i0A- Monday, September 10, 2007
Remake doesn't
'Rise' enough
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
By KAREN STASEVICH
Daily Arts Writer
As they do in just about every
genre, album remakes and art-
ist tributes elicit heavy criticism
from fans that hate to hear the
butchering of a classic. Attempts
t' outdo original hits rarely - or
in some opinions, never - find
saccess. There's
reason why
is essentially
Qrbidden to
ill out "Free itty
Ord"at rock Projcos
ncerts.
'*But praise is Rise Above
1Giled to those Dead Oceans
l'ld enough to
iwwork songs
etirely that
have become iconic. Complete
genre crossovers, like lounger
Richard Cheese taking on pop-
chart toppers or Girl Talk mash-
ing Nine Inch Nails and The
Beatles into a dance-club jam,
have shown that it can be done.
Dirty Projectors's Rise Above is
an attempt to join the ranks of
those who succeed at the feat
of great covers, modeling the
album after hardcore punk leg-
end Black Flag's Damaged.
The brains behind the oper-
ation of remaking the 1981
punk-defining album is Dirty
Projectors' Dave Longstreth,
who dropped out of Yale to pur-
sue a career that started out as
a four-track recording self-pro-
tuced in his brother's basement.
What his work has progressed to
is a barely recognizable allusion
to Damaged.
What was once riotous shout-
ing Longstreth has reinvent-
ed into vibrating falsetto and
female choral harmonies. What
used to be short and breathless
has been relaxed so much as to
triple its length.
Allegedly, the album is mani-
fested purely from Longstreth's
vast imagination and memo-
ry of the punk anthems. This
accounts for the complete loss
of dissent, angst and drunken
anger. Guitar, bass and drums
remembered, tune nearly for-
gotten, Dirty Projectors gloss
pver all of Damaged with piccolo
end double bass, save for "T.V.
P'arty," "Damaged II," "Padded
Cell," "Life of Pain" and "Dam-
aged I," which seems to have
lipped their minds.
"Six Pack" no longer has a
bass opener or half the original
lyrics. Instead, it gained a slow
bridge of foreign words sung in
the quavering voice of an R&B
songstress. Mild need for booze
is retained, but the order is more
likely for wine coolers than
the Budweiser implied by the
machismo of Black Flag's ver-
sion.
Rise Above ends on a ridicu-
lously optimistic remake of the
title track. Rather than a politi-
A little too
much optimism
for punk music.
cal statement and anarchist call
to arms, the order "rise above,
rise above" is peaceful and
uplifting.
It's difficult to tie the two
bands together without direct
juxtaposition of song lyrics.
Black Flag's words act almost as
DNA; they are the basic build-
ing blocks to Dirty Projectors's
sound. Imagine, if you will, that.
Black Flag and Dirty Projec-
tors are fraternal twins. Black
Flag is of course the rebellious,
emotionally unstable atten-
tion whore screaming "Gimme
gimme gimme." Dirty Projec-
tors, in contrast, always say
"please." On the surface, one
appears to have been switched
at birth, but get to know them
and Dirty Projectors' rage sur-
faces with occasionally edgier
chords that are not unlike those
of its sibling. Rise Above clearly
transformed Damaged without
any attempt to emulate it, but
despite its efforts failed to sur-
pass Black Flag's original.
COURTESY OFWARNER BROS.
Looks like one hell ofa time. (Yes, those are bears to the right. Several bears.)
DVDi V
Another day
at the 'Zoo'
The Flaming Lips are just plain
weird - and that's great
By MATT EMERY stage-engulfing U.F.O. mother-
Daily Arts Writer ship - reminiscent of Parlia-
ment's own spacecraft from the
If you've ever had the chance '70s - that descends from the
to see the Lips live, something top of the arena in smoky, neon-
strange will happen - thou- lighted, overloaded beauty. And
sands of strange things will hap- if that wasn't strange enough,
pen. You'll be lead singer Wayne Coyne goes
showered in on to pop out ina giant hamster
confetti. You'll ball, rolls down the ship and
be surrounded proceeds to crawl over top of the
by people trip- The inebriated, gyrating crowd.
ping on any Flaming lps Absurd doesn't even come
drug that can close to describing the may-
be snorted, U.F.O.sat hem during this epic, two-hour
swallowed or the Zoo party.
injected. Your Warner Bros Along with the usual hits, you
eyes will burn also get 15 dancing Santas on one
from the bright side of the stage and 15 aliens on
lights. And you'll remember it as the other, hundreds of confetti
one of the best days of your life. cannons, huge balloons, stream-
That's what makes U.F.O.s ers, smoke, lights, enormous
at the Zoo such a fantastic idea. foam hands, a megaphone that
The DVD - with lots of needless blasts smoke, a nun hand-puppet
extras-shows TheFlamingLips' and fake blood. All of this is set
homecoming concert in their at a zoo amphitheater.
old stomping grounds of Okla- U.F.O.s is essentially a docu-
homa City. The show witnesses mentary of the entire day lead-
the debut of their preposterous, ing up to the climatic concert
itself. Interspersed throughout
the concert footage are clips of
the borderline insane fans that
frequent Lips' shows - one say-
ing that the band made her a
"healthier person" - and some
shots of the zoo animals. At one
point, Coyne even references a
rumor that had floated around
during the day: everyone should
go out and set the animals free.
It's a scary thought made even
worse when you witness the
thousands in attendance actu-
ally looking like they want to do
it.
Very little is normal over
the entire concert, but The
Lips' songs are still solid in live
form and maybe even better
than on the albums. Old favor-
ites like "Yoshimi Battles the
Pink Robots" and "She Don't
Use Jelly" elicit great crowd
response while "The Yeah Yeah
Yeah Song" is rich with emotion
after an improvisational acoustic
beginning with the crowd shout-
ing the "yeah yeah yeahs" back
at Coyne. "Race for the Prize"
opens the festivities with nor-
mal absurdity met with a sea of
Very little
is normal with
these Lips.
hand-waving and popcorn-pop-
ping actions of the crowd. The
newer songs like "The W.A.N.D."
are as flawlessly executed as
their older tracks.
Saying that you need to see the
Flaming Lips before you die is an
understatement. Maybe U.F.O.s
at the Zoo is a bit overwhelming
for a TV screen and a little scat-
tered at times, but if you can't
make it to a live outing, U.F.O.s
at the Zoo gets pretty fucking
close to the real thing.
I
0
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