Tuesday April 12, 2005 arts. michigandaily. com artspage@michigandaily.com ARTS 8 . . . ........ ..... Courtesy of Octone "Curse you, Kelly Osbourne! That was my big break ... " Troubadour Tolcher tours with DeGraw By Mary Catherine Finney Daily Arts Writer FOREST CASEY/Daily Magnolia Electric Co., led by frontman Jason Molina, performs at Division St. Arts Collective in Grand Rapids on Sunday night. STEEL MAGNOLIA MOLINA'S LATEST PROJECT SAGS ON 'WHAT COMES AFmER THE BLUES' Now that the bowed out, a new "TRL" circuit -1 bands. The newest geting trouba- dours includes Gavin DeGraw and Michael Tolcher, both of whom are try- ing to follow in the footsteps of predecessors like John Mayer and Maroon 5, acts that have hit it big boy bands have craze has hit the boys with actual crop of teen-tar- Michael Toicher and Gavin DeGraw Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. At the Michigan Theater By Andrew M. Gaerig Daily Arts Writer It's (somewhat) fitting that my final work for The Michigan Daily should be a Jason Molina release. For the last three years, I've chronicled the Songs: Ohia/ Magnolia Electric Co. frontman's artistic path on these very pages. It's been a fruitful endeavor, to be sure: Molina moved from deso- late folk to Technicolor alt-coun- try in the time it took me to go from wide-eyed and bushy-tailed to hung-over and unemployed. Quite frankly, What Comes After the Blues, Molina's second album Magnolia Electric Co. What Comes After the Blues Secretly Canadian with his now full- I've earned some fanboy capital, and now I want to spend it. Here, good friends, is where the plot thickens: What Comes After the Blues is, well, a bit disappointing. It seems that Molina's ever-growing obsession with Neil Young has unfortunately extended into emulating Young's habit of releasing wildly inconsistent albums. What Comes After is a confusing record, opening with a thunderous electric shout and ending with a tiny acoustic whimper. The production, carried out by notable indie- rock vet Steve Albini, often sounds muted and distant. The last three songs - all stripped, acoustic ballads - sound not just sparse, but unfinished (the treatment of "Hammer Down," a shit-kicking electric storm when performed live, is especially disappointing). There's a five-minute dud in the middle of the album ("Give Something Else Away Every Day"). Molina - who could once be counted on for several spine-tinglers per album - seems content to drop a bunch of woe-is-me drivel. I want fireworks; I want genius; this is bullshit! And yet, What Comes After is a strangely alluring, even addictive album. Get over the fact that Molina back-loaded the disc with weepers and you realize that they provide a soft, velvet curtain call for Molina's affected verse. "Hammer Down" is still instantly grati- fying, with Molina crooning,"When it's been my ghost on the empty road / I think the stars are just the neon lights / Shining through the dance floor / Of heaven on a Saturday night." Molina even follows "Hammer" - which relies heavily on the repetition of the line "I saw the light" - with the shivering "I Can Not Have Seen the Light." At the front end, Molina and his band tear through a couple of the best tracks from Trials and Errors. "The Dark Don't Hide It," though slightly subdued here, still rolls like an 18-wheeler on a joyride. "Leave the City," the culmination of all that artistic progression I blath- ered about, finally delivers the northern soul Molina's been tempting us with for so long, accenting his rich, emotive tenor with quivering horn interludes. "The Night Shift Lullaby," written and sung by longtime Molina collaborator Jennie Bedford, is a little too tradi- tional in its melody and delivery, but the steely electric arrangement brings the song to life. The ethereal vio- lins on "Hard to Love a Man" frames the album's most passionate lyric: "It was hard to love a man like you / Goodbye was half the words you knew." Repeated listens of "Northstar Blues" - the third of the three aforementioned ballads - reveals not only a subtly layered arrangement, but a sickly sweet tune that swings Molina's starry-eyed romanticism through a soft waltz. Molina intones, "Where were the rest of my songs tonight/ I only remember the North Star Blues/ That simple old tune on the stage.each night / Marking the time that I lost you." Cue the strings, whisper the high harmony, shoot the ornery rock critic dead. What Comes After the Blues is neither the album I expected nor wanted, yet its flaws melt away on the fingertips of this longtime fan. It seemed fair to expect closure and reward from What Comes After the Blues. I got a batch of ragged, effervescent country songs. And after a couple of weeks, any disappointment that originally festered was tempered by the fact that Molina's train doesn't stop here - just mine. time quintet, should be the payoff - a fitting senior goodbye that allows me to drool over Molina's consid- erable talent one last time. After Molina's final Songs: Ohia album, Magnolia Electric Co., established him as the new guardian of blustering country rock, I was understandably ecstatic. I was more than patient with the drawn-out, dirge-filled Pyramid Electric Co. that followed, understanding that it was just a stopgap release. I sat slack-jawed in the audience during his October appearance in Detroit. I lost sleep over the first document of Molina's new band, Magnolia Electric Co., Trials and Errors, a bruising testimonial that, while inconsistent, spoke volumes about the band's power. To paraphrase our president, and are now experiencing worldwide success and critical acclaim. DeGraw and Tolcher have teamed up for a tour, and they're stopping at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater tonight. These guys play instru- ments, write their own music and put on shows that attract throngs of fans whose loyalty rivals those of boy bands past. Headliner Gavin DeGraw's recent fame has been bolstered by the place- ment of his song "I Don't Wanna Be" as the theme of the WB hit "One Tree Hill." This exposure to his target audi- ence has earned his video for the song a spot on MTV's rotation. Ironically, Michael Tolcher wasn't as lucky with his song "Sooner or Later," which was chosen as the theme for ABC's teen drama "Life As We Know It." Unfortunately, the show was can- celled after 13 episodes. However, the publicity has still ber of young, breaking acts like Maroon 5, Toby Lightman and Marc Broussard. Freshly awake from a nap, Tolcher spoke about the introspective themes of his debut album I Am. "I think all of the themes are kind of part of who I am and what I like to express. I try to express as deeply as possible what's within myself," he said. "(My fan- base is) definitely young girls (ages) 13 to 22. I'd like to expand it by play- ing to some adults, a male audience as well," Tolcher said. He attributes some of his demographic appeal to artists like DeGraw, with whom he tours. "I think it (will) be a matter of which bands I'm paired with." While Tolcher's native Southern charm seems to have secured the female fans, he still takes issue with our Northern men, "(They) seem to have a refusal to call me Michael, they (all) want to call me Mike." By all evidence, he seems to be taking his young fanbase a little too seriously. The last book he read was Rud- yard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," a classic children's story, but Tolcher insists that it was a gift. "Somebody gave me this classic, beautifully illus- trated version." Even with his rising star status, Tolcher sounds like any other lost 20- something when talking about eating on the road. "The best (meals) are free and the worst (meals) are expen- sive," he said. Tolcher's pockets are likely to deepen with the success of his tour supporting Gavin DeGraw; tonight's hotly anticipated appearance at the Michigan Theater is sold out. If you're lucky enough to have snagged tickets, you'll be in for quite a show - and who knows, you could be watching the next big thing. helped Tolcher attract a lowing and opening gigs strong fol- for a num- Canseco discusses steroids in tell-all'Juiced' By Josh Holman Daily Arts Writer I E It's hard to talk baseball without touching on the hot- button topic of steroids. The issue has even been debated in Congress, partly thanks to Jose Canseco's writing debut. "Juiced" is a fascinating narrative of all the Juiced: aspects of Major League Baseball Wild Times, people wish they could be a part of. Rampant But one problem plagues the expos6 'Roids, that has opened the eyes of even the Smash Hits most indifferent fans: Jose Canseco and How is the author. Baseball Canseco, perhaps the least repu- Got Big table player in the history of the By Jose Canseco game, has taken the responsibil- ity on his own artificially manufac- Regan tured shoulders to expose just how rampant steroid use has become. After a disclaimer from the publisher voids any type of endorsement of illegal drugs without proper medical supervision, Canseco pro- nounces on the next page that steroids may be the greatest thing ever to happen to the sport. That Canseco was a professional baseball player who took steroids is the easiest claim to accept in the book. He expresses no remorse for what he did to his body or sport. Readers may have a problem choking down the charges and contradictions that follow. Canseco's accusations are as ubiquitous and prepack- aged as the steroids he claims have circulated through major league locker rooms, but they're too often vague and unfounded name drops that look like an attempt to capitalize on the hot topic of the day. His first target is former Oakland Athletics teammate Mark McGwire, who eventually broke the single season home run record. After being traded to the Texas Rang- ers midseason in 1992, Canseco claims to have intro- duced then-Rangers Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez to steroids. From that point on, injecting in the majors became as common- place as the set-up relief pitcher - pretty soon every team had a ready supply. However, Canseco's witchhunt is just that. His tales of putting a needle in McGwire's ass in a clubhouse bath- room stall come out as asides; he never dedicates more than a few pages to the players he implicates. Instead, Canseco persecutes anyone who crossed his path: the racist media, greedy team owners and vengeful umpires. The ignorant slugger never seems to understand some of the most obvious things around him. His claims that steroids have kept him as healthy as any man in his 40s are ludicrous. Canseco admits that he kept his third back surgery a secret to prevent teams from viewing him as damaged goods; he never once considers that steroids may have contributed to his health problems. Besides the injuries, Canseco downplays his legal troubles, from his arrest for illegally possessing a firearm to a probation violation that landed him in jail for three months. Ultimately, this ignorance kills Canseco's cred- ibility. "Juiced" could have been an intriguing look into the underground - and sometimes not-so-underground - steroid community that likely still exists in the MLB. But he's just not a source that anyone can or even wants to believe. While "Juiced" might succeed in opening a dialogue on steroids, the book fails to bring any new or refreshing information to the debate. I 1 Want a free drink to cool down during the L. London $557 Paris $468 Rome $554 Amsterdam $628 Frankfurt $525 San Jose Costa Rica $462 Mexico City $252 Bangkok $937 3 ":3aY \ 1l hot Ann Arbor summer? . °f-. l "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." -Saint Auustine 354A.D._ I BURNS THE Announcing the - --- - - -- - w-m --- - 0 0 y i We've Got EVERYTHING You Need for Summer Travel! Eurailpass Britrail Flexipass France & Snain Pass $382 $199 $ 199 A great adventure combining Andean culture, the most famous Incan ruin and the lush 9 days from .UI i I ,