Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 6, 1992, edition 1 / Page 10
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page 4 DTH Omnibus Thursday February 6, 1992 ANilliS Layton and Alex square off Goo Goo Dolls Goo Goo Dolls Caroline Records oe is the state of punk. Those bands which roamed the earth a de cade agoare fossils ready to be made into petro leum by-products. The once mighty Ramones seem to tour only in Europe now, as no one here in the U.S. buys their tired albums. Mick Jones of the Clash, another punk legend, is like some other sad story of the I-used-to-be-cool club. Once he made frat clas sics like "Should I Stay or Should I Go," and now he drags his burnt-out carcass through B. A.D. II. Fortunately, punk is getting a transfusion of new talent which may even save the genre. The Goo Goo Dolls, with their re issued first album, resurrect the Punk sound of the early Replacements. The Goo Goo Dolls released their third album in 1990. It seems to have done well enough for the re-issue of their 1987 debut. Although the third al bum benefited from experience, this album is just as good. Goo Goo Dolls has the feeling of, in the immortal words of a 1 -900 number, "a non-stop party."There are distinct songs, but it is better to listen to this as a whole. The album boasts two covers: "Sun shine of Your Love," by Cream and "Don't Fear the Reaper," by Blue Oyster Cult. To get an idea of what the Goo Goo Dolls do to these songs, take the originals on a 33 13 record katbt bates and Jessica Tandt j mstpaw ""' 2430 7.930 urn siwit usrosn and hut una rum 2.4 30. 79:30 R wmmmmmw JUU ( C) - and play them at 78 rpms. The album also has what could pass for an an them, "Livin in a Hut." The lyric, "And when I get some money it's already been spentOh, I can smoke and drink but I can't pay my rent" could've been the album's title. One of the cuter songs is "Hammerin' Eggs (the Metal Song)." The beginn ing of the song has a vocal played backwards so you can have the "satanic message" without all the trouble of getting your turntable to do something it was never meant to do. The last track is "Don't Beat My Ass (With a Baseball Bat)," a kind of punk version of Dylan's "Rainy Day Women 12 & 35" (the song where "everybody must get stoned"). Sure, it's sophomoric, and people will say, "Gosh, I think I made a record like this at the state fair once in those little booths," but can anyone of those people say they actually went ahead and put it on a real album? Alex DeGrand Bones of Contention The SWAMIS Independent label 12 Holden Richards' gift for golden pop songwriting shines evident as clangy guitars reverberate and he quicklychimes,"It'salready Wednes day..." on the opening track of his band's, The SWAMIS' debut indie release, available at the Hardback Cafe for $4.99. Anatomy very night I set my alarm clock on loud pop music stations, usually an hour before I actu ally plan to get up, simply so I'll have engaged in enough groggy grunt-rise-grope sessions across my room that by the time I'm slump ing in the shower, an irresistible Top 40 gem is jingling in my short term, bound to last all day. 6:3 1 a.m., Monday, Jan. 2 1 : The poppy, we're-gonna-talk-loud no, scream during-morning-shows-because-we're-pissed-wecan't-sleep-like-you radio personalities on G 1 05 (105.1 FM, Raleigh) caught my post R.E.M. attention with their jovial announcement that the band R.E.M. had the best single ("Losing My Reli gion") of 1991, according to a lis tener poll. I also learned that morn ing terminology, "losing my religion," isn't an eclectic allegory espoused from Mike Stipe's whimsically hip vocabulary, but an outdated south ern expression once privy to stress ridden, grief-stricken housewives, according to grossly zealous NANCY IN THE MORNING. Point is, R.E.M. is No. 1 material according to popland USA. Nevertheless,-1 applaud Amen-- rJt,4iVV""""""""''" "'i. 1. ,.!, ."n mwyjm- mm, .jpi mm .. i num , ,, The Goo Goo Dolls (I to r) are The tune "Already Wednesday" could be the focal point of the record, as could the other eight songs. Richards' impeccable style, though never bland or overwrought, hits the bullseye with each shot, never stray ingfarfrom traditional pop-hook song structures and upbeat vocals. Part of The SWAMIS' swamping aptitude in delighting the seasoned pop listener is their ability to waste no time establishing a song's timbre and feel and just as quickly cutting out, like a cat in a hurricane. of a Top Ten: Something for all Layton Croft JlMiEiiilil can pop culture. The changes, though visibly shocking and multicultural impressive, are just as nebulous as Americans' wallet-willing support of the widening breadth of listener's tastes and the dissemination of "main stream" domination in popular mu sic, at least according to rankings. Such a sweeping, possibly near sighted willingness to enjoy new and different music en masse precludes the similar dissemination, or re-writing, of the term "mainstream" altogether. It seems mainstream music has always been a safeguard categorization sim ply used to delineate pop from un pop, which usually means music not played on the radio, not enfranchised by major record labels and thus not marketed the American way. Lajton's note: Stop me before I ... dip too far into the issue of mass marketing schemata that dupe the millions into a manipulated frenzy quickly convinced the "newest, cut- ting razor's -edge, most rebellious"' in war of Robby, George and Johnny some Richards has undoubtably listened to a lot of Beatles, Hollies and Byrds records, and his contemporary influ ences include the Posies and La's. The SWAMIS, which credits 10 mu sicians but seem dominated by Richards' craft, resonate cerebrally with thoughtful, disturbing lyrics. Richards, like most pop artists re luctant to write songs longer than three-and-a-half minutes, dwells on frustrations and life's roadblocks, usu ally topically stuck in the love rut thing. Songs such as "Alone," "Un- music is also the best around, with some kind of charts (sales, really ?) to prove it. Back to the applause. Regardless of why the top albums in our land are where they are, the issue here is what they are. The facts: The Top 10 albums according to Billboard Magazine, week ending Jan. 19, by the follow ing artists: lO.Garth Brooks 9.Mariah Carey 8.BoyzIIMen 7.MetalIica 6.U2 5. Michael Bolton 4. Nirvana 3.Ham mer 2. Michael Jackson 1. Garth Brooks That's right, furrow your skepti cal brow, and read it again. Read it backward, it doesn't matter! Book end bumpkin Garth Brooks is coun-try-stompin' America's savings ac counts, but his weighty presence is just the beginning. No stranger to chart topping, Michael Jackson sits dangerously close to Nirvana with an R&B technof ied dance album sure to move ya but refusing to leave seas of secu rity and make any confounded artis tic statement insinuating passion or purpose. Which leads us to No. 6 band U2, the briefs people can't afford last names attainable Girl," and "You Don't Know" reveal relationshipangstmuch like on the Posies' fabulous DGC debut, Dear 23. -Layton Croft forget It wait for a bargain bin buy tape it from a friend buy it buy two copies whose new album marks a splendid personal achievement. With Achmng Baby the band shuns established trade marks of yore in favor of new and progressive musical styles that just so happen todouble as big-buck artistry. Michael Bolton, an artist who writes like a tofu banana split would taste, rests comfortably at No. 5, mak-ingmiddle-agedcontent-with-mind-less-music mello goers happy. Hammer, who dropped his MC name (standing for Me, Copy?) has a No. 3 album. The record is refresh ingly original, relativelyspeaking, and speaks well for the bustin'-boogie, breakin '-sweat genre of hyper-dance music that's comes to find perma nence in Top 10 polls. Metallica is No. 7. Metallica is No 7. God save the Queen. Boyzl IMen and Mariah Carey pre cede Garth Brooks at No. 10, and alas, the myth is clinched; American pop culture, paving new paths, has confounded everyone and seems to have something for everyone, too. It'd be fitting these days for Top 40 radiopersonality Casey Kasem, when he records his weekly countdown show, to stop enunciating so damn clearly and start speaking in tongues.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 6, 1992, edition 1
10
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75