Page 10- The Michigan Daily - Friday, July 25, 1986
New music seminar reveals innovation
By. V. J. Beauchamp
and Tom Simonian
n July, when Manhattan smells its
worst, and humidity hovers
around a hundred percent, when
swarms of tourists descend to ex-
perience the most expensive city on
earth, ah, yes, mid-July is the time of
the annual New Music Seminar.
The NMS is an opportunity, if you
will, for the teeming masses of- the
music industry, yearning to breathe
smog, to combine business with
pleasure. This year there were 5,500
delegates happily handing out (or
grabbing) cassettes, albums,
magazines and fortune cookies,
making business deals and contacts,
going to the parties and the clubs. And:
oh, yes there were workshops, and if
you didn't sleep too late, you could cat-
ch those too.
Ah, the hard life of a reporter! It's
AIdirty work, but somebody has to do it.
3E We dutifully made the scene. There
was the Celluloid Records party
where the principle drink was cham-
pagne and the principle language was
Pete Shelley, left, hob-nobs with some of the participants of last week's French. There was the Island Records
New Music Seminiar. party where the principle drink was
Budweiser and the principle language
English. And then there were the
clubs, free to us conventioneers. On
an average night, you could choose
*UEEEEssU sUE EsE COUPON EUUUEEUEEEEEEU between 30 showcased bands, many of
SI ft O FF with this ettire ad $1.00 oft aty adult e g whom were new or just getting the at-
S * "M" admission. including Tues - good thru 731/86 o ention they deserve, and if you plan-
*uB/sr uUUo UUUEsUsEos....s.o.ssooossoo ned your time right, you could easily
see 10 or so. We went at it like bulls in
CLUB PARADISE TKREE MEN a cnasobleofk have been kicking
around D.C. for some ten years now,
LABRYINTH AND A CRADLE hut are only recently getting some
recognition. Their performance at the
Call for show times Limelight is an indication, good God,
two and a half hours of non-stop Go-
a. Go. in a club packed full of sweating,
steaming, boogying crazed people. I
get all squirrelly just thinking about a new album by her, sometime soon.
it. Their live performance was so The Woodentops, a fascinating band
much more intense than their recor- even without being the former pets of
ds, and their records are no slouches. the Smiths' lead singer Morrissey,
Austin's Zeitgeist were back in their played twice. Once it occurred in the
natural configuration at the Cat Club, aqua-blue back room of Maxwell's in
and put on a pretty good performance. Hoboken, where their high velocity,
They are like the people -next door spastic and very melodic music went
whose porch you like to drink beer on. down very well with the tightly
While they still need a wee bit of time packed crowd. The Ritz show the
and work, they show all the signs of a following night never built to that
guitar diamond in the rough. But Dino level of excitement, but few seemed
Lee and the White Trash Review were disappointed, not the least, England's
the real surprise. Mr. Lee, an Austin Jazz Butcher. Butch, as he likes to be
native, and his cohorts led the audien- called, stood right up front gazing
ce through a series of James appreciatively upon the band, singing
Brownish stomps, growling and snor- along with a mile-wide grin all over
ting, the kind of guy who lives on the his face.
other side of your house, just over the The Jazz Butcher's performance at
tracks. Maxwell's the following night was
Another Felt Forum showcase was even more ecstatic. Despite new tunes
a Benefit for Greenpeace featuring and some wobbly song selections at
Let's Active, Book of Love, and Suz- the beginning of the show, momentum
anne Vega. The Actives played a let- built 'til it exploded with Butchie's
ter-perfect set, and were about as in- own version of Jonathan Richmond's
teresting as watching the lights onyour "Road Runner." By popular demand,
stereo, guitarist Max Eider even sang his in-
It's unfortunate, as they are a very toxicating "Drink." Look for this
swell power-pop band on vinyl. I band in Ann Arbor soon, for indeed,
really wanted leader Mitch Easter to they are splendid.
go wild. The crowd went wild Innovation is the key word for the
however, when New York City's own New Music Seminar. While the
synth-dance band Book of Love came on. workshops spoke about innovation,
Book was also letter perfect, and mostly the end result was the same
while all the members are great dan- old status quo. But the showcases
cers, it felt like eating Banquet fried were innovation in action: these acts
cardboard. The lead singer also soun- may well be the supergroups of 1987
ds like burnt paper. and 1981. Or they might climb .to an
Suzanne Vega,esomewhat nervous R.E.M.-like cult status, subtly in-
in front of the somewhat unruly fluencing the mainstream musical
crowd, managed to win them over tastes. It's hard to predict what will
with her electric folk-pop band. On happen in an industry that continues
stage and in. person, Vega comes off to homogenize its products in the hope
as a very delicate person with a core of selling more records. But the
of steel. After the third song, the cream of the new talent were all there
audience began yelling out requests, a for the NMS, and it's worthwhile to
move that seemed to both surprise watch them and see what happens.
and relax her. She really had no
reason to worry: she was in fine form,
and her band was top notch. Look for
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