Page 12 - The Michigan Daily -Friday, September 8, 1989
'I
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Bob Mould
Workbook
Virgin
What I've always liked about Bob
Mould is that he was really more of a
misfit than his hardcore contempo-
raries could ever claim to be. Henry
Rollins, as alienated from the main-
stream as he may have been, was
100% in sync with the audience
whose bile he catalogued and spat
back in the form of who to hate (TV,
Regular People) and how. Jello
Biafra and D. Boon waltzed right in
on a political sect already ready-made
and ready to accept them.
Bob Mould, on the other hand,
was an outsider's outsider. At the
helm of HUsker Dd, he played hard,
disturbing music with hard, disturb-
inglyrics. But he wasn't exactly a re-
flection of the gobbing masses that
bought his albums, either. He didn't
take the easy, oh-so '80s shots at
proven straw men like My Parents,
My Job, etc., and how in hell was a
drunk 14-year-old supposed to iden-
tify with "Horizon is oblivious/ On
this chartered trip away" - much
less with his direct stabs at his audi-
ence, or at least those who found
punk a great chance to unleash their
id under the guise of angst, in "Real
World": "You want to change the
world by breaking rules and laws/
People don't do things like that in
the real world." Elvis Costello said
he wanted "to bite the hand that feeds
me," but how adventurous (or origi-
nal) was it foea New Waver to attack
corporate rock, anyway? Bob Mould
bit the hand that applauded him.
So it makes sense for him to
come out with an album that it's
possible for anybody to hate. It's a
complete stylistic departure for him
- chock-full of acoustic guitar and,
yes, cello, and only at the very end of
the LP does he screech like a wolver-
ine caught in a printing press. Yet I
can only imagine some radical-chic,
pop-psychologist, just-give-me-
something-to-believe-I'm-ready
10,000 Maniacs fan digging the
baroque arrangement of "Wishing
Well," only to lazily pick up the
lyric sheet and recoil in horror
("'Twist and shape on the winding
twine/ Around the spindle winds' -
wait a minute, isn't this song about
anything important - you know,
like toxic waste?").
Which, in turn, is why I was all
set to love this album - a mistake
in itself, since Elder Statesmen like
Mould are forever cursed by writers
who refuse to believe anything they
produce can be anything but the best
or worst thing they've ever done.
1 U'
A B T 4 E Z 18 1 K A M
TheS
00" i~les Roll
°SORORITY RUSH 1989
Workbook, however, is neither,
or actually both - at times. Mostly,
though, it's average-to-below Mould
work, nothing else. Not, I stress, be-
cause it's acoustic and introspective
and all that stuff people refuse to let
"rockers" get away with. His earlier
work in this vein, such as "Too Far
Down," is among his best; besides,
he wrote most of the hard stuff on an
acoustic 12-string. And the first three
cuts - "Wishing Well," "Heartbreak
A Stranger," and "See A Little
Light" - are Mould classics. The
first two communicate the anguish
that informs so much of the LP
(Workbook is rife with crying and ly-
ing, and not just because they rhyme)
with fingerpicked guitar line like au-
ral tears, and pained soulful vocals on
the order of "And nothing will ever
change! the words exchanged for re-
venge inside"; the third is a spirited
reminder of what pop is all about.
But when your song structures are
just boring, no amount of volume
and distortion - or subdued, lush ar-
rangement - will make any differ-
ence. "Brasilia Crossed With
Trenton" is like a retired couple driv-
ing a trailer in front of you on a two-
lane highway, dragging its tired,
"Edmund Fitzgerald" chorus three
minutes too many through pastoral
lyrics for which fast-forward was in-
vented. "Compositions for the
Young and Old" is the same, but,
thank God, shorter.
The mini-review of this album on
the rack at Schoolkids' calls this al-
bum Quadrophenia to Warehouse's
Tommy. I don't blame them; they do
have to sell the thing. But to carry
the Townshend analogy, it's really
more along the lines of All the Best
Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes in that,
amid a number of passable works, it
runs a steeplechase from brilliant to
downright embarrassing - as only a
great songwriter can.
-Jim Poniewozik
Read
aMd
Dai~j
C~aeO4ibie
Following the floral motif, Happy Flowers practice the childlike dan-
delion game of "Mama-had-a-baby-and-her-head-popped-off," only
without the flowers.
Happy Flowers
Oof
Homestead Records
Two-piece band Happy Flowers
are under the misapprehension that
daft song titles, cacophony and infan-
tile sleeve drawings a legendary hard-
core group maketh. With about 35
songs, Oof (disgusting title) must
rank up there with Michael Damian
and 10,000 Maniacs as this year's
major diarrhea clogging up the toilet
of rock music.
Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly-
Charred-Infant (God, I'm shocked!)
are definitely retentive; attempting to
make amateurism an art form, they
only succeed in making a dog's din-
Register at Mass Meeting or
at the Panhellenic Office
4010 Michigan Union
663-4505
$25 registration fee
Mass Meeting
Sunda, Sept. 10
Union Ballroom
Last names: .-G
H-P
Q-Z
12:00 p.m.
2:30 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
N.U0 I T T
Now you can enjoy a Monday
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through Friday ."-
|
A NIGHT OF IAS A1IL/ WITH
908CAT GOLOTH&JAIT
Thursday, October 5
Michigan Theatre 7:30 pm
TICKETS ON SALE TODAY!
Tickets $17.50 in advance,
available at all Ticketmaster locations
and at the Michigan Theatre box office.
To charge by phone, call 645-6666
or 669-8397
I,,,ann-
ner out of their indulgences. To this
skeptical writer Happy Flowers be-
tray all the signs of suburban brats
who made the great mistake of spend-
ing the allowance Daddy gave them
on an electric guitar and snare drum.
Wankers like this shouldn't be al-
lowed near musical instruments;
never mind a recording studio.
Frankly, they should be taken out t1
Gross Point with others like them,
put up against a wall, and slapped:
with wet plimsoles.
Art rock fans with at least a cou-
ple of brain cells to rub together
should immerse themselves in Sonic,
Youth, the Pixies' new one, or buy
another copy of Patti Smith's
Horses. Hardcore punk fans are ad-
vised to go back to Black Flag's
Damaged or Fresh Fruit For Rotting4
Vegetables by the Dead Kennedys.y
As for Oof, it makes a fabulous dis-
cus for decapitating rich kids on
South U. -Nabeel Zuberi
Hated Batman?
Loved Bernstein?
Leave your housemates alone-
tell it to the world in the
Daily Arts pages
Call 763-0379
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