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6 » The Red and Black » Friday, November 9, 1990
■ BEST BET
A&E
X
Come and be amused. The University Union presents The
Second City Touring Company, Monday at 8 p.m. In the Georgia
Hall. These comedy dudes will be tickling funnybones and ribs a-
plenty. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 general admission.
Boston band hits Athens
Blake brings decade of Boston rock tradition to 40 Watt
By NOEL MURRAY
Entertainment Writer
Rock media buzz over the years
has been centered around towns
where the music scene is hap
pening - right here in Athens,
Austin, Minneapolis, Seattle -- but
in the midst of all this cross
country travelling, a lot of critics
have skipped over the home of one
of the most vital scenes in music
today: Boston, Mass.
Blake Babies, a trio from Boston,
will be playing the 40 Watt
Monday night, and they'll be
bringing with them a decade of
Boston rock tradition that dates
from the seminal punk band, Mis
sion of Burma, to modern heroes
The Pixies and Throwing Muses.
■ INTERVIEW
Blake Babies have even been
known to slip in a bar or two of
Mission of Burma’s “Dead Pool”
into one of their own songs, "From
Here to Burma.”
“Actually, I don’t think we sound
much like them,” contended lead
singer Juliana Hatfield in a recent
interview. “We grew up listening to
AM pop radio and Top 40, and
that’s more where our influence
is.”
“Pop” is a word often bandied
about in discussions about Blake
Babies, but their songs don’t really
seem to fit the traditional pop song
structure.
“I’m so glad to hear you say
that,” Hatfield said. “A lot of people
tell us that we sound like just pure
pop, but I don’t see it. I think
there’s elements of it, but that’s not
really what it is.”
Rather, Blake Babies’ music fea
tures cool, crisp melodies coupled
with solid rhythms and catchy
guitar. Curiously, their songs seem
to forgo tradional “hooks” without
losing their catchiness. The sum ef
fect is a lot like 70s pop legend Big
Star.
“Oh wow, they’re one of my fa
vorite bands,” Hatfield said. ‘Their
album ‘Radio City* is just a classic.”
Blake Babies first laid out their
Big Star and AM pop obsessions on
' Red N
& Black’s
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the EP “Nicely, Nicely.” That re
cord and subsequent demos caught
the ear of none other than British
folksinger Billy Bragg, who was
looking to sign new bands on his
label, Utility Records.
Hatfield explained, “Billy was
friends with our producer, Gary
Smith, and he liked our demos. We
got a deal to release one record,
and only in the UK. It was really a
disappointment- the whole situa
tion. We weren’t handled really
well. I don’t think the people at
Utility really knew what they were
doing.”
Disillusioned, Blake Babies
inked a new deal with North Caro
lina label, Mammoth Records, and
put out last year’s highly acclaimed
"Earwig.”
“Mammoth was the only label to
make an offer really,” Hatfield
said. “And we definitely needed the
support if we were ever going to
put out another record.”
“Earwig” received a great deal of
college radio airplay and was fa
vorably reviewed in “Rolling
Stone”, “Melody Maker” and
‘Tower Pulse.” After an extensive
tour, the band went back into the
studio and put together their new
release, “Sunburn.”
When they’re not touring or re
cording, the three members of the
band keep busy by working in a re
cord store, going to school (Hatfield
got a degree last year from Berklee
School of Music) and playing with
other bands. Both Hatfield and
guitarist John Strohm have
guested on releases by the Lemon-
neads, with Strohm actually
playing drums on an entire Lemon-
neads album. In return, Lemon-
heads leader Evan Dando has been
known to play bass with Blake Ba
bies.
‘The bands I like are like Lem-
onheads, Buffalo Tom and Dino
saur Jr., M Hatfield said.
Coincidentally, these are all
Boston bands.
“Yeah, I guess they are,” Hat
field noted. ‘There’s a good scene in
Boston.”
And what about the fabled
Boston sound?
“I don’t think so, I don’t think
there is one,” Hatfield answered.
‘There’s a lot of different types of
music coming out of Boston- it’s
just that people don’t hear a lot of
it. Everything in Boston is not Mis
sion of Burma.”
Just like everything in Athens is
not R.E.M., I suppose.
Blake Babies have just gotten off
tour with The Connells, playing for
audiences that Hatfield described
as “clean-cut, conservative-
seeming.” At the 40 Watt on
Monday, they'll be looking for their
typical scruffy college crowd.
Oblige them.
Choir joins winds for fall concert
By MAURA CORRIGAN
Contributing Writer
The University School of Music
hosts a great number of concerts,
recitals and other musical pro
grams each quarter, many of which
go unnoticed by the general public.
If you have previously missed out
on some of these cultural affairs,
Monday night is your opportunity
to witness one of the biggest con
certs of the quarter.
In its annual fall concert, the
University’s Wind Ensemble will
be joined by over 200 vocalists and
a guest pianist in what should
prove to be a very exciting event.
The ensemble traditionally
holds one campus concert each
quarter, including one during
summer quarter. While the group
is mostly consistent in its mem
bership throughout the academic
year, Conductor Albert F. Ligotti,
an Associate Professor of Music at
the University, said he likes to
bring in outsiders to perform with
the group.
“I like to use some kind of soloist
in all of my programs. It makes the
concert interesting for the public
and the instrumentalists,” Ligotti
said.
Monday night’s program will
begin with J.S. Bach’s “Little
Fugue in G Minor,” which will be
followed by Fisher Tull’s “Concerto
for Piano and Winds.” Faculty
member Martha Thomas will be
the guest pianist.
The ensemble will continue with
the final movement from “Shehera-
zade” by Rimsky-Korsakoff, and
will conclude with the “Hymn of
Jesus” by Gustav Holst. Originally
written for chorus with an orches
tral accompaniment, Ligotti tran
scribed the hymn for the chorus
with a wind accompaniment.
Ligotti said all of the choral
forces in the School of Music, in
cluding the Concert Choir and the
Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs,
will be accompanied by the wind
ensemble in this final number.
Pierce Arant, director of choral ac
tivities at the University, will be
the conductor of more than 200
musicians in this selection.
Mark Satterfield, a member of
the Men’s Glee Club, said he has
er\joyed working on the “ Hymn of
Jesus” arrangement.
“It’s a very powerful piece,” Sat
terfield said. “This concert is very
worthwhile to see, because it’s al
ways impressive when that many
people are singing and playing to
gether.”
The wind ensemble, organized in
1974 by Mr. Ligotti, has worked
with the choir on several occasions,
but not in the past few years.
‘The choir is very excited,” Li
gotti said. “They rarely get the
chance to perform with live instru
ments. It presents a whole new
color for them because they’re used
to hearing accompanying music
coming from a piano or organ.”
Ligotti said tne wind players are
also looking forward to the oppor
tunity to play with the chorus.
‘The kids enjoy it,” he said. “It’s
a novelty; it’s something different.
It’s not the normal run-of-the-mill
kind of concert.”
Sophomore Sandra Wang, the
principal flutist of the wind en
semble, agrees. “I think the concert
will prove to be a delightful experi
ence. The performing organiza
tions have been working very hard
to put this all together. It should be
a very entertaining concert,” she
said.
The combined wind ensemble
and choral groups have also been
invited to perform at the gala eve
ning program for the Georgia
Music Educator Association’s
statewide conference in January of
1991.
‘This is a big event, for they will
be appearing in front of all present
and future music teachers in the
state,” Ligotti said.
Ligotti is pleased with the Wind
Ensemble’s work. “I have an ex
citing and enthusiastic group this
year. I’m very happy with what
they’re doing. I’m working them
really hard, but I have a good rap
port with them. I’m trying to pre
sent a musical attraction, not just a
job,” he said.
The concert Monday night will
have a little bit of everything. With
standard literature for winds, a
piano concerto and the grand
choral work at the end, the show
should be quite a treat.
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in
the Fine Arts Auditorium. It is free
and open to the public.
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