The Michigan Daily-Saturday, September 26, 1981-Page 7 '
New wave washes dying disco
By MARK DIGHTON
The guy who said "Politics makes
strange bedfellows" obviously never
dabbled in the music biz, or he would
have applied that phrase instead to the
latter institution. Alliances shift
kaleidoscopically in the world of pop
music. There's simply no other way to
explain the current fraternization of
two former arch-enemies-disco and
new wave.
Those of us who saw it coming hailed
it as the final death of the original punk
inspiration. Perhaps we were wrong.
Perhaps we weren't. From the begin-
Wning, new wave has thrashed violently
from fad to fad in search of just the
right sound to make the mass audience
sit up and listen ... so far to no avail.
MEANWHILE, DISCO has been
waiting out its predicted death,
seemingly to adopt a self-assumed
rigor mortis, hoping to extend its (ad-
mittedly vegetating) existence.
The way was indicated quite early.
Bands like The Slits and James White
and the Blacks proved the simple point
that white music got more interesting
as it approached black music. In ad-
dition, hits by The Clash, Talking
Heads, and Blondie proved that such
cross-breeds could also be quite
profitable.
So, now, from one side, we've got
5ICYCLE JIM S
HAPPY HOUR
Moe -Turs-8:00 pm.
till Close
Dance-Oriented Rock bands (the real
Next Big Thing, say the critics) coming
at us like gangbusters, spearheaded by
the sartorial ruffians of the British dan-
ce music phenomenon known as Blitz.
AND FROM THE other side, the
resounding success of rock-funk
hybrids like Grace Jones, Rick James,
and Prince will insure the proliferation
of others like them.
Two of the leaders of these respective
camps will play Nitro's (in Detroit, but
only half an hour from Ann Arbor) one
week apart. Duran Duran, one of the
better Blitz bands, will appear
tomorrow. Was (Not Was), Detroit's
own biracial super-funk
conglomeration, will follow them on
Sunday, October 4.
Duran Duran are typical of their ilk
in that they present a stylishly cold
lyrical and musical presence lifted
wholly from the glamour and
progressive rock movements of the
'70s. They change that sound radically,
however, by infusing it with a
predominating beat and energetic
percussion. Artiness is back in style
(say hello to synthesizers again) but
only in the service of the all-holy beat.
ON THE OTHER HAND, Duran
Duran also prove themselves worthy of
separation from the pack with a
stronger sense of song construction
than any of their cohort-competitors.
The remainder of their genre seems
faint to recognize that even the nicest
coat of varnish won't hide the imperfec-
tions of an ugly or unsound piece of fur-
niture. Possessing what the others
lack-substance-Duran Duran are
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able to pull off their gimmickry without
sounding hollow and obvious.
f Was (Not Was) come from the op-
posite side of the continuum, so their
sound is not at all comparable to that of
Duran Duran-even though they easily
rival Duran Duran's danceability.
Nothing on their debut
album-gratuitously titled Was (Not
Was)-is quite as good as their
everything-including-the-kitchen-sink
debut single on Ze/Island records,
"Wheel Me Out"/"Hello
Operator . . . " But most of it is far bet-
ter than their current hit, "Out Come
the Freaks."
References to other bands on the
vanguard of funk-Grace Jones,
Parliamentary/Funkadelic, James
Brown, Byrne & Eno-abound in their
work, creating an excitingly unstable
melange of influences that only barely
holds together on the tight vurves. But
what they lack in cohesiveness, Was
(Not Was) make up for in sheer talent
and originality. David Was and Don
Fagenson have assembled some of
Detroit's finest (Larry Fratangello of
Parliament/Funkadelic, jazz trum-
peter Marcus Belgrave, ex-MC5er
Wayne Kramer) to play, and at least
one super-hot vocalist (Sweet Pea) to
spur on the proceedings.
Seeing them live should be a real
treat. They're obviously still in that ex-
ploratory phase of stumbling around,
seeing what works and why. In the
process, no doubt, we'll all discover
new things about the heretofore little-
seen territory between dance music
and rock.
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French Fries-254
Alsop at the Loft
Singer-songwriter (and shower crooner) Peter Alsop makes a stop in Ann
Arbor tomorrow night at 7:30 at Canterbury Loft. Alsop's warm and satirical
wit ranges through his caring songs about such issues as single parenting,
atomic waste, union reform, and homely people.
At
f"
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on
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Really awfulfilms
(Continued from Page 5)
terrestrial feels the need to capture the could intentionally create the j
few remaining human beings left on non-sequiturs that tumble fron
few emaninghumn bingslef onwork of Edward Wood. Attack is
Earth, the only survivors of some wmrk O T d UdW Y.
unexplained war or disaster. He seems simply, NOTFUNNY.
to think these humans a menace, tThe Maniac ends the evening
although they seem more than content ally unknown quantity... oft
to pace their bombed-out-basement most promising of nights like thes(
abode, half-heartedly, considering one of the (many) joys of bad cine
existential absurdities. Occasionally, not being able to predict what will
they venture out to do self- next. Ordinary films lull you into
contradictory things near the alien's of complacency, allowing you to r
cave. But mostly they just sit around, such easy cinematic crutches as k
paralyzed by their uncertainty over the plot development, consistent ch
plot and their unclear relationships to terizations, and thematic consiste
each other. But no, not greats like Edward'
Nothing else in this weekend's Film and Phil Tucker. They offer you
Festival reaches these heights of in- helping finger in understanding
i idu n uh doesn't film. They s imply demand that yc
mean there aren't plenty of yucks along sreofonsiosnesr cel
the Way. Rounding out tonight's bill search of some logic to their cel
with Plan Nine at 7 p.m. are Harlem netherworlds. But not to worry i
2** e Iang e ian tao~uohn natdirectors like Edward Wood and
title and idea, but we all thought that Tce rv htilgclt a
about Terror of Tiny Town, too, until we Tucker prove that illogicality can
actually saw it), at 9 p.m., and Little own reward above and beyond any
Shop of Horrors (by Roger Corman, so else.
you know it can't be all good) at 11 p.m.
Sunday starts bright and early with
The Blob at 1:30 p.m. Now I've always
thought The Blob a little too accom- B e u n
plished technically to rate as a "bad"
film, but I won't argue with its inclusion, (Continued from Page,5)
based on its cream-of-sci-fi-scum teen- eagles, and a mountain lion; their
exploitation plot. (And the special ef- here puts many of the supporting
fects just keep on coming!) to. shame. Notable, too, is the
Robot Monsterlumbers onto the photographyof, the contrasting
screen immediately afterward, dscapes of Chicago and the Ro
followed by Attack of the Killer which makes for an effectiveu
Tomatoes at 7 p.m. Don't ask me to scoring of the central dramatic te
elaborate on this one, because it's one If you are a John Belushi fan
of those capitalistically nasty attempts and want some very light ente
to spoof the undeniably pure-hearted ment, Continental Divide might pr
stuff that makes up true bad cinema. you a suitable alternative tc
The point is self-evident that no one evening's television viewing.
oyous
m then
quite,
as a
en the
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ema is
come
a sort .
ely on
ogical
harac-
ncy.
Wood
not a
their
of sift
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be its
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V4
I .. .
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Recognized with
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E-Systems "pioneer-
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For a reprint of the
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information on career op-
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Columnstintriguing
(Continued from Page 1).
The concrete building has been stan-
ding since 1951 when it pioneered "uni-
struct architecture," said Theodore
Larson, a retired architecture
professor whose class built the edifice.
The building was designed by Charles
Atwood, a University alumnus who
wanted to construct a building that
could be easily disassembled.
In the late 1940s, Atwood - noticing
the great migration from the city to the
suburbs - decided to design schools
that could easily dismantle when the
population of an area dwindled, Larson
said.
Atwood presented the pre-cut and
pre-fabricated metals to the Univer-
sity's School of Architecture. "Atwood
gave us the parts, and U of M supplied
the labor," Larson said. "We put it
together with nuts and bolts, so if a
change is necessary, you take the struc-
ture down and put it back together."
Larson called the uninviting, lonely
building an "historic monument." Sin-
ce its completion in 1954, "hundreds of
unistruct buildings have gone up all
over the world."
ALTHOUGH THE exterior may not
win awards in Architectural Digest, the
building has obvious advantages. It is
inexpensive to construct. Labor is
cheap, too - it can be built by only two
people, Larson said.
But the artifacts nestling beside the
building serve no purpose today. The
columns are there only because they've
been too heavy to move, said Ron Clore,
a construction superintendent. But next
Monday, both the columns and the
building will be dismantled permanen-
tly and moved to North Campus.
In the 1930s, Wells Bennett, Dean of
the School of Architecture received the
columns from the city of Detroit.
RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS
OF CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS
SERIES OF LECTURE-DISCUSSIONS
Every Monday night a subject of current major interest will
be discussed at The Ecumenical Campus Center, 921 Church
Street. Everyone is welcome to these discussions. Beginning
at 7:30 p.m., with refreshments, the speaker or speakers will
make their presentation and engage in discussion until
9:00 p.m.
COME JOIN US I
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th
Speaker: DR. DAVID N. FREEDMAN
"AMERICAN RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS
r