4B — Thursday, February 4, 2016 the b-side The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Taylor Mac soars through decades By ALLIE TAYLOR For the Daily Performance artist and drag queen Taylor Mac, an actor, singer-songwriter, playwright, director, producer and above all, entertainer, will take the stage at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater on Feb. 5 and 6. Mac, who uses ‘judy’ as a preferred gender pronoun, is in the process of developing and writing “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music”: a show where judy will perform nonstop for 24 hours, covering 240 years of music. Mac will sing an hour of each decade’s most popular music, starting from the birth of the United States of America, all the way up to 2016. The show this upcoming weekend will consist of songs from the decades 1956-1986. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Mac chuckled when asked what judy’s favorite decade to perform was. “They’re all like children,” judy said. “I love them all for what they are. They’re such a delight to do. Some are harder than others, but exciting to do because they are harder.” In the performance this weekend, judy will perform these three decades for the very first time. “That means (the show) is going to have a little chaos in it, which usually means it will be more fun. Anything could happen.” Mac has been highly praised by The New Yorker, The New York Times and New York Magazine, and TimeOut magazine has deemed judy a future theater legend. Judy is more than just an actor or playwright (judy has also written 17 plays) — Mac is an artist and a hybrid, encapsulating the essence of what it means to be a true entertainer. “Being a hybrid isn’t something you are taught as a child,” judy said. “It’s not like people, when you’re a kid, say: ‘You know, you could be a performance artist drag queen!’ ” Judy’s actions and ideas of non-conformity inspire the theater world, as well as inspire those who are generally figuring out who and what they want to be. Mac’s paradigm-shattering plays, behaviors and performances connect to judy’s audiences so well because of the way in which judy approaches the crowd and communicates with them. “One of the things I try to do is to figure out what the audience needs,” Mac said. “It’s kind of my job as a theater artist to be a student of humanity. One of the things I do is say, ‘Well, what do I need?’ and because I’m, well, a person, if I need something, I’m guessing other people in the world might need it as well.” A big aspect of judy’s artistic philosophy is the idea that theater is about healing. Judy hopes to bring everyone together and consider things that people normally may not spend time with. Through this, judy hopes that “we can heal ourselves a little bit from the things that are destructive in our culture.” Mac is a true entertainer that wants people who come to the show to laugh and be able to experience a full range of who they are as people and as a community. Above all, judy wants people to have a “freakin’ good time.” What’s so wonderful about judy’s art form is its spontaneity — Mac’s favorite part of judy’s work. “That moment on stage, where you know what you’re going to do and then something different ends up happening in the room — you have to go with it. You’re doing something completely different (than what you had planned), and everyone is on board and everyone knows it’s just happening right then and there. That moment is glorious.” Judy’s performances are continually executed with an ever-present spark. Each show is a new experience for Mac and the audience, keeping judy’s passion alive and audacious. “We’re doing two shows in Ann Arbor,” judy said. “So if you see the first night and then come the next night, you’ll see two different shows. You’ll see the same outline, but every single night we perform is different. And that’s what so exciting.” When asked what message Mac hoped to send to the college audience judy will be performing for next weekend, judy responded. “Oh, I just hope we hang out together.” Taylor Mac Feb. 5 & 6, 8 p.m. Lydia Men- delssohn Theater $40-$50 $12-$20 (Stu- dent Tickets) TAYLOR MAC Taylor Mac isn’t playing by your rules. COMMUNITY CULTURE NBC Yellow is the new black. By ALEX INTNER Daily Arts Writer There are some reviews where I just want to write “that was fine” and move on. Some shows just aren’t doing any- thing par- ticularly remarkable or inter- esting, but they make for a moderately entertain- ing way of passing 43 minutes of my day. “You, Me and the Apocalypse” fits right into that mold. It’s not reinvent- ing any wheels or doing any- thing distinct, but it does bring a quirky tone to a dire situation, making for a fun hour of televi- sion which could easily turn into an enjoyable miniseries. “You, Me and the Apoca- lypse” takes place in the 34 days between humanity’s discovery of an asteroid that’s about to hit the Earth and the asteroid’s impact. A seemingly random group of people end up in an underground bunker at the time of impact, and the show tells the story of how they got there. “You, Me and the Apoca- lypse” ’s biggest issue is how bland most of the character- izations are. The first episode works hard to give a backstory to a handful of the core char- acters, but it doesn’t do a good enough job of giving them depth within the backstory. Take Rhonda McNeil (Jenna Fischer, “The Office”), a death row inmate taking the fall for her son’s hacking of the National Security Agency. In the pre- miere, she moves into a maxi- mum security prison and puts herself in hot water with the people who are there. Fischer brings a sense of warmth and fear to a character who barely has it on the page. Rhonda has a thin characterization, only brought to life by the performer. The one exception to this rule is Rob Lowe’s (currently on Fox in “The Grinder”) character, Father Jude Sutton. Sutton runs the “Devil’s Advocate” divi- sion within the Vatican, which works to take down people who are being presented for sainthood. He smokes and he curses, so he’s an incredibly unconventional priest. That’s what makes him stand out; he’s not a standard type. Lowe brings a natural charisma and joke-telling ability that make the priest’s barbs that much more piercing. He’s the charac- ter who I’m most interested to see grow over the course of the series because his foundation is the strongest. Yet there’s a certain quirk to everything “You, Me and the Apocalypse” does. It’s familiar to anyone who’s seen “Shaun of the Dead.” It makes light of the end of the world. However, this series doesn’t have Edgar Wright at the helm to bring a visual inventiveness to the jokes. Still, that doesn’t mean the series isn’t good or isn’t worth watching. There’s enough in Lowe’s char- acter alone to support a series, and hopefully the ensemble around him grows as well. B+ You, Me and the Apocalypse Miniseries Premiere Thursdays at 8 p.m. NBC TV REVIEW TRANSVIOLET Transviolet, you’re turning violet! MUSIC NOTEBOOK CATHERINE BAKER Daily Arts Writer “When you do find some- thing that you care about, don’t be afraid to share it, and get involved. There is nothing cool about ‘not giving a fuck.’ That’s just lazy. I do give a fuck. And I’m not afraid to say it.” – Trans- violet in an interview with TMRW Magazine. Once again, Spotify’s Discover feature came in great use to me three weeks ago when making the long, arduous trek from Chi- potle back to my apartment. I owe many burritos to the genius who made it possible for my love of relatively small bands to be satisfied this easily. On this par- ticular, chilly January evening, Transviolet played through my crackling headphones and I fell in love. It just sounded so cool. While it was more difficult than anticipated to find informa- tion on this lovely band, I have since discovered that Transviolet is an LA-based quartet com- prised of band members Sarah McTaggart, Judah McCarthy, Michael Panek and Jon Garcia. Utilizing no website or Wiki- pedia page, Transviolet instead relies on their own social media to foster their relationship with fans and create an intimate and personal platform. Releasing its debut single in July 2015, Trans- violet has since skyrocketed in popularity after receiving public endorsements from Katy Perry and Harry Styles. In September 2015, its first self-titled EP hit the charts as the band played on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” Transviolet takes the best aspects of electronica, pop and synth to create a sound entirely its own. The opening track of Transviolet, “Girls Your Age,” is Lana Del Rey meets electropop. It’s sultry, seductive and cynical rolled into one when McTaggart sings, “Bad boy talking fast / Talking dirty / He tells me that I’m hot / So I tell him that I love him.” While the instrumentals remain minimalistic in order for the lyrics to take precedence, the vocal skill makes up for any loss in bass. In a nod to del Rey, the song ends with, “Live fast while you’re young, honey.” “Bloodstream,” my personal favorite from the EP, takes on a heavier rock sound with strong vocals and crashing drums. Consistent, underlying synth retains the electronic vibe, yet brings a angsty edge to an oth- erwise upbeat song. “New Bohe- mia” continues to make social observations without sounding preachy. It speaks to the new generation and urges us to chal- lenge preconceived notions and make our own mark on the world, insisting, “In waves we crash, one voice / Making head- lines just for kicks / Trying to get love, not trying to get rich.” The closing track, “Night Vision,” retains the strongest electronic vibe, opening with artificially produced beats and crashing synthetic echoes. Sub- dued vocals croon, “Get on your knees / And praise me like you should.” With relaxed verses and a booming chorus, the juxtaposi- tion creates a tangible shift in energy within the listener. The band’s social activism and desire to support other groups are just a few of the ways Transvio- let’s making its own imprint on the musical sphere. One thing is certain: This is just the beginning for Transviolet. MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW Sometimes, when teenagers get bored, they make music videos. And when they make music videos, they usually do them poorly. They follow the same formula: a bunch of solo shots dancing in front of the camera intended to make them look really cool. It’s not a stretch to say that Kevin Gates’s music video for “Castle,” released Jan. 29, uses this tired formula. The song, which isn’t even on the rapper’s recently released studio album, Islah, spends a lot of bars talking about Gates’s metaphorical kingdom and how anybody who challenges such a power structure will be shot at (a lot). The video’s plot is straightforward in that there isn’t one. Save an opening scene in which a subservient waiter serves a mimosa that Gates immediately laces with codeine, the rest of the video, which spans four minutes and 16 seconds, consists of Gates dancing and generally doing random things throughout nighttime Brussels. Even the end of the video just kind of fades away. It does little to complement a hook-friendly, trappy song similarly devoid of any discernible societal implication. It’s literally Gates, wearing a funny hat, doing funny dancing. It’s somewhat fun, though, which provides the bulk of the entertainment value. The entire thing seems as if Gates and his crew were chilling together one day and thought it would be fun to shoot a music video in a foreign city. Each shot is hastily done; even the picture is low quality. Everything about it is down and dirty, which, at this point in his career, personifies Gates as well. - JOEY SCHUMAN BREAD WINNERS ASSOCIATION C Castle Kevin Gates Vampy Transviolet ‘Apocalypse’ fine TV