The Michigan Daily - michigandaily~com h Monday, February 12, 2007 - 5A The 'Apple' of Sindie's eye SCHNEIDER RETURNS WITH TASTY ALBUM By MATT EMERY Daily Arts Writer Whathas TheApples inStereo frontmanRob- ert Schneider been up to in the five years since the band's last album? Quite a bit, actually - two side- projects, some schmooz- *** .," ing with Elijah Wood and others at Austin's SXSW Apples in music festival, a solo per- Stereo formance on "The Colbert Report." Oh, and creating New Magnetic his own music scale called Wonder the "Non-Pythagorean Music Scale" - and it's just as esoteric as it sounds. According to Schneider, it has something to do with creating new tones with varying frequencies that "add according to a different algebra from the traditional, rational pitches. Music theory in this scale has not yet been worked out." Whatever. Unlike the group's last album, Velocity of Sound, which had a personal, concert-ready feel, New Magnetic Wonder is highly polished. Schneider's production prowess, clear in his work with Neutral Milk Hotel, has never been cleaner: multiple layers and a heavy emphasis on percussion and cowbells that would make even Brian Wilson happy. The album is also more grandiose than the band's previous work, * featuring 14 "true" songs and 12 interludes that No 'do re mi' for Apples in Stereo. Schneider calls "link tracks." Unlike the other link tracks Schneider placed in prior record- ings, these sound vital to the overall composi- tion of the album. New Magnetic Wonder crafts a grand concoction featuring ELO-style vocals, Neutral Milk Hotel-esque production and a new edginess from the band. Although "Apples in Stereo" might be bet- ter known for comparisons to the Beatles, the album's first four tracks distance them from those stereotypes, and instead pick up new ones that put them side by side with ELO. The opener "Can You Feel It?" puts the new music scale to use right off the bat, but it mostly sounds like a cheap doorbell tone. ThentheELO-trademarked computerized vocals take hold when the voice commands the listener to "Turn up the stereo" as the band stars to rock out with high-energy wails and a call-and-response section backed by computer-generated horns and a prominent cowbell thump. While "Skyway" exhibits more of the band's cowbell/hard-hitting guitar-hook fetish, the album's first single "Energy" borders on com- pletely hokey Kidz Bop fair with schlocky lyr- ics ("And the world is made of energy /And the world is electricity") until its salvaged by gritty guitar-slam segues and, you guessed it, more cowbell. It sounds awfully phony - and it is, but the song has so vocal ability behind it and a pow- erful, quasi-drug-trip feel that it turns out to be one of the best on the album. It's these moments of hard-hitting, New Por- nographers-rock that really distinguishes this Apples effort from their past. "Sunndal Song" and "Sunday Song" thrust Hilarie Sidney's vocals to the fore, and just like with the New Pornographers and Neko Case, it's a shame Sid- ney spends so little time at the front of the band. Still, her consistent, restrained voice adds a rare glimpse into the real dynamic of the group. Though the music scale should be a big deal, it doesn't make much difference in the sound. Take "Beautiful Machine Parts 1-4." Allegedly, the eight-minute concerto-style piece brought the entire work to a halt - yet it simultane- ously sounds crisp and scattershot. The track floats through high-tempo guitar strumming and atmospheric wails until it's interrupted by a Neutral Milk Hotel-like scene transition into a lightly strummed ballad - then a loud, con- fusing guitar mish-mash - before fading into a soothingconcerto masterpiece. Pop music doesn't get much better than this - new music scale or not. All the outside hype with Elijah Wood and Comedy Central would hint at a band trying to nudge their way into the main- stream, but as "Can You Feel It?" so eloquently states, "Turn off the bullshit on the FM radio." So maybe not. Either way, New Magnetic Won- der is a peppy jaunt into what good pop music can sound like. Student composer looks high and low By CATHERINE SMYKA people who think like me." Daily Arts Writer The Collage piece he wrote, for example, combined early-'80s The audience at the eclectic influences such as Oingo Boingo Collage Concert at Hill Audito- with other inspirational musi- rium on Jan. 20 enjoyed a diverse cians Harry Partch and Gentle group of performances and per- Giant. It was originally written formers, including choirs, orches- as an "electronic playback piece" tras and rock bands. - that is, not for live performance. Only two of the show's pieces, He also adapted versions for both however, were original composi- the soprano saxophone and a tions, and one of them was written chamber orchestra. and performed by Alex Temple, a While listening to other schools second-year School of Music grad- and their composers - especially uate student. when looking at grad schools - Temple incorporates several Temple realized the University's different forms and instruments music program and students work into his music including synthe- in a distinct way. sizers, electric guitar, voice and "Michigan composers are more piano. While his experience in Ann Arbor has only complement- ed his composing, his passion for music began far before his time at A student the University and his undergrad- uate education at Yale University. experiments with When he was young, Temple and his family began a series of dissolving genres. House Exchanges that exposed him to new music. Through the House Exchange program, fami- lies from around the world send in eclectic and more direct in their information to a catalog about the music," he said. location of their home and where Apart from the his experience they would like to travel to. Those with fellow University musicians, with similar ideas about the tim- Temple cites deceased compos- ing of a trip are matched up and ers such as Schoenberg, living switch houses, avoiding the cost composers like Scott Johnson and of a hotel stay. bands such as SUU's, Henry Cow "An Italian family had CDs in and Thinking Plague. the house I had never heard," Tem- "Although,"Templesaid,"those ple said. "I listened to Schubert listening to my music often hear and the soundtrack to 'Thirty Two influences that may not have been Short Films about Glenn Gould."' intentional." Somewhere between listening Temple said film is the other to his father play piano when he form he can most easily relate was young and the Padua house to: "Films that are emotionally exchange, Temple began to take ambiguous or contradictory, like piano lessons and compose his 'Donnie Darko' - I try to do that first pieces. in composing," he said. When he was 15, a House As he begins his last semester Exchange to France introduced of the two-year Music program him to the Beatles's "Strawberry and considers plans for relocat- Fields Forever." At that point, ing to New York, Temple hopes "things really opened up." his music encourages students to "My music combines incongru- push aside the "bigotry of looking ous styles," he said. "I like to break at an entire genre in one way." down alleged boundaries between "Boundaries between genres high culture and low culture are bullshit," Temple said. "You music." should judge music by the speci- He also said the University has ficity of the work instead of the influenced his music composition category it falls in to." and that students seem to grasp and think about music in simi- - To hear Temple's music lar ways: "I've found a number of visit www.umich.edu/atemple/. CBS's latest sitcom just following the Rules' By IMRAN SYED Daily Arts Writer The sitcom has grown up. Gone are the days when ** single 20- something Rules of yuppies with Engagement a sentimental streak hung Monadys at out at coffee 9:30 p.m. shops all day cgs whining over bad relationships. Now, with shows like "Rules of, Engagement," those yuppies are older, married and, well, still scru- tinizing the finer points of rela- tionships. Sure, the characters and their problems are more middle- aged, but the craft is largely the same - except robbed of the fresh- ness and flair that can only accom- pany an original. "Rules of Engagement" stars David Spade ("Saturday Night Live") and Patrick Warburton ("Seinfeld") as guys in their 30s who have prematurely embraced the problems of midlife. Warbur- ton plays Jeff, a bored, zoned out husband who adds new depth to the definition of deadpan. He and his wife befriend a younger, recent- ly engaged couple" out of politeness. Throw in Spade as the drifting loner ' - sarcastic, face- tious and without a hint of a conscience - and there's actu- ally a cast that could carry a show. SPADE And for a while it seems like they will. Warburton, drawing on his understated genius on "Sein- feld," is superb. He's perhaps the best comedian you've never heard of, effortlessly employing the high- est form of deadpan. Stealing every scene he's in from far more kinetic actors, Warburton alone makes the show worth giving a shot. As for Spade, he plays essential- ly the same character we came to love on "SNL" and hate in almost everything since. He avoids the flat, almost masochistic self-depre- cation that bogged down his most recent roles ("Joe Dirt" comes to mind), and he's good for many laughs. Despite strong efforts from both Spade and Warburton, "Rules" is mediocre at best, even in a genre where the bar is really not very high. Recycling themes from a handful of recent shows and com- pletely ripping off the plot and premise from "Til' Death," the show is a shoddy result of unin- spired and unambitious writing. Relying on the one-to-two- word punchline that got old in the fourth season of "Friends," "Rules" is also accompanied by an unusu- ally intrusive laughtrack. Aside from the fact that it's annoying, it good chance "Rules" could be a success. Wrapping up a popular two-hour block of comedy (fea- turing "How I Met Your Mother," "The Class" and the still-not-good "Two-and-a-Half Men) and lead- ing into consistent ratings-giant "CSI," "Rules" doesn't have to do much to stay afloat. But just because the show stays on the air doesn't mean we have to watch, and the producer's of "Rules" still have a long way to go to make the show worth our while. hinders the development of jokes; a smattering of quick laughs keeps the humor from ever rising to higher levels. This is OK in a sit- com with the razor-sharp wit of Spade refuses to evolve, but 'Puddy' steals the show. "Seinfeld," but it magnifies flaws in stale material, like what's pre- sented here. Despite its inanity, there's a Ila. Uin iversity of mchidgasymposium" Energy Science, Technology and Policy FACING THE CHALLENGE a ~ 1 Keynote Address by Samuel W. Bodman, U.S. Secretary of Energy February 13-14, 2007, 8:30 AM -5:oo PM Horace H. Rackham Graduate School 915 E. 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