9 Page 10--The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, April 23,1991 i r 1NKD Peek-a-boo: Best of NRBQ Rhino What would have happened if Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson were in the same band; if neither became financially successful, cheesy, experimental, burned-out, neurotic or overly retrospective; if they were into pro-wrestling; and if they played nothing but small venues throughout their careers? I have no idea either, but those are the images which came to mind after listening to this double-CD collec- tion. I am not trying to make up rea- sons why NRBQ's success has been stifled over the last twenty years or insults your musical tastes for not paying attention to them, since I had only known of two or three of their songs before I picked up ths set. As with most of Rhino's "best of' collections, this is a history for a relatively obscure band, intended for serious fans and curious music collectors alike. The set contains 35 songs, which might be a little long. Maybe if the collection was condensed to a single disc, songs like "Never Take the Place of You" would've (rightfully) had to leave the album. When you hear the other tunes, however, it's possible to become hooked quite easily - that is, only if you are prepared to not take ev- erything too seriously. Titles like "Howard Johnson's Got My Ho-Jo Workin"' and "Captain Lou" show the band's comic approach, as does the name of their 1978 album, At Yankee Stadium. "Deaf, Dumb and ! Blind" and "Still in School," writ- ten by bassist Joey Spampanato, show that you don't have to be in a post-punk British band to write a song like the Beatles might have. -Andrew J. Cahn Thin Lizzy Dedication: The Best of Thin Lizzy PolyGram The whole concept of classic rock bothers me. Do I like that mu- sic because it is genuinely better than what is released today or be- cause it is simply older than the cur- rent hits by Bon Jovi and Poison? Thin Lizzy is not a good example to use when trying to solve this dilemma. Their tunes "Boys are Back in Town" and "Jailbreak" have been mainstays on WCSX, and their are a few lost classics here. Most of the collection, however, is simply the music that Warrant would have done fifteen years ago. This is proven by the one "new" track, "Dedication," which is nothing spe- cial at all. Phil Lynott is thought of by many to be a great songwriter, but maybe by 2010, the same will be said about Brett Michaels. -Andrew J. Cahn Xymox Phoenix Wing/Mercury Although they have never been by any means a great band, Xymox has at the very least done a few no- table singles, such as "No Words" and "Obsession." Neither has the band been original in its sound: sparse, minor key synth and guitar dirges (but sometimes with an up- tempo beat) reminiscent of early '80s New Order, Tears For Fears and the Cure. Nonetheless, the band was not a total waste; often, their songs had a sort of derivative catchiness that made them forgivable. But Phoenix may change all that - for the worse. On this album, the band descends into the ultimate realm of sappiness, formerly occu- pied by OMD. Still worse, the songs don't hold up; they flow in one ear and straight out the other, impart- ing a slight feeling of melancholy, but not any remembrance. The sin- gle, "Phoenix of My Heart," makes a feeble attempt at rising out of this depressing quagmire, but falls short. (Throwing in a chorus of the Troggs' "Wild Thing" at the end didn't help much, either!) This is rainy day music of the worst order. -Mike Molitor Xymox Banned only in Canada, the band with the coolest name in town makes their public debut tonight at that bastion of boffo, the Blind Pig. The Tequila Mockingbirds tout themselves as the band with "the hippest groove on campus" and make no bones about the fact that they play no original tunes. They do make bones about the fact that they WEEKEND Continued from page 8 cloak and thigh-high black leather boots. She was a perfect example of the teenage personality - alter- nately sulky, defensive, angry, dis- tressed about the death of her mother and grandmother, and youthfully enthusiastic about her ability to be a substitute for Jack's mother. Cinderella (Kristen Behrendt) displayed the most hideously '60s costumes of the show - oranges, psychedelic designs and a frightful I Dream of Jeannie outfit - but nothing overshadowed her lovely voice. Behrendt made Cinderella far more realistic than the fairy tale character. A servant girl who has suddenly been offered a prince and a castle in contrast to her abusive stepfamily only to find that her prince is a philandering casanova will naturally be indecisive. Cinderella is central to the show's plot, because her story plays on the popular fantasy of "marrying into money," showing us what can hap- pen "ever after." The cast made use of every curve of the "giant, sloping paisley," as a member of the pit orchestra de- scribed the stage, but the signifi- cance of the shape, representative of the '60s, was lost because it failed to symbolically represent the direc- tor's concept of the show. Images from the '60s were shoved at the au- dience - quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy painted in newspaper type, lists of names of '60s illuminaries, and "NAM" in large letters in the cen- ter. This last example was rein- forced by the ubiquitous play a mean version of "Soul Man." They used to play everything from Kiss to the Dead; now they play ev- erything from Chicago to the Dead. But they say it all sounds like the@ Dead. And they say they don't even all like the Dead. Replete with a horn section, Park n' Blow, the Mocks are comin' at ya tonight at 10 p.m. Cover is $3. Mysterious Man (Mich6l Sherman), who was garbed, myste- riously, as a Viet Nam soldier. The show's concept failed be- cause it stretched the material too far and channeled it too much. Sondheim's lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, and to insist that they be interpreted in a certain historical context robs the audience of the op- portunity to see them in a different light. The show was redolent with pop images of the '60s, but few of the conflicting ideologies or social movements were filtered into alter- ations in the plot. It might have been more convincing to have had Cinderella getting high as she went into the woods so that she could speak to her mother at her mother's grave and talk to the birds, or to have kept the idea (dropped in the Saturday performance) that Rapunzel (D'Vorah Bailey) became a drug addict because her mother (Caren Saiet) locked her in a tower 9 for 14 years. The characters were dressed as '60s children, but the at- titudes which should have accompa- nied the costumes were not there. What Into The Woods ended with was the same idea that the original show had - a moving ex- amination of individual growth, and a group of people discovering how to make decisions, how to think on their own and how to work together@ to make life better for the group. "No One Is Alone," the final song which has a dual message, brought tears to my eyes and, depth to the show, a show which has enough good material so that directoral choices did not interfere with the strong performances or the wisdom of the conclusions it draws. -Beth Colquitt oM Burnham Associates 543 Church Street (313) 761-1523 OPEN DAILY 8:30-5:30 SATURDAY 11:00-3:00 SPRING/SUMMER LEASES May through August SPECIAL RATES RANGING FROM $200-$500 for eff., one & two bedroom Apts. I of ethnography about the Hopi H OPI Indian lifestyle. Continued from page 9 THE HOPI COLLECTION OF museum; think back to that reading MISHA TITIEV is on display at the level). This should not turn anyone University Exhibit Museum in the away from the collection in the dis- Rotunda Gallery. There is no ad- play cases, which are full of a piece mission charge. 1001 S. Forest 610 S. Forest 848 Tappan 515 Walnut COME SEE SATLRNTM 0 O N C A M P U S Proudly Presented in Association With The University of Michigan Student Organization Development Center Visit the Saturn On Campus Vehicle Exhibit 0 0 April 23-24 0 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Diag 0 See how the first new American car company in 40 years is using innovative ideas to build a well-designed, exceptionally engineered and reliable car.