Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Wolfe CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 the extra revenue, and of course the kids love it. Certainly there are those at USC loved being able to grab a Coke out of the vending machine or a bag of chips while they were in mid dle school and high school. Then there’s the smoking ban. Los Angeles did it, New York did it and Dublin did it. Now. Prime Minister Tony Blair wants all of the UK to ban smoking in bars, clubs and workplaces. Now, most people would certainly be behind ban ning smoking at work. You have to work, and it shouldn’t be a problem for one’s smoking co-workers to take their smoke break outside. But bars and clubs? When the clientele is al ready going for the poison be hind the bar, what’s the prob lem with allowing other cus tomers to enjoy a cigarette and put a little poison in the air? People are becoming so regu lated in Britain as to how they do things and when they do them, it should be perfectly fine for any self-respecting Briton to enter a pub, have a plate of bangers and mash, drink a few pints and smoke like a chimney. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Beastie Boys CONTINUED ROM PAGE 6 always keeps the Boys fresh: irrev erence. Their maturation into po litical rhyme-makers is easily di gestible, but fun still rules and rightly so. Even though the Boys now want to “party for your right to fight,” the songs still move. Icarus Line CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 to terms with it, North reconsid ers and again points out his objec tions to the term punk. “Ninety-nine percent of the bands who are waving the punk flag are dorks,” North said. “I’d rather not have anything to do with that label.” As critics and journalists alike can’t come to a consensus as to who The Icarus Line are, neither can they. It’s arguable that their behav ior and attitudes are as attributa ble to the punk branding as their music. North himself made music headlines during 2002’s South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. While performing at the Hard Rock Cafe, North spon taneously smashed open the glass case containing one of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitars and attempted to plug it in and play it. Security guards took over, and the band At 15 songs, “5 Boroughs” stretch es too long for its own good. If the Beastie Boys had.chopped ofF the last three songs, they would have created the perfect addition to their catalog. While two of the final three songs, “The Brouhaha” and “We Got The,” start with catchy key board grooves, they fall into the same lyrical topics done better in was kicked off stage. Message boards are filled with stories of swinging mic stands, fly ing guitars and the warning of not standing too close to the stage at their shows. But North gets frus trated with the attention. “I think it’s overblown,” North said. “It’s boring touring be cause you do the same thing every day. You’ve got to do silly things to keep yourselves entertained.” North retorts that when Keith Moon or members of Led Zeppelin were taKing advantage oi groupies or acting crazy while high on drugs, no one called that punk. “No one said it was all about antics,” North said. “We’re definitely not trying to be badasses. We’re trying to make the best music we can.” North brings the same ambi tion to his other job, as the co founder and one-half of the noto rious Web site Buddyhead (www.buddyhead.com). North and friend Travis Keller started the the previous songs. A 12-song state ment capped with “Open Letter” would’ve kept the bodies moving and the discos breaking just as well. “To the 5 Boroughs” requires a few listens to get adjusted to its drums-and-synth sound. The pro duction never reaches the hugeness of “Intergalactic” or “Sabotage,” and many will have to rely on the Web site in 1998 as an artistic out let of sorts when Keller, as a pho tographer, and North, as a jour nalist, got fed up with being edit-' ed. They decided to start a Web site where the content consisted of what they liked and what they wanted to do. That meant inter views and photographs only of bands they respected and eventu ally a gossip page where celebrity cell phone numbers are posted and bands they don’t like are giv en scathing jabs for laughs. “People take the gossip page so seriously, and it was really more of an afterthought,” North said. “It’s just super-inside jokes between me and Travis.” North and Keller have gotten plenty of criticism from people who are offended by the Web site’s content. “We get so many people who are like ‘do this or that,’” North said. “We started it from nothing and we’re going to do it how we want.” Boys’ creativity for good hooks. They don’t disappoint, slaying Styx, saluting Star Trek and ridi culing their own insanity. The Beastie Boys might be old-school masters, but they still cut up with feropious folly. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockfeatures(a>gwm.sc.edu North explains that people who want Buddyhead run differ ently should start their own Web site and do it their own way. “To me that’s what punk rock is all about — it’s doing it on your own,” North said, all of a stfddeii comfortable with the term punk again. rne memDers oi rne icarus Line seem to approach all aspects of their career with that same ir reverence towards appeasing an> - one but themselves. When shopping for a label, most bands pick their best and most concise songs as examples of their work to impress the powers that be. When contacting prospec tive labels for their latest release, “Penance Soiree,” ultimately re leased on V2 Records, The Icarus Line offered up one 12-minute song. Now that’s punk, right? Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu _____ I Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 12 00-1:00p Step & Sculpt Step & Sculpt 5:30-6:30p Kickboxing Step & Sculpt Kickboxing Step & Sculpt 6:35-7:00p Ab Express Ab Express 7:00-8:00p steP S,eP Step SteP 7:00-8:00a Body Sculpt Step 12:00-1:00p Step Express Step Express Step Express Step Express Step Express 1:05-2:05p Faculty/Staff Faculty/Staff Faculty/Staff 5:30-6:00p Ab Express Ab Express 6:00-7:00p Group Cycle Step & Sculpt Group Cycle Step & Sculpt I_—¥—j—T_.fs<Jay—| —Th_ursci!,V—|-Friday-j j 12:00-1:00p | | Yoga | ^ | Yoga | |