Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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SITE OF THE PAY Alterna-fol JOHN LYONS Features Editor Tomorrow night at the New Brookland Tavern, the Fostraphaelites and The Verna Cannon will bringing a taste of alternative folk rock and indie rock to Columbia music farisT " The Postraphaelites are a fiveman Columbia band combining elements of folk and acoustic rock with an alternative rock edge. They've been playing together for about a year, and they will be opening the show tomorrow night at about 10 p.m. The band plays a standard take on folk rock hut. the music is made more powerful by the strength of the percussion in the band. Eric Stamey plays drums while Joe Eberlin adds percussion work with instruments like conga drums and shakers. Singer and acoustic guitarist Jason Gantt said it is this extra drum Recent releases Gordon and Wes SOWD i m iCE DREW HABTON Staff Writer BONE STRUCTURE Wycliffe Cordon and Ron Westray Wycliffe Gordon and Ron Westray's newest album, Bone Structure, seems to rely on a time^ worn jazz formula: bass, piano, w drums and a horn section. That is, until you listen to the ham section. Instead of the standard alto saxophone and trumpet you'll find two slide trombones weaving mnlndipfl t.ncrnt.lifir Thp slidp - ? o ? ? - trombone, almost completely ignored in contemporary jazz releases, makes a proficient and capable comeback. The album is filled with skillful soloing work, tight rhythm section and most of all the fiill talent of Westray and Gordon. Even in classical jazz recordings the trombone is rarely vised and is usually just relegated to an addition to the rhythm section. But these two musicians defiantly change that. They keep up with the best ^ trumpets and saxophones around playing the classic style of jazz developed in the 1950s and early 60s. Often on the album, the two imitate the sound and style of the trumpets and saxophones that have for so long kept the trombone out Trip hop or no SOUND ADVICE MARCUS AMAKER Staff Writer WHO CAN YOU TRUST? Morcheeba The term "trip hop" has recently come to describe everything from the ambiance of DJ Spooky to radiofriendly drum'n'bass of artists like Everything But The Girl. New to the young music genre is London's Morcheeba. Their + stunning debut, Who Can You Trust?, is worthy of mention with Portishead's Dummy and Tricky^ Mannquaye as one of the brilliant electronic albums of the DOs. ? TT7T -v ?. The beauty in wno can You Trust ? lies in Morcheeba's ability to create melancholy atmospheres within each song. The beats are bass heavy and dark, and Sky Edwards' voice blesses + every track with the coolness of an experienced jazz singer. DJ Paul Godfrey provides subtle cratching.andjir urns, and his brother Ross Godfrey adds guitars, bass and keyboard. While it would be easy to lump them in with other trip hop acts, Morcheeba's soul music influences are as clear as their hip hop background. Edwards' s vocals are ETC. ON FRI k at New E work which gives the band its special toughness. 7 "What would normally be heard c as a rather average sound, is given s more texture," Gantt said. "It b jizcc i.* j uiiiereiitiULes uui ^uuiiu nuiii a tut ofotherbands with similar sounds.-?b "Most bands that use percussion \ tend to use it as a secondary instrument," he said. "I really think is the fact that we use percussion as a v primary instrument makes us stand a out." a Eberlin and Stamey said they a work together to make the sound work but that it hasn't been too o difficult. Eberlin said he generally e just follows Stame's lead. o "Eric really drives the rhythm," v he said. "And I just fill in the holes u with the congas and shakers." The Postraphaelites said for most s of their time together they have r played coffee houses, but they have a also been part of the bar scene. Mu offer a little some tray spice things up of the limelight. While the album does sound much like it could easily have been four decades ago, the duo are not retracing someone else's footsteps. All of the 11 tracks and 63 minutes of the album are original compositions. Often musicians today seeking the classic jazz sound will rely on covering tunes from jazz treats such as Miles Davis. John Coltrane, or Louis Armstrong in an attempt to recreate the same feeling and atmosphere. Don't think that the duo is stranded in the past though. Through their album, they move from classic jazz to New Orleans ragtime to a strong blues influence and stop at many places along the way. In compositions like "Blooz " the t, Morcheeba sot soothing and intimate. Songs like "Moog Island" and "Col" are centered around her singing technique, but she is not thrust to far into the spotlight. The Godfrey brothers add as much to the mix as their lead singer. Much like the Roots, Morcheeba are masterminds at combining live music with studio manipulation. The beats behind "Almost Done " "Never An Easy Way" and "Small Town" are part hip hop, part i electronic and all groove. Echoing drum loops, violins and t distorted guitar noises resonate in i the background of many of the tracks. IDAY Get A Blast From The El irookland Their live shows consist of about 0 percent original material, and the over songs they play range from tandard folk cover songs to songs y Snoop Doggy Dogg. The band's sound is rounded out y Simpson-Hiotf-on bass and Paul V'oodington on electric guitar. Much or the band's original music 5 based on acoustic songs Gantt /rote when he was playing as a solo rtist. The band works their sound round the basic backdrop of these coustic songs. "The songs usually start out in ne direction but end up somewhere lse." Gantt said. "Most of the songs riginated from acoustic songs I /rote, but they didn't take full form intil the full band came along. "Now they're completely different ongs," he said. "They've netamorphosed and changed into 1 full band sound." Gantt said the band's sound is [sic for thing for everyo > with trombone two show their true skill and flexibility with the trombone on this blues-inspired track. The song is slow and the duo uses that time to extract the life from their instruments to a glowing success; it really demonstrates the untapped potential in their instruments. The compositions in the album show a great deal of depth and a solid stylistic element throughout the album. The rhythm section is full of clever moves and complicated syncopation and the melodies seem to flow from their horns. The overall effect is an energetic, tight and brilliant performance as each player meshes into the whole. Gordon and Westray first met in the S.C. club Green Streets while Gordon was part of Wynton Marsalis's Septet. The two began to have an increasing interest in making a trombone duo album together. "A lot of that had to do with our coming from a common sensibility in terms of our environments: Southern upbringing, the Baptist church, black colleges, marching bands, fraternities. Those experiences glued us together." Westray said. Those sensibilities proved crucial for expanding the bound of jazz music. inds sweet The first single, "Trigger Hippie," is experimental hip hop at its best. The two interludes, "Post Humous" and "Enjoy the Wait," sound like they have the potential to be stand alones. But instead, they are perfect transitions between the other tracks on the album. Live drums and a string quartet are featured on "Howling," and the eight-minute title track is a selfindulgent sonic adventure complete with haunting voices and multilayered textures. Along with providing the beats, Paul Godfrey contributes the lyrics to the songs on Who Can You Trust?. Edwards sounds like a cross between Sade and Tricky's protege, Marline. She delivers each line in a way which reinforces the song s dark subject matter. The lyrics, like "I'm on the rocks looking down/ and I can't see through all the darkness," explore themes of darkness. Call it "trip hop," "instrumental hip hop" or "electronic" - whatever it is, Morcheeba are one fo the best at doing it. Who Can You Trust? doesn't break much new ground, but it's one of the best albums to come out ot London in a long time. A } Past With WUSC's Dr. Jimmy [G Tavern typical of the music that has grown out of the coffee house scene in Columbia and the rest of the South. He said the music fuses many styles of music including folk, funk, jam, iazz. rock and manv other stvles. - He said in*addition to this-musical-^ fusion, the coffee house scene has fostered a very intelligent breed of music because of the close contact between the performers and the audience. The atmosphere's more intimate," Gantt said. "And I think a lot of musicians today are putting so much emphasis on their lyrics, and they like that intimacy. In a bar, you don't get the same attention or the same respect a coffee house audience can offer. "People go to bars to get drunk and hear music," he said. "People go to coffee houses to hear musuvand it's a big difference." And if you're in the mood to hear the mas ne. Check out son] r ^ : wumpscui: puL SOUND ADVICE BRYAN ALEXANDER Staff Writer BUNKER GATE SEVEN rwumpscut "rwumpscut:" probably hasn't popped up in many casual conversations in the thriving metropolis of Columbia Hell, original thought rarely pops up during conversations in Columbia. But in a perfect world, rwumpscut: would be in the minds of most people in the States instead of such trivial names as NIN, Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson (which isn't even industrial). For some unknown reason, Reznor has cornered the popular American market on industrial music, while in more diehard circles and in foreign markets, a plethora of talent is more venerated than he is. At the pinnacle of this talent is Rudy Ratzinger, ak.a. rwumpscut:. With his first release, Music for the Slaughtering Tribe, he singularly reinvented the entire electro genre and crushed fill other performers with the sheer power, intensity and emotion of the music. Some feel this album marked the beginning of the European redominance of electronic industrial I music and set the standards for i aiaa 4-s\ (aiiaut tinnvnnfnf CVCIJfUllC C1DC IAJ 1U1IVVT. UUllAbl W1 7, :wumpscut:'s second release, is no less impressive. Along with Music for the Slaughtering Tribe, New Widespre; SOUND ADVICE WILSON BAREFOOT Staff Writer BOMBS AND BUTTERFLIES Widespread Pa Widespread Panic has set in once again. The new album is on the shelves. This slowly aging (but constantly touring) group has just released their fifth full length album, Bombs and Butterflies. The second track, "Aunt Avis," is the work of fellow Athens-dweller, Vic Chestnutt. While recording the new album, the members of WSP were really enjoying Vk Chestnutt's album Is the Actor Happy?. Vic had left the song "Aunt Avis" off of that album and volunteered to sing it with JB at Widespread's New Year Eve Atlanta Fox Theatre show. The song went over so well they decided to cut it and slap it on the album, with Vic singing. Vic Chestnutt and Widespread Panic got together earlier in 1996 to put out a disc entitled Brute.. This one-time album and group was comprised of Vic Chestnutt as frontman and WSP minus Domingo S. Oritz, members of Cracker and John Keane, the long-time producer Fever f:r The Postraphaelites are, from lei Hiott, Paul Woodington, Jason Gan some music, head out to the New Brodkland Tavern tomorrow night, because there's plenty to go around. The Po8traphaelites will kick things off with their alternative folk rock at about 10 p.m., and they'll be ses le industrial, jazz, s industrial on r\ Bunker Gate 7, almost a re^release g of its German precursor Bunkertor h 7 except for the inclusion of several r remixes in place of original tracks, li is being released in the UJS. through ii Wj& aH| i " v | C I 5 pp^H| Hi t 3 c u I 1 C a licensing agreement with i Metropolis Records. t This is an amazing work and i something that has received critical ? acclaim. :wumpscut: has many of ? the same elements that make NIN 1 and Manson popular including the j goth/horror undertones, but unlike ? said-bands, :wumpscut: includes these elements in an intelligent i manner. t The album is all synth; no guitars 1 ai? Minima nr? olKiim T*kia ia a l v/l VXX UiUO UU UJUO CUMUlilt X 1UO io a J welcome diversion to the evergrowing list of guitar-based industrial ti that is infiltrating the scene. Do g not underestimate what can be done P with synth, samples and a drum a machine. Rudy R. has composed g ad captures live of Widespread as well as many t other bands. 1 The first release from the " nK l new LP is a Pop Staple tune, t I SI c i t t < 1 < "Hope in a Hopeless World." One < of the strongest things about the \ disc is it captures the live Widespread feel. "Tall Boy" in i nartindar ic o placcir hmp 1 The passion that generally i disappears on a studio album is evident. John Bell shows off his powerful range as a vocalists on the ballad, "Gradle." "Glory" is best be described by a song on WSPs first album with 44 I think a lot of musicians today are putting so much emphasis on their lyrics, and they like that intimacy. Jason Gantt lead singer, the Postraphaelites 99 W m" Mm / ilH SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK It to right, Joe Eberlin, Simpson tt and Eric Stanley. followed by the indie pop-rock of The Verna Cannon at about midnight. The New Brookland Tavern is located on State street, across the Gervais street bridge, and the cover for the show will be $3. jam and more... ight track Teat flowing songs that show off lis extensive talent. The music is lever repetitive and is very alluring, ike some kind of a dark drug that s all too easy to lose yourself in. This dark, sometimes sinister mdertone that permeates the music s a result of Ratzinger's previous voric in daikwave music. The album ontains hard, intense rhythms, net at the same time maintains that lance-club-friendly beat. The range of emotion that he is ible to express through the hrobbing beats is amazing and ?mes to culmination on songs like Dying Culture" and "Capital ^unishment." "Dying Culture" will leave you Irained physically, and probably nentally also, just from listening o it \Japitai hxmishment conjures lp emotions like sorrow, pity and uiguish with its stark simplicity, md then as the song comes to its ate climax you can almost feel the ?wer as the feelings of anger, pain md rage well up in the music. rwumpscut: is very accessible to ill listeners. It is not something ;hat wears thin after a couple of istens, and it is not something that s easy to stop listening to. If you ever had any inclination 3 buy something from the industrial enre of music, then pick up ANYTHING by :wumpscut: That's ill you'll need for instant [ratification. ! jam sound he lyrics, "a lingering lead and a lonest tune...." The last two tracks, Happy" and "Greta," have a strong Ulman-like sound. Widespread 5anic's Southern origins become minstakingly obvious at the end ?f "Greta" with four minutes of the ncessant cricket chirping. The ravel-happy band begins its spring our in March in Colorado. The strange thing to me is the wo different types that consistently attend Panic shows. On one hand, fou have the Hippie's (of which I laim my origin) and, on the other, :he Greek types. As a show starts, both groups split in a mad dash. The Hippies are filled with the music, and the ather group sways in a hypnotic stance. This seems to me to be a waste of time and space. They don't understand this is a groove-based band. If you are going to pretend to dance, then go ahead and dance. Don't just stand there. Didn't your father tell you if you do something, do it 100 percent. Just standing and swaying, you are living life half-assed. Get up and move!!!