U~d-,m 4k
Yee-Raw!
Strap on them boots and start kicking those heels because tonight is
Family Fun Night at Swing City. Join the hippest crowd in Ann Arbor for
a good o1' fashioned country barn dance. The fun starts at 7:30 p.m.
at the Swing City Dance Studio, 1960 S. Industrial. Children must be
accompanied by an adult, and admission is $5 per family. For more
information, call 668-7782.
Friday
September 13, 1996
5
Punk dream team Neurotic Outsiders shoots potent load
Members of Guns N' Roses, Sex Pistols, Duran Duran unite V <.
'By Brian A. Gnatt
Daily Arts Editor
Life's been a little busy lately for
Duff McKagan. The Guns N' Roses
bassist has been living a tale of two
cities and two bands - one rehearsing
and recording a new
record with Axl,
Slash and the
gang in L.A.,
and the other
Ytouring the
country with his
new all-star punk
rock project,
Neurotic Out-
siders.
Along with Sex
Pistols guitarist
Steve Jones,
Duran Duran's
A John Taylor on
bass and co-
Gunner Matt
Sorum on
d r u m s,
M c Kagan
and the
Neurotic
Outsiders
are hit-
ting the
road with
their new
band and new
se I f - t it l e d
a l b u m
(Maverick,
***). Loaded
with burning
power chords, raunchy lyrics and raw
power, "Neurotic Outsiders" captures
the punk energy you'd expect when you
throw together members from some of
the world's most notorious rock 'n' roll
bands.
McKagan and Sorum are flying in
from Los Angeles today after a four-day
rehearsal stint with G N' R, who is
"finally," as Mc-
Kagan put it, hard
at work on their PR
first album ofk
original material
since 1991's "Use
Your Illusions."
They'll play four To
shows in a row
with the Outsiders, and then it's right
back to L.A. for another four days of
Guns N' Roses.
The story behind the formation of
Neurotic Outsiders is quite a simple
one: A year ago, Sorum got a call from
the manager of L.A.'s Viper Room
about getting a band together for a char-
ity benefit. He called Taylor to play bass
and McKagan and Jones to play guitar.
Thus, Neurotic Outsiders was born. The
band started playing covers of the
Stooges, Sex Pistols and the Clash
among others at the packed Hollywood
hot spot. The chemistry erupted into the
Outsiders' raw punk rock, and the band
decided to continue playing together
and recorded an album.
"Jonesy had a record he was working
on and all of us had the tape;' McKagan
said in an interview with The Michigan
Daily. "Matt had played on some of it,
Ik'
and it was my favorite tape of last sum-
mer, so we started playing the songs
'Nasty Ho' and 'Jerk.' We basically
crushed the songs and said fuck the solo
record."
To say McKagan is happy with
Neurotic Outsiders and their new record
is quite an understatement. "I'm as
excited as I was when Guns was pro-
moting our first
record," Mc-
VIE W Kagan said.
"I used to put
Neurotic together my ulti-
Outsiders mate punk rock
band when I was,
ght, at the Sanctum like, 17 and 18,
and Steve Jones
was always in it," he said. "There
wouldn't be rock'n'roll right now as it is
if it weren't for Steve Jones. That's the
way I feel, but that's just simply the way
it is."
Jones, who wrote and sings lead on
five of the album's 12 tracks, centers
many of his songs around his real-life
sexual experiences. From the record's
first single, "Jerk," with its Pistols-
esque intro and a rocking chorus of
"You're a bitch / I'm a jerk / I don't
think we can work," to "Union" where
he asks "Tell me mirror mirror on the
wall / Who's the sickest Sex Pistol of
them all," the album looks at the
Pistols nostalgically, but doesn't try to
relive and recreate the same old
songs.
The album opener, "Nasty Ho" takes
the cake as the raunchiest of them all,
recounting an encounter Jones had with
a "nasty ho." The track starts with
Sorum's pounding drums and Jones'
and McKagan's heavy distorted guitars
under the Pistol's Tom Jones-style
lounge vocals.
"Steve is pretty frank," McKagan
said. "It's about how he met this
chick at a club and brought her home,
they ... you know ... they (had sex),
and they got done and she asked for
$300. Instead of pissing him off or
bumming him out, it kinda turned
him on. So, yeah, he wrote a song
about it."
Other album highlights are
McKagan's lead vocal tracks on "Good
News," "Revolution" and the Iggy Pop-
sounding "Six Feet Under." Taylor sings
lead on four tracks, including a cover of
the Clash's "Janie Jones."
McKagan said neither Guns N' Roses
nor Neurotic Outsiders feel any animos-
ity toward the other. "It's not a threat to
any of the bands," he said. "That may
have been the case behind some of the
other side projects, but this just hap-
pened so innocently. There was no pre-
conception to it. We just started playing
benefits.
"I came into (Guns N' Roses)
rehearsal last night and AxI goes, 'Dude
... this record ... is amazing. It's so
important.' And he was singing the
words to every song."
As far as the new Guns N' Roses
material goes: "It rocks; it's heavy"
McKagan said. "With Guns, with what
the chemistry of the band is, you're
going to be able to tell it's Guns - even
if we were playing a polka, you would
Neurotic Outsiders Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan, Steve Jones and John Taylor.
be able to tell it's Guns."
For the new Guns N' Roses album,
which McKagan said, "shouldn't be out
any later than next spring" Axl will be
playing rhythm guitar in place of Gilby
Clarke, who was fired after the band's
1993 punk cover album, "The Spaghetti
Incident."
For now, McKagan is busy concen-
trating on his two present bands, and
said the past 10 years and 70 million
records with Guns was just the begin-
ning. "I really feel like I've just started,".
he said. "The last 10 years was getting
used to it, learning the tricks, and now
it's time to apply 'em."
Rock 'n' roll with Jimmy Eat World
By Colin Bartos
Daily Arts Writer
Rock music with an edge.
Adventurous songs. A band of young
guys our own age who sound like
they've been playing for years and
years. Meet Jimmy Eat World.
The funny thing is, "rock" music
does not even begin to describe the aura
of immense energy surrounding Jimmy
Eat World's major-label debut, "Static
Prevails" (Capitol, ****). The
band's sound stretches to all different
areas, sounding like Sunny Day Real
Estate, Texas Is The Reason and Seam
at times, but always original.
PREVIEW
Jimmy Eat World
At the Shelter
Sunday, Sept. 15
It's weird that a band from the Tempe,
Ariz., scene, whose graduates include
the Gin Blossoms and the
Refreshments, wouldn't follow along
and play that whole "desert-country
rock" thing. Co-lead vocalist Tom
Linton said that Jimmy Eat World was
"just influenced by different bands than
they are" in a telephone interview with
The Michigan Daily. The scene is small
right now, but Linton said "it's slowly
starting to build up and starting to get
pretty cool out there."
Jimmy Eat World formed two years
ago when guitarist and co-lead vocalist
Jim Adkins and drummer Zach Lind,
good friends since they were little, met
up with guitarist Linton anid bassist
Rick Burch, and everything just
clicked. All the band members were just
out of high school.
After recording five seven-inch sin-
gles and one full-length album on
Wooden Blue Records, the band was
signed by Capitol Records, something a
little overwhelming for a bunch of
young guys to handle. "So far, it's been
pretty cool," Linton said. "We got to go
in and record an album that we wanted
to do."
The result of that recording was
"Static Prevails," an album which the
band is extremely happy with. When
asked how "Static Prevails" compares
to their indie debut, Linton snickered.
"This one is way more mature. The one
before was songs we wrote in like a
week. At that time we were more influ-
enced by Propagandhi and NOFX ...
it's not that good ... but I guess, like,
every band hates their old stuff."
"Static Prevails" is 12 songs, no two
the same, of adventurous "space" rock.
The thing is, there's not a weak song on
the whole disc. The first track,
"Thinking, That's All," compares to
space noise-rock superstars Unwound
with its stop and go distorted delivery.
Most of the songs are on the edge of
punk, but much more elaborate than
just three-chord verse-chorus-verse
songs.
The song "Claire," which definitely
sounds like Texas Is the Reason, rocks
out and then mellows to a hushed roar,
with a violin in the background.
"Episode IV," which brings compar-
isons of Seam, with its soft, haunting
vocals and lyrics like "We'll dance off
time to songs we've never liked / And
sing off-key, thinking it sounds all
right;' shows the more ambient, cre-
ative side of the band. The first single,
"Call It In the Air," has a very punky
sound, like something you might find
on the new Sense Field album, with a
chugging guitar and both vocalists
meshing together to create a unique
sound.
The last song on the disc, "Anderson
Mesa" is a beautiful end, with a string
section joining the band to give the
song that extra something you don't
hear on a lot of discs. Any way you cut
it, the album is incredible and very
mature for a debut act.
Jimmy Eat World is now on tour with
the Smoking Popes and the Figgs, two
bands who have gotten some recogni-
tion in the past. When asked why those
two bands are getting all the press,
Linton said, "I don't know, it kinda
sucks, I guess ... I guess we're just the
See JIMMY, Page 8
These guys would be Jimmy Eat World.
Jimmy unplugs for in-store at Tower
,By Shannon O'Neill
For the Daily
Capitol Records' "God Bless
America" nationwide tour will grace
Ann Arbor Tower Records with its pres-
ence this Sunday.
Sponsored by Calvin Klein, Rolling
Stone magazine and Tower Records,
*apitol Records' band Jimmy Eat
World will play an acoustic set and do a
signing at 4 p.m. in the South
University Galleria.
PREVIEW
Jimmy Eat World
At Tower Records
4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15
Free samples of cK be, Calvin
Klein's latest sensory delight, and a
free limited-release CD sampler by
Capitol Records will be given to atten-
dees. The CD has tracks from other
bands on the "God Bless America"
tour, the Smoking Popes, and The
Figgs, as well as tracks from
Radiohead, Liz Phair, Nil Lara, I
Mother Earth and others.
If that's not enough, current releas-
es by artists on the sampler will be
specially priced at Tower during the
tour.
Jimmy Eat World will do a follow-up
all-ages concert with the Smoking
of Retail Operations for Records /
Videos.
Coordinated by Rob Gordon, Vice
President of Marketing for Captiol and
Tripp DuBois, Director of Marketing
for Capitol, the opportunity for the
bands is far-reaching with the new
appeal of free music and fragrance
samples.
"Capitol's roster of new bands is
very fresh and distinctive and we aim
to reach our audience in unique and
memorable ways beyond the tradi-
tional retail and radio channels. This
is a great opportunity for the
Smoking Popes, The Figgs, Jimmy
Eat World and Capitol Records,"
Gordon said.
I * U
I
Interview with the world's top companies at the Pan-Asian Job Fair!
" New York City
Oct. 18 - Oct. 19, 1996
Sheraton New York
Hotel & Towers
* Chicago
Nov. 1 - Nov. 2, 1996
Hyatt Regency
Chicago
* Silicon Valley
Feb. 7 - Feb. 8, 1997
South San Francisco
Conference Center
To register or get more information, contact: International Career Information, Inc.
Phone: 1-8004859-8535 http:/www.rIc.com/acw
China Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Korea Malaysia Philippines Singapore Taiwan Thailand Vietnam
PAN-ASIAN JOB FAIR
GOD- BLEss-AMERICA
UI I i III I
2438-36687-2
Land Of The Almost Free.
On Tour. Three bands. $5.00
SMOKING POPES
THE FlOGGS
The Air Force needs over 700 new
pilots in 1999 & 2000.