The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 24, 1995- 9 Dance hall crashes into shelter By Use Harwin Daily Arts Writer V ihat dothefollowing three bands- Operatip Ivy, Rancid and Dance Hall Crashers - all have in common? The answer is easy: All three bands some- how involve punkgurus Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman. Operation Ivy, be- cause both Tim and Matt were previous members. Rancid, because both Tim and Matt are current members. And Dance Hall Crashers because both Tim and Matt are the founding fathers. They've been busy guys. In fact, way back in 1989, Tim and Matt were actually members of Dance Hall Crashers. "Tim and Matt from Operation Ivy started the band as a side projectsaid Elyse Rogers, the lead M~nger~pf the Crashers. "Originally, it was the two of them and Grant and Andrew who are now in a band called Screw) - in Berkeley. I came in a 4ou months after they had started the bn6,"ig~ht after Tim and Matt left. Jason nmon [guitar]was already in, cid S t thereafter we got the other fbur w1 are in the band." Even now, Whet Armstrong and Freeman are no longerin Dance Hall Crashers,thenew band itsemnbers still feel that they have i ad a giat impact on the current sound. -"Obvioesly we're influenced by Op- ieratkion\vy. But we're also influenced by the Specials and the Clash. Maybe Chuck Berry a little bit..." the singer said. Dance Hall Crashers have been a force to contend with in the Bay Area for quite some time. Though not all of the band members live in Berkeley A wispy By Alieandra Twin ,Daily ArtsEditor "Cigarettes are like a reminder of your own mortality," says New York musician/hero Lou Reed as an epony-. mous, yet non-descript Brooklyn, NY neighborhood guy. "Each cigarette is a passing thought .." Much like their original collabora- tion --this summer's acclaimed, art- house hit "Smoke" - the latest joint effort by Brooklyn-born novelist Paul Auster ("The Music of Chance") and Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club") is an understated, playful and inventive study inhuman nuances. It is a film that often deftly disturbs the quiet terrain of the familiar using a dusty, yet insistent microscope. Thrown together at the last minute and filmed in six days, this is a loosely-structuredbig-league"experi- mental film." A "Smoke" companion piece, it has all the makings of bril- liance but none of the organization to follow through on its promise. Al- thoughnot forlack oftrying. Ultimately, that Which makes it so unusual is also what serves to undermine it. "Blue in . the Face" is a quirky pattern that begins half-finished and ends up something And somewhere else entirely. Set up as a series of familial vi- gnettes, the half-improvised, half- scripted narrative is never as tight or as poignant as the more incise "Smoke."-But, for what it's worth, the film does manage to almost transcend the hot, thin air that surrounds its 'gentle and tremulous flow. 'Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) is, as in "Smoke,"themanager ofBrooklyn Cigar Company, a local bodega. He banters .with the customers, waxes ohilosophic with his good-hearted DANCE HALL CRASHERS Where: The Shelter When: Tonight Tickets: $7.50 in advance Doors open at 7:30. Call 961-MELT for more information. themselves, they still associate them- selves with the East Bay punk sound. "I'm actually from L.A.," admitted Rogers. "I moved up to Berkeley when I was 18, and now I'm back in L.A. again." But, just as the Dance Hall Crashers like Berkeley, Berkeley seems to have a strong affinity for them. When the band broke up in 1990, members found that they were deluged with let- ters from disgruntled fans who wanted them to take the stage again. On a whim, Dance Hall Crashers made the decision. to reunite for one show in 1992. In the end, the response to the show was so overwhelmingly positive that the band decided it was timeto return. As Rogers remembered, "We couldn't believe that the people knew our songs and were singing along! We barely knew the words to our own songs at that point." Following the decision to reunite, Dance Hall Crashers released a compi- lation entitled "1989-1992" which con- sisted of their debut album plus a few newer songs. Unfortunately, the label, Moon Records, was not a good partner. Dance Hall Crashers made "Lockjaw" forthe new (510) Records label. "We're really happy with the new album," Rogers confirmed. "We were a bit ap- prehensive going into it since we hadn't done anything in a few years. But, we love the way it turned out." For "Lockjaw," Dance Hall Crashers had the opportunity to work with Stoker and Jerry Finn, the latter of whom has currently finished projects with the likes of Rancid, Pennywise, and Green Day. "We chose Stoker because he knows the British two-tone scene better than anyone and Jerry because he gets great American punk sounds," the band added. "Stoker was completely crazy so it made the whole process really fun." Even while recording, the band man- aged to meet new people. "Rancid was there, of course, but so were Aerosmith and Jawbreaker," Rogers mentioned. And, despite theirbusy recording sched- ule, Dance Hall Crashers managed to listen in on at least one other band. "Jawbreaker is really good. It's a great record..." And you probably thought all lead singers were self-centered. Other than having a new record come out, Dance Hall Crashers also had the opportunity to be featured on the soundtrack for the recent movie "An- gus." "Jeff Saltzman and Elliot Cahn were the music supervisors for the movie and they also run (510), our label," Rogers admitted. "They asked us to be on it. But, it was a lot of area bands too. Yes, there was a bit of nepotism, but it fit in there alongside all the other acts." While the band has left their "com- fort zone" of the Bay Area, their tour has met with comparative success throughout the country. "We just got back from Honolulu last night. That was absolutely amazing. A couple thou- sand kids. It was extremely, extremely Here are the dance hall crashers. They're wacky. cool," the vocalist mentioned. However, the East Bay is still home and Dance Hall Crashers are proud of the newfound popularity of local bands. "I think right now there are a lot of really insanely creative musicians in the Bay Area. I'm really trying to figure out if it's that the area is conducive to it, if it's a complete coincidence or if it's just that the Bay Area music scene is so incestuous and close that people are just learning so much from each other," Rogers contem- plated. "We've learned an incredible amountjustfrom listeningto [otherbands] play over the years and being with them." So was it just a matter of time before the Bay Area began to appeal to the main- stream? "I think so. I mean, we've known it forever!" While Dance Hall Crashers do blend together ska rhythms and aggressive punk/pop melodies expertly, one oftheir most noticeable characteristics is that fact that the two vocalists, Rogers and Karina Denike, are both female. De- spite this fact, Rogers doesn't feel that they're really breaking any ground for female ska groups. "I never really think of us as being a girl-type band. I think we're just breaking ground for the en- tire thing. Which is good. There's a lot of really good bands out there that have gone unnoticed for a long time and if we can do anything to change that, that's maran Carey Daydream Columbia Records It's not like you really need me to tell you this. It's not like the moment you found out that Mariah Carey was re- leasing a new LP that you didn't know it would be great. It's not like you didn't look forward to seeing her fine ass on a new MTV video. We all know that Mariah Carey has it all - beauty, poise, style and a voice that is like manna to the gods. "Daydream" is the latest platter upon which it will be served. "Daydream" marks a period of con- tinuing change in Carey's vocal perfor- mance. Whereas in many of her earliest songs Carey depended heavily on her ability to hold her very soprano notes for very long periods of time, she has for some time begun showing that her singing abilities are more expansive than simply chanting "wooo" for forty seconds or so. "Dreamlover," the first single from her "Music Box" CD was among the first songs to demonstrate that Carey can straddle the line between R&B and pop rather well. Her 12-cut "Daydream" album includes cuts like the fairly upbeat, "Dreamlover"-styled "Fantasy" and "Long Ago" with East Coast, hip-hop beats you wouldn't be- lieve in a million years Carey could sing to yet she does. (Hell, after a Michael Jackson/Notorious B.I.G. duo being successfully pulled off how can great." Fans can look forward to their first video, "Go," to appear on MTV in the near future. "It's very cool. It's got aliens in it," Rogers laughed. But for now, Elyse Rogers will just continue looking out for her favorite muppet, Fonzi Bear. "Hejust looks so soft! All the other muppets look dirty, like Animal. But Fonzi just looks nice and fuzzy." While Dance Hall Crashers may be down to earth, their music definitely soars to new heights, as far as the punk/ pop scene is concerned. And, even though one of their songs is titled "Enough," it'll be awhile before we've had enough of this Bay Area band. you doubt the plausibility of a hip-hip Mariah?) Another excellent faster- paced song is "Always be My Baby." Although it opens with some country- bumpkin, fiddle-sounding mess, it is soon morphed into some hip, yet laid- back, R&B music. For a minute there, though, I thought my girl had lost her mind. Of course, the faster cuts comprise only a small portion of "Daydream." Carey's voice is meant more for slow songs and ballads than for pop, and this she knows. "One Sweet Day," a duet with Boyz 11 Men member Wanya Morris (a.k.a. Squirt) captures Carey's spectacular voice in all its wonder. The simple, synthesized sounds which ac- company the Carey/Babyface "Melt Away" duet is equally memorable. "When I Saw You," which in many places sounds much like "One Sweet Day," starts off creating a soft-toned lullaby aura yet eventually fills your speakers with full-scale lyrical and musical aptitude. "Daydream" is what it is, the em- bodiment of R&B greatness teleporting you to a world where the sun always shines and everyone is happy and in love. Just when you thought Mariah could get no better she does, and what she has produced this time is much, much more than just another album; it is a pinnacle of '90s R&B excellence. - Eugene Bowen See RECORDS, Page 10 "I gotta do a smoochle-smoochie scene witchoo? Whadda ya kidding me?" - Harvey "Harvman" Keitel and Roseanne. boss, handles his hot-headed girlfriend Violet (Mel Gorham) and generally serves as the store and the neighborhood's anchor. The corner store is stuck in time, straight out of the '70s with its an- cient porno mags and cigarette para- phernalia. But it is ultimately time- less in its transient, other-worldly quality; its Brooklyn location is inci- dental. With "man-on-the-street" reports of facts about Brooklyn, clips from old movies and news reels, "Slacker"-like plot digressions and big-name star cameos, the synthe- sis does not so much attempt to work as a standard scene-by-scene progression but as an assemblage of thoughts. It is an ascending spiral of smoke, a feral, visual, chain- smoking of the eye. Actors were asked to improvise in character. Meanwhile, co-direc- tors Auster and Wang held up signs that said "faster" or "change sub- iect" to give the improvs direction. Blue in the Face Directed by Paul Auster and Wayne Wang with Harvey Keitel At the Michigan Theater But they were never restrained; ac- tors were encouraged to talk until they were "Blue In The Face." Later, additional scenes were written to bridge the gaps and the actors were brought back to fill in the nooks and crannies. Unquestionably risky and origi- nal (and admirably edited by Chris- topher Tellefsen), the resulting film could be starkly impressive if it were not so tremendously dis- jointed. Some of it works nicely - the tem- pestuous Mel Gorham and non- "Smoke"-ers Lily Tomlin as "The Waffle Man" and Madonna as the "Singing Telegram Girl" are humor- ous. Guest philosophizing by fellow New York renegades, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and the afore-mentioned Reed provides an effortlessly cool, laconic charm. Jarmusch's exchanges with Keitel on sex, death and ciga- rettes are an easy match with Reed's self-effacing warblings for the film's most poignant and therefore success- ful moments. On the other hand, sketches includ- ing Roseanne, Michael J. "ForeverAlex P. Keaton" Fox and mega-babes Mira Sorvino and RuPaul, are embarrass- ingly awkward. Veteran character ac- tors Keitel and Giancarlo Esposito (as another neighborhood guy) easilyshow- up the more famous faces-they should be ashamed of their amateurish floun- dering. Where there was "Smoke," there was fire, but here, we are left standing mostly "Blue in the Face" ourselves: Flustered, talked-out and unfulfilled. Career opportunities at J.P. Morgan for UlirersiIP qf Michigan engineering students (undergraduale) inlerested in (;loyal Technology and Operations Please plan to attend our in formation presentation on H edresda . ,OIcemrber I