Uli £t=u &t Women in corsets Alternative cello rockers Rasputina plays its unique brand of music tonight at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit. The trio of women plays cello while wearing corsets. These girls believe a little bit of discomfort equals really great music and yields far better discipline. They'll be opening for Bob Mould. Doors open at 8 p.m. They might just change your opinion of foundation garments and stringed instruments! Monday October 7, 1996 Mould prevails without Du By Colin Bartos Daily Arts Writer If you're not familiar with Bob Mould by now, you must have been liv- ing in a hole the last 15 years, or just don't care about music all that much. Y're probably not alone, though. The truth is, despite the hand he's had in creating today's music, Mould is still really only known in underground cir- cles. The story started in the late '70s, when Mould began the semi- nal Minneapolis PR punk group Husker Du. Early Husker Du T .s a straight- At St. A forward hardcore Doors open group, label- mates of Black Flag and the Minutemen, two of the most influential punk groups in the early '80s. Husker Du soon branched out and experimented with other types of songs, and by the time they broke up around 1987, they had become the band that new underground bands were try- * to emulate. After Husker Du, Mould released two solo albums, "Workbook" and "Black Sheets of Rain," which contin- ued to draw off of the varied styles that Husker Du had begun with later albums like "Flip Your Wig" and "Candy Apple Grey." In 1990, Mould formed another three-piece band called Sugar, whose two official studio albums, "Copper Oe" and "FU:EL," sold more than 500,000 records combined. Sugar com- bined great pop songs with crunching, distorted guitar, and would have been a major deal if Nirvana had not broken through and gained all of the attention around that time. Sugar broke up in 1995 when the band members decided it was getting to be too much. Mould explained the break up in a telephone interview with The Michigan Daily. "We simply got EVIEW Bob Mould onight, with Rasputina ndrew's Hall in Detroit. at 8 p.m., 18 and over. tired of it," he said. "It got a lit- tle too big for all of us ... especial- ly in Europe. That wasn't what it was supposed to be and it just got to be too much quite fit into that trademark "Sugar" sound, something Mould did purpose- fully. "It's almost like once you know what's successful, it's real tempting to just emulate it," he explained. "With my current record, I was able to address all those other components that maybe weren't making themselves known in the Sugar sense. I wrote so much in '95; I had a lot of different avenues sonical- ly to choose from. The 40 minutes of the record sort of summarizes the I1 hours of stuff I ended up with when it was time to make the record." "Bob Mould" is an apt title for the new record; Mould played all the instruments, wrote all the songs, and produced the record himself. "I wanted for once to know exactly what it was going to be like and I wanted people to hear what it sounds like in my head instead of how it sounds in my head through other people playing it," Mould said. The record is an adventure, like a story to be read end to end, encom- passing a lot of different styles. Most of the songs are about failed relation- ships, but also deal with many other personal issues Mould has dealt with the past few years. The songs range from the mellower "Anymore Time Between" and "Thumbtack,' to the crunching sonic assault of "Egooveride" and "I Hate Alternative Rock," a title that stems from Mould's dislike for the radio and MTV pop bands who are now labeled as "alter- native." work." Sugar's breakup was far more peace- ful than Husker Du's breakup, which Mould said "was fairly ugly and fairly painful and really prolonged." He's not dealing with the band thing right now - he's just trying to concentrate on his new solo material, something he says is a lot better for him personally right now. "It's a lot less stress. There's less per- sonality conflict. I have to do less care- taking of the situation," Mould said. "When you're working with a group, the tours are really long ... you get ornery ... and then what Bob needs doesn't really matter." Mould's latest offering, simply titled "Bob Mould," pretty much continues what Sugar was all about, yet doesn't Bob Mould (center) with Sugar's Malcolm Travis and David Barbe. "When everyday you talk to some- body about your work, you're constant- ly reminded that you were the architect for what's happening now. (They say)'You were one of the people that caused all this to happen,"' Mould explained. "I look at what's happened and I'm going, 'Don't blame me that every friggin' band on the radio sounds alike!' I get tired of that. Damn, just cause you built the building, you don't know who the tenants are gonna be." "Alternative rock is such a joke," Mould laughed. "OK, so you play both alternative and rock? ... It's con- sumerism. Here's a convenient label and everything that falls under this is good for you. When I look at the Alternative Top 10, all these bands are in the Top 20. Relatively, this is not 'alternative."' Mould, this time around, is taking it easy. The tour across the United States features Mould with an acoustic guitar, an acoustic bass player and a wide vari- ety of songs, including "a lot of 'Workbook,' a handful of Sugar, a fair amount of the new record and some of the Husker stuff," Mould said. "I jok- ingly call it the 'Greatest Hits' show ... and I'm not ashamed of it." That's a lot of material to choose from, and should make for a very relaxed, yet intense and interesting show. Though he's been around over 15 years, Mould has no intention of calling it quits any time soon. He has started writing again and will start recording again in '97. Mould definitely is not dwelling in the past like some '80s artists have been known to do. "If I was the kind of person that really fed on that, I'd never get anywhere," Mould snickered. "I know I left a mark, but I'm not done yet!" Kane hits Borders to promote 'Running the Amazon,' 'Savages' By Dean Bakopoulos Daily Books Editor When writer Joe Kane kicks off a three-week, nine- city book tour in Ann Arbor tonight, he probably won't be too concerned with the rigors of travel. Kane has ventured into places much deeper and darker than American cities and college towns. Tonight, he will tackle tame terrain with a reading at Borders at 7:30. Kane's travels are the basis for his two books, "Running the Amazon" and, his latest, PI "Savages" (Vintage, 1996, 258 pp., $13). That book deals with Kane's gripping adventures in the Amazon Basin, where he spent many months among the Huaorani ("wow-RAHN-ee"), a tribe of 1,300 nomadic Ecuadorian Indians who face severe threats from American oil companies. The Huaorani may be one of the most isolated cul- tures on Earth. They wander on an area roughly the size of Massachusetts, defending it with fierce warrior tactics. Their language is unlike any known on earth. Now, the Huaoranis face their fiercest threat ever: A conglomerate of outside forces, from corporations to environmentalists, who have varying, but similarly sharp, interests in the Huaorani's oil-rich land. "Savages" is a marvelous work of nonfiction - well-researched, well-written and, well, fascinating. It's a modern day David and Goliath story, written with both poignancy and humor, rich in details and told with sympathy. By book's end it's unclear just who the real "savages" are - the oil companies, the meddling environmentalists, Ecuadorian officials or adamant missionaries; it is clear though that the true savages are not the iuaoranis. Kane said that he began his involvement in the Amazon region under arduous conditions.,"1 first got involved with the Amazon when I was invited to join REVIEW Joe Kane Reading today at Borders, 7:30 p.m. an expedition attempting to make the first source-to-sea navigation of the Amazon. That was back in 1985-86. Ten of us started the expedition, two of us made it to the end of the river -- me and a Polish refugee," Kane said. and missionaries. They were asking Kane to help them express their own feelings over the fate of their land and their people. Kane agreed. In Ecuador, the rigorous environment and the isolat- ed culture made Kane wonder if he would survive the research. But Kane soon adjusted to the harsh sur- roundings, and even more importantly, he gained the friendship of the Huaorani. Learning their customs and ways, he became qualified to bring their troubled story to the rest of the world. But in a place where even survival seemed uncer- tain, how did Kane find the time to write the text that eventually became "Savages"? "I carried a notebook and made myself write a thousand words a day in notes about whatever came into my head - even if it was just the dirt under my fingernails. You have to get it down while you're there in the field - later you'll remember the big story, but you'll forget the details,' Kane said. He carried a notebook around with him all day, and then at night, he would blend his notes into something along the lines of a story. "The hard part about doing this when I was with the Huaorani," Kane continued, "is that they always want- ed whatever I had, so I had to carry extra pencils, pens and paper to give away while I was writing. Also, it took me a while to get used to writing while 35 or 40 people sat around staring at me." Kane also noted that a big fear of his throughout the expedition was losing his notes. "There was no place to get them copied," he said. See KANE, Page 8A Kane said he was simply sup- posed to write an account of the journey, but he ended. up being part of the actual river team. That trip landed Kane in the Guiness Book of World Records as the first man to navigate the entire 4,200-mile Amazon river, a journey done by foot, whitewater raft and sea kayak. Kane eventually turned that adventure into 1989's best-selling book, "Running the Amazon," which has been translated into 13 different languages. After he returned to California, the Huaorani tribe, which in recent decades has developed some connec- tions with the outside world, sent a letter to Kane care of the Rainforest Action Network office in San Francisco. The obscure culture found themselves torn between American oil companies, environmentalists ZBIGNIEW BZOAK Author Joe Kane speaks at Borders tonight. 41 RECORDSr or- p0 -- ". . p " " ,. , 5 ." 1 u srGN iMVW, N u ;R A W 96' scheduled for I YwVf A MOM LIe reieasUe1s [1 11~ octU.EM TIM ( t Li ":Z. _a u Y j 'pc u Ie - __ rmi I Use your r0uCATeOM in ways you never thought possible. VsrGM a new software program. WARKirT the next remote access product. CwATr products that fit in the palm of your hand. U.S. Robotics gives entry-level professionals MWAMNMGFUL experience. (You may be new, but your VALSUA~L contributions are encouraged, and expected.) U.S. Robotics is the LmAvrV in information ACCESS. We make Vi OtUJCTS that connect people with iMFORMATION - anytime, anywhere. 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