DTH Omnibus Page 5
Thursday November 2, 1989
INI St Ad IE
Brass socks it
to right-wingers
and falls in love
Billy Bragg
and Hazel Dickens
Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m.
Memorial Hall
Union box office: 962-1449
"Help save the suntanned surfer boys
and the CaUfomia Girls."
Billy Bragg, from "Help Save
the Youth of America."
O
ne could make the argument
i that Billy Bragg has no right
to save the youth of Amer
ica. Or even care that they are in
danger. After all, Bragg is from Eng
land. Why should he care?
But as Bragg points out, when the
United States elects a president, we're
not just messing up our own lives
we're messing up the entire free world.
So when Bragg toured the U.S. last
year during the rage of a presidential
election, he did everything he could
to encourage people to vote for any
one but George Bush.
This Saturday he's coming back
for more. Bragg and Hazel Dickens, a
singer with deep roots in folk and
country, will be giving a concert in
Memorial Hall to raise money for
striking mine workers in West Vir
ginia. The miners, members of the United
Mineworkers of America, have been
on strike against Pittson Coal of West
Virginia for more than six months.
The strike has not received much
attention in the national media, pos
sibly because it has been mostly non
violent. Todd Morman, station manager at
WXYC, which is sponsoring the
concert along with the Carolina
Union Activities Board, said Dick
ens was planning a benefit concert
for the miners when Bragg, a fan of
hers, called and asked if she would
like to work with him.
While the concert is not a bene
fit, Dickens and Bragg have agreed
to donate proceeds to the striking
miners' union.
Bragg's songs can mostly be di
vided into two categories, the per
sonal and the political the vul
nerable, working class Romeo and
the angry young man with the so
cialist ideals.
This is an overly simplistic divi
sion, but it is a good starting point.
While the majority of Bragg's songs
are overtly political, including "Help
Save the Youth of America" and
"Chile, Your Waters Run Red
Tom Parks
Through Soweto," his sentiments are
expressed with intensely personal
images. Like his press kit says, with
Billy Bragg, "the personal is politi
cal." In "Think Again" he asks, "Do
you think that the Russians want war
these are the sons of the parents who
died in the last one. Will the voice
of insanity lead you to total destruc
tion?" It is ironic (but not inappropriate)
that Bragg will be raising money for
striking miners in North Carolina, a
state with notoriously anti-union
sentiments. But one would have a
hard time convincing most people
on Franklin Street (or in Raleigh,
for that matter) that Chapel Hill is
even in the state, so maybe Bragg's
union anthem, There is Power in a
Union, will go over well.
"There is power in a factory, There
is power in the land. Power in the
. hand of the worker, but it all amounts
to nothing if together we don't stand."
When Bragg isn't socking it to the
right-wingers, he's falling in love.
That's not to say that his love songs
are the contrived, derivative, over
produced tunage that gets turned out
on the West Coast. They're not.
I'd list a few of his sadder, personal
songs, including "Greetings to the
New Brunette" and "Levi Stubbs'
Tears," but I've just listened to "Walk
Away Renee" and I can't see the
terminal for all the tears in my eyes.
Well, you have to take the crunchy
with the smooth.
J Don't Get It.
906 W. Frankfln St., Chapel Hlfl
Call W 7-9053
113 Friday
Butthole Surfers
with Zen Frisbee
114 Saturday
2:00 pm Public Enemy
10:00 pm HcgeV
Eek-AMouse
118 Wednesday
The Producers
11 Thursday
The Black Girls
1110 Friday
Scruffy the Cat
with Dillon Fence
.13 tt over admitted
Surreal rockers surf
Butthole Surfers
Friday, Nov. 3, 10 p.m.
Cars Cradle
Tickets $10
O
n Friday, November 3, the
' Butthole Surfers will bring
their multi-media nightmare
circus to the Cat's Cradle.
The name alone should provide
the uninitiated with an inkling of
how this band sounds. Then again,
anyone familiar with the group
knows that even a name such as
that cannot begin to convey the
sound or approach of the deranged,
dark-humored collective of PMRC
outlaws. . '
The Buttholes, as they're affec
: tionately known to friends and fans,
have been sharing their twisted ver
sion of reality with the world for
nearly seven years, their debut al
bum having found its way into
RIDAL
AND n
A&HION OIIOW
presented by
S imp
BRIDAL &
COUTURE
ALL YOUR WEDDING NEEDS
UNDER ONE ROOF!
Sunday, November 5
Honeymoon Qiveawayl
at the North Raleigh Hilton
Door Prizes!
from 12 noon to 5 pm
Complimentary hors d deuvres
Tickets $5 per person at the door or by phone:
Chapel Hill 9680883 Raleigh 78 15888
Simply Chic, Qalleria, Chapel Hill
Doug Edmunds
tie.'-i..iAxs. f,
progressive record stores in 1983.
Led by singer Gibby Haynes, cham
pion of shock value weirdness and a
leading expert on live cockroach dis
section, the band started performing
in 1981 in San Antonio, Texas, where
Haynes met guitarist Paul Leary at
Trinity University.
; From the start they were anything
: but the average college party band.
Drawing on a fascination with hallu
cinogens, punk rock, heavy metal
cliches, scatological humor and ar-
: tistic subversiveness (to name but a
few), Gibby and his cohorts crafted a
style of music which smashed con
vention, emphasized the offensive and
the absurdly ridiculous, and chal
lenged the listener to do almost any-
thing except just listen.
Early albums such as Cream Corn
From the Socket of Davis and Rem
brandt Pussyhorse came across as bi
zarre mixtures of screeching guitars,
THE
Okie GiNGiSS
CUSTOM
FORMAL WEAR
together with
the Triangle's leading Bridal
the Cradle
howling voices, sound effects and
rhythmic unpredictability. More
recent offerings have continued the
tradition of lunatic fringe humor
and musical mayhem, and the brand
new Widowermaker is sure to fit the
same surreal mode.
Even more potentially disturb
ing or hysterically funny than its
records are the band's live perform
ances. In the past they have in
: eluded m iddle-aged topless danc
ers, rear-screen projection of car
wrecks and people having seizures,
mutilation of dumm ies and much
more.
Gibby alone is quite a sight to
see onstage. Rumor has it that this
tour's video projection accompani
ment will contain footage from real
live sex change operations.
Ah, yes!
What a glorious way to spend a
Friday evening! Don't count on
running into many parents or pro
fessors at this one. There's no doubt
the show will beat all the past week's
Halloween parties for sheer stomach-churning
fun and dream-like
madness. The music is only the half
of it.
businesses
Event
... i . ... h iii k
.
I tt ti l lit I l I l in