13 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 11, 1998
.Evolved Sonic Youth blows its 'Leaves' into the State
By Jason Birchmeier
Daily Arts Writer
Sonic Youth brings its mind-saturat-
ing, experimental formula for poetic
guitar orchestration to the State
Theatre in Detroit on Thursday night.
These New York City audio architects
will perform a new portfolio of epic,
*rtistically distorted symphonies from
their highly anticipated new album,
"A Thousand Leaves," available to the
public on Tuesday, May 12.
The four members of Sonic Youth
began developing the concepts for
their new album nearly a year ago.
The band debuted instrumental seeds
of songs to come at the Free Tibet
Concert.
A trilogy of records with premature
4 aterial were eventually distributed
Wdependently by the band. These
hard-to-find studio recordings consist
of novel, expressionistic soundscapes
and poetic sketches lacking coherent
structure'or any attempt to follow the
exhausted verse-chorus-verse formu-
la.
This past autumn, the band was
invited to perform its challenging
improvisational material at the
incoln Center for Performing Arts in
anhattan - a venue reserved for
classical musicians - as well at Neil
Young's private party at CBGB's.
Although both performances were
revered by critics, acclaim is nothing
new for these alternative rock pio-
neers. Since the era of Studio 54 and
disco, Sonic Youth has evolved further
artistically with
each successive
album than most
bands do .
throughout their Sonic
careers. Youth
T h u r s d a y The State Theatre
night's perfor- Thursday, 7:30 pm
mance will
probably not be
the abrasive
g r a n g e
onslaught that it
may have been
five years ago.
Sonic Youth's
latest material is more likely to
manipulate the furthest depths of the
mind in a hallucinatory fashion rather
than generate a mosh pit. The highly
amplified noise engineers still possess
the ability to craft perception-altering
feedback excursions, but they now
choose to do it with graceful dynamic
movements.
New songs like "Karen Koltrane"
and "Hits of Sunshine (for Allen
Ginsberg)" shift from hushed guitar
interplay to amplifier ejaculations
before concluding minutes later with
more elegance than an apocalyptic
sunset.
Not all songs share these epic pro-
portions, however. Several songs, such
as the wonderfully crafted gem
"Sunday," clock in under seven min-
utes and rely more on tight, unortho-
dox song structures, indescribable
audio textures and mysterious guitar
tones in their attempt to achieve artis-
tic merit.
Another interesting element of the
new material from "A Thousand
Leaves" is its evolution. The concept
behind the band's trilogy of studio
demos was to showcase composition-
al evolution. The catchy, six-minute
pop song on the new album entitled
"The Ineffable Me" began as a 22-
minute instrumental exercise in
rhythm. It was originally called
"Slaapkamers Met Slagroom," and
consisted of three guitars - one
clean, one colorful, one dirty - coop-
erating in a multi-layered guitar riff
along soothing and booming percus-
sion.
Don't expect a traditional greatest-
hits style performance from Sonic
Youth. The band prefers to continual-
There may not be a mosh pit, but Sonic Youth still promises to please
State Theatre on Thursday.
ly debut its latest excursions. There
will be a few favorites like "Teenage
Riot" and "Schizophrenia" sprinkled
in the mix. But due to the lengthy
improvisational manner of the new
material, the show may resemble
something similar to a late-60s
Grateful Dead musical trip.
Also keep in mind that the quartet's
previous collection, "Washing
Machine," was acclaimed for its intel-
lectual challenge. Sonic Youth's new
material is no different. Each listen
has new revelations hidden within lay-
ers of musical stimuli. Unlike the
recycled MTV-style commercial
music meant to be consumed by the
masses, "A Thousand Leaves" is
designed to intellectually challenge
concepts of modern music.
Shark makes old new
The GameShark
Interact
Sony Playstation
*Some avid gamers may recall the day
when they first experienced the wishes
granted by Galoob's Game Genie.
"Oohs" and "aahs" were common reac-
tions, but eventually people began to
want more. Enter the GameShark video
game enhancer from InterAct. The
GameShark is an add-on peripheral that
allows people to tinker with their
games, and do things that normally
uldn't be done. Invincibility, high
ores and hidden characters all become
available at the touch of a few buttons.
The GameShark comes programmed
with cheat codes for a humongous num-
ber of games currently on the market,
along with plenty of space to add games
and more codes. New files are saved
directly into the unit, so there's no need
to re-enter codes. Also, several codes
can be used in combination with each
other - great for games that have
W ny possible code options. Individual
ects can be toggled on and off if only
a few effects are desired.
Aside from being a cheating device,
GameShark has an option to can search
game CDs for pictures and can display.
the last image in the Playstation's mem-
ory. It also allows you to play music
tracks from games or off regular music
CDs.
The GameShark suffers from a few
oblems, however. The CD Explorer
unctions don't work with every game,
and some games may not load if certain
combinations of codes are used together.
The Shark can revive older games
collecting dust or help gamers through
difficult areas by giving them a little-
or a lot-of help. Interact's consumer
service makes Game Shark a sound
investment. InterAct has a newsletter
and a website in order to keep the fresh-
est codes and updates in the buyer's
hands. Although I am a strong advocate
of beating games the old fashioned way,
gamers should pick the Game Shark up
for a little fun.
---Deveron Q. Sanders
SINGERS
JUGGLERS
DANCERS
MAGICIANS
If you have an act you'd like
to share with our audience
in Comic Opera Guild's
September 18-19 show,
Strictly Vaudeville,
you should attend our
PRODUCTION
MEETING
Thurs., May 14, 7:00pm
Henderson Room,
Michigan League
Or call 973-3264 for more info
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