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" 2p~ Drink specials all night. COLLEGE NIGHT $1.50 longnecks & pitchers all night. No cover wlstudent ID 21+ I