12- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 14, 1996 RECORDS Continued from Page 11. black artists' hits of days eternal to form a two-CD miracle of 36 songs is no-.easy task. But what BET has pro- duced is but a hair shy ofperfect. Granted there are a few points of concern. The Temptations and Gladys Knight and the Pips aren't featured, but I'll forgive them this. What I won't forgive is some of the weak stuff on here. How could you put Jermaine Jackson's dopey "Let's Get Serious" beside Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster"? How could you put Aaliyah's non-singing butt ("Back and Forth") on the same CD that balladeer extraordinaire, . Luther Vandross ("Here and Now"), graces? Such lapses injudgment would be inex- cusable if most of the rest of this album weren't as great as it is. If some, or even most, of these song titles don'tjogyourmemory, don't worry. Once you start hearing those beats that only the old school could make, trust me, you'll remember. I'm coming out of my box like this: It's only February, and I don't see another oldies CD coming out for the rest of 1996 that will be able to touch this one. "BET's 15th Anniversary Music Celebration" is that hot. - Eugene Bowen Various Artists Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits MCA 'While the concept ofalternative rock- ers rerecording classic cartoon theme stings sounds like some type of cheesy disaster, the wild and crazy tracks on "Saturday MorningCartoons' Greatest Hits" turned out to be the best tribute or cover album in the past few years. The 19-track album has a song for just about everyone. Whether you're a fart of the band or the theme song they cover, "Saturday Morning" is a trip back to the old days when Saturday mornings meant findingyourselfin front 'Spider Woman' kisses the heart Basement Arts produces moving romance Bearing our perenial favorite pair of kneecaps, here is the lovely Ms. Phair. By Mitchell Katz For the Daily Manuel Puig's 1976 novel "Kiss of the Spider Woman," which inspired the 1985 film starring Raul Julia and Will- iam Hurt, as well as the recent Broad- way musical extravaganza by John Kander and Fred Ebb, was presented in theater-in-the-round form last week- end in the Frieze Building's Arena The- ater. It is the intimate story of two men of completely opposite sensibilities who teach each other about self-respect and self-sacrifice while incarcerated to- gether in a Latin American prison. Be- sides a warden, whose voice is only heard offstage, the two men are the sole characters in the play. Molina (T. Adam Hess) is a homo- sexual window dresser who has been imprisoned for molesting a minor. A seemingly frivolous man, he flees his grim reality by escaping into camp movies. His cellmate, a political pris- oner named Valentin (Alexander Alioto), is a man of action who dreams about getting information out to his guerrilla comrades. It would appear that Valentin's revolutionary ideals would conflict with everything his cellmate initially represents. As opposite as these two men seem, a curious friendship begins to grow between them, and this production es- tablishes their increasing affections for each other with grace. Molina shares his food with Valentin and nurses him when he is sick, tenderly cleaning up it REVIEW Kisof the Spider Woman Arena Theater Feb. 9, 1996 his cellmate after Valentin involuntary defecates. To try to comfort Valentin and to help him forget his pain and misery, Molina tells him the stories of his favor- ite old movies. Throughout the entire play, scenes of powerful dialogue be- tween the two men are interspersed with these campy recountings of Molina's fondly embroidered Holly- wood movies. For the flamboyant Molina, stuck in this grim, shadowed cell, these films are his imaginary es- cape from his present despair. How- ever, as the play progresses, Molina begins to recite these movie plots more for Valentin's benefit than for his own. Toward the end of the play, Molina's dream of being with a heterosexual man is fulfilled when Valentin has sex with him. In amovingelosing scene Valentin even grants Molina his request for a kiss. Valentin succumbs partly out of benevolence and partially out of a need for the warmth and uncritical generos- ity that Molina floods him with. As Molina, T. Adam Hess first en- tered in a kimono and red scarf. He proceeded to disarm the audience with of the television, and not lying next to the toilet on the bathroom floor. Liz Phair and Material Issue kick off the album with their rendition of"The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" from "The Banana Splits." Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly's roaring rendition of "Josie and the Pussycats" is also one of the albums best, staying very true to the original. Mary Lou Lord and Semisonic's "Sugar Sugar" from "The Archie Show" is another great track. Matthew Sweet's "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" is a classic, as is Dig's "Fat Albert Theme." The Violent Femmes' "Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (Means I Love You)" from "The Jetsons" kicks butt, as does Sublime's "Hong Kong Phooey." Some more unusual pairings include the Ramones' "Spider-Man," Rever- end Horton Heat's "Jonny Quest / Stop That Pigeon," from "Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines," Helmet's "Gigantor," and the "Under- dog" theme by the Butthole Surfers. Sponge's "Go Speed RacerGo," lacks the luster of the majority of the album. Collective Soul's"The Bugaloos" is what you'd expect from Collective Soul, and Face to Face's "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" is disappointing. Othersby Frente!, Tripping Daisy, Toadies and The Mur- murs are decent, but get lost among the other superb tracks. Wax's rendition of Ren and Stimpy's "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" wraps up "Saturday Morning" with a wacky ver- sion of the album's most recent theme song. The songs are pretty good, but "R & S" enthusiasts may think the cartoon version is superior. Nevertheless, the album succeeds in a fun-filled trip down memory lane that makes you wish all these great cartoons were still on TV and not just in our quickly aging minds. - Brian A. Gnatt Possum Dixon Star Maps Interscope / Surf Detective Records No, "Go West," the lead song on "Star Maps," isn't another tongue-in- cheek rehash of the old Village People tune. It's a moody, rocking ditty that seems to be about lead singer (and songwriter) Rob Zabrecky describing people that he sees coming out of the bathroom at a dance club. Unfortunately, nothing is what it seems in Possum Dixon's universe. The Los Angeles four piece goes beyond the "new wave of new wave" label, incorporating the keyboards and clean guitar sounds of '80s pop with a '90s slacker sensibility. The result is what new wave legend Nick Lowe would call "pure pop for now people." With "Star Maps," Possum Dixon fur- thers the notion that keyboards aren't just for wimps. The 12 songs are filled with so many delicious pop hooks that it's hard not to listen without licking your lips. Offsetting the catchy music are Zabrecky's cryptic lyrics, the kind of lyrics that keep you guessing listen after listen. Much like The Pixies, the best pop band ever (in my humble opinion), Possum Dixon's lyrics fit the music, even when they don't make a lot of sense. Anyone that can turn the words "I saw them putting their hands together,"]into a chant-along chorus scores points with me. his portrayal of this outsized, manner- ism-enthralled character. By turns his-u trionic, confessional, flirty and coy, Hess was completely convincing as the flamboyant homosexual in love with Hollywood dreck. Although Hessmigl have overdone the queenly poses, he never crossed the line into outright gay caricature. Alexander Alioto conveyed a great emotional range as Valentin, in a per- formance that was both passionate and" commendably restrained at times. Di- rector Karina Miller's casting of Hess and Alioto was perfect, as Molina and Valentin both emerged as fully drawn, credible figures. Miller created a surprisingly taut a0 mosphere for a play that consisted al- most entirely of dialogue between the two characters, and which in less ca- pable hands could have made for quite' a dull evening. During scene changes, clips for the classic suspense thriller "Cat People"played in the background, setting an atmosphere of romantic, if somewhat bizarre intrigue. This story of the curious friendsh~ that develops between two odd-coup prisoners - the theatrical window dresser and the self-righteous revolu- tionary - ensnared its audience in a web of politics, sexual identities and camp movies. This production of"Kiss of the Spider Woman" was a powerful dramatization of Manuel Puig's classic story, and provided a gripping night of entertainment for those who were lucky' enough to catch it. VIOLA Continued from Page 11 would be pretty happy with is the chancy, to quit their day jobs. About the band's goals, Tolzdorf said, "My ethics have certainly changed. I'm to a point where, I'd like to make a living by making music." Loncar chimed in, "We'd lik6 to move up another level, to be onI bigger label like Matador, since they're one of the biggest independent labels out there. To be one of the bigger bands on that scale, to support ourselves with our music, is what we want." That chance may be coming Viola; Peacock's way soon. Loncar summed up the band's plans for the near future: "The new album is coming out in June or July on Bedazzled Records. We'll probably tour a lot then, through Michigan a* Ohio and the East coast." If the finished album is as exciting as the tracks they've recorded so far, the music Viola Peacock has supported for so long could finally' end up supporting them. The album stand-out and most obvi- ous breakthrough single is "Emergency's About To End." Zabrecky sings "Your emergency's about to end / Earlier this evening in your bed," over a smooth mellotron line that gives the song the perfect amount of atmosphere without coming off as overly cheesy. It's a perfect example of Possum Dixon's mixture of the old and the new into an original, distinct style. Another stand-out is "Reds," the clos- est thing on "Star Maps" that comes to an all-out love song. It starts out with Zabrecky's singing,"If 17 was my magic number / I would give it to you in a box," overa slow acoustic-guitarpart that sounds almost countryish. Almost. Just when you think Possum Dixon's gone soft, the drums kick in and the song turns into a steady march. Zabrecky shouts, "And then the drugs kick in / At the university / Where the fuck did I dream you up? / Cause now I've got the reds," and we're reminded that, true to form, nothing is as it seems. - Jeffrey Dinsmore Remy Zero Remy Zero DGC The tornado on the cover of Remy Zero's self-titled album is appropriate: In noisy, distortion-drenched gusts, the band mixes folk-rock with the propul- si ve force of Dinosaur Jr. and the beau- tiful blasts of My Bloody Valentine. "Temenos," "Remy Zero"'s opening track, blends these elements with Beach Boys-style harmonizing to boot. Remy Zero achieves a good balance with songs like "Descent" and "Shadowcasting," which careen between gentle acoustic strumming and walls of shimmering sound. And on tracks like "Twister" and "Shadowcasting" Remy Zero proves that it's as good at writing pop songs as they are at stomping on their effects pedals. With a sound that's both abrasive and lulling, "Remy Zero"proves that dreamy pop isn't just for wussies. - Heather Phares Mstthew Sweet looks pensive. I 'I Reach your goal. Study abroad. T he choices you make today build your prospects for tomorrow. Choose to study abroad. An experience in another country will help you to visualize, define and C reach your goals. Take the first step and call for our free catalogs today. Specify Australia, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Austria, Mexico, or Peace Studies. 1.800.755.5607 http://www.beaver.edu/ cea@beaver.edu f I M >- OIL-