The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 09, 2001, Page 6, Image 6
. THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 9, 2001
6 _ _
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CONTACT US I I M . 1/1 I \ commitment and pleasure all
1 1 I ■ / ■ ■ / become one and you reach that
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I I I k I W 11/ deep well where passion lives,
Write us atgamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com ■ ■ f ■ m nothing is impossible.”
Stephen Malkmus:
BACK FOR THE
FIRST TIME
BY DAVID JACK DANIELS
THE GAMECOCK
Former Pavement front man,
Stephen Malkmus, and his band,
the Jicks, are coming to Columbia
in promotion of his new album,
Stephen Malkmus.
In the beginning in the ‘90s,
Malkmus articulated the listless
humming of disenchanted rock
fans and, like Michael Stipe of
R.E.M.before him, further tight
ened the gap between math nerds
and bleary-eyed punk rockers. ^
He is an ambassador for
American underground music,
which, depending how close you
are to the center of the earth,
seems less stuffy these days, and
serves as a big brother to many —
a hip guidance councilor for di
sheveled admirers all over the
world.
Some tans approacn MaiKmus
with the same nervous admiration
as Catholics would the Pope. But
Malkmus responds to the praise of
his creative harvest, a decade’s
worth of nose-dripping brilliance,
the same way Lou Reed would if he
were thanking a small town wel
coming committee for a Piggly
Wiggly Christmas fruit basket.
His aloof but harmless de
meanor is best illustrated by a re
cent account in Spin magazine of
his reply to a fan that approached
him with the often-heard accolade,
“Your first album changed my
life.” Malkmus responded with a
deadpan, but facetious, “What
about the second one?”
The first one, Pavement’s
Slanted and Enchanted, is regarded
as a rock masterpiece, and was pro
claimed “Best Album of The Year”
by Spin in 1992.
Whenever he is in the press, the
prevailing impression rendered is
one of unaffected, but seemingly
Malkmus and his band, the Jicks, will play Uncle Doctor’s on Friday, photo special to the
GAMECOCK
unobtainable, coolness. This “for
the subterranean in-crowd only”
stigma bred an entire generation
of self-conscious and judgmental
music snobs in the ’90s, who con
stantly worried about their street
credibility, and trampled over one
another in a seething race to be the
first kid on the block with the ul
tra-rare, limited to 378 pressing,
Holland import record, which
would feature something like the
elusive song, “Swedish Meatball,”
theme from an obscure 1930s
Russian porno.”
Though Pavement never re
leased such a bizarre song, they
might as well have. Malkmus
thrives on the absurdities of every
day life. Much like a Magritte
painting, he strings bric-a-brac and
ordinarily dull themes into sub
lime, messages of hidden, thought
provoking beauty. From the
Pavement song, “Perfume-V,”
Malkmus sings, “Grip-force the
vials, strip the locks, smash the set
and slash the beds, and when it
looks like a wife’s ex-plot, we’ll cov
er all the rugs with cheap perfume.
Like a docent’s lisp, like a damsel’s
spit, like a dry gin’s twist...”
Like Bob Dylan, Malkmus hides
in the fuzziness of his clever lyri
cal puzzles and delivers them
with the same indifference as a
high school psychopath would,
leading his class in a wonderfully
flaccid version of the pledge of al
legiance. But Malkmus’ music
maintains a pop tone that isn’t
tainted with the bitter, self-refer
ential seriousness that many
singer-songwriters over-indulge.
He is able to entertain and en
lighten the listener solely on his
terms. Malkmus isn’t, and never
has been, a door-to-door song
writer, pleading with you to
♦ MALKMUS, SEE PAGE 2
PLAY PREVIEW
Hamlet characters go
on ‘comedic journey’
BY AUBREY FOGLE
THE GAMECOCK
The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead, directed by Karl Rutherford and
starring John-Patrick Driscoll and Stephen
Cone, is coming to USC’s Longstreet Theatre.
Opening tonight at 8 p.m., the play is a
comedic look at William Shakespeare’s most
critically renowned play, Hamlet, through
the eyes of two of the supporting characters.
The play, created by Tom Stoppard, Oscar
winning author of Shakespeare in Love, pre
sents the two title characters who find them
selves in the middle of many conflicts.
Gloria Hicks, public representative for
USC’s Theatre Productions, said the char
acters are “caught in the intersection of
three worlds: their own, isolated and con
fused: Hamlet’s, shown in small glimpses;
and the Players [the actor’s characters in
Hamlet], where everything is painted pa
per, movement and silliness.”
The play draws a lot of its appeal from
its basis on such a famous play. Marcella
Kroeker, second-year MFA acting candi
date who plays as part of the Troupe, said,
“Everybody that we know had to read
Hamlet in high school. If they hate
Shakespeare, they still had to read it, and if
they love Shakespeare, they’ve probably
seen a million versions of Hamlet. This
show takes two minor characters in
Hamlet and creates an incredible philo
sophical discussion and comedic journey...
for someone who doesn’t normally go to
the theater, it’s gonna be a really funny
twist on something they probably had to
♦ PLAY, SEE PAGE 7
Hamlet characters star in their own play, photo
SPECIAL TQ.THE GAMECOCK
DJs mark fifth year
DJs throw party
in celebration of
Columbia’s club
music scene
BY JENNIFER BOWEN
THE GAMECOCK
Ten of the Southeast’s best
DJs will celebrate five years to
gether as the group 2deep tonight
at The Elbow Room.
The DJs who comprise this
clique have been playing sepa
rately and together in Columbia
for most of the ’90s. Though they
lead very different lives and find
it hard to play together, they will
come together to culminate five
years of trying to keep the club
and house party music scene
alive in Columbia.
The group showcases the differ
ent genres of house and club music.
Each DJ has his own style and
sounds, but they are all joining to
celebrate the music they love.
“Once a year, we try to throw a
big blow out bash with all of us to
gether,” said Jason Wilson, a
2deep DJ in charge of promotions.
The concert will also include the
Second Room Crew. These four DJs
--— ■ .. • :
are guys who always got put in the
back room of clubs. So, rather than
trying to make it to the main rooms,
they made the second room their
home. Now, they prefer it to the
main room because it’s where they
feel they belong. “That’s where they
like it, and they get their crowd out
there,” Wilson said.
The DJs, including Chris Cue,
Joshua, Ryan Cronin, Jason
Wilson, Cooney, Timothy
Degroot, Jason Paddock,
Goldwin and Joey, try to stay
true to their music’s jazz roots
and old-school sound while being
individuals. Joining them will be
some drum and bass acts. These
acts will play outside. Each will
have an hour-and-a-half set, so
lots of different sounds will be
heard during the evening. Mobile
Energy will give a light show.
Because Columbia doesn’t
usually see this kind of club mu
sic, this event attracts many
kinds of people. “All the old
school people come out. All the
young kids come out. It’s a great
mingling of crowds,” Wilson
said.
The show, called the 5th
Chapter, will be taped. 2deep
hopes to create a compilation CD
of the performance and some of
the group’s best work.
-—— -1
2deep 5th Anniversary
When: Friday, Nov. 9
Where: The Elbow Room
Time: 10 p.m.
Price: $10
771-1502
Listen
toyour
mind,
heart
DENISE LEVEREAUX
GAMECOCKMIXEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM
Sorry about the lack of a
column last week, faithful
readers.
I had a column written; one I
dashed off in a blaze of editorial
fury. The only problem was, I
sounded like a complete moron
and a self-righteous hypocrite.
That’s generally not a good thing
for a columnist. So, in the
interest of saving my sorry butt
from looking stupid, my editors
decided it would be better if that
particular piece of wit didn’t
run. I just wanted to thank my
editors for saving me from my
own stupidity. It probably won’t
be the last time.
dui, enougn aDoui last weeK.
On to the week at hand.
I came to college expecting to
change. I expected to leave
behind everything I was as a
child, and when I came out of
the other end four years later,
diploma in hand, I would be a
grown-up. I expected the great
institutions of higher learning to
mold me into whatever I was
supposed to be. The longer I was
in college, I figured, the more
“normal” I would become. When
I started out, I didn’t know what
—or who—I was supposed to
be. I just figured that, whatever I
was, it was the absolute wrong
thing to be, and that college
would fix me.
It’s not entirely my fault for
thinking I was in the wrong,
though. I would get caught
writing science fiction, fantasy
and fan fiction in math class.
The teacher would confiscate my
work, glance at it with a look of
disgust on her face and refuse to
give it back.
A couple of hours later, in a
different class, the assistant
principal would come and drag
me to her office. What followed
after that was pretty much
always the same:
“Denise,” the evil assistant
principal would say, “why do
you waste your time writing this
crap?”
I wnuld stand there and
sputter something about class
being boring. I never would tell
her the reason I wrote those
things was because it felt like
what I was supposed to write. I
never would tell her that writing
science fiction, horror and
anything “out there” was what
made me genuinely happy.
Judging from her classically
unstylish magenta power suit
(you know, the kind with the
shoulder pads that rival football
players’ uniforms) I didn’t think
she would get it. And she never
did.
Neither did any of my other
teachers, my high school
counselor, the principal or,
sometimes, even my friends.
So, I graduated and headed off
to college, convinced I was
wrong and determined to
exorcise the crap-writing demon
that lived inside my head. I
wouldn’t hold back; I would pull
out all the stops.
I decided to be a business
major. If anything can kill
undesirable urges, I reasoned,
the Moore School of Business
could.
+Viip
U1UU1 ) *■***•'
proved too strong for even the
vibes that emanated from the
B.A. building. I started doing it
again at the beginning of this
semester — my eyes glazed over,
♦ LEVEREAUX, SEE PAGE 7