0 t. FR- Thp IMihid,,n faili, - Wptk~nd MNain' -Thusrday, March 27.1)2003' The Michigan Daily - Weekend Magnin - Thur O.DL- I I iw iVII'a 51I vestry - nIIUUalUU iIJUaWIJIU - I I .'.am y, lv* l** * , I F eaturing silky- smooth vocals and finely-choreo- graphed dance steps, the Temptations were the quin- tessential male group of penned tunes, the record captured the Motown sound at its finest, show- casing both Smokey's deft hand at crafting flawless soul-pop tunes and the Temptations' superb vocal talents. I1 I t is Halloween in Detroit circa 1968. Onstage are the most dangerous collection of outlaws in music - two months ago they provided the soundtrack to the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. They personify the vio- I. l l the Motown era. After forming in 1961, the group first found success in 1964 with "The Way You Do the Things You Do," which was composed The Temptations The Temptations Sing Smokey 1965 The album's focal point is undoubtedly the timeless "My Girl," with its simple bass line and guitar riff, ebullient trum- pet bursts and sweet and inno- I lence of the days of rage, and they scare the hell out of your parents. They are the MC5. Kick Out the I M Kick ( Ja 11 by fellow Motown super- star Smokey Robinson. Banking on that success, the Temptations were paired with Smokey for the whole of their 1965 fol- low-up, The Temptations Sing Smokey. Consisting of a dozen Robinson- 11 cent lyrics like "I got so much honey, the bees envy me." Continuing along the same vein, the record's 11 other cuts burst with the warmth and energy that highlight the rest of Robinson's hits. Smokey's rich orchestration and simple but imagina- tive lyrics certainly stand up on their s own. And the fact that they're per- formed by five of Motown's finest singers makes them all that much more enjoyable. - Joel M. Hoard efore the senseless law- suits, the out-of-control egos and Diana Ross' rise to fiber-diva status, the Supremes were the centerpiece of Barry Gordy's Motown empire, one of the most bankable pop groups around - at their peak they even challenged the Beatles in commer- cial success. The Supremes I Hear a Symphony 1966 "Unchained Melody" are included for good measure. There was never any doubt that the Supremes were Diana Ross' group, but on I Hear a Symphony, the group managed to strike as much of a balance as possible between Ross' sugary lead vocals and Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard's mellifluous oohs and aahs - a balance that wasn't pos- sible after Ross reached her true divaness (divativity? divatude?). Sure, I Hear a Symphony does- n't break any new ground or explore unknown territory, but then again it never aimed to. Motown in the '60s was all about hit pop records, and in that aspect, Symphony delivers in full. -JoelM. Hoard -- orld famous in his own zip code, Seger was a region- al institution by the mid '70s. But the Dearborn native had little national suc- cess to show for Bob Seger a decade of gruel- Live Bullet ing tour- 1976 ing and recording except handfuls of near breakthroughs and just plain bad breaks. The two legendary nights at Cobo Hall in Sept. '75 captured on this double live album wiped all that clean. The loving hometown crowds propelled their hero through frentic rockers like "Katmandu" and "Get Out of Denver," and saw them- selves in the passionate blue- collar balads "Beautiful Loser" and " Turn The Page." When Live Bullet hit stores, the rest of the country finally caught up. n the corner of Eisenhower and Packard, right here in Ann Arbor, there once stood a big, white, unsuspecting farm- house where University of Michigan dropout Iggyandthe J a m e s Stooges Osterberg from Ypsi Raw Power and his 1973 friends the Asheton brothers settled to form a band in '67. From that pristine, pastoral setting inexplicably came the crudely-inspired genius of the Stooges, the most direct and visceral forebears of punk. Savagely reborn as Iggy Pop, Osterberg was a violently explo- sive frontman like no other, a master at baiting the audience. On this, their third and final, the Stooges can be heard ripping themselves apart, drowning in drugs and nihilism through the relentless title-track and blistering "Search and Destroy." David Bowie, who presided over the chaos, has condemned the hap- hazard mix, but 30 years later, the reckless charm of the album seems undeniable. possibly the most frustrat- ing part of Detroit Techno is that it exists almost as an enigma. Beginning in the '80s Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson released hundreds of singles that pushed a com- pletely new sound into the interna- tional music con- sciousness. Carl Craig More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art 1997 the boys from Belleville, and his work illustrates not only his influence but also his intense drive to push the artistic and sonic boundaries of the techno genre. More Songs pushes the edges of IDM, yet retains the subtleties of the Detroit vision. Tracks like "Dreamland" and "Butterfly" hint at Craig's Detroit roots. Yet other songs break completely new ground. "At Les" is a gentle, yet haunt- ing, melody that slides along your spine and creeps into your unconscious. In a way it's a feeling similar to the history of Detroit Techno - a sound deeply ingrained in Detroit music and culture but largely hidden from plain view. Scott Serilla alking Book, Stevie Wonder's landmark 1972 LP, captured the man's talents better than any greatest hits col- lection ever could. Recorded at the Ste height of Stevie's Wo career in the early 1970s, when he Talkin strayed further 1 from the Motown pop-soul sound that made him a star in the '60s and more toward the robust, thoughtful style that domi- nated his subsequent work, Talking Book showed Stevie at the top of his game. Whether it's a pretty, gen- tle love song like "You and I (We Can Conquer the World)," featuring just Stevie and his piano, or a grooving funk piece like "Superstition," with its ge ind g !972 trademark ultra-funky clay, Stevie's songwriting exhib- ited unprecedented depth and understanding. Lyrically venturing where few other Motown acts had, Stevie tackled issues of race and le politics head-on, der most notably on "Big Brother," in Book which he sings, "I live in the ghetto / You just come to visit me 'round election time." At the same time, he proved he was capable of writing sentimental lines like "And I know that this must be heaven / How could so much love be inside of you?" From political discourses to tender love songs, ecsta- sy to heartbreak, smooth R&B to out-and-out funk, Talking Book covers it all. The group's 1966 record, I Hear a Symphony, was Motown pop at its purest - irresistible melodies, honeyed harmonies and pop hooks abound. Driven by songs from Holland-Dozier- Holland, the songwriting team behind many of the Motown hit machine's successes, I Hear a Symphony is loaded with classics like the title track, "My World Is Empty Without You" and "He's All I Got." Somewhat ironical cov- ers of the Beatles' "Yesterday" and the W - Scott Serilla But these artists didn't release traditional albums - they made limited-release 12" singles on vinyl. In the mid-'90s, as the European techno scene had reached its critical mass, May, Atkins and Saunderson began to release mix albums docu- menting the history of the genre they had created, but there still was no definitive artist Detroit could call its own. Enter Carl Craig in 1997 with his landmark More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art. Craig was an artist who had grown up listening to - Jeremy Kressman Jams, recorded in front of a raucous D-Town audience, is the least elegant album in the history of rock and roll. The noise screeching out of the Grande Ballroom sounds like your own per- sonal 11-car collision on Woodward Avenue, a series of dissonant guitars followed by shrieking vocals complemented by apocalyptic drum strokes mixed in with thunderous bass lines and fol- lowed by, you guessed it, dissonant guitars. At the album's apogee, "Come Together," DAILR MIX SIDE A 1. ? and the Mysterians "96 Tears" - Quite possi- bly the single greatest key- board line of all time. 2. Aretha Franklin "Respect" - A Memphis transplant, the Queen of Soul does her adopted home proud. 3. Parliament "Give up the Funk" - George Clinton is da bomb. 4. Madonna "Like a Prayer" - Cross burning at its best. 5. Insane Clown Posse "Chicken Hunting" - Killin' hillbillies is our guilt) pleasure. 6. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels "Devil With a Blue Dress On" - Frantic blue-eyed R&B tha will rock any party, anytime anywhere. 7. Grand Funk Railroad "We're an Americar Band" - "The wild, shirt- less lyrics of Mark Farner The bone-rattling bass o Mel Schacher! The compe tent drum work of Dot Brewer!" Righteous Brothers' 1 T ynne Cheney hates him, 3 Tipper Gore hates him, -. .gays hate him, feminists hate him, Benzino hates him, Vanilla Ice hates him, even his own mother hates him. Screw 'em, kid's got skills. Joel M. Hoard Released in 2000, w h e n Eminem was busy causing controversy instead of Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP 2000 Em blurred the line between satire and downright cruelty, spar- ing no one in the process. His mom, his ex-wife, Christopher Reeve, a recently-deceased Sonny Bono, Christina Aguilera, Will Smith - all recipients of Shady's wrath on both angry bangers ("Kill You") and pop-rap gems ("The Real Slim Shady"). Eminem showed his earnest side on "Stan," told from the per- spective of a disenchanted young fan, and "The Way I Am," a song about dealing with fame. Since the release of The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem has rightfully risen to the top of the rap game as one of the most talented and respected MCs. Forget the controversy, forget the haters; Em's done Detroit proud. - Joel M Hoard ometimes there's a thin line between a compelling idea and a flat-out gimmick. Proudly walking that line is D-Town's favorite divorced, candy-striped pseduo-sibling blues-rock minimalists, Jack and Meg White. A forceful muddle of art The White school/punk Stripes ambition and self-resolve, The White Southern Stripes folk/country, Tin 1999 Pan Alley the- atrics, British Invasion pop and bare- bones blues by way of the Nugget's '60s garage collection, the duo's deceptively simple sound hid a vast gulf of music knowledge. Before they cracked the top 40, bum rushed the VMAs and even before the British music press were slobbering all over them, the Stripes unleashed the full power of their primordial stomp on their self-titled debut. The epic bookends of "Jimmy the Explorer" and "I Fought Piranhas," find Jack delighting in playing Page and Plant at once, while Meg lays down ridiculously simple, yet utter- ly appropriate drumtracks. Covers of Dylan's haunting "One More Cup of Coffee" and Robert Johnson's despondent "Stop Breaking Down" confirm the Stripes' pitch-perfect hipster taste, but the secert brillance of the group isn't borrowed or stolen at all. Jack's songwriting shined through as the most promising aspect of the record, particularly on the big "bite-the-hand-that-feed-ya" anthem and instant Michigan rock classic "The Big Three Killed My Baby." - Scott Serilla talking about causing controversy, his sophomore effort, The Marshall Mathers LP, proved that D-Town's favorite son wasn't just a flash in the pan. His flow was first rate, his lyrics were clever and the beats produced by Dr. Dre et al. were straight bangin'. I