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VINYL
Gap Band hits with a funky throwback

FILM
Series celebrates censored m

The Gap Band - Gap
Band VII
(Total Experience Records)
The title says a lot. The Gap BAnd
is seven records old, and they know
how to cut a funk record. And I mean
funk. Dance music. Tailfeather-
shakin' stuff.
The Gap Band has stayed the cour-
se. This record is not markedly dif-
ferent from the stuff funk bands were
producing 10 years ago, but nobody
else is doing it, much less doing it
well. The Gap Band is a pleasing an-
achronism. Let's face it, on a dance
floor you need crawly bass lines,
teasing synths, assorted grunts, and a
beat. You want a record that kicks
your butt into stupid little back-and-
forth motions that are too much fun to
be embarassing.
GAP BAND VII is just the thing for
the dance-floor. The band presents a
series of varied, groove-heavy num-
bers interspersed with a couple slow-
dance numbers to break things up.
What's more, the band avoids the pit-
fall that has torpedoed ninety percent
of the funk albums ever made-song
length. GAP BAND VII features nine
songs, as opposed to five or six, and
no song approaches the deadly ten-
minute barrier. The songs all end
when they should-there are no,
'special extended dance remixes.'
The Gap Band isn't afraid to cut a
"bump" song in 1986,'and they do such
a good job ot it, that I'm going to work
hard to loosen up my creaky old
gluteus maximustand enjoy the song
as it was meant to be enjoyed.

Hoodoo Gurus-Mars
Needs Guitars! (Big Time)
The Gurus' American debut,
STONEAGE ROMEOS, stiffed, so A&M
Records and the band parted ways.
Fortunately, the band has resurfaced
on the tiny Big Time label, and
produced their second
good-but-uneven record.
MARS NEEDS GUITARS! is, as the
title implies, a big, heaping slab of
gee-tar music. The band's classic
rock 'n' roll line-up, (rhythm, lead,
and bass guitars plus drums( makes
for a stripped-down, clean sound
But the guirarists are rangy enough
and adept enough to keep the record
from sounding thin. The guitar work
is distractingly good. The band
members play off each other ex-
tremely well, and I found myself
ignoring the lyrics in order to trace
the guitars.
Side One strts slowly, but builds a
good head of steam by the third song,
"In the Wild," a hopped up
three-chord bash-o-rama.
The next song, "Death Defying" is
marked by a beautiful melodic guitar
line, and a nifty "Ooooh-weee"
refrain. Side One closes with "Like
Wow-Wipeout," which screams 1966
garage. The thud-thud drums,
bar-chords, and aaah-ing vocals
are perfect. Side Two features two
gems, the hoot'n'hollering "Hayride
to Hell," and the title track, which is
very primitive-tribal even. The
rest of the songs are pretty
good - there's at least one nifty bit
of guitar work in each-but ehy just
can't compete with the songs Ive
named.
The Gurus have a lot of potential,

The Gap Band kicks loose during their most recent Ann Arbor appearance.

but they still have not produced a
record that is solid from the first cut
to the last. Even so, when MARS is
good, it is very, very good, and when
it's not so good, it ain't bad.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins and
The Fuzztones LIVE(Mid-
night Records(
What we have here is a bunch of
long-haired, white grunge purists
hooking up with a long-silent
demi-god of dangerously insane
rhythm and blues. Screamin' Jay's

been on mothballs for a long time, but
he is still a phenomenal presence.
The Fuzztones do a decent back-up
job, but the show is entirely Screamin'
Jay's. He sucks up the limelight and
purs out a stream of voodoo mania
that is both entertaining and mildly
disturbing.
It is clear that Screamin' Jay is not
walking the same world that most of
us are walking. His songs crawl up
from a dark zone inhabited by a
variety of vermin, where swamps of
alcohol beckon, and black magic is
the key to survival. At times the EP


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verges on being a bizarre backwoods.
religious experience.
Side One features staggeringly good
renditions of "Alligator Wine," and
the now-classic "I Put a Spell on
You," both with hilarious introduc-
tions by Hawkins. Side Two features
a cute Christmas tune, "It's That
Time Again," and a C-blues concoc-
tion called "Constipation Blues" that
would be pretty forgettable were it not
for Jay's incredibly revolting
vocalizations. All this plus a nifty
cover make this EP well worthwhile.
The Whole Lotta Loves -
The Recline and Fal of Rock
and Rol (Part 2)
(Treasure City)
On their debut LP, these spirited '60s
revivalists from Minneapolis try vainly
to conceal their status as a somewhat
sloppy bar band. To prove this, one need
only note that the collection
progressively decomposes from the af-
fecting, unusually polished opener
"Emmarita" to the closing title track,
which presents four minutes of distorted,
amelodic noise.
Between these cuts, the listener en-
counters five unexceptional but wholly
tolerable efforts that churn with en-
thusiasm. On tracks featuring the Steve
Nieve-styled keyboards of Scott
Browning ("Beg - Borrow or Kneel,"
"Because of You"), the band sacrifices
its more refined R.E.M. sound for a
raunchy, less appealing style.°- It is
significant that the best tune here "Em-
marita" shamelessly apes Stipe and the
Athenians. Only "Beg Borrow or
Kneel," with its raucous but effective
funk-rock feel, deserves additional
credit.
See VINYL, Page 5

By John Shea
IRTH OF A NATION, D.W.
riffith's 1915 film showing pro-
Klu Klux Klan sympathies, has been
banned in more theatres than any
other film in U.S. cinematic history.
Last night, it was shown at Angell
Hall and it is the fifth of eleven films
being shown throughout the semester
in the Ann Arbor Film Co-Operative's
"Banned and Protested Film
Festival".
The two major driving forces
behind the Banned Film Festival are
Glenn Mensching and Theresa
Bungard. Since both of them are
librarians, they are especially in-
terested in the issue of censorship.
The objective behind the festival, say
Mensching, is to "present a cross-
section of films to show audiences
what type of films have been rejected
in the past". The eleven films span
three generations and have been ban-
ned either for their political or social
content.
Some of these films receive more
attention than others. Denounced by
the Pope and protested by thousands
of outraged Catholics, Hail Mary
(1985) is undoubtedly the most con-
troversial film of the festival. Jean-
Luc Godard's modern day version of
the Annunciation and the Virgin Bir-
th, betrays Joseph as a taxi-cab
driver and the Virgin Mary as a gas
station attendant. An estimated thir-
ty to fifty people peacefully demon-
strated against the showing of the film
at Angell Hall last month, holding
rosaries and chanting Hail Marys.
The movie was shown in spite of a
bomb threat. One of the demon-
strators, Jon Sussman, wrote a letter
to the Daily (January 31), defending
the Virgin Mary. "The film Hail
Mary makes Her appear infinitely
lower than she truly is, and we con-
sider this blasphemy," Sussman
wrote. "Our 'demonstration' did in-
volve protest of the film, but mainly
we were praying. This is what our
Father, Pope John Paul II, asked us to
do, and do it we shall."
Other Christians are upset over the
portrayal of Mary, but to a lesser
degree. Freshman James Ryan, a
practicing Catholic all his life, says,
"I don't think it's heresy, and I don't
feel strongly enough to protest against
it.. .there are a lot worse things in the
world today." Heidi Smith, a senior,
went to the movie sheerely out of
curiosity. If people are that upset
about it, I want to see it. I dont think
it's insulting to the Catholic religion.
It 's just another interpretation of the
Bible. The Bible isn't literal."
Because of overwhelming popular
demand, Hail Mary will return to Ann
Arbor on March 22nd. Mensching
says there will be up to five more
showings of Godard's movie.
The Banned Film Festival con-
tinues February 27th, with the
showing of two Ralph Bakshi films.
Fritz the Cat (1972), the first ever X-
rated animated film, brought Bakshi
to national prominence, and FRITZ has
since been a cult classic. This story of
a naughty tabby, would have Walt
Disney rolling over in his grave. The


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A STAR IS BORN
Introducing
GIANELLI'S DEEP DISH
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Sophia Loren won an Oscar for her portra va/ of a rape victim in the bannedfi/a, 'Two H omen.'

second film of the double feature,
Heavy Traffic (1973), is also X-rated.
It is a semi-autobiographical account
of the cartoonist's nightmarish ex-
periences in New York.
March 20th sees the long awaited
arrival of director Pier Paolo
Pasolini's last and most controversial
film, Salo, 120 Days of Sodom (1977).
Originally scheduled for January
30th, it was postponed at the last
moment. Salo depicts the sexual fan-
tasies of four members of the Italian
government in 1943 Fascist Italy, who
service their own pleasures while the

country falls apart. The film is still
banned in Italy and is rarely shown in
Ann Arbor.
April 10th brings two films which
were banned or protested due to
sexual content. Two Women (1960) is
director Vittorio De Sica's tale of a
mother (Sophia Loren) and her
daughter struggling to survive in Italy
during World War II. Despite the con-
troversy, Loren earned a Best Actress
Oscar for her performance. The
second film of the evening will be
Ingmar Bergman's 1959 film The
Virgin Spring. Based on a thirteenth

century Swedish legend and folksong
this is a story of a young girl who falls
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Screamin 'Jay Hawkins (center) and The FuztOnes.

4 Weekend- February 21, 1986

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