ARTS
-Thursday, October 21, 1982
Page 7
Records
Bonnie Hayes sheds a little California sunshine Tuesday night at-Joe's.
Goo d clean m idweek fun
By Ben Ticho
T UESDAY NIGHT, circa 11:30 p.m.
You got a eight o'clock lecture
Wednesday morning, an English paper
due in the afternoon, a History report
for Thursday, and an already full day
behind you. Why pick the middle of the
week to head over to Joe's Star
Lounge? You could be sleeping, for
God's sake, or watching the Cardinals
demolish the bums from Brewerville.
Good clean fun. A bit of California
sunshine for a lonely, dreary Ann Arbor
town. Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Com-
.bo.
Thatislip of a smile, toss of straight
blond hair and flick of demure eyes that
says, "Hey, I'm having a good time,
anyhow." And the songs: "Dum Fun,"
"Joyride," "Shelly's Boyfriend,"
"Coverage." Not overbearing, not too
flightly, but solid pop rock with a beat,
lots of movement, and some gutsy
determination mixed in.
You think, hey, the West Coast
Pretenders; Chrissie Hinde singing
'bout guys and dolls with tongue half-in-
cheek and right hand tapping the elec-
tric piano. She introduces "Girls Like
Me" (opening song off Good Clean Fun,
their Slash debut LP): "This one's for
all the girls in the audience. If you don't
like girls, you're in the wrong place. Go
Home."
(I stuck around).
Expert and clever musicians all
around: Bonnie's solos betray her
years of experience as a professional
keyboardist, jazz traces dancing
around unconventional rock rhythms;
brother Kevin on steady percussion;
Paul Davis on classic rock guitar (a lit-
tle heavy and incongruous on those
screaming exhibitions); Hank Man-.
ninger with consistently sharp per-
petual-motion bass. They're all hard
workers who don't let their talent get in
the way of a slick, danceable stage
show. They are tired (there's just no
denying-these national tours aren't
adrenalin vacations), but the dancers
are desperate, and the Combo readily
complies, from the pyrotechnics of
"Loverboy" to a teasing rendition of
the Hendrix cover, "Wild Thing."
Will Success Spoil Bonnie Hayes?
Will they never get the vaunted
"Coverage" that their lesser 'sisters,
the Go-go's, waste? Not if they follow
Tony Randall's lesson and stick to their
no-sell-out guns.
Nice white people singing fun pop
songs from a great black R&B
tradition. They'll be back, and Ann Ar-
bor will eagerly attend-whatever the
day of the week.
Translator-'Heartbeats and.
Triggers' (415/Columbia)
Way back when, it was the Jefferson
Airplane; more recently, Pear Harbour
and the Explosions and Romeo Void.
Now, from out of the burgeoning San
Francisco music scene, emerges Tran-
slator, whose debut album, Heartbeats
and Triggers, ranks among the very
best efforts by a new band this year.
Released on the independent 415 label
(S.F.'s area code) and distributed
through Columbia Records, Heartbeats
and Triggers is an album that, from the
very first cut, juxtaposes and counter-
balances the two images garnered from
its title by blending intelligent pop ideas
with political ideologies and doses of
psychedelia.
The four members of Translator-
guitarist/vocalists Steven Barton and
Robert Darlington, bassist Larry
Dekker and Drummer David Scheff-
combine both musical modes excep-
tionally well. "Everywhere That I'n
Not" leads the album off on a sprightly
note. Barton depicts a past lover's ab-
sence from his life by listing the cities
he imagines she frequents without
him-places, we think, they once traip-
sed through together.
Next comes "Necessary Spinning,"
an urgent catharsis bemoaning the loss
of childhood innocence. "Everything
You See" and "Everywhere" are two of
the album's most beautiful songs, so af-
fective because of Darlington's haun-
ting, plaintive vocals. He sometimes
echoes the Jam's Paul Weller or the late
Ian Curtis of Joy Division: a voice that
is both sonorous and resonant. In com-
parison, Barton's timbre is more
regular; not quite the antithesis of
Darlington, but closer to what one
would consider the most marketable.
This is best exemplified in "Sleeping
Snakes," whose chiming chorus, "Stop
this missile building," leads to a shat-
tering crescendo of "Now!" and the
ominous prediction/warning, "Bombs
away"-a sincere and powerful anti-
war statement.
Barton's clearer tone delivers the
-message and we find ourselves bobbing
our heads. right along with the band,
which is a mean trick and one that they
pull off with relative ease. Translator
has succeeded in a very difficult
maneuver-there is not one dud in their
10-song roster. Not bad for a new band.
The summation of their desires can
be found in the final cut, "My Heart,
Your Heart," wherein Barton turns
away everything-even money and
political revolution-in admonishment
of love and its oft-times unkept
promises. For the members of Tran-
slator, both are incessant and
unavoidable issues, delivered on a
daily basis through the rigors of living
and altered only through individual ef-
forts; the battle, you could say, is
fought on many levels. With Heartbeats
and Triggers, no concrete decisions are
made, but directions are chosen. That
is better than nothing, and Translator is
better than most.
-Larry Dean
Paul Carrack- Suburban
Voodoo' (Epic)
Now that the new wave/punk of the
angry working class British youth is
trickling up to the preppy upper class
American youth, the music is beginning
to get more varied.
One example is the soulful, new-wave
tinged album from Paul Carrack, for-
mer keyboardist of Squeeze. "Subur-
ban Voodoo" is produced by Nick Lowe
and has the same production virtues
and influences of the zillion other
albums Lowe has done recently, but
what really shines through are
Carrack's vocals.
In fact, if it were not for the per-
cussive way the instruments play and
the album's cover art, this could be
considered a pure soul album. It's ap-
parent that Carrack has studies Marvin
Gaye and Otis Redding very well.
The single that's being pushed is
called "I Need You" and it's inoffensive
enough for commercial radio, but not
powerful enough for stardom. Inciden-
tally, Epic is trying a little merchan-
dising experiment with this single by>
offering it as a one-sided 45 with a very
low price tag. Apparently Epic is no
longer trusts radio to properly in-
troduce a new artist to the record-
buying public.
"I Need You" is by far surpassed on side
two of Suburban Voodoo. On "What A'
Way To Go," "So right, So wrong," and
"From Now On"Carrack gives a nice
updating of the mid-60' soul organ
sound.
During "From Now On" Carrack
continues the blue-eyed soul vocal
tradition of Van Morrison. "From Now
On" is a slow steady song of deter-
mination in the face of wasted love, and
it's just perfect for the last slow dance
of the party.
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THURS, FRI-7:10, 9:30
From now on, I'm gonna be
Turning over a brand new leaf
But I will be strong
From now on, from now oon.
The tight backing of Martin Bel-
mont's guitar (formerly of the
Rumour), James Eller's bass and Bob-
by Irwin's drums provide Garrack with
the sound he deserves. The same can
not be said for the backing vocals,
which are either mixed down (with
good reason) or gimmicked up (with no
reason) as on "I Found Love."
Squeeze can't seem to hold its talen-
ted selection of keyboard players, and
Carrack is the second one to leave the
band. The bands' original keyboardist,
Jools Holland, put out a fine solo effort
that quickly slipped into semi-
obscurity. Perhaps Carrack's Subur-
ban V9odoo will get the listening it
deserves.
B Scott Stuckal
2 D"VIDUA L THEATRES
A Lt Libery 76-1700
"BRILLIANT. . . IT'S
TERRIFIC"
-ROGER EBERT
UNLIKE ANY OTHER
FILM YOU'VE EVER SEEN!
(R)
FOR HIM THE ONLY WAY OUT WAS
TO BECOME AN OFFICER. FOR HER
THE ONLY WAY -OUT WAS TO
MARRY ONE!
RICHARD DEBRA
GERE WINGER
AN
OFFICER
AND A,;
GENTLEMAN k '
(R)
THURS, FRI-7:40, 9:55
Austere blues by Geremia
By Jeff Gibson
JOHN LENNON best characterized
the blues as a chair upon which all
rock and roll music sits; Chuck Berry
drew from it a new form; Elvis Presley
demonstrated its universal appeal, a
domain not reserved exclusively for
*blacks; Eric Clapton popularized it as a
pure genre. At the Blind Pig this Friday
and Saturday, Paul Geremia will oc-
cupy that chair ~in its most austere
fashion-country blues accompanied
by guitar and harmonica.
Drawing from such legendary in-
fluences as Mississippi John Hurt and
Blind Lemon Jefferson, Geremia
eschews popular trappings, presenting
traditional blues that retain contem-
porary meaning. Much of his material,
however, is original, displaying both a
richness of heritage and an engaging
sense of humor. Geremia counters the
belief that one has to be essentially
miserable to sing the blues. He main-
tains that positive feeling is a central.
aspect of his music.
Geremia spends most of his time on
the road, much like the bluesmen of old.
"As long as I'm traveling, I'm
growing," he says. "There's no
glamour, in fact lately I've been feeling
more like an undercover agent.
Americans are confused. There's an
awful lot of misdirected hostility in the
people I meet." Among his greater con-
cerns, he added, are the threats posed
by nuclear power.
He is currently promoting his newest
album entitled: I Really Don't Mind
Living (Flying Fish). Geremia fur-
nished us with his version of the blues
chair this weekend. Try it out. You may
find yourself very comfortable indeed.
X-Rated
MAIZEM BLUE MOVIES
at the MICHIGAN THEATRE
TONIGHT & TOMORROW!
IAM CURIOUS (YELLOW)
6:00&8 10:00
I AM CURIOUS (BLUE)
8:00
603 E. Liberty St.
a rbor
CivcBallet
A Featuring
Gerem ia
... chairing the blues
zfol"
SEE ROBERT ALTMAN's NEWEST MOVIE
In a Special Benefit Sneak Preview!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 8pm
MICHIGAN THEATRE
Tickets only $5
,
Already one of the
most talked about new films of the 1983 season...
Ann Arbor moviegoers can see it
before its official release.
All proceeds
from this benefit sneak
preview are being donated to
help pay production costs for
the School of Music's
November 4-7 presentation of
The Rake's Progress, which
will mark Mr. Altman's debut
as an opera stage director.
Tickets for this special preview
are.on sale at the Michigan
'SAVE
YOUR
SOUL...
Missionary
Happy Hour
I
The University Club
Thursday
Octnher 21
V Franz Haratj
of
Odyssey in
Ilio
m
I