Entertainment
the stentorian
February 27, 1995
Opting for obscurity: Music you won’t hear on MTV
By SCOTT JACOBSON
Staff Writer
Long ago, in the bygone
days of early rock and roll, there
was no single prerequisite for
mainstream musical success.
Constant touring helped propel
a struggling band into the pub
lic spotlight, as did radio air
play, television appearances,
and plain luck, but overnight
success stories were fairly rare.
Then came MTV. The seem
ingly harmless network
debuted in the early eight
ies and was initially looked
upon by the entertainment
industry as just another
face in the struggling
crowd of up-and-coming
cable channels.
Today, however, the
once weak and undistin- __
guished MTV is an enter
tainment giant, capable of
granting a band success and
yanking it away again all in one
fell swoop of the program
director’s pen. Simply put,
getting a video played regularly
on MTV does for a rock group
what even a coveted Ed Sullivan
Show appearance couldn’t have
managed: it repeatedly thrusts
them under the noses of mil
lions of malleable and money
burning American kids.
Music Television is a wolf
in Doc Martens and threadbare
flannel, ordering the 13 to 25
demographic with Buzz Clips and
cool VJs to fork over their allow
ances to the worthy cause of “al
ternative music.” Its influence
envelopes the music world and
dictates public tastes. Conse
quently, a great deal of worthy
music is never even given a stab
at widespread popularity. Don’t
kid yourself: there’s more to
nineties pop than Green Day or
the Cranberries. You just have
to look for it.
stars have full access to a crude
recording studio in their own
bedrooms. As a result, a great
deal of noteworthy music has
been produced by artists whose
work normally wouldn’t find
an audience.
The most popular example
of late is Dayton Ohio’s Guided
by Voices. Led by
thirtysomething grade-school
teacher Robert Pollard, GBV
churned out poorly distributed
Thanks to the four-track recorder
and boom box with condenser
mike...today's wannabe rock stars
have full access to a crude recording
studio in their own bedrooms.
Enter “bedroom rock,” ad
mittedly more of a suitable nick
name than a bona fide genre.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
frustrated bands and musicians
labor tirelessly in their own
homes to produce music that is
often doomed to hopeless obscu
rity, but shouldn’t be ignored.
Their reasons for not bothering
with real recording studios are
often financial: most bands sim
ply can’t afford the fees. Thanks
to the four-track recorder and
boom box with condenser mike,
however, today’s wannabe rock
albums of fantastically
skewed, British Invasion-style
pop for years before they were
finally signed to Scat (a Cleve
land-based independent record
label) in 1992. Their latest CD
is entitled Bee Thousand, and,
like many of GBV’s previous
albums, it was recorded in the
band members’ homes on four-
and eight-track recorders.
The Scat roster of great
independent bands also in
cludes a jumpy pop combo by
the name of Nothing Painted
Blue. Their music falls out
side the realm of home record
ings, but lead singer and guitar
ist Franklin Bruno has estab
lished himself as the premier
lyricist of the bedroom rock
world with his low-key solo re
leases. Bruno, who hails from
the mystic Inland Empire of
southern California, writes
songs that manage to be at the
same time catchy and refresh
ingly cerebral. Few singer-
songwriters besides Bruno
could manage to seamlessly fit
references to Joseph Cornell,
Jane Pratt, or tableaux vivant
into the matrix of a pop song
without sounding hideously pre
tentious. In addition to their
clever word play, Bruno’s songs
often manage to put a refresh
ing spin on the tired subjects of
unrequited crushes and bored
lust.
Such originality offers a
welcome break from the norm;
most contemporary pop artists
have exhausted their supply of
original ideas and now resign
themselves to an auxiliary store
of cliche-ridden lyrics that serve
as little more than sonic space
fillers. In a world where Dead-
eye Dick’s moronic “She’s a
Vegetarian” song resides com
fortably at the top of the charts,
we need songwriters like Bruno
who take for granted that their
audience actually does listen to
the words.
You’ve probably been in the
dark about these artists or the
independent rock scene in gen
eral, but that’s understandable.
After all, you won’t find most
of these groups on Alternative
Nation or in the “New Faces”
section of Rolling Stone. If
you’re interested in expanding
your musical horizons a bit and
giving home-recorded music a
chance, try writing to the labels
listed below for catalogs filled
with cheap (as low as $3.00 for
most tapes) but remarkable
music, or dig a little deeper in
the bins of your local indepen
dent record shop. Other groups
(or individuals) well worth
looking into include the Moun
tain Goats, Strapping
Fieldhands, Butterglory,
Alastair Galbraith, and the Sil
ver Jews. Don’t let their obscu
rity scare you: home-recording
artists often put flavor of the
month buzz bands to shame.
Walt Records (carries re
leases by F. Bruno, many oth
ers) 89 Fairview Ave., Port
Washington, NY 11050; Scat
(GBV, NPB) 5466 Broadway
#200, Cleveland, OH 44127;
Shrimper, P.O. Box 1837, Up
land, CA 91785
A Viewer's Choice
Dumb and Dumber: It’s not as bad as you’ve heard
By BRIAN YEN
staff Writer
Jim Carrey has become
an overnight success story
in 1994. From his beginnings
on In Living Color, Carrey
has become one of the big
gest and highest paid stars in
Hollywood. He has already
made three hit movies this
year: Ace Ventura: Pet De
tective, The Mask, and most
recently. Dumb and Dumber.
While some may criticize the
exorbitant amount of money
that he demands for each
movie, Carrey’s perfor
mances have brought in some
of the largest profits of 1994.
Dumb and Dumber earned
$40.7 million in the first two
weeks alone. Over the holi
day weekend, it was number
one in ticket sales.
Dumb and Dumber is a slap
stick comedy reminiscent of
Carrey’sotherfilm,Ace Ventura:
Pet Detective. Directed by Peter
Farrelly, the film stars Carrey
and Jeff Daniels (Speed,
Arachnophobia). Carrey and
Daniels play two friends, Lloyd
and Harry, who drive from Provi
dence to Aspen to return a brief
case left by a wealthy woman
played by Lauren Holly (Picket
Fences, Dragon: The Bruce Lee
Story). The plot also involves
kidnappers trying to retrieve ran
som money which is contained
within the briefcase. However,
the plot is unimportant and over
shadowed by the off-the-wall
humor of Carrey and Daniels. It
is just a silly film filled with a lot
of sight gags, off-color humor,
and Carrey at his best.
Carrey and Daniels play well
off each other in Dumb and
Dumber. Carrey’s bowl cut
and Daniels’ shaggy dog outfit
are enough to make you at least
crack a smile.
This, combined
with the duo’s physi
cal comedy and to
tally idiotic conversa
tions, make you laugh
aloud. Probably the
most humorous aspect
of the film is implied
by the title. This
movie is just so bla
tantly dumb and silly
that you cannot help
but guffaw. Take, for
instance, the snow
ball fight scene.
When I watched this
scene I knew it was
utterly ridiculous and
silly, but I could not
stop from laughing.
The movie is also full of a
lot of off-color and bathroom
humor. Again, I knew this type
of humor was a very low,
unoriginal, and blatant at
tempt to make people laugh.
However, I walked into the
movie in a silly mood
and couldn’t prevent
myself from letting
out at least a slight
laugh when Harry
drinks tea which has
been doctored with
laxative. The movie
can only be enjoyed
if you are in a silly
and light mood, as
the humor is often
very silly and low
brow. The merit of
this film, as summa
rized by senior Hao
Zhu, “It wasn’t a
good movie, but I
laughed so hard I
wet myself.”