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Missing clothes detract from true ability CHARLES TOMLINSON GAMECOCKMIXEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM If there’s one thing music fans have seen more and more of lately, it’s skin — especially from female artists. Britney Spears seems to be the one it all started with; her good-girl act must have waned in interest to drooling males, who probably wanted her to forgo her lucrative singing career and be come a porn star. Well, maybe Spears wasn’t the first one; Janet Jackson started as a reserved rhythm-and-blues singer in the ’80s, but by the ’90s, she was posing topless on her al bum covers, and even naked, while covering herself with a pil low. Now, I know what some guys are thinking by now: “Hey, you loser, if they wanna let us See, let ’em show it off!” OK, image is important in mu sic in some cases, such as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. And who would recognize the B-52s with out Kate Pierson’s beehive or a similarly big hairdo? But when artists do something as uncre ative as wearing skimpy outfits or none at all, it’s almost like they’re whoring themselves out to the masses, specifically the male masses. au wuai s me puuu ui uavuig Playboy? Rolling Stone’s Nov. 14 cover is close enough. Christina Aguilera is minimally covering herself with a guitar, which I doubt she knows how to play, while she’s wearing nothing but a pair of stockings and whatever body jewelry she has. And she reveals to us her 11 piercings, one of which is in a place she says most girls wouldn’t have the guts to get pierced. Two of her piercings are still in un known locations. Wait — she tells of piercings in places where metal shouldn’t even go, and she’s still got two more somewhere else? Well, Ms. Aguilera, I’m glad you do in fact have some modesty, even if it is too little and too late. The biggest shocker, definitely more than Aguilera’s getting “Dirrty,” is LeAnn Rimes’ ap pearance in the latest issue of Blender. Blender is the music magazine by Maxim, the maga zine for males everywhere who like their soft-core porn to be in telligent and funny. On the cover. Rimes is wear ing jeans and chaps and nothing else. She’s standing with her arms across her chest and her back mostly facing the camera. I guess she’s 20 now and she can do what she wants, but it’s hard to believe the naive country girl from the mid-’90s is showing off her pink bra and more (or less, when speaking in terms of cloth With the number of girls cov ering their chests in Maxim, it bears a striking resemblance to a 1999 “Saturday Night Live” paro dy commercial for “Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine.” Janet Jackson even got someone else to hold hers for her in a picture used for the “Janet” album cover and a Rolling Stone cover. Maxim has gotten Shakira to pose, but she was dressed rela tively modestly during her photo shoot. Still, in the interview ac companying the pictures, the “Underneath Your Clothes” singer talked about her satisfac tion with her own gluteus max imus and said, “You have to do ev erything you can to make your butt stand out.” It always comes down to sex appeal. But I am thankful for artists such as Vanessa Carlton and Norah Jones — the mainstream female artists who still have enough integrity to let their mu sic speak for itself instead of let ting their exposed bodies scream for attention. Thank goodness for them, although they might be an endangered species. Tomlinson is a third-year print journalism student .'ilis column appears Wednesdays in The Mix. THE YEAR IN MUSIC: 199$ Underrated band produces eclectic debut album “THE BETA BAND” The Beta Band BY JUSTIN BAJAN THE (JAMECOCK Besides the bagpipes, there was never any reason to associ ate Scotland with music — but then the Beta Band formed. The Beta Band is composed of John Maclean on turntables, samples and piano; Steve Mason on guitar, vocals and percussion; Robin Jones playing drums, pi ano and tape loops; and Richard Greentree on bass and percus sion. The quartet met in London five years ago and have been to gether ever since. On its self-titled debut album, the band manages to cross-polli nate the sounds of reggae, hip-hop, folk and acoustic rock into one co hesive amalgam, rather than into a confused heap of music. The album opens with the playful “The Beta Band Rap.” The song starts like a cheesy theme song for a children’s show, with whistles and barbershop quartet “la-las,” Then it moves into an equally trite rap song and finishes with a romping ’50s-rock sounding section. On the jovial “Round the Bend,” Mason neglects rhyme and meter and sounds almost improvisational as he utters lyrics such as, “I listened to The Beach Boys just a minute ago; ‘Wild Honey’/It’s not the best al bum, but its still pretty good/They’ve got some funny lit tle love songs on there.” The production sounds equal ly improvisational, with random beat boxing, whistling, a basic hip-hop drum track, conga sam ples, live drums and turntable scratches on “Dance O’er the Border.” “The Hard One” starts with a somber piano-and-bass ar rangement, then breaks down with Mason singing lines from Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The Beta Band gradually gained attention and is even men tioned in the movie “High Fidelity.” It toured with Radiohead and continues to pop up in magazines as one of the most talented and underrated bands. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditorfithotmail.com * » Jazzy piano stars on Ben Folds Five CD “THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRA PHY OF REINHOLD MESSNER” Ben Folds Five BY CHARLES TOMLINSON TUB UAMBCOt'.K On “Whatever and Ever Amen,” Ben Folds Five showed it knew how to make the piano rock. But the band put the pi ano back in a traditional role in jazzy songs and ballads on its fi nal album, “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.” Instead of giving the keys a fortissimo pounding, Folds danced across the ivories. While on older albums, a wild eyed song, such as “Song for the Dumped,” was the norm, the band sewed “Reinhold Messner” together with deli cate compositions, more like “Brick” or “Selfless, Cold and Composed.” “Don’t Change Your Plans,” a single, was packaged and ready for the radio — had it been released in the heyday of jazz-rock bands such as Blood, Sweat and Tears. The jazzy tune’s bridge even features a flugelhom solo straight out of a Chicago song. Darren Jessee’s resounding bass drum propels “Mess,” a morose song in which Folds, as the narrator, laments the de plorable situation he brought upon himself. And Jessee penned “Magic,” in which he sparingly plays timpani, each note landing in the perfect place. Although the band brought the piano to a lower dynamic, it also experimented with kooky synthesizers on “Your Redneck Past” and elegant elec tric piano on “Jane.” And Folds shows he didn’t forget how to rock when he pulses the chords of “Army.” Folds and company end the album with “Lullabye,” in which a grown-up recalls a childhood flight with his uncle and James Earl Jones. Even though Ben Folds Five popu lated the album with sad bal lads, it didn’t forget to keep a balance with songs that were simply fun. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com i 111 i M * J ■ H i I i i i i r ,^Ayym MjLrilmijLLj We re growing like crazy! Because people everywhere are discovering that RUGGED WEARHOUSE MEANS FAMOUS NAMES AT FABULOUS PRICES! Denim - Casual Fashions - Shoes - Accessories For Men - Women - Juniors - Kids New merchandise arrives almost every day. Boatloads of pants and jeans. Racks and racks of shirts and tops. And every single item— every single day - is priced up to 70% Off department store prices! You II recognize the names. You II love the quality. w a You won t believe the prices! SUMTER, SC Wesmark Plaza 1121 Broad Street next to Sumter Mall All 42 locations are celebrating, including: FLORENCE, SC COLUMBIA/HARBISON, SC Florence Mall Harbison Court Shopping Center (Across from Columbiana Center) 262 Harbison Boulevard I Mon - Sat 9:30am - 9pm • Sun 1:30pm-6pm I__,i W ^ JEWELRY OUTLET ^ 1 GOTHIC DUNGEON STUDENT TRAVEL ■35S52i5i5S3Hi£li^^Bi5BHfiHs: www.statravel.com [TRAVEL 1 onune » on the phore » on cnmpu/ » on the /treet I —1—^Blfr. Directions: Just across the Gervais St. Bridge - Left at Second Light iRimraBHBimR— —mmmm