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6 thursday, January 24,2008 ASG fails to ‘Win Us Over’ BY LUIS TORRES STAFF WAITER Wilmington, N.C., four-piece ASG (formerly All Systems Go) is at its best for exactly three minutes and four seconds of its fourth full length album, Win Us Over. That's how long opening track "Right Before Death’ lasts, estab lishing the false image of a band with a healthy grasp of alternative rock and metal. Over palm-muted guitar experi mentation that supplants a chorus, the band opens its album in regal fashion. Well-harmonized soaring vocaLs complete a track that is distinctive, energetic and entertaining. But the same can’t be said for the rest of Win Us Over, where .ASG gets into a rut of droning alt metal that sounds like a post-grun ge band such as Puddle of Mudd running out of ideas. Guitarist Jonah Cittv keeps things chugging at varying degrees of fast, opting for power chord jamming instead of technique or stvle. ‘U2 3D’ a stunning experience BY JORDAN LAWRENCE STAFF WRITER If there is one band in the world qualified to be presented in 3-D, it is U 2. No other band in the world is as outsizedly larger than life as the Irish foursome. So it makes good sense that the first ever live action digital 3-D movie, “U 2 3D,” finds Bono, The Edge and company preaching and posturing and rocking harder than any 40-year-olds should be capable of. The performances are constant ly entertaining, as Bono owns the four Latin American stadiums fea tured in the film in a way no other lead singer can. 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I 1/29 KEVN DEVINE/ DAVE EUCINS (MAE) fCofTborol v I Jealous Grtnends 3/16 DAVID WICOX" (S2O/523) HHS& I 3,6 SST™ 3/22 GREG BROWN w SarcMee I , I 3r 6owe 4 Jotno non (S2B S3C I I I ackers-($12) mnuUbUumn l 'P,-W\% gf I I mow 9Q—wftiMri fTTiitigm’i 3li Strike An\M*6efe 1 ■ 1/25 AtEN (sold out) SarrtJer; Coteeurr" (SIO sl2} I I 3/22 ITT MERRITT" 1 9HH|nß^&a| Woreicr! ® CD Ane, rCnopoiH*, Bon City Records (Durromi 1 Bwv ticket*on-tne a wwwe*n corr T r Tlj , 1 li , ‘ MmW For credßcardorden.ee* 919467-9063 piMMMRMMMMMBIpMMIMHRIH MUSIC REVIEW ASG WIN US OVER ALTERNATIVE METAL When Citty does stumble upon a good riff, such as on "Ballad of Richard K.,’ the band wisely choos es to forego vocals and let it stand alone as sort of a "Hey. look at what we can do” kind of thing. But the good riffs don’t come often enough, and his playing quickly gets tedious. Making matters worse, too many MO\/lt REVIEW U 2 3D court jester, the man. whether you gleefully accept him or outright despise him. is completely galva nizing in his political frolics, as portrayed in the film. When the band plays “Love and Peace or Else,’ it's hard not to stare in awe as he covers his eyes with a blindfold adorned with a Muslim crescent, a star of David and a cross. But the real star of “U 2 3D’ is the film technique of direc tors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington. Diversions of the songs sound all too similar, with vocalist Jason Shi singing his way through the album as though every track is a different verse to the same song. To ASG's credit, the band does pull off one gimmick song: "A Number to Murder Two' comes with a surprisingly adept acoustic guitar and mandolin arrangement that is hampered only by the fact that Shi sounds completely out of his element trying to sing over a bluegrass tune. There are a few other shots at variety, but does anyone really want to hear an alt-metal band attempt ing John Mayer-like slow jams (“Coffee Depression Sunshine’) or misguided stabs at screamo (’Dream Song’)? I didn't think so. ASG is known for having its music played as background music for snowboarding videos and “Viva La Bam.' A close listen to Win Us Over confirms that in the back ground is where it should stay. Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu Seamless and all-consuming, the movie is the closest anyone could get to the orgy of political spiritu ality that is a U 2 concert without actually being there. Tlie close-ups in gigantic IMAX, however, are a bit much. No one needs to be that well acquainted with The Edge’s stubble. And the sensory overload of pop-up words that pervade “The Fly" is likely to give the viewer an epileptic seizure. But when confronted by the powerful mass catharsis of the closing performance of “With or Without You," it’s hard to nitpick. Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu CALTROP: NO BLACK T-SHIRTS Caltrop's brand of rock music is thick, heavy and powerful. It’s loud and dynamic. The band even gets its name from a brutal weapon. But don’t call it metal. The Chapel Hill foursome is more likely to cite the blues or indie-rock bands as influences. Diversions Editor Bryan Reed caught up with the band to talk about music as a lifestyle, and how the bandfound its sound. Caltrop plays The Cave on Saturday with equally dynamic oldfriends. Fin Fang Foom. Diversions: a lot of people have compared Caltrop to Slint, at least in some respects. Did that have anything to do with choosing to record with Brian Paulson? Sam Taylor: No. But the fact that he recorded Slint sure as hell doesn't hurt. The fact that he recorded Slint or that we’ve ever had any comparison to them is less important than the fact that he’s got a kickass quality of sound and a lot of experience. Adam Nolton: I actually knew him from the Wilco stuff, so 1 had no idea that he'd recorded Spiderland and all that. I was prob ably a little more reticent than the rest of them, but he's awesome. Dive: So now it's just a matter of trying to find a label to help put it out. Sam: Well, you know, we spent a fair amount of money recording it, and we could self-release it, but our distribution would be limited to wherever we travel. So. ideally, someone with the infra structure in place to mass-produce and distribute it will do that for us. Dive: Now that you're out of the recording process. I’m just wondering where you see the touring going. Murat Dirlik: m say. just at the basic level. I'd love to tour Europe as a ragtag unit any time we got the chance. Touring the U.S. any long tour 1 think what we’d like to do is get on with some band that'd draw some quantity of people. 1 mean, if we make it town to town. I’m happy. Sam: We're stoked to tour and travel. We all live lives that allow for it. We all make it a priority. Murat: The band dictates our V ■ ~ llffl j| II •. 11 _L\+*~ j _ <:•- /v£" . il GUARANTEED OPEN UNTIL 4am DTH/BRYAN HEED The bearded legion that is Caltrop plays Saturday at The Cave. The mighty rock band will be flanked by Fin Fang Foom's dynamic indie rock. jobs. And its not that we're not gratified. 1 mean, we get tons of love in Chapel Hill. We want to spread this. We just want to be able to play more. Adam: its kind of like, if you listen to other bands, like Modest Mouse, their first few albums are kind of like (grumbles), but then they hit a stride, and I'm not com paring us to them because we sound nothing like them, but the point being. I feel like as a collective, we've all wexidshedded and like, sat in our houses learning what we want to do, and now we’re doing it. Murat: Did you say “wood shed?" Adam: It’s an old blues term. You sit out in the woodshed to leam your licks. Murat: Man, I always thought it meant you were getting taken out to get spanked (Laughs). Adam: No, it's like you're so horrible, your parents are like, “Man. you gotta go learn to play gui tar in the woodshed. I can't stand to hear that s~t." And then you kinda get your sound. Dive: It’s interesting to hear a band so frequently called metal reference a lot of indie-rock bands and the blues. Murat: 1 think we could refer ence just about anything better than metal. We have divergent tastes. Sam: “Metal” is a little bit of a misplaced catchall phrase for us. Just because we’re loud as f—k and we can play some riffs I lis ten to some metal bands with the iV O*T^ >?„ y*r j Cosraicl * Cantinas ■■ £>'" ee 49^ Healthy Mexl Always fresh, juicy, big und isealthy. MEnU SAMPLING: old school veggie burrita $2.06 chicken burrita $5.15 quesadilla. $2.06 chicken quesadilla. $4.12 maizena salad $5.15 veggie chimL $4.12 ...and more plus... all mexican beers $3.09 CHAPEL HILL: 960-3955 right across the street from the varsity theatre at 128 franklin street [at the end of the hallj DURHAM: 286-1875 on 9th street awl perry street [across from brueggersl JEhr Baily Car Hrrl double kick drum and the licks and the speed Adam: And it's hateful. Its all so angry. Sam: And they kick our ass at that. 1 used to love bands like that. Adam: Reign In Blood, dude. Sam: Yeah. It kicked ass. Its high intensity' and power. But we like to supplement that. Murat: It s kind of an instinc tive direction we’ve gone. We’ve always sort of tended toward heavi er driving and dynamics. I think there’s more to it. Adam: It's kind of like when we played that metalfest in Athens. We were probably the loudest band there, in the decibel sense, but man. we were the only guys without black T-shirts on. Literally, the only ones Sam: We just get psyched and get into it. Volumes a wonderful thing. You feel if It’s self-indulgent but it’s fun. Murat: We re trying to write the soundtrack to the world, as we see it. I’m sure some of what comes out in that sounds like metal. Dive: Is there anything else you wanna say to get people to come out on Saturday? Adam: Come give it a shot if you feel like it. Murat: Don’t get shot?! Adam: (Laughs) Don’t get shot if you feel like it Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.-
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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