I 108- The chigan Daily Weekend fgazine - ThUtsdeay, Septem~r 24, 1998 ®. . , .e0.- 0 0 0* 0 The Michigan Daily Weekend Magazi Flurry of campus fairy tales usually leaves truth snowed Rising popularity of Welsh pop revives Bri By WIIam Nash Daily Staff Reporter Fact or fiction? The University has myths and fairy tales riddled all over campus from the horrors of gracing the Diag's M to the romantic persuasions of the West Hall Arch. Responsible for initiating incoming first-year students to these and other tales are the orientation leaders who spice up the tours of would-be first-year students with a dose of fantasy. "All the leaders tell different (myths)," said orientation leader Leeann Benkert. "It was our place to go wild and tell them what we wanted." Benkert said the University's Alumni Association provides leaders with a "myth list" that gives them choices of some of the long-standing campus fables. Probably the most prominent and practiced of these myths is that stepping on the M in the diag will result in the failure of your first bluebook exam. "I don't believe in it, but I don't do it, just in case," said LSA first-year stu- dent Jenny Murphy. Many students shy away from the M before their first bluebook. But for those who tempted fate, is the legend true? Benkert, who is responsible for spreading the myth to those who fol- low her around campus, has a story of her own. "I avoided the M, but I remember one night I got so frustrated while studying for an exam," Benkert said. "It was rain- ing and I stomped all over it." The result? "I didn't do too bad," she said. Another popular campus myth cen-. ters around the pumas who guard the Natural History Museum. In one version the pumas supposedly roar if the Michigan football team beats Ohio State. The other, as LSA first-year stu- dent Arun Gopal puts it, is that "if you graduate from the school with- out getting some, they roar." The orientation leaders like to joke that virginity is a scarce commodity on campus and that "no one's ever heard them roar." Leaders also stretch the truth when they tell incoming first-year students that a bird's-eye view of the School of Dentistry building yields a giant molar. The truth:- Even star constellations look more like what they are supposed to resemble than the building does to a molar. A model in the lobby of the building shows the unique, but un-toothly appearance of the structure. Also, kissing someone under the West Hall Arch, known as the Engin Arch, sup- posedly guarantees marriage to that per- son, according to another myth. While love in all forms may abound on campus, no one we could find says that the Arch has anything to do with it. The reasons and origins of all the superstition on campus is cause for debate. Murphy said she thinks it may be a scare tactic to frazzle incoming first- year students. But Benkert said she tells the myths to make incoming students feel like a part of the tradition. "I feel like a part of the UT of M cam- pus is being passed down," she said. By Stqph.. Brtz Daily Arts Writer Wales lists as its major exports coal, iron and steel, various agricultural products and, as of the past several years, top-notch pop bands. An unlikely hotbed of young talent, Wales has produced a surge of bands that specialize in creating some of the most finely-honed, hook-laden ear candy on either side of the Atlantic, with The Super Furry Animals (SFA,) Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and Catatonia as the three most popular contenders. Ingeniously idiosyncratic. SFA brew a potent musical potion that draws from such various seemingly unrelated sources as prog-rock, cheesy '70s metal, Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys and, of course, The Beatles. Throw in some weird, outer- space computer noises and lyrical refer- ences to famous scientists and unicorns, and one would end up with a reasonable approximation of their sound. Zany lyrics and T-Rex riffs aside, SEA pulls no punches when it comes to assem- bling melodic song structures. Both its 1996 debut "Fuzzy Logic" and last year's "Radiator" are filled to the brim with more hooks than a fishing tackle factory. SFA has been touring Europe exten- sively and plans on putting out a new record in early '99. Following the lead of frontman Euros Rowlands, Ggrky's Zygotic Mynci, like SFA, combines bizarre psychedelia with a remarkable pop sense. But whereas SFA is quirky, Gorky's is downright weird. From the cartoon- ish, surrealist album covers to the eclec- tic instrumental lineup (multiple key- boards and a violin coupled with the traditional drums bass and guitar), Gorky's is strikingly different from the rest of its Britpop peers -- so different that the band's sound almost defies proper description. Gorky's sound spikes painfully beau- tiful vocal harmonies with a Zappa- esque madcap disdain for convention. Flutes fade in and out, Gregorian Chants appear, Martian synth lines usu- ally pop up somewhere and everything is at once fantastically hallucinatory and dangerously infectious. With three LPs, "Tatay," "Bwyd Time" (pronounced "booty time" in Welsh) and "Barafundle," as well as an extensive collection of singles and EPs, Gorky's, despite only having been together for six years, has produced a copious body of work. The band has just released a new sin- gle, titled "Let's Get Together (In Our Minds)," and has a new album due out by the end of the year. Catatonia is simultaneously Tess eccentric and more accessible than either Gorky's or SFA. Led by Welsh chanteuse Cerys Matthews, whose vocal efforts resemble what Bjork might sound like after smoking three cartons of Marlboro Reds, Catatonia produces smart punk- ish pop in the British tradition of Echobelly and Elastica. Like those bands, Catatonia's blend of rollic guitars coupled with gorgeous v proves to be a powerful formula ind On its 1998 LP "Internat Velvet,"and especially its brilliant si "Mulder and Scully," a cry for love a from those two FBI agents we all k and love; "Road Rage,"'which is und edly one of the year's best songs; a am the Mob:' Catatonia emerge Wales' brightest hope for world dot tion. While Gorky's, SFA, and Cata TheI Ea PHOTO COURTESY MERCURY RECORDS Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, from Wales, is an example of the unique, harmonious new musical style emerging from the United Kingdom. SELF-SERVE COLOR COPIESj h ~kIn ko's-i E 1 530 E. 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