10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 20, 1995
Grant Lee Buffalo's Wild West heroes
-7,7-7
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By Karl Jones
Daily Weekend Editor
If the conquering of the wild west
frontier could be set to music, if the
bear skin rugs and the taste of old
whiskey and spit could be channeled
through musical instruments, Grant Lee
Buffalo would be those musicians
standing in the forest and playing to
the sky.
The three piece band (Grant Lee
Phillips, vocals and banjo; Paul Kimble,
bass and piano; and Joey Peters, per-
cussion) follow in a long line of"up all
night, beer in one fist, guitar in the
other" bands that came before them, in
that they channel most of their wild
west spirit at night. In fact, Kimble had
just stumbled out of bed before his
interview last Tuesday.
"Yeah, I'm still kind of groggy," he
laughed. "Ifyou could call me at two in
the morning, that's when I'm really at
my best. All this waking up stuff... I
don't know why they schedule things
at noon, but hey."
Kimble did muster up enough en-
ergy to sound genuinely excited about
the band's present tour with R.E.M.
Keep in mind, this is coming from a
band who has already toured with huge
acts like Pearl Jam and Sugar.
"All the tours we've been fortunate
enough to go on have been really great
tours," Kimble stressed. "But I cer-
tainly have liked playing with R.E.M.
because I've been a fan as long as I've
been in this band. This is probably the
coolest thing we've done just because
I've known them for so long musi-
cally."
Unfortunately, with the tour's high
points, there have also been a few dark
moments, according to Kimble.
"We've had the usual share of our
bus being broken into and that kind of
stuff, but Bill Berry had his aneurysm
when we were on tour with R.E.M., and
that was REALLY bad," Kimble said.
With R.E.M's string of bad luck, it's
amazing Grant Lee Buffalo even es-
caped alive. Andwhenyouconsider the
fact that two years ago the Los Angeles
based band was recording in Kimble's
garage, Grant Lee Buffalo might actu-
ally seem to be having good luck lately.
They've moved from a small, indepen-
dent label (Slash) to Reprise records,
and their second album "Mighty Joe
Moon" has been lavished with praise
by some of rock's highest deities.
"We didn't have much support on
our first album (1993's 'Fuzzy'),"
Kimble said. "Slash is a small label, and
they don't have a lot of resources for
publicity and all the bullshit that you
have to do."
With or without publicity, "Fuzzy" is
still an amazing collection of soulful,
small town America jams. However,
this eclectic release was only the slight-
est indication of things to come.
Grant Lee Buffalo dove deeper into
the American landscape, deeper into its
cult ire and its past in 1994, and emerged
with what amounts to a musical legend.
"Mighty Joe Moon" carries the listener
from the dusty streets of Texas to the
death bed of the Shawnee Indian chief
Tecumseh and back home again in
Phillips' echoey praises to the "Rock of
Ages."
"I think 'Mighty Joe Moon' is a bit
more ofacohesive album," said Phillips.
"It all sounds like one band playing,
which is probably just the result of us
playing on the road constantly between
the two albums."
"There actually is a guy named Joe
Moon who lives in San Francisco,,,
Kimble added, attempting to explain
the character the album seems to re-
volve around. "We had met this guy
while we were doing 'Fuzzy,' and he
would tell us all these stories. He was a
truck driver, and just a wacky kind of
guy. The name took off from there, but
the rest of it is sort of a composite of
i
Hello. We are Grant Lee Buffalo. No one comes to see us unless we open for other bands. We are sad. Please read us a story
many things."
A third Grant Lee Buffalo album is
currently in its planning stages, and the
band will probably begin recording in
November. Kimble predicts that the
third release to will fall somewhere
between the ground covered by "Fuzzy"
and that covered by "Mighty Joe Moon."
"The styles are going to vary a little
bit like 'Fuzzy' did, but we still want
to maintain that cohesiveness," he said.
In the meantime, Kimble says the
band is just kicking back and enjoying
yet another amazing tour.
"We've met a lot of great people,
and I've seen a lot of places on this
tour that I was sure I'd never get to see
otherwise... It's hardto say where we're
going after that," Kimble said.
Then, yawning and stretching it the
way only a late-night, wild west rock
star can, Kimble asserted that in the
near future, he would be going io.
"breakfast."
Undaunted pianist plays haunting compositions
it's unusual and ambitious to program an entire evening of music by two virtually
unknown composers, but Irma Hill is undaunted. The pianist, who has been
studying the music of Thomas de Hartmann and mystic, teacher and philosopher
0.1. Gurdjieff, believes that their haunting compositions are worth hearing. She
will perform selected works of the sacred, eastern-Influenced music tomorrow
night at Washtenaw Community College's Towsley Auditorium. Tickets are $6.
The concert begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.
The Best of The
Beautiful South
All In it together
All? No ALLI West Coast pop punk pioneers All will be in town once again this
Saturday night at the Palladium Music Club (the club that used to be the Ritz, but
is going for a change in image). Formerly the legendary Descendents, these guys
started playing their special brand of caffeine buzzing, preppie hating, righteous
skate punk super rock way back in the late 70's. You may remember some
classics such as "Hope," "I'm Not A Loser," and the eight second hit
"Weinerschnitzel." Founding member Bill Stevenson pounded the skins not only In
the Descendents, but also with Black Flag. All was formed when longtime singer
Milo Aukerman departed to get his degree in biochemistry. They rock. Check them
out. it's as simple as that. Call the Palladium at 77848150 for details.
Carry on up the Charts
Mercury
The Beautiful South is fun. Period. In
the last five years, everyone was either
the "voice of a generation" or some sort
of music-by-and-for-the-people, grass
roots crusade. "Carry on up the Charts"
is the type of music to which you can
drink a six-pack and dance naked in
your living room. Oh and by the way,
these people have talent, so don't try
and apply this arguement to our pal
Hootie.
From the very first song, "Song For
Whoever," you just wanna get up and
groove. The foot-tappin' doesn't slow
up either. You can even get up and cha-
cha to the ballads. But its not all sugar-
coated pop music. Ofcourse there's the
love and relationship songs, but they
also take on alcoholism and depression.
They just do it in a fun way.
One of the big strengths of the album
lies in its variety. The Beautiful South
has three great singers. There's
Jacqueline Abbott's sweet, soulful
melodies, Paul Heaton and Dave
Hemingway's back-and-forth banter,
and combinations of all three singers.
Then there is the insrumentation:
Strings, horns, accordians, piano - all
in the right place at the right time. This
allows for styles ranging from eighties
pop to country/bluegrass to big-band
swing.
Another big reason these guys are so
fun is the lyrics. In "You Keep it all In,"
the singer croons "That's right/The con-
versation we had last night/When all I
wanted to do was/Knife you in the heart/
I kept it all in." They manage to treat
serious situations in a playful manner
without losing the message they're con-
veying. It allows for introspection with-
out Prozac.
It's true that at points you may start to,
feel like you are in a grocery store, but
dig deep and bite down hard, leave your
pretentious attitude at the door and have
fun with The Beautiful South.
-Tyler Brubaker
t
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ESTABLISHED 1983
IN CHARLESTON, ILL., TO AID
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The University of Michigan
School of Music
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Monday, October 23
Guest Trumpet Recital by Ilia Chkolnik
Russian trumpet music'
Recital Hall, School of Music, 8p.m.
Tuesday, October 24
Trumpet Master Class by Ilia Chkolnik
"The Russian School"
Recital Hall, School of Music, 5:30 p.m.
Octubafest
Euphonium and tuba students of Professor Kaenzig present
a recital of solo literature for their instruments
Recital Hall, School "of Music, 8p.m.
Saturday, October 28
I