The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday,_September 22-5 Music turned nasty MAGNAPOP By JOSH HERRINGTON When trying to contemplate our current popular music culture, it seems appropriate to take a good, long look at the past-1964, to be exact. Four young lads stepped off an airplane in New York to the sound of screams and bursting bladders; a popular cul- ture sensation was born. And what was their mantra? "I want to Hold Your Hand." "Ticket to Ride." "She Loves You." Thirty year ago, Ameri- can youth, endowed with a combina- tion of money, hormones and time to kill, embraced the projection of an ideal state where being young was a luxury to be cherished. With that image forever burned in the rich past of our zeitgeist, it be- comes possible to firm up the status of our generation. Teenagers still have money (but for how long). And those dazzling hormones are still raging. But something is drastically differ- ent. The mantra of popular music culture, the soundtrack of the times has nothing to do with holding hands. After spending only five minutes with the demi-god of youth attitude, MTV, we seem to have quite a mess on our hands: anger, depression and entropy. Johnny Rotten's 18 year-old brain- children, now thunder across the air- waves as teen consumers embrace "Jeremy," "Black Hole Sun" and "Loser." Kurt Cobain has extin- guished himself in much the same fashion as Sid Vicious (although they chose different means to the same end), but the public at large actually cares now - a lot. Nihilism in pop culture is no longer downplayed as it had been for most of the eighties ("Natual Born Killers," anyone?), but rather seized and exploited with aban- don as people inflict communal pain on one another in mosh pits. Those of us whose teenage years just bypassed the grunge envelope have been left dizzied. The temptation, as soon as this question is posed, is to dive head-first into the sticky, syrupy mess of Ameri- can culture, spanning the evolution of pop from Elvis Presley's famous pel- vic contortions to Eddie Vedder's bottomless, hollow gaze. In the end, the lineage of pop's angst can perhaps be viewed as what it is: a turn from the promise of youthful glee to the ac- knowledgment that much of the prom- ise is, in reality, a sham. First, consider Elvis Presley. Along with other heartthrobs of the time such as Sinatra and Jerry Lee Lewis, he was the first to make teen- agers go berserk. It is enough for us to begin understanding what was going on in the minds of Elvis devotees. He reassured them of their fantasies and, as he lived, stood as a kind of ener- getic validation of youthful possibil- ity. For the first time, American youths had influence over their own con- sumer market, and what they wanted more than anything was a King to tell them about loving and being cool. The next twist in the tracks be- longs to Mick Jagger. Full-tilt test- osterone. He was dirty, foul and adored -crazed women wet themselves and threw underwear without shame. The freedom to indulge in pleasure won over a culture and uproariously pro- claimed the '70s "me" mentality. The sexual revolution was underway, and the masses were united by the com- mon belief that war sucked. But at home,, it was time to have a ball, and Mick wrote the soundtrack. The next chapter belongs to a hero abroad: Johnny Rotten. The fun is now officially over ideologically. And a new counter-culture is hunting down everyone involved in the festivities of '70s indifference and holding them responsible for taking themselves and their pleasure too seriously. Although the Sex Pistols were not at first ac- cepted by the youth of America, their popularity in England was astonish- ing in lieu of their failure to be signed to any major label. Their influence on today's music is so extraordinary that it cannot be ignored. Rotten was out to show the world how pathetic and trite the '70s ideals of total freedom and excess really were, and a motley mass listened and believed. They preached the new, post-Stooges/ Nihilistic beauty Johnny Rotten Ramones/MC5 nihilism in the form of a blazing, drooling blur of aggres- sion. It may have been somewhat playful at the time, but now that rock has sobered up a bit, it's not so funny. Finally the late Kurt Cobain (it would seem as though Rotten and Cobain are inseparable entities, or rather that Cobain is Rotten embraced as an archetype). After a segue in the early to mid-'80s when Michael Jackson's voice and dance steps were so rad yet so hollow, a new voice cried out in pain, and people listened. The shift is clear enough, and yet so fascinating. Drugs no longer made life great; they killed close friends. Sex was no longer an event free of all responsibility; it was a grave risk. From the depths of Seattle came a new dogma of cosmic frustration, and the teenage masses bought it. At con- certs, they started to hit each other as Kurt screamed through the P.A.s and moshing became a teen standard. As nihilism hates company, Kurt's time as a rock star was duly short lived, but over the course of his abrupt career the attitude of a generation somer- saulted. Perhaps more than any single musician or band or time, Nirvana brought the music industry into genres never exploited and brought the frus- trations of a grim reality to a boil. Does this turn of events amaze anyone else? The simple fact that the pop music erection - a winding morass of extremities and excess which had been maintained for so long - was diced on such a large scale, is demanding of a double-take. It is time to wonder what in the world is next. Is there life for popular music after the fancy-free dreams of youth have been crushed? The answer to that may have to do with "anti-agenda" rock like the Pixies, but who knows for how long that will be captivating. Punk rock is a great thing, but one can't help but wonder what is around the next turn, what the next edition of the communal box-set of popular music will sound like. Continued from page 3 were just sitting around, trying to think up names and we thought up Magnapop. It wasn't the sort of thing where somebody would say, 'Oh, I thought of it first,"'explained McNair. "We actually had been thinking of the word 'magpie' which Ruthie was lik- ing, and 'Magnapop' was sort of built around that," Hopper added. But how did Magnapop get its start? It can seem to the public that bands just coalesce into being with- out hardly any effort. Hopper recalled how she got her band together: "It started with Ruthie and me. I was trying to get a band together, so we decided to give writing songs a try. David and Shannon I met through mutual friends; it took about a year and a half to finally get the band together. But we've been around since the beginning of 1990." Since so few people actually know what Magnapop really sounds like, do they ever try to describe their sound and attitude to anyone who hasn't yet heard them? The band seemed some- what upset by the question. "I just tell people to come to our shows," Morris said tersely. "Loud!" exclaimed McNair. "Just good, loud music. It's probably easier for someone else to describe us." "Why describe your- self?" said Hopper, looking puzzled. "I don't want to be easily catego- rized." A band like Magnapop has an ap- peal that is really timeless. Though they hate to be categorized, their sound is equal parts straightforward pop, jittery, hyperactive punk and thought- ful lyrics that reach beyond the work of most songwriters working today. One wonders what kinds of music influenced the band to become what they are today. "I like Sebadoh, Sugar, Royal Trux. God, we like the Beatles, the Stones, R.E.M., Black Flag - you know, just everything," Hopper said, smiling. "Just rock 'n' roll!" enthused McNair. The band seemed less enthusiastic about how their new album "Hot Box- ing" is doing commercially, however: "It's not doing all that great. I mean, it's not setting any records," McNair chuckled ruefully. "I'm really happy with the record, though, with how it sounds, the whole thing. I think it shows a lot of growth. This is our real first album," Hopper said, referring to their eponymous debut album, which is a collection of demos and b-sides produced by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Sugar's Bob Mould. Speaking of Mould, the band was able to score the major coup in the indie world of having Mould produce "Hot Boxing." But his involvement occured in a roundabout fashion. Ex- plained McNair: "One of the first times we played in New York, (Mould) came down to see us play. We ran into him again when we were in Rotterdam, in August of 1991, and we chatted with him. "But when it finally came time to do the album, we found someone else we wanted to work with and started recording. Meanwhile, we talked to Bob later and found out he was a little insulted that he was not asked to pro- duce the album. When things didn't work out with the other producer, we called (Mould) up and asked him to work with us, so we did." "It was like within a month of calling him that we were working and recording with him. He took us from a really low kind of state where we were at loose ends, where nothing was working out for anybody, and Bob made it fun, made everything a lot easier and better," said Hopper admiringly. Indeed, the band hope to work with Mould again soon, this time as the opening act for Mould's band Sugar, which is touring in the fall. So they're happy with their tour, with their album, and with their pro-. ducer, but one more thing needs ex- plaining: the title of the album, "Hot Boxing." Where did it come from? What does it mean? "The term arose during the Depression in the 1930's. People would share cigarettes in the soup lines and when one guy would try and hog the cigarettes, they'd end up being really hot because they didn't have filters. So the guy at the end of the line would say, 'Ow! Man, that's some hot boxing!' Also, in baseball 'hot boxing' happens when a guy is trying to run down all the bases," said McNair. "('Hot boxing') sort of ambigu- ously addresses feelings of tension and anxiety, but a lot of happy feel- ings too, like work and smoking and being nervous," Hopper added. Magnapop have experienced plenty of tension and anxiety in their past; it'll be interesting to see what the future brings them. The band isn't placing any bets, though; in fact, they're not really planning any sort of career moves. "We're not about that," Hopper said politely, "we go with more of what we feel; it's not calcu- lated at all. I think it's much better for us to work within how we write and how we sound, with all of our inten- tions of what we want intact." "You can't just sit around plan- ning the machinations of your career - at least we can't," McNair quickly added with a chuckle. Well, whether they planned it or not, Magnapop are a fantastic band, both on record and especially live, where there energy is best witnessed. Hopper is one of the most charismatic and attractive indie singers in recent memory; her stage presence is com- manding, but not overpowering. Morris is a true guitar talent, with a clean, powerful attack that fuels Magnapop's explosive sound. McNair is an expressive drummer, with a co- hesive style that brings the band's sound together while propelling it along. Seeing Magnapop live, one realizes that each person in the band contributes equally to their special sound. It's also cool that the men and women in the band don't make an issue of their genders, but just harmo- niously balance each other out to make their gigs and albums go snap, crackle, Magnapop. Don't miss them when (if) they open for Sugar this fall. r- '4 *Bagels *Pasta S *Muff ins *Soups eFrozen Yogurt *Vegetab (Gise-Glace) eFruit Sa *Deli Sandwiches alads ale Sal lads ads l 715 N. University 14 4% ~- r' . Celebriis r -a - A^ 4' 2 r-t7 ) iiauvmr FoMFee ts~ui Fri &ept 23'V~il~ud 9:30 PMDozQenA OP I AIDRUSH! You are already accepted at CAMPUS CHAPEL 1236 Washtenaw Court (one block south of Geddes & Washtenaw) 668-7421/662-2402 SUNDAY WORSHIP: 10 a.m. & 6 p.m. Wednesday: 9-10 p.m., Undergraduate University Student Group Meeting-fun, refreshments, provocative discussions. PAID ADVERTISEMENT What better way to celebrate the onslaught of fall than by visiting our