The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, April 11, 2008 - 5
ARTS IN BRIEF
Concert Preview
Mexican si]
brings eclec
sound to A2
Lila Downs
Tomorrow at 8 p.m.
At the Michigan Th
$16-$42
The deep and so
Oaxacan musician
carries with it a his
tion that spans an
carrying a sound t
to the music of Mex
present. She will
Arbor debut this Sat
at the Michigan The
As a bilingual an
ist, Downs's eclectic
oped as a result of b
Oaxaca, Mexico an
and by being expos
tures of various indi
of Mexico.
Her music comb
porary blues and j
and a genre of trad
can music called ra
diverse musical infl
different points in
tory, make it possibl
Mexico's past while
its future.
In many of he
reflects on stories
working class, a gr
that greatly affect
gence of Mexican f
the transmission ot
heritage from gene
eration. Her music
struggles, achieven
and fears her people
But there's mor
music than a beaut
exotic sound. Ther
element embedded
haunting voice, one
history, heritage ant
"There is somethi
thathas alottodowi
of a certain ethnic
said in a YouTube v
music. "I hope that
only be some sortof
is delivering someth
that need to feel an
be moved."
Theater Preview
Classic mus
restaged at
Power Cent
Carousel
"ger
~tic
eater
ulful voice of
Lila Downs
tory and emo-
entire nation,
hat is unique
Giving in to the gloom
After ten years
together, Clinic
returns with its
usual, dark sound
By ALEXANDER ITKIN
DailyArts Writer
I
xico's past and If the members of Clinic were
sake her Ann real doctors, they would prob-
urday at 8 p.m. ably work in the morgue. On Do
ater. It!, the masked
id biracial art- men return
c sound devel- with yet anoth-
being raised in er installment . .
id Minnesota, of dark, psyche- CiniC
ed to the cul- delic freak-folk, Dolt!
genous groups an album filled Domino
with a dense
bines contem- and heavy col-
azz with rap lection of gloomy jams and Syd
ditional Mexi- Barrett-esque ramblings.
ochera. These Clinic has never been much
luences, from of a commercial success, but
Mexico's his- they've often been lauded by
e to remember critics and patronized by fel-
still lookingto low indie artists. Arcade Fire
not only enlisted Clinic to open
er songs, she for them on last year's UK tour,
of the Latino but they've even been known to
oup of people cover Clinic's "Distortions" live.
ed the emer- Do It! is perhaps Clinic's most
olk music and concise and accessible album,
f the Mexican but it's still a challenging one.
ration to gen- "Memories" - the album's
c reflects the best track - juxtaposes pound-
ments, hopes ing, fuzzed-out guitars with
experienced. shimmering organs. The combi-
e to Downs's nation of a driving guitar riff and
iful voice and Ade Blackburn's uncanny vocals
e's a spiritual and rummage sale keyboarding
i within her proves to be both unsettling and
that speaks of captivating. "Tomorrow" taps
d tradition. perfectly into the '70s art-rock
ng in my work aesthetic. At the same time, the
iththeidentity spacey guitars and swinging
place," Downs beats of "Free Not Free" and
ideo about her "Emotions" sound eerily similar
my voice can to Amnesiac-era Radiohead i la
amediumthat "Dollars and Cents" and "Life in
ling to people: a Glass House." Blackburn is no
d that need to Thom Yorke, but with lines such
as "With the flask split on your
PRIYA BALI lips here / And the pie charts
now become clear," he is no less
cryptic.
cl As Do It! progresses, though,
it tends to grow monotonous.
the In the 10 years of its existence,
Clinic has been a prolific band,
er releasing five full-length records
and a handful of EPs and compi-
lations. While the group's sound
11
"Dude, SARS is still a big threat."
is clearly their own, the albums
all tend to play out the same
way. Clinic creates eccentric and
adventurous songs, but eccentric
and adventurous seems to mean
the same thing every time (take,
for example, "The Witch" and
their 2006 single "Harvest").
Too many of Clinic's songs tend
to get lost in the banshee beats
and creepy vocals that have
defined its catalogue.
By the second half of Do It!,
the satanic grooves and anglar
guitars start to grow old. Wh e
the punk energy of "Shoppir,
Bag" is a nice wake up, "Cot
pus Christi" and "High Coin"'
are tiresome affairs. "Mary &
Eddie" is an alluring sea chan-
tey with an exciting and climatic
build-up of noise and distor-
tion, but the following track,
"Winged Wheel," does little to
stand out from the nine tracks
that precede it.
Do It! has some of Clinic's
best tracks to date, but it pales
in comparison to ,he band's
classics, such as Internal
Wrangler. Too many songs on
their latest r Ay heavily on the
dark atmo phere of the record
instead ofrexploring and estab-
lishing their own identity.
Clinic once again has prov-
en thattit's a bandawith a very
distinct vision of art, whether
wearing surgical masks or
creating noisy sound collages,
ut on Do It!, Clinic gets too
c ught up being Clinic.
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Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m.,
Sunday at 2 p.m.
At the Power Center
$9-$24
The most famous graduation
song you've probably never heard
is "You'll Never Walk Alone," the
climactic, moving piece from the
songwritingteamthatlongdefined
American musical theater, Rog-
ers and Hammerstein. The song
can be heard in "Carousel," which
opened last night in the School of
Music, Theater and Dance's final
Power Center for the Performing
Arts show of the season.
The show broke new ground
when it was first performed in
1945, when true musicals - per-
formances with songs integrated
into theatrical stories, rather than
variety shows or musical reviews
- were just getting off the ground.
In "Carousel," a reserved young
woman and an attractive man
with a criminal past fall in love
and make poor choices in a small
mill town in 19th-century Maine.
The story has unusually dark
themes wrapped in hopeful, lush
music, including several emotion-
ally-charged male/female duets.
Members of the cast gush about
the beauty of the music and of the
production as a whole.
"Carousel" was adapted from a
play, "Liliom," by Hungarian play-
wright Ferenc Molnar. The musi-
cal keeps some of its elements,
such as the abusive relationship
between the main characters, but
moves the setting from Hungary
to Maine.
As part of "Curtain Call Fri-
days," the director, Brent Wagner
(Chair of Musical Theatre), and
cast members will come onto the
stage after the performance for a
public discussion and question and
answer session with the audience.
ABIGAIL B. COLODNER
WHAT'S
M-AGINATION
ALL ABOUT?
NOAH DEAN
STAHL LETS YOU
KNOW ONLINE
at michigandaily.com
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