The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 5, 1996 -9

t's tha
xolorado band
S tephanie Jo Klein
Arts Writer
Leftover Salmon won't stink up your
frigerator.
The many layers of the Colorado
/funk/bluegrass band's flavor-
ked jam-sessions might overpower
our senses, but your fridge should be
:fe.
In an interview LEFTOVER
'th The Michigan
aly, lead singer/ SALMON
itarist Vince whe-e BlndYPig
erman said the Sunday. D
oup's five mem- t 9:30 p m.
rslovewhatthey Tickets are $8.
as they travel
ndthe country
n their yellow school bus, stirring up
rowds as they go. "We like our jobs,
an, no doubt," he said with a laugh. "I
ean, think about it. We get to go up
here and pick and pull the best out of
eople, which is, get them to go crazy.
t's pretty damn rewarding."
Salmon's combination sound,
fhich they call Polyethnic Cajun
grass, comes from their experi-
tation with traditional music
tyles.
On their live second album, "Ask
he Fish," Salmon infuse Klezmer,
alypso and Cajun bluegrass influ-
nces with funk and hard-rock
hythms, using instruments ranging
rom the washboard to the electric
anjo and accordion. Salmon coined
he term "slamgrass" after one of their
lrst shows, where they played some
-rock tunes and watched their fans
s m dance, even to the bluegrass
ongs.
"I like playing all the styles at once,"
Herman said. "When you get into an
improvisation, you can tap into all the
rhythms and all the 'styles and sound
and texture at once. Our musical minds
are so mixed up."
"Ask The Fish" is a prime example
of Salmon's variety. The title song,
*ch deals with the fate of endan-
'Shang:
By Kristin Long
Daily Arts Writer
When you're watching a film with
subtitles you either get so consumed
by the story that you forget you're
ding it, or you get lost between
watching the characters and reading
what they're saying. Unfortunately,
the latter is the case with "Shanghai
Triad," which, combined with a less
than dynamic plot, offers little excite-
ment.
The story centers around a single
week in the life of a boy, Shuisheng
(Xiaoxiao Wang), who has been taken
REVIEW
Shanghai
Triad
Directed by Zhang Yimou
with Gong Li
At Ann Arbor 1 & 2

t smell? Leftover Salmon is back!
visits the Blind Pig with a mix of musical styles

a
0(

gered salmon populations, puts
Herman's improvised lyrics on top of
slow, trippy banjo and violin riffs, all
off-set by a spiked metal water-phone,
which yields eerie scales when played
with a bow.
Contrasting rhythms emerge through
the hyperactive Calypso beats in "Car-
nival Time" and
the fast-paced
foot-tapping tune
"Rueben's train,"
sung by Herman
ors open and harmony vo-
calist/mandolin
player Drew
Emmitt.
The influences
ofmovie soundtracks and cartoon theme
songs play just as heavily into their
music as old traditional melodies or the
experiments ofNewgrass Revival, Beau
Soleil and The Flying Burrito Brothers,

Herman said.
Conventional school bus and all,
Herman said Leftover Salmon once
played at a grade school during the
Merle Watson Music Festival in North
Carolina. "It was the funniest thing
ever. The principal of the school gets up
and points at them and says, 'Now,
these young men, they're going to per-
form for you. I want you to give them
your full attention. I want you to be
quiet.' ... Then he says, 'And now,
Leftover Salmon.' We just absolutely
screamed at them, 'Get up and dance! I
gotta dance! Ahh!'"'
"In a couple of seconds, the place
was just going wild. The teachers were
pullingtheirhairout," he said. Afterthe
45-minute performance, the principal
quieted the kids down and forced them
back into pure silence.
The 6-year-old band last played in
Ann Arbor during Hash Bash a few

years ago. Herman shouted with sur-
prise that their Sunday performance
comes once again on the heels of Hash
Bash.
Salmon's already energetic live
shows, Herman said, have been known
to be livened up more by marijuana.
"Yeah, we like to smoke pot," he said
hesitantly. "We've noticed there are
fans who like to smoke pot."
Sunday's show, Herman said, could
include "a few references" to legaliz-
ing weed, including their song "Pasta
on the Mountain," from their last al-
bum.
With an excellent show of funky folk
and loud Cajun tunes, Leftover Salmon
shouldn't be missed. Herman encour-
aged Hash Bashers not to stop the
weekend's festivities early.
"Our mascot, the Mayor McCheese,
has issued a proclamation that Hash
Bash shall continue an extra day."

a a

The University of Michigan
School of Music

Hide your kids. Leftover Salmon Is coming, and they've already got Bert!
Full of subtitles, short on surprses

attitude that you cannot help but hate.
The troublesome life of the boy adds
compassion to a tale of the gruesome
realties of city life.
When the lead mobster group finds
itself in a major predicament, the story
is shifted from the trenches ofthe city to
a remote countryside. Here, the chaos
of Shanghai is replaced by the regulari-
ties of rural life. We get a deeper per-
spective of Miss and Shuisheng, as their
standard daily activities constitute the
excitement of the film.
In a way, "Shanghai Triad" is a car-
bon copy of other stories about gang-
sters. It has the big boss, his ignorant
followers and his troublemaking
woman. Its differences lie in the fact
that the story doesn't focus on the
American, stereotypical mobs that we're
used to seeing in the movies. It's like
the Corleone family of "The Godfa-
ther," in Shanghai instead of New York
City, only it misses some of the key
features - like a fresh plot. Through-
out the entire film, we feel like some-
thing is missing; as a result, the plot
does not flow smoothly.
The excitement mounts as we see the
characters' lives unravel. The ending
enhances the film and actually has some
thrilling scenes that help compensate
for the rest of the film.
The music in the film frequently be-
comes rather annoying. Often, the back-
ground sounds help to make a film
worthwhile, but here, much of it stems
from Miss' singing in the nightclub.
And after numerous repetitions of her
same songs, we begin to feel like we are
trapped on "It's a Small World."
Watching "Shanghai Triad" is a lot
like watching a film for a foreign lan-

guage class. You have the subtitles so
you get the gist of what is happening,
but something seems to get lost in the
translation from Mandarin to English.
You spend more of your time trying to
follow the text and miss much of the

characters' expressions. Although some
subtitled films, such as "The Postman,"
work, "Shanghai Triad" is a different
story: It does not quite have what it
takes to make a strong impression on its
audience.

Sunday, April 7
Theatre & Drama
The Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard
Betty Jean Jones, director
Trueblood Theatre, 2p.m.
Tickets: $12-$6 (764-0450)
Monday, April 8
Saxophone Studio Recital
Students of Professor Donald Sinta
Recital Hall, 8p.m.
Tuesday, April 9
Opera Workshop
Joshua Major, director
Timothy Cheek, music director
" Foreign language scenes from the works of Strauss, Puccini,
Monteverdi, Cimarosa, Donizetti, Berlioz, Debussy and Mozart
McIntosh Theatre, 5p.m.
University Choir
Jerry Blackstone, conductor
Music of Gorecki, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, and others.
Hill Auditorium, 8p.m.
Wednesday, April10
Opera Workshop
Joshua Major, director
Timothy Cheek, music director
, American opera scenes from the works of Floyd, Barber,
Wargo, Beeson, Paulus.and Pasatieri
McIntosh Theatre, 5 p.m.
Thursday, April 11
Opera Workshop
" Love scenes from the works of Debussy, Paulus, Wargo,
Barber. Berlioz, Strauss, Monteverdi and Mozart
McIntosh Theatre, 5p.m.
Creative Arts Orchestra
Ed Sarath, conductor
Rackham Auditorium, 8p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, April 11-13
Dance BFA/BDA Senior Concert IV
Betty Pease Studio Theatre, 8p.m.
Tickets: $8-$5 (763-5460)
Thursday-Sunday, April 11-14
Theatre & Drama
The Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard
Betty Jean Jones, director
Trueblood Theatre, 8pm. (Thu.-Sat.); 2p.m. (Sun.)
Tickets: $12-$6 (764-0450)
Friday, April 12
Opera Workshop
Joshua Major, director
Timothy Cheek, music director
" Confrontation scenes from the works of Floyd, Pasatieri,
Beeson, Cimarosa, Donizetti and Puccini
McIntosh Theatre, Sp.m.
Symphony Band
H. Robert Reynolds and Dennis Glocke, conductors
Hill Auditorium, 8p.m.
Saturday, April 13
Faculty Recital
Margo Halsted, University Carillonist
" Courter: Cortege and Fugue in Baroque Style
" Diercks: Kongai: The Soul of the Great Bell
* Scriabin: Two Preludes
* Poulenc: Sarabande
" Folksongs
Burton Memorial Tower 7:15 p.m.
Men's Glee Club Spring Concert
with Michigan State University Men's Glee Club
Jerry Blackstone, conductor
HillAuditorium, 8p.m.
Tickets: $10-$3 (754-1448)
Sunday, April 14
Campus Band
Damien Crutcher and Tania Miller, conductors
Hill Auditorium, 4 p.m.
Trumpet Studio Recital
Students of Professor Charles Daval
McIntosh Theatre, 8p.m.

'#
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Vm his home in the countryside to live
h his uncle in Shanghai. Set in the
1930s, this film depicts all the stereo-
types of the genre: We see the under-
ground of the city as run by a group of
vicious gangsters who congregate at a
night-club where their leader's slut (
Gong Li) sings.
The innocent eyes of Shuisheng see
a world in which good doesn't always
prevail. The young child star has few
aking lines, but displays the per-
It mannerisms that show true tal-
ent. He is used as a servant for the
whore whom all refer to as "Miss,"
probably because she has that snotty

"This plot is making me very sleeeeeeepy."


RECORDS
Continued from Page 8
Various Artists
Songs in the Key of X..
Music From and Inspired by
"The X-Files "
Warner Brothers
The title "Music From and Inspired
by 'The X-Files"'is abit of a misnomer
forthis collection of songs. While Mark
Snow's haunting "X-Files Theme" is
instantly recognizable to X-Philes, it's
doubtful that many of the other tunes
would make it to the score of every
conspiracy theorist's favorite 60 min-
utes of tube time. While most of the
songs are quite good, few of them
achieve that muted spookiness and para-

"Red Right Hand" is wild and theatri-
cal, but could have appeared on any of
his albums; and Danzig's "Deep," with
its constipated vocals, is more funny
than menacing. Rob Zombie's and Alice
Cooper's "Hands of Death (Burn Baby
Burn)" while entertainingly gruesome,
doesn't really fit the mood of the
soundtrack, and the Meat Puppets' "Un-
explained" is just too sunny-sounding
to conjure up visions of shadowy fig-
ures and Men in Black.
Speaking of Men in Black, Frank
Black turns in a track, "Man of Steel"
that both features his individual style
and fits in well with the mood of the "X-
Files." That's hardly surprising, though:
Black has written reams of songs on the
paranormal, and his latest video (for the
song "Men In Black") has a definite "X-
Files" feel to it.
And while it's certainly weird, the
William Burroughs/R. E.M. collabo-


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