2B - Thursday, November 9, 2006

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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

GOSSIP
K-Fed is having a bad week. A really bad
week. Wife Britney Spears (finally) slapped
him with a divorce, and his endeavors as
a rapper are also floundering in a big way.
K-Fed has reportedly eliminated the ticket
price for his current tour to boost attendance
at his shows. That's right - he can't even
give away tickets for free. Federline has also
cancelled shows due to poor turnout. To
boot, Federline's debut album Playing with
Fire, which was released on Halloween,
has sold a paltry 6,500 copies. Looks like
K-Fed's joy ride may be coming to an end.
TELEVISION
Andre "3000" Benjamin, one half of rap
outfit Outkast, has created a new cartoon series.
"Class of 3000" premiered last Friday on the
Cartoon Network. Benjamin co-created and
produces the show. He also lends his voice to the
show's main character, a popular entertainer
who walks away at the top of his game to teach
music to kids in Atlanta. Benjamin has said
he will create anew song for each episode,
and has hinted he will enlist special guest
musicians like Big Boi and Gwen Stefani on
some of the tracks. You can watch the premiere
episode on www.cartoonnetwork.com.
The creators of "Lost" can finally relate
to their viewers. They have no idea what the
hell is going on with their show, either. In
a ballsy move by ABC, "Lost" will be taken
off the air for 13 weeks. The network cited
fan restlessness and growing production
difficulties due to the show's already large
scale as reasons for the hiatus. According to
the show's executive producers, the decision
was made in hope that audiences might be
able to catch up with the fractured story
lines. The show will return on Feb. 7th, and
the rest of the season will run into May.
MUSIC
Michael Jackson will perform his 1983

Eugene McDaniels (1971)
Headless Heroes ofthe Apocalypse
Atlantic

"Lost" will go off the air until Feb. 7. Not usually a good sign.

hit "Thriller" at the World Music Awards in
London on Nov. 22nd. The reclusive King
of Pop hasn't performed live in the United
Kingdom in 10 years. The two-hour special
will be broadcast to 160 countries and will
reach approximately one billion viewers.
Jackson will be presented with a Diamond
Award, which is given to artists who sell more
than 100 million albums. Thriller alone sold
more than 50 million copies, and remains
one of Jackson's biggest singles of all time.
FILM
Christopher Walken is set to play rock-
legend Ozzy Osbourne for the upcoming
adaptation of Vince Neal's M6tley Crueg
expose, "The Dirt." Walken will join Val
Kilmer, who plays David Lee Roth, and a cast
of unknowns playing the Crue. The film will

offer a candid look at the band's shameless
1980s exploits. Just the thought of Walken
shouting, "Fellas, I need more bat's headst"
is enough to warrant required viewing.
Tom Cruise is getting another chance,
but not as an actor. He and producing
partner Paula Wagner have been chosen to
resuscitate the defunct United Artists studio.
Created in 1919 by legendary filmmakers like
Charlie Chaplin, the company functioned
independently until it was purchased by Sony
Pictures in 2005. Wagner has been appointed
CEO and asked Cruise to look over production
as well as star in movies. It sure beats the
hell out of couch-jumping, or anything else
Cruise has done recently for that matter.
- Compiled by Caitlin Cowan and Blake Goble.

By LLOYD H. CARGO
Daily Music Editor
Most insanely expensive records
are rare because, while obviously
coveted by collectors, they were
either too ahead of their time or on
labels without adequate means for
publicity. There aren't too many
records from the '70s released on
a major label more sought after
than Eugene McDaniels's Headless
Heroes of the Apocalypse. But the
album was no commercial flop - it
was never given a chance.
Eugene McDaniels was silenced
and blacklisted at the peak of his
artistry. Headless Heroes of the
Apocalypse was his second album
on Atlantic Records, following the
similarly edgy Outlaw. It was his
first album as Eugene, rather than
Gene, amove to disassociate his new
sound from the pop/R&B hits from
his Liberty era of the mid-'60s. Out-
laws, its cover featuring McDaniels
clutching a bible and a gun flanked
by two more gun-touting femmes,
was a preview of the militancy of
his best and final album.
His accounts of everyday racist
brutality, a shady controlling force
on society and general distaste for
the powers that be were incendiary
enough to piss off the Nixon admin-
istration and warrant a call from
then-Vice President Spiro Agnew
to the head of Atlantic Records,
Nesuhi Ertegun. The label pro-
ceeded to immediately stop press
and promotion for the record, drop
McDaniels and essentially blacklist
him from the music industry. Why
this record, above any other, was
threatening enough to the govern-
ment for that to happen is sort of
head-scratching, but tragic none-
theless, for it really was a ground-
breaking, soulful effort.
The cover immediately lets you
know that this isn't exactly Marvin
Gaye-esque protest soul. The bright
red background and the painting of
twosamurais raisingtheirswords as
McDaniels screams belies the rage
on the wax within. This is black soul
expressed through an innovative
blending of funk, rock, folk, blues
and jazz. The finger-picked acous-
tic guitar of "Susan Jane" lies at one
end of the spectrum, while the Book
of Revelations-referencing rock of
"The Lord is Back" lies at the other.
Inbetween, the masterfulAlphonse
Mouzon on drums and the virtuosic
Miroslav Vitous on bass laid down
some righteous grooves in what-
ever setting McDaniels wanted to
frame his preaching.
MACDONALD
From page 1B
pickings: "Ice Princess"? I won't
even go into Lil' Bow Wow's "Like
Mike."
While sports film godfather
"Karate Kid" and its sequel came
out in the '80s, it was the early
'90s that proceeded to dole out the
genre in earnest. "Mighty Ducks"
begat "Sandlot" begat "Rookie of
the Year" (1993), still probably the
only movie in memory to make me
want to break my own arm (albeit
to magically wind up as a major
league pitcher, but still).
These films often had fun adult
casts - Rick "Honey, I Shrunk
the Kids" Moranis and Ed "Al
Bundy" O'Neill as dueling coaches
in "Little Giants" (1994), Daniel
Stern as a bumbling big-league

pitcher in "Rookie" (who memo-
rably gets stuck between the two
doors of an adjoining hotel suite),
Emilio Estevez's immortal Gordon
Bombay in "Ducks" - but mainly,
they were about the kids. The play-
ground taunts. The fear of girls
and respect for older brothers. The

That preaching isn't necessarily
that revolutionary, just very real. He
predicts doomsday with "The Lord
is Back," criticizes rock-star excess
with "Jagger the Dagger" and
warns that all minorities are pawns
of a dark, controlling organization.
Elsewhere he pleads for people not
to look away or to be silent about
their struggles. He pours his soul
out on the final track, "The Parasite
(for Buffy)," a song about the plight
of Native Americans. He ends the
song with a free-jazz freak-out and
impassioned howls. The loping
"Supermarket Blues" is even funny
in getting his message across - an
argument over a can of peas turns
into a racially motivated riot.
As provocative as the lyrics are,
the music is what really makes this
a lost classic. Part of the reason the
Blacklisted and
released for a
new set of ears.
album has regained attention and
was reissued recently is due to the
load of samples it's yielded. A Tribe
Called Quest and the Beastie Boys
are among many who've paid trib-
ute to McDaniels by sampling his
apocalyptic funk.
Fortunately Atlantic didn't burn
the masters, and the album has
been reissued on CD, finally allow-
ing McDaniels's music to be freely
heard. Many of the album's messag-
es arestillverymuchrelevanttoday,
and the soulfulness of the music
hasn't diminished in the least.
The title track warns, "Still
nobody knows who the enemy is
/ 'Cause he never goes in hiding /
He's slitting our throats right in
front of our eyes / While we pull
the casket he's riding / Better get
it together / Better get it together /
And see what's happening / To you
and you and you," and it all sounds
way too familiar.
nicknames.
Then "Angels in the Outfield"
(1994) came along and with it the
beginning of the end, sticking kids
back in the stands to watch the big
guys play and simultaneously amp-
ing up the sports-triumph schmaltz
factor to heights that "Air Bud"
(1997) and its popular pun-happy
sequels ("World Pup," "Seventh-
Inning Fetch") turned into today's
sports-movie standard.
"The Santa Clause 3" made
nearly $20 million this past week-
end. Even if you were dragged to
the theater by the small child in
your family, do them a lifelong
favor from now on and pledge to
shield his tender young eyes from
such monstrous lapses in cultural
taste. It's never too early in the
season to bust out 1990's "Home
Alone" - every kid deserves to
take notes as Macaulay Culkin tor-
ments burglars and pizza delivery
boys alike. It's our responsibility
to make the classics endure, and
there's no better way to help shape
the future than by passing on the
best of our past.
- E-mail MacDonald at
kmacd@umic.edu.

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