ARTS The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 9 BREAKING RECORDS REVIEWS OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY'S NEW RELEASES INTERPOL TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS MMrADOR RECORDs By Andrew M. Gaerig For the Daily With the microscope of rock firm- ly eyeing New York once again, one has to be especially careful. The Strokes, of course, are the frontrun- ners of the gaggle, ruling their king- dom with a fistful of hooks. Their peers range from the sexy rock of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's to the disco punk voxed baritone. Equal parts the con- filth of the Liars. viction of Curtis and the high-art But in a world of four-on-the-floor drama of Byrne, it floats over the garage punk, can't a band like Interpol band's caustic pop with a natural ease. slip through the cracks? You see, Inter- Banks throws his lyrics with a stately pol sound a bit like the Ramones. grace, be it a shivering premonition That is, like the Ramones covering OK - "you'll go stabbing yourself in the Computer, soaked in a layer of reverb neck" - or the elegant cry of the and fronted by Talking Head's David album title, "turn on the bright Byrne doing an Ian Curtis of Joy Divi- lights" on "NYC". sion impression. Even if that's a bit The band's music is also spectacu- much to digest, Interpol are the one of lar. The guitars churn on an engine first of the New York batch to both of down-strummed chords, creating a wear their influences on their sleeve clear, evocative cover for skeletal while trying to forge an identity of structure of the drums, and the their own. melodic, throbbing bass. The most immediate aspect of the Everything from the warm guitar band's sound is singer Paul Banks' ooze of "Untitled," to the up-tempo THE MOONEY SUZUKI ELECTRIC SWEAT <1 GAMMON RECORDS By Scott Serilla Daily Music Editor Smiths homage "Say Hello to the Angels," and the slow-punk burn of "Roland" are all impeccably per- formed. "The New" is a synth-pop melody dressed in chiming guitars before a roaring, discordant guitar shreds the song. The band saves its most impressive moment for a home- town tribute, "NYC." Its bittersweet melody is delivered in blunt lyrics until a whorl of distortion consumes the second verse, lifting the song into a whirlwind of glacial noise. The true accomplishment, howev- er, is the band's varying song struc- tures and slight changes in atmosphere, which keep even the slowest songs from seeming too long. Interpol, like their New York brethren, are nourished from a steady diet of classic punk. Interpol take their cues from art-punk - Mission of Burma and New Order - rather than the guttural howl of The Stooges. Hopefully Interpol won't stay underground for long. This is a solid debut, one that births a compelling aesthetic for the band while keeping one foot, and two ears, firmly plant- ed in the past. RATING:* * * * Everybody knows Detroit in the middle of August isn't exactly pleasant. The humidity reaches damn near appalling proportions with vile and oppressive stickiness that rips any lingering ambition to move right out you. Add to that the swarms of brutal bugs and you've got more than ample rea- son to get the hell of town. Yet it was into these dire conditions that New York City garage-punks, The Mooney Suzuki willfully marched last year to record their second album. Appropriately titled Elec- tric Sweat, the New York City foursome spent three very steamy days pounding out the disc at the increasing leg- endary Ghetto Recorders Studio, owned and operated by Jim Diamond, of local garage-soul favorites, The Dirtbombs. With no AC, a mountain of semi-functioning vintage ana- log equipment and a location in a decidedly rough part of the city, the tiny Detroit studio is gaining an international reputa- tion as a pressure cooker for talent, having given birth to records by the Come Ons, The Go and of course, the White Stripes. The results .here are 35 minutes and 35 second of good old Detroit rawness that would do the Stooges and MC5 proud, with just a hint of Motown sweetness. Diamond definitely delivers the bona fide unrefined grit that only his aged equipment and humble little sweatbox can deliver, but boys of Suzuki come through as well, infusing these 10 tracks with as authentic of 60s garage/mod sound as anybody else has mustered recently. Maybe it's not going to revolutionize the way you look at the world or bring peace to the Middle East, but it makes a couple of jaded indie kids uncross their arms for a half hour and shake their asses isn't that enough? Singer Sammy James Jr.'s cartoony baritone lets you know the whole thing is just in fun. "Turn on the turntable / and RH ETT MILLER THE INSITGATOR ELEKTRA RECORDS By Luke Smith Daily Arts Editor turn me loose" he sings on the title track. "Adjust the levels / let the record spin / turn it over / then we do it again / Got a feeling creeping up on me/must be the e-lectri-city." The party really heats up though with the organ driven soul instrumental "It's Showtime Pt. II", which highlights just how fun simple a old fashion garage jam can be. Meanwhile guitarist Graham Tyler, the Keith to James' Mick, is trying to crunch out riffs that just "want be like Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page and Hendrix too" as "In A Young Man's Mind" points out. Maybe that's a bit presumptuous, but with everybody complaining that this neo-garage stuff is just purely derivative and therefore ignorable, shouldn't we be admiring bands that are finally starting to do their home- work again? What's more ambitious and inspired than to embrace rock's past, in the same devoted way Townsend, Page and Hendrix embraced the blues, RB and other Ameri- can root music? RATING: * * * Texan and leader of the Old 97s Rhett Miller delievers exactly what is to be expected on his solo debut The Instigator. The melodies are crisp, the songs are honest, if not replete with campy come- ons almost trademarked by the high- energy, high-quality Old 97s. Miller's songs are given more than a spit polish-and-shine on Instigator. Excellent production pushes the sonic dynamics further; making the album's highs brighter, and the lows darker. GET YOUR NAME IN PRINT. TELL EVERYONE ELSE WHAT YOU THINK IS GREAT. DAILY Music. Hammond, who mixes perfectly with Miller's swoon and croon delivery and down-home song subjects. Even without Hammond's back- ing vocals, The Instigator doesn't sound as big as 2001's very solid Satellite Rides. The songs on The Instigator are Old 97s songs without the rest of the band. Nothing on Instigator is as charged or confident as "King Of All The World" (Satellite Rides). Instead of confident sing songy unpreten- tious pop songs The Instigator offers sad, insecure hooks like "Will I always be alone?" Without his bandmates Rhett Miller sounds just that, too alone. RATING: **.9 Despite the buffed up production, Rhett Miller's record as a solo artistspales in comparison to his records with the Old 97s. Noticeably absent on The Instiga- tor are the backing vocals of Murry ANI DIFRANCO So MUCH SHOUTING/SO MUCH LAUGHTER RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS By Gina Pensiero Daily Arts Writer Ani Difranco has peaked for now and needs to go away for a while. The woman pops albums out faster than kids and the strain of running her own record label and constant touring are showing. Naturally, being spread so thin has taken a creative toll that's becoming increas- ingly evident with each release. In lieu of a new studio piece, the Folk Queen has pasted together yet another double live album, So Much Shouting/So Much Laughter. Having already released a very exceptional and difficult to out-do live album in 1997's Living in Clip, Difranco's new collec- tion is only highlighting how much she needs a break. So Much serves as a rather abstract companion piece to the 2001 studio double album Reveling/Reckoning by providing more funked-up versions of many loved Difranco classics. This sometimes works, but more often falls short. It's a definite plus in songs like "Swan Dive,""Letter to a John" and "Jukebox," where schizophrenic horn sections underscore new versions of songs. Reworked arrangements of "Dilate," "Cradle and All," and "My IQ," are other album highlights. However, the album is chalk-full of older songs that just don't mesh with the new sound. For example, "32 Flavors" and "Not a Pretty Girl," and dotted other new composi- tions simple veer more toward the unin-- teresting. Difranco is an artist whose fan base is built on idol worship, but a backlash By Luke Smith Daily Arts Editor OKGo OK Go CAPITOL RECORDS has been in the making for years now. While musically and lyrically, there is nothing horribly wrong with So Much Shouting/So Much Laughter, its just a somewhat unnecessary album. Maybe the folk activist should tend to her record company, take a vacation or clean up Buffalo for a while. She's low on grist for the mill. RATING:* * 9 BREAKING RECORDS STAR SYSTEM * **** CLASSIC ***C* GREAT- If you missed a week of BREAKING RECORDS, check * * * FAIR the archives at www.michigandaily.com * * SUB-PAR * WORTHLESS so desperately to be cool and clever. What's worse is that they do it so blatantly that any sense, hint or hope of wit is lost. Damian Kulash, OK Go's singer, can't hide his smirk when he confidently bursts into the lyric "don't even try to find a line / this time, darling you're still divine"on "You're So Damn Hot." Despite its the-girl- just-beyond-my-grasp subject material (so overdone) and I'm too damn clever lyrics (hey, : * Damian, irony is dead and wit is 4 dying) the song is the most propul- , u sive cut on their debut. Instead of ironic geeks posing as KISS-y faced rock gods, OK Go's eponoymous debut bubbles or boils over with the sound of snot-nosed kids playing snottier rock anthems ; . 'flavored with moogs and syncopat- ed chunky guitars. The formula is old, the sound is tired and OK Go, like Ozma is another Weezer cover a ' band. The only difference is OK Go t . M scored a major-label deal and it's a 4 a major disapointment. If all of the power pop bands in the world were combined into a giant-sized boy band, with each band representing a stereotypical 'N Sync-er, OK Go would undoubtedly be the guy who grows facial hair to look tough, but ends up the pansy. OK Go's not-so-unique combina- tion (think Sweet, The Cars and enough synths to briefly resurrect the short-lived but interesting enough Rentals) will no doubt res- onate nostalgically for fans wishing Weezer was still wearing sweaters. Where Weezer never cared about cool (not back when they were WORTH listening to), OK Go tries RATING: * Learn about energy conservation efforts TEBEStAP presensaleton camrpus and bow you Cn beipan :2' EnerHy Fest 2112