Page 8 DTH Omnibus
Thursday April 12, 1990
DTH Omnibus Page 9
Thursday April 12, 1990
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Rave-Ups rave about
By Amanda Graves
Stqffwmer
oing the best that I can,"
D lyrics from the Rave-Ups'
opening song at the Cat's
Cradle Monday night, aptly
described the evening.
The show opened with the The
Chickasaw Mud Puppies, and the first
thing apparent about this Athens, Ga.,
group was its unusual stage set-up. Props
for the show consisted of four harmoni
cas, a washboard with bells attached, a
stick with bells attached, and a rock
ing chair on a raised wooden platform
where the lead singer sat and pounded
out a pseudo-bass-drum beat with his
metal-reinforced hiking boots.
It's almost hard to believe how much
noise the two people in the group cre
ated. Looking something like a moon
shiner who just descended from his
mountain, the lead singer stomped out
time while rocking, singing and play
ing harmonica. Meanwhile, the guitar
player did his part in creating some of
the loudest, most raucous rock'n'roll
the Cradle has seen in a while. In all, it
made for a foot-stompin' good time.
As soon as the Rave-Ups took the
stage it was apparent that all was not
well at least, lead singer Jimmer
Podrasky wasn't. The opening song,
"The Best That I Can," was appropri
ate enough given that Podrasky and
two of the other three members of the
group were sick with the flu. But re
gardless of their illnesses, the Rave
Ups presented a one-and-a-half-hour
show which spanned material from four
releases and was adamantly received
by an enthusiastic, if somewhat smaller
than expected, audience.
It was clear that Podrasky was in
bad shape, but bassist Tom Blatnik and
lead guitarist Terry Wilson were deter
mined to have fun, jokingly assuming
"rock star" poses for the crowd. Songs
that struck a chord with the audience
included "Class Tramp" and "My
Gremlin" from Town and Country and
"If It Was (A Matter Of Mind)" and
"She Says, Come Around" from
Fresh from the
release of their
major-label debut
LP, 'Procedure, '
Raleigh's
blackgirls
bring their unique
soundto Cat's
Cradle tonight at
Chance.
Throughout the show, Podrasky and
his fellow bandmates joked openly with
the crowd about their condition, threat
ening to leave the flu in Chapel Hill, if
nothing else. Given the response of
the audience to the music and the ver
bal battery, it's likely that the Rave
Ups won more than a few new fans
with this performance.
Before the show Monday, Wilson
and Blatnik presented the following
thoughts regarding Chance and their
general progression in the music busi
ness: Q: Describe your current tour.
Tom Blatnik: Well, this is a six
week tour of "major markets" that will
most likely be extended after the last
day, which is May 10th. This is day
eight of the tour. We started in Phoe
nix, then Albequerque, Dallas, Austin,
Houston, Columbia, and now here (we)
are Chapel Hill. What they'll proba
bly do (after May 10th) is put us out
doing more headlining things or get us
an opening with someone.
Q: Have you considered touring
with a larger band?
Terry Wilson: We'd love to, but so
far we've been turned down by some of
the best.
TB: It's almost just as well, because
the record is doing really well, and
people will be coming to see us instead
of someone else.
Q: Do you have any plans for a
record going AOR instead of college
radio?
TB: Well, actually, "Respectfully
King of Rain" was shipped out to AOR
last week and this week, I think, is the
big reporting week. They're doing the
major push with it now, and out of
New York they are doing the really big
push. It looks like there is going to be a
follow up single on college radio and I
0 1
think that's going to be "She Says,
Come Around."
Q: Will the band stay with an al
tentative sound or go more main.'
stream?
TB: It's nice being alternative be
cause it's a little smarter than some of
the more mainstream stuff. But ulti
mately, you want people to hear your
music. If you are just on college sta
tions, there's only a certain group of
people that are going to hear it. So
yeah, I mean, we'd like to be a house
hold word.
TW: You want to do it all. You
want to appeal at the college level but
also you want to appeal across the
boards into mainstream.
TB: There's no reason why you can't
do what you want and not compro
mise yourself.
TW: The biggest problem is col
lege radio types give up on you after
you start doing anything that might
not be cool in their books, and I think
that's snobbish.
Q: Has touring been what you ex
pected? TB: It's actually kind of going over
my expectations.
TW: It's amazing to note how many
people know all the words to all the
songs. It's one thing to play something
from Town and Country and see people
singing "You lost a lot when you lost
me ... ," it's another to see people sing
ing "Respectfully King of Rain" or "If
It Was a Matter of Mind."
TB: Last time we played in this
area we played in Raleigh. We had a
great show at the Brewery it was
small, hot, sweaty, and the people were
fabulous. I'm hoping tonight will be
the same here in Chapel Hill.
Q: Do you have any future predic'
turns?
TB: Gold records, number-one hits,
major merchandising ...
TW: and the Dodgers will win this
year...
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When the Chills (above)
From intense punk to hardcore
fIREHOSE
Cat's Cradle
Monday, April 16
II hen fIREHOSE plays for
i 1 1 fans at the Cat's Cradle
Ifi Monday, you can expect
I to see a band about as un-
I orthodox as they come.
From their reverse-capitalization
spelling to their "fast break" style jam
sessions, the L.A. trio runs the gamut
of intense punk and hardcore tunes .;.
and then some. As for tradition, fIRE
HOSE has none. Their music is unde
finable and quite chaotic. But their
latest album, ifn, has been categorized
as having more personal and direct
intentions behind the songs, while still
maintaining a restless punk fever in
Mike Watt's bass lines and George
Hurley's ragged, tough, drum licks.
The band's formation, like its mu
sic, has been considered a haphazard
accident. Watt and Hurley made up 2
3 of California's hardcorepunk icons,
The Minutemen, who were noted for
their simplistic musical minimalism.
The Minutemeri (so narried for their
heat up the Cradle Saturday night, they'll
Charles Marshall
short songs) established no boundaries
in their music, constantly mixing lead
and rhythm sections into frenzied, un
styled and untextured electric a la carte
servings. They substituted their instinc
tive, unpredictable punksound for their
lack of basic musical knowledge.
But in 1985, after touring as part of
R.E.M's Reconstruction of the Fables
tour, the Minutemen's lead man, D.
Boon, was killed in a van accident. For
the remaining two isolated musicians,
music was dead. There wouldn't be
another band for them until an ambi
tious, but inexperienced, youngster
named Ed Crawford left his Ohio home
to try to form a new band with the ex
Minutemen. It wasn't his musical abil
ity that won them over, but his unique
enthusiasm. It would still take time for
Crawford to feel confident and sea
soned on the guitar.
flREHOSE's debut, Ragin' Full On,
reinforced Watt's and Hurley's furious
outpourings of complicated, disparag
ing bass and percussion, adding
have Boston's Blake Babies along to help
Crawford's (now re-named fRO
MOHIO) simple and brisk guitars and
his steady but searching vocals. Their
newest album, ifn, marks the emer
gence of a more confident and stable
performance by fROMOHIO. His
voice stays in a more narrow and ap
propriate range, and he supplies simple
but more timely patterns in contrast
to the incessant thunderings of Watt
and Hurley. Though Crawford's per
formance is more directed and sub
stance oriented, if n retains the band's
non-linear lyrics and lack of any sort
of musical clarity.
Watt is more of a spectacle than
traditional bass players normally are.
He is an avid basketball fan who wor
ships L.A. Laker James Worthy. He
likes music the way he likes basket
ball fast and furious. Unlike the
Minutemen, who often performed
twisted versions of their favorite cov
ers, fIREHOSE has little interest in
covers, opting for a more individualis
tic attitude toward developing a char
acter and a statement distinctly its
own.
Monday night, fIREHOSE will be
contained in the misty and mythical
room in the Cradle where the energy
can escape only into the crowd.
get the crowd started
tunes, they'll run the gamut
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fIREHOSE, a band
Band of
The Chills
Submarine Bells
SlashWarner Bros.
OOOO
Cat's Cradle
Saturday, April 14
lthough the Chills have
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appeared at the New York
City New Music Seminar. Since then,
this New Zealand pop band has earned
its place on the American music scene
with its albums Brave Words and Kalei
descope World and with its latest LP,
Submarine Bells.
The Chills are best described as a
blend of technopop (no sampling), al
ternative (very smooth, no edges) and
folk (good lyrics, no twang). For those
who find pop hard to swallow, the
group's music has smoothed edges and
a special coating to help it go down
easy. From the interwoven lyrics to
the seamless flow of music, the Chills
are hypnotizing. The Omnibus WXYC
Top Ten describes diem as "perfect
pop: neither airy and derivative, nor
sappy or trite."
Had the Chills been well-known
prior to 1987, it would have been hard
to keep up with them in ten years
the group has had ten line-ups. The
from I0S aKGELES, will be in cHAPEL h!LL
many members
Amanda Graves
original Chills consisted of Martin Phil
lipps the only original member still
with the group his sister Rachel,
and Jane Dodd, later of the Verlaines.
This line-up cut the 1982 release
Dunedin Double and broke up.
Phillipps continued the group, add
ing member after member over the next
few years. During this time they re
leased several new singles "Rolling
Moon" (1982), "Pink Frost" and "Dol
drums' 1984) and the six-song 12"
The Lost EP( 1985).
In 1985, the Chills attempted to
put aside their membership-problems
and went on a debut tour of the U.K.
The tour was a success, but it wasn't
enough to keep the band together. The
group's final single that year, "I Love
My Leather Jacket," hit number 5 on
the New Zealand charts, but without a
band to tour, the group couldn't reap
the benefits of the song's success. Ka
leidescope World, which came out in
1986, was the last LP of this cast's
singles.
Phillipps spent the remainder of
1986 piecing together the band's tenth
line-up. Caroline Easther, a former
member of the Verlaines and a long
time friend of Phillipps, was chosen to
play drums. Classically-trained pianist
Andrew Todd was selected from clas
sified ads to play keyboards and Justin
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on mONOAY
Harwood was tapped for bass.
In 1987, they recorded the LP Brave
Words and the non-LP single, "House
Of A Hundred Rooms." Unfortunately,
trouble struck the group again Caro
line Easther was forced to leave, due to
tinitus (acute ringing in the ear).
The group interviewed 25 drum
mers before finding a replacement for
Easther 1 7-year-old James Stephen
son, who joined only three weeks be
fore the tour that brought them to
New York, Los Angeles, and stops in
between. It was this tour that attracted
the attention of SlashWarner Broth
ers Records, which later signed the
group.
The band spent most of 1989 writ
ing and rehearsing in London, work
ing with producer Gary Smith (Pixies,
Throwing Muses), laying down tracks
for Submarine Bells. This LP, their first
on a major label, is similar to their
early albums, but with a few changes.
In a word, Submarine Bells is smooth.
If angered, Martin Phillips would still
coo. The tracks "Familiarity Breeds
Contempt" and "The Oncoming Day"
exemplify this. The tempo is more up
beat and the lyrics imply strong feel
ings but, as with the rest of the album,
Phillipps' vocals "chill" the flames.
Phillips says, "The theme in all my
songs are very real, I don't want to fake
it. The audience sees the Chills as ex
periencing real emotion." Emotion or
not, the Chills' Cat's Cradle appear
ance on Saturday will no doubt be as
cool and smooth as a cherry slushie on
a hot summer day.
Cradle Update
Cat's Cradle patrons sweating at the
brow over the Cradle's imminent evic
tion from its West Franklin Street loca
tion can rest easy, at least 'till the end of
summer.
That's when the Chapef Hill
nightclub's latest six-month lease will
run out. Since the Cradle's relocation to
the old Southern Bell building at 206 W.
Franklin St., owner Frank Heath knew
the club's time there was limited. And
after plans for a multi-million dollar Pa
vilion on the same site were announced
last November, it didn't appear the Cradle
would see another summer there.
But according to Debbie Dibbert, co
chairwoman of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Downtown Commission, the Chapel Hill
Town Council probably won't vote on
the project until sometime this fall.
Heath said he hadn't been given any
word on when the project might be
started, but he did say he was assured a
sixty-day notice before he would have
to vacate the premises. "As far as I know,
they're the same place as they were a
year and a half ago."
What this means for Heath is that he
will simply have to wait and see if he's
offered another lease in August. Heath
said that although he had been looking
for another place, he hadn't found one
that was as suitable to the club's needs
as the present building. "As far it goes,
this is pretty well a perfect location and
size for a club, so I'm not going to leave
unless I'm sure it's (a new location)
reasonably likely to succeed."
--Thomas Hsaly