ARTS
Wednesday, March 18, 1987
The Michigan Daily
Page 7
Ballroom opens Book of Love tonight
By Brian Bonet
There are two ways to experience
Book of Love.
The first is with walkman on,
eyes closed, and mind absorbing the
soothing sounds of the band's airy,
lullaby lyrics. You can do this at
home, anytime, anyday.
The second way is with volume
up, eyes open, and body moving to
Book of Love's melodically unique,
catchy synth hooks harmonized
with an assortment of dance-driving
drum beats. You won't get a
better chance to do this than tonight
at the band's live Nectarine
Ballroom performance.
Faster than you could say
BeeGees, Book of Love garnered
mega dance club hoopla with the
twelve inch phenoms "Boy" and "I
Touch Roses" after signing to Sire
Records early in 1985. This instant
success gave the band an identity
crisis. "At first...everyone thought
we were a twelve inch and not a
band," said keyboardist Ted
Ottaviano.
The public's response to the
foursome's first album, Book Of
Love, erased all of Ottaviano's
concerns and established the band as
an exciting new music force to be
reckoned with. The album, released
in mid 1986, presented a forum for
the band to expand their fresh,
dreamy yet danceable sound.
"When we write, we always
stress melody at its most melodic
point," said Ottaviano, explaining
how the band achieves such duality
in their music. "Melodies with hard
hitting drum sounds."
The driving percussion
Ottaviano referred to is produced by
preprogrammed, computerized
synthesizers. In fact, all the band's
sounds are produced in a similarly
synthesized prerecorded fashion.
This causes many rock and roll
purists to gasp and protest the not
so "live" aspect of their
performances.
"We kinda know what everyone
is thinking," responded Ottaviano,
who is not blind to the views of
traditionalists. But the keyboardist
attributes many of the prejudices
people hold against synth-pop to
"not knowing how it's really
made."
"We try to emphasize that we are
doing the music up there," he
explained, "that we are in control."
But doesn't all the pre-
programming limit the band's
creative capacity on stage?
Well, kind of. But to Book of
Love, being original is what being
live is all about- and creative,
original stuff comes easy for these
four former art school students. "I
think it's a cop-out when someone
likes a band because they appear
live, but aren't really doing
anything original," said Ottaviano.
"People like Huey Lewis... please!"
Okay, but doesn't all the sophis -
ticated sound equipment that the
band lugs around with them hinder
their stage presence?
"We try to accept the fact that
we're limited in our movement,"
Ottaviano said, explaining that the
band tries to pump as much energy
into their live shows as possible.
"Basically, we just try to get the
audience moving."
And the audience will be
moving, regardless of how much
the band is moving or how much of
their music they are really playing,
and regardless of what those Bruce
Springsteen fans are saying. In their
own unique way, Book of Love is
as live as you can get. Besides, the
audience will be too busy dancing
to be watching or worrying about
anything else.
Book of Love will be opened by
the Exotic Birds at 10 p.m. tonight
at The Nectarine Ballroom. Tickets
are $10 at the door.
LAZERGRAPHICS- U COPYING U PRINTING U BINDING U FORMS
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No fun found in no budget 'Witchboard'
By Kurt Serbus
I don't know why the hell I went
to see Witchboard. There were
plenty of other new releases this
Week that I could have reviewed.
Tin Men has been garnering
widespread critical praise as a warm,
nostalgic comedy. Heat offers the
irresistible phenomanae of aging
mercenary Burt Reynolds offing bad
guys with the buisness end of an
American Express card. The Decline
Of Western Civilization is
supposed to have lots of sex. Any,
one of these could have been mine
for the plundering.
But there's this little voice of
optimism in the back of my head, a
whiny, burring little voice that
keeps reminding me that there are
some first-class motion pictures out
there hiding under titles like Return
Of The Living Dead and
Reanimator, movies which, free
from the heavy hand of a major
studio or the comercial pressures of
a large budget, allow their makers
to break with tradition and get a
little crazy. A voice that kept
telling me that no-budget horror
movies are sometimes the best
place to look for innovation. A
voice that kept telling me that
maybeWitchboard was just such a
picture.
Fat fucking chance.
Witchboard, I'm afraid, is
exactly what it appears to be: a
dreadfully dull possession story that
looks like it was made up on the
spot. Writer/director Kevin Tenney
and his cohorts are so formula-
concious it seems they were
See OUIJA, Page 8
Congratulations to the
1987-88 Mortar Board
We are pleased to announce the election of the following
students into Mortar Board College Senior Honor Society:
A University of Michigan Student Publication
Every once in a while, at a university
of this size, a new voice speaks out...
Artemage
celebrating the magic of talent
Available: Fishbowl (March 18,19, 20),
Artschool, Community News and Borders.
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