a 2B - Thursday, January 31, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com REDUCTIVE REASONING Picking one and one apart. The Daily Arts guide to upcoming events Today 1.31.08 Stravinsky Revisited 7:30 p.m. At the Power Center $24/$18, $9 with student ID Images of Identities Improv Comedy Show 8:30 p.m. At the Michigan League Underground Free Tomorrow 2.01.08 Special Consensus 8 p.m. At The Ark $1t Comedian Brian Kiley 8 and 10:30 p.m. At the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase $14 Saturday 2.02.08 Flakes in the Arb winter hike led by Robert Ayotte 10 a.m. At Nichols Arhoretum:Reader Center $4 with student ID "Dandia Dhamaka": Raas Core Dance Competition 6:30 p.m. At The Michigan Theater $13-$1s "An Evening of Scenes" 8 p.m. At the RC Auditorium Free Yiddishe Cup Klezmer Band 8 p.m. At The Ark $tt Sunday 2.03.08 "Food in Chinese Culture" Lecture by Elizabeth Chiu King 2 p.m. At the Ann Arbor District Library Free Please send all press releases and event information to artspage@michigandaily.com. g TH VAUT |THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES: 'DON'T KNOW HOW TO PARTY' (1993) Horns, booze and a Mighty 'Party' 4 Burnett greets new crowd. By CHRIS GAERIG Daily Music Editor In 1997 a group of grizzled, unabashedly alcoholic and fun-lov- ing musicians hit the scene with a horn-fueled juking single the likes of which mainstream radio hadn't heard in years. Known col- loquially as the "knock on wood" song, "The Impression that'I Get," by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from their breakthrough Let's Face It, was a ska anthem reminiscent of the relativelyunknown Specials and punk/skalords, the Clash. Let's Face It saw an average run on the charts and housed a respect- able number of singles, but The Mighty Mighty Bosstones fell off the map after the record eventually fizzled. Their next studio release, Pay Attention, saw limited success as they quickly fell into anonymity. But what most aren't aware of is the stockpile of ska classics The Boss- tones had released prior to Let's Face It that garnered no critical acclaim orwidespread airplay-Don'rKnow Hors'to Parry being their best. An album that revels in the dynamicpowerofanexpansivehorn section - and the gravelly, strained screams of lead singer Dicky Barrett - Don't Know How is an explosively defiant middle finger to mainstream radio. Dripping with originality, the record is a mass of swinging left- hook instrumentation and uppercut choruses. The disc's lynchpin, "Someday I Suppose," is an incredible single that slippedunderthe mainstreamradar. Its slowly crescendoing horn intro is simple and enthralling, but when the group unleashes the feedback and distorted guitars, the track jolts back and forth between a humma- ble chorus and a call-and-response from Barrett's faithful backing. When the barrage of horns comes to abreakneckend,you'reblasted with the poisonously aggressive "A Man Without." A song that exemplifies the mainstream's discontent with The Bosstones, the track is a jarring cut only longtime Bosstones fans will appreciate: Barrett screaming bloody murder, sounding as if he's smoked four packs of cigarettes in as many minutes and shredding metal guitar lines. But the hooks and joyous melo- dies aren't finished with the afore- mentioned single. "Holy Smoke" - atrack withthe fastest guitars this side of "Guitar Hero" - is an imme- diately playful cut, and "Almost Anything Goes" - the best song about mindless dissenting you've ever heard - pound through your speakers with the same excitement as "Someday I Suppose." With such an expansive, impres- sive catalog, one wonders why it took so long for the mainstream to catch on. But with a little investiga- The Pearl Jam to Sublime's Nirvana tion, the answer becomes obvious: In 1996, one year before The Boss- tones hitthe bigtime, Sublime's epic self-titled album finally hit the air- waves. The Bosstones couldn't start a movement but they were undoubt- edly one of the forefathers - the Pearl Jam to Sublime's Nirvana. And because of this shortcom- ing, The Bosstones are left with an impressively lengthy cast of albums but little to show for it. Why more people didn't pick up Don't Know How after the group's even- tual breakthrough is still a mys- tery, though. By all accounts, it's a significantly better album than any of their mainstream successes: It's more composed, more boisterous and more innovative. Plus, Barrett's voice never sounded more inspired and filled with vitriol than it did on Don'tKnow How - a voice that will go down alongside Tom Waits as one of the all-time best growlers. But maybe that's another reason the mainstream didn't take to The 'Bosstones:. The group's unshaven and, frankly, morally bankrupt image was too much for the MTV churn. They cleaned up, put on suits and consequently made it to the bigs. But with this sort of mate- rial, they're bound to pop up again. Someday, I suppose. 0 By JEFFREY BLOOMER Managing Editor Its images feel raw, almost tenuous, as if they provide a privileged glimpse into a world of majestic beauty but also great regret. There is light humor so subtle the audience is never quite sure when to laugh, scenes of stunning devastation coupled with ones of joy and flat-out sil- liness. The movie is "Killer of Sheep," directed by Charles Bur- nett ("To Sleep with Anger"), and it has finally found widespread recognition more than 30 years after it was first completed. The movie, which leisurely chronicles the experiences of a last-generation black family in Los Angeles, was screened with a restored print Monday night at The Michigan Theater followed by a discussion with Burnett. The director, who originally shot the movie for film school at UCLA and has enjoyed renewed critical acclaim with this new but Burnett said the movie was print, spoke quietly and humbly almost entirely scripted, and the but with a definite command often discordant imagery and over his listeners. A little more visual flirtations of the camera than half of the audience stayed suggest a more complex, critical for the talk following a packed- movie. house screening. "It was designed to talk about social issues," he said. "We went to different communities and talked to them about it - what At M ichigan was happening in their commu- nity." Theater, a Asked what aspect of the film he was most proud of, he dead- forgotten panned, "Well, I think that I completed it, for one." Though masterpiece. it seemed he wasn't entirely kid- ding, he added that he made the film "partly in response to the sort of images and stereotypes "Now that it's out, I'm glad that Hollywood had perpetu- that people want to see it, since it ated" about black culture. The was made for a select group and movie, he said, asks "How can I activists," Burnett told the audi- help these people?" ence. "I'm quite pleased." The two-disc edition of "Kill- In a sweetly rendered black er of Sheep: The Charles Burnett and white, the temptation is Collection" is available on Ama- to call his film "naturalistic," zon.com. 0 Attention Students! the perfect summer job before other students do!