Hearing voices Guided by Voices are one of the most innovative bands in alternative music. See how much Beatlesque indie-pop they can cram into St. Andrew's Hall on Saturday, June 15. Call 961- MELT for more information. AlgaRTS Wednesday July 12, 1995 Mm% 'Species' alienates crowd Orbit the satellite of love y Kirk Miller i Ar1 Writer Sit, the gorgcous atien/utman she- vil is looking to brecd. but forcefully re- .ts a potenttal date- ipist with a tongue rough his neck When the crack team of vestigators and scientists arrive they find te corpse but nothing else, so tough guy 'reston Lennox (Michael Madsen) goes in earch of Sil in an acre of shrubbery behind he house with Dr. Laura Baker (Marg telgenberger of "China Beach"). It's quiet too quiet. She looks up ... WHAM! It's ... a squirrel: A very nasty squirrel at appears to be biting Baker's head off. alsealarm. Theaudiencerlaxes. "How many people get attacked by squir- Is?" my friend asked me. (Seven? I don't tow) But pissed-off tree creatures arejust seof theproblemswith"Species,"including bad script, one-dimensional, near-parodic haracters and worst of all, a bland "Alien"- poff extraterestrial. What could be a great excuse for a nilty Velveeta thrill-ride turns ugly in the ands of Roger Donaldson. More exploit-. tive than any B-movie or porno, )onaldson creates characters so unlikable sat I was hoping some alien lifesucker vould just wipe them out. Sadly, many live y the end of "Species." The first 10 minutes suggest a better tovie. After years of sending out radio sig- - sls into outer space, some kindly aliens n u Directed by Roger Donaldson; with Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen Ar Briarwood and Showcase send us back step-by-step instructions on combining their DNA sequence with ours. And being the U.S. government of evil UFO conspiracies and jack-booted thugs, we do it. Voila, a cute little girl, springs up injust weeks and is strongenoughta'even- tually escape. By the time she morphs into adult Sil (newcomer Natasha Henstridge in the film's best performance) she's con- fused butonthe prowlformates.Oh,baby! Experiment head Fitch (Ben Kingsley, looking like he wished he was back in "Gandhi") gathers a ragtag team of super- scientists and the obligatoryhitman tohunt her down. Unlike "Aliens," which allowed characters to exhibit personalities through the process of the hunt, "Species" spends time trying to have the characters interact. There's a romance, a clash of styles and a lack of any personal chemistry. Think of spending several weeks with a randomly assigned group of students in a communi- cation class hunting an alien and you get the picture. Henstridge is the alien in 'Species., Forest Whitaker does his version of the useless group member, serving as an "empath," able to sense emotions and pre- dict events on a very vague level. "She's angry," he helpfully suggests after seeing a dead body mutilatedby Sil.(A fun way to pass the time is stating the obvious before Whitaker gets a chance. Impress your friends!) There's a tunnel chase and a cocoon transformation straight out of "Aliens," lots of topless shots of Henstridge, some weak humor (the best line is repeated twice, so we get the joke) and at least two instances that leave room for a sequel. By the collec- tive audience groan at the end this will not happen ("Specieses" doesn't sound right anyway). "You're unhappy," Whitaker might suggest. Yeah, me and the attack squirrels. By Ted Watts Daily Arts Writer When you think of Sub Pop, what do you think of? Is it the older grunge sounds of Soundgarden and Nirvana? Is it the current mellower sounds of Erics Trip or Jale? Well, why aren't you think- ing of the razor-toothed space music sound of Six Finger Satellite? With their new hyperactive album, "Severe Expo- sure," out this month, 6FS has taken to the highways and byways and is taking their show on the road. The music 6FS plays is definitely worthy of attention. There is a pro- nounced speed in the music, which ac- cording to singer and Moog liberationist J. Ryan is due to "drumming, and be- cause we can, I guess. (Drummer Rich- ard Pelletier) is a speed freak. In every sense of the word. He likes things fast." Additionally, the music contains complicated and engaging rhythmic changes. "It's definitely not accidental. It's SIX FINGER SATELLITE When: Friday Where: Shelter Tickets $7 in advance; Doors open at 6 pm. realizing what we can do, the erratic style, meshingstuff together. A lot of times it just kind of happens, but we definitely exploit things like that. But not to the point of over- intellectualizing it or anything, you just ously. That was always our intention to be that kind of more guitar band. ..We had some recording time booked, and we decided to keep it going. We'd always had this electronic side to the band that didn't appear on albums, but we've al ways been writing music on our own, not public consumption type of things, and it turned out that that was the best way for us to write songs as a group and we just did it that way. ...That's where we were at that time. We're looking forward to the future of the group. This album ("Se- vere Exposure") has electronic stuff, but is more like (our '93 album) "The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird," kind of in be- tween." Ryan continued about the band', sonic output: "We're very sound ori- ented, I guess. Our whole album is done on stuff we have, we found or bought. They make great sounds. We've always revolved around that love and respect of strong sounding instruments, but totally in a rock context. Our synthesizers are played, not programmed - beat on, pummeled." In keeping with the machine themes in their work, 6FS are also interactin with computers on their World Wide Web site (http://www.subpop.com/fea- tures/humantouch/human.htm). "We're gonna try to post stuff to it during the tour. We have computer shit we're carry- ing. We want to post digital images, live camera stuff. We'll see what happens. Keep your eye's peeled." There are also the time-honored tra- ditions of buying the album or seeing a live show. But why not do all three? j The Underneath' is a smart twist on the classic noir kindofdoit ";explainedRyaeirown 3y Scott Plagenhoef is anything but dark. matter which of their releases you have it Daily Arts Editor Rather Soderbergh bathes "The Un- mind, fromtheircurrent guitar /bass /drums The noir in film noir is quite literally demeath" in flourescent reds, greens and /vocals basis to any earlier incamation. French for "dark." Yet even though Di- The Underneath blues to produce a dreamy, surreal effect "We recorded (our last record, "Ma- rector Steven Soderbergh's fourth fea- Directed by Steven and accentuate certain relationships and chine Cuisine,") as an electronic trio. The ure, "The Underneath," is thematically situations in the film's jagged narrative. record is entirely electronic. No bass a classic noir featuring a disillusioned Soderbergh; with Peter Soderbergh's "sex, lies, and video- drums, guitar. We had gone througha ind flawed protagonist, deviance, greed, Gallagher tape" star Peter Gallagher re-unites with lineup change, a pretty drastic one. Me and femme fatale, crime, and above all a At the Michigan starting Friday the director to portray Micheal Cham- Rick the drummer, and (guitarist) John naky, twisting plot of double-crosess, it SEE UNDERNEATm, PACE 9 were looking for a bass player, obvi- i- >, a - Espresso * Cappuccino " Gourmet Teas " Fresh French Pastries * Yerba Mate " Haagen Dazs Ice Cream Mediterranean Salads Spinach & Cheese Pies Fresh Juice Bar Deli Sandwiches Sou' 'rbo, 410: 761860 S' (ILLy to p S? AA.-tcOioonomm 617-PAcgartt, aosoewAYl 663 -3q1 ecYcle West Side Book Shop f., since 1975 Used & Rare Books Bought & Sold 113 W. Liberty (1/2 black W. of Main St.) r .995.1891 It's Worth the Trig! Six Finger satellite are just crazy. 0 0