SA - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 25, 1995 ByTeruly By Ted Watts Daily Arts Writer What do you call that features ex- Soundgarden and S musically remainsr sevenths? A Sea Mondo cool drown Truly, considering such a group? Having existed f Truly has just rece first full album, " Kid Coma." On about the reason between concepti tion. "(The Seattle C drove us to a co explained Trulys ist Robert Roth." with what happe years ago with N the Pearl Jam thi flying up and Seat It's a nice place b in '92 it was over music industry t they were the sam pursuing bands i late '80s, and it w ing. We got offere back then from and we told them was obvious thatt stand us and theyv in on Soundgarden Pearl Jam, Nirvan were looking for ac us decide to write Now that that's died interesting story comfortable making music." an almost surf band The band had to extend before the members of both Seattle craze to be turned off by it. creamingTrees that Roth expounded: "I was in a band in the area of minor with my brother and my best friend ttle super group? from ninth grade, which was around n rock? How about 1980. And we were in Olympia that's the name of where there was nowhere to play, nothing to do. It was a small town for about six years, where you could have a band out of. :ntly released their We moved to Seattle at the begin- Fast Stories From ning of '87, all got jobs, had our e has to wonder lives. By around '88 we were the for such a delay Storybook Krooks. Sub Pop was in- on and actualiza- terested, we were headlining Se- attle clubs on weekends, had a good raze) pretty much buzz on us. But then we broke up, )ntrary position," right as record companies were singer and guitar- starting to check us out. We'd basi- "I'm really happy cally known each other and had been ned three or four together too long." qirvana. But then But then came Truly. "I started ng and then MTV playing with Mark (Pickerel, drum- te really changed. mer) in late '89 when he was still in ut all of a sudden Screaming Trees. A friend of mine, run with all these Kelly Canary was singer in the band ype people. And Dickless, now she's in Teen An- e people who were gels. Mark's girlfriend at the time n spandex in the was bass player in Dickless and vas really disgust- Kelly said that Mark was looking ed a huge contract for other stuff to do and so I called Atlantic Records him up to get together and play. I'd to fuck off cuz it just written "The Color is Magic" they didn't under- and he said 'We should record this were trying to cash for a Sub Pop single.' Great. So in , Screaming Trees, summer '90 we did a recording ses- a, whatever. They sion before Hiro (Yamamoto, bass- clone band. It made ist) was in the band. A week before 12-minute songs. the session Mark quit the 'Trees. ddown, we're more Then we played our first show, with Symphony S By Emily Lambert Daily Fine Arts Editor Philharmonia fanatics must love Ann Arbor. Residents can catch performances by four University orchestras, a local youth orchestra and any number ofneigh- boring university and community en- sembles. On top of that, the Detroit Sym- phony is only a short distance away and the University Musical Society brings some of the world's best orchestras to our doorstep year after year. With this abun- dance of symphonies, it is amazing that the city is able to support its own profes- sional orchestra, comprised of residents and talented University students. That this ensemble, the Ann Arbor Symphony, is a good one should make Ann Arborites all the more proud. The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra's sixty seventh season opened Saturday night with a flourish. Tal- ented conductor Samuel Wong and his musicians began the evening with an animated performance of Berlioz's overture to "La Corsaire," displaying fine technique and inspired playing. Summer was good to this ensemble, whose sound has improved and richened since its last performance. The orchestra was joined by the ac- claimed pianist, Norman Krieger, for Tchaikovsky's "Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor." The long opening move- ment ended with such excitement and fanfare that most of the audience, in- cluding this shame-faced reviewer, committed the cardinal sin of clapping between movements. The pianist didn't hold a grudge, though, and played the gorgeous second movement with in- ails high credible sensitivity. Krieger nailed the third movement's powerful cadenzaand the warm reception he received at the .concerto's end was well deserved. "La Mer: Three Symphonic Sketches," by Debussy, comprised the program's second half. "La Mer," pos- sibly Debussy's most famous impres- sionistic work, was premiered in 1905 with a miserable, controversial perfor- I I- - Tlh K~V~W he Ann Arbor Symphony The Michigan Theater September 23, 1995 Hey, they trul;y love ya -kid I get the Inside Track on admissions the Jesus Lizard, around October '90, then decided we were going to be a band. But we needed a real bass player. Mark knew Hiro from Screaming Trees and Soundgarden touring together, and also Mark helped Soundgarden get signed to SST when they released "Ultramega OK." Hiro hadn't even re- ally touched his bass since he quit Soundgarden, which had been about a year by that point, maybe a year and a half. He likedour music and said 'Yeah, sure."'" From thatpoint, the band moved fairly slowly. "When we put out our first EP on Sub Pop, before it even came out, Mark Moved to Ellensberg, opened up a record store, and Hiro moved to Bellingham, Washington and started going to school, got a scholarship and then got his master's degree (in physi- cal chemistry). So the band has been whenever we feel like doing it kind of thing. But now with touring this record, it's a full time thing for all of us." But there were delays with the al- bum, as well. "It was actually going to come out a lot earlier, but then we were part of Revolution, which is no longer part of Capitol. We were originally part of a boutique label called Revolution, which was us and Big Chief. Anyway, the people who own Revolution de- cided to leave Capitol,and now they're over at Elektra. They wanted to take both bands with them, but Capitol wouldn't let them take us. But when we were on their label, we finished the record. They said 'we want to release this thing five months from now.' Great. Ifyou're going to do that, we're going to write some new songs, cuz we want to be updated, we don't want to go on tour on songs that are two years old for a whole year, and then they'll be three years old by the time that's done. Basically we didn't just go in and record the record. Some of the songs are leftovers from Sub Pop that never got used, then there was a basic session in January of '94, then another session in July '94, then we finished mixing in September in New York City, then mastering didn't re- ally get done until January. It was a real long process," said Roth, also explaining that "when we were mak- ing this record I was putting on Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg whenever we got a break." That might explain something. So that's Truly's story, and the story behind "Fast Stories for Kid Coma." Expect them back in the area in late winter. And when they get here, go see them and see what all this history has led up to. mance. Its difficulty stems from the complex and dense instrumental tex- ture that characterizes the work. The Ann Arbor Symphony tackled the con- stantly evolving, nuance-filled piece with style, and was considerably more successful than that initial orchestra which introduced the piece at the be- ginning of the century. Despite a few small blips, the wind soloists captured the music's shades with artistic preci- sion. The strings, led by concertmaster Stephen Shipps, poured emotion into the wave-like phrases. With Maestro Wong at the helm for his fourth year, the Ann Arbor Symphony's 1995-6 season looks prom- ising. This is an orchestra the city can be proud of. Corpe to one of free seminar Busness Sc our Grad Schoo LawSch I Medical Schol. 00 In Iemho o if --. 1 overcome these hurdes: " Entrance Exams " Interviews * Applications Essays Here Is Drivin' N' Cryin' - Rest in peace, boys. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Thursday, September 28 Space is limited! 1-800-KAP-TEST Call today to reserve your seat K 4rLAN 'At selected locations. Not all seminars offered at al locations. Drivin' N' Cryin' Wrapped in Sky DGC "I am an Indian," singer Kevin Kinney groans as the Georgia threesome open their sixth album. Funny, because he doesn't sound much like an Indian. He sounds like the bastard-child of Michael Stipe and Bob Dylan, writhing in pain, dying of boredom. Understandable, for Drivin' N' Cryin' are neither the first nor the last in a long line of bland-bands to crawl from the stagnant swamp of south- ern-fried folk-rock where Dullness and Mediocrity reign supreme (witness Sir Hootie and the fish that blow). A quick glance at the sleeve reveals John Porteras the producer. He's worked with the Smiths, Billy Bragg, Roxy Mu- sic... that's a plus. But then there's the embarrassing band name which recalls crap glam-metal bands of the '80s like EnuffZ'Nuff... -7 pts. Peter Buck plays dulcimer and mandolin on two songs? +5 pts. Have you heard the news, though? Drivin' n' Cryin' have contributed atrack to NORML's "Hempilation" album... -6 pts., but understandable too; if you think about it, they sound like halfthe bands on the HORDE tour. The big problem here is that thejingly- jangly half-songs on "Wrapped in Sky" lack life. With the exception of "Right Side of Town", the verses match the choruses with almost no variation. Re- petitive these fellows are. At least say, Blues Traveler, are good at fooling you into thinking you're not hearing the same chord progressions over and over again. As farasthe lyrics go, they're eithertoo. abstract or too frequently steeped in Na- tive American imagery. Hence, the album's best moments sneak in during the instrumental breaks- of "under- ground umbrella", for example. The shiny, happy "Leader the Follow" is slightly infectious, yes, but only to the degree that "the Hokey Pokey" is- irritatingly so, really. Also disappointing is the impression that one gets that Drivin' N' Cryin' are not meeting their own expectations. They try so hard to be diverse, but instead of something fresh and new, we get "Light", which is both "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "Desire" rolled into one second-rate imitation. Back to the swamp with this one. - Thomas Crowley ~u w svstem and l oT ts oaCln too u us Tf!'~'" na mesi it.