Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 12, 2004, edition 1 / Page 7
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
aljp lattg (Ear UtM DIVE SCOMMENDS Mineral, The Power of Failing Pure catharsis. The Power of Failing is one of the most dynamic, emotionally wrought records of all time. Guitars alternate between harsh squealing and hushed chord ing. Drums plod, gallop, then plod again. And all the while, Chris Simpson’s syrupy vocals drench the lulling tryst. “Parking Lot” might have been an underground hit, but “Take the Picture Now” is the standout —a three minute exercise in personi fying beauty. “SuperstarietAD.” Here it is: the apocalypse has come, and in the fallout, men have de-evolved into Neanderthals. Meanwhile, in the city of Femphis, women have arranged themselves into cults cen tering around hair color and pom. Yes, pOrn. Sure, like most Troma-associat ed films, “Superstarlet A.D.” might boast a rather outlandish plot. But the oversexed romp is, at the very least, an enjoyable burlesque voy age into nonsense and hilarity. John Mayer, Any Piece of Crap The Tool Ever Wrote In appreciat ing music, it’s important to know the enemy. As exhausting an endeavor as it might be, to truly love the great stuff, you have to have a proper grasp on what it is that makes the trash so damn horrible. And Mayer is the worst, really. Artistically bankrupt, his polite acoustic ditties scrape the very bottom of the emotional barrel. Mayer’s songs are transparent the dreadful distillation of all things that lie in the heart of the mundane, polished, generic and derivative junk that makes its way across the badlands of pop radio. Contact Robbie Mackey at robmac@email.unc.edu. HELP WANTED! Women between the ages of 14 and 24 wanted to participate in an Emergency Contraception Research Study. Participants must be sexually active and not be pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant within the next year. Participants will need to visit the Planned Parenthood clinic in Chapel Hill or Durham 3 times in the next year. Enrolled women will receive compensation in the form of cash, vouchers for Planned Parenthood services, and gift certificates. For more information, call Jessica or Rebecca at 919-286-1770. P Planned Parenthood® Whether you're picking up your girlfriend, your best friend, or a pizza... jps" -4jjj§ ■, i Sr WSgSF jjgf WF Dating on the Hill The Daily. Tar Heel's 1 Valentines Day Issue Pick it up in today's paper! THf( AkIHIM WHIATKf. NmROHDIN.RV. Tj\DYsi\/fn>r Black lyjAjyißAzq World Music legends with a powerful message! COMING SOON! Retrofantasma Film series: March 20 & April ZB Lambchop shake and bake on dual LPs BY KEMP BALDWIN STAFF WRITER Sweepingly cinematic, yet decidedly for the art-house crowd, Lambchop’s new LP Aw C’mon wanders through a sonic narra tive. Although labeled alt-country, probably due to its Nashville origins, Lambchop is genre-evasive. Here the band has assembled fearlessly an album comfortably lying in a mixture of soul, soft rock and country all backed by an orchestra —but it doesn’t sound direction less. Surprisingly, the genre shifting and inter mingling creates one of the most cohesive albums in a long time. The lyrics bounce through subject matter aimlessly without clear direction, which is odd for such a tightly wrought album. And only through form does Aw C’mon find what sounds like a melancholy love story —with its manic highs and depressed lows swept away in strings and unorthodox vocals. But maybe this is because Lambchop isn’t telling normal stories but drawing connec tions to a series of vignettes creating a larg er picture of life. Either way, Aw C’mon is a pop oddity moving in musical motifs rather than lyrical progression of the formulaic three-and-a half minute song that works along the patchwork line of verse-chorus-verse. Kurt Wagner writes lyrics that rarely rhyme and have stanzas instead of verses and chorus es. The lack of lyrical conventionality is never STARBYSTEM ★ POOR ★★ FAIR ★★★ GOOD **** EXCELLENT ***** CLASSIC Diversions MUSIC REVIEW LAMBCHOP AW CMON disturbing. The tightly composed songs and tactful placement of playfully mirthful instrumentals, such as “Being Tyler,” float you through Wagner’s digressions. Musicality is of utmost import to the album. Lambchop treats instrumentation the way The Beach Boys would have if Van Morrison was sitting in on Pet Sounds. The product is happier Nick Drake-esque melody lines with a delicate orchestra har monizing. Added to more than half of the 12 songs is Wagner’s mellow crooning. Somewhere between Johnny Cash and Solomon Burke, Wagner’s voice chimes in sounding like a Cat Stevens that converted to a hybrid form of Motown rather than a sect of Islam. It ends like most epic films flawed. But this should not discredit the group’s near masterful achievement. The last songs just don’t advance the nar rative swing. They’re decent, over-written songs, not mediocre, but they don’t have the same cap tivating sonic rise and fall of the previous 10 tracks. Lambchop tries to say too much when the music already has told us. Contact the AdE Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu. /The ( Princeton v —Review / BETTER SCORES. BETTER SCHOOLS. 800-zREVIEW www.princetonreview.com Hot date or not, we’ve got you covered! Deadbolt locks, private bathrooms, and high speed internet in every bedroom. NOW PRE-LEASING ,T TIAr/DA VISIT OUR CLUBHOUSE FOR 2004-2005 tile l/Cl CIC 5110 ° LD CHAPEL HILL ROAD 18 & OLDER CAN LEASE _ 919-419-0440 (C) MANAGED BY UHG/ABBEY /L WWW.VERGEAPARTMENTS.COM llflrrl wl rl' 111 % IIAY ■ ini i wnsiißii i m&wv vni BY JACKIE RANDELL STAFF WRITER No, You C’mon is the latter of Lambchop’s recent release of two LPs and is in dialogue with Aw C’mon. Releasing two albums as extensions of one another has been in vogue lately. Ryan Adams released the EPs Love is Hell and Love is Hell, Pt. 2 in quick succession, and we’re still awaiting Want Two from Rufus Wainwright in response to Want One. But don’t take No, You C’mon’ s retaliato ry status as indicative of an afterthought album made with the intention of preserv ing Lambchop’s leftovers. Disc two of the band’s double release embodies all its eclectic musical inclinations without apologies. It’s been dubbed alternative country, chamber pop and indie rock, but Lambchop ducks all labeling. It’s a cocktail of genres, highlighted by vocal narratives, instrumental tracks that are reminiscent of lounge music and orches tral backdrops. As the band hails from Nashville, Tenn., some undoubtedly country music influences are present, but the rotating cast of mem bers ensures that it remains a fusion of musical styles. The vocals, mainly by George Woods, are a blend of lan Curtis and Barry White, which is fitting because Woods was a mem ber of a soul ftmk band in Nashville before he contributed to No, You C’mon. “Shang a Dang Dang” is the most appar ent throwback to the soul funk era, undeni HOT DATE FOR VALENTINES DAY? HOPE YOU GET LUCKY!!! THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2004 MUSICS VIEW LAMBCHOP NO, YOU CMON ably influenced by the likes of Parliament. Woods’ sultry rumble oddly accompanies some of the lyrics, such as in the irony-sat urated track “The Problem." “When the chimp on the tree/ Shakes his fist at me/ You know I love it/ Cause it means that much to me/ And my nuts knows it’s not/ In a bid to reach the top.” Other tracks lack lyrics entirely. “Sunrise” is an instrumental track something you’d expect to hear as the musical accompani ment to one of the cheesy disco scenes in “Boogie Nights.” Suffice it to say that the tracks less geared toward elevator entertainment are the album’s stronger points. This album is perfect for those times when you’re feeling pretentiously open to all music genres great background music for intellectual musings over your favorite latte. If you can appreciate an eccentric sound, lacking any of the conventions that make pop music catchy, you’ll enjoy No, You C’mon. To a discerning listener well-versed in the indie rock scene, this Lambchop is well done. Contact the ACSE Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu. 7
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 12, 2004, edition 1
7
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75