10-The Michigan Daily --Friday, October 11, 1996 Nirvana live record does band no justice Nirvana From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah DGC The second posthumous release from Nirvana, "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah," a hodgepodge of live tracks, offers nothing terribly new or interesting --just more Nirvana to add to your collection. Comprised of 16 songs compiled from 10 different shows between 1989 and 1994, "Wishkah" misses the boat by falling into the same trap that spoils most live records: Instead of giving fans an entire non-stop show, we get a best- of live compilation sown together with audience cheering to give the impres- sion Nirvana was a flawless and calcu- lated band. Nirvana was neither. While the tracks themselves are just fine, most staying very true to the orig- inals, it's the same slick production and remixing that bothered Kurt Cobain about "Nevermind" that makes this record fairly uneventful or exciting. The music is too perfect, too precise. It doesn't capture Nirvana with as much of a grisly edge as it could have. One of the rea- sons for this release was proba- bly to counter the hundreds of Nirvana bootlegs already floating around and being sold for absurd prices. Most die- hard Nirvana fans probably already own a decent amount of live Nirvana material, so "Wishkah" won't appeal too much to them, other than its cheaper price tag and CD quality sound:The fact is, there are good Nirvana bootlegs out there - ones that have comparable sound quality, but entire performances that show the spontaneity of the band. "Roma," a CD bootleg released by the Italian Kiss the Stone bootleg com- pany captures one of the last Nirvana shows, only days before Cobain overdosed in Europe and canceled the band's tour. From beginning to end, "Roma" captures the raw intensity of Nirvana without post production, with wrong notes, on- stage banter and don't for- get the show-closing noise / destruction session. The bootleg even includes more songs than the official release (22, as opposed to "Wishkah"'s 16), and in the order the band chose to play them. While "Wishkah" was com- I I piled by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, it still isn't Cobain's set list, and even omits the noisy long-time show opener, "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter." "Wishkah" does include some rare live performances, like the non-album track "Spank Through," but the majori- ty of the tracks are predictable. There isn't even the obligatory cover song on the album either. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "School" and "Polly" are some of the record's highlights, played a little faster than the originals, but nothing terribly new. All in all, "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah" is an economical and legal alternative to bootleg CDs, but the fact that it's a throw-some-pre-record- ed-screaming-between-performances- that-were-recorded-years-apart kind of disc should be enough to make Cobain's ashes churn just a little bit. - Brian A. Gnatt Josh Clayton-Felt Inarticulate Nature Boy A&M What are we supposed to make of ex- School of Fish singer Josh Clayton- Felt's cryptical musings and atmospher- ic layers of production? Is there any- thing underneath? The key to listening to "Inarticulate Nature Boy" is patience. Lots of it. At first listen, it seems like our Nature Boy is stuck in the '80s, or at the very least stuck back with School of Fish, begging us to find meaning in futuris- tic noises and lyrics like "I fell into the smallest ocean that I have ever wit- nessed," "I've begun to recognize that the earth is round in shape" and "I'm George Clinton Nirvana circa 1989 with original drummer Chad Channing (center). another weapon for the world" (the last two of which are from the same song, no less). Sure, the songs are catchy and danceable, but so is lots of music; is Josh Clayton-Felt essential to our musical fulfillment? Probably not. Eventually, things begin to change. And though the musical fulfillment question retains the same answer it had before, at least a few songs begin to stick out. "Matchbox Head" doesn't make any more sense, but its Verve Pipe-like cerieness does merit some musical value. "Dead American" gets more hilarious every listen as it pokes fun at our generation's apathy. "Waiting,"' the disc's best song, boasts a killer guitar hook and a con- ciseness that many of the other tracks on the album could greatly benefit from. The refrain from "Doubt" ("Doubt could do me in / doubt could leave me out") will stick in your head for weeks, guaranteed. And even "Helpless," the culprit song of the two silly lines referred to above, becomes tolerable. So all in all, this is not a particularly wonderful disc, but it certainly shows a lot of promise. If the direction taken in the latter half of the album prevails in his future writing, Josh Clayton-Felt could very well be an important artist in a few years. But in either case, he'll have to change his stage name if he really wants to be a star. - Mark Feldman Various Artists Cup of Tea - A Compilation Quango tion (through Island Records newest subdivision, Quango Music Group) mixing a combination of trip-hop, du , house and freestyle jazz. Bristol, England has a long history of breeding experimental music with early British dance innovators such as Smith & Mighty and Soul II Soul. The current Bristol music scene continues to thrive with notable artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky (who has just released the new "Nearly God" col- laborative effort with artists such 4 Bjork). Most of the tracks from this compi- . lation have been culled from various artists' albums and 12-inch singles. The first track, however, offers the previ- ously unreleased track' "Love - Anybody" by Barcode. The song, co- written by St. Etienne's Sarah Cracknell, presents the listener with a trip-hop sound along with some jazz guitar woven in. The standout track is Purpl* Penguin's "Passion," presenting a simi- lar sound to a Portishead track com- plete with Beth Gibbons' catlike vocals, funky drum patterns, and eerie samples. The pair Monk & Canatella contributes three tracks including "This Time is Different (Live in France)," a reggae-rap hybrid backed by a break- beat style. Other noteworthy tracks ap Spaceway's "Crimes," a dub trac spiced with repetitive drum patterns and jazzy horns, and Statik Sound System's "Secret Love," a track best described as a rhythmic clatter of sounds. Other artists such as The Eff Word and Red also contribute to the compilation. If any of you want to know what al) the fuss is all about concerning the trip- hop scene, pick up any Portishead, Massive Attack, or Tricky albung Though "Cup of Tea- A Compilation" will do just fine. - Philip Son jW d a Major Events production~ ofemSEVO~ATS AR 20 AT THEt Mc/1/CAN V (/A4O'TacerT OFF/Ct XAU T/CKETmAsTfA' oiuTLS. Cwmf 85' PsIo&.rAT 263-TATS Josh Clayton-Felt lives out of his car. The Bristol-based label has released a Cup of Tea record 10-track compila- I NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY OCTOBER 11 We are your peers, colleagues, instructors, co-workers, and friends... Ronald C. Albucher M.D. Ron Fracker, Alumni, B. Music '77, M. Michael McCoy, Alumni '92, Pediatrics & Com. Dis. Ann Waldrop, Society for the Psychological Study of Norm Asher Alumni, School of Social Work Cory Fryling, Student, LS&A Robert McGranaghan, School of Public Health Social Issues Robin Ashlock., M.P.H. LGBPO Staff/Alumni, SPH Neela Ghoshal, Student Alice J. McKeage, Ford Motor Co, Ford GLOBE Jeff Wallbaum, Alumni '95, School of Public Policy Oka Banks, Student, School of Music James Gies, Student, LS&A David Christopher Meitzler, Graduate Student, EMU Jennifer Walters, Office of the Ombuds Douglas Barns, RA, Mary Markley 21st Century Prgrm Deborah Golden, Law Student Victoria L Merkel, Alumni Robert Lewis Welcher, Graduate Student, Division of Kay A. 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