CD REVIEW
Art of Losing \proves winner
“THE ART OF LOSING’’
American Hi-Fi
★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
BY MEG MOORE
THE GAMECOCK ■
Crank up your stereo —
American Hi-Fi is back with am
plified attitude. The band’s latest
release, “The Art of Losing,” is
one of those albums that the hip
ster within desperately wants to
hate. It’s not moody, it’s not artsy,
it’s not particularly innovative —
but it is irresistibly catchy.
Blatantly borrowing from the
Ramones on the album’s title
track, American Hi-Fi sets the
record’s punk-tinged premise ear
ly on. Far from waxing poetic, the
songs’ simplified rants on society
stretch into three-minute spurts
of solid, distortion-singed rock.
With lines such as “One, two/ F-k
you,” lyrical complexity is obvi
ously not one of the band’s aims
— but maintaining an edge ap
parently is.
Emblazoned with the ultimate
symbol of attitude — the parental
advisory label — the band in
cludes the requisite expletives in
the majority of its songs. Although
the band may sacrifice some lyri
cal integrity for the sake of sound
ing fierce, it thankfully doesn’t
skimp on catchy song craft. The
group clearly knows how to mix
raw-edged riffs with pop-minded
hooks and turn out a winning mu
sicai combination.
American Hi-Fi will not be the
next revolutionary punk band, but
it undoubtedly will score a few
more Top 40 hits, and will do so
without including a single power
ballad on its latest release. Its mu
sic is as poppy as it is hard-edged
— a fact the band refreshingly
doesn’t attempt to diminish. It
knows that its music is made for
the mainstream, and it doesn’t at
tempt to hide that fact.
Although it might not be col
lege radio fare, “The Art of
Losing” does provide listeners
with a musical pick-me-up. Amid
all the pretension of today’s uber
intellectual new artists, American
Hi-Fi’s relative mindlessness re
mains a welcomed escape.
Give the disc a spin — that in
ner hipster will be hard-pressed
to resist singing along.
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Willis
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
electric. His anti-mullet senti
ment was the show’s high point,
as he began, once again, asking
his followers to say “ra.”
“I plan to write songs the rest
of my life,” Willis said, “so I don’t
break the law and get locked up.
Willis has varied musical
muses. “I just write my songs
about rock ’n’ roll bands,” Willis
said. He said an assortment of
artists have influenced his
sound. He has also written trib
utes to Dave Grohl and Rage
Against the Machine.
Wesley Willis came to the New
Brookland Tavern, with the ob
jective to “raise some rock ‘n’ roll
hell.” He succeeded without dif
ficulty. For his followers, it was
an opportunity to meet their
messiah — for others, at least, it
was an unforgettable and enter
taining concert.
*
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‘Southland’
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
otism. The language itself in this
section is mind-blowing, not to
mention informative. Revoyr
covers an entire campaign in 20
pages, hitting the highlights and
the low points.
Revoyr’s characters are so re
alistic it’s hard not to talk about
them as real people.
She gives them long, elaborate
histories without boring the
reader. What makes this story so
compelling is Frank Sakai —
specifically, his impression of the
historic events that surround
him.
Ishida is one of the most in
teresting characters I’ve met in
years. She’s a Japanese
American and a bisexual who
solves crimes. Her sexual orien
tation adds a touch of realism to
the novel. It reminds us that this
isn’t a typical, formulaic book of
sociopolitics that develops its
characters as embodiments of
the author’s opinion.
Revoyr is concerned with set
ting, character and story. The
message naturally rises out of
the prose, like steam from rainy
Los Angeles roads.
Although Revoyr has a deep
fried literary style, she demon
strates a gift for inventive
metaphors and eye-opening sen
tences. “Southland” gives us a
full-bodied story with layers and
depths.
Revoyr keeps the tone light
and avoids preaching. Her nov
el reaches out to a broad audi
ence, lending itself to those of
us who want politically-in
volved and relevant fiction and
those who just want plain good
writing and a strong sense of
style.
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MOVIE REVIEW
Zombie’s ‘House of1,000 Corpses’bores more than it disturbs
PHOTO BY GIULIO MARCOCCHI/KRT CAMPUS
Rocker Rob Zombie’s venture into horror film
almost didn’t even make It onto the big screen.
“HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES"
Written and directed by Rob Zombie
★ out of
BY CHRISTY LEMIRE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
To say that “House of 1,000
Corpses” is disturbing is to suggest
that it’s effective. And one can only
assume that Rob Zombie’s intent was
to disturb, because it’s hard to tell
amid the resulting noise and chaos.
The rock star has written and di
rected a horror film that isn’t scary,
and isn’t even funny in a campy way.
It’s depressing, and a waste of time
and energy for everyone involved —
the people who made it, the people at
the theaters showing it, and the peo
ple who will make the mistake of
stumbling in to see it.
Like the living dead who stagger
through the film, “House of 1,000
Corpses” barely even made it to the
screen.
Zombie’s movie meandered be
tween distributors for two years be
fore ending up at Lions Gate, which
released it without screening it be
forehand for critics and has barely
promoted it. If it had to be released at
all, it should have gone straight to
video, and even there, it would have
competition from cheesy frightfests
that are far more worthwhile.
Zombie aspired to recreate the gory
horror flicks of the ’70s, which is evi
dent from the film’s premise: The
night before Halloween 1977, two
young couples driving cross-country
in search of odd roadside attractions
stop at the Museum of Monsters and
Madmen, run by Capt. Spaulding (Sid
Haig), who sits around all day in a
dirty T-shirt and smeared clown
makeup.
Then they have car trouble (of
course) in the middle of nowhere (of
course) in the pouring rain (of
course).
They stumble upon a blonde, scat
terbrained hitchhiker named Baby
(Sheri Moon, Zombie’s real-life wife)
who takes them back to her ramshack
le house, where they meet her blonde,
scatterbrained mother (cult horror ac
tress Karen Black).
They also meet her deformed
brother, Tiny (Matthew McGrory),
who is
anything
but;
Grampa
Hugo
(Dennis
Fimple), a
dirty old
man who screams with his mouth full
of food; and Otis (Bill Moseley), who
isn’t related to the family, but fits in
just fine with his yellow teeth,
stringy hair and general creepy de
meanor.
Once the couples try to leave, they
realize this isn’t your ordinary dys
functional family — these are blood
thirsty, Satan-worshipping, sadistic
cannibals (of course).
What ensues is an incoherent amal
gamation of sex and violence, of im
agery that aims to shock for shock’s
sake. Trouble is, most of it — such as
naked women writhing around with
skeletons and ersatz doctors perform
ing experiments with crude surgical
equipment — is more boring than
shocking.
Much of this imagery comes in
stream-of-consciousness montages
between scenes — similar to
Zombie’s music videos, which he di
rected before making this, his first
feature.
What made the horror films of the
’70s so eerie and so engaging was the
sense of building suspense. The woods
were populated with ax-wielding
wackos, just like they are here, but the
scares came at you gradually. The
filmmakers paid attention to mood,
whereas this is just loud, fast and in
your-face.
In a scene that best exemplifies
this approach, one of the victims is
placed on a makeshift crucifix while
his face is sliced open with a straight
edge razor, and “Brick House” blares
from a radio in the background.
Somehow, I suspect this isn’t what
the Commodores had in mind when
they recorded the song, because this
movie is anything but mighty,
mighty.
“House of 1,000 Corpses,” a Lions
Gate Films release, is rated R for
strong sadistic violence/gore, sexual
ity and language. Running time: 88
minutes.
TV show to offer $1 billion
BY LYNN ELBER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The evo
lution of television continues: A
$1 billion prize will be at stake in a
WB special, and a monkey may
help decide if there’s a winner.
“Play for a Billion” will be the
culmination of a Pepsi summer
promotion in which contestants
have the chance to play for the top
prize on a live, two-hour show air
ing in September.
The program, to be produced by
Michael Davies (“Who Wants to
be a Millionaire”), represents a
partnership between WB and
Pepsi-Cola North America.
The two companies are also
teaming on a summer variety
show, “Pepsi Smash,” which will
feature performances by top mu
sical acts, WB said in a news re
lease. The six-week series will be
gin airing in July.
“Play for a Billion” guarantees
a $1 million winner and a shot at
the grand prize for 10 contestants.
The contest starts May 1 with the
sale of Pepsi products that could
lead to a chance to be on the TV
special.
Details of the show are under
discussion, executive producer
Matti Leshem said Thursday. One
proposal involves having a monkey
put previously selected numbers in
an order that must be matched for
the $1 billion prize, he said.
“What could be more random
than that?” Leshem said.
He’s hoping to get a capuchin
monkey to do the job. There was
some controversy surrounding
the idea, Leshem said, refusing to
elaborate. There are also those
promoting an orangutan as a bet
ter, more intelligent choice, he
said.
There is a one-in-1,000 chance
that the $1 billion will be award
ed, according to WB and Pepsi.
The winner could choose either a
40-year annuity or a lump-sum
payment representing the annu
ity’s present value.
Pepsi has taken out an insur
ance policy.
WB and Pepsi had previously
announced plans for a variety
show that would blend advertis
ing into the program in place of
commercial breaks. Plans for such
a show are now on hold, a Pepsi
spokesman said Thursday.
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HOLY WEEK SERVICES
HOLY THURSDAY (April 17)
Parish Supper 5:00 p.m., Mass 7:30 p.m.
GOOD FRIDAY (April 18) (
Service of the Lord’s Passion 3:00 p.m.
Tenebrae (Evening Prayer) Service 7:30 p.m.
HOLY SATURDAY (April 19)
The Easter Vigil 8:30 p.m.
EASTER SUNDAY (April 20) - 9:00 a.m. & 11:00 a.m.
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