6
Thursday, March 28,1996
Archers of Loaf Busy Recording New Album, Releasing Old Favorites
BY WENDY MITCHELL
SENIOR WRITER
Browsing through the used bins at
Schoolkids’ a few weeks ago, I stumbled
across the Archers of Loafs monumental
first album, Icky Mettle. My first thought: Is
any hunger so great that such a disc should
be sold? My second thought: maybe I
should buy it, because mine is a bit worn.
Slightly obsessive, but we’re talking about
the Archers of Loaf: four fairly average
Chapel Hillians who have been making
very un-average music for four years.
Though they’ve become indie darlings
nationwide, I still like to believe there’s
some part of Chapel Hill in those frenzied,
twisted guitars and angry groans. Not
redneck kitsch like Southern Culture on
the Skids, but another kind of southern
influence comes across in those punk jabs
and pop hooks: a recklessness inspired by
sitting in a kitchen on a sweltering 90-plus
degree day growing impatient as flies buzz
and the screen door slams.
But sit down for this one— Chapel
Hill’s arguably greatest export might not
be calling Chapel Hill home for long. From
a payphone somewhere in Seattle during a
break from recording, bassist Matt Gen
tling hinted that relocation was a possibil
ity, although —of course nothing was
definite.
Gentling, albeit hesitant to leave his
“really cool place in Carrboro” would like
to get back to mountainous Asheville. He
said vocalist/guitarist Eric Bachmann may
move to Seattle, Ann Arbor, Mich., or
Washington, D.C., when his girlfriend
Fleming & John Reminiscent of Divinyls
It may sound like I’m going for nothing
more than the cheap critical blurb, but I
swear that at times Fleming & John sound
like a hybrid between a rock-inclined Enya
and some wacky operatic cocktail funk. I
understand your confusion. But that’s the
beauty of Delusions of Grandeur, the new
major label
rerelease from
vocalist
Fleming
McWilliams
and musical
handyman
John Mark
BRENT SIMON
Music Review
Fleming & John
Delusions of
Grandeur
B
Painter. (Quick trivia quiz: Are they mar
ried? Answer: Yes.) It’s an album with 100
different faces. If Grandeur was the video
game “Contra,” and F&J’s music were a
gun, we’d be talking scattershot. Some of
their tracks may typify the “lite” rock trend
so many blues-inspired bands seem to call
upon these days,but Fleming&John aren’t
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graduates from medical school soon.
Gentlingsaidhe thought relocation and/
or separation wouldn’t be a problem in the
Archers’ future. “I don’t think it would
have that much of an effect since we’re
touring so much. The only thing it would
effect is us coming together to write songs
and that sort of thing,” he said. “I don’t
think it will be a big deal.”
As we await consequences and their
third full-lengther (due out in September),
there’s anew treat to hold us over: the
recently-released rarities collection, The
Speed of Cattle. Included in the 18 tracks are
the Archers’ session with BBC DJ John
Peel, two Treepeople covers, a home re
cording of “Web in Front. ” While all such
albums are problematic combining the
stuff great enough to be singles (“Wrong”
and “South Carolina”) with the stuff that
easily slipped through the cracks
(“Powerwalker”) Cattle is a must for
anyone who missed the early singles. Or
anyone who was poor enough to sell them.
Gentling and I chatted about The Speed
of Cattle, their new album, and why he’s
clowning around less on stage:
DTK How did the singles compilation get
started? Why did you decide to put that out?
Matt Gentling: Well, unlike a lot of the
other stuff we’ve put out, it was something
that was in our contract. And it was also
that we had a lot of stuff floating around
that was either hard to get a hold of or was
never released on anything. Wejust wanted
to release those things because we liked
them and we thought it would be fun to put
them out. It’ssortofhalfwaybetweenthat
and the fact that it was in our contract.
afraid to bring the harder rock on tracks
like “Letters In My Head” and “I’m Not
Afraid.”
Some of their songs recall the Divinyls.
And some the Indigo Girls. And the list
could go on and on. It’s actually not too
surprising, since Painter played guitar,
trumpet and accordion on the Indigo Girls’
Swamp Ophelia. Their rock roots and influ
ences are further evidenced by the fact that
Ben Folds shows up to play drums on
several of the tracks. His characterization
of the duo? “Fleming & John,” Folds is
quoted as saying in the album’s press ma
terial, “are the Carpenters of the ‘9os, with
Led Zeppelins rhythm section.” Good call.
“I’m Not Afraid,” the album’s first
single, slips from a wistful groove piece to
borderline venom rockwith surprising ease.
With catchy hooks and lyrics like, “I’m
afraid of growing old/I’m afraid of staying
young and running out of fun,” F&J dis
play a maturity that makes you ask, “Did
DIVERSIONS Music
You guys are concentrating on your new stuff
—is it weird having people paying attention to
your really old stuff?
Yeah, it is weird. I haven’t really seen
much of it. We haven’t talked to many
people who have The Speed of Cattle. A
couple of times we’ve run into people who
have just heard our really old stuff for the
first time. And that’s pretty wild, hearing
them react to that, when we’re working
hard on our new stuff.
Is there anything on there that makes you
cringe now?
A couple of things. Most of it we really
wanted to release. But there are a couple of
things that make us feel really silly.
Like what?
Parts that we’ve played. I know Eric
doesn’tlike some lyrics from the old songs.
It’s just little things here and there. Noth
ing real specific or real terrible, luckily.
And how’s the new recording going?
It’sgoing really well, actually. It’s sound
ing better than anything we’ve done so far.
I hope I haven’t jinxed us by saying that.
It’s just a matter of all the other stuff we
did, it was limited time-wise and by the
facility—we didn’t have a really big room,
which we’d always wanted to work in.
We’ve always done stuff with people we
thought were really good at what they did
—Bob (Weston, Vee Fee) and Caleb (South
ern, Icky Mettle). And Brian (Paulson) is no
different he’s incredible. What really
makes a difference is the time and the
facilities as well as somebody who knows
what to do with them. Vee Vee was kind of
hurried, we didn’t have all the songs com
pletely written by the time we went in
these two spend eight years paying their
dues and playing assorted gigs and clubs?"
Then it turns out that they did just that and
everything makes a little more sense.
“Love Songs" is the rarest of ballads.
Not only does it have genuinely reflective
lyrics, but also a strong musical backbone.
The flighty “Rain All Day” opens with a
siren-like wail and moves through a nice
melancholy arrangement. McWilliams has
a great voice, stronger than Sheryl Crow
and as distinctive and recognizable as
Alanis Morissette. And— more impres
sively she knows how to use it, varying
her pitch, volume and inflection in a man
ner that fits comfortably within the beats
and rhythms of the songs. If there was a
cute summary paragraph for this review, it
might offer some sort of strange statement
like: Fleming & John are a revamped
Roxette for the ‘9os, athinking man’s pop
where unthreatening guitar meets pleasant
arrangements and distinctive vocals.
Archers of Loaf is recording its third full-length album in Seattle with producer Brian Paulson.
there, and so we were still doing a little bit
of finishing up when we were in there... so
that could be a little hectic. We did a little
bit of that this time, but it was voluntary.
‘AH Eyez’ Fall on 2Pac After New CD Release
The first time you saw Tupac, he was
laid back in Digital Underground’s “Same
Song” video, bald and surrounded by
women in a pseudo-African, Big Daddy
Kane-esque,remindyouofHueyNewton
in-the-wicker-chair scene. He was 1989’s
Black Caesar. You didn’t know if he was
hard or soft, but you knew his shit was
tight. Deliver
ing potent lyr
ics with rapid
rhymes, his
flow delicately
danced on the
subtle line be
tween being too
| RICH HARRIS 111 |
Music Review
2Pac
All Eyez On Me
(Death Row Records)
A-
fast and top relaxed—a line few mc’s had
the skills to walk
Four albums, five bullets, 11 months of
jail and one nappy-ass high-top fade later,
Tupac hasn’t changed too much. Tupac is
still a magnificent, walking oxymoron, and
his new album, All Eyez On Me, reflects this.
On two CD’s and 27 songs he’ll both im
press and repulse you in the same breath of
a lyric. He struts with a rebellious intensity
reminiscent of his performance in “Juice”
on songs like “Hearts of Men,” where he
raps “I can be a villain if you let me/A
Mothaphukka if you do upset me/Tell the
cops to come and get me. ’’ Then he can get
mushy and sentimental, like he’s trying to
rap to Janet Jackson, as he does on “Life
Goes On”: “Butnowthatyou’regone/I’m
in a zone/Thinkin’, I don’t want to die
alone/And all I got left is sinkin’ memo
ries.”
In “All About U, ” the chauvinist Tupac
croons with the same mindframe that got a
certain UNC fraternity into trouble last
fall. He raps, “I see you starin’ like you
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How did you guys decide to go with him?
We’d always liked stuff that he had
done. Some Uncle Tupelo stuff, Son Volt,
Wilco, Superchunk. And as a band, one of
Kraffl
want it/Well baby if you got a better
thought, let the liquor help you get up on
it.” “How Do You Want It” embodies
Tupac’s contradictions. Featuring KC and
JoJo from Jodeci, the song’s provocative
title and sultry sound foreshadow a sexy
type of temptation. Tupac begins, “Love
the way you aggravate your hips and push
your ass out/Catch you at the club, Oh
shit, you’ve got me feenin’/Body talking
shit to me but I can’t comprehend the
meanin’.”
But then, somewhere in the middle,
Tupac crosses a great frontier with one
stride. Between the words “Alaze” and
“Delores Tucker,” he goes from talking
about hoochies to rambling on about po
litical issues. Jumping so quickly from one
subject to the next would make one think
Delores Tucker is some around-the-way
girl he knows who resembles the rap regu
lator of the same name. Then he wittingly
remarks, “Delores Tucker, you’s a
motherphukka/ Instead of tryin to help a
nigga, you destroy brother/ Worse than
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our favorite albums in the universe is
Spiderland (the pre-eminent work by Slint).
See ARCHERS, Page 7
rather see me in a cell/ Livin’ in hell”
insightful political commentary, but in the
wrong place. The album’s diversity be
comes its only potential setback he ad
dresses enough topics for several albums.
2Pac’s retum-to-the-West Coast verses
fit perfectly between Richie Rich’s thick
Oakland playa style and E-40’s 150 mph
lyrics in “Ain’t Hard 2 Find.” On “Got My
Mind Made Up,” Redman’s flows kick
like Bruce Lee tidin’ a Fuji, and Method
Man’s chorus (“I got my mind made up/
C’mon, get into it/ Let it ride/ Tonight’s
the night”) compliments Tupac's lyrics.
He raps, “My lyrics motivate the planet/
It’s similar to Rhythm Nation but dragged
out/ Forgive me Janet.”
Tupac and Dr. Dre in particular fit to
gether well on the hit single “California
Love.” Frequent backup from other Death
Row “inmates” Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nate
Dogg, Daz and Kurupt will convince you
that Tupac belongs in the Death Row fam
ily. Tupac discusses how marginalized he
and Snoop are as black men in “Amerikaz
Most Wanted,” his life after court cases in
“Life Goes On,” open relationships in “Run
Tha Streetz” and heaven in “Heaven ain’t
Hard 2 Find.”
He has all the prerequisites for being the
label’s first adopted son 2Pac’s high
powered lyrics are matched in controversy
only by his flamboyant and contradictory
lifestyle, never mind his pending court
cases.
At least eight of the tracks on All Eyez On
Me will get you moving; even my father
recommends the album. He likes “Got My
Mind Made Up, ” “Heartz of Men, ” “Cali
fornia Love,” “What’z Ya Phone #” and
“Check Out Time.”
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