The Michigan Daily- Friday, November 22, 1991 - Page 11 Sunday :' " morning high -jinks Ren & Stimpy animate kid TV by Rosanne Freed W itness the fan who proudly displays the picture of a psychotic canine tattooed on her arm. And the *mesmerized group of faculty and grad students on this very campus analyzing latent messages of cul- tural fragmentation. And unsus- pecting parents lured by their own children into an obsessive relation- ship with imaginary animals. They've all fallen victim to something grotesque and glorious - The Ren & Stimpy Show, an ab- surdist animated series starring an extremely edgy Chihuahua and his stupefied feline companion. The Ren & Stimpy Show hardly made a ripple when it debuted on Nickelodeon this fall, but currently, it's the kid- die network's most popular cartoon, with an eclectic cult following who hail from Duke University to Dis- neyland. Nestled in Nick's Sunday morn- ing cartoon lineup along with the earnestly bland Doug and Rugrats, R & S is the flasher on the playground. The show is a rude celebration of the repressed, with ugly main charac- ters, bodily blasphemies of farts and hairballs, and unbridled sadness, jealousy and joy. Ren is a hairless Mexican hound with a Peter Lorre accent and a nasty attitude, who prays for "huge pectoral muscles" and lapses into Space Madness. Stimpy is his close companion, a big, dumb cat who carries around a box of edible kitty litter and shows See REN, Page 11 Nick Lowe The Wilderness Years Demon The rock music industry of the past five or six years can easily be characterized as a TV game show called "Digging for Dollars." Record companies are scrambling like crazed contestants to mine all the vaults of rare and previously unreleased material that they can include on retrospective box sets and CD reissues. This way, long- time fans - who already own all the group's releases - will be enticed to buy them. So far we've seen this happen with Eric Clapton, ELO, Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Elvis, Led Zeppelin, etc. Nearly every super-act of the '60s and '70s is amply represented in the "three R's" (Retrospectives, Reissues and Rarities), with the notable exceptions of the Beatles and, of course, Mr. "Cruel to be Kind" himself, Nick Lowe. Until now. Actually, not much of Lowe's material, rare or other- wise, is readily available. Never- theless, UK-only Demon has seen fit to put together The Wilderness Years, a hit-and-miss collection of Lowe's rare singles and previously unreleased outtakes and demos from 1974-77, so called because these were the years after his leaving Brinsley Schwarz (his first group) and before joining Rockpile. To Demon's credit, T W Y has a whopping 18 tracks - most of which are interesting, some of which are fun and a couple of which, unfortunately, are dumb. The interesting includes a slow- paced demo of "Heart," on which Lowe himself plays all the instru- ments; "I Love My Label" - a tongue-in-cheek jingle for Stiff Records (never used); "Fool Too Long" - a 1975 demo for Dr. Feelgood (rejected, but later appear- ing, along with "Heart," on Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure); and "I Got a Job" - a jazz-funk number Lowe claims he "can remember neither writing nor recording." The fun, on the other hand, is ex- emplified by "Let's Go to the Disco" and "Bay City Rollers We Love You," two songs that, accord- ing to the liner notes, Lowe recorded in 1975-76, with the inten- tion of getting himself fired from then label Liberty/UA. (It worked.) "Rollers," oddly enough a hit in Japan, is one of the funniest songs I've ever heard, and to me, largely justifies the $20 I spent on the disc. The refrain features Lowe - backed by a chorus of teenage girls - singing: "Derek, Alan, Eric we love you/ Les and Woody do you feel the same way, too/ You're making all our dreams come true/ Bay City Rollers we love you." Which now brings us to the dumb - "Rollers Show" (the slightly-less-silly follow-up to "We Love You") and "Heart of the City." Dumb, in this case, does not refer to the songs - both excellent, upbeat rockers - but instead to the goofball at Demon who compiled this album. Neither of these two songs is previously unreleased, and they are by no means rare. "City" appears on at least three other re- leases (two from Demon itself), "Show" on at least two. I mean, come on! When are record compa- nies going to wise up and realize that they can only repackage the same material a limited number of times before no one buys it any- more? Except me, of course. Where's the Who box set? How about a Pink Floyd retrospective? Oh - a Simon & Garfunkel three-disc gift box! Gimme! -Alan Glenn Love Child Okay? Homestead Well, OK! Just when I was about to recede into some heavy-duty studying as a way of life, while solely collecting Moondog boot- legs and souvenirs 'cause I thought the American underground had gone corporate, shitty, or away from local record stores, along comes Love Child, a multi-gender trio (OK!) carrying the torch of the American Rock Underground into said vinyl caches courtesy of the dis- tribution of Homestead. And girl, let me tell you: boy am I glad that flame is still alight! The boys and girl in Love Child often switch vocal duties. Alan Licht and Will Baum switch off be- tween guitar and drums in a non- sleep-inducing way. Rebecca Odes provides bass throughout, and the trio always adheres to guitar-bass- drums, throwing in an organ a few times. With these essentials they rock - seriously, funnily, hornily, sincerely, naively, intelligently, and yet, most importantly, non-dilet- tantishly. Rock isn't a fashion or a haircut or a 23 Envelope album cover for Love Child. It's ROCK - and that's all right. And you know it's all right when an album like Okay? contains a tune (called "Know It's Al- right") that probably could have saved that lad from Zen Arcade a trip to the institution, had he been able to slip through time and listen to it back in 1984. Ghosts of Husker pop up all over this album, like in the Hartesque power-depresso-bal- lad "Slow Me Down." But it's that "Know It's Alright" tune that my needle keeps returning to: Alan Licht dealing with some fucked-up fucking or relationship, as some chips of Mouldian Flying V barrage provide the solder to fuse Love Child into such a fine tradition. Love Child isn't haunted, though (at least no more than the rest of us). At other times, things get Hobokeny in a Mercer/Million kind of way: we're talkin' the instru- mental "2" as well as "Chris and Missy" - a Reedian some kinda love/betrayal tale as mimicked by younger folk. For those of you too young to remember what it was like existing when SST 56 (Flip Your Wig) wouldn't be released until next month, Love Child veers into primo Pixie/Breeder territory too, but I'm not about to hold that against them. It's not like Love Child is a bunch of trendy copycats or anything - they've been around since at least 1988 and they just happen to listen to the same an- The members of Galactic Cowboys (1-r, Ben Huggins, Monty Colvin, Alan Doss and Dane Sonnier) are almost as ugly as that banner behind them. tecedents as any other guitar pop- pers talented enough to get signed to a fine, fine label. But while the Pixies debase away into major label pointlessness, Love Child keeps that Reed-Richman-Wynn-Calvin John- son continuum continuing, or that hybrid hybridizing (yeah, that's a word) and you know that's okay. Get the point? Okay? is beyond OK; it's some of the finest indie stuff to be released, shall we say, this decade? Yes, let's. OK? -Greg Baise Galactic Cowboys Galactic Cowboys DGC Galactic Cowboys' self-titled debut album definitely reflects the band's Texas lineage. It's Country meets Metal. It's melodious acoustic meets guitar grind. And while the Cowboys are by no means the best new band, they have some original sounds and ideas which form a solid foundation for future albums. There's definitely a statement made by a band which starts its de- but album with a long, dissonant cow moo. The first song, "I'm Not Amused," is a mixture of eerie acoustics and hard rhythm guitar, with a harmonica solo thrown in to punctuate the Western influence. "Sea of Tranquility" features ev- erything a good metal song should - pounding drums drive a churning rhythm guitar, and the singer shouts lyrics with psychedelic backup vo- cals. Unfortunately, this is one of only a few tracks where the singers style coincides with that of the band. Throughout a majority of the al= bum, the mood set by hard, raunchy guitars and primal drums is broken by the vocalist's "teen-idol" voice. "Why Can't You Believe" is full Of punishing guitar, perfect for the an- gry-young-man theme, but the whole effect is massacred by the overly beautiful voice of the lead singer. In other songs, such as "Speak to Me," it seems as if the band is afraid to push its harder sound over the edge to heavy. The members build up on a good riff, but when it comes time for a scorching solo, the guitarist is unable to de- liver. Whether it's due to lack of talent or a bad decision, such short- comings are frequently a disap- pointment. There is at least one song where the Cowboys bring it all together. During "Kill Floor," the guitarist completely jams, even pulling off a sitarish solo. The drums, which are solid throughout the album, are right in step. Even the lead singer manages a primal, hard-rock screech. Perhaps the Cowboys need to get a little experience, have the lead singer gargle drano or undergo a voice change, and learn to cut loose. If this happens, the band's next re- lease could be a consistent, high- quality hard rock album. -Colleen Bos Lowe ',RT ORTEMCIGNDIY BAND Continued from page 9 "The best thing is that you learn responsibility and how to work as a team. Everybody enjoys being in Band, and I've made some of my closest friends in it. Being in Band as a freshman helps you to feel secure and not as lost. "The worst thing is that not ev- erybody gets to march. (Which is) also good, because it makes people work to keep positions, and (non- marchers) work harder so they can march." Although the Band is Rose Bowl bound, not everybody can go, so there will be tryouts next week to select the qualified performers THE MICHIGAN MAR CHING BAND makes this year's final home appearance at tomorrow's game. The University of Michigan SCHOOL OF MUSIC Sat. Nov. 23 Sun. Nov. 24 University of Michigan Men's Glee Club with Ohio State University Men's Glee Club "In the Stadium and on the Stage" Tickets: $8, $6, $5, $3 (764-1448) Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. Campus Chamber Orchestra Matthew Savery, conductor Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro Schubert: Symphony no. 8 in b minor, "Unfinished" Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 in c minor Hill Auditorium, 3 p.m. French Classic Series "Music for Organ and Trumpet" Michele Johns, organist, and Darin Kelly, trumpet Music of Couperin, Vivaldi, and Leoillet Blanche Anderson Moore Hall, 4 p.m. BEAUTY Continued from page 8 and the song "B Our Guest," sung in a broad French accent by Lumibre. The only major criticism of the film is that it undercuts its main theme - you can't judge a book by its cover - by having the Beast turn into a handsome prince before Belle marries him. I can't think of a single good reason for having the film end this way, except for one, suggested to me by a fellow movie-goer: "If the Beast didn't become a prince at the end, then how would they fuck?" Yes, I am sure the folks over at Disney had that in mind when they opted for the classic happy end- ing (a wedding between two beauti- ful people) rather than dreams of the film becoming the first "animated feature" to earn 100 mil- lion dollars at the box office. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST starts today at Showcase and Briarwood. Mon. Nov. 25 Chamber Choir and University Choir Theodore Morrison, Jerry Blackstone, conductors Music by Susa, Brahms, Holst, Argento, Barber and Mozart Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. Michigan Youth Jazz Ensemble Chris Creviston, director Music by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, Thad Jones and La Barbera Rackham Lecture Hall, 8 p.m. University Symphony Orchestra Paul Makanovsky, Matthew Savery, conductors Tue. Nov. 26 I I