Monday, June 15,1998 - The Michigan Daily - 11
J.A.M.C.
resurrects
career on
Mrni
y Steve Gertz
or the Daily
Returning to its roots after a
decade or so ot' records that lacked
lhe sonic intensity of its 1986 debut,
'Psychocandy," The Jesus and Mary
'hain has sucker-punched the music
vorld with its latest release,
'Munki."
4 Psychocandy" single-handedly
urned the world of mid-1980s alter-
ative music inside out with Beach
Boys-esque pop melodies filtered
hrough a screen of scathing amplifi-
.r feedback and chainsaw guitar dis-
tortion.
13N, reintroduc-
mg the world to
The J the noisy legacy
of The Velvet
and Mary Underground and
Chain The Stooges,
J.A.M.C. became
**' just as influential
as their stylistic
American Recordings predecessors.
The band came
upon a whole ness
egion of followers that included
uch groundbreaking noisemongers
is Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody
entine and Swervedriver.
laving already played its trump
ard. J.A.M.C. led by
guitarist/singer/songwsriter brothers
lim and William Reid, proceeded to
apply the same disjointed, three-
hord style to a series of albums that
oned dosn the noise level.
While still pleasant ear candy'. its
ater work failed to further explore
he ground that the band pioneered
its debut.
But some 12 years later, just sshen
t seemed as though J.A.M.C. had
ilked those three chords to the
>int of masturbatory redundancy,
md noss that the world is no longer
aying much attention, the band
confronted its origins and construct-
Museum exhibits
art of the future
ourtesyofAmercanR ecordings
The Jesus and Mary Chain, which had all but disappeared from the music world,
comes storming back with "Munki."
ed an extraordinary record. the Time For Times" are all first
Expanding across a lengthy 17 rate.
songs, "Munki" succeeds primarily The Reids do stray from the for-
because it combines the raw power mula a few times, but with magnifi-
and "straight-from-the-garage-and- cent results. "Perfume," an excur-
into-ysour-stereo" appeal of sion into the ever-popular land of
"Psychocandy" with the knack for drum-and-bass, features hypnotic
crafting perfect pop songs that beats, sampled guitar noise and
1.A.M.C. honed on later albums like enchanting looped vocal interludes,
"loney's Dead" and the all-acoustic courtesy of William's longtime girl-
"Stoned and Dethroned." friend, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy
"Munki" draws on all of Star.
J.A.M.C. 's strengths and, as a result, "Commercial" boasts fractured
sounds fresh even in a musical arena guitar lines that seem to have been
monopolized by the prodigious torn down and then reassembled on
splendor of younger bands like the other side of the looking glass.
Oasis. Radiohead and The Verve. Capping off appropriately with "I
"Munki" cuts right to the chase Hate Rock and Roll" (a holdover
with "I Love Rock and Roll." from 1995 in which J.A.M.C. shows
Simply stated, the song is just what open disdain for MTV and other cor-
its title implies - a testament to the porate aspects of the music biz),
Reid brothers' enjoyment of their "Munki" suffers only from its tire-
profession. some length, a whopping 70 min-
The bare lyrics "I love rock and utes!
roll/ 1 love what I'm doing/ I need There are a few songs, such as
rock and roll / Gets me where I'm "Moe 'lucker" and "Dream lover."
going" decorate a potpourri of sear- that might have made better b-sides
ing, overdriven pop melodies that, to singles than album cuts.
after a couple listens, sill likely Aside from that small amount of
base the effect of candy-coated filler, however, 'he Jesus and Mary
napalm upon the listener's psyche. Chain has graced its fans with an
The remainder of the album tra'- album that displays a remarkable
els down the same path: potent return to form an album that might
three-minute blasts of snarling gui- possibly be igs most fully realized
tar and rollicking drums that, despite effort to date.
the Reids' trademark throwaway While it is not as much of an artis-
lyrics, are filled with more hooks tic innovation as "Psychocandy,"
than Babe Winkelman's tackle box. "Munki" has the potential to bring
"Birthday," "Stardust Remedy," J.A.M.C. back to the forefront of a
"Virtually Unreal" and "I Can't Find scene that it helped to create.
By Alexander Ruh
For the Daily
For decades we have heard predic-
tions about how computers are going to
take over the world. As the turn of the
century draws near, computers have yet
to take over.
They are, however, becoming
increasingly incorporated into nearly
every facet of our daily lives.
The "Face to Interface: New Media
and the Spectator" art exhibition at The
Ann Arbor Art Center focuses on how
computerization is changing the art
world.
The exhibition, which runs
through June 21, uses computers not
only as a medium for displaying art,
but also to promote viewer interac-
tion.
The exhibition uses five touch-
sensitive boards installed on the
gallery floor, each marked with an
artist's name, to facilitate interac-
tion.
By stepping on the boards, the view-
er is able to select a particular artist's
work and scroll through his different
pieces on exhibition.
Curator Paul Marquardt, a former
Professor of Art at the University, was
asked by the Art Center to put together
the exhibition.
The space limitations required
Marquardt to go beyond the con-
ventional kiosk-style display usual-
ly employed in computer art
exhibits.
Ile felt the interactive method was
not only space efficient, but helped the
art to "break out of the restraints of the
computer."
Five Michigan artists with varying
formal and computer art backgrounds
were chosen to participate in the exhi-
bition: Tim Sykora, Ted Ramsay,
Stewart Fritz, Eric Gelehrter and a
Eugene Christian.
The art varies from conventional
images scanned into the computer to
images initially conceived on a com-
puter. Ramsay's contribution consists
of three computer-generated "paint-
ings."
Of the work shown, his pieces are
the most fascinating example of the
diminishing gap between formal art
and computer art.
The three pieces, "Run For Your Life
3," "Run For Your Life 4" and
"Smoker Down," have the appearance
of formal paintings.
They completely lack the digital,
rough-edged quality typically associat-
ed with computer art. Marquardt said
that most viewers are "shocked" to
learn they are indeed computer gener-
ated.
As to whether or not computers will
be taking over the art world, Marquardt
said, "I don't think computers will ever
replace visual arts."
Maybe not, but as the "Face to
Interface" exhibition demonstrates,
the new medium of computerized
art, while still maturing, is already
offering many exciting possibili-
ties.
W E"
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