4 Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 21, 1986 Images Record M Melt. Daily Photo by ANDI SCHREIBER Ken yans not into Africa' The Long Ryders- State of Our Union (Island) Yes indeed, partner, it's 1986. American tough-guy heros have replaced the androgynous British icons which colorfully illuminated every aspect of the media. We're American, goddamit. Rambo. Rocky. The flag. Back to basics rock and roll...? Unfortunately, the Long Ryders have been swallowed up in this trend, as well. Their first release on Island records finds them dropping the grungey, '60s flavor which made them so likeable and fun on their first record. Instead it seems that this wonderfully unassuming rocker of a band has decided to shoot straight for the top, taking it upon themselves to write the Great American Epic. It's Western rock all the way, chock full of outcasts, bandits, and trains. Not to be putting down coun- try/western music in any way, but in this case it's just a contrived gim- mick. "Good Times Tomorrow, Hard Times Today" does nothing very in- teresting with the medium. Just more wailing vocals and banjos. Most of the tunes are certainly competent if not enjoyable little anthems. And the Long Ryders have plenty of musical muscle. The album opener, "Looking for Lewis and Clark," is the hottest track by far. It's a rumbling, powerful piece which searches for identity and questions our idols, juxtaposing a line like Ithought Isaw my government running away with my heart with one about having heard the national anthem sung in Johannesburg. It's a great track which is confused and proud at the same time. A few other cuts live up to the promise offered in the opener; like the weary, guitar-based ballad "Years Long Ago," which also manages to capture in its chorus a bit of the sound of the last album. But while there's nothing really bad about State of Our Union, one can't help feeling annoyed at the way this great band has become just another gimmick. There's ab- solutely nothing on this here piece of vinyl to equal the soaring,rZombier- esque blast of "Still Get By" or the beautiful, touching brilliance of "Ivory Tower." While there might have always been a touch of that Western style in The Long Ryders ap- proach, they were a lot more fun and original as paisley period cowboys, and not commercial cowboys. -Beth Fertig Camper Van Beethoven- Telephone Free Landslide Victory (Rough Trade) GENIUS ALERT! Telephone Free Landslide Victory is already a guaranteed member of my ten-best list for 1986. Better records may come along, but no way will nine of them appear. Victory is new-sounding, cheery, hilarious - it's a friendly record. What kinda music is it? Let's try folk/ska/latino/psycho/punk, but better. The opening strains of "Border Ska," a peppy instrumental huarache-stomper, give a mild taste of depravity to come. The second song, "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon," tells the story of the famous film canine who "packed her bags and got into a hot air balloon." Lordamighty the lyrics are twisted, but the song is sung so earnestly that things take on an ethereal beauty. On "Wasted," (yes, it's the Black Flag/Circle Jerks classic) Camper Van Beethoven violinist Jonathan Segel brings an entirely new feel to the melody. "Yanqui Go Home" is another pleasant south-of-the-borde' ish instrumental. "Oh No!" is a vaguely Velvet Uo- derground-ish pop tune, serious and good, but the band follows it with 4 whining instrumental dirge called, "9 of Disks" which sounds Eastern aid deliciously ugly. "Payed Vacationi Greece" (their spelling) continues in the same vein, and does not sound particularly Greek tG me. "Where the Hell is Bill?" is a coun- trified two-step in which it is speculated that Maybe he went to get a sideways haircut / Maybe he went to get a striped shirt / Maybe he went to get some plastic shoes "Vladivostock" is yet another eastern instrumental, which doesn't sound particularly Russian. And this is just Side One! Side Two opens with "Skinhead Stomp" which features slightly off- key violin work by Segel, and is much better for it. Otherwise its resemblance ce to Madness' "One Step Beyond" would be noticeable. "Tina" seems to be in another language - I'm not sure which one. The third song is the album's masterpiece. "Take the Skinheads Bowling" features non-sequiter non- rhyming lyrics like Everybody's coming home for lunch these days / Last night there were skinheads on my lawn, or I had a dream, I wanted to sleep next to plastic / I had a dream, I wanted to lick your knees. "Bowling" features a driving beat, great back-up vocals - it is wor- th the price of the album by itself. "Mao Reminisces About his Days in Southern China" is yet another Eastern-sounding instrumental, which doesn't sound particularly Chinese, I think. "I Don't See You" fuses the Easter sound with a driving retro-rock feel, and is good enough to raise the only complaint I have with the record. The Eastern-sounding instrumentals are good, but there are a whole lot of them, and Camper Van Beethoven lyrics are so damn good that they could have added lyrics to the in- strumentals and still had nifty songs. After demonstrating an ability to write good lyrics for a number like "I Don't See You," it's a bit hard to take the next piece. "Balalaika Gap," an Eastern-sounding instrumental which sounds more Russian than "Vladivostock.".r "Opi Rides Again"is a pleasant Western sounding instrumental which segues into "Club Med Sucks," a harum-scarum condemnation of horribly rich people with a nifty thrashy chorus. The album closes with "The Ambiguity Song" which is just about what the title says it is. The cover art is great. The little in- sert is funny, and the drawing is neat. Telephone Free Landslide Victory has made me very, very happy. 4 -John Logie Nairobi, Kenya (AP) Out of Africa, nominated for 11 Academy Awards and one of the season's biggest hits in the United States, has attracted only lukewarm interest in the country where it was filmed.. One reason audiences here are not flocking to see the Sydney Pollack romantic epic is because it is not a Kenyan movie but a film about the East African nation's colonial period. "There is not a single Kenyan who comes out strong," the Kenya Times paid in a column. "They are.., the romanticized 'houseboys,' servants whose existence seems to be owed to the presence of the 'memsahib' and their various masters." The film, based on the romantic writings of Danish aristocrat Karen Blixen and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, has received superlative reviews in the United States, where it had its world premiere in December. Besides the 11 Oscar nominations, it has won three Golden Globe awards and has inspired a fashion line of safari garb. "Out of Africa" opened in Nairobi on Jan. 31 for its first showing outside the United States. After a charity premiere that attracted a full house to the 1,524-seat 20th Century Cinema, it drew 9,349 customers for 21 showings in the first week of a scheduled four- week engagement, according to the theater's management. The movie, which slowly unravels Blixen's romance with Oxford- educated hunter Denys Finch Hatton, has little appeal for most Kenyan moviegoers who clamor for the action and violence of low-budget martial ar- ts pictures and slick James Bond productions. However, many Kenyans have stayed away from "Out of Africa" for political reasons. During filming, charges were leveled that white ex- tras received twice as much pay as black extras. At the same time, some Kenyans called Blixen, who used the pen name Isak Dinesen, a racist and her books repugnant. The Kenya Times repeated those charges during a scathing attack on the author last year and questioned why the government had allowed her story to be filmed in Kenya. However, during her stay in Kenya in the 1920s, Blixen was attacked by white settlers as being "pro-rative" because she opposed regulations that permitted forced labor and advocated educating the children on her coffee plantation. She left Africa in 1931 and died in Denmark in 1962. Despite all the hoopla, "Out of Africa" may be a fincial blessing for Kenya, which is gearing up to sell Americans everything from beer to safaris. Abercrombie and Kent, Kenya's largest travel agancy, has added an "Out of Africa" itinerary to its list of tours. The tour includes a drive through the Ngong Hills where Blixen owned a coffee farm and a stop at her now dilapidated farmhouse, which the government is turning into a museum. David Markham, operations direc- tor for Abercrombie and Kent, said 5,000 Americans visited Kenya in 1985 and he expected that number to in- crease this year, largely because of the movie. Besides attracting American trourists who like to spend money, Kenya also is hoping to capitalize on "Out of Africa" by ped- dling its premium beer in the highly competitive U.S. market. Privately owned East African Breweries Ltd. signed an agreement with Creative Import Marketing Co. of Milwaukee, Wis., on Feb. 5 to market Tusker Malt Lager in the USE DAILY CLASSIFIEDS United States beginning in June. The deal calls for 150,000 cases to be ship- ped the first 12 months; the beer will cost less than $6 a six-pack. But while "Out of Africa" might have warmed American interest in Kenya, problems associated with making the film here have left some Hollywood movie producers cold. Terence Clegg, who co-produced the $28.6 million movie with Pollack, complained in a letterdto a Nairobi newspaper, The Standard, of un- cooperative government ministries and bureaucratic roadblocks during the filming. He followed up his complaint with the announcement that Universal Pic- tures had dropped plans to film a movie in Kenya this year about Steve Biko, the black South African activist who died in police custody in 1977. "We shall probably go to Zimbabwe because I believe we can get a better deal there," Clegg said. However, Brian Tetley, a British- born photographer who has lived in Africa for 19 years, said the Hollywood filmmakers were not doing Kenya a favor by filming here. He said the film's producers should "stop pretending to be philan- thropists" when in fact a prime motive for doing the movie was com- mercial gain. The filmmakers, he said, "stand to make themselves wealthy beyond the dream of any or- dinary Kenyan out of the use of our Kenya background." NOW HIRING MUG EATERIES AND COMMON MICHIGAN UNION FOOD SERVICES Buspeople Kitchen Cleaners Counter People Prep People Stock People North Ingalls Building University Club Dining/Cat Days/Late Nights Days/Late Nights Mornings/Days/Nights Mornings/Days Mornings/Days Mornings/Days ering WHAT ARE WEEKENDS MADE OF? 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