ARTS
Michigan DailyFriday, September 19, 1980 Page


SameBa
the same
By MARK COLEMAN
There's never been a shortage of rock
and roll bands in Ann Arbor, but unfor-
tunately it's pretty hard to tell most of
the newer ones apart. Loud, punk-
derivative hard rock seems to be the
rule but there is an exception: The
Same Band. Blending free jazz, floating
funk rhythms and dynamic guitar in-
terplay, these four Ann Arborites are
developing a sound that is unique, often
experimental and yes, even danceable.
As it often happens, this musical
collaboration was born out of pure coin-
cidence. Perusing the beverage cooler
at the Main Party Store one bleak
December evening last year, ar-
tist/musician Gerhard Schlanzky was
* interrupted by a vaguely familiar
voice. "Somebody here lookin' for a
cab?" inquired Larry Miller. Mistaking
Larry for his sax and guitar playing
twin brother Ben, Gerhard inquired
about Ben's recent trip to Boston and
his future musical plans. Well, since
Larry plays guitar also, and had just
been to California on a similar musical
mission the conversation wasn't a com-
plete loss, and when it came up that the
Miller brothers were looking for a bass
player, the nucleus of The Same Band
was formed.
THE FINAL addition to the group
was Doug Peterson, a talented drum-
mer barely out of high school, followed
by three months of rehearsal. The
group started playing out last April,

!nd is' not

Ram Dass'

mellow

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N U'O W A../ AVW fir/
old thing I
Barrrett as influences, and while
strains of these innovators (and many
others) can be heard, when they hit
their stride a strikingly individual
musical identity emerges, one that in-
corporates both the freedom of im-
provisation and the immediacy of a
good beat.
The group's monniker seems like a
stab of irony, but as Larry Miller says,
"Ben and I have been doing the same
thing musically for years. This time,
we've managed to integrate it into a
working band." The band does all
original material, naturally, mostly
songs composed by Ben Miller over the
last seven years "reworked and
rehashed" by the current group. The
band's future sppears promising as
they have yet to tap the Detroit market,
let alone more "progressive" scenes
like New York or San Francisco: And
the musical possibilities also seem en-
dless. The group is considering adding a
horn section to perform some of Ben's
more adventurous compositions.
But Ann Arbor needs an ambitious
rock and roll band like The Same Band,
and needs it desperately. At least part
of the current trend of "dance oriented
rock" indicates a regressive men-
tality-as Gerhard Schlanzky puts it,
"It seems like a lot of people have a
stopgap on their information input;
they are not programmed to listen to
new music.rs
This Saturday night offers an ex-

By JIM ROBINS
At New Hallas Restaurant in
Greektown, Detroit, sitting around a
table are several people who came of
age during the "turbulent Six-
ties"-Hippie U alumni. "What ever
happened to Ram Dass-you know, the
guy who wrote Be Here Now? asks
Carol, who is visiting from Aspen.
"Oh, he came out a couple of years
ago and admitted he really didn't know
anything," answers Jeri, a veteran of
two years of ashram livihg.
"Yeah," quips Phil, who used to deal,
"dope to rock stars, but now
has a legit import business. "He

living in the time of the prophets. He
likes the modern world. "You can
knock the media all you want, but it's
an incredible vehicle for transmission
of whatever it is you are," he explains.
"If you are hustling granola bars, that's
what you get, but if you are hustling
God, which you can't hustle-the only
way you can hustle it is by being it; the
transmission goes through."
Ram Dass believes he is God. That
you who read this are God. That even
the guy writing this and the
photographer who took the pictures
are God. That's both comfortingcand a

prototype counter-culture bookshelf.
He finally rises from the lotus
position and sits on a stool, tells anec-
dotes, and spouts a smattering of new
-age philosophy. After two hours the
spiritual rap, buzzwords, and name-
dropping is wearing thin. He should
hone his act of spiritual advice and
celebrity-laden stories down to a tight
hour set.
Ram Dass raises a lot of money for
good causes, and you probably wouldn't
mind having him for a cheerful neigh-
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antra
bor you ran into every once in a while.
He's the guy who is an animated sym-
bol of cult spirituality, new age living,
or whatever term you choose. He sells
lots of books and has a lot of fans.
"Your problem is that you are too at-
tached to emptiness," Alan Watts once
said to Ram Duss one drunken night in,
a Benedictine monastery. Watts had a
point. Ram Dass-live on stage at the
Michigan Theater-we are at the Dog
and Pony Show looking for the Em-
peror's New Clothes.
* KM

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5

Baba Ram Dass

the inn arbor film cooperative

decided he'd Be There Later."
BABA RAM DASS, a.k.a. Richard
Alpert, former Harvard psychology
professor like his old buddy Tim Leary,
self-styled religious teacher and
author, is here in Ann Arbor to speak.
Tonight he'll try to raise money for the
Seva Foundation, a non-profit
organization formed to provide medical
aid to the poor people of the world. This
afternoon he's holed up in his room at
the Campus Inn while reporters
surround him, asking questions. There
is incense in the air and several pairs of
Shakti Shoes and Birkenstock sandals
are parked at the door. The Daily
reporter and photographer keep their
shoes on.
Ram Dass looks good. His eyes and
skin are clear; the beard and what's
left of his hair are neatly trimmed. This
guy is calm. This guy knows the
meaning of the mantra: 'Hot tub sooth
me/Hot tub heal me." So, what do you
ask Baba Ram Dass, anyway? Does he
long for the days of the prophets busting
up the stands of the charlatan money
lenders in the marketplace? What does
he think of tens of thousands of young
men at a heavy metal rock concert,
pumping their fists at the stage and
chanting: "Priest! Priest!" to hail a
band called Judas Priest? Or do you
ask: "What's new on the astral
plane-seen any interesting sages or
spirits lately?"
"TECHNOLOGY allows the tran-
smission of the spirit in a way it never
has before," says Ram Dass in respon-
se to the question would he rather be

time-honored hustle. Ram Dass is'
relaxed and candid in his hotel room.
"I'm not a guru," he says. "I'm not an
enlightened person. My truth is I'm still
horny. My truth is I enjoy dope. My
truth is I own an M.G. automobile and I
like to drive it with the top down. My
truth is that I love God."
EIGHT-HUNDRED and fifty people
who probably love God and get horny
are on hand to hear Sam Dass speak at
the Michigan Theater. Ram Dass is
seated in lotus position, an oriental
screen behind him, with potted plants
carefully placed around the stage. A
guitarist is strumming softly to his
right, Ram Dass asks for a few momen-
ts of silence so we can all get in tune,
while the guitarist strums gently in the
background.
Ram Dass opens his talk with quotes
from Don Juan, Herman Hesse and
Robert Heinlien's Stranger in a Strange
Land, all people whose books kent his
own Be Here Now company on the
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Ben Miller (sax), Gerhard Schlanzky (bass), Larry Miller
Doug Peterson (drums) comprise The Same Band, one of
newest and most original rock and roll bands.

(guitar) and
Ann Arbor's

and have gigged steadily at local clubs
ard the New Old Brick since then.
Response has been very favorable for
*the Same Band; in the short period of
three months they have rapidly become
acknowledged as the most innovative
band to emerge from Ann Arbor in the
,last few years. "We seem to draw a
diverse crowd and that's very en-
couraging" says Gerhard. Indeed, the
Same Band is one of the very few local"
acts able to transcend Ann Arbor's un-
spoken musical-social barriers; their
gigs attract both sophisticated jazzbos
and punky rock hangers-on and a lot of
folks in between.
This wide ranging audience is in-'
dicative of the divergent ingredients
that make up the band's sound. The
group cites free jazz, electric era Miles
Davis, Captain Beefheart and Syd
-mann

cellent opportunity to process new
musical information as The Same Band
will be appearing at the Michigan
League Ballroom in a show that's billed
as the "Turn Your Back to School Dan-
ce". Also appearing will be the Ur-
bations, a group of accomplished local
musicians who have taken the George
Clinton lyric "Who says a jazz band
can't play rock and roll" to heart, along
with the ultra-funky Bigfoot (aka Jim
Jam and the Johnsons) and newcomers
the Karl Marx Band.

J
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