Page 8-The Michigan Daily- Monday, November 30, 1992 A reign of tiger cats and very few dogs by Kim Yaged "'No, she didn't,' Tucker yelped. She said, 'Eat shit and die.' 'Shut up, Fuckface,' Mrs. Murphy rumbled from the depths of the car- ton, the tissue paper crinkling in a manner most exciting to her ears.'" Tee Tucker (Tucker for short) is a Welsh Corgi, and Mrs. Murphy, the featured character, is a gray tiger cat. In "Restin Pieces," SneakyPie Brown, a tiger catnative to Albemarle County, Rest In Pieces Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown Bantam Books and her person, Rita Mae Brown, who also currently resides in that area, return us to the tumultuous town of Crozet, Virginia which they intro- duced in the first of the Mrs. Murphy Mystery Series, "Wish You Were Here." When murders aren't occur- ring there Crozet doubles as a rela- tively typical Southern town. Sneaky Pie, incidentally, is an appellation that surfaced a few novels back, in con- junction with a boxing manager in one of Rita Mae's solo efforts "South- ern Discomfort." As with "Bingo," Brown's sequel to "Six Of One," "Rest In Pieces" improves the original. It brings the intricate descriptions of "Wish You Were Here" off the page into realistic personas. The subplots are more in- teresting, even if it is always blatant when one happens upon a clue. Per- haps that's because the animals, of the four-legged variety that is, tend to be the ones to first discover them. Still, there'sno contesting the Browns' writing abilities. Even in the throes of calamity, the characters are still ca- pable of pulling off some of the most laughable pieces of shtick one can come across. Along with the furrier friends re- turn the humans (animals of the less furry variety): Boom Boom Craycroft - breasts bouncing boldly as ever, the high-falootin' Sanburnes, Sheriff Shaw and his sidekick Cynthia Coo- per and, of course, Mary Minor Haristeen, "the young postmistress" who goes by the name "Harry" be- cause she always wanted to be hairy like her kitties but somehow the pro- nunciation of the word never came out right. The most interesting evolution of character is found in Miranda Hogendobber, "a widow who thumps her own Bible." Her transformation is not as saucy in the encore perfor- mance as the other leading domestics, Murph and Tuck. This time around, Hogendobber is less likely to "pitch a fit and fall in it" from the sound of even semi-blasphemous remarks or to quote biblical text ad infinitum. Instead, she's more inclined to throw out colloquial epitaphs such as, "'The Devil has sunk his deep claws into someone, and forgive the old expres- sion, but there will be hell to pay."' She's even capable of making a dig at the neighbors in good o1' girl fashion. "' ... that dress must have cost her as much as a Toyota. There isn't a bugle bead left in Los Angeles, I am sure of it. Why, if you dropped her in that lake of hers she'd attract every fish in it."' Because of the harmlessly appeal- ing nature of the characters and the utterly domesticated routine of the residents of Crozet, one is inclined to accuse R.M. of going mainstream. Rita Mae Brown, labeled a radical feminist lesbian author in the seven- ties because of the unconventional subplots and characterizations in her earlier works, has always been de- scribed as a writer with a cause. However, in "Rest In Pieces," she replaces protesting women, such as in "In Her Day," with a country woman who can muck, ride and barrow. A homeless man whose last glory was screwing the high school QB, as in "Rubyfruit Jungle," is superseded by a beautiful male model who isn't phased by someone yelling, "'Fuck off, faggot,"' at him because not only has he heard it so many times, but "the gay men he knew were good people." Still, the smartest animals in "Rest In Pieces," including the human ones, tend to be female. RitaMae Brown hasn't abandoned any cause; she's just wrapped her message in different packaging in or- der to appeal to other tastes. It really isn't possible for Brown to "sell out." She didn't claim to be working on anyone's behalf. Besides, these days Sneaky Pie seems to be doing most of the talking. Wax What Else Can We Do Caroline Records Imagine a teen Fugazi with a sense ofhumor, early Social Distortion with- out the chip on their shoulder, maybe an American Jam in their folks' base- ment, sneaking cigarettes and listen- ing to scratchy punk 45s. On their debut disc, "What Else Can We Do," Wax set out to thrash you up with their slam-bang, good-time boys club garage rock, complete with a healthy dose of snot on the side. From the gleeful pop grunge of disc-opener "Snappin' Away," Wax pulls no punches and offers no apolo- gies. Low on poser pretensions and high on how-loud-can-we-play en- ergy, "What Else Can We Do" sounds like most of the '80's never happened. Clash and burn guitars, three-part harmonies, and hit-'em-hard-hit-'em- quick rhythms power Wax' sound. The stop-start hustle of "Hush," and the stormy mosh of "Continua- tion" are two faves. Also check "Home," and try to keep up. Lotsa thrills, no frills straight-up rock stuff. Dig that. - Scott Sterling Shelleyan Orphan Humroot Rough Trade / Columbia Last seen three years ago mysteri- ously opening for The Cure, 4AD wannabes Shelleyan Orphan have fi- nally returned with a third album that can be categorized under "pop." Until now, the duo consisting of Caroline Crawley and Jemaur Tayle seemed to have suspiciously classical ambitions. Their first album, "Helleborine," was "composed, directed and arranged" by Crawley and Tayle, along with a small orchestral ensemble. And any band that refers to Percy Bysshe Shelley in its very name might be taking itself a bit too seriously. "Humroot" takes the appealing pastoral sound of their previous work and combines it with a refreshingly pop approach. The string quartets and flutes are still here, along with Crawley's lovely voice (a voice which also dominated the final This Mortal Coil album). But on the whole, the tunes are catchier and more acces- sible, without the pretensions to sig- nificance. For some bands, "selling out" can be a good thing. - Michael John Wilson Sproton Layer With Magnetic Fields Disrupted New Alliance God, I love it when lost chapters like this bob up from the murky an- nals of underground rock. Not only is this an amazing, restored, substantial footnote in the history of '68-'74 Detroit energy rock, but it's also a prologue to one of the important ca- reers in modern rock - that being Roger Miller's. Sproton Layer was a freak trio from Ann Arbor in the very late '60s, the three adventurous Miller Brothers (father Robert is a University ichthy- ologist!). Roger is the most famous, being a member of the seminal Mis- sion of Burma. The other two held their own, too, in the post-Stooges nascent MI punk scene. Besides beautifully reflecting the best progressive rock of their time, Sproton Layer was pretty premoni- tory, too, particularly with Ben Miller's Televisonary guitar on songs like "Pretty Pictures, Now." That any- one you hadn't really heard of was making music like this in their time is amazing. Add to that that these were Ann Arbor High School kids, and then start listening some more and asking questions. Lots of questions. A reunion would be even sweeter than the photo of young Roger with stellar sideburns, too ... - Greg Baise Miki Howard Femme Fatale Giant The eighth song on Miki Howard's latest release, "FemmeFatale," is titled "Release Me." After listening to al- most 53 minutes of this put-me-to- sleep soul, that is exactly how I felt. I needed to be released not only from the typical love song lyrics, but also from the ultra-monotonous musical accompaniment. The album consists of 11 songs, each with its own writer, producer, and publisher. Unfortunately, even with such varied talent as David Fos- ter and LeMel Humes working on the album, it continues to possess the same flaccid tone throughout. * Miki Howard's voice is the one crucial aspect of the album that de- serves some~praise. Her talent can be seen in songs such as "Shining Through" and "Good Morning Heart- ache" in which her deep, smooth voice hits both high and low notes with a perfect edge. Howard pushes her vo- cal chords to the limit to give life to songs that aren't even breathing. How- ever, in the future, to be more success- ful, she needs to work with songs that possess an increased mix of key- boards, drums, guitars, and saxo- phones. Another positive aspect of the al- bum is the picture of the pretty, mist- covered, white flower found on the CD. However, unless you're really into CD art, I would wait for Miki Howard to start working with more innovative music before you buy her stuff. And who knows - maybe her next album will have an even nicer picture. -Nidhi Agrawal Underground Lovers leaves me blind 4AD/Guernnica Yup, another 4AD band, right down to the mind warp graphics and lower case title. But don't judge a book by its mildly pretentious cover. This 11-track collection of velvety, atmospheric guitar buzz is the trippiest to come from Down Under since the Church's "Heyday." No fey U.K. shoetop pop here - The UndergroundLovers noise works are propelled by scrappy guitars and crashing Mo Tucker rhythms that leaves.those tired, blurry Brits in the dust. "leaves me blind" is quite moody and ethereal, butnevergoes all weight- less and flies away. The washy jangle of tracks like "Promenade," and the sprawling epic "Your Eyes" dare to rock out unashamedly. There's the sultry dub of "Ladies Choice," while female vocalist Philippa Nihill steps to the mic on the mantras "I Was Right" and "Holiday." This disc is one hypnotizing, tex- tured head trip after another. Daz- zling. - Scott Sterling A suppose these members of Wax are getting toffee and 7-Up kick backs? I WRITE FOR THEATER TCALL CR/N BODYGUARD Continued from page 5 AT THE POWER CENTER, ANN ARBOR Hear ye, hear ye, all good people of the town! A masterful theatrical production of JTjiIV YT7PVoT'tI7VF t.I S fine performance as the kind of per- son you want your kids to be when they grow up. Whitney Houston's acting is the biggest and only surprise here. She can more than hold her own when on screen with Costnerand that's no small feat with the dialogue she's got to work with. Although playing a singer is no stretch for Houston, hope- fully her performance will shine through the myriad of boring se- quences. This film has more false endings then an episode of the Love Boat. Maybe 15 yearsago, when "TheBody- guard" was written it would have made a good movie. Today, however, the film is more of a made-for-TV movie than anything else. Staring Susan Lucci and Robert Urich it probably wouldhave gotten high ratings. Maybe even a series. But the film is going to make mil- lions. Too bad, although it will aid in speeding up the minting of the Kevin Costner Dollar Coins. Thank Clint Eastwood that Costner is finally go- ing to play abad guy next time. Maybe if Costner had directed - nah, noth- ing but leaving this on the shelf could have saved this film. What were the previews for ag... zzzzz. THE BODYGUARD is playing at Briarwood and Showcase. 0 t. R ES E RV E OFFICERS' T R A I N I N G CORPS t GET MONEY FROM YOUR UNCLE INST!EAD. Your Uncle Sam. Every year Army ROTC even pay a flat rate for textbooks and sup- awards scholarships to hundreds of talented plies. You can also receive an allowance of students. If you qualify, these merit- a up to $1000 each school year the 0 0 I IM, XT-.:;11.. A... « .t..