The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 22, 1984 - Page 9
Tandem concert Plan-ned

By Joe Hoppe
IT'S GOING to be a noisome Thurs-
day at Joe's Star Lounge when Plan 9
(not from Outer Space, but from
Providence, Rhode Island) and
Shockabilly (sounding like from Outer
Space but from Greensboro, North
Carolina more orless) whirl into town.
Plan 9 is the supposed headlining
band (decided on the strength of their
posters and supporting a recently
released album), but they're no more
or less popular than Eugene Chadbour-
ne's Shockabilly. Shockabilly might
even be playing last-who would want
to follow a band that sounds like a com-
bo of The Cramps and Third Reich and
Roll vintage Residents?
But first to Plan 9. They're named af-
ter Bela Lugosi's last film (sure, you've
all heard of it) and don't have anything
to do with the Misfits, or the Misfits'
label. What they play is garage punk
pshychedelia, and as such are one of the
east coast leaders in the rapidly
burgeoning scene.
They owe it all to four guitars. Plan 9
has four guitars and that's only half
the band. There's drums, bass, and a
cheesy whirly female pounded organ
too; slurped together with that
American garage backyard and
basement thinking "We've got the
equipment, we've got some of the skills,
let's make a lot of noise."
But it's not as much noise as you
might imagine, long for, or even ex-
pect. Basically, tl Plan 9 sound is one
lead guitar, thirty-four year old Eric
Stumpo, (who embodies the band as
only someone surnamed with a name
like Stumpo could; huge and wild rasta-
haired and bearded-yeeha!) and three
of his guitar students, who pretty much
all play the same rhythm back-ups. The
student-teacher "hey kids let's form a
band" thought is pretty intriguing, but
the reality here doesn't seem as fine as
the idea.
Maybe not up to potential, but Plan 9
is still loud, tricky in places, and
Deborah DeMarco is no slouch when it
comes to those keyboards.
The album Plan 9 is currently touring
in support of is called Dealing with the
Dead (Sounds like a Village Voice
thoughtful article on finally coming to
grips with the existence of old Pigpen
and Jerry's band). It's the Plan's
second album, the first was
Frustration, and was all covers from
Lenny Kay's Rock Nuggets garage
punk rock compilations. Plan 9 has also
had a 7", Five Years Ahead of My
Time.
The cover and the special bonus Plan
9 comic book are probably the best
things about the record - twisted scary
schizoid artwork and fantastic colors. A
lot of people will probably be buying the
record on its artistic strength alone.
They shouldn't be disappointed with
the songs inside, because they're just as
spooky and mean as the outside.
They're originals this time, with the ex-
ception of "Keep on Pushin'."
Stumpo's vocals sounds like Sky
Saxon of the Seeds ("Pushin' too
Hard") on most cuts, though kind of
like Iggy for the beginning of "Step Out
of Time." The music seems a little con-
strained, but fits in wonderfully well
with the whole garage rock sixties
psychedelia genre that the Plan is
aiming for.
"I Like Girls" ("I like girls with cen-
tral heat.") is nice in its straight line

rushing into nowhere feel. "Dealing
with the Dead" shows just how all this
can be,m with thunder claps and a bad
morbid poetry narration. "Gone"
bounces and is the hookiest thing on the
album, some nice lyrics, too. And "Beg
for Love" written by Deborah DeMarco
and dominated by her keyboards is one
of the definite stand outs.
Plan 9 could be noisier (that doesn't
mean louder) with those four guitars,
and maybe a little more rockin', but
we're going by recordings here. A band
with all the potential of the garage
scene and four guitars is not to be
missed live.
Shockabilly is more than a band, it's
a whole style of music. And that's just
like it sounds. Take the shock from
electricity, or the shock from
something offensive, or the shock from
stepping on a garden rake and having it
bump into your hand, or just the "whut
the hail is thayut?" shock you might get
when approaching Eugene Chadbour-
ne's band from the blind side and then
couple it with the hip swivelling hic-
cuping and bass slapping that made up
the "billy" in "rockabilly" and there it
is: ssssssssssss-Shockabilly.
Shockabilly the band is the aforemen-
tioned Chadbourne on guitar and
vocals, Mark Kramer on "cheap organ
and tapes," and David Licht on drums.
They formed out of the Creative Music
Institute at Woodstock New York (cf.
"serious musicians"), played art
galleries and gatherings as the Chad-
bournes, doing "country and western
rebop jazz" in the early eighties
mutated into Shockabilly, and took the
band on the road to the sleazy bars of
America, and later Europe, where
more often than not, they found them-
selves playing "five encores a night."
They come to Joe's beautiful Star
Lounge with three albums, Dawn of Sh-
ockabilly, Earth vs. Shockabilly, and
Shcokabilly's Greatest Hits, as well as
a lately released single.
Shockabilly's songs themselves are
what the guys at the Holiday Inn piano
bars call interpretations. The songs
that get interpreted are those great
rock classics you'd hear played by any
Southern Michigan cover band on a
warm May night; "People are
Strange," "Heart Full of Soul," "Train
Kept a Rolling," "Day Tripper," even
"Psychotic Reaction." But Shockabilly
does those songs as those poor stiffs
who "are in it for the money, and would
really like to play some good music" in-
stead of cranking out the same old
dreck could only dream of. Sometimes
the band starts out great, but then, like
any near-genius complete crazy,

The members of Plan 9 wait for their double-bill with Shockabilly.

Eugene Chadbourne gets bored with the
same old song, and turns it into
something crazed and distorted;
sometimes caricatures, sometimes
essences, sometimes "fic-
tionalizations," all, the time fun. If
nothing else, come down to Joe's to
play name-the-tune-that-Shockabilly's-
playing.
If you're a very very good audience,
Eugene Chadbourne might even brea
out his famed and mighty electric rake.
Tk4
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