8OmnifausThursday, October 27, 1988
WXVC Top 20
The not-so-far underground
yields an American classic
By RANDAL BULLOCK
Staff Writer
Since it has been mid term time,
I have been forced to break my
No. 1 rule and pick up a novel and
actually read it. I am still feeling
the repercussions. The world has
taken on a different hue; symbol
ism seems to jump out at me from
every dark corner and I am con
stantly seeing "themes" running
through all I do or see. Therefore,
there will be no sleaze this week.
I am going to get artsy.
Lincoln They Might Be
Giants
l have been thinking about the
phrase "only in America" recently
and have been trying to figure out
what it might mean. A few
obvious things come to mind.
Death before dishonor. Micro
waveable. Right on red after stop.
"Hogan's Heroes." And I'm begin
ning to feel that we can add one
to that quadrumvirate They
Might Be Giants. I cant be sure and
l dont know why, because what
America really is still remains a
mystery to me. I think the key lies
somewhere in the above list and
I think our capacity for brilliance
is only overshadowed by our
desire to destroy the world before
we realize even half of it.
With the addition of TMBG to
this list, though, I think the real
ization is gaining ground. They say
the pen is mightier than the
sword, but that rings a little
quaint to today's ears; I believe a
guitar, if wielded effectively, is far
mightier still. If you doubt this, ask
yourself what thoughts lurk
beneath the next sideways hair
cut you see, and consider what
probably put them there. With
this in mind, I'm happy that U2 is
more popular than, say, Mega
death, even if U2 takes self
righteousness to unparalleled
heights.
But of course U2 is not American.
Their ideas are as much rooted in
the Irish tradition as TMBG's are
rooted in the American. To prove
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this, in use our friend, the met
aphor. If the songs on TMBG's
Lincoln were people, they would
only be able to communicate
about as much as the immigrants
of various nationalities who fil
tered through Ellis island. (For the
MBA's in the crowd, I translate-.
They do not sound the same.)
On the other hand, since I've got
most of you on this immigration
ship, I will extend the metaphor
by saying that though verbal
communication was impossible
owing to the different languages
involved, I am sure that there
wasnt a complete lack of com
munication. There is a lot to be
said for the common gleam that
passed from eye to eye as they
dreamed of the wealth and free
dom that awaited them (and
before the sweatshop they were
actually destined for strangled all
that foolishness out of them).
So to bring it up to date, the
style of TMBG's songs are as
disparate as the denizens of any
welfare office in America, and the
stories the songs tell are as colorful
as the best "victim of society"
story you could wring from our
jobless and disenchanted Along
side the standard TMBG pop tune
which put them on the map, you
get cool jazz, hip-hop, the odd sea
shanty and, to their credit, music
that has no name. A collection of
songs like this deserves a very
special metaphor, and so l say that
something this motley reeks of
more Americana than your moth
er's intestinal tract after she eats
hot dogs from the ballpark.
The instrumentation is just as
diverse, ranging from sax to violin,
from accordion to oboe, and yet
never straying too far from our
hero: the guitar. They Might Be
Giants number only two, and so
much of their stuff is constructed
in the studio. This bugged me
initially (being a sort of anal
retentive purist) but I realized that
even though you can compare
these songs to pre-fab housing
WE ACCEPT
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AMERICAN EXPRESS
ALL ABC PERMITS
WE CAN MEET
YOUR DIETARY
NEEDS UPON
REQUEST
(another metaphor!), our entire
country is based on the wonders
of prefabrication, and there is no
reason for TMBG to be any
different.
And besides, the common com
plaint of pre-fab houses is that
they are not built to last and are
too flimsy. True too of TMBG's
songs, to a certain degree, in the
same way you can put your fist
through the wall of any house
built in America in the last 30 years,
you can put your fist through
most songs of TMBG. Many songs
have a slapped together quality
that automatically denies them
the timelessness of great art. I
posit that this is OK, for this reason
most people dont put their fist
through the walls of their houses,
in let you make the link. Get an
MBA to help if you need to.
Anyway, underneath all the
bordering-on-complete-irritation
hooks and the oh-God -Pm-so-cute-isms
that characterize TMBG there
is some real substance, in their
most un-American move, how
ever, they dont beat you over the
head with their view of the world.
They are (prepare yourself) subtle.
Because they prefer to show their
thoughts obliquely, buried under
a pile of verbal gymnastics, they
differentiate themselves from 90
percent of American art. Yeah, it
pissed me off too. Thinking takes
too much effort.
I know you are wondering when
I am going to cut with all the
pseudo-literary crap and just tell
you what the album sounds like.
Joke's on you; youn have to read
Rolling Stone if you want a "real"
review. At any rate, you dont
have, to buy into any pseudo
intellectualism here, either. You
dont even have to buy this album.
But remember, at some point you
will have to die. So keep that in
mind. And since this isnt a "real"
review, I feel comfortable ending
it wherever I choose.
RECYCLE
This Newspaper
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L Cocfeau Twins
2. Various Artists
3. U2
4. Billy Bragg
5. That Petrol Emotion
6. Toots Hibberf
7 Balancing Act
8. Screaming Trees
9. Mission of Burma
10. Lloyd Cole
IK Game Theory
12. Feelies
1 3. Tom Waits
14. They Might
Be Giants
15. Dream Syndicate
16. Waxing Poetics
17. Voice of the Beehive
18. Marty Wilson-Piper
19. Nice Strong Arm
20. King Missile
fDog Fly Religion)
random majeure
By ELIZABETH ELLEN
Staff Writer
This week, those whales at
Point Barrow, Alaska, surpassed
my political expectations. In the
last column, I raved about the
diverse coalition they had
assembled. Now the two remain
ing whales have done something
miraculous: They have enlisted
the Soviets in their cause. Last
word is that Soviet equipment
will be used to break through the
ice. If there was any lingering
doubt about the whales' political
viability, it should be erased now.
Why these whales were lifted
from obscurity to international
fame is a bit unclear. The fact
that these fascinating personal
ities were unknown a few weeks
ago holds out hope that the
backwaters and hinterlands
might hide many other souls
with unpolished talent and char
isma. Sometimes these unsung
heroes lurk just out of the spot
light, near the heart of the
action.
For example, the most under-.
rated sports heroes are the
people who measure the distan
ces in field events which involve
throwing. I'm referring to the
officials who stand and watch a
discus, a shot, a hammer or a
javelin hurtling toward them at
ungodly velocities.
Here's the catch: These people
run toward the projectile Mow
any Tom, Dick or Schmo off the
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Blue Bell Knoll
Til Things Are Brighter
Rattle and Hum
Workers Playtime
End of the Millenium
Psychosis Blues
Toots in Memphis
Curtains
Invisible Lantern
Forget
Mainstream
Two Steps from the
Middle Ages
Only Life
Big Time
Lincoln
Ghost Stories
Monakin Moon
Let it Be
Art Attack
Mind Furnace
They
street would run in the opposite
direction if he saw one of these
things coming at him (Note the
sexist pronouns. This is because
Tom, Dick and Schmo are gener
ally masculine names.) These
measurers are heroic precisely
because they can overcome that
natural impulse to get out of the
way. These individuals go beyond
common sense, and great minds
really dont think alike.
What is meaning? It is an
interpretation which is sup
posedly lifted to the plane of
objectivity. One could interpret
a kiwi fruit daiquiri as something
a sane human being would drink
and enjoy and thereby infuse the
concoction with meaning.
Australians, who refer to
themselves as kiwis, probably like
this kind of daiquiri. So do little
fat Australian birds with very
long skinny beaks.
To discover the true meaning
of Halloween, go to Greenville.
Experience real chaos, but do not
dress up in trash bags and pre
tend to be raisins. Hardly anyone
interprets the phenomenon of
the California Raisins in any
manner even claiming to be
objective.
Dressing like a kiwi or a Soviet
ice breaker is acceptable, but do
not dress up as an N.C State
football player, or thousands of
drunk ECU students will not take
kindly to you.
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