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".' 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