12A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 12, 1996
RECORDS
Continued from Page 1OA
"Barely Alive" (which sounds just like
"Staying Alive" and mentions the
BeeGees) is pretty damn funny. Although
lines like "I'm just a slipped disco man"
are a little too blunt, they are saved by
ones like "My mind is blown and so's my
hair" "This Time, This Night" and "Disco
Suicide" are both marred with spoken
word parts that just fall flat.
There are also two covers of songs
from MAD albums. "Blind Date" by
Green Jelly is a little bit flat in the
vocals, but sounds pretty much like it
would fit in on the original album.
Ben Vaughn's cover of "I Found Her
Telephone Number Written on the
Bathroom Wall" sounds very retro
musically, but his voice has some dis-
tortion on it that has "successful inter-
pretation" written all over it.
The tracks that are funny combined
with Rhino's always-informative liner
notes that guide you through your lis-
tening journey make this worthwhile. A
lot more so than the magazine has been
in recent years.
- Ted Watts
Come
Near Life Experience
Matador
Come's most recent album, "Near
Life Experience," covers both old terri-
tory for the band and heads in new,
exciting directions. Singers/guitarists
Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw weath-
ered the departure of the band's original
rhythm section a year ago (they're
replaced by 11 different musicians for
the recording of this album, including
bassists and drummers from groups like
The Jesus Lizard, Retsin, Tortoise and
Rachel's). Whoever's playing on the
tracks, it's clear from the opening of
"Hurricane" that Come is re-energized,
and that "Near Life Experience" is their
most concise and affecting release yet.
The group's bluesy-punk is still appar-
ent on "Bitten," but the group stretches
in different directions with gentle bal-
lads like "Weak As the Moon" and
"Slow Eyed." Though it's only eight
tracks long, Come packs more musical
experiences into "Near Life
Experience" than most groups do in an
entire discography.
- Heather Phares
KMFDM
X TORT
Wax Trax!
KMFDM always seems to have the
best album covers. That keen drawn art
in the simplistic colors. Most of their
releases have this standardized look to
them that would make the "K" section
of any good record collection stand out
by its unity.
"XTORT" looks very much like other
KMFDM products, and has the same
good sounds other KMFDM has, too.
"Crazed" is a upbeat kinda ditty, with
fast drums beating down on your head.
"Dogma" is a sorta documentation of
conspiracy nuts' ideas. The spoken word
effect on the track really works well from
a simply aesthetic point of view. It is
however, a little hard to tell if it is serious
or parody. It is difficult to say if we
should laugh with or at the band. They
never really have taken themselves that
seriously though. The very next song, in
fact, is titled "Inane" and contains the
line "Like everything else it's completely
inane," referring to the band's output. It's
hard to dislike a group full of at least tit-
ular self-loathing.
The band still presents a nice musical
melange of standard KMFDM devices.
Male and female voices are still present,
trumpets are placed in a sterile manner
into songs like "Blame" and the hint of
stolen styles creeps under the surface of
many tracks. "Ikons" starts out with a
great drawn out effect, before regress-
ing to the business-as-usual sounds of
KMFDM.
Well, so what if it's more or less like
all KMFDM stuff? That's not so bad.
- Ted Watts
Wayman Tisdale
in the zone
MoJazz/Motown Records
Wayman Tisdale shocked the musical
world last year with the release of his
debut album "Power Forward." For the
first time since Shaq and Deion took
time out from sports to make a mockery
of music, we actually have an athlete
who appreciates music and who can
perform well. Wayman Tisdale's ability
with the bass guitar and his very nice
voice, which has improved greatly since
"Power Forward" was released, make
"Yeah, we're KMFDM, and we bet you want to know what our name means
PA
NO COVER
Pteonumo PinTs/CaLL DRinks
D.J. JOHN KING
LahaTTs BoTTLes
OFr DninksL
I-
him an excellent jazz musician and
makes "In the Zone," Tisdale's sopho-
more album, a great LP buy.
Never short of basketball references,
Tisdale, a Phoenix Suns power forward,
tells of his experiences in the sport from
high school through college and on into
the NBA throughout his album's inter-
ludes.
Yet, with few exceptions, Tisdale's
music flows greatly outside of the
sports realm. Without question, the pre-
mier cut is "Thinking of You." This song
is a most relaxing mixture of R&B bal-
ladeering and jazz-music engineering.
Tisdale's echo-ish voice keeps the
song's dreamy nature alive.
Voice-less cuts like "Don't Take Your
Love Away" and "Early Morning
Drive" are must-hear songs. They are
especially set off by saxophonists Brian
King and Eddie M.
Having written and produccd nvsr of
this LP's songs, Tisdalc has estabkhed
himself as an adept artisan and a huge
gust of fresh air. He has cleaned tg
soiled laundry Shaq and Deion have
dumped on black music w ith h'sjazz
releases. Music, regardless of the genre,
should be about creating from the cart
- not out of love of money or Ioc of
seeing your face on television even
more than it already is, but o'kt of a
respect for the tradition fromi hich
musical creation today is made possi-
ble. Deion, Shaq and many others like
them can't see that; this makes theO
music's greatest scourge. Thankfully
Tisdale and a handful of other true
singers, musicians, rappers andthe like
do; they remain music's strongesr-iope.
-Eugene j13wen
BoTTeS Bud/Bud LITe
IMpoRT BOTTLes/WeLL Diinks
rzeanuci PITcheRS SolsunnSam AdamsSietra NevadajWidmer
music by A.J. SOUNDS
QcSt1 ttJ-)tDetS t 7' ~ssTe Lrea in - oait I4 7~
Friday Fiesta
oronas/u ervo s o rozen drgAds,
AD! 250 DRINKS & DRAFTS
music by Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band
DESIGN YOUR OWN HAT.
ON THE WEB.
www.stitchtime.com
Also, check out our line of Major
and Minor League Pro Teams
Make a "Humor" Magazine!
The Gargoyle Magazine is looking for excited (or bored) people to come
stuff their hungry tummies with pizza at our mass meeting Sunday
September 15 at 5:00 p.m. in the Student Publications Building at 420
Maynard. You'll be interested in sticking around forever if you want to:
* Write * Design Layouts
Write jokes * Sell Advertisements
Winfrey, Beatles
$4:
among richest stars
in Forbes survey
whambihm-bbi6b
i:51
Draw
* Draw cartoons
}lave sioxmuch un!
Make funny, but
understanding friends
MSAKE A DIFFERENCE
SOS Community Crisis Center
* help a homeless family find a
place to live
" feed a hungry child
" be there for someone to talk to
TRAINING STARTS SOON.
call Donna at 485-8230
volserv TR.COM
Be"gin
Ilkcool I
pJ'g RECORDS & USED CDR
SELECTION, QUALITY & PRICE
ARE ALWAYS OUR TOP PRIORITY!!
BUY-SELL-TRADE- RECYCLE
JAZZ BLUEr ROCK SOUL CLASSICAL PUNK FUNK
OPEN 7 DAYS-AIR CONDITIONED!!
617-8 PACKARD- NEAR HILL T.-66g-g441
UPSTAIRS FROM SUBWAY!
we've got hundreds of eds at 5 and less!
NEW YORK (AP) -Oprah Winfrey
has talked ... and talked ... and talked
her way to great wealth.
In fact, she's talked so well during
the past two years that she once again
ranks atop Forbes magazine's list of
the 40 best paid entertainers. Her com-
bined '95 and '96 earnings: $171 mil-
lion.
That puts her $21 million ahead of
No. 2, director Steven Spielberg, and
returns her to the top spot she last occu-
pied in '93.
"The reigning queen of talk televi-
sion, Oprah just keeps on going, despite
a temporary dip in ratings two years
ago," Forbes says in its Sept. 23 issue,
released Sunday. The magazine said a
fitness book she co-wrote added to her
talk show earnings.
Spielberg, ranked No. 1 in 1994 and
1995, fell to the No. 2 spot Winfrey.
occupied last year as his $150 million
two-year estimated gross income failed
to stack up. Next on the list are the
Beatles at No. 3, singer Michael Jackson
and the Rolling Stones in fifth place.
Rounding out the top 10: the Eagles,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, magician
David Copperfield, actor Jim Carrey
and Michael Crichton, author of
"Jurassic Park."
Forbes noted that the world's top 40
list, which the magazine has been com-
piling since 1987, has over time seen
The highest-paid
entertainers in
1995-1996
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Steven Spielberg
3. The Beatles
4, Michael Jackson
5. The Rolling Stones
6. The Eagles
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger
8. David Copperfield
9. Jim Carrey
10. Michael Crichton
increasingly eye-popping numbers in
the income figures it calculates.
"A decade ago the top salary for a
Hollywood actor was about $5 i'ilion.
Today it's more like S20 million," the
magazine says. "A hot new rock band
at the center of a bidding war can fetch
$600,000 for delivery of a record
four times what it would have gotten
1987."
Regardless of wage inflation, one
thing that hasn't changed is wild inter-
est in the stars' salaries.And lists of all
sorts have become major marketing
tools as magazines fight to sell sub-
scriptions. They look at biggest campa-
nies, richest individuals, best colleges,
top cities and the like.
I".'
Complete multimedia computer customized for students
U Campus Z-Station* features:
" Powerful lntel*Pentium" processor
" Large capacity hard drive
" Plenty of memory to run today's hottest applications
" Plug & Play into your campus network with a high-speed modem
Desktop Systems include Microsoft* Natural® Keyboard
and Microsoft Mouse
Loaded with Microsoft software for study and fun
" Microsoft Office for Windows 95 with Word, Microsoft Excel,
PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, Schedule+, Encarta 96 Encyclopedia,
Microsoft Internet Assistants
" Microsoft Windows 95 with Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0
" Microsoft Plus!
" Games for Windows 95
SNorton AntiVirus and more
Hewlett Packard Color DeskJet available
* Ask about Microsoft Programmer's Dream Pack
Write for
the Daily.
Come to our-
mass meetings
next wee
Sept. 17 &19,
at 7 p.m..
inthe Student
Publications
Building,
420
Maynard
St.
Processor
Hard drive
Monitor
Price
with LAN card
Pentium 100 MHz
1.2GB
14" (13.2" viewable)
$1799
$1899*
Pentium 133 MHz
1.6GB
15" (13.7" viewable)
$2199
$2299
Pentium 166 MHz
2.1GB
15" (13.7" viewable)
$2499
$2599
V
Experience Campus Z-Station.
Computer Showcase
313-647-2537
YELLOW
2050 Commerce 0 Ann Arbor, Mt4103
I 1
11
_I