Monday, June 29, 1998 - The Michigan Daily - 13
Hotinued from Page 11
"We got better at song writing,'
Clayden said. There was no pres-
sure on this LP. We had no label, we
had no money, we didn't even
know if the LP would ever get
released. So we just went into our
garage studio - does this make us
a garage band? - and experiment-
ed and enjoyed ourselves.
* "We sampled double bass gui-
tars, ripping up magazines, bees,
pissing in the cups, us shouting at
each other and even us spray paint-
ing graffiti on the studio wall."
The band first appeared back in
1991 with its debut album
"Industrial" on Peaceville Records.
Since then, none of its early fury or
passion has dissipated. So what has
been the band's secret to keeping
its convictions from sounding pre-
Pntious?
"Have you turned on the TV or
been outside lately?" Clayden
said. Western life is a crock of
shite. We all happily trundle along
safe in the knowledge that we are
not responsible or accountable for
anything.
"For example, my UK tax money
goes from my pocket to the
gsndonesian government's pocket.
hen they buy tanks and planes
from us with it and kill everyone in
East Timor.
"I don't want my tax money to go
to that cause, and I'm sure there are
a lot of people who don't either.
But they never get to find these
things out. Do we see news about
it?
"'Welcome to the BBC news at
six. Today it was revealed that our
*overninetit is apending your tax
money on genocide in East Timor.
Keep putting in the overtime folks,
they need every tax pound they can
muster to help the Indonesians mur-
der more defenseless civilians.
more at 10.' I don't think it's ever
going to happen, is it?'
On a lighter note, Clayden dis-
cussed his college life in England.
"I went to school for four years
S> study graphic design and illustra-
tion," said Clayden.
Halfway through however, he
realized that the lecturers teaching
were there more for the money than
sincerity.
"I found it hard being told that
someone 'wasn't drawing right.'
How can you attach any kind of
merit system of hierarchy to art
anyway? Isn't it all subjective?"
Clayden said. "I just think educa-
n needs a good kick up the arse
and not another million pound
review board to assess what's
wrong in education today."
Fueled by Clayden's head strong
convictions, it's easy to see why
Pitchshifter still remains one of the
elite in electronic-based heavy
music.
So it is unlikely that the band
mill let up its momentum any time
on.
Just as its music on
"www.pitchshifter.com" is infec-
tious and crushing, so is the band's
refreshingly ssr fighttf~rs rd out-
look on life.
Prodigy pleases diverse group of fans
By Adlin Rosh
Daily Arts Writer
Without a doubt, the place to be last
Wednesday was The State Theater in
Detroit.
The brash sight-and-sound specta-
cle known as The Prodigy was in
town, and everyone was there. The
rave fans, the punk kids, the preppy
club hoppers, the steroid pumping
jocks and even
the petite, shy
girl next door
were in atten-
The Prodigy dance to show
their support for
he State Theater Liam, Keith,
Leeroy and
June 24, 19pa Maxim.
Superficial cat-
egorizations were
f', apparently left at
home Wednesday
night for the sold-
out show.
"Prodigy's
music is for
everyone," Maxim said in an interview
with The Daily. "It's not for any single
one person. You can't just associate it
with just one group of people. Prodigy
music is just Prodigy music. It comes
through. Be it you're black, white ...
whatever. No matter what you're into,
it's always fine to be into Prodigy
music."
Having good ties with fans and keep-
ing its grassroots mentality have always
been among the main objectives of the
group.
"The important thing is that people
understand what we're about, and that
means a great deal to us," Maxim said.
"As far as hype, we've been made up to
be something that we're completely
not. People expect to see other people
flying around when they come to our
shows. That's not what we're about.
We're not about selling records. We're
here to provide a good concert, and
hopefully people who come to our
shows will pass it on to their friends.
That's the way we want to get known.
We don't hype ourselves on TV or any-
thing like that."
Complete with a live drummer and
guitar player, The Prodigy managed to
recreate its studio composition live in
a very organic and exciting manner.
"In a way, you can't bring the studio
to the stage," Maxim said. "Basically
what we do is that we perceive the
basic beats and songs as a carcass of
music that we play from.
"But the majority of it is live and the
carcass serves as the foundation for the
piece. Liam's got the beats, and we got
guitars playing along as well as the
drummer while myself, I freestyle the
lyrics here and there. We're not too
rigid about what we're going to do, so
we just jam basically."
Frontmen Maxim, Keith and Leeroy
took turns enticing the crowd and tak-
ing center stage during different songs.
Each brought his own unique personal-
ity and flair to the performance.
Maxim, having the rock star swag-
ger down to an art, kept a menacing
presence and maintained the crowd's
attention and enthusiasm throughout
the set.
Keith was by no means outdone by
Maxim. He pranced around with a
menacing look while generously
offered handshakes to the front row.
Leeroy danced onstage all night
while Liam remained behind his rig,
grooving along.
Highlights of the show included
Keith and Maxim trading macho lines
during the crowd favorite "Breath," and
Keith handling solo performance
moments during "Firestarter."
The audience under the State
Theater's roof was on fire. The ener-
getic atmosphere was incredible.
Maxim exclaimed at one point between
songs, "It seems Detroit is the place to
be!"
The Detroit crowd resounded with a
loud roar of approval.
The Prodigy ended its set with a
rousing rendition of "Fuel my fire" and
The boys of The Prodigy don't look so scary just hanging out. But once they suit
up and get on stage all hell breaks loose, as happened last Wednesday at The
State Theater.
thanked the adrenaline-rushed Detroit
crowd.
It was a rock show. It was a rave
show. No, it was both. Whatever you
want to call it, don't call it an "elec-
tronica show" Maxim spoke disap-
provingly of that term.
"'Electronica' is just a man-made
word," MAxim said. "It's just a cate-
gory used to label music in the
American music industry just to bring
the British acts to make them sound
like them."
The Prodigy would rather not be
pigeon-holed into any category at all.
"We started out in the rave scene but
slowly progressed-though several pro-
gressions and that allowed us to incor-
porate a lot of different influences like
hip hop, R & B, rap, rock and all that,"
MAxim said. But as far as falling with-
in a category, we fall into a category all
onto ourselves. You can't put us into
any category with any other groups."
Nor was last Wednesday night the
typical concert experience. The
Prodigy's perforiance destroyed all
boundaries.
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