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m 8 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, October 16, 2002 ■ pontapt tts ■ THEY SAID IT SEBASTIEN R. N. CHAMFORT: “The Story ideas? Questions? Comments? most wasted day of all is that on E-mail, us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com which we have not laughed.” Midtown unleashes intense punk in Midlands Midtown and Recover, part of the new generation of punk-influenced bands, will perform at Senate Park on Thursday night Right: After an early struggle, Recover has finally settled into its own element, a blend of punk, hard core and emo. The band is from Austin, Texas. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK BY WILL MISCHNER THE GAMECOCK Punk-rock band Midtown is coming to Senate Park on Thursday night to share the stage with up-and-coming rock band Recover. But even though they will be sharing the same stage, the two bands have two com tuneful melodies and raucous stage per sona. “We didn’t really get discovered; we just played and played and played until people noticed,” Rannsaid. Midown’s new album, “Living Well Is the Best Revenge,” redefines the band’s sound and focuses on the themes that re main constant in its lyrics: betrayal, for pieteiy aitterent stories. Midtown traces its. humble beginnings to the dorm rooms of Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1998, guitarists and vocalists Tyler Rann and Heath Saraceno, bassist Gabe Saporta, and drummer Rob Hitt formed the band. They f>hnco the name MiHtnum “We didn’t really get discovered; we just played and played and played until people noticed.” TYLER RANN VOCALIST FOR MIDTOWN giveness, loyalty, love and power. And you can expect the band to sound the same live. Saporta, Rann and Saraceno all sing during shows in order to capture the ef fects of background vo cals present on the band’s studio albums. MiHtmx/n ic alcn nn. because they lived outside New York City and because it sounded cool, Rann said. Back then, 40 people attended Midtown’s first gig in a New Brunswick, N.J., base ment. But in 2001, the band was playing alongside Blink 182 in arenas packed with 15,000 fans. Getting there was the interest ing part. Midtown is a college-band success sto ry. It was birthed out of the Northeastern punk-rock underground when five friends became determined to create something real and meaningful, Rann said. They start ed by writing songs, booking their own shows and constantly touring, traveling in a van. By the time Midtown’s first CD, an EP titled “The Sacrifice of Life,” was re leased on indie Pinball Records, it had gained a fan base that gravitated to its shows, attracted to its thoughtful lyrics, litically conscious. All of the members of the band are vegetarians, and the band has even gained the support of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on recent tours. “Our music is catchy, aggressive and fun, but we talk about serious things in side and outside the lyrics,” Saporta said. “The fun stuff draws people in; the serious stuff keeps them there.” Rann said fans can expect a good per formance here in Columbia. “We love play ing in South Carolina,” Rann said. “One of our best shows was in someone’s garage outside of Charleston for five people.” But there is sure to be a larger turnout for this show. Accompanying Midtown will be Recover. That band is a product of Austin, Texas — a far cry from New Jersey. Guitarist and vocalist Robert Mann, PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Top and above: Midtown has increased its audiences from 40 to 15,000. drummer Jim Vela, guitarist and vocal ist Dan Keyes, and bassist Ross Tweedy have been playing together for seven years. But despite their experience, they are all only 18 years old. Age, though, has not hindered the band so far in its at ♦ MIDTOWN, SEE PAGE 9 TOP 10 These were the most requested songs on USC’s student radio station from Oct. 7-13. • 1. “LIVE ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY” Dropkick Murphys 2. “GOT WHAT WE WANT Sights 3. “TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS” Interpol 4. “VELOCITY OF SOUND” Apples in Stereo 5. “PORKTORNADO" Pork Tornado 6. “SAVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL” Flaming Sideburns 7. “START THE PANIC” Agenda! 8. “RIDE AWAY FROM THE WORLD” Stone Coyotes 9. “CLOSE COVER BEFORE” Luna 10. “MAKE UP THE BREAKDOWN” Hot Hot Heat THE YEAR IN MUSIC: 1995 ‘Liquid Swords’ is the Genius at work Genius to go from his rhythm and-blues-tinged foray, “Come Do Me,” to talking about chop ping people’s heads off on “Enter.” “Liquid Swords” is not a record' played at high-school dances and on popular urban ra dio. It’s an album that accurately captures the raw nature reflect ed in old kung-fu flicks; the album even samples these cult classics, a trademark of the Wu-Tang Clan’s music. The GZA also makes known his impressive lyrical capabilh ties, sometimes outshining the stellar production of the RZA, the Clan’s most gifted member. The GZA best displays this on “Labels,” a song that features the emcee using popular hip-hop labels to complete a verse. The GZA accomplishes this with such lyrics as “I ‘Death Row’ an emcee with mic cables/The ‘Epic’ is at ‘Rush Associated Labels.’ ” “Liquid” stands as the GZA’s best work to date; his follow-up, “Beneath the Surface,” did not retain its sharpened lyricism and hardened production. Comments on these stories? E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail. com “LIQUID SWORDS” GZA BY JUSTIN BAJAN THE GAMECOCK The precedent was set for the GZA, a.k.a. the Genius, when his second album, “Liquid Swords,” was released in 1995. Prior to “Liquid Swords,” the Wu-Tang Clan had let its overwhelming presence be known with its first release, “Enter the 36 Chambers.” On “Enter,” each member of the group basically introduced himself to a hip-hop scene that was just becoming more street oriented, but not as harsh and uncompromising as these nine emcees from Staten Island, N.Y. But some hip-hop enthusiasts might have recognized the Genius from a few years earlier, when he achieved little success with his so-so debut, “Words from the Genius.” It might have shocked them, however, for the Mr. Bungle wanders from funk to jazz I___I “DISCO VOLANTE” Mr. Bungle BY CHARLES TOMLINSON TUB (iAMBCOGS When Faith No More was releasing mainstream rock al bums, vocalist Mike Patton was at work behind the scenes with his bizarre, unpredictable other band, Mr. Bungle. Patton was actually in Mr. Bungle long before he joined Faith No More in the late ’80s. “Disco Volante” was Mr. Bungle’s follow-up to its self-ti tled debut from 1991. By this time, the band had cut most of the funk and ska from its first al bum and achieved a jazzier sound. “Chemical Marriage” and “Backstrokin”’ are jazz-influ enced, and “Carry Stress in the Jaw” jingles away at frenetic be bop tempos. “Carry Stress in the Jaw,” however, shows traces of the band’s death-metal days, and Patton shrieks excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe’s works. “Everyone I Went to High School With Is Dead” contains more death-metal remnants and defies any sense of tempo or meter. And Mr. Bungle can’t stick to one language, either. “ Violenza Domestica” features Italian spo ken word over an accordion, and “Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz” is complete nonsense. The io-and-a,-half-minute opus “The Bends” tells a story in 10 sections with titles such as “Follow the Bubbles" and “Duet for Guitar and Oxygen Tank,” and it builds up to an ear-splitting conclusion on “Re entry.” It’s been three years since “California,” Mr. Bungle’s last album, came out. But Mr. Bungle has usually taken about four years between albums; perhaps the band will return in all its weirdness in the near fu ture. CD REVIEW Beck CD exposes soul for 0 all to see “SEA CHANGE” Beck *★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ 0 BY TUG BAKER TUKCAMKCOCK Most people know Beck best for his quirky, ever-shifting song styling. Never one to remain in one place too long, Beck’s albums them selves are like that Rubix Cube you had as a child. No matter how many times you turn it and how much fun it is to try, you can never get the colors to match up. rui cAampAc, otruiv s ai bum, “Odelay,” is without a doubt one of the best albums of the ’90s, but can anyone make any sense out of the myriad of genres and moods mixed together in that son ic cooking pot? Now, in 2002, “Sea Change” marks Beck’s greatest achieve^ ment to date. Beck has stripped his music down to its lowest com mon denominator, and there he has found his center and a way to connect with everyone who hears the album. “Sea Change” is a melancholy ride through the end of a relationship. The theme of this breakup album is so deeply rooted in personal loss that it’s as if Beck is pulling back the curtain and allowing you to see what the wizard looks like. in lUAi-viii oiiigci / auugwi nei mode, “Sea Change” will be a sharp departure for those who have listened to the gaudy, Prince influenced “Midnight Vultures,” Beck’s last album. On “Se£* Change,” the music is bare. It is Beck discovering the country-rock that has been the driving influence behind all his music. While his al bum “Mutations” experimented with a completely country-rock sound, its power and meaning were not realized until now. One would be remiss not to mention Nigel Godrich, producer of “Sea Change.” Godrich also produced “Mutations,” but per haps is best known for his work producing albums for Radiohead, including “The Bends,” “OK Computer” and “Amnesiac.” These albums show an element es sential to Godrich’s producing that makes “Sea Change” so unforget table. He has the power to take tb% most dismal music and make it achingly beautiful that it somehow leaves listeners with a strange feel ing somewhere between depres sion and elation. Of course, Godricn must have good fabric with which to weave this mood, and Beck certainly pro vides it. If one thing is true about popular music today, it is that not enough artists bleed for their work. Not enough artists base their songs in such personal feel ings that it is as though they have laid themselves open to the world, begging for examination and scrutiny. What do they lose when they don’t do so? They lose the connection. They lose the people who sit alone in the dark, listen ing to their music and under standing. Understanding so much that they forget themselves. yh What marks Beck’s “SeV Change” as a masterpiece is the fact that it is universal. All peo ple who listen to it will find a little piece of themselves in the album. They will also come away with the taste of salt in their mouths. Is it the salt water of the “Sea” in the album’s title? Perhaps, but more than likely, it is the salty taste of the blood and tears poured into the work by its creator. i Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com