ARTS
The Michigan Daily Tuesday, September 15, 1987

Page 9


Chadbourne

to

rake'

By Jon Hartmann
If you want feedback, you've got
it. Eugene Chadbourne's favorite
guitar is The Rake, a guitar body
4ct-taped to the blades of a lawn
rake. The electric bird cage, worn
over the head, is another standby.
If you want technique, you've got
that, too. On July 4th, 1986, I saw
him out-Hendrix Hendrix at the
Rock Against Racism/Reaganism
Festival on the mall in D.C. A
former avant-jazz man who has
played with people like John Zorn
and Carla Bley, Chadbourne can play
iny guitar, humongous or Toys-R-
Us, with speed and precision.
But the unique experience of
Chadbourne-ization is his main at-
traction. Give him a country and
western standard such as "Ain't It
Funny How Time Slips Away" and
he'll soup it up with The Rake and
other heavy metal, and move in any
direction he can.
Chadbourne spent the early '80s
with his group Shockabilly, which
developed the art of reprocessing
'60s pop such as the Beatles and
Pink Floyd into a terrifyingly
modern psychotic stew. Since then,
he has jammed with dozens of
accompanying musicians, one gig or
album at a time, in an effort to
retain his magical dementia.
For blissfully i m p u r e
entertainment, check o u 1
Chadbourne's "Medley in C" from

le Ark
his Country Protest. album. With
astounding support from the Red
Clay Ramblers, he rips through 14
covers, from Merle Haggard to the
Bee Gees to Black Flag. Such is
typical from The Man with The
Rake.
Nearly all of Chadbourne's
repertoire (by his estimate, more
than 30 records and 45 cassettes
worth) contains political material,
some of it assault and invective. His
"10 Most Wanted List" from
Corpses of Foreign Wars, recorded
with Violent Femmes Brian Ritchie
and Victor DeLorenzo, typifies his
attack on the new right. According
to Chadbourne, Larry Speakes called
in the police to do an ID sweep at a
f show in Oxford, Mississippi,
apparently because the lyrics had
offended him. One night in Phoenix,
Chadbourne was joined by Camper
Van Beethoven, who had decided to
warm up for their hero rather than
play their own show across the
street, as they had been originally
s scheduled to do.
Last year's single 198666 is a
moving piece of political protest. A
d cover of Roger Miller's sing-song
"Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo
Herd" goes on to drawl "you can't
f build a shield in outer space (but you
r can be happy if you've a mind to)."
198666 also reminds us that
"America Stands Tall (Libya
e Version)" with reference to the bomb
t attack with Reagan in the saddle. A
soon-to-be released album, sporting
titles such as "Bo Diddley is a
Communist" and "Johnny Cash in
the Phillipines" features Evan Johns
and the H-Bombs as back-up
musicians.
Your can catch Eugene
Chadbourne in action tonight
through Joe's Star Lounge in Exile,
at The Ark at 9 p.m. Tickets are
$S.SO for Ark members, $6.50 for
non-merhbers.

Deaf-inite
Dinosaur

=

By Mike Rubin
Tinnitus reigns tonight as
Amherst, Massachusetts' foremost
Triassic trio Dinosaur make their
Washtenaw Valley debut at the Blind
Pig.With their name conjuring up
the simultaneous images of a
herbivorous brontosaurus leaving a
crater-sized Converse print in soft
prehistoric paydirt and of a spleen-
scorching bass line from an early
'70s Homo erectus-style heavy metal
unit, Dinosaur have s o m e
elephantine expectations to live up
to, volume-wise. With a veritable
army of Marshall stacks in tow, the
band are indeed capable of serving up
the molar-melting sound their
moniker promises, redefining the
meaning of the word loud with an
attack that registers high on both
decibel and Richter scales.
Dinosaur are more than a
Neanderthal noise band, however. On
You're Living All Over Me , their
SST Records debut (following an
eponymous 1985 LP on Homestead)

and the best independent American
record this year, the group chum out
more than their share of ear-tickling
melody, as well as spontaneous
cochlea-combusting skronk. Singer-
guitarist J. Mascis' vocals sound
like Neil Young on nitrous oxide,
the aural articulation of a young
child's fragile eggshell mouth
spitting out gobs full of broken
Indians. Chiming in underneath
Mascis' melodic mumblings is
bassist Lou Barlow, creating a
harmonic one-two punch that bobs
pleasingly but perilously over the
sonic sea below.
Throughout the excellent new
LP, Mascis proves that he is one of
America's best young axemen. On
some cuts his guitar glaciers cut
raging rapids of ferocious feedback
into the primeval aural terrain, while
on others his fretwork floats as
nimbly as an Archaeoptryx over the
Jurassic landscape below. 1970s hard
rock structures are melded seamlessly
with a 1980s underground approach,
See 'Dinosaur' Page 10

Guitarist Eugene Chadbourne will be bringing his unusual batch of
sounds to the Ark tonight.

Sho
Mic


II

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An Information Desk will be staffed
in the North Lobby of the
Graduate Library for the
first five days of classes
(Sept. 10-11, 14-16)
from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tours of the Library will extend from
September 14-25 at 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m.,
and 3:00 p.m. each weekday.
Sign-up for all tours will be at the
Circulation Desk in the North Lobby

IA
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,L. way Y " t n, P0?!
dre.._ti lov ) M0 ?
** yourdA jo r
Ott nldty a

Sat., Sept. 19
St. Andrews Hall
431 E. Congress
Detroit, MI
$5 at the door, 18 or over
DJ and cash bar
Door opens at 9 p.m.
Show starts at 10:30 p.m.

U

7

JEFFERSON

- ff

I-395 E.
CHRYSLER

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Info: 545-2605
In honor of the Pope's visit,
10% profits go to
THE SANCTUARY. SHELTER FOR
RUNAWAYS IN ROYAL OAK


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Can I tell you
something personal?
0
0
Personals
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ATTENTION STUDENTS
ARE YOU-
* enrolled as a full-time undergrad (12 or more hours)
0 looking for part-time work (up to 20 hours/week) during
the school year and full time work during vacations
(summer, spring & X-mas breaks).
* a needy student, who can meet certain low income{
criteria
IF SO:
We have Student-Aid jobs for engineering technicians,
safety technicians, clerk-typists, clerks and computer
support personnel.

We know that a
cheap calculator can
cost you blood, sweat
and time.
Investing in a
Hewlett-Packard cal-
culator, on the other
hand, can save you
time and again.
HP calculators not
only have better func-
tions. They function
better. Without stick-
ing keys and bad
connections.
Through October
31, you can get the
cream of the calcula-
tors at a non-fat price.
We're cutting $10
off the HP-12C. That
buys you more built-
in functions than any-
one else's financial
calculator.
And we're giving
away a free Advantage
Module, a $49 value,
with every HP-41
Advanced Scientific
calculator you buy.
This 12K-byte plug-
in, menu-driven ROM
was designed spe-
cially for students.
So drop by your
campus bookstore and
compare HP calcula-
tors with the rest. By
midterm, you'll see
what a deal this is.

Ow
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