1 E l i Kw I" MUSIC LOGIE Thelonious Monster: Lame Parodies Thelonious Monster Next Saturday Afternoon Relativity There's probably a place for a band like Thelonious Monster. I suppose if you have a great sense of humor and are not easily annoyed by self-conscious parodies, then you could really get into Next Saturday Afternoon. Parts of it are hard to resist. But in the end, this LP tries so hard to be cute and hip in an obnoxious kind of way, that all it succeeds at being is obnoxious. Take all the '70s commercial rock send-ups. Part boogie, part hard rock, they're very good musically but about as trite as the band's overindulgent attempts to show how mundane life is - blah, blah, blah. "Michael Jordan" finds vocalist Bob Forrest whining about watching The Odd Couple and basketball. On "Pop Star" our heroes play scorching A.O.R. riffs while an onlooker shouts "What gives?" They also do a near perfect Led Zep take-off on, you guessed it, "Swan Song" with their own Zep- like guitar lines and lyrics to match. Sure all this slop is worth a good laugh - especially when the playing is so good - but Next Saturday Afternoon really plays like a joke that's gone on way too long. It's kind of sad that Thelonious Monster has become such a lame musical types, the first side being the more relaxing, and the second carrying the hardcore and industrial bands. As for Viva Umkhon to!, nothing terribly bad can be said, but it just doesn't carry the bulk of quality material that Soweto does. Most of the bands from the States carry the pleasurable music on this record, but most of the foreign bands are hurting. The only quality foreign cut is "Frustrated" by SCA. Their crunching guitars and merciless vocals pair up for a gift from heaven among their foreign vinyl mates. The best performance by far on this album is a song called "Feel Like That" by Scream. The clearest way to compliment this melodic masterpiece is to say that it is typical Scream. With straight forward lyrics backed by power wielding guitar and drums, this song is highly comparable to both "This Side Up" and "A No Money Down" of Scream's This Side Up LP. The fun doesn't stop with the music, either. Both albums come complete with magazines that contain everything from political satires about the police state of South Africa to censored news clippings from South African newspapers.Whether or not these compilations actually will benefit the South African cause is up in the air, but they are definitely worth getting hold of for the music. -Robert Flaggert Continued from Page 8 craft. President Reagan didn't almost destroy the world by trying to nuke Khaddafi. American gays are not re-settling in Queensland, Australia. George Bush has not kicked off his Presidential. campaign by announcing that he will be a passenger on the next shuttle flight. Bill Cosby, similarly has not kicked off a presidential campaign at all, nor has Frank Gifford staked a claim on the Vice-Presidency, but maybe if Bill throws his hat in the ring... Medical researchers have not invented a treatment which zaps paralysis and allows paraplegics to walk again. Woody Allen has not made Amy Carter the Mia Farrow of the '80s. I wonder who's most relieved. Mia? Amy? Woody? The veiwing public? Japanese businessmen have not publicly offered to buy Ohio and turn rusting old mill towns into bustling centers of activity. Personally, I'd be willing to pay them to take the place off America's hands, especially Toledo. Top scientists have not used gene-splicing techniques to create a bizarre animal that sucks up raw sewage and converts it to food for humans, largely, I suspect, because Wayne Newton has refused to supply the needed tissue samples. CBS did not dump Dan Rather for iane Sawyer in June. An ederly Arizona widow did not discover - $250,000 worth of Spanish gold coins dating from the 1600s. The last one I'm not sure about...a southern state may have introduced a mandatory jail sentence for first offenders, and started taking their licences for a full year, but I don't think so. Even if Sophia was right on that one, and we give her partial credit on the Dan Rather thing, that makes her right on only 1.4 of thirty-three predictions. And she was way off on most of these, not even close. And let's face it, that's too bad. Once the Iran-Contra hearings ended summer got pretty boring. Given the option, I'd rather live in a world with Bigfeet, the Ghost of Elvis, and sewage-suckers. Better luck next year, Countess. INTERVIEW Continued from Page 8 D: How long has it been that you've played solo? B: Well, I dabbled a bit in it ever since I first started playing because of the kind of music I play. I could always play by myself but I wasn't that good at it....It's really a hard thing to learn you know. A lot of good piano players you hear in blues bands still can't play by themselves. It's a hard thing to learn how to do and to do well but that's the best thing to happen to my musicianship. I really learned how to play when I had to out to gigs where no one knew me and play for three hours. D: Is that when you started to go by Mr. B.? B: No, I was known as that from Steve seven, eight years ago. He just started calling me that on stage and it just hung on me. At first it was just.a ha-ha-ha but then people started calling me that and when I made my first record I had to decide, and I decided to do it. A couple of times after that I've had my doubts and thought about just using my real name but the further you get into it, the harder it is to get out. It's what people know me as, plus I find people really enjoy that. So if they think of it in a friendly way then I'm happy with it. D: Was is it a big influence on you when you went to Chicago and met those guys? B: Absolutely. And not just musically but in a real personal way because some of the guys that I got close to I found out were wonderful guys and I just loved hanging out with them and talking to them, watching the way they carried themselves. It was a great way to learn directly. That has helped my musicianship rise above a level that it may have stayed at otherwise. To go directly and learn how to play things from these guys. D: Who were some of the guys you got real close to? B: Little Brother Montgomery, Blind John Davis, and Sunnyland Slim were the main three guys. D: Were they receptive to you? B: Alwa At very first Little Brother was a little distant. I looked him up in the phone book and just gave him a call. Of course he had never heard of me but I said "Can I please come over?" He was a little reticent and then he finally said, "Yeah, come on over." So I did and we played and we were having such a good time that he called up Sunnyland Slim right then and said, "Man you got to hear this guy play," because I used to play quite a lot in the style of Sunnyland Slim back then. He came over and we sat around for like three hours, the three of us playing. I made a friendship with those guys and would go back frequently to see them. When they saw that I was really sincere and not... They, I think, appreciated how sincere I was, that I was trying to learn. I didn't come off like I knew it all. I was really anxious to ask them to help me and when they could see I was sincere about that, they were really into helping me. Little Brother helped me alot. He'd break things right down. I'd stand over his shoulder and say "Oh could you show me this?" and he'd go right through his tunes and show me. Probably the greatest compliment to me ever was this guy named Jim Standefore...went to Chicago to interview Little Brother and he was playing my record in his house. He told me that and I thought it was really nice. Really nice. & Thelonious Monster: Their schtick wears thin this time around. parody band. I really liked these guys when they were a seven-piece, four-guitar rock band that ripped off the blues and sounded like they were all completely insane. Maybe they oughtta take back the two guitarists they dumped for this major-minor label release because their debut LP Baby... You're Bumming My Life Out in a Supreme Fashion was a real find. But nothing sums this record up better than the band's own tune, "Looking to the West." Forrest drones on about how few good bands there are these days, unlike the Kiss and Led Zeppelin we were all weaned on, and claims, "Music used to mean so much to me/doesn't mean that much to me no more." Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. - Beth Fertig Various Artists Remember Soweto, 76-86, Bullets Won't Stop Us Now Mordam Records Two benefit compilations, 21 groups, and a seemingly unending barrage of songs. Harsh? Boring? Tiring? Suprisingly enough, both of these comps are quite enjoyable, each containing a number of interesting songs and some very talented artists. Soweto is definitely the better of the two, sporting music from easy- listening jazz ditties such as "Destroy Apartheid" by Deezo and the Bananabeats and "Sobantu" by Lebombo, to the likes of hard- core/heavy metal crossover Neuroot, to an industrial cut by Z'ev. The album is split up by S' LEAI 512 k, S 20 MB BASIC Regular STUD MUL' 640K., S INCLU PANAS Regular STUD WOR THEL SOR T( Regular STUD * I Si AUTI 0 DES "*CAD. 510 EAS. INN PIZ CALL O OFOU) Various Artists Viva Umkhonto! Hill Street Forum Dennis Wolfberg Comedian Sunday November 15 8pm MainStreet Comedy Showcase Celebration David Broza Folk Singer Wednesday January 20 8pm Lydia Mendelsohn Theatre Willy Schwarz & Miriam Sturm Jewish Music Around the World Saturday February 13 8pm Michigan League I MAC IN THE MORNING ...{.::-: .:'.. ::}.. 2}d:n.. i.v.......C; j . ".. . ;:: :;:: '}} - '... MAC IN THE EVENING MAC AROUND THE CLOCK kinko's OPEN 24 HOURS SELF-SERVE MACINTOSH CENTER -FULL-SERVICE LASERSETTING" RESUME SPECIALS 540 EAST LIBERTY STREET ANN ARBOR CORNER OF LIBERTY AND MAYNARD 761-4539 T-- 1-1; .;--, --a- --A - a-.4.4 Dennis Wotfbergis one of the finest comic Top israeli singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Singing in seven languages, talents performing today. He has appeared Winner of Israel's King David Award for best playing on twelve intriguing instruments, they on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David male voaht and performance. Broza sings in offer audiences a musical odyssey ranging letterman and at some of the top comedy Hebrew, English and Spanish. We have from the soulful doina. of Romania to the lubs on both coasts.. It will be screamingly brought him back for all who want to enjoy shepherd's pipe of the Gobi desert, from the cunnyevening oewshhumor his talents again, mystics of Safad to the Yiddish theatre Order Form ' 'Celebration Return to Hill Street Forum-Hillel, 339 E. Liberty, Please send me: Ann Arbor, Mi 48104 ' Makechecks payable to Hill Street Forum. ' x $22', NameI series tickets Address Phone Date !xS1 Check Visa MasterCard (circle one) student tickets No. Exp. Date I would also like to be a: Signature $25 Friend $50 Sponser Name to appear in program $10Benefactor Ot- - I-- I- - - - I- --. .-- - Sunday, October 4th 1:00-5:00 p.m. Hosted by Ann Artor 2900 Jackson Rd. Ann Arbor, MI Photography Slide Show Meet the Wedding Professionals 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 Display Booths " Door Prizes Musical Entertainment For information & tickets call Kathy Van Buren 662-6162 "Passport to a Perfect Wedding" 4 PAGE 4 WEEKEND/SEPTEMBER 25, 1987 WEEKEND/SEPTEMBER 25, 1987 PAGE 9 ,.... .. .