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2B - Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
CA LENDA R
The Daily Arts guide to
upcoming events
Today 9.4.08
Gerald Cleaver's Violet
Hour: Jazz Music
8 p.m.
At the Kerrytown Concert House
$10
Craig Gass, Comedian
8p.m.
At the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase
$17 in advance or $20 at the door
Tomorrow 9.5.08
Dance2XS Hip Hop
Workship
8:30 p.m.
At the Michigan Union Ballroom
Free
Friday Night Swing Dance
8:45 p.m.
At the Dakota Building
Ai
POLARIS 'MUSIC FROM THE ADVENTURES
OF PETE AND PETE' (1999)
The indie backbone
of '90s television
(1785 W
$5/$3i
Hand
Mozz
and T
3pm
At Morg
Free
Serioi
Danci
9 p.m.
At danc
(1785 W
$5
Tai C
9 a.m.
At the C
Free
Kerry
Artsa
Prese
11a.m.
At Holla
Free
V. Stadium)
with student ID
Saturday 9.6.08
-Stretched Fresh
arella Demonstration
asting
tan &York
us About Salsa Latin
e Party
eRevolution, Dakota Building
. Stadium)
Sunday 9.7.08
hi at the Cube
ube
town BookFest: Book
and Bookbinding
ntations
nder's (410 N. 4th Avenue)
Please send all press releases
and event information to
arts@michigandaily.com.
82 year-old Cloris Leachman breaks her
hip on "Dancing with the Stars"
Y 4:1
Kim Kardashian's ass explodes, injuring
partner, on same show
7:1
New film, "Shitty Movie," spoofs
"Disaster," "Epic" and others
10:1
"The Real World XXI: Betty Ford Center"
featuring seven recovering alcoholics
800:1
Bristol Palin stars in the straight-to-DVD
hit "Juno 2: Labor Crisis"
400:1
Michael C. Hall of "Dexter" hospitalized
for "murder addiction"/found guilty of
seventeen murders
1,000:1
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag
Murder/Suicide pact
6,000:1
PHOTOS COUREtSv OF YAHOO, PERFECT PEOPLE,
LIONSGATE, EiSHOWTIME, NhTIONAL LEDGER
By MATT RONEY
Daily Music Editor
If you grew up watching Nickelode-
on in the 1990s, you remember "The
Adventures of Pete & Pete." The show,
which ran for three seasons between
December 1993 and May 1996, was an
oddly surrealistic piece of situational
comedy focusing on a teenager and his
pre-teen brother, both named Pete. The
series's fictional Wellsville is an exag-
gerated chunk of Americana where kids
have personal superheroes, families
compete in impromptu road trip races
and teachers are either benevolent and
dim-witted or bloodthirsty and domi-
neering.
Looking back, "Pete & Pete" had a
weirdly "indie" aesthetic for a series
aimed at children and teens. Many of
the show's recurring characters were
portrayed by semi-underground music
mainstays like Iggy Pop - who played
a very young Michelle Trachtenbeig's
dad - and R.E.M. frontman Michael
Stipe as second-rate ice cream man
named Captain Scrummy. Independent
film regular Steve Buscemi was a recur-
ring character as well, as the father of
BigPete's girlfriend, Ellen.
It shouldthen be noasurprise that,
needing a theme song and score, the
show's creators approached Mark
Mulcahy, leader of college radio veter-
ans Miracle Legion. Mulcahy liked the
idea, but Ray Neal, Miracle Legion's
guitarist, did not. The new three-piece
side project was named Polaris, and
Mulcahy took the job. That's Polaris
you see jumping around the yard at
the beginning of each episode in their
plaid flannel, Mulcahy joyously mum-
bling the lyrics and shouting "ai yai yai
yai!"
That theme song is "Hey Sandy," and
it opens Music from the Adventures of
Pete & Pete, the only collection of Polar-
is's music aside from the cassette single
that used to come in boxes of Frosted
Mini-Wheats. Comprised of re-record-
ings made in 1999, it chronicles the
brief existence of this made-to-order
side project. Miracle Legion constantly
received comparisons to REM., and
the similarity is apparent here. Most of
the lyrics are unintelligible, as Mulcahy
loves to sing in a Stipe-style mush-
mouth. One quickly recognizes the lyr-
ics are of secondary importance on this
record. When they come out, they're
suitably nostalgic and wide-eyed.
Mulcahy distinguishes himself from his
more famous contemporary by singing
in a bright, slightly nasal tenor that has
a lot in common with Live's Ed Kowal-
czyk. He sounds younger than Michael
Stipe ever has.
It's in its hooks and wonderful jan-
gle-pop that Music from the Adventures
of Pete & Pete really shines, and where
Polaris's/Miracle Legion's other influ-
ences really show. The lone bass line in
"Ashamed of the Story I Told" is very
Pixies, as is the vaguely ska guitar in
"Summerbaby," a song which, inciden-
tally, becomes Little Pete's favorite in
the episode "A Hard Day's Pete" after
he briefly witnesses Polaris jamming in
a garage.
It's Nickelodeon,
but with more bass
and fewer talking
crustaceans.
There is little, if any, music on this
recordthatcouldbe called "innovative."
Polaris was a one-off gig; the members
preferred to experiment with their
main project. But it is this very lack of
experimentation that makes Musicfrom
the Adventures of Pete & Pete so essen-
tial. The songs all sound like any decent
pop group of the early '90s playing
with nothing to lose. This album would
never be a part of Miracle Legion's dis-
cography, which allowed Mulcahy and
company to simply write a collection
of no-pressure pop songs. There are
standouts, to be sure - "Waiting for
October" is incredibly fun and upbeat,
and, of course, "Hey Sandy" is itself a
pop gem - but they're not the point. For
a'90s kid, this record sounds like child-
hood.
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