The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 06, 2004, Page 9, Image 9
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Wednesday, October 6, 2004 ▼ -I-1 ^ -A- • southern wrI^I
SHOW PREVIEWS
Let the
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Southern California band Ten Mile Tide brings their tour to Columbia on Thursday. The six-man band
will play their "harmony-driven acoustic rock” at Minglewood on Harden Street at 9 p.m.
Ten Mile Tide mix classic rock with jam band improvisation
By CARRIE GIVENS
THE GAMECOCK
Combine the musical talents of
identical twins Jason and Justin
Munning with those of their Stanford
roommates, add in a bassist and
drummer and the return product is
Southern California band Ten Mile
Tide.
Drawing on their knowledge of Bob
Dylan and Neil Young classics, Ten
Mile Tide has developed a keen focus
on songwriting: Influenced by Cat
Stevens, Tom Petty and Crosby, Stills,
and Nash, the band has concentrated its
musical efforts on further defining what
band member Jason Munning calls
“harmony-driven acoustic rock.”
The Tide mutes their love for rock
‘n’ roll with an affinity for live jams.
The result sounds like a musical cross
between The Who and the Allman
Brothers.
“We’re working on bridging the gap
between mainstream and jam band
music,” Jason Munning said.
This six-member San Francisco
based band has toured extensively,
sharing the stage with Dispatch, moe.,
The Wailers and Railroad Earth. Last
year the band was one of the busiest
independent bands, playing more than
140 shows.
In August, the band began its second
nationwide tour. On Thursday, Ten
Mile Tide will return to Columbia to
play at Minglewood. The show will
feature original songs from their latest
album “Midnight is Early” and their
2001 release, “Flow.”
The band has previously played at
Columbia’s 3 Rivers Music Festival and
at the Sundance Bar and Grill.
Ten Mile Tide has a strong Street
Team presence in Columbia, which
has helped to get the word out about
the Tide.
“We really depend on this kind of
grass-roots support,” Jason Munning
said.
Ten Mile Tide promises to put on a
fun-filled show.
“Our vibe is about good times,
hanging with friends, throwing back
some beers and getting your groove on,”
Jason Munning said. “We probably
have more fun than any other band on
the road.”
Their carefree spirit has only
heightened the band’s recent tide of
nationwide success. Ten Mile Tide was
honored in April as one of 10 finalists in
Relix magazine’s Jamoff competition,
which featured more than 200 bands.
They have received attention from
CNN, The Denver Post and the
Canadian Broadcasting Channel.
Recently, the band members were
able to hit the road full time, touring in
♦ Please see TIDE, page 10
Linger members Cregg, Stevie and Jeremy will
perform at the Art Bar’s Bavarian Bash on Sunday.
The last time they played in
Columbia was last year’s St.
Patrick’s Day Bash.
PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
-i ’
Atlanta natives combine array of sounds into onstage onslaught
By LINDSAY FLOWERS
THE GAMECOCK
Any band compared to Radiohead,
Muse and Nine Inch Nails while being
described as an “electronic Nirvana”
deserves a listen. With Atlanta-based
group Linger, such attention turns out
to be warranted.
While the band itself has been
around for about seven years in one
form or another, the lineup of Cregg,
Stevie and Jeremy has been together for
about four years. After their start in
Adanta and a brief period in
Nashville, Linger has returned to
Adanta. They have kept busy touring
through 15 states, from the Midwest
to the Southeast, playing about 150
shows per year.
The thing that sets the group apart,
according to lead guitarist/vocalist
Cregg Gibson, is their live
performances; the band supposedly
gives one of the best live shows around.
' “People leave saying they didn’t
realize three guys could make so much
noise ... they think there’s
background tracks, but there’s never a
loop. What you hear on the stage is
music made by us,” Gibson said.
Considering that similar bands, such 1
as Radiohead, have additional members 1
and use background loops to supplement
the music, such a comment is significant. i
According to Gibson, the band realizes i
that they “have no choice but to give it ^
our all; people feed off that ... (our <
music) is very emotional, melodic, filling i
... we give 110 percent on stage.” I
The band performed at the St.
Patrick’s Day Bash in Columbia in ;
March, and will return to the Midlands <
for the Art Bar’s Bavarian Bash on i
Sunday. That same day WUSC will I
I-L2S&-1
14___-__I
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Linger is on tour to promote their
new album, “Black Selefane.”
i
roadcast a live interview with the
nembers of Linger.
“Over the years we’ve learned to
nalce music appeal to everyone. There’s
10 one crowd we try to play for, because
rfien you start tapping into people’s
motions it doesn’t matter what race or
eligion or background you are,”
jibson said.
The band hopes one day to sign with
n international record label, like the
omparable Australian-based band Muse
it some similar American groups that
lave gone global. As an up-and-coming
and unique local band, Linger has a lot
of potential with a devotion to their
music and an engaging stage presence.
The three guys in Linger live
together with a fourth roommate
who tours with them as a road tech,
and Gibson said that people leave
the shows “either hyped up, or not
knowing what to take away from the
mix of styles, or just wanting to go
to bed because it’s so energetic.” As
for the band members themselves,
“We walk away bleeding,” Gibson
said. “It really is blood, sweat and
tears that go into it.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu
BOOK REVIEW
Alabama football road trip
delights in fan mentality
“Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer:
A Journey into the Heart of Fan Mania”
Warren St. John
★★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By WES WOLFE
THE GAMECOCK
Warren St. John’s book on his travels with a cadre of
RV-driving Alabama football fans had a ready-made
readership — the fans themselves. However, St. John
didn’t write the book for money. It was more a cathartic
exercise to allow the former Birmingham native to find
out why he cares so much about the fortunes of Bama
football and what makes fans, in general, act so fanatic.
This purpose is best exhibited in a passage in the
introduction to the book in which St. John relates what
he did as a junior at Columbia University when he
couldn’t see or hear the Alabama-Auburn game anywhere
in New York City. He called his mother in Birmingham,
who placed the receiver next to the radio. The following
events transpired: “When an undefeated Alabama team
lost to Auburn my junior year, I anesthetized myself with
a steady drip of keg Budweiser. The next morning I woke
up on my dorm-room bed, fully clothed and in the fetal
position. My roommates reported that I’d taken refuge
there at some point in the fourth quarter and had wept
myself to sleep. I wasn’t in any shape to dispute this
version of events, but again, was it so strange?”
Some would say it isn’t so strange. St. John realized
something didn’t seem right about such things,
though, and took leave from his job writing for a
magazine in New York to follow the Tide and its fans
through the 1999 season.
Through contacts and e-mail lists, St. John gets in
touch with Chris and Paula Bice, a couple from
Simpsonville who own an RV and allow St. John to
come with them, and their dog Larry, for the first
game of the season at Vanderbilt. Depending on the
team and depending on the condition of a decrepit
RV St. John buys later in the season, he stays with the
Bices, in his own RV, or in a local hotel for each of
Alabama’s regular season games.
In the course of his travels, St. John’s love of the
Tide allows him to talk to and hang out with people
who’d otherwise be very wary of a writer from New
York. St. John tells the stories of each weekend and
the events in-between in such an engaging,
entertaining and funny way, the book should be able
to pull any football-mad college student away from
their PlayStation 2 and get them to read for a while.
For instance, St. John recounts the trip to Oxford,
Miss. The Ole Miss fraternity brothers staged a raid
on the RVs, stealing flags off many flag poles, and the
near-riot that occurred when Alabama beat Auburn
for the first time at Auburn.
“The book is a fen book, not an Alabama book,”
St. John said in an interview with The Gamecock.
“The point of the book is not that fans of other teams
are wrong, but picking one’s team is a totally arbitrary
act. And most people have their teams picked for
them.” Indeed, any die-hard Carolina or any other
SEC fan should be able to see themselves in the
actions of the Bama fans in the book.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockfeatures@givm.sc. edu
MOVIE REVIEW
‘Shark’ lacks bite of animated predecessors
“SHARK TALE”
★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By LESLIE DENNIS
the gamecock
Ever since the Academy Awards
added the category “Best Animated
Film,” animated films have blossomed in
Hollywood. “Shark Tale” attempts to
capitalize on the craze, aiming to receive,
at least, a nomination for an Oscar.
The directors of “Shrek” and “The
Road to Eldorado” teamed up to create
tlje vivid world of “Shark TSale,” hoping
to parlay their own successes into
another box-office and critical smash.
“Shark Tale” provides an all-star
vocal cast that includes Will Smith,
Renee Zellweger, Robert DeNiro,
Angelina Jolie, Jack Black and even
Martin Scorcese. Each of their sea-life
characters mimics their respective
human’s traits: Don Lino (voiced by
DeNiro) has the trademark mole on his
cheek, Lola (Jolie) has the voluptuous
lips Jolie is famous for and Sykes
(Scorcese) has the bushy, uncontrollable
eyebrows of the famed director.
“Shark Tale” seems more a spoof of
mafia monies like “The Godfather” than
an actual children’s film. While only
those who have seen “The Godfather
and other movies of the sort may pick up
on the subtle humor of the jokes, there
are enough one-liners to leave the
audience semi-entertained.
In the movie, two individual
storylines involving Lenny the shark
(Black) and Oscar the fish (Smith'
intersect. Lino, the shark godfather
struggles with his son Lenny, who ii
heir to the mafia throne, over Lenny’;
choice to be a vegetarian and refusal tc
eat fish.
Oscar, a lowly whale washer, feel;
trapped in his tower class existence anc
wishes to attain the fame and fortune ol
fish in the upper reef. Oscar’s best friend
and secret admirer, Angie (Zellweger),
covers for him when he is late for work
and even gives him her grandmother’s
pink pearl to get him out of debt.
Once Oscar and Lenny meet —
under rather unusual circumstances —
they bond in their mutual hatred of their
own lives. It is only after they begin their
new lives that they realize the value of
what they had before.
While “Shark Tale” has good
intentions, it relies on one-liners and
big-name stars to support the
)
♦ Please see SHARK TALE, page 10
CD REVIEW
Prodigy’s return lacks
genius of earlier efforts
“ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED,
NEVER OUTGUNNED’’
The Prodigy
★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By SHANA TILL
THE GAMECOCK
With the fast pace of musical trends,
artists run the risk of being forgotten
amid the influx of pop culture’s
impossible-to-weed-through cliches.
Lucky for The Prodigy, the music
world has yet to let the images of its
globally controversial music video slip
from its memory. In 2002, The Prodigy
gave a feeble attempt to recreate the
success of their double-platinum album,
“The Fat of the Land,” with the release
run _ 1_’_ Z'"* _- _ 'T_»
Unfortunately, the damage was
done, and laptop beat producer Liam
Howlett was faced with the arduous task
of redemption. After scrapping the
drawing board, Howlett created
“Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned,” which was released by the
Maverick label on Sept. 14.
The first noticeable difference in
“Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned” is the absence of Keith
Flint. The former frontman of The
Prodigy, known as the bad boy Johnny
Rotten of the rave scene, was replaced
with a motley assortment of well-known
artists such as Juliette Lewis, Twista,
Kool Keith and the Gallagher brothers.
However, what remains the same is the
exhausted sound of what was once a
broadly accepted, yet kitschy blend of
hip-hop and house music.
To describe a techno album as
having a “tired’ sound is murder
because Howlett tries desperately to
create a virtual dance floor by pumping
super-distorted synth lines over dense
bass drum hits.
Howlett admitted recently in Q
Magazine that the 10th track, “You’ll
Be Under My Wheels,” was album
filler. This term is apt for the entirety of
the album.
The only remnants of what made
“The Fat of the Land” such mainstream
fodder are on the track “Memphis
Bells.” It is one of the few breaths of
fresh, direct energy instead of the
tediousness and unfocused sound found
throughout “Always Outnumbered,
Never Outgunned.”
While the concept of mixing hip
hop, punk and electronica is not yet
hackneyed, Howlett’s style is a failed
attempt to replicate an ‘80s electro
clash aura.
Stemming from the raw energy of
the act’s stage presence, “Hotride” is a
track ridden with Dunk rock and acid
house flavor. Adding to this conception,
actress-turned-femi-punk-singer Lewis
provides vocals.
Among other sounds found on
“Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned,” are the hip-hop grooves
delivered by Kool Keith and Twista.
Tracks “Wake Up Call” and “Get Up
Get Off” supply a favorable consistency
of hip-hop and dance beats.
Proving The Prodigy’s constant
endeavors to regain its mainstream
adoration, the first track on the album,
“Spitfire,” is the most radio-friendly for
newbie ravers. The group’s cry of
return, “Prodigy is Back,” relies on the
rhythmical pounding reminiscent of
Nine Inch Nails’ glory.
The biggest disappointment found
on “Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned,” is the sampling on the
track, “The Way It Is." The least deft
of listeners can spot the bass line from
♦ Please see PRODIGY, page 10