10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 23, 1994 GASHUFFER - IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS - - - --.- - --. Top 40 punk, you're a bunch of junk! Well, actually some of Green Day's and Offspring's white hot riffing approaches critical mass. But the singer from the Offspring, i.e. the Michael Jackson of punk, could stick his arm down his throat, rip out his vocal chords, wrap them around his neck and his singing would probably be 500 times better. We're probably just too jaded from hearing our neighbors crank the top 40 punk (and those way so alternative rock godz Candlebox) all the way to eleven at 3:30 in the morning. But that's all right, because we own Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music." Anway, this is all beside the point. Seattle's Gas Huffer has just released "One Inch Masters," on Epitaph Records (the Hall of Justice for top 40 punk). So, northwest sludge meets California gloss, and the result is well surprisingly excellent. "One Inch Masters" is like a rock and roll rumble, with our heroes Gas Huffer blasting away while Kurt "Rock and Roll" Bloch of the Fastbacks tries to reign the band in from the production chair. But nothing is constrained on this work of art. So, will these one-inch masters go top 40? In a perfect world, perhaps, but in this one, very doubtful. You can see the 'Huff at St. Andrew's tomorrow night with Ann Arbor's own Tiger 100 opening. Doors open at 8 p.m. and tickets are a measly $6. So start Huffing. It's not eay being Black & White! RECORDS Continued from page 9 just what happened. He signed these four jobless street musicians onto his label, and this, their first CD, was born. "From the beginning, I felt that this group had something NEW in the way of sound and feeling," said Macero. Boy what an understatement. "Soul of Grand Central" is a bril- liant hodge-podge of reggae, pop, jazz and dance music. The few cuts with singing or rapping do got it goin' on, but it's the soulful sounds which per- meate throughout the CD that will call to you. Especially pleasing is the ever- present showing of Zane Massey's saxophone prowess. Rapping on that Monie Love tip, Charlene Fitzpatric, who performs "Autumn Rap," does an excellent job of leading into "Autumn Leaves." This vocal-less, highly relaxing jazz would make Winton Marsalis jealous. The sax and xylophone (an instrument Ijust don't hear much of) produce the smoothest sounds you'll ever want to hear. "Don't Worry About It," "Salsa En El Grand Central" and "Spanish Love" spotlight this group's love of the Latin beat, and "Journey Home," the CD's final cut, with its soothing sounds, takes you home more relaxed than any Grand Central train ever could. Get this CD. Don't deny your ears what they deserve. - Eugene Bowen The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo Chant Angel Records The country that brought us the inquisition and conquistadors is at it again. "Chant" is an incredibly beauti- ful and awe-inspiring album that is becoming an "international phenom- enon" and has cracked the American barometer of worth, the Tower Records Top 25!! "Chant" is a timeless album that transcends comparison. No knowledge of Gregorian chant is necessary to be moved by the sublime qualities of this record. Listening to this record has the healing quality of a three-hour long mental massage; the "serene spirit" conveyed is a spiritual cleanser. The record was recorded in the monk's cloister and the acoustics are nothing short of perfect. The echo's and reverberations of the monk's voices only adds to the ethereal nature of their music. The music is incredibly mov- ing. "Chant" promises to be a European import of extreme importance. This album can be equally enjoyed by any person desiring a beautiful and healing experience. - Ben Ewy Sponge Rotting Pinata Chaos/Columbia Well, they're local. That's good. They're also boring, derivative alterna- metal. That's bad. The title track basi- cally consists of shouting the words "Rotting pinata!" over and over with some generic grunge chords thrown in; the rest of the album goes downhill from there, with songs like "Rainin"' and "Drownin"' failing to pique any interest; the good news is that one can tune out the band's music fairly easily. Their name is Sponge; why couldn't they have soaked up some talent? - Heather Phares Greg Ginn Let it Burn (Because I Don't Live There Anymore) Cruz This is the good part of Black Flag. Rollins is the not-so-good part of Black Flag. Rollins is popular and so now he sings loudly about stardom and hating his fans. Greg Ginn still labors in rela- tiveobscurity and so he sings in a voice that is very hard to hear about hating people in general. No less than three of the song titles on "Let It Burn"have the word "lame" in the title. His hatred is immense. His music is dark and heavy so it fits well with this thematic drive. His vocals are mostly overwhelmed by the music. Ginn sounds like he's been buried alive and isn't too happy about it. Overall, this disc sounds pretty good. It's very open about its anger, but it doesn't really overstep its boundaries and become annoying the way certain people named Hank do. Get this instead of other Black Flag fallout. - Ted Watts Nu Soul Habits Meant to Be Motown Just when you stopped visiting the R&B section at the record store - except to mourn the death of a once vibrant scene which produced Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Otis Redding - a group with somemerit appears. It seems that a few record company execs at Motownfiguredoutthatsalesofgroups like Jamiroquai and the Brand New Heavies - artists at least partly based on the soul traditions of the original Motown and the Stax/Volt labels - were not just a fluke. "Perhaps people actually like live bass, organs, simple tracks and funk" they said to them- selves. Hence, Nu Soul Habits was born. "Meant to Be" is certainly along the lines of the above mentioned groups but with a distinctly American flavor. It has the feel of some of the '90s funk and the sappiness of Color Me Badd and Tony Toni Tond, or a Stevie Won- der and Aretha Franklin with more ridiculous messages. The mention of these people in the same paragraph may be cause for con- cern; but the album has the feel of those artists. And it's not bad. There are some problems with the album, for instance alow quality synthesized saxo- phone which reveals itself without shame. However, on the whole it is quality and most importantly it is dif- ferent from the overproduced, mean- ingless, gushy music regularly pumped out of the R&B machine. This alone warrants purchase of the album (just to send those execs a message) and be- sides that, it's a good start to what will hopefully become a long lasting trend. - Dustin Howes Transmisia Dumbshow Invisible - Lots of scream-yourself-hoarse vocals, wacky rhythms, death-metal oriented drum machines and screechy guitar bursts from this Italian indus@ trial-metal outfit. Some tracks are remi- niscent of the Young Gods or Ministry in one of their more mechanical, guitar riff-oriented moods, while others are pretty much serve their purpose as ge- neric speed-metal. Like a lot of this style of music, you probably already know whether this kind of thing is for you or not. "Dumbshow" is nothing particularly new or groundbreaking, but there's@ enough interesting twists on old ideas here to make it worth a spin if this is what you're into. - Andy Dolan a '44 CGolox r amazin' blue is holding auditions for a tenor slot there will be a mass meeting on Sun. 9/25 at 6:00 P.M. in room 2105 Michigan Union For moreinfo call-University Activities Center at 763-1107 S TATrE ,T HEATRE *'., On State at Liberty.- Adults $5.00 Students wMID $3.00 Matinees -- Mon - Fri 4:30 -Y Sat & Sun 2:00 -A L L SE ATS $3.00 24 hr INFO 994-4024, . gow serving Coffee and Capaccino yallommum"m 'w '!. i Take this quiz:;. When is the next special occasion with your certain someone a) The U-M vs. Penn State football game b) The next episode of 90210 c) Sweetest Day If you answered: (a), then ask Qary Moeller to marry you. (b), then you need to get out of the house! (c), then you are as sweet as sugar! Prove that your are with a: 0 1] L on The Michigan Daily Classified Pages! Declare your love for only $1.00 per line (3 lines min. please). Your message will be published Friday, October 14. Deadline is 5 p.m., Wednesday, October 12. Look out for the form in upcoming issues. dnh!&- j _3 V! 7 Lesbian Gay Bisexual Programs Office & Major Events/ Division of Student Affairs present 6 te I -_.. I W RThe tribune I