8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 5, 1994

God Street Wine
$1.99 Romances
Geffen
Imagine a bus full of funk guitar
players crashing into a bus full of
lounge singers. If the survivorsrecorded
an album, it would be called "$1.99
Romances."
The always lounge-like, often epic
songs on God Street Wine's latest al-
bIum can hardly help drawing compari-
sbns to Phish. Both bands use tinkling
pianos and barbershop quartet harmon-
iCs to give their songs a funky, piano
bpr feel.
In typical Phish fashion, "Crazy
Head" features the thought provoking
lines "Straight as an arrow / Sharp as a
knife / Am I the angel of death or the
Devil of life?" "Into the Sea" rocks out
for three minutes and twenty-five sec-

onds of Phishy instrumentals.
The comparison to Phish is not
meant to demean God Street Wine's
talent, however. Even if they weren't
the first kids on the upbeat, lounge
music block, they still play this rare and
refreshing form of music well. "$1.99
Romances" may just herald a renais-
sance of lounge music. Scary, huh?
GOD STREET WINE is appearing at
the Blind Pig tonight; doors open at
9:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 in advance
- Kari Jones
Jah Wobble's
Invaders of the Heart
Take Me to God
Island Records
From the co-founder/bassistof Pub-
lic Image Ltd. to session musician to
leader of the experimental Invaders of,

the Heart, it seems as though Jah
Wobble has found his niche in the
formulation of mundane hymns of reli-
gious pluralism.
For all its sitars, congas, guicas,
tamborums and "I am limitless in
space," "Time and matter, simulta-
neously the planet Neptune" banter,
"Take Me To God" is not remotely as
interesting as, say, the remotely similar
efforts of George Harrison over the
past 25-30 years.
Jah Wobble's bass-playing is good,
and heck, so are the first and last songs,
but everything in between is lacking.
Vocal cameos by GavinFriday and the
Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan, un-
fortunately, do not help things any;
"The Sun Does Rise" and "Yoga of the
Nightclub," the songs in which they are
featured, respectively, do not even be-

gin to hint at their full potential.
We have seen better things from
Jah Wobble in the past, but the aimless
experimentalism of verses sung in
Spanish and Algerian, along with the
album's existential spoken-word nar-
ratives, only serves to obscure the popu-
lar appeal of the songs, which turn out
to be more programming and produc-
tion than adept song writing.
- Thomas Crowley
Bad Religion
Stranger Than Fiction
Atlantic
Bad Religion is one of the most
underrated and underplayed bands
around. Their second major label re-
lease "Stranger Than Fiction" clearly
demonstrates their potent song writing
talent and their power as a great punk

band. It also put them up as a good
candidate for being overplayed and
beaten to death by "alternative" radio
and MTV.
"Stranger Than Fiction" is a bit
more mainstream oriented than their
last album, "Recipe for Hate," but is a
stronger album because of it. "Stranger
Than Fiction" is a great 40 minutes of
hard edged melodies, wailing guitars
and racing drums.
Throughout the album, vocalist
Greg Graffin sings about the problems
and inadequacies of society. On "The
Handshake" he sings "Every time you
shake someone's hand and it feels like
your best friend / Could it be that it's
only superficiality?"
On the first single, the title cut
"Stranger Than Fiction," Graffin sings,
"Life is the crummiest book Iever read
/ there isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap
shots! Pictures to shock and characters
an amateur would never dream up."

On "Slumber," Graflin & Com-
pany tryout a slower style, and the song
works well. The slower melodic vocals
blend well with the music, creating an
excellent track.
Other tracks like "21st Century
(Digital Boy)" and "Incomplete" push
on without getting repetitious or bor-
ing. The constant in-your-face attitude
and upbeat music keep "Stranger Than
Fiction" closer to reality and to what a
great punk rock album should be.
- Brian A. Gnat@
Slayer
Divine Intervention
American
Dead as a doornail. Dumb as a post.
Smelly like a dead fish. These things
are all clich6s. And so is Slayer.
As a bad a metal band as there is,
Slayer is, for whatever reason, infi-
nitely more popular than they deserve.
Everyone's heard of Slayer. Want to
hear a theory as to why everyone has
heard of them? It works on the same
principle as how people learn about
Barney. Because it's awful.
Cliched guitar, awful and clich6d
vocals, cliched cover art, it seems ev-
erything about Slayer is just soaked in
badness. Nothing like photos of a guy
who's cut the word Slayer into his left
arm and used his right to blot the blood4
to adorn your CD.
Well, the drumming is good.
"Dittohead" isasong that's fastenough
to blur the badness of the band. And
"Serenity in Murder" has vocals that
don't make you want to throw up.
American is too good a label to have
these guys on them.
- Ted Watts
POETRY IS COOL.


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Hey, are you a big fan of words?
Then you might enjoy the very first
ever Ann Arbor Poetry Festival (and
Spoken Word Extravaganza), "a
night of powerful and hilarious
contemporary spoken word and
acoustic mayhem."It's about time;
Ann Arbor has a festival for just
about everything else. Featuring
local poets Arwulf Arwulf (pictured
above), Ken Cormier, Lisa
Hammond, and many others. It's
tonight at 8 p.m. in the Lydia
Mendelsshohn Theater (911 N.
University). Tickets are $3.50 in
advance at Shaman Drum, $4 at the-
door. Call 313-913-4574 for more
details. Hey, poetry's hip; it's on
MTV.
WINTER

Continued from page 5
narrative to where it began with as little,
life-size jump cutting as possible.
This startlingly cheap, false con-
clusion threatens to transform a nearlly
endearing, if somewhat trite love story
into borderline cheeseball corn. How
unfortunate, because prior to that mo-
ment, it almost worked.

TY TYX -l


A TALE OF WINTER is playing at
the State.

:

6

ZEVI

Continued from page 5

A L W A Y
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"a lot ofyucks," said Ziporyn. Director
Rob Sulewski agreed. He also pointed
to frequent anachronism and a creative
account of history for the sake of com-
edy, which add to the play's episodic *
style. There is also a cast of 14, which
is larger then past RC Players' produc-
tions. The set, though modular in de-
sign, is reputed to be large for the
compact RC auditorium.
"The first thing is that it's funny,"
said Sulewski. Though he was unwill-E
ing to "spill the beans," he did com-
ment on the interesting way the playa
addresses evil. Sabbatai is a supposed
to be a maniac to the same degree as he
is a messiah, which can only make for
an interesting experience.
"Sabbatai Zevi" is recommended
to those students who claim interest in
philosophy, psychology, religion, his-"
tory, or to those afflicted with the hu'

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