10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 10, 1994 SE Michiganders Big Chief sets their own course with 'Platinum Jive' By MATT CARLSON In the late '60s, two wild young bands from Ann Arbor were creating quite a stir in the music industry with their raw sounds drenched with guitar distortion and angry shouts of admo- lar music emanating from Michigan (unless, of course, we want to con- sider The Romantics a rock jugger- naut). Big Chief is bringing their rum- bling roar of rock and heavy metal and funk and hip-hop to you, the people of this great global village, and brothers and sisters - you better be listenin'. O.K. Enough with the John Sinclair bit. Big Chief is perhaps the most unique band in the nation at the moment, and, with a few bands from southeastern Michigan starting to cre- ate astir in the music biz, the Chiefsters stand the biggest chance of breaking the whole scene wide open. We're talking the whole shamoozle here folks, the grand prize - MTV coverage, corporate suits shacked up at the Bell Tower Inn, talk of the next Seattle, a new Cameron Crowe film. Is this what we really want? Hell no! But could it happen? Probably not, but anything is pos- sible. The Ann Arbor music scene may be a bit too eccentric for the nation at large. Disregarding Sponge, one band that would even make the most avid Stone Temple Pilots' fan snore, bands from the area, the better ones anyway, are a bit too off-the-wall for the weak ears of the masses. Wig, whose major label release hit the stores last week, stand about a 20 percent chance of reaching star- dom. In their favor, they sound like Jane's Addiction without the smack and a better singer. But, their psyche- delic undertones and distorted vocals may scare off the average unsuspect- ing listener. The other faves of the area - Laughing Hyenas, Ten High, Mule - are simply too raw for MTV heavy rotation: But, couldn't the same thing have been said about Green Day three years ago? Stranger things have hap- pened then Ten High getting snatched up by DGC and Wendy Case becom- ing the new Janis Joplin. But, for the moment, Big Chief takes the title for Michigan Rock Ti- tans. On paper, their blend of metal, funk and hip-hop sounds disastrous - like one of the many Chilitallicanomore bands. But, on their recordings, and especially live, Big Chief has separated themselves from the rest of that jive. "Platinum Jive," in fact, doesn't exactly blend metal and hip-hop. In- stead, Big Chief has released a mag- nificent example of what happens when different musical influences converge. There are rockin' rock songs and hoppin' hip-hop tunes. Big Chief makes what the Beastie Boys are doing look like an episode of musical Romper Room. Guitarists Phil Durr and Mark Dancey (who contributes enough to Big Chief's overall package with some of the best cover art ever placed on a record) are mostly responsible for the band's sizzling sound with their raw power of intricate Hendrixian twists and turns. On "Lion's Mouth" and "John's Scared," Durr and Dancey have written some of the best guitar lines on a Big Chief record. Bassist Matt O'Brien plays some of the smoothest bass licks, which particularly stand out on the "Plati- num Jive" hip-hop tracks "M.D. 20- 20" and "Bona Fide" (which features gangsta rapper Schooly D!). Drum- mer Mike Danner anchors the whole wing-ding with a furious and steady pounding of the skins. What can be said about singer Barry Henssler other than he doesn't make a very convincing hip-hopper and he's been the subject of one of the longest running jokes in the punk nition at authority. The Stooges and the MC5 wrote the book on Ann Ar- bor and midwestern rock 'n' roll, and became the rulers to which all other Ann Arbor and Detroit rock bands would be measured up to. Now, almost 30 years later, an equally aggressive band of five rock 'n' roll pimps has come along hoping to break a long, dry drought on popu- At QUALCOMM, you get your own office and set your own hours. rock world. The joke is a whole other story ,hu: Henssler, on "Patinum Jive" is a man possessed. He sounds more polished than on previous Chief al- bums, which almost makes the album sound over-produced, but his vocal power and prowess is still inherently what makes Big Chief so much fun to listen to and watch. Fame and fortune may come to Big Chief, but the band hasn't waited for their star to shine on them. In- stead, they have made "Platinum Jive" a "greatest hits" album from 1969- 1999. Like Spinal Tap before them, Big Chief has written completely new songs and called them old efforts from previously released albums. For example, the track "Map of Your Failure" comes supposedly from the 1973 Big Chief record "We Gotta Impeach Nixon." And the humorous disco-lounge tune "Simply Barry" comes from the 1983 Barry Henssler solo album "The Sexual Intellectual." These liner-notes are just an added bonus from a great album that gets better with every listen. The comparison to the Stooges and MC5, however, is unfair and mis- leading. Big Chief and their '60s coun- terparts are both from the local scenes in the different decades that spawned them. Comparisons should stop there. Big Chief borrows nothing musical from the other two except pure en- ergy and raw power. Big Chief has set their own course with "Platinum Jive," a record that is nothing short of a musical triumph. MEAT Continued from page 9 The Meat Puppets mangling of rock, country and punk give them a wild and unexpected twist. From the lead track, the metal edged "Violet Eyes" to the 'down on the farm' style of "Comin' Down," the Pupps syn- thesize a blend of new and old rock on "Too High." "We were just one of the more natural bands that started taking rock 'n' roll music and refiltering it, rather than just being anti-in-the-past. In- stead of being reactionary, we were more progressive," Bostrom said. Although they claim to be "the most influential of all punk bands;" the Meat Puppets have definitely in- spired some of the best. When Nir- vana was rehearsing for MTV's Un- plugged last fall, Cobain pulled the Pupp brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood in to play two of their older songs for the broadcast. "We were on tour with them, and they wanted to do some of our songs, and it was easier for us to just come 0 along. It was just a fun idea," Bostrom said. "Rather than having to bear the burden of the whole show on them- selves, they got us to come on and do some of it for them." Among other celebrity fans is shock jock/guitar virtuoso Howard Stern, who jumped up on stage with the group during a New York show, and then played with them on his own radio show the next morning. "Howard came to our show in New York, and we invited him up on stage to jam," Bostrom said. "He was bored, so he came up and did it. He wasn't plugged in, but he pretended to play." After 14 years of recording, tour- ing and partying hard, the Meat Pup- pets still haven't worked their way into their own sweet oblivion. "I don't think we've paid our dues yet," Bostrom said. "As soon as ev- eryone is off our backs, and do what we want, then we'll have paid our dues. I don't think humans ever pay their dues. We're all part of the hu- man race, and we all have to endure together. Life doesn't get easier just because you get beamed into people's TV sets." The MEAT PUPPETSYwill be at St. Andrew's Hall on Thursday, October 13. Tickets are only $10 in advance, doors open at 8 p.m., and the show is 18 and over. Call 961- MELT. "Thl you get to prove you'r Wworth it." -TOWi11l""1"1"1, a "ftwanengneer, oed QUALCOMAI in 1991, hating graduated from the Uniz'ersitiy of Illinois with a BSEE and an MSCS. Currently, she's helping detelop embedded sYsten software in su1rt of QUALCOMM s COA cell operation. What kind of company works like that? Find out for yourself. Attend a special preview of the QUALCOMM story at 5:15 PM, October 12, EECS Building, Room1301 the night before our on-campus interviews. What happens when you give extraordinary engineers an exceptional amount of autonomy and support? They innovate like crazy. Then their company takes off and grows like few others have. Case in point: QUALCOMM in San Diego, the leader in wireless communications. We've gone from 8 employees in 1985 to more than 1,700 today. That makes us one of the fastest-growing high-tech companies in America. It also doesn't hurt to have the company launched by communications visionaries like Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs and Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi. The trick, of course, is to keep the entrepreneurial spirit flourishing despite phenomenal growth. That's why we have an open-door policy company-wide and why we give each engineer the privacy of an individual office plus the latitude to set his or her own office hours. In response, QUALCOMM engineers have spurred the advancement of a broad range of far reaching technologies and projects. We've developed Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital technology into the most spectrum-efficient system in cellular telephony. CDMA is also key to other QUALCOMM ventures, such as our OmniTRACS* mobile satellite communications networks, Personal Communications Systems (PCS), wireless local loop systems, and Globalstar, a world wide 48-satellite low earth orbit (LEO) communications system. We'll throw in the ocean-free. Along with a highly stimulating work environment, you'll also enjoy the Southern California lifestyle, which features one of America's most temperate climates. And QUALCOMM is less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean. If you're working towards a degree in Electrical/ Electronics Engineering, Computer Science or Computer Engineering, be sure to attend our special preview the night before our on-campus interviews. You may also mail, fax or send us your resume with transcripts by internet. QUALCOMM; Human Resources, Dept. CF94UMICH (indicate Dept. code on both cover letter and envelope), 6455 Lusk Blvd., San Diego, CA 92121. FAX: (619) 658-2110. Internet: jobs@qualcomm.com Or call our Jobs Hotline at (619) 550-8888. Equal Opportunity Employer. Next generation digital communications. 14 I