The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, March 3, 2008 - 5A
COURTESY OF PARTIAL MUSIC
Newcomb will play tonight at 8 p.m. at the Kerrytown Concert House.
PERFORMANCE PREVIEW
After dropping out,
guitarist back in A
By KATIE CAREY or the waves or the screaming
Daily Arts Writer in the kitchen and deconstruct
the math of it."
After his first semester at This "deconstruction of
the University, Robert Spalding sound" has led Newcomb to
Newcomb did what many ide- experimentwith integratinghis
alistic musi- knowledge of computers into
cians and his music. Switching between
artists fanati- Robert ambient reverb and brash and
cize about but $palding electronic clamor, Newcomb's
never gather sound is dictated by the envi-
the courage to NeWCOmb ronment he's in, making each
do. Newcomb Tonight at performance completely differ-
walked out of 8 p.m. ent from the last.
his Psycholo- At the Kerrytown The freedom the combina-
gy 101 lecture Concert House tion opens up for him comes
and moved $5 with student ID through in his music. It is evi-
to New York dent that he isn't falling back on
with a guitar, learned chord progressions, but,
two pairs of blue jeans and a rather, he's makinganew kind of
hundred dollars. improvisation. This new method
Newcomb spent time in New isfocusedonthebeliefofhuman
York learning to program com- interconnectedness. Through
puters, devoting his nights to his improvisation, Newcomb
playing music and writing poet- takes the people and praces that
ry. Years later the pattern con- surround him and manifests
tinues. Newcomb now works them into a collective sound.
as the program manager of "Playing jazz feels like I'm in
business information network a box. It's a big box, but still, a
security in the School of Music, box," he said. "It gives you the
Theatre and Dance during the basic architecture of an emo-
week, and puts on amplified tional flow."
sitar and electric classical gui- What Newcomb finds as his
tar concerts on the weekends. main challenge is not -falling
But Newcomb's path to his back on the comfort of classical
musical career was shaped musicalstructure,the sitar play-
much earlier. As a child, New- ingalarge partinthis. Newcomb
comb sat by the family stereo admires the instrumentbecause
where he would listen to Char- it creates a large pool of mate-
lie Parker, Mozart and Woody rial but has little demand on
Guthrie. And while Newcomb how it is sequenced. Pairing this
has created music in all these with technology has allowed
musical veins, from old time Newcomb to explore an infinite
banjo, jazz, folk and electronic, amount of space, while concise-
he has no particular influences. ly moving within the controls of
Rather, everything is an influ- his own vision at the same time.
ence to Newcomb. By listening to his compositions,
"I don't walk around with an it's easy to notice Newcomb's
iPod," said Newcomb. "I don't belief in technology. It permits
listen to anything, but I try his music to move beyond the
to hear everything. Actually, physically restrained and trans-
that's kinda stupid, it could go forms it into a more transcen-
either way. I listen to the wind dental experience.
"Did you see that? I sure as hell didn't.'
OB STRU CTIED VI EWL
Ne
bele;
destr
b(
Did y
nize- a
bomb a
an ai
assassin
machine
an iPh
you did
that's be
can't. B
ently no
anyone
with chi
"Vantag
could b
released
The i
one of
find in
behind1
the sam
w action film's ist attack on a peace summit from
eight different peoples' point of
aguered concept view. Sounds like it could be an
.oys its chance of innovative concept, but you'll dis-
cover that "Vantage Point" beats it
iing enjoyable to death pretty quickly.
Dennis Quaid ("Flight of the
Phoenix") and Matthew Fox (TV's
By PAUL TASSI "Lost") are Secret Service agents in
DailyArts Writer charge of protecting the president
(William Hurt, "Into the Wild")
ou know that you can orga- at a peace conference in Spain. In
terrorist cell, detonate a attendance is a video-camera tot-.
nd direct ing tourist (Forest Whitaker "Last
uto-turret King of Scotland"), a media direc-
ation tor (Sigourney Weaver, "The Vil
e with Vantge lage") and bevy of shady characters
one? No, that look vaguely Middle Eastern
n't? Well, POft but mostly turn out to be Spanish.
cause you At Quality16 One of the major players is secretly
ut appar~ and Showcase a terrorist, which is supposed to be
one told the film's big twist. But if you can't
involved Columbia guess who it is in the few minutes
urning out after the first shots are fired, you're
e Point," which very well either a complete idiot or asleep
e the dumbest action film - and no one would blame you for
in years. the latter.
Phone mastermind is just Speaking of twists, the other
many idiotic things you'll "big" one is that the president isn't
the film. The gimmick actually shot, it's a double. This
the movie is that you see wouldn't normally be given away
e 20 minutes of a terror- in a review, but for some inexpli-
cable reason, they decided to put ending that leaves everyone coio-
this scene in the trailer. Guess it fused and no one surprised. Really,
would have portrayed the film as -he was a bad guy? The only guy
too shocking and revolutionary if who's "vantage point" they hadn't
the audience went in thinking the showed yet? Who could have pos-
president had actually been shot sibly guessed?
- in a movie, which isn't real. The terrorists in the film are
Amid the unnecessary plot either the smartestor dumbest peo-
twists are 15 minutes of action ple you'll ever see. They manage to
goodness, where a terrorist goes infiltrate the most tightly guarded
all "Metal Gear Solid" on a hotel event on the planet, plant an ageht
full of Secret Service agents, and inside the administration and blow
then a climactic car chase a' is up and shootsiozens of people wit4
is up there with anything found an iPhone. Unfortunately, their
in the "Bourne" films. But without entire master plan is unraveled by
these scenes, the, rest of the film a series of coincidences thateange
is an exercise in frustration, with from "thank goodness that ran-
more plot holes than "Jumper" dom camera was there to see that"
- and that whole movie was a plot to "it's lucky an idiotic person ran
hole. out into the street at that moment."
That each person has a "vantage Not to mention they feel that kid-
point" is a shtick that gets old real napping the president is somehow
quick. After the first three repeti- accomplishing more than simply
tions of the same scene with only a assassinating him. By overcompli-
hint of new information each time, cating their attack plan they man-
exhaustion begins to set in.Atabout age to turn their elaborate scheme
the fifth repetition, even the film into a hot mess of shit. It's kind of
gets bored, abandoning this format like this movie. What could've beon
and showing the perspective of all a straightforward, solid action flick
five terrorists at once. Finally all thinks it has to go beyond, and
the characters' cliffhanger stories ultimately doesn't accomplish any-
are combined in a clusterfuck of an thing at all.
AL
Indie-pop troupe
finds its stride
By ALEXANDER ITKIN
For TheDaily
In the last two years Beach House
has crafted a comfortable niche for
itself, somewhere between atmo-
spheric indie-rock and baroque pop.
This Baltimore duo,
consisting of child- ****
hood friends Vic-
toria Legrand and Beach
Alex Scally, burst House
onto the indie-pop
scene in 2006 with Devotion
their self-titled Carpark
debut. In many
ways, Beach House
is the antithesis of the burgeoning
indie scene. Avoiding electronics and
experimentation on Devotion, their
latest release, Beach House crafted
beautiful melodies with nothing
more than a guitar, an organ and
Legrand's croon. Equal parts home-
liness and heartbreak, the songs
swirl around you in a languid haze
of beauty.
Not wanting to waste any time,
Beach House opens Devotion with
one of its most driving songs to date,
"Wedding Bell." With the trade-
mark haunted drum machine in tow
and hypnotizing guitar lines mix-
ing with Legrand's voice and organ,
Beach House gives us a glimpse of
its new direction. While the songs
are still all mid-tempo, the chord
progressions have become more
interesting and there's a stronger
rhythmic backbone than before.
The melodies are more developed,
sometimes recalling old R&B and
sometimes echoing '60s and '70s
pop. One of the album's highlights,
"D.A.R.L.I.N.G.," owes as much
to the Beach Boys as it does to Cat
Power.
The first single, "Gila" demon-
strates Scally's newly developed
confidence in his guitar. Whereas
on Beach House he usually took a
back seat to the organ and vocals,
on Devotion he crafts his own leads
and takes charge. Even among all the
reverb, he's able to cut through and
forge his own way.
One of Beach House's weaknesses
was the monotony that tended to
grow and overcome some of the songs
on its debut. HoweverDevotion has a
greater variety of songs, making for a
much better listen. Beach House gets
you over that mid-album-hump by
Beach House:
Indie rock that
hates indie rock
offering "Heart of Chambers." With
a rousing chorus and an epic feel
throughout, it serves as an anthem
for the broken-hearted hipster, and
Music
American electropoppers employ
Euro image on latest EP
Solid Gold
Who You Gonna Run To?
Self-released
It must be tough trying to make it as an American elec-
tropop group these days. With the success of Justice and the
stateside interest in Fabric music compilations, electronic
music is almost entirely Eurocentric. So it's not surprisingto
see an American band try to incorporate some subtly Euro-
pean details in its album artwork or press photos to give itself
a little bit of leverage. Solid Gold does just that. The collage
of bright colors, crystals and laser beams that adorn their
EP Who You Gonna Run To? seems like a deliberate effort to
make the listener forget the group is based in Minneapolis.,
Who You Gonna Run To? is safe and relatively inoffensive.
Opening track "Bible Thumper" plays on a mid-tempo beat
with wordless falsetto crescendos. It's a total rip off of The
Notwist's "Pilot" minus Markus Acher's affecting vocals.
The other two Solid Gold originals on the EP are straightfoi-
ward if ultimately uninteresting cuts of electropop that slow
down the pace to give the boys more time to harmonize. The
one bright spot is the Mgatp remix of the title track that plays
up the melodrama by successfully adding some surprisingly
effective hip-hop stomps and "My Love" synthesizer.
Solid Gold still has a lot of ground to cover if they want to
play with the big boys. They've got the image down, but that
doesn't really amount to anything. Really, how hard is it to
slip on a tight leather jacket and a striped scarf?
GABRIEL BAKER
They love long walks on the beach.
we all feel like a broken-hearted hip-
ster sometimes.
The cover of troubadour Daniel
Johnston's "Some Things Last A
Long Time" acts as a nice interlude
before the album's home stretch. On
the last three songs of the album,
Beach House experiments with
new dynamics. "Astronaut" has an
appropriately spacey feel and "Home
Again" displays Beach House's new
penchant for interesting percussion
with its reverbed-out tambourine.
The aforementioned"D.A.R.L.L.N.G."
is real gem inthe style of'60s psyche-
delic pop.
Signaled by its sepia-toned cover,
Devotion sounds like an aged album
by a band coming into its own. It's
the perfect companion for these
short winter days and long winter
nights.
h A
A