelic,
grandiose pop bands that have
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guest-starred on “Beverly Hills,
90210,” rejoice: The Flaming Lips
will release their follow-up to 1999’s
“The Soft Bul
letin” in July.
This is
where it gets
weird. The
new album
will be called
“Yoshimi Bat
tles the Pink
Robots” and
will feature
songs such as
“Approaching
Pavonis Mons
By Balloon
(Utopia Plani
tia)” and, of course, “Yoshimi Bat
tles the Pink Robots, parts 1 -3. ”
Now, The Flaming Lips have al
ways been a strange group of folks
(remember “She Don’t Use Jelly”?),
but perhaps this time around
they’ve gone a bit loopier than usu
al. It’s like that episode of “The
Simpsons” where Homer decides
to eat the baking soda that’s been
sitting in the fridge for a decade or
so and trips out violently. I think
that the Lips are on some serious
Depper
In Stereo
decade-old baking soda stuff here.
It’s irritating when a band that
you really enjoy takes forever to put
out a new album. What’s even more
irritating is when a band is actually
working on this new album but the
singer decides that he wants to
work on an inferior side project in
stead, thereby delaying the long
awaited album even further (previ
ous example: Tool offshoot A
Perfect Circle).
This is the situation with the Foo
Fighters, who are still hammering
away on their first album since
1999’s “There Is Nothing Left To
Lose.” The new album was sup
posed to come out at the end of
spring, but first Foo Dave Grohl is
messing it all up.
Seems that Dave had so much
fun playing the drums on the up
coming album by Queens of the
Stone Age that he decided to actu
ally join the band on a part-time ba
sis. So now Dave will be touring
with QOTSA this summer, and the
Foo Fighters album has been
pushed back to September.
It just makes me want to cry.
E-mail columnist Dave Depper
at davedepper@dailyemerald.com.
A&E brief
Plays delve into social,
power structures
Four students will perform two
short plays that explore social dy
namics and power structures at the
Pocket Playhouse this weekend.
Mitra Anoushiravani will pro
duce and direct a cast of three
women and one man in Bertolt
Brecht’s “The Beggar or the Dead
Dog” and “He Drives Out A Devil.”
The plays will be performed today,
Friday and Saturday. Each show
starts at 5 p.m. in the Pocket Play
house, 102 Villard. Tickets to the
show are free, but the Pocket Play
house suggests a $1 donation.
Anoushiravani, a senior majoring
in theater and political science,
chose the two Brecht plays as a chal
lenge. She had never directed or
produced a play before, nor had she
formally studied the overtly politi
cal German playwright.
“Brecht is about putting it out
there and letting you walk away with
what you will,” she said. “People can
put their own ideas into the show. ”
The Pocket Playhouse is a stu
dent-run theater that allows stu
dents to direct, act and produce
original and previously staged
works. Each term, roughly five to
seven plays are produced at the
Pocket Playhouse.
Anoushiravani especially liked
the language and storyline of “The
Beggar or the Dead Dog.” It is the
story of a newly victorious emperor
who runs into a beggar on a street,
and after a verbal tete-a-tete, returns
to his castle.
“The beggar gets all of the fun
stuff to say,” she said.
For “He Drives Out the Devil,”
which has a more complex storyline
and set, Anoushiravani employed
classic Brechtian props of flashcards
to let the audience know where the
action was taking place. She said the
audience will not have problems un
derstanding the storyline.
“It struck me as a play about male
and female dynamics, and sometimes
that can get pretty raw,” she said.
In social and political terms,
pushing the envelope is a natural
extension of the theater, Anoushira
vani said.
“It’s why you do live theater,” she
said. “It’s live and real.”
—John Liebhardt
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