Newspaper Page Text
COUNTERCULTURE
Atlanta
Gay Men's Chorus
Opens Auditions
for New Members
The Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus is
seeking qualified singers in all male
voice parts for the remainder of its 1989
1990 season. Auditions must be held
and singers accepted for membership
prior to February 1 in order to sing dur
ing the spring season and in the Chorus’
June concert.
Auditionees should bring a prepared
work and be ready to sight read unfamil
iar works. Many AGMC members do
not have extensive musical backgrounds
although most have sung in school, col
lege, or church choirs. AGMC is a vol
unteer, semi-professional male chorus
committed to musical excellence and
community service.
Rehearsals are held on Thursday
nights. Auditions are with the Musical
Director; accompanist can be provided.
For more information or to schedule an
audition, contact AGMC Musical
Director, at 297-9779.
Some artists hit the scene quick and vanish
quicker. Good artists, too—they get lost in
whatever fad is at the top of the charts this year.
1989 brought a lot of strong women to the fore
front, and as so often happens in the music
world, some very good women performers
have gotten lost in the shuffle. The Roches
could have fallen into that category.
Lucky for us, that's not the case. Maggie &
Terre & Suzzy, sisters from New Jersey, have
released a new album that continues the tradi
tion they started with their first album in 1979.
Full of odd, unpredictable harmonies and
rhythms, plus the Roches' own peculiar per
spective on the universe, Speak (Paradox/MCA
Records) is a welcome addition to 1989's musi
cal legacy.
I love the Roches. Listening to their records
make me happy, very very happy. Even when
they sing sad things like / have no way of
knowing how much healing time eraseslcer-
tain of these secret broken places. It doesn't
matter. It's their voices I think. They don't
sound like anybody else, unless you consider 2
Nice Girls, but then since the Roches have been
around about 10 years longer than 2NG, it's
(L-R) Terre, Maggie, Suzzy
probably the other way around. They sound a
bit like some madrigal singers from the middle
ages accidentally dropped into the minds of
three girls horn New Jersey. Maggie provides
a sultry bottom to the trio, with Terre singing
the soprano parts, and Suzzy providing every
thing in between.
Did I mention that they write their songs?
They do perform some cover tunes (their ver
sion of the Hallelujah Chorus is a show-stop
per, to put it mildly), but everything on Speak is
written by one or more of the Roches. The sin
gle exception is the lyrics to "Cloud Dancing,"
written by Huang 0 in the 16th century and put
to sensuously delicate music by Maggie in the
20th.
Maggie is the most prolific songwriter on
this album. Her songs provide an almost (but
not quite—this is the Roches) somber backdrop
to some of the other songs, like "Big Nuthin’,”
all about how things aren't always as big a deal
as we think they are (I guess I just never knew
how big nulhin' could be).
The truth behind even the more subtly out
rageous tunes on this album are accentuated by
those incredible harmonies. The rendering of
Timothy Whit*
if you are a sexist pig then i have got to dislike
you for the rest of my life in "The Anti Sex
Backlash of the 80’s" is nothing short of
remarkable, as is the almost gospel-ish render
ing of "Losing Our Job." This song has a coun
try feeling that could have been intolerably silly
in the hands of almost any other group.
Speak is admirably produced by Maggie &
Terre & Suzzy and Jeffrey Lasser, who also
engineered. The sisters' vocals are clean and
very separate, an essential characteristic of a
good Roches recording. The instrumentation is
simple and unobtrusive, provided mostly by the
Roches. Vince Cherico adds seamless percus
sion, and Libby McLaren perfectly augments
Maggie and Suzzy's synthesizers.
I do like the Roches. I am blissfully blind to
any problems this album may have, and I feel
better just knowing they're still singing. I think
you will too.
Windstorm Productions brings The Roches to
The Roxy, 3110 Roswell Road, on Saturday,
January 27 at 8:30 pm.
Ticket info: 577-9600.
Chastity a Lesbian ?
That paradigm of popular, polemic journal
ism, Star,reports in yet another of its celebrity
exclusives that Chastity Bono is a lesbian.
According to a "family friend", mama Cher
is "devastated," "emotionally wrecked" and
"may never recover for the rest of her life."
But despite the Star's histrionic adjectivis-
ing, another insider claims the family seems
well on its way to healing the slender star's
reported hysteria. Both mom and daughter are
in therapy together. And Cher's own mom is
reportedly at ease with both Chastity's sexuality
and her alleged beloved.
Sonny Bono is said to be merely "uncom
fortable" with the news that his daughter is also
a daughter of Sappho. A feeling many have
shared when seeing Sonny perform.
In addition to the fact that Chastity has evi
dently taken the biggest of her coming out
steps, there's more good news: Star ran a side
bar to the story with answers — provided by
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays — to
nine questions about newly come-out sons and
daughters.
Next?
PHOTOGRAPHY
For your girl or boy
on VALENTINE'S DAY
or any day.
Casual, Creative
Black and White
Photographs
I iv'.ir'M and Joe
688-9032
1
RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL §
QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE ■
1424 N. Highland Ave.
Momingside
Tues-Sat 11-7
872-0001
35 m
Specializing in Custom Framing and matting
for Prints, Posters, Photographs, Needlework
and Memorabilia.
BUY 1 CUSTOM FRAME
AT OUR REGULAR LOW
PRICE, GET A SECOND OF
EQUAL OR LESSER COST
Vi PRICE
Expires 2/15/90
8/Southern Voice • January 18,1990