ARTS 'The Michigan Daily Friday, November 2, 1990 Page 5 Plastic People reassemble by Peter Shapiro ____ Legendary Miller comes home; Cows visit, as well Throughout parts of Europe, the names of Milan Hlavsa, Josef Jan- icek and Jiri Kabes strike with the same agitative resonance as Chuck D;, Johnny Rotten, Bob Dylan or Soody Guthrie. Although they were as- overtly political as their musical progenitors, The Velvet Under- ground, the legendary Czechoslo- vakian band, Plastic People of the Universe, were perhaps the most revolutionary band in the history of rock ' n' roll. The Plastic People of the Uni- verse's music was deemed harmful oise by the Czech government in he early '70s, setting into motion a chain of events - including impris- onment and property burning- that was meant to take the fire out of not oqly The Plastic People, but the en- tite Czech underground movement. Unfortunately for the Husak regime, their Helmsian activities only served to forever enshrine The Plastic's music as the spirit of rebellion. * After nearly 20 years and political changes that made Vaclav Havel - assuredly the only world leader fa- miliar with the music of the Vel- vets, Zappa, Captain Beefheart or The Plastic People for that matter - the president of Czechosolvakia, The Plastic People have metamorphosed mito Pulnoc. Retaining three original members and the same disconcerting brand of late-'60s avant-garde rock, albeit with a greater accent on hooks, Pulnoc carry on the tradition that caused The Plastics to be incar- cerated in hard labor camps. Descending from the same line of ancestors that spawned such indus- trial, feedback-infused, post-punk, neo-avant-garde experimental groups as Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth and vari- ous Arto Lindsay incarnations, Pul- -noc's music dwells in a world of by Greg Baise L ike some kind of harmonic convergence, the Cows are play- ing Ann Arbor the same night as Philip Glass. Although a jam be- tween the two is highly unlikely, everybody should enjoy knowing that as Philip Glass recreates Koyaanisqatsi live, on stage at the Club Heidelberg will be a band who opened their first record, Taint Plurbis, Taint Unum with a cover version of Glass' score for Koyaanisqatsi. This "decisions, decisions" situation is symptomatic of an artistic deluge in Ann Arbor this weekend, stronger than any of the waves of feedback that Thor Eisentrager dams up with his guitar. Eisentrager is the guitarist for the Cows, a bunch of nice and noisesome lads from Minneapo- lis, who arose from a cesspool of static in Gibby Haynes' Grade PCP longhorn steer abattoir. On their latest Amphetamine Reptile release, Effete and Impudent Snobs, the Cows romp from the sexbeat of "Sitting Around" to songs about being down and out like "Preyed On." Eisentrager sticks his guitar in the proverbial dike as fuzz leaks all over a plod- ding "Dirty Leg," and hard- core/mosh beats pop up every now and then. Previous records have sported music to take your helicopter out and hunt dinosaurs by ("Camouflage Monkey," "Chow"), and the Cows' contri- bution to Dope, Guns and Fuck- ing in the Street ("Almost a See GIGS, Page 7 I Pulnoc is second in the potentially long line of former Eastern Bloc bands to come to Ann Arbor. They have promised not to stay as long as Gaza. Bartokian chord changes and dis- placed melancholy. Echoes of Coltrane's tenor battles with Pharaoh Sanders co-exist with the Velvets' subterranean rock romps like "Sister Ray" and an Eastern Eu- ropean minor key- style of Beef- heart's "My Human Gets Me Blues." Inheriting an intellectual approach to music, Pulnoc's music can edge too far into the Gothic or the self-con- sciously arty, especially whenvocal- ist Michaela Nemcova sings in a hollow deadpan reminiscent of the character in Munch's "The Scream." But, for the most part, their music carries the spirit of a profound strug- gle that has turned into a heretofore unimaginable ecstasy, even removed from its social context. Opening for Pulnoc will be two other avant-garde acts, Azalia Snail and No Man. Azalia Snail is a "rock" musician who combines dis- cordant feedback with bizarre acous- tic instruments like zithers. She will be performing with a backdrop of experimental films. If it's not as pre- tentious as a freshman R.C. student in a literary theory class, it'll be in- teresting. Its tough to imagine a stagnant Roger Miller gig. But it's the appearance of Pulnoc that makes this show the most important event See PULNOC, Page 7 It took Jackson native Tom Chaney nearly four years to get his movie made in Michigan, but he fi- nally did it. Wendigo is a low-bud- get horror/fantasy that recalls the monster movies of the '50s. It fea- tures an all-Michigan cast and crew and was shot in local cities ranging from Mt. Clemens to Houghton. Director/writer/co-producer Chaney teamed up with co-producer David Thiry of Ann Arbor and their friends to shoot the film. Filming alone gook over two years, as they worked only when enough money was collected to film the next scene. The cast, working for free, also had to be intermittently gathered from around the state for shoots. Actors were forced to maintain a consistent appearance over these two years so that their looks would not change from shot to shot in the finished film. A break came when Gary Sorenson and his Grand Haven-based group, Cinemakers, put up the money needed to finish the film. The finished result is a campy horror story about a monster called the Wendigo, whose spirit is acci-, ~ 4%Michigans RiffkentsoLrge "Service that brings you to your feet" Sandals, clogs, & shoes for all-weather comfort Repair Service 663-1644 209 N.4th Ave. By Ker yown) Mon-Sat 10.6 dently awakened by a drunk Michi- gan hunter in Northern Michigan. The Wendigo and his evil minions then proceed to devour the hunters one by one, growing more and more powerful with each feast of flesh. One particularly nasty creature bursts out of a pot of chili to terrorize them. Luckily, a young but power- ful girl is summoned to battle the hideous Wendigo to the death. Wendigo does well to avoid the conventions of recent slasher films in favor of an old-style monster movie approach. Its low-budget pro- duction, with crude effects, raw vio- lence and nonprofessional actors. has a fun, unpretentious appeal. The soundtrack music was composed by former Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, who also acts in the film. Unrelentingly loud and often ironic, it adds to the raw, rock 'n' roll feel- ing of the movie. Wendigo, unfortunately, is no Evil Dead, another horror film di- rected by a Michigan native (Samn Raimi) and Ron Asheton is no Bruce Campbell. The film never transcends its lame story line, despite some fun special effects like the stop-action animated monster. It is not at alb scary, nor is it very funny; some at- See WENDIGO, Page 7" Scott-Heron speaks his mind by Forrest Green 111 luted and utterly legitimized by the tion of our government over th e1 in the past 10 years since Gil Scott-Heron moved out of his per- sonal center of public attention, his iessage has faltered. The counter- culture of rap that took directly from his influence has become com- pletely assimilated by the popular mainstream that Gil was denounc- ing. Cable TV gives "revolutionary" groups like Public Enemy plenty of air. In the ex- change, Gil's essential message, "*Women will not care if Dick fi- nally got down with Jane on Search For Tomorrowl because Black peo- *ple will be in the streets searching for a brighter day," has been di- mainstream. When white liberals were ea- gerly swallowing the doctrine of Martin Luther King Jr., they ig- nored the more immediate, more confrontational and comprehensive perspectives of other leaders. Mal- colm X reached out in order for African Americans to forget the op- pressive, deceiving context of racist America and mobilize with the many similarly-oppressed colored people of the world. Eldridge Cleaver spoke the truth that Blacks were and are basically a class of people being repressed through economics as well as race. So did Scott-Heron, who wrote the domina- revolutionary factors he champi- oned as a "Winter In America" on the album The First Minute of a New Day. See REVOLUTION, Page 7 T-SHIRT PRINTERY * QUALITY GARMENT PRINTING AT REASONABLE PRICES ONE WEEK DELIVERY ON MOST ORDERS ' OUR ARTISTS WORK WITH YOU TO PRODUCE SHIRTS YOU CAN BE PROUD OF k COMPLETE LINES OF 100% COTTON & 50/50 QUALITY WEARABLES 11 4 *WE FEATURE THE HANES BEEFY - T 994-1367 1002 PONTIAC TRAIL ANN ARBOR. *MINIMUM ORDER 12 SHIRTS "-"0-0" " The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is the major intelli- gence organization within the Department of Defense. Our mission? We manage the collection of foreign military intelligence vital to the formulation and execution of national security policy, and provide the analysis, processing, and dissemination of this information. Help us continue to keep the United States on top of impor- tant defense-related issues by joining us in one of the fol- lowing positions: Intelligence Officers; Imagery Analysts; Computer Scientists; Scientists and Engineers; Support Occupations (Budget, Personnel, Contracting, etc.). If you are graduating with a degree in one of the following academic majors, consider a career with DIA: ' Foreign Area Studies-African, Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Soviet, European " Computer Science " Economics * Engineering-Aerospace, Electronics, Civil " Graphic Arts/Technology 9 Printing Technology + Geography 0 General Physical Science t^" " Dhvcin