The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 23, 1996 - 7B Velocity Girl picks up speed, heads into Ann Arbor's Blind Pig toy Brian A. Gnatt Daily Music Editor They met in college - four young, hard working students trying to get an education, playing some groovy tunes along the way at parties for extra money, etc. No, they're not Hootie and the Blowfish. I said groovy tunes. And well, there was a fifth person, but hey. It's the typical band-formation story for Ve- locity Girl. In 1989 Archie Moore (guitar), Kelly .Riles (bass), Sarah Shannon (vocals) and Jim Spellman (drums) were all students at the Uni- versity of Maryland, College Park, and together with their friend Brian Nelson (guitar), they decided to make some music. That's where it has gotten interesting. With Shannon's sweet songbird-like vocals and the group's beautiful pop songs played through their jangly guitars, and don't forget lots and lots of hard work, Velocity Girl has established itself as one of the best pop bands around today. Named after the Primal Scream B-side, "Ve- locity Girl," Moore said in an interview The Michigan Daily that the group's name really doesn't have any type of underlying mean- VELOCITY ing. "We didn't choose F it out of any loyalty or FUZZY AN love for that band or Where: The Blin song. We just thought When: Friday, Al it sounded good and Doors at 9:30 p. didn't think anyone Tickets are avai would pick up on Ticketmaster, (8 where it came from and about a million people have," he said. GIRL, D CHI. id Pig pril 26. m. lable thro 810) 645- Both Velocity Girl's 1993 debut, Copacetic." and 1994's "iSimpatico!' proved the band was a force to be reckoned with. With the re- lease of its third LP, "Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts." Velocity Girl proved once again that powerful pop melo- ugh dies with good songwriting and 6666 loads of energy can take y\ou to the sky. "Everyone in the band feels it's our strongest- record yet," Moore said. "We feel that each record has been a noticeable step for us person- ally, as far as writing songs and things goes, so w e're all very happy with it. "It seems to be a lot more direct and clear," he continued."The lyrics are a lot less impression- istic and more understandable. Basi cally, I think we all played a little better on this record too. We had more time to lay down our parts and I think we were more confident in our playing." With each record, Velocity Girl improves its See VELOCITY, Page 88 peppyr, A zzy:4A p oppy 1lo.t By Victoria Salipande For the Daily Boston's Fuzzy, like most of the Northeastern U.S., has had to deal with the unseasonably cold weather that plagued the area this Spring. An inter- view with The Michigan Daily found the band escaping the frozen tundra of Massachusetts and taking a break from touring in sunny Florida. Featuring bassist Winston Braman, guitarists Hilken Mancini and Chris Toppin and drummer David Ryan, Fuzzy was formed in 1993 when Braman and Mancini wenttoseeoneofToppin's soloacoustic shows and decided toform a band together - a common thing for Weople to do in a hip city like Boston. Months later, Fuzzy's self-titled de- but was released on the pseudo-indie label Seed, a label Braman called "a masquerade for Atlantic (Records)." A move to the TAG/Atlantic label signi- fied the release of their second effort "Electric Juices" last March. With'the exception of "Pop a Dime," a song th'at Ryan sings, the pretty harmo- nies of Toppin and Mancini dominate KYElectric Juices" creating a sound remi- niscent ofthe Go-Go's during their punk years. And like Fuzzy's rawer debut, the album displays the band's ability to write immediately addictive power pop songs. Lyrically, "Electric Juices" isn't as B-52 ffies into area as Just Fred' By Brian A. Gnatt Daily Music Editor Taking a little vacation away from the love shack, B-52's flamboyant vocalist Fred Schneider is hitting the road with a brand new record and a brand new sound, potent enough to rust that tin roof and hard enough to crack the shell on the toughest rock lobster. On his second solo effort, "Just Fred," (*** / Reprise) Schneider's nasal singing finds itself surrounded by swirling Sex Pistol-distorted guitars and without the B's girlie harmo- nies to create one of the most original sounding and quite entertaining albums this year. "I think it's the best work I've ever FRED SCH done," Schneider said in an interview with The Michigan Daily. Where: St. Andre Don't worry though - the B-52's When: Friday, Ap haven't called it quits - quite the op- Tickets at all Tic posite,actually. Schneider, Kate Pierson outlets or by pho and Keith Strickland have reunited with (810)645-6666. Cindy Wilson (who was absent from the B-52's 1992 album "Good Stuff'), and are gearing up to record a new album sometime, hopefully later this year. In the meantime however, Schneider has been working with punk-noise producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Jesus Lizard) to record "Just Fred," I1 songs of the most serious music Schneider has ever recorded (although that doesn't say all too much). With a full record of wild punk anthems, featuring Schneider'ssometimesaggravating-yet-lovablevocals, along with '70s punk guitar and Albini's trademarked pounding drum sounds, "Just Fred" shows a great new dimension to America's favorite party band's vocalist. "With the last B's album, we had songs that had no humor - they were really serious and insightful and all that, but they're the ones that never get played because everybody just wants us to be America's party band," Schneider said. "You do want people to see more than just one side of you, and I think that frustrates the band because we have all these different types of songs, but it's like, can't we balance this out? But that's beyond our control. So for this I said 'Well, now I'm not gonna give them any joys."' With guest musicians Six Finger Satellite, Shadowy Men, Russell Simmons, Rick Simms and a slew of other punker and new wave pals, Fred pulls off his hard-hitting tracks like the album's thrashing opener. "Whip," and the goofier "Ra- dioactive Lady Eyeball." Other greats like the Pistols-esque "Secret Sharer" and the rockabilly "Sugar In My Hog." (written about the biker wars in Montreal), prove that even Fred can put some beef back into punk rock. "I'm not Mr. Upbeat Party Boy 24-hours a day," he admitted. "Actually, to do that, I have to go beyond myself. What you see on the stage is just an aspect of my personality, but I have to really NEDER SW's ril 26, 1996. ketmaster ne at push everyday when I'm touring. I'm pretty low key in real life." The pounding cover of Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" and the eerie sounding"Helicoptor"keep"Just Fred" interesting if nothing else. But it's the fresh energy and hard rock driven songs mixed with a voice you expect to scream "Love shack baby!" at each and every turn that makes the record a tub of fun. We are Fuzzy little devils. cute and sweet. The bitter lyrics to the hyper "It Started Today" and the lush "Throw Me A Bone" get covered by the sugar coating of the music. If the members of Fuzzy have any- thing to be bitter about, it would be the frustration they feel dealing with the bureaucracy ofa major label by moving to TAG/Atlantic. For example, a deci- sion the band members weren't happy with was the label's decision to release their cover of the Beach Boys' song "Girl Don't Tell Me" astheir first single, instead of an original track. "It's weird. You find yourself going, 'Well... It'snotwhat I would've picked.' But I'm not a businessperson. They must know something that we don't know," Braman said of the decision. Along with the frustrations of being on a major label, the move from Seed to TAG/Atlantic also gives rise to inevi- table topic of indie credibility. "I felt like we really never were indie. Are we (indic)? I just want people to hear our records," explained Braman, Fuzzy may not be indie, but their "Electric Juices" are sure to please the choosiest pop fan and go down easy in any kind of weather. "I tried to do really different songs because my voice is sort of identifiable, and I know I really have to do something," Schneider said. "Since I'm not known as a singer, and I don't consider myself that technically good a singer, I've really had to work at it so that every song really has a character of its own." Working hard to be different has always been part of Schneider and the rest of the B-52's work ethic. The revolu- tionary new wave band from Athens, Georgia, shook up the music scene when it began its crazy legacy 20 years ago, and it's still pushing the boundaries of creativity today. "That's where we were in Athens, Georgia in 1976 - we wanted to do music that was totally our own," Schneider said. "People would say 'Oh, they're bringing back the '60s.' It's like, we don't want to bringback the damn '60s, we want to move to the '90s. The clothes we wore were just a hodgepodge of whatever we could afford in the thrift shops since none of us had a job that paid more than $50 a week. Our sounds were cheap because we couldn't afford new instruments, and we6 just wrote the way we wrote. We listened to a lot of the new wave and punk things that were coming out, but we weren't going to do what other people did." A m