The Shriveled Arm of E didg attI
Uma Kimbell
Now showing through Aug. 13 at
Performance Network, 403 W. Washington. Wednesday
/ Call 663-0681 for more info. August 9, 1995
anclub rock with flying colors
Thomas Crowley With more than one or two member
aily Arts Writer -TEENAGE ANCLUB a group operating steadily as singer,
Sometimes you can judge an album When: Friday, Aug 11 songwriter, is it not likely for competitio
its cover. Take for instance, Where:Meadowbrook Festival to arise? Not in this club. "We've bee
lasgow's finest export of power-pop, Tickets: $10 in advance playing together for so long that it's a
eenage Fanclub. The bulging, bright- Showtim is 8 p.m. pretty intuitive now," says Blake. "None
flow money bag captured the playful, us would be in a bad mood if we didn't g
ngue-in-cheek charm of their 1991 more songs on the album than others did
reakthrough LP, "Bandwagonesque." to the eyes. The songs are sleek. Finely We just pick the songs we think will wor
e buoyant, gray soccer ball seemed an tuned yet powerful. Driven by a gleam- best together." Teenage Fanclub's unan
t symbol for the meandering vibe of ing machine of codependent parts. In mous insistence on putting the album fir
e band's 1994 release, "Thirteen." short, Teenage Fanclub at their best. is precisely what reaps such a brilliantl
hen you have the jet-black Formula Meet Team Fanclub: with Blake, gui- consistent harvest of songs as "Gran
ne car that adorns the sleeve of the Fan- tarist Raymond McGinley, bassist Gerry Prix;" though the band has chosen to r
ies' recent and most successful effort, Love, new recruit Paul Quinn on drums. lease the melancholic "Mellow Doubt" an
rand Prix." No, nothing to do with One band. Three songwriters. Three sing- the interstellar jam "Sparky's Dream"
ing, really; it's that ironic touch again. ers. All the advantages ofa group with such singles, they could have easily selecte
It's more about the image of the For- a surplus of talent: three visions, three mu- nearly any one of the other 11 tracks an
ula One car having Teenage Fanclub sicians working toward writing the perfect not gone wrong. "It's always been impo
ecals as opposed to having Marlboro or pop song, and of course, three-part harmo- tant to us to make albums," says Blake, "
othman's or whatever," explains singer nies. The Fannies may wear their influ- opposed to having a couple of songs th
songwriter / guitarist Norman Blake, ences prominently on the sleeves of their we thought might be hits and then fillir
A Teenage Fanclub racing car!" It racing jackets, but honestly, this is the stuff the album up with other things."
akes perfect sense really, for the album the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the Byrds Even "Thirteen"- an album the bar
rings to the ears precisely what it brings were made of. considers a product of a less-focused p
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It's Norman Blake by a beard In the power-pop grand prix
riod in their history, and probably the unde- pleased with the album because we spent
serving recipient of ugly duckling-status in a long time preparing to record it and we
Teenage Fanclub's discography - con- tried tospend a bit more time than we had
tains a number of incredibly good arche- in the past trying to get things tight."
types of Teenage Fanclub's frank love And get thingsright they did. Look at
songs and wry-witted jangle-fuzz. Yet it this way: if the first three LPs were
Blake sees the more immediate and less qualifying sessions, then surely "Grand
over-driven sound of "Grand Prix" as Prix" is the Grand Prix. And checkered
closer to the band's initial idea of what their flags are waving for the Formula One
music should sound like. "I'm fairly with Teenage Fanclub decals.
ds' blurs lines of fantasy and reality
ly Matt Carlson and butt shots, and lots of tender love.
)aily ArtsWriter ' ' The sex scene between Casper and
"Kids" is controversial for all the Jennie is eerily emotionless with its
rong reasons. In photographer Larry Kids lack of music, its cluttered camera
lark's debut film depicting 24 hours in Directed by Larry Clark; frames and its aggressive and rigid
he lives of urban teen-agers, the kids penetration.
moke a lot of dope, drink a lot of booze, with Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Of course, the sex in "Kids" shocks
o a lot of drugs and have a lot of unpro- Pierce and Chloe Sevigny most of all because of the HIV virus
.ed sex. And for these reasons, "Kids" At the State 'Theater Friday that's being spread around by Telly, who
amced an NC-17 rating (producers have gave it to Chloe, who potentially gives it
eleased it unrated) and a lot of unkind re- thy of an R-rating; "Kids" is real life, to Casper, and it shocks because it's un-
marks from Motion Picture Academy worthy of an NC-17. protected sex. But, in "Basic Instinct,"
resident Jack Valenti, who proceeded to Film's greatest artistic contribution is does Michael Douglas make sure to slip
all it an exploitative piece of trash. Just its suspension of real time, the ability to on a Trojan before he penetrates Sharon
goes to show what the Hollywood mafia make us believe for a fleeting moment Stone? Nope. Amidst, the sweeping or-
does when a unique film tries to invade its that life has a beginning, a climax and an chestral movements and gyrating pelvi of
turf, or rather rearrange that turf. ending. "Kids" is realistic for more than Douglas and Stone, one of them is just as -
"Kids" should be controversial for all its unflinching portrayal of teen-age lust likely to be spreading HIV as the kids are.
of the brilliant methods it uses torearrange and drug use. The film has no beginning But audiences don't want to be re- f
the typical Hollywood fantasy formulas. (the opening scene begins as Telly is minded of AIDS in the middle of a tense, h
Yes, the film does have a lot of both sex halfway through a seduction of one girl), edge-of-your-seat thriller, particularly
and drugs, but so do a large number of big- no climax (the plot is not resolved) and one with a couple of hot-bods like Dou- l
budget, big-star movies. Where "Kids" di- no ending (we realize that life is going to glas and Stone, do they? Instead, they f
verges is in its depiction of the drug and continue for these kids). want to be wrapped up in the plot and cli-
sex-abusing characters. When, at the'end of the movie, a max of the fantastical flick; after all,
Drugs and sex are commonplace for hung-over Casper has sex with a hung- that's why people go to the movies - to o
the kids. Stumbling into an apartment of a over Jennie (Chloe Sevigny) on top of a escape, however briefly, from reality.
friend, the two main male characters, Telly couch piled with other kids, can Valenti And, as we've been made aware of by
(Leo Fitzpatrick) and Casper (Justin have any other option than to consider it countless public service announcements,
Pierce) are nonchalantly offered whippets trash? His reality is Hollywood flicks AIDS is a reality.
~ hey sit on a couch with a bunch of other with emotional highs and lows, climac- One of the kids in "Kids" actually
F es with nothing better to do. The two tic chase scenes, sex opuses replete with questions that reality, suggesting that his
later buy some pot in Greenwich Village's pumping soundtracks, sweeping breast possibility of getting AIDS is a myth -
1Washington Square Park, roll it into a _
blunt and oke with some pals in the
Contrast Brad Pitt's character in
"True Romance" -just another stoner S
smoking crack in his living room. But
Tony Scott's direction of Pitt's perfor-
mance separates the action from the rest
he film. Isolated from other charac- or Go
ers, Pitt smoking crack is the focal point. °s as
In "Kids" Clark's direction suggests that
,he drugs aren't of importance, it's the j s OF
amaraderie between the kids as they get (
h. "True Romance" is a cartoon, wor-
'he Kids' are all right with sex and arugs.
meanwhile, Telly is sitting three feet him he gave her the virus, you'll have
rom him, unaware of the damage that difficulty feeling sorry for him. Because
e's doing by having unprotected sex of his naivete as he spreads the virus,
with every virgin he can find. "Sex is my you'll want to kick him in the groin,
ife," Telly says as the last line of the you'll want to bash his head in, you'll
ilm, and it's also his death. want to obliterate his very existence.
Watching the closing scenes of And Mr. Valenti, a film that is capable of
Kids," in which Telly is seducing an- stirring such intense emotion is far from
other virgin as Jennie approaches to tell exploitative trash.
No won Tap! -JE %
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