ARTS Monday, November 2, 1987 The Michigan Daily Page 7 Happy Campers aim to rock and By Brian Jarvinen About roughly a year ago, A.E.M. came to Detroit's Fox Theatre with another one of their highly anticipated opening acts, Camper Van Beethoven. T h e Campers came out and jammed for In all too short 45 minute set, earning them many new fans, including this writer. Tonight the mellow Californians return to Michigan to play at Rick's American Cafe. Camper Van Beethoven first captured an unsuspecting public's attention in 1985 after the release of their debut record, Telephone Free Landslide Victory. The album featured their most famous song, "Take The Skinheads Bowling," Which nearly everyone has heard at a party somewhere by now. The album featured several lighthearted swipes at skinhead culture, including' a hippie version of Black Flag's "Wasted." The record illustrated the classical Camper's unique view of the world in such lines as "everything is up in the air at this time," and the classic honesty of "there's not a line that goes here/that rhymes with anything." Camper Van Beethoven is Victor Krummenacher on b a s s , keyboard/violin player Jonathan Segel, a new drummer, Chris Pedersen, vocalist/guitarist David Lowery, and guitar players Chris Molla and Greg Lisher, who according to the liner notes of one of the singles is the "leader of a worldwide conspiracy to do something vague." Aside from the Charlie Daniels Band, Camper Van Beethoven is probably the most popular band today that includes a violin player. But this does not put them into the realm of country music; in fact Camper Van are off in their own little musical world. The band plays simple, three-chord, meandering songs that could easily sound like any garage band's first attempts at originality. However Segel's violin and organ ramblings give CVB its own style, preventing any simple labels. After the success of Telephone the band released II and III, its second album, which unfortunately alienated fans of the first record, as it had a bit less humor. The Camper's bounced back earlier this year with their third full length LP, the simply titled Camper Van Beethoven. The band's philosophy shined on "Good Guys and Bad Guys," which became an excellent video on MTV this summer, if one didn't blink the few times it was shown. The band displayed some of its true inspiration on a cover of the romp Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd nugget "Interstellar Overdrive." Camper Van Beethoven seem to show off a bit more social consciousness, but one shouldn't worry about the scraggly artistes becoming the next U2. Currently the band has a new EP Vampire Can Mating Oven, which features a hilarious send-up of "rarities" compilations in the liner notes. The small stage of Rick's will be pretty crowded when all six Camper's attempt to play their happy tunes tonight. Tickets are $7.50, and are only available at Rick's. Doors open at 9 p.m. Camper Van Beethoven at their March, 1986 show at the Blind Pig. They'll return to Ann Arbor tonight to play Rick's American Cafe. First Annual GRADUATE SCHOOL DAY 'Wish beats usual teen dramas C i By Scott Collins Count me as a casualty in the Bore Wars of the recent British cinema (I died yawning during A Room with a View of Masterpiece Theatre ), but even I must admit that some of the new English "youth films" make me wish John Hughes had never bought his bus ticket to Hollywood. A good example is David Leland's Wish You Were Here, a funny and fresh nostalgia piece set in seaside r e s o r t Mbmmunity in the early 1950s. Leland's heroine, Linda (Emily Lloyd), is a lively teenaged smart ass who can hardly bear living with her dullard sister and insensitive father, so she explores her own sexuality to relieve the boredom. She begins by flirting at her uncle's bus company, soon graduating into the bed of a vain young driver, and then suc- cumbing to the advances of her father's sinister gambling buddy. When Linda's humorless old man discovers the latter affair, he gives up his long struggle to make his daughter conform. "Your mother wouldn't approve," he quietly iemonstrates. "Too bad she's not here to say for herself," Linda says. c The mother, who died when Linda was still a child, is the "you" of the film's ironic title. Linda really does Wish she had her mother back - although we see a bit too little of her, she seemed a quiet, sympathetic woman who balanced her husband's harshness - but there's not much in Linda's adolescent world that easily bears such a postcard-like greeting. Her first "boyfriend" uses her for a one-night stand, her father "will be glad to get rid of her" and her foul mouth, and her sister, a member of the flag corps, marches around in a uniform all day. But we like Linda so much because she remains indomitable in the face of adversity, right until the very end. When her father's creepy friend molests her in the family's den, Linda leaves him with a hearty "hope your finger stinks!" Later, after the same man fails to use a "plunker" (condom) and gets Linda pregnant, he questions his paternity. "If it walks with a limp and thinks with its prick, it's yours!" she hollers. No one else in the cast compares with Lloyd, who is so astonishingly natural I suspect she's just playing herself. Her passionate performance is no mean feat, although she's aided by Ian Scott's marvelous cinema- tography (the amber hues, always in danger of seeming hackneyed and artificial, compare favorably with Woody Allen's autumnal tone in Radio Days ) and some brilliant writing. Especially memorable is Linda's office visit with an obtuse psychiatrist (in the movies, just about all psychiatrists are obtuse) who insists on playing a swear-word association game that he's bound to lose. Some viewers have complained about what they consider Leland's grim moral vision: if a woman plays around long enough, sooner or later she'll get stuck with a kid. But I don't think that Leland is so moral as to suggest that bad consequences inevitably follow from loose actions, or so didactic as to preach anything as banal as "respon- sibility." What really comes across is Linda's independence - she always ends up doing what she wants to do, even when pitted against fatuous, manipulative men. So catch Linda before she rides by on her bicycle. She's an unlikely feminist heroine. F TALK WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS FROM TOP U.S. COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES LEARN ABOUT APPLICATION PROCEDURES & NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS 1 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1987 10:00 am-4:00 pm MICHIGAN UNION BALLROOM UM News in The Daily 764-0552 SPONSORED BY: CAREER PLANNING & PLACEMENT A UNIT OF STUDENT SERVICES 1 The Michigan Daily 1; CLASSIFIED MAIL-INI FORM 1 1. Form must be filled out completely. 2. Mail money and form to: The Michigan Daily Classifieds, 420 Maynard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. 3 Payment (check or money order) must beenclosed with the ad. Please do not send cash. 4. 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