Ex-unne-r Slash stil
packs heat inthe Pit S

g aMonday, July 2,2U1001- The vMichigan Daily - ii
Local artitssin
in Live Lyi'tu

By Rob Brode
Daily Arts Writer
"Because I was always in a hurry and
always had something going on." That, as
Saul Hudson recalls, was how his nick-
name Slash came to be. "Everybody calls
me Slash except anybody I give my driv-
ers license to and I don't want them to
know who I am."
Besides Slash, he
may be referenced
as a rock n' roll
Slash legend, or guitar
god by any num-
R Toya Oa u ber of hard rock
fanatics. He can
Juneo27, 2001 also be called a
former member of
Guns N' Roses but
he is currently the
main attraction of
his own band
Slash's Snakepit.
Since the bands
1995 debut It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere
lb'um and the 2000 release Ain't Life
rand, the Snakepit has had a complete
makeover. "None of them planned on
taking it as far as I did. They had to go
back to their respective day jobs and I
was slowly but surely leaving my respec-
tive day job."
For some, putting together a new band
could be fairly trying but not for Slash. "I
hang out a lot and meet musicians on a
regular basis. I jam a lot and over the

course of six months to a year I accumu-
lated all these new friends who were
musicians." Some of these jamming
friends would go on to become full
fledged members of the Snakepit. The
band consists Johnny Blackout on bass,
Kerri Kelli, whose past credits include
Ratt and Warrant, on rhythm guitar, Matt
Laug, who has recorded with The Corrs,
Alice Cooper, Alanis Morissette and The
New Radicals, on drums and the man
with the golden wail, Rod Jackson. "The
guy has an amazing voice, when I first
heard it I was like 'FUCK! That's the
shit; that's what I am looking for"'
Earlier this year the Snakepit made
their way across the country with AC/
DC, quite a tall order for a bands first
tour. "We were nervous about how peo-
ple perceive an opening band for AC/DC.
When I went to their shows back in the
day I never remembered who the opening
band was." Suffice it to say, everything
worked out. "We got the crowd so
worked up, AC/DC loved us." After a few
months off the road, Snakepit has put.
together a tour of their own, a tour that
brought them to Royal Oak.
Despite being relatively green as a
unit, the Snakepit is a band of rock n' roll
veterans and they played as such. While
Slash's name is on the marquee, on stage
it was Jackson who stole the show with
his rock n' roll look of dreadlocks, light
purple crushed velvet pants and siren of a
voice. Jackson got down on the stage
more than once in order to deliver pelvic

Slash: Still jammin' and lovin' It.
thrusts into the air and during the song
Mean Bone performed somewhat of an
interpretive reading as he placed his hand
onto his own "mean bone."
Slash of course was stoic: Top hat, cig-
arette and Les Paul as per usual.
Although the spotlight shone down on
Slash for most of the evening, his playing
did not overshadow the band. The group
capped the night off with two songs from
Slash's former band "Its So Easy" and
"Mr. Brownstone." Guns N' Roses may
never reunite as they once were but as
long as Slash is around there will always
be good, gritty in-your-face rock.

By W. Jacari Melton
Daily Arts Writer
Area hip-hop fans still reeling from
Jay-Z's no-show in Detroit had a chance
to boost their spirits at the Blind Pig with
the arrival of the Live Lyrics tour. The
tour, which began
June 19 in Chica-
y go, features artists
familiar to people
Live Lyrics with knowledge of
Tour Midwest under-
The Blind Pig ground hip-hop. In
attendance were
June 23, 2001 De tr oi t /A nn
Arbor/Ypsilanti
area artists ID, DJ
Virus, Prhyme #'s,
Young Bastards,
One Man Army
and SUN. In addi-
tion, 0-Type Star
and JUICE (Chicago), the Artfull
Dodgers (Flint) and Anthony Mills
(NYC) represented for the out-of-town
people.
The night's master of ceremonies was
O-Type Star. In his normal manner, he
mixed witty banter with his freestyling
capabilities to keep the crowd into the
performances. By the time the second act
was set to perform, the Blind Pig was still
sparsely populated. O-Type warned the
early comers to be ready to answer the
inevitable question: "What did I miss?"
Unfortunately, those who arrived late
missed the first part of Anthony Mills set.
Mills, who mixes a dancehall style with a
soulful crooning similar to artists like
Bilal, made up for his last Blind Pig out-
ing that got cut short. In an extremely
energetic performance, Mills, with the

help of the live band Prhyme #'s, freaked
Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and the
Furious Five's classic "The Message"
over a dancehall beat. Later on, Mills
returned to the stage for those who missed
his first time out. He did a moving tribute
to slain New Yorker Amadou Diallo, who
was shot 41 times by police, to remind
people that Diallo could have been any
one of them.
One Man Army held his own, covering
material from Binary Star including
"Reality Check" and "Honest Expres-
sion." In "Honest Expression," OMA cri-
tiques "hip-hop hypocrites," who have
conformed to or accept without question
hip-hop's seeming obsession with the all
mighty dollar, hurting the art form. This
sat well with the "anti-bling" backpack
toting crowd. So maybe these people
wouldn't have gone to the Jay-Z concert.
The night's last performer was JUICE,
who teamed up with his Chi-town partner
O-Type Star. Of all the acts on tour
JUICE may be the most well known after
his now famous freestyle battle against
Eminem. JUICE won the battle but hasn't
achieved half the notoriety. After going
through several tracks, SUN joined the
pair to do "Radiate," a track off of his lat-
est release. Borrowing a piece of Marvin
Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me," 0-Type
declares SUN as the man with the "Ypsi-
lantidote" for hip-hop. It was a fitting
compliment for someone who's been in
the game for a while and not garnered the
deserved recognition.
If the tour is successful, especially in
cities like Philadelphia and New York, the
Midwest artists who represent the bulk of
the lineup will get their due bringing
attention to the often-neglected-yet-thriv-
ing scene in this area of the country.

.. .,A .. it 11

Digimortal should be feared

Digimortal, Fear Factory;
Roadrunner Records
By Rob Brode
Daily Arts Writer
Digimortal, the newest and most
*adly of the Digimons? Sadly, for
Digimon fans, the answer is "no," but
Digimortal is the name of the newest
Fear Factory record.
Although concept albums have
seemingly gone the way of the eight
track, metal acts are single-handedly
keeping them alive. Digimortal is the
latest metal/science-fiction/concept
album. Much in the same vein of
"Terminator 2," "The Matrix" and
even Our Lady Peace's Spiritual
*chines, Fear Factory explores the
marriage of man and machine and
where this partnership will lead the
human race in the future. It is a tale
of immortality achieved through
technology.
At some point in the future
through the invention of the Eter-
nachip, a chip installed in each
humans cerebral cortex, all human
rmory and experience will be
ownloaded and saved in the eter-
nasystem. While it would be tempt-
ing to just type blah blah blah from
this point on, I will bear through all
the exciting details.
At death the human will be cloned,
then allowed to age for twenty-five

years before the memory would be
inserted. While the process seems to
be perfect, it seems to miss one small
detail, THE SOUL!(Gasp!).
Surprisingly enough the storyline
doesn't get any more exciting when it
is screamed over detuned guitars and
driving doublebass. The problem
with a concept album is if the con-
cept falls short of interesting so does
the album. The grooves are machine-
like but the quality is mortal. Pay
your brother to scream over a B sci-fi
movie, same effect, less cost.


S'

&"V 3.3; A. Vil Ill-VIV 11-11.

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