ARTS

The Michigan Daily

Friday, January 18, 1991

'Listen to the Truncheons or get beat by one

by Kim Yaged
"H' e fucked me with his trun-
cheon, but his helmet was way too
tight," goes the line in the very ob-
scure Rolling Stones' song "Cock
Stucker Blues." The Truncheons is
an all-female quartet from Detroit.
he name conjures many images
- sadomasochism, a bunch of
women using figurative clubs since
they lack the physical ones - the
list goes on.
The Truncheons would have
you believe whatever you would
like. "When people see us," says
Ktaren Monster, who handles lead
vocals and guitar, "they're very
tuprised.... They're like, 'I didn't
pow chicks were making this
noise."' To Monster, however,
their sex (and racial mixture) are
rit important, and she is "sorry so
much attention needs to be paid to
it... What you see is what you get
with this band." Paula Boufford,
who sings vocals and plays guitar,
sees it in much the same light: "A
lt of people, they just freak a
tale bit. It's like it's okay for a
guy to get up there and get pissed
off and do stuff. God, the minute a
girl does it's like you're just a
bitch."
Both Monster and Boufford
compare their music to the
Ramones. It is rock and roll with
heavier (not quite metal but
maybe) guitar. Although Monster
does the writing, says Boufford,
*he content of the songs is very
imiportant to all of them. "I don't
think I was ever big on messages...
I write the songs, I mean, they just
come flying out of me. They're
really just feelings I have at any
particular moment that I know
people do relate to," Monster says.
The Truncheons know what

Perhaps I'm thick-skulled, but I
just don't know why Russ Meyer's
films look and play better on the
big screen than on a video monitor.
Oh, wait. I remember now: lots of
things in Russ Meyer movies are
larger than what is normally en-
countered in boring day-to-day
existence.
For instance, there's the louder-
than-a-banshee-glee-club scream-
ing of Varla, the colossal leader of
the pack in one of Meyer's two
finest films, Faster, Pussycat!
Kill! Kill! Varla, played by the
awesome Tura Satana, yells, drag
races, gets into fights, tumbles in
the hay and gets killed.
Although the lewdly Puritanical
Meyer has Varla die in the end
(and it really is more than just
some kind of Bad Seed spanking
scene tacked on by some
censorious film board), she's a
strong outlaw character who easily
could have killed Meyer for
exploiting women and making her
character die. Meyer inspired such
former juvenile delinquents as
John Waters, who considers Faster
Pussycat "the best film ever
made." It's too bad we'll never
know who would win in a fight:
Varla or Divine. It would have
made an excellent action-packed
grindhouse matinee.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is

Page 5
InmemI
being shown tonight by the Ann
Arbor Film Co-op along with
Meyer's other superlative film,
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll are
the rules of the game here. Meyer-
brilliantly captures the decadent
late '60s California scene in full
color and then kills off everyone
that doesn't fit into his world order.
Sure, it's only a movie, and it al-
most as fun as watching live-ac-
tion Ralph Bakshi-produced Spi-
derman episodes or watching Bat-
man on acid.
But when it comes down to it
you can't ignore the issues brought
up: issues of feminism,
transvestism, politics, exploitation
and the role of art in culture. Kate
Millet might not agree that a Russ
Meyer film is the best place to
start an acceptable discourse on
such matters, but what the heyl
Russ Meyer is an inimitable
American artist who rolls the
whole thing into one celluloid
package that explodes across the
screen like the Chinese New Year.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is,
being shown tonight at 7 p.m. and
10:20 p.m. in MLB 4. Beyond the'
Valley of the Dolls is also being.
shown tonight at 8:30 p.m. in MLB:

Karen Monster (the one with the hat and the cigarette and the attitude) sings well, but also has the unique
ability of being able to flip people off with her eyes.

they have is different and good,
and they're willing to stand behind
it. "If someone were to come along
and say, 'I want you girls to start
wearing mini-dresses,' I'd say, 'Go

bar, there are plenty of joke bands
to go see," Boufford says.
That's not to say that their
shows aren't fun. "When we're
playing, there's Paula smiling

The band was recently filmed
as part of a BBC documentary that
will air in England. Currently,
there are plans in the works to do a
video and to release an EP. Their
show at Club Heidelberg is their
first out-of-town gig.
The Truncheons are a new type
of band - refreshing. Boufford de-
scribed it well: "We giggle at
practice, and it's kinda fun. It's
like a big pajamas party."

4.

- Greg Baise

'He fucked me with his truncheon, but his
helmet was way too tight.'

Need the hot news fast?
Find it in the Daily.

w

to hell'.... If you want to laugh in a

.A real collage of
musical sounds

by Elizabeth Lenhard
T he musically orthodox might
consider the Collage Concert a"
sacrilege. Juxtaposition of Brahms
, ith Aaron Copland or Bernstein's
Trouble in Tahiti with Puccini's
Madame Butterfly is not meant for
the conservative listener. The
University's wacky School of
Music will put its "diverse"
reputation on display with Collage
XIV, an important feature of the
Midwestern Music Conference.

The Collage Concert is both an
opportunity to showcase a great
deal of the University's musical
talqnt and an introduction to an
exciting new genre for any
aficionados. Like a visual collage,
the musical collage is a gathering
of several antithetical modes of
music. Without breaks for
applause, listeners will be carried
from Stephen Sondheim's
Company to Tannhauser by
Wagner. Groups such as the
Northcoast Jazz Ensemble, the
See COLLAGE, Page 8

I

I


r',

C, 'K~ &%
0e ic oPQv0 o -
.iLe ~ & 5 °
cvV <<. \
~S9&4~ ~'ell
e&~a~a ele r
o eA. ~

4:2' ~~
0 11
1' , "o 6 \0 4' n
9 9

:1
t#
4.K

X9"12' 'I \ \
0a 4.

)P

0 , ,

ti5
o z
'd

.e
yt ' a 0 0O
a'# Fe t t

"10
0' Qua
r oa

}


r0 ad oo ooCY
o ~o

I

019 \4-p
r 1 mdo .0 , ,* al o .

I
I


#~' ~0fl
!i9 0 1 t
l.?\~ '"
9$4 @a
a c & po
0'I

a\\ 4
y
r

iQ 2 raa
0 Q 'P o~a,
P. o 9Fao a aQeo °
ch a . "3

t V vi G
ye T3\ ~

I 9S a\ a go

- ' \oc04' 4 r°\o
' 0\r 0 p '(~ '
..." rr a . ' Q , re..0c

OA(059 c
cG'o \4
e ~~~

,0\0 I
- ea~
.j~ooa
..$ or
ti

\(e o
6r0 0 c t \e yO3oey4s 4 0
aOya9Jy n rrfa d \~
sA

v\
\

fie\0 t ' N
0 X006
~G

e r
y
\ 00C,
'r g 0
0 a c
G '1' ,
J
, \,

(o ° A q lco

.a .t1 ~.oy J.9 , , S v.



-0,

U


'40 In

m u

U I

I