ARTS
The Michigan Daily Friday, March 29, 1991
Page 5
'Triffid drops last names: pretty
people doing ugly things
by Kim Yaged
What's in Mdl Triffid?
Kimo: "Really quiet ... classical
aitarist ... totally normal, hilari-
s guy, down to earth, great guy to
*tch Hee Haw with."
Dave: "The anchor, holds every-
thing together, the big, tall bass
player."
Scott: "The new guy ... drummer
. he's a ... Scott."
" So says Kurt, the lead singer of
thy band, who describes himself as
"the same humble guy ... I didn't
get many dates in high school and
my early college years, but then all
of a sudden you get up on stage and
you rip your shirt off and start
screaming obscenities and it's like,
'This guy's alright."'
Wait, let's back up a second. Did
someone say "new guy?" Yes, that's
right. Scott Mast has been sitting
behind the skins of Mol Triffid, ar-
guably the hottest up and coming
band in Ann Arbor. And he is a
force.
"You can hear it in some of the
stuff, like a song we do called
'Man,' which is this big bombasted
sort of thing ... when he does it, it's
more like I'm singing, like I'm
flowing with the music. More of a
groove is, I guess, the way you
would put it," Kurt says.
But Mast isn't the only factor
wthat's having an impact on M61
Triffid. There's a visible confidence
that accompanies the maturity the
band has acquired now that they are
veterans of the local club scene.
who, what,
The great dance minds of Ann
Arbor will gather at the
Performance Network from April 4
through 7 to show us their Spring
Dances. University talents such as
Matthew Rose, Janet Lilly and
Anita Cheng will be featured along
with many others. Used to be these
kind of things meant Maypoles and
fertility rites - lordy knows what
these modern dancers can come up
with. You can witness these themes
*in combinations of theater and dance
for only $7 ($9 for real people.)
Call 663-0681 for information.
Call 1-800-OOH-BABY for some
heavy breathing. .
"When you first start out play-
ing," Kurt explains, "your skin's
really thin and it's like the worst
thing in the world when you hear
someone in the back yell, 'You suck
you faggot! Get off the stage!' But
after that happens three or four
thousand times, you know, you just
don't care, and you just go out there
and you're more into playing the
show and being entertainers."
"I'm an entertainer," he contin-
ues. "Don't call me an artist; I'm an
entertainer ... The difference is keep-
ing a distance from what I do for my
own peace of mind ... I'm just
putting on a show ... There is plenty
of room for phonies in the rock
business. As long as our stuff is
good, that's what matters. We're
poseurs, but we're good."
Poseurs?
"The songs I write, the lyrics I
write," Kurt says, "they're mostly
like stories, or more like little
movies. I don't like, get really
deeply into my own state of mind
and pour out my heart on paper, ya
know? They all have points, they all
have themes. It's not just gibber-
ish."
Well, maybe Kurt isn't the one
being whipped by the black haired,
blue-eyed sex fiend in "I Wanna See
Pretty People Doin' Ugly Things,"
but this band is definitely a genuine
group of musicians.
Mdl Triffid has grown to recog-
nize their heightened status, but
they refrain from succumbing to the
urge to become pompous, which
adds to their appeal. It's fun to ex-
perience the enthusiasm of a non-
egotistical band emerging into the
spotlight.
"At St. Andrews ... I thought we
were just gonna get spit on, ya
know?" Kurt confesses. "To my
amazement, we started doing 'I
Wanna See Pretty People Doin'
Ugly Things' and people were sing-
ing it ... and all these people were,
like, watching us ... and there were
plenty of people who actually knew
who we were ... That was probably
the biggest 'Wow!' right there,
'cause I was singing the song and I
looked out and there were people ac-
tually singing the verses."
"The Heidelberg is almost a base
of operation," he continues. "Every
time we play there on the weekend
we know we'll have a certain crowd
that'll show up and be really into it,
which you don't get anyplace else."
However, this might not be for
long. There are plans for the band to
go into the studio in mid-April;
from there, their sights are set on
Berkeley, California as a new
"home."
As.for now, though, Kurt says,
"The band is my excuse for being
here, for living ... That's what this
whole thing is about, not to be a
zero. No one wants to disappear into
a crowd. This is one way I can be
somebody."
MOL TRIFFID headline at Club
Heidelberg tonight with CARNIVAL
OF SHAME and CONTROL
opening. Doors open at 10 p.m. and
cover is $5.
Twins take you to heaven, not Las Vegas
Their music has been called "the voice of God." We don't actually know if this is true, since no one has had
the gumption to interview God. So until that time comes we have the Cocteau Twins. Angel-inspired or
not, their music is dreamlike and Moody - note the capital "M." The whirling choruses of guitars, melodic
bells, airy strings, flowing vocals and nonsensical lyrics are all guaranteed to make you want to love, be
loved, smile, cry, laugh and sleep, all in the space of about 75 minutes. Who else could do this besides the
Holy One? Only the Twins, and that's why we love 'em. The possible religious experience begins tonight at 8
p.m. in the Michigan Theater. Tickets are $18.50 in advance at TicketMaster (p.e.s.c.). Galaxie 500 is opening.
Following Eazy's rumored contri-
bution of $40,000 to an elite inner
circle of the Republican party, said
organization invited the so-called
"ruthless villian" to join. Eazy may
be the most visible rapper in poli-
tics, now being a member of both
NWA and the GOP.
Hair trendsetter Dorothy
Hamill will be gliding across the
ice of Yost Arena tommarow at 7
p.m. at the Dorothy Hamill and
Friends Skating Show. The Mary
Lou Retton of the '70s is eager to
show off her sparkling smile and
those infamous "Hamil Camel's ." [
Guitarist" at the 1968 Sweden
International Festival - at 7 p.m.
in Rackham Auditorium. On Sunday,
the Michigan Theater will show
The Mist, director Livaneli's 1989
political thriller, at 7 p.m. And on
Monday - also at 7 at the Michigan
- the film will be Yavuz Tugrul's
Mr. Mushin, a comic study on the
idea of purity in folk culture.
Tickets for all events will be
available at the door; special stu-
dent and faculty discounts are being
offered. Call 572-7998 for more in-
formation.
Cocteau Twins
Heaven or Las Vegas
Capitol/4AD
What do you do after you've
achieved perfection? For England's
heralded Cocteau Twins, it's not
enough to simply recapitulate that'
touchstone sound whose Mozart1
genius has left a generation of
would-be visionaries to the fate of
hapless Salieris. Their kaleidoscopic
mystery and mystic tongue have
summoned up perhaps the grandest
spectrum of adjectives in history.'
But even the seer and the shaman
must struggle after the vision has'
been attained - to get back down to
earth and make it all intelligible
some way or another. The Cocteau
Twins have dazzled us before; but'
incredibly, within the pop song
structures of Heaven or Las Vegas,
their seventh album, everything fi-
nally begins to make sense.
Ever since 1986's majestic, un-
touchable Victorialand distilled
that magic to its most basic ele-
ments - Robin Guthrie's effect-
laden guitar and Liz Fraser's sing-
ing-in-tongues - the group has been
gradually rebuilding.its instrumen-
tal vocabulary. Lunar piano was in-
troduced by New-Ager Harold
Budd to the collaboration The
Moon and the Melodies, and key-
board sequencers were added as
drum programs were reintroduced
to 1988's Blue Bell Knoll. The final
coalescing agent of Vegas is focused
songcraft; the elements are all bal-
anced, the sound a polished sheen.
In "Wolf in the Breast," as well
as "Heaven or Las Vegas" and
"Fotzepolitic," powerful bridges
manage to lift an already com-
pelling theme to improbable
heights; and Guthrie's magnificent
slide coda to the title track is a
nearly rock-and-roll touch.
With this bold acceptance of
conventional parameters, Cocteau
Twins end up somewhere between
the Moon and New York City, 14
place that transcends our perceive4
divisions between purity and access
sibility, between innocence and ex-
perience, between reality and art. :
If rock 'n' roll music started opt
in its adolescence ("I want to hold
your hand") and became an adult
with Dylan, then Liz Fraser's blisA-
ful nonsense language (even in songs
See RECORDS, Page&
I, ~I.
The University of Michigan
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
4
Mon. Apr. 1
Tue. Apr. 2
Thu.-Sun.
Apr. 4-7
Sat. Apr. 6
Carillon Concert
Margo Halsted, University Carillonneur
Bassett: "A Masque of Bells for Carillon"
Charles Baird Carillon, Burton Memorial Tower
5:50 and 6:05 p.m.
University Phitharmonia
Orchestra with guests
Michael Lorimer, guitar,
and H. Dennis Smith, trombone
Donald Schleicher, conductor
Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
Bassett: "Temperaments"
Bassett: Concerto Lyrico
Sibelius: Symphony no. 2
Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m.
Carillon Concert
Margo Halsted, University Carillonneur
Bassett: "A Masque of Bells for Carillon"
Charles Baird Carillon, Burton Memorial Tower
7:30 and 7:45 p.m.
University Players
Maeterlinck's Pelleas and Melisande:
an adaptation
Jerald Coyne Schwiebert, director
Tickets: $9 and $5 (students) 764-0450
Trueblood Theatre, Frieze Building
8 p.m. (Th.-Sa.), 2 p.m. (Sun.)
Power Party: Opera Gala
Gustav Meier, director
Earl Coleman, Lorna Haywood,
Karen Lykes, Willis Patterson,
Rosemary Russell, Martha Sheil,
George Shirley, and Karen Swan with the
University Symphony Orchestra
Tickets: $12, $5 (students) (764-0450)
Power Center for the Performing Arts, 8 p.m.
I'
131st Spring Concert
U-M Men's Glee Club with
University of Notre Dame
Men's Glee Club
Jerry Blackstone, conductor