ARTS 'The Michigan Daily, Friday, September 20, 1991 Page 8 Don't dream, it's over: house is crowded, but nobody's home by Andrew J. Cahn A fter a three year wait, another Crowded House album has hit the streets. Sort of. Woodface is in the stores, waiting for people to come in and buy it, but it's not exactly leaving with many customers. This problem plagued the band's previ- ous release, Temple of Low Men, in many aspects a much better record than their blockbuster debut, but lacking hit singles to carry it over the top. No one knew how to market Crowded House, either. Many of the band's songs are too abstract for Top 40 radio, but because of their two Top Ten smashes, "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong," many college-radio programmers also tend to shy away, thinking the group is too main- stream. While Temple can indeed be classified as a lost album which just could not find its niche, Woodface, is a legitimate disappointment. Every time I listen to the record, I do my best to give it the benefit of the doubt. You're right, I should be more objective. But precedent proves Crowded House makes great discs. Each song on the first two re- leases can stand on its own as well- made pop, filled with creative im- ages and catchy hooks. Songs like "Mean to Me" and "Better Be Home Soon" did not receive a great deal of attention, but many House fans would say they're both much better than "Don't Dream It's Over." "Now We're Getting Somewhere" and "Sister Madly" show the jazzy side of the band, without alienating those who con- nect better with the more straight- ahead tunes. So what's wrong with Wood- face? The songs are good, but there is really nothing on the album. which makes a listener get up and say, "Now THIS is a great tune." "Chocolate Cake" has been getting decent amounts of airplay and MTV-time, but the band's assault on American culture gets a bit over- done by the end of the song. Furthermore, coming from inhabi- tants of the land down under (home of Australian Rules Football, 25- ounce beer cans, that "Oi" guy from the Energizer commercials and Crocodile Dundee), the point of the song is almost ironic. Then again, Im not a big fan of the current grandiose/bombastic musicals, and I find truth in the song's opening line, "Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber." The best songs on the album are the collaborations between ban- dleader Neil Finn and his brother and new House-mate, Tim. The men write well together, and most of Just Before Dark Jim Harrison Clark City Press If English professors were werewolves, a full moon might turn them into Jim Harrison - a wild yet oddly refined and articu- late werewolf whose collection of essays, Just Before Dark, obsesses over food, death and the northern Michigan outdoors. He's been com- pared to Hemingway, but there's no secret code of manhood here. Har- rison is a sportsman and poet from whom stories gush unstoppably, even when he's trying to write non- fiction. Reading these essays, then, becomes something like going to a hockey game. You can attend in appreciation of technique or gore. Harrison's essay on revenge, for example, seems to aspire to a sort of broad social commentary, but really takes flight as a patchwork of vari- ous cold-hearted payback stories overheard in saloons across the Midwest. Harrison lets the original storytellers speak for themselves, as seen in one anecdote of a cuck- olded surgeon who finds his wife and her lover together and castrates the unfortunate man. It's all gross Stephen King-type fun, except for the victim. "My buddy had to move to Detroit, because now everybody knew. The nuts and bolts of the story is, he is now a girl. He sits down to pee and has taken up reli- gion, becuase the simple fact is, the boy will never fuck again." At its nerviest, Just Before Dark is reminiscent of Hunter S. Thomp- son's travel stories, as if gonzo journalism had relocated to Walden Pond. Harrison has surrendered himself utterly to the minute plea- sures of an appropriate cooking spice, an acid trip or the well-turned poetic phrase. The book is studded with detail: imprecise recipes sug- gested by a few crucial ingredient, or a prime Florida fishing spot de- scribed by the blueness of the water. For a castration-poet, Harrison never seems far from food. "Blood," he concludes, "is antis erotic except in a steak." Harrison seems to cherish detail for the noblest reasons. He knows life is short. For a poet under the shadow of the Upper Peninsula (hq seems to see it cresting out of the Great Lakes like some half-mythical incarnation of Hell), the Chateau Margaux tastes more poignant, the tales of Key West charter fishing more enthralling. But these side- trips are ultimately memories. Though you may be transported by* the essays on travel, Harrison's prose invariably comes back to that shadow - the wintry desolation of northern Michigan and the U.P. -. as a place in which to tell us his best stories and serve us his best food and wine. And with autumn coming on, that seems as good a definition of home as any.:A -Joseph SchreiberI It's a goofy back-drop, but Crowded House (clockwise from top, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour) is just a bunch of goofy guys. If only they weren't trying so damn hard to look so damn serious then they probably wouldn't look so, well, goofy. the songs feature lead vocals by both of them, not as duets or har- monies, but set in interesting "Four Seasons in One Day," is a sweet ballad cut from the same mold as Temple's "Into Temp- Coming from inhabitants of the land down un- der (home of Australian Rules Football, 25- ounce beer cans, that "Oi" guy from the Energizer commercials and Crocodile Dundee), the point of "Chocolate Cake" is al- most ironic sausage dog! And he can't stand Beelzebub/ Cos he looks so good in black... The numbers, written by Neil Finn alone, for some reason seem to fall flat. "Whispers and Moans" has an innovative bass-line, but is undermined by the dullness of the melody. "Fall at Your Feet" does not make anyone drop to his or her knees, and "Fame Is" is a forced at- tempt at trying to sound like "Radio, Radio." In fact, the only solo writing job which stands out on this record is drummer Paul Hester's "Italian Plastic." If you don't have either of Crowed House's other albums, you don't know what you're missing: go See HOUSE, Page 10 Young Fresh Fellows Electric Bird Digest Frontier I had never heard of Young Fresh Fellows before I purchased They Might Be Giants' 1990 release, Flood. On the track "Twisting," the Giants say, "She doesn't have to have her Young Fresh Fellows tape back." Naturally, after listening to this passage day and night for more than a month, I got to wondering about these Fellows. Who were they? Were they for real? Moreover, were they any good? I soon found one of their re- cords in the alternative bin - 1989's This One's For the Ladies. Since I had the utmost confidence in TMBG's musical tastes, I decided to fork over the $7.98 and take home my very own copy. As the piezoelectric needle in my turntable bounced along the vinyl grooves and made the paper in the speakers vibrate in a semblance of living sound, I found myself alter- nately surprised, confused, inter- ested and, finally, enamored: sur- prised because of how downright loud it was (another line in "Twisting" mentions the dB's, so I was expecting something similar); confused because this didn't seem like the kind of music TMBG would like; interested because the tune- were actually quite listenable; an( finally enamored because this was, when the plaster dust finally set- tied, one hell of a good album. I liked it so much I went out and bought all the YFF recordings I could find. Their music - which I can best describe as being punkabilly, sort of like Johnny Cash meets the Ramones - is catchy and inventive while still being comfortably familiar. They quickly became one of my favorite bands. I became suce a fan that I bought a whole greaten' hits CD because it had one prey viously unreleased track on it. But what would have happened it things had been different? For example, what if Flood had been re- leased in 1991 instead of 1990? In that case, my first listen to YFF probably would've been their latest offering, Electric Bird Digest. A4 after that I may have decided that they weren't worth my time. Aro then I wouldn't have spent allny money buying their albums. As you may have already guesse' I'm more than a little disappointeg with the Seattle-based Fellows See RECORDS, Page 9 point/counterpoint patterns. "It's Only Natural" and "Wea- ther With You" give the listeners exactly what they want to hear, while another combined effort, tation." Finally, "There Goes God" plays the part of the obligatory weird-song-on-an-alternative-rock- album. The chorus is just great: Hey don't look now! There Goes God/ In his sexy pants and his I 1 1 University Activities. Center t k1 e a t r e 1991 6pm Monday 9/23 in the Michigan Union Ballroom Impact Dance Theatre is for Co-Ed Non-Dance Majors For more Information, call UAC @ 763 1107 1 who what where when F Free movies on campus! Japan: A History in Film, a series of Japanese period films, kicks off tonight with Teinosuke Kingusa's Gate of Hell. Famous for its color cinematography, the film won the Palme d'or at Cannes in 1953, and is playing at 7:00 in Lorch Hall. Also tonight, the Program in Film/Video studies continues its series of Race Films with two all-black cast films by Spencer Williams, Blood of Jesus and Dirty Gertie from Hollywood, beginning at 7:00 in Angell Hall Auditorium A. Prof. Francille Wilson from the EMU Department of History will speak about Wil- liams after the first film. In association with its exhibit Rembrandt and the Bible, the University Museum of Art is sponsoring a showing of Alexander Korda's film biography Rembrandt, tomorrow evening in Angell Hall Auditorium A. Showtimes are 7:00, 8:45, and 10:15, and admission is $3.00. The Rembrandt exhibit runs at the Museum through October 20. See WHO, Page 10 10 The Young Fresh Fellows (or, shall we say, four aging goons in sunglasses) will fill many listening hours with excitement and joy. I- mm" After Midnight . . Since 1948 2Pd Like pizz was meant to b. . LATE NIGHT SPECIAL- Call after midnight, mention this flyer, and get any pizza with 2 toppings for only $6.95 (pius tax). Only at: U-M Central Campus 546 Packard at Hill AVOI RUSH! You are already accepted at = CAMPUS CHAPEL 1236 Washtenaw Court S .0 I 1a 1 .