UfiwAtditan vli

Come see the special 30th Anniversary Print. "Mrs. Robinson, you're
not trying to seduce me, are you?" Remember Dustin Hoffman in this
classic (sigh)? This time, see it all on the big screen: the affair with
the older woman, the date with her daughter and the mess that
ensues. The screening begins at 7 tonight at the Michigan Theater.
Enjoy a blast from the past.

Wednesday
March 19,1997


Chesnutt to roast in Pontiac
Georgia native to showcase quirky, unique style

By Anders Smith-Lindall
Daily Arts Writer
Athens, Ga., has had one of the most
vibrant local rock scenes in America
* er the past two decades. Athens, of
urse, is home to R.E.M., as well as
the B-52s, Jack Logan & Liquor
Cabinet and many
other well-known
acts. It was here, in P R
the smoky bars and
coffeehouses of
this small college T
town, that R.E.M.'s $10
Michael Stipe dis-
vered the quirky and incredibly tal-
ted Vic Chesnutt.
After seeing Chesnutt play around
town many times, Stipe convinced him
to go into the studio with his acoustic
guitar with Stipe himself producing.
The result: "Little," Chesnutt's first
album and perhaps even now the finest
example of his subtle, complex, haunt-
ing and hilarious brand of poetry.
Three albums and seven years later,
Chesnutt has released "About to
Woke,' an album full of characteristic
miniature allegories about life and love,
philosophy and absurdity, death and
laughter. His current tour will bring him
to Pontiac's 7th House on Thursday
night for a not-to-be-missed show with
Scud Mountain Boys.
Chesnutt's career has brought him
nearly unanimous critical acclaim and a
wide and admiring following among
.llow musicians. In the summer of
.96, these musician friends and fans
honored Chesnutt with a tribute album.
"Sweet Relief II: The Gravity of the
Situation, The Songs of Vic Chesnutt."
The compilation, featuring artists from
R.E.M. and the Smashing Pumpkins to
Joe Henry and Madonna, raised money

and awareness for musicians lacking
health insurance but facing serious
medical problems (Chesnutt is para-
lyzed from the waist down and confined
to a wheelchair due to an alcohol-
induced auto accident at age 18).

But long before
EVIEW
Vic Chesnutt
Thursday at 7 p.m.
he 7th House in Pontiac
- call (810) 645-6666

fetes and accolades
came his way,
Chesnutt's musical
development had
humble begin-
nings. As a child,
lie listened to and
loved country
music, as he

explained in a recent interview with The
Michigan Daily.
"There are certain country songs that
I really loved. They were mostly bal-
lads. They had these wild stories, I
remember, like 'Gypsies, Tramps and
Thieves,"' Chesnutt said.
He grew up listening also to his
grandfather, who played guitar and
wrote songs in his spare time. When
Chesnutt was 16, he got his first guitar.
"My grandaddy would teach me
whatever his favorite songs were," he
said. "He'd teach me the chords and
then he'd play lead over it. We'd play for
hours on end. Immediately I started
writing songs, as soon as I could make
chords on guitar."
Chesnutt's simple songwriting
process emulated his grandfather's.
"It's just a little habit. I just sit down
with a guitar and make up a song." His
inspirations come from "everywhere,"
he said. "Sometimes I see something.
and I think, 'Hmm. that's a funny little
symbol. There's an eagle sitting on a
pile of shit. I love that image.'
Sometimes it's all just word-driven; I'm
obsessed with a word or the way a few
words go together. Sometimes it's just a

story. I'm obsessed with a little story or
something like that."
From multi-generational family jam
sessions and country radio, Chesnutt
grew into rock music. He came to love
"little psychedelic ballads," citing the
Beatles, the Velvet Underground, and
the Soft Boys as examples.
In the '80s, he began to hang out in
the Athens "rock realm," as he called it.
"Athens meant a great deal to me, as
far as my development as a player and
singer. It was like going to school"
Chesnutt said.
It was here that he formed a friend-
ship with Stipe.
"Michael was a big help to me; he
produced my first couple of records. I'd
known him for years before he even did
that, just from being around town,
hanging out with him, seeing him in
coffeeshops."
Their collaboration produced both
"Little" and Chesnutt's second album.
"West of Rome."
Chesnutt called "West of Rome" his
favorite of his albums to date.
"It was just a good collection of
songs, and pretty somber, and happened
in a good way," he said.
This is as high as self-praise gets for
the modest Chesnutt, who admitted that
"I never listen to (my records). I just
remember them the way they were
(when they were recorded). I'm inse-
cure about all of them."
Particularly low on his list is his third
album. 1994's "Drunk," a troubled.
angry-sounding record that Chesnutt
now calls "awful" and "embarrassin :.
one that grew out of "a horrible time of
my life ... a little bit of frantic depres-
sion."
While "Drunk" is certainly far better
than Chesnutt will allow, it does not

Vic Chesnutt will bring his unique style of music to the 7th House in Pontiac on Thursday night.

stack up with 1995 "Is the Actor
H appy'" or the current "About to
Choke.' Chesnutt, however, is similarly
uncertain about the new record, as the
title implies.
"The title is a sports metaphor, you
know. choking. That's how I felt, like I
was trying so hard to catch the ball
(that) I kept dropping it."
The pressure stemmed in part from
his jump to the Capitol label from tiny
indic Texas H otel, a move Chesnutt
likened to "bein tu on the niajor league
team when vou''e been playing iII the
minors,- Part of his insecurity about the
album can be attributed to the degree of
autonomy Capitol allowed him.
"I didn't have any adult supervision.'"
Chesnutt said. "They trusted me to do
whatever I wanted, and sometimes I

probably needed a spanking."
The overriding themes of the album
are decay and rejuvenation, which
ClIesnutt alluded to in the liner notes,
w here he wrote: "Some of this album
may be a bit obsessed with the premise
that through death, life is nourished."
"That was just kind of a disclairmer."
Chesnutt explained. "When I put the
songs together, when I finally ended up
with an album and I was looking over it,
I was like. 'God. man. all these have the
sanie subject matter. I was a little embar-
rassed. so 1 just put that disclaiier in
there, because I was really nervous.
In part due to a sickly childhood and
his brush with mortality in the car acci-
dent. Clhesnutt has developed a "funny lit-
tie love-hate relationship with my own
death," so it should be no surprise that

such themes come to the fore in his songs.
Irregardless of any insecurity on
Cliesnutt's part, "About to Choke" was
one of the best releases of 1996. His
most varied and perhaps his best work, it
encompasses elements of each of his
previous albums.
"I got to do all kinds of things that I
wanted to do on this record: solo songs
like 'Little' and fat pop songs like 'Is the
Actor Happy?' and songs like 'Drunk,'
kinda drunk, walkin' numbers:'
These songs. just a part of' Chesnutt's
range of styles and talents. will be on
display Thursday night at the 7th
House. Getting to Pontiac may require a
fairly substantial drive, but the time is
well worth it to hear one of America's
finest and certainly most unique singer-
songwriters.

Johnston hits Royal Oak


'Brasco' revitalizes gangster genre

Freedy Johnston
"Never Home "
Elektra

Like Freedy Johnston's previous three
a1bums, "Never Home" is a fine, focused
collection of guitar-based pop. From the
*um-opening "On the Way Out" to the
final track, "Something's Out There?'
Johnston's melodies are as catchy and his
lyrics as intelligent as ever.
It is this dichotomy of melodic tune-
fulness juxtaposed with complex, often
dark lyrical content that few artists cap-
ture well - notable examples are
Matthew Sweet or Semisonic.

Johnston, though with less raw guitar
power than either ofthose acts, pulls off
the feat just as successfully. His music
is usually sunny and upbeat to the point
that you'll find yourself humniing it a
day later. But don't be fooled into think-
ing this is fluff: That song you'll be
singing is about an arsonist, an abor-
tion, a plane crash or a strained rela-
tionship. Even more to Johnston's cred-
it, though, the content might sound
depressing, but he never seems brood-
ing nor strays into stereotypical angst-
ridden melodrama.
Freedy Johnston obviously listened
to a lot of Beatles, Buddy Holly and
Big Star records in his formative years
- their'echoes and influence are every-
where on "Never Home." Indeed, his
voice at times bears an uncanny resem-
blance to Holly's. Even still, the songs
never sound derivative, just familiar in
a good way. Standout tracks include
"Western Sky," "Hotel Seventeen,"
"Seventies Girl" and "If It's True."
"Never Home," while not the peer of
Johnston's incredible 1992 release,
"Can You Fly" is an engaging and
enjoyable record.
Johnston will be performing
Thursday night, March 20, at the Royal
Oak Music Theatre. Also on the bill are
folkies Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin.
Tickets are available at the door and ID
is required; you must be of legal drink-
ing age to attend.

By Michael Zilberman
D-.61,v t- s rier
In Mike Newells ''Dotnie 3rasco. a
y oung MIafia protgec pays his mentor a
(Christmias visit. Standing in a crammed
crummy apartment. two men awkwardly
hand each other identical white envelopes
with an identical, honor code-prescribed
number of "bean-
ers" inside. They R
turn their backs to,
each other. Count D
the money. Mutter
thanks. End of party
It took Newell, a At Ann A
British screwball
comedy director ("Enchanted April?"
"Four Weddings and a Funeral") to pro-
duce a gangster movie so stripped of the.
usual Mob -lamorization that eats away
at even the best Stateside product of the
kind. "Donnie Brasco" is a genre piece
thoroughly cleaned of the Post-mod-
ernist patina of the last 20 years.
The gangsters in "Brasco" behave
strangely for our tastes (saturated by
Tarantino and the ensuing countless
Days in the Valley). Most of them act
like the bottom-feeders they are. trying
to make it through as many days as pos-
sible without being killed - one day at
a tinme.
And it is, quite possibly, that same
vaguely pathetic quality that makes an

FBI infiltrator (Johnny Depp) form an
Undesired bond with a middle-aged
wiseguy Lefty (Al Pacino) lie's supposed
to bring down. This plot is as ancient as
drama itself: it actually drives"Reservoir
Dogs" if you look past the bells and
whistles of the story. But as acted out by

Pacino and Depp,
onnie Brasco
rbor 1 & 2 and Showcase

the evolution of a
doomed friendship
is fascinating to
watch.
Al Pacino hasn't
played pathetic in a
while. On both
sides of the law,
from "Sea of Love"

to "Carlito's Way" to "EHeat' he has been
an overbearing, barking presence, relying
more and more on his roller-coaster line
readings to substitute for character devel-
opment. Having presumably exorcised
hisdemons with two hours of screaming
in "Looking For Richard," here he returns
to simply acting- and he's great at it.
Pacino's subdued performance as the
perennial loser Lefty Ruggiero creates a
character who's mildly repulsive yet
somewhat endearing in his ticks. Much
like Depp's Joe Pistone. we have to
periodically stop and remind ourselves
what this guy does for a living. And it's
not that Lefty seems beyond his profes-
sion - that would be precisely the
glamorizing case - instead, lie seems

tragically unfit for it. lie doesn't quali-
lv as Joe's nemesis, and, partly as a
result, he qualifies as a friend.
In these circumstances. Johnny
Depp's performance could only be
characterized as holding up well against
Pacino's - and it's no -small feat,
Pistone is the blank "straight mian" of
the story who is automatically supposed
to carry the audience's empathy. But as
written by Paul Attanasio ("Quiz
Show") and acted by Depp, Joe's a man
with enough demons of his own to rival
Lefty. His job gradually tears him away
from his wife, alienates his kids, infects
his college-boy speech with
Brooklynese and, eerily, makes him
accept viQlence as an everyday option.
Thle brashest way in which "Donnic
Brasco" shrugs off' the legacy of revi-
sionist gangster flicks, however, is its
refusal to concentrate on a decent villain.
One of the wiseguys, played by Michael
Madsen, is admittedly a bit oilier than
the others, but that's as close to having an
antagonist as the film will come. Instead,
the environment is the villain - the
leather-clad lower rung of Mafia food
chain swarming around both Joe. and
Lefty. Once-you-get-in-you-don't-get-
out might be the most hac-kneyed cliche
of them all; but Mike Newell turned out
to be right man to take a formula and
strip it down until it makes sense again.

(Top) Pistone (Depp) and Lefty
(Pacino) cruise the streets. (Bottom)
Pistone spends quality time at home.


Freedy Johnston -.4nders Smith-Lindall

I


CARRCY


THE CHECK IS '
IN THE MAIL.