ARTS The Michigan Daily ' . Friday, March 15, 1991 Babes fuel music with anger Page 5 Sex and dancing isn't just lambada Oy Greg Baise F or at least a handful of artists, creating art is a cathartic experience that channels the artist's potentially anti-social energies into a more cre- ative and more acceptable medium than hoodlumhood or murdering sprees. For Kat Bjelland, the singer and guitarist for the Minneapolis trio Babes in Toyland, this , artistic catharsis is a way of life. "I'd proba- bly be more pissed off if I didn't play in a band," she admits. Just because Bjelland plays in the best of the so-called "foxcore" bands doesn't mean she has any relief from the anger which inspires the best of the Babes' songs. She explained that she usually writes when extreme emotions compel her to: "I have to be either really pissed off or in some kind of jubilant mood to write any- thing worth a shit." The Babes' de- but record, Spanking Machine, re- lies heavily on the situation de- scribed in the former part of Bjel- * land's statement. Spanking Machine, released last year on Twin/Tone, comes on like a series of hate letters to former boyfriends and other intruders on Bjelland's emotional well-being. While Bjelland mangles her guitar and screeches like some kind of Thurston Moore/Lydia Lunch love child, Michelle Leon subdues some great bass rhythms and, Lori Bar- bero's tom-heavy beat vigorously pounds nails into the coffins of past relationships. Like other great current indie bands, Babes in Toyland bear at least a slight imprint of '80s indie deities Sonic Youth, who took the Babes with them to Europe to open some shows for them. All of their records name like "foxcore." Ruminating on the origin of such a term (pop- ularized by an article in arecent Spin), she theorized, "I almost think that Thurston (Moore, Sonic Youth member and walking rock encyclo- pedia) said it one time. It just seems like something he would say, like that word 'fox.' " The Babes in Toyland show to- morrow night is one of a handful they are playing right now, before they release their next EP, To Mother, in the next month or so. After that, they will embark on a full-blown tour. Tomorrow's per- formance will include"songs from the upcoming release, as well as some material they plan to release as a single in Australia. Judging from the music, Bjelland should still have enough extreme emotion to fuel the next half-decade or so of Babes in Toyland records. "It's almost like if you don't have the blues, you can't write for shit. Someday, maybe I'll be peaceful, but probably not right now," she said, explaining that while recently the jubilant has played a much more significant role in her existence, the past several weeks she has not been in the best of spirits. "Sometimes you do this self-destructive thing, just to get your edge back," she said. With such a grating, tortuous edge, Babes in Toyland cut into the anger, malice and betrayal that your hardened heart used to call love. BABES IN TOYLAND play with ZU ZU' S PETALS and chainsaw-rock losers TAD at Club Heidelberg tomorrow. Cover is $11. CLASSIFIEDS Get Results! by Justine Unatin Fogel/Sparling: Dance Works follows the "greatest hits" tradi- tion of the music industry. The performance combines unforget- table pieces from past shows with new additions to the choreogra- phers' diverse repertories. But un- like "Best Of" albums, which usually lack a unified theme, the conception of Dance Works is guided by a single, universal topic - sexuality. The choreog- raphers jumped at the opportunity to work with the Institute of Humanities' '90-'91 research pro- ject, communicating through dance their interpretations of its subject, "The History of Sexual- ity." Peter Sparling and Jessica Fo- gel attack the topic of sexuality from various thematic angles, us- ing personal experiences along with universal issues as their ma- terials. Sparling shares the story of his childhood and his personal problems during adult relation- ships as he dances "The Boy Who Played with Dolls." A taped ver- sion of Sparling reading his auto- biography should add extra emo- tive force to his expressive chore- ography. As the spotlight turns onto Ms. Fogel, the audience will be exposed to a taste of feminist is- sues. For all those who were in- trigued by the stories of flying shovels during last month's Power Center performance, now's your chance to see Fogel's "Dig, A Dance In 21 Parts." The piece portrays the subjugation of women by society, as well as the ability to overcome sexually-ori- ented obstacles. The topic of feminism can hardly be approached without ad- hering to the wisdom of author Margaret Atwood. Fogel, Gay DeLanghe and Lynn Slaughter will dance to a recitation of At- wood's "The Female Body," an article which appeared in the re- cent issue of the Michigan Quar- terly Review. Sparling carries the theme of sexuality to perhaps the most tragic sense with "Witness," a prize piece from the 1990 Power Center performance. "Witness" consists of 13 men, including School of Dance students, gradu- ates, local dancers and Sparling himself. The dancers harmonize with heightened emotions, honor- ing all individuals affected by the trauma of AIDS. Shifting from the large arena of the Power Center, Dance See SEX, Page 8 I he band that thinks the guys in Skinny Puppy are all right: Babes in Toyland (l-r: Kat Bjelland, Michelle Leon, Lori Barbero). The Babes opened for Skinny Puppy for several weeks last November. are made up of distinctly Babes in Toyland material, but songs such as "Never" and "Pain in My Heart" paint an aural canvas like Sonic Youth at their evilest and Evolest. Barbero's sole (and soulful) vocal contribution to Spanking Machine, "Dogg," generates the atmosphere of Kim Gvrdon's "Beauty Lies in the Eye," with Bjelland and Leon creat- ing a taut, dark dirge as Barbero sings some other-end-of-the-Missis- sippi blues and steadily, slowly pounds her floor tom. Also, Babes in Toyland are following Sonic Youth into the corporate-rock ma- trix, as they are on the verge of sign- ing with Warner Brothers. Bjelland and Barbero formed Babes in Toyland four years ago, amply preceding the current heyday of indie rock bands whose members just happen to be women. After their original bassist and singer left, Bjel- land added vocals to her duties, and the Babes added Leon to their ranks. "I certainly feel that women have a certain energy that comes out vo- cally and musically in a different way than men," explained Bjelland, although she avoids putting Babes in Toyland into a category with a goofy i ': . I Okay, the Scorpions and Trixter (the Palace, April 11) seemed an odd pairing, as did sticking the trite and pathetic (and way too pretty) Nelson with Lynch Mob and Cinderella (the Palace, May 3), but joining the clas- sic (and probably:still decent, even if they have a potentially-lame new vocalist in Joe Lynn Turner) Deep Purple with ex-prima ballerina Kip Winger (who sports chest hair so thick that it naturally parts down the middle) and his eponymous band (Winger, not Kip) at the Palace April 13. Tickets are $13 (p.e.s.c.) at TicketMaster, on sale Saturday. Kip looks a wee-bit too much like Jon Bon Jovi trying reeeally hard to be reeeeally sexy, don't you think? Four scenes from Taming of the Shrew will be performed by six ac- tors playing the two lead characters, Kate and Petruchio, at this week- end's Basement Arts production. It's worthwhile seeing Big Bill done on a small scale rather, especially if your only exposure to this particular comedy has been through the "Atomic Shakespeare" episode of Moonlighting. If you're still not convinced, IT'S FREE. It happens on Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m and 8 p.m. in the Frieze' Building's Arena Theater. (And it's only a half-hour long, a quick cul- ture-fix for the weekend.) SUNDAY, MARCH 17 7:30PM HILL AUDITORIUM ANN ARBOR IWRITE FOR ARTS!!! CALL 763-0379!!!!1 4 The University of Michigan SCHOOL OF MUSIC GEORGE AND THE DESTROYERS Sun. Mar. 17 Mon. Mar. 18 Thur. Mar. 21 Guest Piano Recital by Robert Jordan Brahms: Three Intermezzi Schubert: Sonata in a-minor, op. 143 Liszt: "Nuages Gris", Valse Oublide, no. 1, Four Small Piano Pieces, and Rhapsody no. 11 in a-minor Music by Hakim, Swanson, and Taylor School of Music Recital Hall, 4 p.m. Composers Forum Concert School of Music Recital Hall, 8 p.m. Jazz Combos Concert Small ensembles from the U-M Jazz Studies Program North Campus Commons Dining Room, 8 p.m. Dance MFA Thesis Concert Tickets: $5 (763-5460) Studio A, Dance Building, 8 p.m. Symphony Band Concert H. Robert Reynolds, Gary Lewis, Dennis Glocke, conductors Brian Bowman, euphonium Schwantner: "...and the mountains rising nowhere" Bassett: Sounds, Shapes, and Symbols and "Lullaby for Kirsten" Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. e~is a nd E DAUE HOLLAND QUARTET with STEVE COLEMAN KEVIN EUBANKS MARVIN "SMITTY" SMITH bass,saxophorie,guitar, and drums... present FRI. MARCH 22 Thur. Mar. - Sat. 21-23 Fri. Mar. 22 atTHE ARK 8and 10 pm Tick ts also available at PJ's Used Records and Schoolkids Records. I A ( Faculty Recital by Arthur Greene with guest Hong-Mel Xiao, viola Hummel: Sonata in E-flat Major for Viola and Piano Hindemith: Sonate fur Bratsche allein, op. 25, no. 1 Enesco: Concert Piece