ARTS
Wednesday, July 17, 1985
0
The Michigan Daily
Page 8
Black Flag thrashes with new power
By John Logie
E VERY SO OFTEN a band
comes along that defines a
genre. Black Flag is such a band. Of
all the bands spawned during the mid-
to-late '70s, Black Flag has con-
sistently been the reference point for
the American Punk-Hardcore-Thrash
scene, and justifiably so. Through,
numerous personnel changes the
band has maintained an intensity and
meaning, a depth, if you will.
Now, after eight years on the road
and numerous records, Black Flag
has been accorded an almost gran-
dfatherly status in the annals of
thrash music. To a degree the band is
becoming passe among young fans.
Black Flag's recent musical ex-
perimentation, with nods to jazz,
metal, instrumentals, and even pop
have created mutterings of discon-
tent.
with the Black Flag of the past, or
somehow should be.
Morrison which on a surface level are
accurate (long hair, poetry, animal
magnetism, wild performances) but
The only original member of Black ultimately do a disservice to Rollins
Flag still with the band is guitarist and the band. Black Flag is bolder
Greg Ginn. The claim is trotted out and more assaultive than the Doors
occasionally the Black Flag is Ginn's ever were.
band, and that it really doesn't matter
who else is with him. This limits each Black Flag's latest release, Loose
new band member to an echo role and Nut, shows the band coalescing, with
overlooks the collaborative element significant contributions from every
that has recently added vitality and member. For the last two years the
range to band. line-up has been reasonable stable,
and Loose Nut reflects the musical
It should be pointed out that not expansion that familiarity allows.
every band with Greg Ginn is Black
Flag. Ginn also has worked with Tom
Troccoli's Dog and the October Fac-
tion, and his work for these groups
has been decidedly different from his
work for Black Flag. Black Flag is a
collaboration, and now that three
quarters of the collaboraters are dif-
ferent, the band is different too.
Instrumentally, the additions of
I won't deny that Black Flag at Kira Roessler on bass and Bill
times verges on an adversary Stevenson on drums have broadened
relationship with its audience. The the band's musical scope, allowing it
band has refused to become a to reach beyond the standard thrash
greatest hits jukebox, at times tempos and chords.
playing exactly what it s audience
doesn't want to hear, as they did two
years ago at Detroit's Graystone The most obvious impact,
Hall. There is a false assumption at however, has been that of Henry
the heart of the stifling attitude that Rollins, the latest in a series of lead
many fans have toward Black Flag - vocalists. Rollins has been thevictim
that Black Flag today is equivalent of a stream of comparisons to Jim
Thursday night at 7 p.m. Black
Flag will perform in, of all places,
The Nectarine Ballroom. The fashion-
dance-disco atmosphere of the venue
would seem to be at odds with the
essence of Black Flag, but stranger
things have happened. The show will
be opened by Tom Troccoli's Dog,
made up of Ginn and members of
now-defunct Nig-Heist, who opened
their Graystone set totally nude and
provided one of the most entertainingly
offensive performances I could even
hope to experience, and St. Vitus, a
legitimate heavy metal band that has
drawn favorable, and unfavorable,
comparisons to Black Sabbath.
Black Flag will also be at
Schoolkid's at 3 p.m. for those who
want to meet and chat with the band.
I
Black Flag's latest line-up (front to back) Henry Rollins, Kira Roessler,
Gregg Ginn, and Bill Stevenson has remained stable for two years,
allowing the band to branch out and develop beyond their original
straightfoward thrashings.
1
Tetes' novel style
brings house down
neapolis group specializing in ex-
By Julie Jurrens c cellent vocal harmonies and no-genre-
is-safe musical eclecticism - they're
Q also a hoot to watch (although not
S omebody was showing a videotape nearly as messy as Conan) and are
of Conan the Barbarian with the sound also making some pretty wicked social
off and the jukebox on at the Blind Pig commentary (although theirs is
before the Tetes Noires' show Monday deliberate and Conan's isn't).
night. Some opening act. Arnold Sch- Conan, however, did have all of
warzenegger was raping and Mongolia to spread his pecs in. The
pillaging to the tune of "Just a Tetes had only the tiny Blind Pig
Gigolo" - for some reason it seemed stage, and for six women and a
mighty appropriate. Watching Conan whole bunch of equipment that's a
really was a hoot yet underneath it all tight squeeze. "Where's the real
one senses it says something really stage?" asked one band member. The
strange about our society. Not unlike crowd, for a Monday night, was plenty
the Tetes Noires, a six-woman Min- respectable. The show, which was the
first in a three-week U.S. tour, started
STANLEY H. KAPLAN at about 11:30, opening with "Plato's"
from the Tetes' self-titled 1983 EP.
+S *M V "Plato's," about a New York sex
. l ,. club, has a sparse rinky-dink sound
and monotone chorus that plays up
I the emporium's seediness. While it's
an intriguing song, I'm not sure
f whether it should have opened up the
show - it's a little too detached and
NO contemplative to grab the attention of
4 u.6eminmauR a bar audience. Next was "The
662-3149 Hawk" a wonderfully evil dig at that
203 E. Hoover guy in the White House who just got
CN AW sM.4804 See TETES NOIRES, Page 9
I
4
ml I
0
Ex-Cowboys
Saxophonist and keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson (left)
and guitarist Fred Frith (above) bring music fresh
from the forefront of the British avant-garde scene
to the Ark tonight at 9 p.m. The show, a production
of Joe's Star Lounge in Exile, will feature three
sets. Hodgkinson and Frith will each play a solo set,
and then the pair will unite for the third. Both are
former members of the '70s British avant garde
band Henry Cow.
L-
t
e _