ARTSPg
The Michigan Daily Thursday, June 6, 1985 Page 6
Records
.c.s with the aid of X's John Doe (both of
The Blasters - Hard Line whom have recently finished work on
(Stiff Records) an album project called the Knitters).
When you're seeing a band in a This song, it seems, brings out the
dank, crowded, smoke-filled bar and worst of the band's sticky
the bozo behind you feels it is his predicament. Opening with a -~
God's gift to society to constantly yell chiming, countryish, and thoroughly
stuff like "rock 'n' roll!" in your left hypnotic drone, Alvin's wicked Jerry A
ear while pressing a stale beer or one Lee Lewis draaawl tells us the
of those silly lighters against your preachers got their heaven to f !'
right - and it doesn't even bother you sell/It's just another Sun-
- chances are - you're at a Blasters day/Another Sunday in Hell. This
show. scathing, yet clever little morsel
In short, the Blasters are the quin- makes us plead for more, but we go
tessential Friday night bar band. home hungry. The song - indicative
Their rollicking, let's-just-play brand of much of Side One - starts off in a
of often twangy cow-rock is something sprint and ends in a hapless trot. The
that sounds as good through the fuzz guitars and mandolins lack spon-
of a third-rate, threadbare sound taneity and improvisation here fails in
system as it does on vinyl. And, the home stretch.
mournfully, this odd quality has, over Yet all is not lost on Side One as we
the past six years, caused more than a get a nice taste, on "Trouble Bound,"
few problems for the East L.A.-based of the bee-bopping, do-wopping Jor-
quintet. danaires (and later from the Jubilee
In their first two efforts, these guys Train Singers - two of those great
shined with so mch talent and so few acappella background groups that
positive results that one had to sur- have been around for about a
mise that the recording studio was thousand years). This touch, along
serving as a muzzle to the talent-rich with some spirited and often soul-
Blasters. On Hard Line,.their third drenched riffs, keeps the listener
album, this question of containment guessing, and praying.
again rears its pointy little head; The side's final saving grace is
tLough, the band now has a few more "Dark Night," a murky
creative answers. Springsteenish ballad that reeks of L.A. roots rockers the Blasters have an entertaining, if uneven new record.
Maybe the first thing that one Americana and "how things used to
notices on this album is that the be." He held her close/He asked
Blasters are definitely pals with the her about her dreams/There was a surprise. "Samson and Delilah," if mediocre "Help you Dream," the tunes, the kind that was hot thirty
other brimming East L.A. band, the shot from a passing car/And the nothing else, at least certifies that the band shifts into overdrive and cruises years ago. Chalk one up for Mellen-
diverse Tex-Mex crooners, Los Lobos. young girl screamed. There's ob- band has a firm grasp of ancient lore. all the way home. "Colored Lights," camp and the boys as they write:
On "Hey, Girl," the bubbly, polka-like viously a sharp glimmer of talent here Actually, though, this cut oozes with written by John Cougar, uh, Cougar When the blue light mist fills the
accordian romp evokes a Y.M.C.A. as, with Heartbreaker drummer. Stan soul as Alvin offers an odd teaming of Mellancamp, is as slick as singer Phil room/the colored lights are gonna
social mixer. The album's second cut, Lynch's cool pounding, we stir up Al Green's soothing purr and Bill Alvin's pompadour is greasy. Let's shine on me and you. It's so simple
"Just Another Sunday," is penned by enough energy to flip the disc. Haley's classic pop flair. face it, anyone is going to like one of and likeable that one almost forgets
guitarist and frontman Dave Alvin Overall, Side Two offers a great What's more, after the very those smooth old fashioned dance hall the band's earlier lapses.
"Common Man" is a feisty, ornery
Le~ban py n veles tb lish s n w g nre and surprisingly political little rocker
Lesbian spy novel establishes new gen podrue o ohrweha li
that would serves stolid Rockpile fan
rowl. Het wasn'twornw ea inlo
The Story of Sophie Sophie Horowitz Story and then we the rat-a-tat-tat of the subway, the knew, the passions that she couldn't cabin/He wasnt born in aog
Horowitz can talk. characters as colorful as the city control.w eo u o
Sophie Horowitz could easily be lights themselves. There's Evan, Nadine Adams stories could soon war/But he learned to smile, quote
By Sarah Schulman to today's woman what Pippi from Missoula, Montana, who has, crop up in book stores everywhere. Abe Lincoln/ and put his foot i
NaiadPLongstocking was to me, one of the not so graciously, made a home out of Tales of howa young lesbian, alone, the door. It's a brisk slap i the face,
Naad Press, 158 ppg., $7.95 best people ever invented. She too, is Sophie's living room; Melonie Chang, on the road, confronts the great out but goodstuff nonetheless.
a heroine. Her livelihood, just like one-time psychologist, turned lead doors, the animals, the trees, the And, as if to leave no doubt as to
Pippi's, thrives on adventure and in- singer of the Chinese punk band, The railroad tracks, the bongos, the other where their roots lie, these Blasters
trigue. In my eyes, both Pippi and Dogmatics; Mrs. Noseworthy, young lesbians alone and on the road. blast into "Rock 'n' Roll Will Stand,"
1IJJUW{GW Sophie could be considered pioneers, Sophie's neighbor and m ystery And the film potentials, the fim a raucous and richly raunchy finale of
"foremothers," so to say, in women's writer undercover, to name a few. potentials are absolutely amazing. a rock anthem if there ever was one.
By Naomi Saferstein books: Pippi expanding the horizons With her first novel, it seems as Before you know it - Indiana Jane. Souped up with timeless rolling piano
of children's adventure stories though Sarah Schulman is really on to Story of cultural anthropologist, chords and some righteous guitar
and Sophie Horowitz blazing new 'something. The lesbian spy novel specializing in the plight of the third licks, this song, more than any, rings
tiails for what might easily become a- could be to the gay community what world women, and her adventure in with the spontaneity and verve that
IPPI LONGSTOCKING stood in new literary genre-the lesbian spy the microwave was to the kitchen- the Sudan, in the deepest, darkest, the Blasters are truly capable of. In-
Saclass by herself. And every day novel, another precursor of things to come. most backward regions, in hopes of deed, despite their knack for the slick
throughout second grade I used to tell Sharing as much with Nancy Drew And Sarah Schulman could be to liberating her sisters and gaining the ballad, this band's name is truly in-
this to Danny D. on our way to school. as Richard Simmons does with Jack literature what Betty Crocker was to stolen treasure. dicative of their potential.
I used to tell him how Pippi Lelain, The Sophie Horowitz Story is baking - just one of those women you Of course, the movie will be so in- The Blasters have, in the past, seen
Longstocking just couldn't be beat, the story of, yes, Sophie Horowitz, a can never forget. credibly successful that there will only modest record sales for them-
how' she had to have been the best not so mild-mannered reporter for the Just imagine, if you will, the poten- have to be a television spin-off, It will selves - mostly for the same reason
person ever, ever invented. And Feminist News as she pounds the tial at hand. The possibility to alter pick up where Jane's lover, Dr. Sheila that nobody ever really buys Matt
every day on our way to school Danny pavement of New York's lower East the future of modern fiction as we Weston, flies over from the States, to "Guitar" Murphy albums. That is,
D. used to say I was 201% wrong. Pip- Side in hot pursuit of clues to what know it is at our fingertips. Lesbian help Jane only to fall in love with a some bands were placed on this earth
pi Longstocking couldn't have been really happened to feminist literature could be placed beside woman of the Azande tribe. Then they to provide everyone with a nice time
the best person ever invented, he'd revolutionary leaders Germaine gothic novels in grocery stores, set up a make-shift hospital where, on a Friday night.
say. Pippi Longstocking was a girl. Covington (who has allegedly been opening up the minds of housewives together, they will wage war against But with Hard Line, The Blasters
No matter how hard they tried, girls placed in jail) and Laura Wolfe (who across America: Lorrisa's Lust, the the cruel and inhumane practice of show signs of bigger and better
just couldn't be all that great. Well, still stalks the streets) after an at- story of Lorrise Longston, daughter of ritualistic tribal clitoectamies. things. Namely, that these guys aren't
Danny D., if you still feel that way you tempted bank robbery. Virginia plantation owner Amstel And, Danny D., this is only the your average rock n' roll weenies.
should read Sarah Schulman's The The pace of the novel is in sync with Longston, and the secret that nobody beginning... -Ned Zeman