February 9, 2005 arts. michigandaily. com artspage @rmichigandaily. com ARTS a 8 ~rq~ - '*~s.,,, ~ THE HOTTEST PICKS IN ENTERTAINMENT FROM A DAILY ARTS WRITER S Alternatives to Pitchfork - Since Pitchforkmedia.com's steady decline has turned into an all-out nosedive, fans must look elsewhere for indie-rock news and reviews. Check out the quality writing at indieworkshop.com (where you can, uh, read some of my work. Shameless, I know); junkmedia.org, whose layout puts The Fork's recent redesign to shame; or my personal favorite, sty- lusmagazine.com, whose feature articles shit all over Schreiber & Co.'s lame attempt to increase content. Fader Magazine - I recently picked up an issue of this fine publication and was blown away by how much awesome I got'for $5.99. There's a fea- ture on Swedish psych-rock phenomenon Dungen and a piece on NORE's reggaeton shotblast that details, among other things, how to "hustle and hustle and how to fight and shoot and kill." Also, it comes with a LeBron James poster - what more could you possibly want? Albert Ayler - Albert Ayler and his music are currently domi- 3 nting my life. The recent revenant box set Holy Ghost, makes clear what Albert was saying when he philosophized, "Trane is the father, Pharoah is the son, and I am the holy ghost." The 10 discs of rare and unreleased material, including the heavily antic- ipated recording of Ayler's quartet playing at Trane's funeral, are downright aural sex. Courtesy of Sub Pop "I got nothing." ON THE DOWN-Low SLOWCORE TRIO DOESN'T FIT GUITAR-BASED STYLE 2t Philly sports - Despite the fact that Donovan McNabb shit his pants in this year's Super Bowl, I'm confident his newly gained experience will lead my Iggles to victory in Detroit next year. One bright spot in the doom and gloom of Sunday's game was TO's performance, proving all those doubters wrong ... even if he didn't deliver one of his trademark endzonem celebrations. . By Andrew Gasdg Daily Arts Writer 1 Malcolm X -Feb. 21 will be the 40th anniversary of Mal- colm's assassination; his words reverberate now as much as ever. I just finished his autobi- ography - it ought to be required reading in every high school in America. Malcolm's mes-F sage has opened my eyes and had more impact on my personal philosophy than any other book ever has. There are two, maybe three singers in the history of rock'n'roll who can get away with singing about mon- keys. Alan Sparhawk,the unassuming, pale-faced frontman of Duluth, Minn. trio Low, is not one of them. Frank Low Black of the Pixies and John Lennon The Great pulled it off by burying their tongues Destroyer so far in their cheeks that it took years Sub Pop of self-serving solo work to excavate them. Almost no one, however, could sing a line like "Tonight the monkey dies" in earnest and come out on top. Can someone please add this to the rock'n'roll holy tablatures? "Thou shall not sing seriously about monkeys" or something? On The Great Destroyer, Low set out to redefine themselves as a rock band, taking up the cause with loud electric guitars and upbeat tempos. For anyone even tangentially familiar with Low's body of work, this is the sonic equivalent of Shaquille O'Neal try- ing to reinvent himself as a point guard. Fans will rightly wonder why the trio is suddenly playing mid- tempo alt-rock after more than a decade of crafting famously slow, embarrassingly pretty anti-anthems. Not surprisingly, Destroyer places Low in a context so far removed from their strengths that even the occasional showstopper won't save them from their self-imposed exile. To the band's credit, they make a wholesale trans- formation: Only a few moments on Destroyer could even conceivably exist on the band's older records. But their failings aren't mechanical: Drummer/vocalist Mimi Parker provides a steady spine for Sparhawk's robust guitar sound and surprisingly assured vocals. Instead, the faults lie in Low's abandonment of their molasses lullabies. All of the band's stylistic strides are aimed squarely at the middle of the road. The icy harmonies of Parker and Sparhawk that guided the band's best material suffocate amid the throaty guitar attacks. Downcast tracks like "Everybody's Song" and "On the Edge" choke out melody with Sparhawk's brood- ing, which is decidedly less appealing in the context of these guitar-heavy tunes. "Cue the Strings" is a self-fulfilling prophecy, riding a god-awful string section. "Broadway (So Many People)" paints a pic- ture of a picturesque (but boring) trip to New York. "Silver Rider" and "Pissing" are violently forgettable five-minute rock songs. The band's career experience does occasionally show. "Walk Into the Sea" benefits from a fuzz- stained recording, which lends it a vibrancy miss- ing from Destroyer's lackluster six-string stew. "When I Go Deaf" slides along slowly with the album's most clever lyric before erupting brilliant- ly into a coda of warm, distorting guitars. "Just Stand Back" is an example of what happens when things go right. As Sparhawk coolly sighs, "I could turn on you so fast," bassist John Nichols forges a melodic undercurrent for the album's only great pop hook. It's perfectly reasonable to expect a band to rein- vent themselves a few times over the course of 15 years, especially when that band built its name on Midwestern dirges, but The Great Destroyer fails both as a rock album and as a Low album. It is the worst kind of compromise, abandoning the band's calling card in favor of an uninteresting blend of underground rock workouts. Low may have been due for a change, but The Great Destroyer does nothing to dissuade the notion that Low is a one-trick pony. Action game offers 'GTA'-style excitement By Brandon Hang Daily Arts Writer Since "Grand Theft Auto" emerged as a gaming phenomenon, developers have attempted to produce comparable games that offer fans free-roaming Canadian rapper Buck 65 spins unconventional rural rhymes Courtesy of LucasArts Girl with grenades. My prom date is here! gameplay. While lookalikes such as "Driv3r" come off as weak "GTA" clones, LucasArts' "Mercenaries" is a solid, well devel- Mercenaries PS2, Xbox LucasArts oped game that goes above and beyond. Set in a war-torn future, "Mercenar- ies" puts players into the role of hired guns, sent to capture North Korea's corrupt government officials. Gain- ers run through farmlands and cities searching for wanted North Korean officials from a deck of cards straight out of the Desert Storm II. Depending on the targets' type of service to the former regime, bounties are issued for these former heads of military, science and government. The game's objective is to capture the deck's Ace of Spades, General Song. "Mercenaries" puts a unique coopera- tive spin on these missions, allowing the location of the "cards" to be known only after intelligence is gathered from war- ring factions. Players must help factions achieve goals before they can gain access to information leading to where promi- nent officials are hiding. Even after locating a target, play- ers must still take out an entourage of tanks, rocket-wielding guards and roam- ing riflemen before finishing the job. By punching and binding a wanted figure- head, gainers gain the ability to call in a helicopter for transport. But if things get too hairy, players can still pick up half the booty after killing their target if they snap his picture. This is just one of the features that provides "Merce- naries" with a wide range of mission- completion options and varying levels of success for gainers. While some vehicle controls may be choppy - such as turret with one stick and driving direction with another - the game is tailored for fast action. Hijack an attacking helicopter and wreak havoc with simple two-button acceleration and stop/reverse controls. Shooting can be finicky at times - bullets missing their mark for no good reason - but the game never falters with its camera or controls. Gameplay is so simple that in less than 20 minutes, a new player will be blow- ing up tanks and taking out generals with no trouble. The graphics are just as impressive as the controls. While some soldiers may look too similar to others to confidently shoot a tank shell at them, the explosions and environment interactions are superb. This game feels like "GTA," plays like "GTA," but goes into an arena "GTA" never could. Taking the elevated third- person vehicle "Mayhem" theme from the popular franchise, "Mercenaries" is an outstanding inclusion to any Xbox collection. Daily Arts Writer Buck 65 is a rare breed: a white Canadian rapper. On his latest release, This Right Here Is Buck 65, Buck complicates things further by incorporating distinctly American themes and instrumentation into his esoteric production style. He Buck 65 not only presents new material, but also reworks several of his aggressive This Right Here raps into folkier numbers. His now Is Buck 65 subdued lyrics add to the sincerity of V2 his approach and bolster his candid storytelling technique. From the album's first twangy guitar riff, it is obvious that this isn't the typical Buck 65. The rearrangements begin shortly after the record starts with stripped-down, string-ridden track "B. SC." "Centaur," whose original release on Vertex carried a pompous and unwanted atti- tude, is the most mutated tune. Though he still discusses being literally "hung like a horse," Buck removes many of the more outlandish lyrics in exchange for opaque, cryptic musings. Not all the songs are this trivial. Buck discusses casual recreation - "Well, I went down to the fishing hole / And I sat down with my fishing pole" that quickly evolves into a mystical trip - "I jumped in the river and I went down deep / Saw a hundred pound catfish laying there asleep." Buck's older style has not completely disappeared on Right Here. "Cries A Girl" retains its minimalist beat and tender essence. The track's morbid subjects - a Southern girl knowing she's a product of incest and another's struggle with drug addiction - pull at the lis- tener's heart without making the tune unlistenable. Occasionally on Right Here, Buck crosses the experi- mental boundaries a bit too much. On "463," he attempts to make yet another genre shift with a distorted guitar riff and a confrontational chorus. He aggressively sings, "463 / Ah yes / And no I can't think of a better way to end the day" over an uninspired and monotonous gui- I---- - ma m m - a ~ Courtesy of V2 The best rapper who regularly uses an Oxford knot. tar line. The track sounds more like a B-side randomly thrown onto the album. As awkward as this combination of musical and lyri- cal idioms may seem, this Canadian rapper is challeng- ing American ideas. He incorporates the earthy themes of artists like Johnny Cash, while adding something wholly new to the genre - hip-hop. Buck thrusts rap into the heart of musical Americana, and to him, it seems ludicrous to separate the two. ...but can't get out? CALL THE DELIVERY BUTLER! We deliver right to your door from