Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 17, 1987, edition 1 / Page 17
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The Daily Tar HeelThursday, September 17 , 19877 v order Radio" soundtrack contains various tunes By ALISON P. HOWARD Special to the DTH Say you're driving along the Mexican-US. border, and say you're listening to the radio. Well, chances are that you're listening to some border radio stations broadcasting out of Tijuana or some other Mexican city, without FCC regulations. . Say you're not wandering around the south of Arizona. Texas. New Mexico or California, and say you're not driving around the north of Mexico. Well, chances are that you're not listening to border radio. Until now. Now "Border Radio" is a movie complete with a stunning soundtrack. Dave Alvin is at the center of the music but many other LA luminaries join him. They include: former fellow Blasters. Bill Bateman and John Bazz: Chris D. of the Divine Horsemen; John Doe and D J. Bonebrake of X; The Tonys; The Lazy Cowgirls; Green on Red: and David Hidalgo and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (I figure that makes them Dos Lobos). The album opens with the Tonys doing a song Dave Alvin wrote (and one that he performs on his new LP. "Romeo's Escape"), called "Border Radio." It's a cowpoke-y definition of border radio ("Fifty-thousand watts out of Mexico, this is the border radio"). Then the soundtrack moves into one of many instrumentals. all great. "La Frontera I" and "La Frontera ll" are hauntingly eerie guitar pieces. The same is true for "Burning Guitar." a song that con jures up visions of a drive down a desert highway at 4:30 in the morn ing, when only the jackrabbits and the coyotes are awake. "Mi Vida Loca (Acoustic)" is a lovely, lulling south of the border kind of tune. "Mi Vida Loca (Border Radio Theme)." another Alvin composition, carries on the Mexican influence with a Tex-Mex accordian bouncing alonq N ELLIOT ROAD at E. FRANKLIN 967-4737 $2.50 Tim KM UlUTTK.(tX.Uim) Duals QMMCka arida THI CIO EASV (R) 1:10 Sttt 7:11 M Uchartf DrcyfntEaQ btcws STAKXOVT(R) 1:45 S:Ci 7tH 9-.J9 ! Du&bf Jlmof Diary dan cma 3) ITT brings out the best in all of us. with a raw-sounding guitar. X's John Doe joins Alvin for "Little Honey," a much slower and more laid back version of a song that appeared on X's Ain't Love Grand. This one's a real country crooner. A twangy tears-in-beers-and-soggy-pretzels kind of ballad. "Cause you know I care, but what can I do? Sit here waiting by the side of the road, sit here waiting till you come home alone," and "I ain't looking for a fight little honey, are you going out tonight?" Really great. Away from the ballads and into the rougher stuff. The Lazy Cowgirls' "Drugs" is a manic, searing song off the debut from these Hoosier immi grants to Los Angeles. Green on Red got to LA by way of Tuscon. Arizona. Their contribution to the soundtrack is the heavy rocker "Sixteen Ways" from their album "GasFoodLodging." LA scenester Chris D. adds his raspy, mournful vocals with "Lily White Hands" from The Divine Horsemen's LP. "Time Stands Still." But say you're not in the South west at all. Say you're in the Nor theast. This little cross-country excursion will take you to Rhode Island and the Rhode Island School of Design where Pianosaurus formed in 1981. "Groovy Neighorhood" is their debut album. What's groovy in this neighborhood is that they all use toy instruments and nothing but toy instruments a plastic Carnival Deluxe Western guitar and Pop-Rock amplifier, a 25-key Schoenhut toy piano and a couple of toy drum sets (Smurfs or Fraggle Rock, of course). The fun begins with "Thriftshop pin," an uptempo ode to thrift stores. "Thriftshoppin" is sweeping the nation. Everybody get hip to the shopping sensation. I've got a friend who doesn't wash his clothes; when they get dirty he goes to the thrift store." Really the only thing that gives them away is Bianca Miller's tellingly plunky piano. Alex Garvin, the leader of the group (or is that leader of the club?), is a native of New York City, and he returns to Greenwich Village in "The Speakeasy Song." a folksy Village scene tune. On the import release of this album, the band covers The Box Tops' hit "The Letter." And on this release they do a light ode to their hero. Alex Chilton, in "Sun Will Follow." But it's on the rootsy pop rocker "Bubble Gum Music" that the band really tells all in a tribute to Saturday morning television, circa Josie and the Pussycats and pre-Pound Puppies. "When I was just a little boy I watched The 'B' Splits on TV." confesses Garvin. "Well, some people say that it's just junk, but I think that it's OK. Now I've grown up. I've got a band of my own. and this is what we play: bubble gum music." And. in a plaintive voice and a thoughtful mood Kermit would be proud of. there is "Cherry Street." Pianosaurus also recalls Petula Clark's 1965 classic, "Downtown," when they do "Going Downtown." "All I know is I'm going downtown where 1 don't get pushed around by social climbers who think they're hot stuff. Nothing's gonna stop this train, and nothing can stop me." Pianoasurus hits the rough edge with "Ready to Rock," a Berrv-esque Varsity "3l!extra late shows VcaST fHAwgiwQ'-Ztr 11:30 FBI. & SAT. rocker. This is what Jerry Lee Lewis "Dimples." would sound like on a 25-key toy Peter Holsapple, of the dBs, pro piano. They even cover Chuck Berry's duced the album to capture what he "Memphis." as raunchy as a toy guitar calls the "wall of toys" sound that can get. Then they hit the blues with is on "Groovy Neighorhood" and in a cover of John Lee Hooker's "Toys-R-Us." ItllPlIlllfWMl "ANMOfflFWG THRILLER that keeps you on the edge of your seal? -Marion Dodd, CKVU-TV, VANCOUVER r vtstory- APMOTPiniRE MOLLY RINGWALD ROBERTDOWNEY Tampopo a THI FIRST -V- -Jf& K)00l WESTERN V- fir J 2: 7:11 t-JS Tiling ft CM MfBffl ...has finally met his match PG-13 C1907 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX UaEJ FILM CORPORATION J I Mmik 7 wm ) 967-6247 "nVlVlV" Thurs. 17 tli GRAMMY AWARD WINNER Luther "GUITAR" Johnson CA.WETT NXWS SERMCE -Richard Frcedmaa. NEWHCK'SE NEWSPAPERS -Bruce Williamson. PLAYBOY "SENSATIONAL ONE OF MY FAVORITES THIS YEART Cent Siakcl. S1SKEL & EBERT A THE MOVIES 18th jumpin' johnny's blues party Sat. 19th ALL ABG PERMITS' 508 W. FRANKLINST. JEANAI FLORETTEl it - YVESMONTAND GERARD DEPARDIEU DANIEL AUTEUIL i A FILM BY CLAUDE BERRI i:CO 4.S5 7:C0 9:S5 CJ !J L UJJUUJ UU) UJ.IU I J.IA1AI J J0JJUJJJLUA1C It brings out the best in all of us. W3U H4iiikiP Xi 'M' 1' ' T - " i ill f mi "J jr nil jnwiu,, i R HHTRICTtB 3L& UMDEK 17 MOUMfS CC0KPIHIt rAMNT M ttUlT CUAMMi i: lp h i A Tftt-STM RELEASE : 0 1987 W-SOr Picms. he M RiaMs RturMt STATUS 7G:,lffiQ"J Of le aunt r iiu-JWMiiur .... 1
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 17, 1987, edition 1
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