The Michigan Daily-Friday July 2 , 1986 Page 11
'The Butcher' slashes his way to fame
in 1982 when he first began writing
By Mark FreitaS songs at home, not really planning to
make records or form a group. After
writing about "three and a half
B LOODY NONSENSE, The Jazz songs" he put together a tape to send
Butcher's first American to some friends. "I just felt I needed a
release,. is a compilation of songs name to hang all this stuff on, it really
from his previous albums. It is a doesn't feel like me, so I just picked
record chock full of well constructed up on this name we used to mess
pop tunes, bubbling over with The around with when drunk; we called it
Butcher's zany British sense of the Jazz Butcher."
humor. It is the sound of truly talen- Starting out by mixing old soul with
ted musicians having a lot of fun. the Velvet Underground, he now
The Jazz Butcher's origins lie back borrows from everything from folk to
Habits of the Heart:
Individualism and
Commitment in America
Life
Robert N. Bellah, Richard
Madsen, William M.
Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and
Steven M. Tipton
355 pp.
Harper and Row
7.95
The Christian right is calling for a
return to "decency and traditional The authors of Hahits ol nh Ieu
values. The Supreme Court has Tge thao "ah geer,.
recently grapppled with some of the suggest that "each generation, no
most difficult and controversial matter how much it learns from
"privacy rights vs. pubhlic morals"' tradition or how much it is aware
cases in years. It is fashionable to be that, unlike natural science, it cannot
patriotic again-witness the Statue of forget its founders, must still create a
Liberty celebrations, countless realities. Furthermore, they
publications telling everyone "what's consider the first step to he crossing
rh mercia Amformiand Amern "the recent and quite arbitrary boun-
dary between the social sciences and
the American wa " . the humanities."
he t Ames ay." The humanities, we are told, have
What does all of this mean? Accor- to do with the transmission and inter-
ding to Rohert N. Bellah, Richard pretation of cultural traditions in the
Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann relsophoohy rlion
Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, it is a literature, philosophy, religion,
symptom of a great gap in American werate language, and the arts,
lives - the lack of a common whereas the social sciences involve
language to discuss what might have the scientific study of human action.
heen called virtues, morals, or the The assumption is that the social
Tocquevillian "mores" in an earlier sciences are not cultural traditions
time, The depth and hreadth of the but rather occupy a privileged
problem (which touches every spect position of pure observation. The
poblem Ameich tces e ast assumption is also that discussions of
of American .life), as well as human action in the humanities are
divdua representative struggles it, are 'impressionistic' and 'anecdotal' and
thoroughly and insightfully discussed do not really hbecome knowledge until
in thi olhrtv okette tse' hy the methods of science,
i othe olarativ oketild se from which alone comes valid
HBeause of this inability to pinpoint knowledge. It is precisedly that boun-
Becuseof hisinbilty o pnpontdary hetween the social sciences and
issues that affect the quality and the humanities that social science as
meaningfulness of life, there is a puhlic philosophy most wants to open
sharp distinction between private and up
public, corporate and familial, and, The hook itself is well-organized
more inflammatory, state and in- and penetrating, and discusses
dividual (where clashes hetween "the everything from "Finding Oneself" to
pursuit of happiness" and the com- the "The National Society" with
mon good are most likely to occur). equal vigor and support. More impor-
Religion is an attempt to link virtue tantly, it calls to the abyss all
with daily living, as is therapy. But Americans feel when they try to argue
one quickly sees the flaw in these two issues of virtue. It is essential reading
solutions-they use a completely dif- for anyone trying to understand
ferent vocabulary to discuss the same themselves, their culture, and their
issues, future.
The answer is, of course,
d' covering a e m p-,vocabulary.,! -Rebecca Chung
Th'autharshlaeaotsdea 9no.bur -'
rap (on his new Conspiracy EP). It elevator along with a (biodegradable)
can be as subtle as the relaxed jazz fish. Said the Butcher, "For six mon-
feel of "Partytime," or as bizzare as ths I was ashamed of it. I thought it
"Catherine Wheeler's Birthday was a nasty, vitriolic little piece and
Present." Catherine, incidentally, is hick it."
a real person. The song was created Going from the folksy "Devil is my
while "in a state of advanced Friend" to the rock and roll menace
inebriation." Having returned from of the "Death Dentist," Bloody Non-
his day-job and having a good amount sense is filled with good, solid songs in
of special brew, he began reading a a variety of styles throughout. While
letter from a friend describing a not really punk, the Butcher's' at-
present purchased for a girlfriend. titude - his demand to be free to do
After reading the letter he proceeded whatever he wants - is the quin-
to rudely "kick the shit" out of its con- tessence of punk. Because of the
tents to a rhythm track he had band's diversity and their un-
playing in the background. The willingness to be pigeonholed, they
result: a gift that is really BIG ("like are able to get away with pretty much
that Alice Cooper Group"), and that whatever they want. And the band
is made "entirely from the skins of manages to do this without ever
dead Jim Morrisons." To make things losing sight' of their audience. The
worse, poor Catherine is stuck on an result is refreshingly entertaining.
Currently, the Jazz Butcher Group
istouring the U.S. for the first time on
what they call their "Going back to
Our Fake Roots Tour." The Butcher
adds, "we played, 'I'm Waiting For
the (My) Man" in New York,
'President Reagan's Present' in
Washington, and 'Roadrunner' in
Boston. So, when we get over your way
we're gonna try to do some Iggy Pop
numbers. I suppose if it was Detroit
we could play a Motown Medley -
that would 'be horrible. We're not
good enough musicians."
The Jazz Butcher's Ann Arbor per-
formance will be this coming Mon-
day, July 28th, at the Blind Pig. Ad-
mission is $6.00. This show promises
to be one of the summer's best. Ex-
cellent music and a whole lot of fun -
highly recommended.
'Paradise': Clubbed to death
By Kurt Serbus
NOT ONE
laugh.
Not one, single, good laugh is
provided by Club Paradise, a wret-
ched, lumbering, summer formula
comedy from Harold Ramis.
Oh sure, there's a few chuckles
here and there, most of them cour-
tesy of Rick Moranis and Eugene
Levy, the only two who fare well out
of this truckload of SCTV/Saturday
Night Live alumni who were hauled
in for this flick. The rest of the cast is
impressive but useless: Twiggy
looks great, Adolph Ceaser looks
ridiculous, Jimmy Cliff looks stoned,
Peter O'Toole looks embarrassed,
and Robin Williams looks like he
wishes Mork and Mindy had never
heen cancelled.
The plot (hah!) is the same under-
dog-vs-bad guys story that seems to
be the backbone of most commercial
comedies these days. Retired
fireman Williams tries to keep his
West Indies roach motel from going
under in the face of evil Prime
Minister Ceaser and his horde of
developers. Can the lovable misfits
band together and strike a 'blow
against the empire? If you don't
know the answer, you definitely
don't go to the movies much.
But knocking the plot of a movie
like this is not only, poor sportsman-
ship, it's beside the point. Plot was
never a primary ingredient for a
good comedy. Neither is cast, or
characters, or theme. What is im-
portant is a sense of humor, and this
is the area where Club Paradise is
really hurting. The script is riddled
with set-ups that go nowhere, and
unbelievably lame sight gags. I'm
sure seeing Lou Costello wrestle
with a big snake was hilarious back
in the '40s, but seeing Andrea Martin
do it in 1986 is just kind of sad and
pathetic.
Most of the blame for this in-
credible waste of money, talent, and
time has to be laid at the feet of
writer-director Ramis. Earlier
projects of his, like Animal House
and Caddyshack, were just as
lowbrow in their appraoch, but suc-
ceeded brilliantly because of perfect
pacing and delivery. Club Paradise
delivers nothing except what the ad
lines promise: "A vacation you'll
never forget-no matter how hard
you try." Amen.
6-
1 _ - --AL
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