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The Red and Black » Tuesday. March 2. 1993 « 3
Hitchcock still obscure but meaningful
Robyn Hitchcock gets some R-E-S-P-E-C-T with latest.
‘Respect’: anti
studio release
with help from
a water jug
By CHRIS KERN
Staff Writer
Robyn Hitchcock & The
Egyptians Respect (A&M)
Once again, just when the hori
zon on the music world was look
ing bleak, Robyn Hitchcock
swings into view and saves the
day. Robyn Hitchcock & The
Egyptians’ new release,
“Respect," just hit the stores and
is predicted to settle comfortably
on the Top Ten College Albums
Chart.
Robyn has been aspiring
through the music scene for 16
years now since his underground
days as the frontman of the Soft
Boys, and he has clearly come of
age.
Loyal Hitchcock fans will be
both pleased and somewhat sur
prised at the sheer depth and di
versity of the songs on “Respect.”
Whether it’s the full-blown driv
ing acoustics of the first single,
“Driving Aloud (Radio Storm),” or
the simplicity and relentless
beauty of “The Arms of Love,”
(which R.E.M. covered), the over
all impression is one of
amazement.
Unlike his previous release,
“Perspex Island,” “Respect” is an
anti-studio release that was
recorded in Hitchcock’s home on
■ ALBUM REVIEW
the Isle of Wight in England. To
add to the statement, most of the
electric instruments were not
used. He describes this album as
“Undisguised folk truths drawn
from decades of campfire wisdom,
nurtured on a diet of the Band,
the Beach Boys or Billy Bragg.”
The musical genius of the al
bum put aside, the lyrics are just
as much the Hitchcockian verse
that they always were. The songs
are narratives of obscure situa
tions of love, death and everyday
life that are driven by the sen
tience of the meaning behind
them.
But to every rule, there is an
exception, and the last track,
“Wafflehead,” is the exception to
the deep, meaningful lyrics and
moving music found on “Respect.”
“Wafflehead” consists of a vocal
bass drum, a water jug and a
cheese grater as backup to a dron
ing, mumbling lead line of bad in
nuendo in three-line verses.
Overall, Hitchcock has finally
found his little place in the musi
cal spectrum: still well within the
bounds of obscurity, but tinted
with substantial meaning and le
gitimate emotion. Combined with
a well filled-out acoustic sound
and truly unique vocal lines, this
album proves to be a true bench
mark in the career of Robyn
Hitchcock & The Egyptians.
'Love Field’
By JASON WELLS
Staff Writer
Playing on the popular motif of black and
white hands interlocking in an understanding
of equality, the thematically positive “Love
Field" is pleasantly warm-hearted though not
impassioned enough to hold your attention.
I sense that Michelle Pfeiffer earned her
"best actress” nomination simply by making a
radically different dialectical turn from
"purring^ to “yelling.”
Her character Lurene Halette’s Texan
tongue is certainly well developed, and along
with 1963’s polyester outfits and bullet-proof
hairstyles, the typically typical Pfeiffer is
barely recognizable.
The main problem with the film is that
Lurene is nothing more than a fleshed-out for
mula piece rather than a vivid, identifiable hu
man being. She’s designed as a politically and
socially naive caricature of ignorance — uned
ucated, dutiful to her dominating, beer drink
ing hubby, imbued with stereotypical
Southern girl morality, and has blind patriot
ic love for John and Jackie Kennedy (which is
based more on their wardrobe and on media-
is out of the ball park
■ MOVIE REVIEW
sold “Enquirer” intrigue rather than actual ac
complishments).
But all is forever altered when the airwaves
scream of Oswald, sending her strong, stub
born heart and self-becoming potential far
away from her pig-headed husband on a con
science-blossoming road trip to Washington,
D.C., for Kennedy’s funeral.
It is on the bus that she meets African-
American Paul Cater (Brian Kerwin) who is
fleeing the authorities with his daughter, who
was recently abused in a white-run orphanage,
to a peaceful family home in Virginia.
Following her heart to their aid, she learns
that Kennedy’s alleged cures for the “colored
people’s” painful plight is far from reality, as
she witnesses oppression, violence, Jim Crow
segregation and many hateful stares from both
blacks and whites because of her interaction
with the black father and child.
There’s that standard, brightly-light “age of
innocence” tone taken in the film’s visual
style, which along with the obvious stereo
types, hammers us with “coming-of-age love
story” predictability.
Even though Jonathan Kaplan’s direction
maintains a tight narrative flow of Pfeiffer’s
self and societal revelations kept at an even
pace, I was painfully bored.
None of the themes land on a new terrain.
Obviously, when love speaks, lovers become
one entity regardless of race, region or even
gender. At least Spike Lee’s somewhat mis
construed “Jungle Fever” had relevance to the
1990s and the boldness to assert that one in
terracial couple’s temporary heart-equality (or
hormone for Spike) does not entirely dissolve
the tensions, which can sometimes bleed in
from the constantly conflicting outside world.
The film gives up on expressing larger
scale themes of racial tension and reduces it
self to a trivial love story of one woman over
coming her own moral codes for the love of one
man.
Most people lack such fortunate intimate
circumstances as to have a helpless little girl
to change our unbiased sympathies and make
the equality connection. Good for Lurene, bad
for the rest of the planet who’s going to have a
more difficult time getting through “the front”
to a broader understanding.
New FAD - intellectual porno for ’90s
Leave all but
your mind at
the door
By CHRIS KERN
Staff Writer
New Fast Automatic Daffodils
Body Exit Mind (Elektra)
Imagine for a moment if songs
had only one purpose - to be a cat
alyst for the intellect. If this were
true, disco pop in the music world
would be the equivalent of the
adult version of the film “Alice in
Wonderland” - stimulating to the
physical senses, but utterly pa
thetic to the intellect. In other
words, disco would be the pornog
raphy of the music scene.
Imagine if there were a group
that consistently appealed to both
the temporal and the intellectual
senses.
■ ALBUM REVIEW
Well, there is. They are New
Fast Automatic Daffodils (or New
FAD for short).
New FAD formed in ’89 in
Manchester, England, hometown
to EMF and Jesus Jones. Put that
right out of your mind, however,
because New FAD bears absolute
ly no relation to those Manchester
groups. New FAD released their
full-length debut, “Pigeonhole,” in
'91, and the album stayed on the
U.K. Top 50 for a considerable
amount of time. They then fol
lowed the old formula, “If you
make it in the U.K., take it to the
USA.”
“Body Exit Mind” is their
newest release to the American
public. Their truly unique style of
blending ambiguous yet deep
lyrics with an anti-techno, fluid,
psychedelic vibe is an amazingly
refreshing change from today’s al
ternative music scene.
From the first chord of track
one, “Bong,” total attention is de
manded, and it doesn’t let go un
til the final fade of “Exit Body,
They use lyrics that
are suggestive rather
than obvious, so
everyone has their
own personalized
view of the meaning.
Exit Mind.”
At first, the hypnotic funk of
the simple, semi-distorted guitar
and vocal lines are overwhelming.
Visions of Paris
Summer Programs 1993
Intersession : May 24 - June 1 1
Summer Session : June 14 - July 23
■ More than 50 regular offerings from the University s liberal arts curriculum.
■ A three-week FrencManguage Immersion program, featuring
cultural walking tours and conversation classes.
■ Weekend excursions: Normandy, Champagne, Loire Valley chateaux.
Burgundy,Givemy and Chartres.
■ Seminar tours with the University of Texas, the University of
New Hampshire and the University of California at Berkeley.
Also, two new French Immersion Sessions:
■ Summer 94 in Biarritz ■ Winter '94 in Paris
Send for our 1993 Summer Programs Brochure :
The American University of Paris
Summer Programs / U.S. Office
Then on the second listen, the
hidden vortex of the lyrics are re
vealed, and a whole new level of
consciousness is achieved.
New FAD has accomplished
just what they set out to do - cre
ate music with deep, hazy and un
clear lyrics mixed with with a lib
eral amount of pure, unadulterat
ed riffs and grooves.
They use lyrics that are sug
gestive rather than obvious, so ev
eryone has their own personalized
view of the meaning.
So bon appetit to connoisseurs
of the complexified, our catch of
the day is New Fast Automatic
Daffodils.
Bring your mind and check ev
erything else at the door.
50C OFF 50C OFF
Student
Notes
480 E. Broad St.
across from Bank South
We currently offer study guides
for the following classes 3-5
days prior to each test
Call 613-6146 to check for availability.
ACC110
GGY121
ACC501
HIS251
ANT 102
HIS252
ART287
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ART288
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CHM111
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ECN106
MS312
ECN107
POL101
EXC300
PSY101
FIN330
SOC105
GGY101
Z00410
GGY120
Notes From Previous
Tests Are Still Available
If You Need Them For
Your Finals.
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