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iMann's Spins Musical Tales
-Of Love,Woe in Bachelor #2
By Russ Lane
Staff Writer
Aimee Mann miraculously turns sour
grapes into fine wine.
This talent is not wasted on Bachelor
#2, Mann’s independent follow-up to
last year’s successful “Magnolia” sound
track. Lyrically deft and musically intri
cate, Mann’s singer-songwriter mystique
ranks her among the genre’s greats,
Elvis Costello
and Neil
Young.
While
Mann’s previ
ous albums -
1992’s Whatever
and 1996’s I’m
|| CD Review
Aimee Mann
Bachelor *2
iffif
With Stupid- read like novels, Bachelor
#2 has no real beginning, middle or
end.
Instead, the album is a collection of
“Magnolia” material, old songs and new
compositions, as if Mann is letting her
audience catch up with her.
Of course, four years is a lot of catch
ing up to do. After her label assimilated
into Interscope Records, Mann bought
back Bachelor after executives refused to
release the album as Mann intended.
Unsurprisingly, Mann’s record-compa
ny drama fuels much of the album’s
melodic ire.
'■ - Record-industry protest music is not
anew musical sub-genre (just ask Prince
andjoni Mitchell), but Mann’s song
writing deftly blurs the lines between the
personal and professional. “Calling it
Quits” and “Nothing is Good Enough”
can read either as songs of wounded
Portastatic: De Mel, De Melao
Think very muted Superchunk
mixed with very muted Santana, and
..you get Portastatic’s new EP “De Mel,
De Melao.”
This tasty little EP is a selection of
five songs by Brazilian artists performed
by Mac
McCaughan,
the voice of
Superchunk.
The title’s
translation, “Of
Honey, Of
Melon” is
taken from one
of the songs,
and it seems
appropriate for
the entire EP.
$ CD Review
Portastic
De Mel, De Melao
iffif
The Billy Dechand Band
Hocus Pocus
id
Most of the lyrics are in the original
Portuguese, but when McCaughan adds
the occasional English verse, it’s just as
sugary as the music.
’■ Don’t be misled - these are merely
new recordings of Brazilian pop songs
of the ’6os and ’7os. Portastatic adds a
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love or brutal condemnations of record
execs.
Aside from industry kvetching, Mann
writes love songs for really screwed-up
people. Like “Save Me," which earned
Mann an Oscar nomination, all of
Mann’s songs hope for the best and get
let down. Bachelor’s songs are no excep
tion.
Mann issues a belated eulogy for Jeff
Buckley in “Just Like Anyone,” express
ing a desire to have been closer to the
drowned songwriter. “Driving
Sideways" provides an extended
metaphor for the nightmarish relation
ships which fascinate her.
“Susan” finds Mann lamenting over
another failed endeavor in fluid couplets
such as “There must have been some
kind of parade/We kissed for a while to
see how it played/And pulled the pin on
another grenade.”
“So don’t work your stuff/Because I
got troubles enough,” Mann begs on
“Deathly,” which stands as her best
composition to date. Inspiring Director
RT. Anderson to write “Magnolia,” the
song warns off a would-be savior,
“deathly” afraid that her paramour will
give her the help she needs.
Continually transforming her per
sonal and record industry woes into
Beatle-esque pop, Mann beautifully
inflicts Hell’s Fury upon her unfortu
nate, albeit deserving, targets.
If you are a jerk boyfriend or a soul
less record exec, beware. Aimee is
watching.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
new touch, drifting towards a more
updated pop sound. Compare
Portastatic’s cover of “Baby” to the ’6os
psych version by Os Mutantes, and
you’ll see what I mean.
Perhaps the best part of Portastatic is
getting to hear McCaughan’s sweet lit
tle vocals against a different musical
backdrop - sans Superchunk.
Unless you know Portuguese, you’ll
have no idea what he’s singing about,
but when’s the last time you listened to
popular music for the lyrics anyway?
Billy Dechand Band: Hocus Pocus
Like the average person, the average
day in one’s life, or perhaps most appro
priate, the average local band, The Billy
Dechand Band is neither god-awful nor
amazingly wonderful.
The band is another Chapel Hill
group whose album, Hocus Pocus,
achieves a stable level of mediocrity.
The group is self-described as span
ning from “dreamy, chipper, to
Radiohead-esque longing.” Dreamy
and chipper, okay, but Billy Dechand
couldn’t be further from Radiohead.
Most of the other songs seem unfo
cused and lazy. Sometimes Billy
Dechand sounds like swing that never
quite makes it off the ground, and some
times one hears the faintest trace of ska.
The album does have its solid
moments. The first track, “See Saw” is
pleasant and even kind of catchy.
Listening to this isn’t a bad experi
ence, only slightly mind-numbing.
Compiled by Joanna Pearson
DIVERSIONS Music
Ween Remains Weird on White Pepper
By Ashley Atkinson
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
Ween’s music can only be the prod
uct of long-term drug use.
To put it simply, it’s just weird.
White Pepper , the band’s seventh
album, is a schizophrenic joyride
through the modem musical canon,
sampling heavily from kitschy retro
pop-rock with irreverent glee.
Country rock? Got it. Speed metal?
Sure. Folk? Why not. Sappy love songs?
Those too. It’d
sound like a
compilation if
you didn’t
know better.
Dean and
Gene Ween
(no, they’re not
H§ CD Review
Ween
White Pepper
iffif
really brothers, and those aren’t their
real names) have been making music
together since 1984, when they met in
eighth-grade typing class.
White Pepper provides more of what a
rabid cult of fans has grown to love and
expect from Ween: crudely comedic
songs in an absurd variety of musical
postures (presented, admittedly, with a
good deal of skill).
There’s some of Ween’s usual cheer
ful offensiveness, with lyrics like “Look
at yourself/ Your lips are like two flaps
of fat/ They go front and back and flap
pity flappity flap.”
But the closest it gets to the disturb
ing subject matter of earlier work like
“Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)” is a
line about a dancer who lost her legs.
This makes for a less instantly memo
rable album, but one more palatable to
those not into songs about diseases.
So maybe time has brought us a
Mya Releases Impressive Sophomore Effort
By Ferris Morrison
Staff Writer
With the release of her second
album, Fear of Flying, Mya is announcing
to the world her transition from child
hood to womanhood.
Her self-tided debut album, released
in 1998, went double platinum and
included several Top 10 singles such as
“Movin’ On” and “It’s All About Me,”
which earned a Soul Train Award nom
ination.
Two years
later, 20-year
old Mya adds
to her impres
sive music
career with a
sophomore
Hi CD Review
Mya
Fear of Fly ing
if H
album that shows even more promise
than her first.
Each track, made through collabora
tions with some of the top producers
and emcees in the industry, shows
Mya’s growth as an individual and as an
artist. She co-wrote half of the songs on
the album.
Songs like “Case of the Ex” highlight
Mya’s stellar vocals with inventive key
boards and programming. Other songs
like “Pussycats” contain more jazzy
vocals coupled with a distinctive hip
hop beat.
Mellow acoustic guitar accompani-
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Dean and Gene Ween make a few changes to the Ween method on the band's seventh album, White Pepper.
Ween's tour makes a stop at The Ritz in Raleigh on May 20.
kinder, gentler Ween; maybe they just
laid off the hallucinogens a little.
For an additional change of pace, the
album features not only strings, but
horns and female backup singers, which
Dean and Gene say are “three very bad
signs for the future of Ween.”
And in another out-of-character
move, there’s hardly an expletive to be
found (nary a mention of the f-word).
But the risque beach tune “Bananas
and Blow” (think cocaine to Jimmy
Buffett’s margaritas) was still enough to
ment adds an unexpected flavor to the
album in “How You Gonna Tell Me”
and the title track.
Mya’s wide range of guest emcees on
the album add a little hip-hop flavor to
her distinctive R&B sound that domi
nates Fear of Flying.
Jadakiss steps in as guest emcee in
“The Best of Me,” a sassy track with a
subtle Spanish sound.
“Lie Detector” features reggae
favorite Beenie Man. The jungle beat
lends well to Beenie Man’s style, but
Producer Wyclef Jean creates no transi
tion from Mya’s soft vocals to Beenie’s
chorus.
The transition breaks the flow of the
track, but Jean rectifies the situation by
effectively blending the two sounds in
the following part of the song.
“Takin’ Me Over” contains a touch of
piano accompaniment in its mix. The
song’s cheerfiil, upbeat sound is remi
niscent of The Jackson Five era of
music, when everything was as easy as
“1-2-3."
Left Eye’s comical cameo lets her
outrageous personality shine through
and only adds to the humorous attitude
of the song.
From Intro to Outro, Mya’s sopho
more album discusses the relationships
she has dealt with in her transition to
womanhood.
Mya has had to work through some
earn a parental advisory sticker.
That song’s calypso beats are fol
lowed by a driving metal-punk song,
then a weird, atmospheric instrumental,
and then back to some ’7os-esque pop
rock. A logical progression, no?
Ween even reveals its soft underbel
ly with a few sweet, poppy love songs.
It’s hard to tell if they’re serious, though;
sappy lines like “In the morning sun I
couldn’t tell you/ I couldn’t tell you so
many things/ About how much I really
love you/ About how much you really
nHVy ms NJMW
Tb^tP'*
■M9HHHI wHBHHHH
Twenty-year-old R&B songstress Mya returns to the music scene with
her promising sophomore release, Fear of Flying.
rocky times coming of age in the spot
light, and Fear of Flying artfully demon
strates that she has gracefully conquered
those times and truly become a woman
■ i
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| Thursday * May 4, 2000 * I -spm • Ehringhaus Field 1
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1 tickets to tonight’s concert Human Velcro Wall
I ofThe Roots, sponsored by
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zoomculture.com
■ Carolina Union
; Copy- Center
: VB4 •
■ Spi tfmcy it lookup jo) fucndhi \ m-F: 8-1 am *
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Thursday, May 4, 20o<!
mean” border on mockery.
So this is the new Ween, mouths
washed out and ready for the masses.
You might even hear the poppy single
“Even If You Don’t” on the radio along
side Dave Matthew's and Sarah
McLachlan - it’s being marketed to the
Adult Album Alternative radio format.
I don’t think I see a Top 40 hit com
ing, but I’m sure that won’t phase Ween.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
with exceptional talent.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
7