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 LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? GREAT. HATE IT? EVEN BETTER FINAL MASS MEETING TUESDAY, SEPT.18 AT 8 P.M. 420 MAYNARD ST. M CEI $ STUDENT U UNION. 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State St. at Stimson (across from the U of M Golf Course) You will be compensated up to $300 for your time and travel expenses. for more information, please call a study coordinator at (734) 677- 6000, option 4. * StudentUniverse.com I