10A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 20, 1999 Macy Gray grabs second chance with new album Los Angeles Times The first thing you notice about Macy Gray in concert is her voice - a quirky, high-pitched sound that has been described as everything from a cross between James Brown and Minnie Mouse to Tina Turner on helium. Equally engaging is Gray's novel - at least these days - musical direction. There's a trace of contemporary hip-hop in the textures supplied by her nine-piece band and two female backup singers, but the heart of the style is drawn from the clas- sic Memphis soul and Motown traditions of Al Green and Stevie Wonder. And finally, your attention turns to the range and depth of her songs - which alternate between playful, opti- mistic ones and dark accounts of obsessive relationships. It all makes Gray a striking new arrival. The positive response is especially sweet for Gray, who gave up her pop dreams in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and headed home to her native Canton, Ohio. Pregnant at the time, the now-divorced mother of three needed the financial and emotional support of her family after being dropped by Atlantic Records, which never released an album she had made for the label. The response is equally welcome to her new record company, Epic, and her manager Andrew Slater, whose other acts include the Wallflowers and Fiona Apple. Even though Gray is superbly gifted, she is having a hard time getting airplay in today's highly fragmented radio mar- ket. Thanks to video exposure on MTV and BET as well as scores of glowing reviews, Gray's debut album, "On How Life Is," got off to an encouraging start in late July, enter- ing the charts at No. 171 and climbing to No. 97 before losing momentum and dropping to No. 124 last week. (Sales to date in the United States: an estimated 60,000 copies.) The problem is the lack of radio airplay, still the key to a hit. Programmers feel Gray's music is a bit too soul-ori- ented for stations with a hip-hop-based urban format, and that it doesn't fit the novelty demands of mainstream pop stations. The game plan at Epic is to keep building word of mouth through touring and videos, trying to generate enough buzz to convince programmers that Gray's music will appeal to a wide audience. Gray and her advisers know that it may take months to achieve a breakthrough, but they are committed to hard work. She's just thrilled that she's getting a second chance to live out her dreams. "When I left Los Angeles (in 1996), I thought it was for good," Gray, 30, said. "I never really stopped making music when I went home. I still had songs going through my head all the time, but I thought I was through with the record busi- ness because I didn't want to put myself through the (dis- appointments) again. I was getting older, and I had to be practical about my life. "My mother talked to me about going back to school for another year to get a teacher's degree, but I finally started my own typing business. We lived right next to a college, and I started typing papers for students." It was in Canton that young Natalie McIntyre (she took her stage name from a male neighbor) first got turned on to music, listening to the '60s soul records that dominat- ed her parents' album collection. Though she cites every- one from Stevie Wonder to Sly & the Family Stone as influences, she didn't become passionate about music until she got into her teens and heard Prince and, espe- cially, hip-hop. She had a knack for words and thought vaguely of writing songs someday, but she couldn't picture herself ever becoming a singer. Who would ever want to listen to that squeaky little voice? "I was so quiet when I was growing up because my voice was so funny," she said. "Every time I would talk, the kids in school would start laughing." Believing her future was in writing, she came to Los Angeles in the late '80s to study screenwriting at the University of Southern California. She was a big fan of the gritty realism in the films of such directors as John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee - and many of her songs, including "Still," a stark account of physi- cal abuse, are in that tradition. While at USC, she wrote lyrics for a fellow student's composition, and through other students she got a job singing with a jazz band. After college, she worked a few years in low-level jobs in the TV and film worlds until deciding her career might progress faster in the music business. She landed a contract in the mid-'90s with Atlantic Records and made the ill-fated album - which was shelved when the executive who signed her left the com- pany. Unlike the soul strains of her Epic collection, the Atlantic one had some rock touches and by some accounts was ragged, indeed. She was back in Canton, typing term papers and think- ing about her future, when she got a call in 1997 from Jeff Blue, who is now vice president of Zomba Music Publishing. He had heard the unreleased Atlantic tape , 7V 7 a y / Alf I 77 r' pr Associated Press After a long departure, Macy Gray is returning to the music business. and loved her voice. He persuaded Gray to give music another try, and she returned to Los Angeles. A demo tape led to a contract at Epic, where Polly Anthony, the label president, put her together with Slater. Both Gray and Slater acknowledge that the recording process was often difficult, partly because they had to find a middle ground between Gray's hip-hop instincts and Slater's '70s soul vision. Their work paid off. "On How Life Is" sounds like a lost soul treasure, but with '90s sensibilities. Gray's smart, soulful style has already struck a nerve in England, where her show Friday at a 2,000-seat hall in London is nearly sold out. She'll then make a video with acclaimed director Mark Romanek (Nine Inch Nail. Janet Jackson), on "I Try," perhaps the most commercial'' track on her album. "I guess I'm just a late bloomer," she said. "I love being onstage, performing in front of an audi- ence. That's what broke my heart the most when I thought I had given up on music. When other things get you down, that's one thing you can always look forward to .. stepping onstage and hearing the band start to play one of your songs." *1 D brought musical comedy to St. Andrew's .1 7 7--% The Village Apothecary Yes !Free Prescription Delivery Out of State Insurance... Out of State Prescriptions... Out of State Refills... 99.5% of all insurances accepted 1112 S. University Ann Arbor, Mi 48104 Across from Ulrich's By Gabe FaJuri Daily Music Editor "Some came for the music. Some came to get rocked. Others came because they new some serious shit was going down." So spoke J.B., lead singer and rhythm guitar player of the infamous pseudo-rock duo Tenacious D. To a crowded St. Andrew's Hall, J.B. and K.G., "The D," as their fans call them, took the stage to riotous applause, chanting and a general ruckus. The nearly sold out crowd had assembled not for a tradi- TenaCiOuS tional rock show, but to hear two overweight men from D Hollywood serenade them with acoustic guitar driven tunes St. Andrew's Hall covering a wide range of topics. The band's harmonies touched Sept. 16, 1999 on a mystical substance known only as "Rocket Sauce," and more elementary subjects like back stage orgies and "The ass- holes in city hall." From the moment the band was introduced, it was obvious to the uninitiated that this was going to be a night of comedy as much as it was going to be about music. And the crowd lay in the palm of The D's hand from the get-go. Read by an unsuspecting stagehand, the band's introduction went something like this: "The band you are about to see is on the last leg of its world tour. They've seen a lot of faces on that tour. And they've kicked all those faces asses. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Tenacious D!" Comic genius in the guise of honest to goodness rock 'n' roll followed. Until recently, the band has never toured, aside from one "road gig" they worked on an episode of "Tenacious D," its self-titled HBO series starring none other than J.B. and K.G. Based on the popularity of a miniscule number of these late-night hour-long pro- grams on the recently Emmy-endowed Home Box Office network, The D had no trouble bringing a nearly sold out crowd in Detroit last Thursday to its knees with laughter and balls-out musicianship. Their set, which lasted well over an hour, included audience participation in the form of a "psycho fan," K.G. quitting the band and joining up again nearly a mimnut after his departure, and countless gratuitous sexual gestures. The mostly male audience seemed thrilled when The D cranked out "hits" recog- nizable from its television forays. "Rocket Sauce" a re-working of the Beatles "Blackbird," drew especially loud cheers, as did The D's cover of Gene Roodenberry's "Star Trek Theme,' complete with not often heard lyrics. The latter song opened The D's encore. More thrilling to the assembled herd were J.B.'s countless references to the "hot- ties" in the front row and the comments he made about "all the backstage betty's in the crowd. The more perverse and debauched the remark, the louder the crowd screamed. Tenacious D, in effect, is not 100 percent musical, nor is it 100 percent comed , The combined comedic talents of J.B. and K.G. are formidable. But add to the mix a monstrous helping of musicianship and all around talent, not only on guitar, but vocally as well, and you've got the recipe for something fresh, unique and engaging, if not raunchy. Thursday night, The D proved itself to be that perfect "different" dish in a rock 'n' roll world full of bland and boring characters In Detroit, they came, they saw and they kicked the asses of many, many faces. Phone: 734-663-5533 Fax: 734-663-6973 . J P Where it matters most. As one of the world's leading diversified technology companies, we're breaking new ground in everything from defense and commercial electronics, to aviation, to engineering and construction. As a Raytheon employee, you'll contribute to the development of exciting, revolutionary technology designed to make life better, easier, and safer throughout the world. Such as our STARS air traffic control system. And our award-winning NightSight TM technology. But it all starts with you. Your creativity. Your knowledge. 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