The Michigan Daily-Friday, January11, 1980-Page 7 RECORDS By R. J. SMITH You can hear it in the offices and in e bedrooms, and all the drugs and white noise in the world can't drown it out. It's the sound of Oliver's army a- rap-a-tap-tapping on your front door, asking you politely to come with 'em to Afghanistan, Iran, Salisbury, Los Angeles. They ask once, and then they break down the door and cave your head in if you don't come. The Clash hear it, and they do the 'ly logical (and the most stupid) ing: they wait for the door to be trampled and then they fight, until the blood gurgles out of them and they keel over onto the floor. On their new album London Calling, the Clash sound like Third Worlders brought up in America. They have an affluent, Madison Avenue-weaned per- spective that has only been hinted at on their first two albums. But they also have hunger and frustration that have never come across so fully. That's a 'ntradiction, and the Clash on London ling are consummately contradic- tory. They are a rock group that has achieved pop stardom by making apocalyptic sounds launched at the throat of the pop world. On London Calling they soften their sound with less ferocious music and a production that time and again undercuts the songs' in- tensity. The result is an album that manages to bring the rage and frenzy of warfare into daily life - and this time to invest it with an almost religious calmness, poking in and out of the songs, asking that the struggles of life be attacked with a persistent dignity most unknown in rock and roll. 1,.WHAT IT IS not is your basic Clash album. Lots and lots of songs have hor- ns on them, and what was dense and in- cendiary on their past albums is hookier here and even playful. There is still plenty of punk, as well as Mott and Beefheartian. But it all fits into a much bigger pattern than it ever did before. London Calling plays off textures and emotions; we get a lightweight, straightforward punker next to a song Wat sounds like a Spector-produced lood on the Tracks outtake, and a cover tough enough to have been on either of the first two albums, followed by an original too smooth to be on any other album. And there is nipre reggae than ever before. Rockers like Graham Parker, and even predominantly white groups like the Specials, fuse reggae rhythms with the speed and fierceness of the new wave. But the Clash go for something J se altogether - they dig inside for nd find the strength and faith that allow them to relate their vision of apocalypse with a kind of calmness that spiritually makes London Calling as close a kin to The Basement Tapes as it is to reggae. There are numerous-songs where the reggae beat and cross- rhythms are used in a pop format, as well as the straight dub-sounding "The Guns of Brixton," and the ecstatic cover of "Revolution Rock." THAT THE CLASH presents their end-of-the-world message as stoically and majestically as they do, is remarkable. That this achievement stretches out over two albums worth of music and works across the board is staggering. Elvis Costello plays pop music against intense emotion for dialectical impact, but this isn't the case with the Clash, even with something as dramatic and melodic as "Spanish Bombs." What they're after, always seems, is a place where orrors such as "the buses (going) up in flashes, the Irish tomb (that) is dren- ched in blood" are negated. And the Bley due at Power Mention big band jazz to today's new breed of fan and you'll be con- sidered anachronistic, or at best a little out of touch with the times. What most listeners don't realize is that big bands don't begin and end with Duke Ellington. The format is alive, well, and kicking, and its foremost proponent is coming to Ann Arbor this weekend. The Carla BleyBand is aband like no other. Utilizing her inter- tlW(Couzij presents &,r. FRIDAY - SATURDAY Ul 9pm - barn NO COVER! theGoqt 1140 South University 3 - 0o p (\6 CJQ '$Q as ,n\ Q 40e G , \G oO'5r i .r 00 01 Jazz artist Carla Bley will bring her band and unique fusion sound to Ann Arbor to kick off another year of Eclipse concerts. nationally recognized talent as a composer, arranger and band leader, Bley fronts an organization of unprecedented diversity,.ranging from composer/bassist Steve Swallow to new wave drummer D. Sharpe, and featuring noted trium- peter Michael Mantler. Although an extremely prolific recording artist, Carla Bley has gained near-legendary status through her band's live performan- ces. Their sometimes flambuoyant virtuosity is tempered by a sense of humor and the theatrical. The show takes place on Saturday, January 12, at the spacious Power Center and could well be the highlight of the Eclipse season. a Mick Jones coaxes feedback from his guitar during a recent Clash perfor- mance in Atlanta.- The first woman to wear diamonds was Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France. Until then, only men of importance wore them. Clash know that atat'I no place on earth, for this album is a tour de force that ex- poses the lies of drugs, money, fast talking, and every other possible decep- tion people have to keep them from facing up to the miserable things they do to each other. On songs like "Death or Glory" and "The Guns of Brixton" they disassemble the notion of death as the end of human pain, and human struggle. I don't much like the overall sound to London Calling; it would have been suf- ficiently softened without songs like "Clampdown" or "Death or Glory" being robbed of a great deal of punch. And even allowing for the gropp's problems, this is a severely schizophr- enic album. It stacks up that reggae/religious detachment up again- st a desire to grab everyone in their audience and shake them up with energy and intensity, sometimes within the same song. On London Calling the Clash are poised to spring into the unknown; they seem to tell us that what we have to get through th3 day is faith - not faith in any thing, just simple belief. But they also want to do something about the way things are, and it is this balance of distance/in- tegration that charges their music. They have yet to find a music to express their vision. It isn't reggae, and it isn't punk. Until they find the perfect Clash music, however, we'll have records like London Calling - a record of songs which most groups could never come close to. I _l_ I -_ -L J 516 E.LIBERT A N JOE COCKER Sunday & with THE LOOK MondayTONIGHT Jan. 20, 21 OIGHT $1.0(.MORIAH, - appearing through Sunday.