The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 6, 1992- Page 9 Irony-fest '92: Valentine plays with j MBV: Vague music in vague times ! Junks by Annette Petruso Washington Masala is " of racial conflict Mississippi Masala dir. Mira Nair by Marie Jacobson Mlississippi Masala will quite pos- sibly be remembered as one of the most intriguing films of '92. Featuring the Oscar-winning Denzel Washington and striking newcomer Sarita Choudhury, director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!) weaves a compelling tale 6f homesickness, romance and racial tension. Demetrius (Washington) and Mina (Choudhury) have fallen in love. He owns his own carpet-clean- ing business; she works for family friends in a small roadside motel in Greenwood, Mississippi. That's the plot. Oh yeah - Demetrius is black, and Mina is Indian. And when their relationship is * discovered, their families react with scorn and derision. As individuals and as lovers, Demetrius and Mina are left to determine their place in a world that refuses to dismiss differ- ences in skin pigmentation. As Demetrius, Washington gives his responsible young carpet-cleaner a magnetic charm that electrifies his on-screen romance with Choudhury. And with an awkward sweetness, Choudhury competently portrays the restlessness of Mina's life. Masala artfully explores a formidable subject with courage and originality. Prejudice, Nair insists, is not merely a problem that rears its ugly head in white and Black- Hispanic-Asian relationships; it is a learned evil that lurks deep within all our hearts, waiting to be exorcised. There are no easy answers. Masala has come under fire in the Indian-American community for its uninhibited portrayal of the diffi- culties between Mina and her family. Nair seems to run roughshod over traditional values, insisting happi-. ness in America lies not in time- honored custom but successful as- similation of mainstream American mores. Perhaps the best way to view the movie, then, is to remember that Ma- sala is no more about the experience of all Indian-Americans than it is the story of all African-Americans. The film is a story of individuals strug- gling with cultural disparities and their place in the world. Masala is a spicy dish, one that challenges all of us to reconcile our differences - real and imagined - with understanding and compassion, not indigestion. MISSISSIPPI MASALA is playing at Briarwood and Showcase. W hen trying to come to terms with something unearthly, power- ful, and truly unlike most organized euphoria - namely the "music" that My Bloody Valentine makes - one resorts to adjectives and catch phrases: subtle yet simple; complexly elusive; androgynous; nonchalant yet serious; feedback; songs that never end yet are a whole unto themselves; or overblown yet understated. Talking to MBV's Kevin Sheilds, the band's leader/co-gui- tarist/co-vocalist/sampler, it be- comes obvious that the "music" un- cannily reflects the man, and per- haps, the present state of the world. Sheilds' halting, quiet speech as we talked on the phone from his hotel room in Chicago echoes Loveless (MBV's new album) and the bliss- ful ambiguity of guitar wash. On Loveless, lyrics dissolve into the music to form a complete sound of alternate reality. Though other guitar bands like Swervedriver blur songs similarly, MBV takes the idea to its logical fruition in its complete break with the past. "Words are important to us be- cause that's the only way we can be confident in what we're doing," Sheilds explains. But "once we feel that we've done justice to what we think and that we don't think a lot of rubbish, then ... the importance of people understanding stops pretty much there." Hence fan's complaints that they couldn't make out the words on MBV albums. Sheilds says that the band couldn't understand why. Dischordah by Skot Beal I got the first Jawbox disc, Grippe, because I had heard a few of their songs and they were pretty cool, and it only costs about eight or nine bucks at most record stores. At first I wasn't completely hooked, but it's the kind of thing that just gets better the more you listen to it. Now I play it about ev- ery other day, and I'd say it's one of the best investments I've made. Jawbox is kind of melodic and kind of punk, but whatever you call it, it's really powerful, really cool. One immediate question that comes to mind when you see this disc in the "J" bin at Schoolkids is, "What the hell kind of name is 'Jawbox' ?" "We pulled that name out of a Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," explains Kim Coletta, the band's bass player, "and it is Scottish slang for the talk that goes on around the sink when you're washing up the dishes." When Grippe was released, Jawbox was a three-piece consist- ing of Coletta, Adam Wade on drums, and Jay Robbins on guitar "For us, it was like people could've just easily come out and said, 'Oh yeah that band who re- fused to use any distortion whatso- ever.' ... It's like, 'What,' that means nothing, that sounds ridicu- lous, you know? ... Now it's like I can see what they're talking about. It's kind of ironic." What MBV's songs are really about, then, is as elusive as the mu- sic itself. Sheilds explains, "Pretty much feelings, situations ... I can't speak for Bilinda (Butcher, the band's other vocalist/guitarist/songwriter), but mine are just about ... say there's a situation going on in a room, right? And it's in the middle of a house, and you can walk around the room and there are four doors opening on to the room and you just kept catching a bit as you pass each door. "And say it was an argument. From the beginning of the argu- ment, you would hear enough to understand completely what it's about. It's like dispersive imagery all tied into the same situation be- cause it's more a description of the situation as opposed to the narrative ... It says something very clearly but hearing the first few bits doesn't make as much sense as taking in the whole thing in at once and that's why it's not a narrative ... a narra- tive is meaningful as it goes along. "... We take a lot of liberties with the idea of describing things." Drummer/Sampler Colm O'Cio- soig's minute-long instrumental track on Loveless, "Touched," has no ambiguous words or noises, subverting previous musical con- structions differently than the rest of the album. Mixing with the ex- pected guitar sounds, the program- med strings swell into a melody resembling a TV commercial or a sample from an old Muzaked version of classical music. "It's just playing tricks with a mixture of people's perception and their preconceived idea about what things are," Sheilds explains. "It was just made up on a computer. "It's just a simple, direct hooky, catchy part which is why you asso- ciate it with something on TV be- cause - bang, immediately you get the message, there's no time wasted. And the fact that it sounds old, from some other thing, is sim- ply just because of the production on it - making something that was very hi-fi quality sound very dis- tant, copied." Simon Reynolds writing in the New York Times claims that the meaning and relevance of MBV's vigorously understated musical and lyrical din reflects social undercur- rents in Britain. Sheilds, with quali- fications, agrees with Reynolds' idea. "Music most certainly reflects times more than it's ever given credit for, without question," Sheilds says. "And the people who are laughable miss that context, they miss the fact that a lot of things are in context with their time and the people who most criticize it are people who are most unattached with their time. "Like in England, for example, there's an extremely pathetic at- tempt at recreating the sort of ex- citement of punk with bands like MBV's Kevin Sheilds, top right, says in England now "there's an extremely pathetic attempt at recreating the sort of excitement of punk with bands like ..." Jawbox? the Manic Street Preachers. There's is you're thinking about. It's a lot a huge list of bands who jump up more honest ... And in England, and down and play sort of energetic people are trying to suppress that beat rock music and the sloganism with a kind of cozy sort of attitude and sort of the imagery and the about what rebellious music should whole attitude is so fifth hand ... be about. It's a reaction against the sort of re- "The whole thing about the alities of where music is going ... Times and all that business, if we "Punk rock, the Sex Pistols or were living in revolutionary times whatever, was relevant to the time with a clearcut enemy to attack, when people ... thought they had an then I think music would reflect enemy and now people know there that a lot more. It would be point- isn't an exact enemy anymore. You less making a lot of music because have to figure out what is the en- it would feel very irrelevant, but it emy, even though it's there and it's doesn't feel pointless, what we do, in control, but you don't know ..." because I feel honest." Which is where MBV and other guitar wash bands fit in. MY BLOODY VALENTINE head- "These people (including MBV) lines a gig at St. Andrew's Hall on are less straightforwardly verbal Saturday. Also performing are with their attitudes and their mu- Dischord's Jawbox and Shudder to sic," Sheilds continues. "It's less Think. Tickets are $9.50 at straightforward because you can't TicketMaster (p.e. s.c.). Come think in a straightforward way around 9p.m., they'll probably kick when you don't really know what it in about 10. Jawbox softens your hands while you listen and vocals. In December of 1990, they expanded by adding guitarist/ vocalist Bill Barbot. Now they have a new album produced by Ian Burgess (whose producing credits include Big Black and Pegboy) due out in May, and since the lineup change the songs seem to fit together more. "I feel like on our first album it was kind of a mishmash of differ- ent styles," says Coletta. "We weren't real sure of the direction we were heading and I think I'd even go so far as to say that we recorded that album too early. Like we weren't ready to record but we were just so excited we jumped the gun; we had the songs. Stylistically, I think it's really kinda wacky. Now the new songs feel more coherent." Even if it took a while for Jawbox to find their musical di- rection, they have always had a handle on their lyrics. The words can be pretty elusive at times, and a lot of people have different in- terpretations. Though none of the songs are clearly politically moti- vated, sometimes a song will be described as being about "animal rights" or "global warming," which is completely not the case. These misconceptions are frus- trating for the band, because it seems like people often read too much into their songs. Coletta, who writes about half of the lyrics, says that it makes her feel uncom- fortable when people analyze them that closely, as though they were poems which could stand alone. "Lyrics are really importanlt to us," explains Coletta. "In some ways, important criteria for us is that they sound good with the music. In a lot of ways, to me, they're soundbites, like cool sounding phrases. "And not that they're devoid of meaning or anything; often they have great meaning. You know, pulled from my personal things or something I read in the newspaper. I get inspiration everywhere for lyrics. But it's important that they work with the music. Actually, we're not enclosing a lyric sheet on our next album. It's kind of an experiment. We just wanna see if people listen to the music more." One misgiving that Jawbox had about their first album is that the songs sounded too polished and didn't capture the crunch that they have live. The new album is more guitar-heavy, and they are much happier with the way the songs sound. On this tour, at least half of the songs they play will be new material. "They just feel better. Louder or something," explains Coletta. "I have a great tolerance for bands doing a lot of new mate- rial," Coletta continues. "I think it's really interesting. Certainly I want to hear the classics too. But we feel like maybe we don't have any classics." This tour's audience will be surprised by a rather interesting cover tune. Jawbox has covered several songs in the past, including Joy Division's "Something Must Break" on Grippe. "We're onto an R.E.M. cover now. We're gonna be on an R.E.M. tribute record. You should know that 'cause it's quite funny. There's gonna be a bunch of bands covering R.E.M. songs. We'll probably be doing that this tour. We do the song "Low" (from Out of Time), which is pretty crazy because, you know, that song has cello and bongos. It's fun. Covers to me are just temporary; they're like fleeting moments. It's just for fun. We never play them that long." Fun is something that is nor- mally not associated with a band on Dischord records, the label of Fugazi's Ian MacKaye. Bands from Washington D.C. are often expected to be overtly political, which is not true of Jawbox. Although they are very happy working with Dischord, Coletta explains that being on Dischord can be a minor drawback. "In some ways, all Dischord bands have to kinda fight the 'Fugazi disease.' They get most of the media attention and so some- times people take what Fugazi holds as values and apply it to all of the Dischord bands, and that's a very hard thing to labor under. People naturally assume every show by Jawbox (or insert any other Dischord band name) will be $5 and all ages. The reality is not all our shows have been $5 and all ages. Sure, that is the ballpark, but we don't always have the clout Fugazi does." 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