12 -- The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 22, 2000
'Bnaul ows s
dk progression
Let's discuss the recording history of an extreme. With the exception of a few
Pearl Jam. brilliant songs, the album is undoubtedly
It all started back in 1991 with "Ten." the band's worst. 1998's "Yield" success-
The songs on "Ten" have become so well fully returned back to the early days. So,
known and were, the question is, where does "Binaural"
in fact, so good take Pearl Jam?
Grade: B- that they tran- "Binaural" is a difficult album to
scended the Seattle judge. Lyrically, the album shows a lot of
Pearl Jam grunge genre from progression in both complexity and per-
SBinaural which they came. sonal maturity. The band seems to have
Pearl Jam's next moved past the days of boycotting
Epic album was the Ticketmaster and they make it known
Reviewed by highly anticipated with lyrics such as, "No need to be void
Daily Arts Wrter and highly satisfy- or save up on life/Got to spend it all"
Andy Klein ing 1993 follow from "Light Years." On other songs,
up, "Vs" at which Vedder sings in Allen Ginsberg-like
point it was confirmed that the band was dualisms ("The sirens scream wanton
a genuine musical force. But could their attention," from "Evacuation"). This
momentum last? dualism is carried throughout the album.
"Vitalogy" proved shocking for many "Grievance," about the hypocrisy of
people as its songs strayed from the America, and "Rival," written from the
straightforward rock of Pearl Jam's past. perspective of the Columbine assassins,
In 1996, Pearl Jam released "No Code," are songs that are clearly political. Others
an album that took "Vitalogy's" artistry to like "insignificance" at first sound like
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political rants but are vague enough so
that their lyrics can just as easily be taken
metaphorically.
Musically, "Binaural" has the band
sounding like "Brain of J" and
"Corduroy." However, there are a few
songs where they attempt something dif-
ferent. The first single, "Nothing as it
Seems," and "Of the Girl" both ramble in
a dark, blues mood. "Sleight of Hand"
sounds like it could have come off of a
Massive Attack album, but Vedder's voice
gives it that distinct Pearl Jam sound.
"Binaural" is one of those albums that
you don't know whether to love or hate.
None of the songs are exceptionally
catchy and for the most part they are quite
dark. And with lyrics this ambiguous, it
will take more than a listen or two to pry
inside the minds of the characters.
DEMF
Continued from Page 10
back when he was playing at The
Music Institute, back when Jeff Mills
was on the radio. Once all this stuff
stopped, that's when the emergence of
hip-hop came along. This is when
MTV came along and showed you
music instead of letting you listen to
it."
"You see, us underground people,
who loved the music, didn't have any-
thing to grab on," he continued. "So
things just kind of died off. That's
when Richie [Hawtin] started doing
his part. He saw the cultural gap and
started throwing his parties. He
became an icon figure, bringing all
the kids out of the suburbs and into
the city. Then you had this even bigger
generation gap."
As artistic director, Craig seems to
have acknowledged the black commu-
nity's current disinterest in techno. By
booking acts that appeal to this target
audience such as The Roots, Mos Def,
Gary Chandler and DJ Assault, he
hopes to bring many down to the fes-
tival to expose them to their first taste
of techno culture. In addition, precon-
ceptions may be shattered when tE
young iblack crowd discovers thatt
majority of the technso artist at
many of the techno communityUd
statesmen are also black.
Besides bringing Detroit's cultur
together for three days of techno ed
cation and acculturation, this festiva
underlying importance also invol'
the state of electronic music
America at the moment. Relative
Europe, America has little connecti
to the music besides a small nic
market and a drug-driven ravegr
Even the term "techno" gets us
blasphemously to describe blatant
non-techno music such as Fatboy Sli
or Moby.
"The club culture here is not
deep as we wish it would be," Pull
said. "You go over to places li
London, for example, and the nation
radio is geared towards dance mus
You have MTV supporting dan
music. It's all over the magazines. Y
have so many clubs, so many di re
types of music that you have a Mu
over there. When you see movi
being made about club culture
Europe, you know that there is a de
sense of knowing about the mus
over there. We don't have that here
the States."
While this festival may help cres
awareness in America for this mus
the artists and volunteers want
reach out to primarily Detroi*s<
before expanding in coming yea
"We are doing this for ourselves a
for our city more than we are doi
this for a global point of view," Pull
concluded. "I think we've been in t
shadows for too long."
For more information on t
artists, the event and the location
DEMF, point your browser
http://www.demf org. For me
information about techno, vi:
site with over 300 pages of rco
reviews, artist bios, label histori
and more.
_ _
REGISTRAR'S BULLETIN BOARD
Central Campus Student Service Site
The Registrar's Office Central Campus Student Service site is moving. Effective
May 22 we will be located in 1010 LSA Bldg. (next to Cashier's Office). The site
in G255 Angell Hall will close. Our telephone number is (734) 647-3507.
Extension Services will also be located at the new site. We look forward to serv-
ing students at this new location.
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Earn $10 in a one session computer-mediated negotiation
experiment that is being held in the Business School
throughout May, June, and July. Experimental sessions
last under an hour.
Days: Sunday through Thursday
Times: 5:00 and 6:30 PM.
To be included in the pool of possible subjects, register at:
http://ddm.bus.umich.edu/~summerOO
To participate, you must be over the age of 18.
Classes
preparing for
the GRE start
June 3rd!
Classes are limited to a
maximum of 8 students.
Spaces are
going fast!
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