The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 14, 1997

an

Travis to liven Shelter

0

with daring sounds,

'Good Feeling'

By Brian Cohen
I ra is, is not nw to the Urnited States. In fact, the
uroup made frequent trips to New York to master
anld record its new lv released debut album, "Good
I eeling. [his stop marks the four Scots' seventh
me vistig, altough it is their
. rN1 t I 1[110 ',cpro er m erican% F R
\PFR
l I ove America," said Fran
lealy, Irais' m ulti-talented
snyer songv riter, in a recent
interviev "Its 1 m l place. But
I'm kinda gettin' int)o it."
I ravis is cu rently one of the
.K' s most promising bands, having already been
publicly branded as one of Noel Gallagher's
favorites and with an invitation to open for Oasis
on its England tour dates. But don't you dare pass
ofi Ira1is as another Oasis. Healy and his band-
mates are rooted in a completely different musical
style and have a different approach to songwrit-
ing.
"Bands have to have more than just good songs,
they've got to have that X factor ... personality or
something' Iealy explained. And after listening to
the 12 tracks on "Good Feeling," it is blatantly clear
that Travis not only has a knack for pure pop blister-
ing and languid melancholy, but he also has plenty of
spunk and magnetic disposition to last an entire career
long.
Part of'Iravis' appeal has to do with Healy's keen
artistic prowess and vast knowledge of the creative
process.
"1 always. from a very early age, was drawing and
pminting and whatever. I could never finish paint-
ings - I went to art school to be a painter - and I
always fancied being a painter," Healy said. "I was
doing songs at the same time, and I finished my
iirst song, and that's probably why I'm doing this.
It's just w eird the way life takes certain turns. If
you're good at making stuff ... its the same rules
that apply, whether its pointing a camera, or putting
paint on a canvas.
Travis, a quartet of 20-somethings from Glasgow
(Healy on vocals, Dougie Payne on bass, Andrew
Dunlop on guitar and Neil Primrose on drums)
formed some seven years ago, went through a couple
personnel rearrangements and ultimately survived the
rough transition from aspiring dreamers to bona-fide
rock stars.
I lealy is wise beyond his freshness as a successful
frontman, due in part to his past experiences with self
expression through art and music, and his practical
approach to success.
"It's like with photographers. Really famous
photographers have taken thousands of pho-
Lographs, and out of those thousands, there's
maybe one or two totally amazing photographs,"
Ilealy said. "It's the same with songwriting.
You've gotta do thousands of songs and hopefully
you'll get one or two that are outstanding, that
seem to be almost divine."
But there's a sense of perfectionism that seeps
through Travis' songrcaft as well.
"I wouIdn't have any weak stuff on anything that
we'd put out, even on b-sides to singles cause I just
don't see the point in doing that. I'd be embarrassed ...
I couldn't live with that. So many bands put out stuff

Tar

that's kinda second rate, and kinda get by with 'the
cool factor' and the 'hype factor' and all that." Healy
argued.
"I'm different in a way. I just do it like I would
paint. Like I do one song, and I'm like, 'Oh I've
done that,' so I wanna try something different. I
don't want to o the same kinda
E , song time and time. again. I
E V I E W think a lot of bands do tend to
do that. Time's the big decider.
Tav1s And I don't normally slag off
morrow night at 6:30 bands, cause I think all music's
The Shelter got its place, but I think cer-
tainly there's a lot of lazy song-
writers."
"Good Feeling" is an album that defies a mean-
ingful label. Try tracks like "U16 Girls" right after
cuts like "Falling Down." No one song seems to
resemble another, a fact that can be attributed to
several things, one of which is Healy's willingness
to continue to push himself as a songwriter through
his ability to experiment musically. But has Travis'
desire to be universally appealing already been
misunderstood?
"Everyone's been like 'we don't know what to
make of (the album)," Healy admitted. "It's kinda
confusing them. The Travis album is one of the

"Bands have to have
more than just good
songs they've got to
have that X factor."
- Fran Healy
Travis singer/songwriter
most daring albums, because it dares to actually be
totally inconsistent, but consistently inconsistent.
Each song is totally by itself, and does different
things. The question is 'what's your favorite Travis
song ?,' and everyone's got a different one - it's
bizarre. I think its not just laziness - I'm just
inquisitive to make different sounds and have dif-
ferent rhythms."
Above all, the motivating spirit behind Travis
lies within the simple appreciation of good music
and camaraderie - the feeling you know all too
well, "when you're young, like 14-18, and you're
in a band ... and you can go 'that's my band' at
the end of the day." What more could a band ask
for?

4

En Esch, leader of KMFDM, comes to Clutch Cargo's tonight.

KMFDM to whirl
into Clutch's tonight,,

By Ted Watts
Daily Arts Writer
No, "KMFDM" isn't a command to
terminate an incestuous dance group.
It's a band that's just released its ninth
album (with an unpronounceable title a
la The Artist Formerly Known As

Prince) and, lucky
Pontiac tonight.
KMFDM's new
album has a slight-
ly harder sound
than previous
efforts, and some-
how manages to
have a more natu-
ralistic feel than

you, is playing in
 PR
Clutch Cargo

Travis brings its motivating spirit to The Shelter tomorrow night.

*1.

The University of Michigan
School of Music
Friday - Sunday, November 14-16
Opera Production: A Double Bill
L'Enfant et Les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel
Le Rossignol by Igor Stravinsky
Joshua Major, Director
Kenneth Kiesler, Music Director and Conductor
Power Center, Thur.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.
Tickets: $18; $14 (313) 764-0450
Saturday, November 15
Women's Glee Club
Theodore Morrison, conductor
* music by Perera, Duke, Walker, Fine, Patriquin
Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. (free)
Sunday, November 16
Guest Master Class: Anthony Cecere, French Horn
Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 2 p.m.
Guest Recital: Talisman Trio
Mcintosh Theatre, E.V. Moore Bldg., 3 p.m.
Monday, November 17
Vocal Arts Lab: voice students perform repertory
Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 6:45 p.m.
Guest Master Class: American String Quartet
McIntosh Theatre, E. V. Moore Bldg., 2:30 p.m.
Guest Recital
Kenneth Martinson, viola; Christopher Taylor, piano
Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday, November 18
University Philharmonia Orchestra
Pier Calabria, conductor
* music by Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Dvorak
Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m.
Guest Lecture/Demonstration
The American String Quartet
Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 3:30 p.n.
Thursday, November 20
Jazz Ensemble
Ellen Rowe, director
Rackham Lecture Hall, 8 p.m.
Campus Philharmonia Orchestra
Tania Miller, Tim Semanik, Steven Huang and
Heather Buchman, conductors

Recycle the DaiIy*
Ashley's Presents
(a Firkin is an English beer keg of approximately 12 gallons)
Bell's Two Hearted Ale
By special arrangement with Kalamazoo Brewery of
Michigan, we have a cask of their "Real Ale" Two
Hearted Ale. This keg has been conditioned in the
cask to produce a natural level of carbonation and will
be served using a traditional English Hand-pump
without any C02 added.
We will tap this Keg for Friday's Happy Hour (3-7pm).
Stop on in for a true English style Real Ale!
Two miniature operas of fairy-tale wonder and lyrical genius
by the composers of Bol6ro and The Firebird.
L'Enfant et les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel
"The Child and the Enchantments"
Le Rossignol by lgor Stravinsky
"The Nightingale"
Sung in French with English supertitles
Directed by Joshua Major
Conducted by Kenneth Kiesler
With the University Symphony Orchestra
Power Center
November 13-15 at 8 PM
November 16 at 2 PM

some of the unit's previous recorded
output. Bizarre, considering it was bro-
ken into disciete fragments and
reassembled under delicate digital
surgery.
Additionally teratological is that the
largely German KMFDM has just com-
pleted an extensive and long overdue
European tour; it played London for the
first time in seven years last month.
Tall, bald, orchestrally-trained
Hamburgian drummer En Esch
explained: "Europe is still a little more
complicated (to tour than the U.S.) All
these individual countries, all the differ-
ent arrangements."
KMFDM has traditionally found the
U.S. to be its powerbase. The group
tours here, and its albums are mostly
bought here. The band was, in fact, only
recently picked up by a larger European
label. "Fortunately, the record came out
at the same time in Europe as it did in
the States, as the tour was beginning, so
we had a chance to sell records and it
made sense for us to be there again. We
had a chance to open for Rammstein,
which is the German No. I act and we
played before 9,000 people every
night."
But the American-based group is still
full of expatriate Europeans on this
tour. "It's the old hardcore thing.
Gunter, Sascha, myself," explained En
Esch. "We have Tim Skold in the band.
He's like a guy from Sweden whose
lived in L.A. for two years and has his
own band, Skold. We've got John
DeSalvo, the drummer from Chem Lab
in the band, and we have a special
guest, Ogre from Skinny Puppy."
How does Eseh himself cope with
transplantation? "You should move
around. It's good to live in different

places. It's educational ... I lived in
New York for 2 1/2 years. Before that
lived in New Orleans for a year and
half, and Chicago."
Why, it's almost like he's on tour with
his life itself. "Touring I like a lot. I like
to be on stage, I like to show off, I like
to hold a rock concert. I like people, I
like to see the
response.'It makes
E V I E W me really happy
actually. It's differ-
KMFDM ent from in the stu-
dio ... In that caM
's-(810Tonight 8 it's really sponta-
neous ... It's
exhausting, it costs
a lot of money, the record company has
to give you tour support because other-
wise it doesn't really make money. You
wait a lot, you hang out a lot; on the
other hand, you travel around and see
different places, especially in the U.S..
It's kind of interesting."
The group's opening act, Pig (al
Raymond Watts), isn't only another for-
eigner, he's also been a member of
KMFDM. "He opened up in London
for us. He's one of our early members.
He was living in Hamburg for a period,
and Berlin for five years. Really incred-
ible for an English guy. He didn't know
any German. He probably couldn't buy
a roll in a shop. But he's a good guy, I
look forward to seeing Pig every night;"
Look for him to sing a song with his o*
mates.
Of course, other than a slight retro-
'80s feel on a track or two, KMFDM
isn't about the past; it's about a swiftly
declining future where tongues are
firmly and diabolically implanted. in
cheek. Of course, you can't have an
association and really take
Armageddon around the corner seri-
ously.
"We're already thinking about ne
material," said Esch when questione
about the band's future. "We're going
to have a setup in the back lounge of
the bus, hopefully some preproduc-
tion. It's of course different for every
album, because every album has-its
own time slots, its own appearance,
its own time where we produced it in
different places with different people
around."
So tonight, go and kiss more fell
from Deutschland, mensch, or what-
ever else you want the k, m, f, d and
m to stand for. It's good for you.

U I

Gibson Lecture
Frederick Cooper
Charles Gibson Collegiate Professor of History - 4
Africa at
Century's End
Representatons
and Explanations
w .' Y' Monday, November 17, 1997

p'

k

I