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I N T E R V I E W
been known to cover, but given the fact makeup or do our hair, or anything like community among L.A. bands?
that things started pretty late, that. It doesn't work that way with us. Susanne: Yes, there is a very big
necessitating a fairly compact set (as it Susanna Hoffs: You see, they wanted sense of community. We're all good
was, the Bangles finished at ap- us to be Patti Smyth's backup band friends. We all met right around the
proximately three minutes to 2), it was (laughs), and since we refused. .. They same time because Steve Winn was
only fair that they should essentially couldn't force any images on us. They working at a record store, Steve from
g ut a r Hlimit themselves to their recorded had to accept us for what we are.. the Dream Syndicate, and we were all
material. They did every song off the Daily I: But you'd so look good in putting out records on our own labels
exhilerating EP, and the majority of warpaint... We put out our own 45, and the
songs off All Over the Place, many of Susanne: I know. That's what they Salvation Army (band whose members
" which sounded even better in their rawer thought, but... eventually mutated into the Three
e r So live context-particularly wonderful was Daily I: I have to ask you about the O'Clock and the Eyes of Mind) had that
the LP's new single, "Going Down to Rainy Day album. (LP of '60s and little single, and the Dream Syndicate
Liverpool." traditional tunes recorded by Hoffs, had that thing on Down There, which
If they aren't quiteas garage-loose in Peterson, and members of the Dream was their label. We all started hearing
T HE BANGLES made their belated concert as one might ideally like, they Syndicate, the 3 O'Clock and the Rain each other on the radio, and were
appearance in the area on October certainly have unpretentious fun. Parade, released last year.) How did thinking, "Wow, we should all do a
17 to promote their debut album, All Drummer Debbi, especially, looks as you get involved in that? show together with these bands," so we
Over the Place-not at last Tuesday's endearingly happy as a member of The all started playing together, and we all
Michigan Theatre Flock of Seagulls Archies. If any faint vestige of the sort Susanna: Well, David Roback (Rain became friends.
concert as originally planned, but as of sex-kitten association idiots always Parade) is an old friend of mine; I'VE Daily I: What kind of play and press
headliners at Detroit's St. Andrews try to dump(admittedly, often with a lot KNOWN HIM SINCE I was ten years response are you getting abroad?
Hall. of help from the bands themselves) on old, he was the first guy that I was in a Susanna: Well, we're going to.
Panting male delirium was pretty all-girl groups is here, it emanates a bit band with. Those were songs that we England, France, Holland and West
much the order of the day near the from Susannah Hoffs, whose vocals are used to play in our old band together, in Germany in January.
stage among the rather small Wed- even more meltingly sweet live than on Berkeley-it was called the (unin- Daily I: Any initial response?
nesday night crowd, but the Bangles record, but who perhaps casts her eyes telligible) Conscious. So then after the Susanne: Very good. "Hero" (first
surpass the usual girl-group tags (i.e. sideways in coquettish glances at whole L.A. scene started happening, he single off the album) was just released.
the old "Sure, they're cute, but can audience members rather too much for called me up and said, "Do you want to We're big in France, a lot of the L.A.
they.. .") as easily as they evade sim- comfort. record these songs?"-really low- bands are big in France.
ple categorization in the burgeoning After the show, however, the Daily key-"Come down and visit." Daily I: How much had the band
L.A./neo-'60's music scene they went backstage to chat with the band, played out when the first single was
emerged from. and Hoffs was so nice that we felt awful Daily I: Was that released on Fron- released? ("Getting Out of
First forming as a trio in 1981 under about ever having thought anything bad tier or Enigma? Hand"/"Call on Me")
the name The Bangs (they were later about her. Daily associate editor Den- Susanne: Um, Enigma, yeah. Now Susanne: A lot. We didn't get very
forced to come up with an alternative nis Harvey and Daily arts staffers Ben- It's on Rough Trade, and (Dylan's) "I'll good gigs, though. Until we released
literally overnight when it was jamin Tobin (identified as Daily II) and Keep It With mine" is the A side of the the single, until Rodney Bingenheimer
discovered an East Coast outfit had Nichole Kavesky (Daily III) had the single that was released in England. started playing it every weekend, we
copyrighted the name, and wanted a following somewhat diffuse and Daily I: That's beautiful. That's my were playing the worst dives you can
rather extravagant cash outlay in frequently interrupted conversation favorite vocal of yours. imagine. On Monday nights, you know.
return for the use of the name), drum- with Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson Susanna: That's mine too. . . it was really bad. Then we started
mer Debbi Peterson and guitarists about the L.A. noe-psychedelic scene playing the good places, like the
Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson went and other points of interest... Daily I: What was it like working Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
against then-musical fashion from the with Michael Quercio of (lead singer of Daily I: Would you ever want to
start, writing neato pop ditties and Daily I: Do you get any sort of image the Three O'Clock)? He's one of my record cover versions on LPs or B-
singing three-part harmonies more thrust on you as a new band on a major gods. They got signed to IRS, didn't sides?
than a little reminiscent of the Beatles, label? they? Susanna: We do, we did "Live" and
with a lot of other cool reference points Vicki Peterson: We don't get any Susanna: Yes. Michael is a good "Going Down to Liverpool."
thrown in for balance (The Mamas and image thrust on us. No one tells us what friend of mine. Definitely a god. Daily I: Who originally did "Going
the Papas, The Seeds, Love, et al). to do, or wear, or how to wear our Daily I: Is there a real sense of Down to Liverpool"?
An excellent independent single,
"Call On Me/Getting Out of Hand," at-
tracted attention around L.A. and
elsewhere while the band searched forl
a bassist. Annette Zilinskas filled the
bill for a while, long enough to record
the terrific fice song EP The Bangles,w
released last year on I.R.S.; but those-
mysterious things that often happen inT
bands, "creative differences," even-s
tually resulted in her departure and the
entrance of Michael Steele, late of those
infamous '70s "Queens of Noise," The
Runaways-who may well have been
the most legitimate American all- v
female rock band prior to the Bangles.
After Steele joined the band over a
year ago, the big deal came through,r
and the result-All Over the Place,+
produced by the always excellent David
Kahne for CBS-is about as happy a,
mixture of pop and rock, of nostalgiaY
and full-steam-aheadness, as anyu
record (certainly any by a new band).
released this year.
In concert, the Bangles indeed seem
like a slightly slicked-up version of
what one imagines the Runaways
might have been like in concert If
anything, their appearance is a bit too
dressy (too many, excuse the phrase,;
bangles draped around them), but the
playing was pure glorious hardpop
grunge, with their terrific.harmonies
(four great voices in one band! count5
'em! although Steele doesn't sing
much) providing the icing.
A minor disappointment was the The Bangles: (From left) Vick Peterson, Debbi Peterson, Susanna Hoffs, and Michael Steele
general lack of oldies that the band has
6 Weekend/Friday, October'26, 1984
M o V I E
'Razos.
blunt
The Razor's Edge
Directed by John Byrum
Starring Bill Murray, Theresa
Russell, Catherine Hicks, and
James Keach
By Dennis Harvey
T HE NEW FILM version of W.
Somerset Maugham's The
Razor's Edge is a glossy Cliff's Notes
summary, vulgar enough to have the
effect of parody. Whether that effect
was intentional or not can only be an-
swered by Bill Murray. In perhaps the
most perverse career-damaging move
by an actor in years, the comic ap-
parently consented to one project Hicks and Murray: Puppy love
(Ghostbusters) only on the condition
that he be allowed to do this one, much of Hesse, hold up very well as a mucked up in execution, is best glibly Remarkabl
Drastically ill-conceived, this literary mystical-inquirer after the summarized by the press release: have been]
Razor's Edge is never quite boring, or reader passes a certain age. I couldn't Larry Darnell (Bill Murray) is a man you dare)
simply bad--it's so far from whatever say. But he certainly can't be as silly as obessed with finding some meaning in Livingston
mark it was aimng for that it exerts a this new film, in which the spiritual life after witnessing the horrors of Pasolini's
peculiar fascination, Tower of Babel questing is absurdly sketchy (after World War I. He has returned home to original 194
quality of extreme misunderstanding. fruitless treks to World War I, his beautiful fiancee and is offered a Power.
I haven't read the original Maugham bohemian Paris, and India, Murray's high-paying job with an established Costumes
novel since 8th grade, but at the time it character suddenly seems to have found stock brokerage house. Yet there focus do n
seemed (dimly as I can recall it) a a profound inner strength while selling remains a spiritual and philosophical either. You
touching epic of the search for higher fish in a European marketplace), and void in Larry's life which wealth and hand, reve
meaning--a philosophical adolescence, the surrounding domestic squabbles security cannot fill. Leaving behind the custom anc
gracefully written. are soap-operatic. economic prosperity of post-war parade on'
Perhaps Maugham does not, like The story, since it appears so horribly America, his friends and his family, dress.
Larry travels first to Paris on a The Raz
pilgrimage which ultimately takes him Natural N
to a monastery high in the Tibetan World War
mountains, where he seeks spiritual 'vaudeville,
enlightenment of a higher order. Years tears. Bol
later, his mind and purpose clear, he aparently vi
returns to Paris, where he is forced to smods and
confront the people and problems still croissants
unresolved from his past." Murray's g
The unresolved problems center garde mind:
around Larry's relationship with a trio and rats w
4rof Hometown, U.S.A. buddies: war-pal fiancee bac
£ Gray Maturin (Stacy Keach), who for the sanit
settles back into post-combat family and Photogra
business in the U.S.; ex-girlfriend Razor's E
Isabel (Catherine Hicks), who starts swoonily pa:
out as a sweet young thing and winds up PIECE the
vaguely embittered in a loveless did--as if the
marriage to Gray; and Sophie (Theresa as it was liv
Russell), whose fall to Parisian ce there's
alchoholism and whoring after the ac- behind it), b
cidental deaths of her husband and Later, w
child is temporarily stalled by an af- pilgrimage
fair with Larry. sodizes in
Spiritual revelation has rarely been beautiful la
the stuff of good cinema--one could briefly b
make a case for bits in, say Ingmar travelogue.
Bergman or Carl Dreyer, but certainly visual scale
Hollywood has never gotten much the drama i
closer than widening eyes uplifted in we to make
ecstacy as the sun bursts from behind in the Hi
clouds and Max Steiner pillages the headgear wi
"Hallelujah Chorus." look like a St
One needs a slow, spectral touch to The '60s'
bring off this sort of pop-mystic film; Farrow and
very few English-language efforts have of Biblical
achieved it in the last decade. (I can People app
recall only partial successes at best, of Diane K
like Conrad Rooks' Siddhartha and
Russell and Murray: She wasn't bad ... Peter Brooks' Meetings With See
Weekend/Friday,