Saily Qlar HM
Aparo s Debut Shallow,
But Reveals Potential
By Josh Love
Staff Writer
First there’s the name, Angie Aparo.
Now, I know that countless rockers,
from David Bowie to Michael Jackson,
have suffered from some serious sexual
identity crises, but all of them were at
least christened male. Not so for male
modern-rock
newcomer
Aparo, but
don’t expect
him to cover
Prince’s “If I
Was Your
Girlfriend” in
the near future.
H CD Review
Angie Aparo
The American
ff
Instead, on The American, Aparo spe
cializes in the kind of overproduced
dross that reminds us all of that pop
rock radio golden age of 1998. You
remember that time, before the reign of
misplaced misogynistic rap-rock, when
the world was safe for a guy to sing
about how he must be lonely because
it’s 3 a.m.
Which means it’s no coincidence that
Matt Serletic, the man behind the
boards for The American, also produced
Matchbox 20’s ridiculously huge debut
album, not to mention Carlos Santana’s
beyond ridiculously huge comeback sin
gle “Smooth.”
True to his platinum-certified form,
Serletic dominates the album. The pro
ducer sweetens, homogenizes and essen
tially robs the pulse from the would-be
hits on The American for optimum GlO5
target market impact.
Sure enough, Aparo started out as a
dyed-in-the-wool folkie, armed with
only an acoustic guitar and an unfortu
nate case of the PC syndrome.
Rah Digga Lives Up to Its Hype
By Shindy Chen
staff writer
In the rap world, album release dates
are a tease. Rah Digga’s Dirty Harriet,
the highly anticipated album from the
up-and-coming female artist, was final
ly released April 11 after long delays.
Asa consolation, the album undeni
ably lives up to the hype surrounding
the Flip Mode
Squad’s first
lady, who
claims she’s the
“ghetto diva in
The Source
with the three
page ad."
Ifo CD Review
Rah Digga
Dirty Harriet
fff
Digga’s greatest quality is her voice.
And she makes it quite clear on the
album that she doesn’t try to make it
deeper to sound hard or thuggish; take
her or leave her for who she is.
Her voice is low and outspoken, and
her style is clear and enunciated, though
sometimes her flow may sound a little
perforated and choppy. Her lyrics how
ever, are the most articulate and clever
of any current female emcees. And yes,
she does write her own rhymes.
On the flip side, her voice can some
times be a little too demanding, and
then she crosses the line into tedium
and monotony. This could be due to
some weak production which doesn’t
back her up adequately, or just a lack of
oomph in her rhyming.
One of the songs that’s most interest
ing is “Curtains,” produced by Busta
Rhymes. It’s a little awkward at first and
the hook is a little weird, but it grows on
you like a fungus. Digga raps: “I’m get
tin’ money off the books like I’m
Beatnuts/ Make ’em sign pre-nups,
r
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In the hands of third-rate modem
rock svengali Serletic, The American
sounds like Edwin McCain, Nine Days
and Train all rolled into one, but
because I can’t tell the difference
between these GlO5 staples, I guess
that’s not much of an achievement.
The American routinely plunders the
cookie cutter of countless pop-rock
radio gold mines, from the trademark
Third Eye Blind falsettos of the current
single “Spaceship” to the countryish
bent of “Cry,” in which Aparo tries to
imitate Train, in vain. Worst of all, “It’s
Alright” passes off a weak Latin groove
in a desperate attempt to remain cur
rent. Unfortunately, Aparo lacks a
Carlos Santana to lend credibility to his
“Smooth”-ish sham.
Lyrically, Aparo can’t seem to decide
which fork in the pseudo-wordsmith
road to take: is he a reservoir of glib
whimsy like his modern-rock brethren
(as he seems on “Spaceship”), or the
futile troubadour of dated political dia
tribe like the pro-environment “Green
Into Gold” and the anti-racism
“Memphis City Rain”?
Ultimately, however, Serletic
deserves most of the blame for this dis
appointment. Aparo escapes dismissal
solely because of the album’s final listed
track, “Wonderland,” which reveals a
passionate singer-songwriter who
stretches his voice and his music beyond
the strict pop-rock radio parameters.
This heartfelt gem, which Serletic inex
plicably leaves unadorned, only illumi
nates what an unfortunate conformist
move Aparo makes with the rest of The
American.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
hHh _ '/I. Hn
Up-and-coming rap star Rah Digga, the "first lady" of Busta Rhymes'
Flip Mode Squad, makes her presence felt with her debut, Dirty Harriet.
word to my C-cups.”
“Do the Ladies Run This” showcases
Digga, Eve of the Ruff Ryders and
Sonja Blade. The song definitely has a
Swizz Beatz feel, though it’s produced
by Shok, an up-and-coming member of
the Ruff Ryder clique.
“Showdown” is a foreseeable single.
It bounces with a happy, bumpy track
that sounds like something Redman and
Meth would rhyme to.
Another track that might bring in the
cheddar is “So Cool,” with new soul
crooner Carl Thomas, the man who will
save Bad Boy Entertainment’s R&B sec
tor, just listening to Thomas sing: “Cuz
she is sooooooo coooooool/ and you
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The Virginia-based Pat McGee Band has been building grassroots support for years. The band's major-label debut, Shine, pulls from a variety
of influences to create an album that transcends musical generations and will earn the band a place on rock radio.
Pat McGee's Shine Sure to Please Every Fan
By Rlss Lane
Staff Writer
As Beck condenses every 20th centu
ry musical style into a few albums, The
Pat McGee Band takes the entire rock
canon into account on its major-label
debut, Shine.
The band
bridges popu
lar music’s gen
eration gap,
buffering the
lines drawn
between ’7os
CD Review
Pat McGee Band
Shine
nr
country-rock and the conscious eclecti-
can’t be as fly as she/ Money baby can’t
you see ...” is enough even without
Digga’s role in the song.
Add to these the singles “Tight” and
“Imperial” and a couple bonus tracks,
and there’s a pretty decent album there.
Give it up for the only Flip Mode
member besides Busta who’s simulta
neously making a name for her clique
and showing that hip-hop might not be
a male-dominated music form for long.
The Arts <3 Entertainment Editor can
be reached@artsdesk.unc.edu.
~
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poleci susan monaco bisou2
jane doe tessuto juicy icon
cism of more modem bands. Composed
of equal parts Fleetwood Mac and
Rusted Root, The Eagles and Dave
Matthews, the band is all things to rock
fans of all ages and tastes.
Producer Jerry Harrison’s work on
the album wraps these influences in a
blanket of familiarity. The listener is
granted the reassuring luxury of know
ing exactly what chord comes next,
which lyric will follow the chorus.
The Pat McGee Band’s constant asso
ciation with bands past and present
would give the album a stale quality if
not for Harrison’s production. The band
mixes its benign sound with traces of
Music
Briefs
Leeds-based pop-punk eight-piece
Chumbawamba’s 1997 single
“Tubthumping” started out listenable,
but soon grew tiring. So did the album
it came from, Tubthumper. Now its aim
less follow-up, What You See Is What You
Get, skips past
the “listenable”
period rapidly.
What you
see on opening
the liner notes
is a large photo
of one dog
humping
another. The
paying listener
might imagine
himself the sec
ond dog; the
band, the first.
H| Music Briefs
Chumbawamba
What You See Is What
You Get
f
Alice Deejay
Who Needs Guitars
Anyway!
ff
Of the album’s 22 tracks, only two
prove satisfying. The rest, many of
which are under two minutes, seem
more like juvenile jokes than songs.
Particularly wrenching, supposedly
subversive numbers include “The
Physical Impossibility of Death in Jerry
Springer.” Perhaps one who chuckles at
titles like this would be amused by the
mercifully brief corresponding songs.
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banjo, slide guitar and various saxo
phones. The minor accents liven Shine’s
straightforward approach, ultimately
rescuing the album from mediocrity.
While the album is not adventurous
High Art, the band skillfully avoids an
Oasis-like cannibalization of the rock
genre. “Runaway” sounds at home on
the radio, its tight harmonies filling the
power vacuum left following The
Eagle’s lengthy sabbatical from G-105.
Only a few moments of Shine let the
musical name-dropping get out of hand
- the title track sounds like a throwaway
Jackson Browne tune gone awry.
Aside from its obvious influences,
Apparently, Chumbawamba’s mem
bers think highly of their own wit
They might be forgiven, if the tunes
were less derivative or even more
catchy. Each song tackles a genre of pop
music, from flower-child folk to surf
rock, but instead of commenting on the
genres’ conventions, the band creates
dumb facsimiles with dumber lyrics.
Not a single track has the hook or
urgency of “Tubthumping.” Throw one
more one-hit wonder on the pyre.
Slighdy more interesting is the
American debut of Norwegian trio
Alice Deejay. Self-described as “dance
trance pop” (three genres that don’t
immediately call the term “good” to
mind), the music on Who Needs Guitars
Anyway? manages to rise above expec
tations - occasionally.
The first two tracks (coincidentally
the first two singles released) are actu
ally good. The trance beats hook in the
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every song in Shine exudes sincerity
without irony. “Minute’s” chorus has no
trace of banality or ulterior motive - it
serves as a “clean” version of Dave
Matthew’s infamous “hike up your skirt
a litde more” line in “Crash.”
Over; 'l, The Pat McGee Band’s
everyband approach to rock reserves
their place on the radio, specializing in
accessible albeit passive country-rock.
Their style nods to their predecessors
while remaining contemporary. In four
words - good but not remarkable.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu
listener aggressively. I won’t bother with
their lyrics, though, as the band obvi
ously didn’t either.
Still, a lack of annoying embellish
ments and frontwoman Judy’s smooth
vocalizations make the tunes pleasing
enough for club or home. That’s a rare
feat for trance music, even trance music
like this - so pop it hardly fits the genre.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album
is trance-inducing in a different sense.
Only a few of the record’s 12 remaining
tracks stick out. The rest ionn .a bland
sludge of far less distinguishable mater
ial. My advice: Get the singles.
Compiled by Jeremy Hurtz
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