Page 4 DTH Omnibus
Thursday April 12, 1990
MUSIC!
El Lay catches up with Beasties
VXYC
1. Bongwater
Too Much Sleep
2. Public Enemy
Fear of 3 Black Planet
3. Angels of Epistemology
7"
4. Naked City
Naked City
5. Bevis Frown
Any Gas Faster
6. Robyn Hitchcock
Eye
7. Muzsikas
Marta Sebestyen
8. MC 900 Foot Jesus
. Hell with the Lid off
9. Savage Republic
Customs
10. Nice Strongarm
Stress City
Rhythm & Blues
1. Quincy Jones
Back on the Block
2. Babyface
Tender Lover
3. Janet Jackson
Rhythm Nation 1814
4. Miki Howard
' Miki Howard
5. Troop
Attitude
6. After 7
4teV
7. Luther Vandross
The Best of Love
8. MC Hammer
Please Hammer Don't Hurt'em
9. Lisa Stansfield
Affection
10. Michel le
Michelle
Billboard
How to get your
name in Omnibus
O.K. Here's the scenario.
You're a local band or arts-and-entertainment-oriented
organization, and you've got
some showexhibitrevolution
ary activity that's just begging
for some free publicity, and you
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But, there is only one sure-fire
guideline you need to follow in
order to assure you get cov-
eredi
Give us TIME. We can't
possibly stress this enough, nor
can we count all of the instances
where people have called us up ;
the night before we went to ;
press with information on an :
event that's supposed to
happen that -weekend. For
i obvious reasons, that dog won't
hunt.
Please, please call us with
information at least two weeks
before the publication date of
the issue in which you want the
preview to appear. Our number
is 962-0245. Don't forget.
Everlast
Forever Everlasting
Rhyme Sundicate
OOO 12
Jasmine Hightower
AMbtt
r 1 t A
f"""'! orever everlasting, los nge
I 1 les rapper Everlast's debut LP,
ZU is pretty good. Itjhas strong,
I rhythmic beats on its dance
i-i tracks that keen the listener
r
moving. On the album's cover, there's
a picture of Everlast in the corner of
a boxing ring wearing Everlast box
ing attire (of course). This is only
fitting, considering the LP packs quite
a punch.
Everlast, who happens to be white,
is a native of L.A.'s San Fernando
Valley. He began rapping at the sug
gestion of a friend when he was at
the tender age of 17 his current
producer Bilal Bashir. Eventually
Everlast took some of his raps to
Rhyme Syndicate, a record company
owned by rapper Ice-T. (For those of
you who don't follow rap, Ice-T's big
hit was "Colors.")
On the Rhyme Syndicate Label,
Everlast recorded his first track,
"Syndication," on the label's 1988
Rhyme Syndicate Comin' Through
compilation. As a result of his work
on the compilation, the artist wrote
and recorded Forever Everlasting.
The best tunes on the album are
"I Got the Knack" and "The
Rhythm." Everlast's second single, "I
Got the Knack," is fast-paced and
makes the listener want to move. This
one even includes a riff from "My
Sharona." "The Rhythm" shines
because it has a jumpin' beat and
includes vocals from Ice-T himself.
The major flaw in Forever Ever
lasting is the ballad "On the Edge."
Maybe it's just me, but I have a prob
lem with rap ballads. The only half
way decent rap ballad ever recorded
is L.L. Cool J's "I Need Love" (and
to a
y
a " i
Everlast, not the first white rapper, but a fine lad nonetheless
even some of the verses in that one the Edge" and you like rap, you'll
were pretty bad). In fact, the words like Forever Everlas ting. Everlast sums
rap and ballad shouldn't even appear up the album best when he says, "The
in the same sentence ! music on some of the songs may sound
If you fast-forward through "On pop, but the raps are hardcore."
Drippy-sweet pop, and they would know
The latest sampling of sunny, saccharine,
California pop comes from a three-woman group
dubbed Wilson Phillips.
That name evokes a bit of musical history, as
Chynna Phillips is the daughter of John and
Michelle Phillips (as in the Mamas and the
Papas), while the father of Carnie and Wendy
Wilson is none other than Beach Boy Brian
Wilson. The three members grew up as close
friends in the musical atmosphere provided by
their parents. As Wendy Wilson recalls, "We've
always been close ... the blend just feels right."
About three years ago, Chynna chose music as
an outlet for working through a failed relation
ship, and the three decided to form a band.
On Wilson Phillips, the group surrounds itself
with skilled studio hands, including veteran pro
ducer Glenn Ballard. The result, like a Toto
Wilson Phillips
Wilson PhillipsSBK Records
record, is music lacking spontaneity or fire com
petent but uninteresting. To their credit, the women
do write much of their own material, unusual for
straight pop debuts these days. Unfortunately, Wilson
Phillips' vocal talent and any songwriting substance
is lost in a haze of slick G-105 synth pop catchy
but inconsequential.
When the formula does work, the group pulls off
the occasional gem. Like junk food for the ears,
"Hold On," the first single, is upbeat and catchy, a
stylish piece of California techno-pop. "Ooh You're
Gold" is a ready-made, junior-high dance party in a
four-minute package, with a good mix of acoustic
guitar and the inescapable keyboards.
The Bangles-ish "Impulsive" and the bouncy
"Over and Over" should also win the group some
admirers. But even on the best tracks, the sound is
overproduced and misdirected. The spacious sheen
of sound is calculated to sell based on the group's
good looks alone.
Too much steeped in the synth pop tradition,
Wilson Phillips will not infringe on the reputa
tions of the members' legendary parents. The group's
eponymous effort lacks the danceability of Paula
Abdul, the sophistication of Kate Bush, or the
lyrical power of Tracy Chapman. There is genuine
talent here, but it is not allowed to show through.
While this album will assuredly grace the sound
systems of many beach-bound vehicles, any glim
mers of musical substance are hidden by a steel cur
tain of overproduction. Brian Springer
Work! Hunh! Girl! No!7 A message of love
Lock Up
Something Bitchin' This Way Comes
Geffen
OOO 12
Lock Up claims to be a group
mixing heavy metal, soul and hip
hop something many bands would
like to achieve. But on Something
Bitchin' This Way Comes, while they
maintain the heavy-metal end of the
quotient, Lock Up can't pull in the
rest of the equation, lest they sound
like "toy soldiers making love in an
elevator."
The group is an ethnic mix, at
tempting to draw strength from their
variety of backgrounds, which makes
them look like Living-Color-meets-Sebastian-the-Crab.
Believe me;
THEY'RE NOT. Lock Up has more
of a Bon-Jovi-meets-Iron-Maiden
style, with a dash of Madonna's "Pray
For Spanish Eyes" and "Oh Father"
blended in for spicy lyrics.
At its best, Lock Up is an OK
rock band. At its worst, it's speed
metal that isn't even good enough to
have backwards messages waiting to
be played. Guitars screech. Bass gui
tars boom-pa-da-boom. Drums are
given the aerobic workout of their
lives. But for. what? Shakespeare was
right about "sound and fury, signify
ing (pretty much) nothing."
Lock Up would also like the lis
tener to believe that every song has
some amazing social message in
volved. Ah, no. If one can actually
comprehend the lyrics in most of the
songs on Something Bitchin', they find
little more than "Work! Hunh! Girl!
No!" involved in the writing.
Take, for example, "24 Hour Man,"
a somewhat monotonous little ditty.
The bass riff belongs on a 3-inch
loop of tape. The lyrics, apart from
the exceptionally brilliant splicing
in of "WORK!" every three seconds,
are pretty much gibberish. And the
"blistering" guitar riffs are somewhat
nonessential.
"24 Hour Man" is pretty much
representative of Something Bitchin's
general aura of: "Hey, dude, we're
from the streets and we can screech
our guitars louder than Skid Row!!"
So why does Something Bitchin' de
serve any notice?
There's an exception.
It's called "Don't Wanna Talk
About It."
Truly the shining point of Lock
Up's repertoire, "Don't Wanna Talk
About It" features intense, heartfelt,
DISCERNABLE lyrics, guitar riffs
that are not simply thrown in for the
hell of it and the occasional pepper
ing in of a standard drum beat.
"Don't Wanna Talk About It" was
written by a band member, one of
whose friends was suicidal. Another
was dying of AIDS. So this young
man, feeling caught in the middle,
wrote "Don't Wanna" in order to
clarify a point: Life will come. Life
will go. We must not waste life, lest
we not live it to the fullest and lose
an important, unique opportunity that
can never be recaptured.
It's a beautiful song and a good
(great?) concept. But what about the
rest of the album? Why can Lock Up
can perform a musical masterpiece,
and then a piece of trash immedi
ately afterwards?
In a world where Aerosmith ex
ists symbiotically with Martika, any
thing is possible. Beverley White