DTH Omnibus Page 5
Thursday November 29, 1990
" " 1
miracle
and it's almost Christmas
Miracle Lesion
Friday, November 30, 6 p.m. and
10 p.m.
Cat's Cradle
Tickets: $12
Y -T ou doh't need to tell Caro
f Una students what time of
year it is; everyone with two
I I finals on the same day can
Li tell you exactly how many
days there are until Christmas. It's
the time for miracles, and you can
believe that few students are praying
for white Christmases.
Friday night will be time for a
different kind of miracle: Miracle
Legion, at the Cat's Cradle. Their
current tour is the appropriately titled
"It's Almost Christmas Tour," and for
those students with school blues
they'll probably even play "Blue
Christmas" if you ask nice and have
been really good this year.
Their new album this tour sup
ports ... ? Love to tell you about it.
Problem is, it doesn't exist. As
frontman Mark Mulcahy puts it,
there's really no reason for a tour
except "the spirit of giving." Says
drummer Spot, "We have a bunch of
lights, a big Santa Claus, silk toy
soldiers, snow and a few Christmas
songs that we like to drag around with
us this time of year." When asked to
supply a sample of their current work,
Mulcahy sent a 45 of "The Little
Drummer Boy" and the aforemen
tioned "Blue Christmas." You get an
idea of just how serious these guys are
in comparison to your run-of-the-mill
roclc bfind"
Formed in the early '80s, Miracle
Amanda Graves
(Gotfitct
Sffll
Leeion broke ground as a quartet in
. . . ...11 1 J An. -
1984 with a critically acciauucu uc
but, "The Backyard." Strangely, they
managed to do so witnouc even v
ing to Athens, Ga. -
They did, however, procure a label
as R.E.M. clones, one they don't par
ticularly agree with, but don't shun
either. As one band member put it,
"It's better than being compared to
Bauhaus." Regardless, after signing
with Rough Trade and releasing an
other LP, Surprise Surprise Surprise, and
an EP, Glad, the future appeared to be
fairly rosy for the Connecticut-based
Unfortunately, and perhaps befit
ting the acknowledged intellectual
character of the band, it was about
that time that two members decided
being rock musicians wasn't a satis
fying lifestyle. But unlike many bands
so bereft, Miracle Legion chose not to
throw in the towel.
Stripped to half the original lineup,
Mulcahy and guitaristinstrumental
ist Ray Neal, they went back to the
studios (Prince's Paisley Park) to
record their best work to date, 1989's
Me And Mr. Ray, and subsequently
launched into a tour with Iceland's
Sugarcubes, somehow managing to
create a viable, if somewhat sedated,
"rock" show with the single
voice and acoustic guitar setting
mmnr to folk music.
Sometime in the last year.
Miracle Legion expanded
once again, adding a bassist,
. i
" '
i
Dave McCaffrey, and drummer
"Spot." Adding people, according to
Neal, gives more flexibility and gen
erally "allows you (the band) to do
more things." The current "It's Al
most Christmas" tour (the fifth of its
kind) is somewhat shorter than usual,
comprising only fourteen shows in
two weeks. Although, as previously
mentioned, there is no new album as
yet, Miracle Legion does have about
twenty new songs, some of which
they will showcase during Friday's
performance, and plan to record soon.
On stage, Miracle Legion exudes
energy, but does so, in keeping with
their contradictory nature, in a strik
ingly sedate manner, due in large part
MiraHp i pnion in the bright lights
IVIll U VI v w-
to Mulcahy's stage presence,
reminescent of a two-year-old in a
china shop who's been told not to
touch anything. Clearly, performing
his music works him into a frenzy
which rivals that of any performer,
but, much like Joe Cocker with his
wild arm gyrations, Mulcahy's release
is limited to almost gnomelike
bouncings around and up and over
the stage (and anywhere else he deems
suitable). , ;
Neal, on the other hand, rarely
moves far from his spot on stage, gy
rating his torso while grinding
out guitar work and working
up one hell of a sweat in
the process. There are no
"rock star" poses here, and little of
what one might even call dancing.
Friday night's show is a great op
portunity to get a break from the
pressures of exams, projects and other
school stuff. As guitarist Neal says, it:
will be "fun but serious, serious fun."
At last year's Cradle appearance,
Mulcahy promised there would be a
party afterwards, inviting everyone in
the crowd but seemingly never saying
where it would be. Who knows, maybe
this time he'll even provide that in
formation. Do you want to take the
chance of missing that?
And, to quote Spot, at worst "it
beats going out and fighting the shop-
ping crowds.
reigns
Nyle Frank
Friday, November 30, 8:30 p.m.
Skylight Exchange
For ticket infomation call 933-5550
p v elieve it or not, there was a
0 local music scene of sorts be
gm fore the invasion of post
U J punk and jangle-pop spinoffs.
Amid the restlessness of the
70s, during the protests and political
discontent, a young songwritersinger
piano playerentertainer emerged as a
campus cult figure. His name wasNyle
Frank and he was king king of the
invisible universe.
You see, King Nyle thrust himself
into the campus hotbed as a enter
tainer who quenched the campus fires
with a healthy dose of collegiate
parody and funny songs.
As a graduate student in political
science at UNC-CH, Frank, perhaps
a bit disatisfied with his relationship
with the political science department,
began to create his own university,
the Invisible University of North
Carolina. The new "University' was
Charles Marshall
sort of parody on the traditional
llege mentality, offering satirical
courses and sporting its own invisible
intramural league.
And, in late 1970, Frank crowned
himself "invisible ruler of the uni
verse" in a ceremony complete with a
performance of some of his tunes on a
piano in the Pit. Attended by thou
sands, the ceremony seemed to give
the students a refreshing dose of hi
larity. The political science department
must not have taken the events as
lightly as Nyle had probably intended
them to. Philosphical differences
caused the two to split. Nyle struck
out on his own.
But lightening the spirits of the
campus with his quick wit and enter
taining skills was only a small part of
his career as a musician.
Shortly afterward, Frank abdicated
his throne and his image as "king," in
1 an effort to boost his reputation as a
serious and talented performer.
And Frank is talented. An ex
hilarating pianist, a quality writer of
heart-felt songs, and a crisp, witty,
and charming vocalist, Frank pos
sesses a diversity that places him in a
musical element of his own. He
doesn't write songs for the moment,
based on trends and current cliches.
Instead, he writes songs for a lifetime,
about people, places, and things.
Despite his being his own personal
visionary, the "lifetime" idea for his
songs is no doubt folk-oriented. But
Frank, in line with his collegiate
parodies, doesn't follow the folksters
into "cause" songs and political
rhetoric. Instead, his songs are closer
to snapshots of a storybook.
This style looks more toward the
piano pop giants who followed him,
like Elton John and Dan Fogleberg.
In fact, Frank's picturesque, grassroots,
homestyle ballads are snugged loosely
in the semi-generation gap between
traditions set by Bob Dylan and James
Taylor, without really boasting rela
tion to either. But Frank's classical
pop ballads (that's the best way to
describe them) show that most of his
1 work - comes from within his- own
classical roots.
"Old Piano," capturing the life of a
piano player, creates the famed teary
eyed effect, not through sadness, but
through vividness. Frank can sit the
listener in the window out of which
he looks, in the fields through which
he roams, or in front of the scapbook
through which he browses. "Iowa
city," and "northern plains" do this as
well as any of the tracks on Frank's
collection of songs titled Comin'
Round Again.
Frank's new home in Nashville,
Tenn., has kept him nearer to the
musical environment and studios he's
recently desired tor his songwriung.
On the cassette, he thanks the weekly
meetings with the Nashville
Songwriters Association, Interna
tional and loads of friends for their
support, displaying the same creativ
ity and care he put into the songs.
Frank's Theme From Hickory Hot
low is a compilation of piano classics.
Playing brilliantly, he floats through
melodies with a remarkable, ethereal
style. He sounds strikingly like super
star George Winston he plays fa
vorites like "send in the clowns" and
"i'll have to say i love you in a song."
J
it f u4
Nvle Frank
These songs show Frank's unique
craftmanship, pooling different types
of folk, pop and pure piano into a
single classical pop style.
Frank has been gracing the Tri
angle again, rejuvenating his music
and his image classical satirist,
skilled pianist and a generational pop
hero who can write a ballad or tell a
story as well as anyone.
You weren't old enough to see him
before, so go see what you were
missing-.:- -'