EMI, RLYL

[allynh@calder.berkeley.edu (Allyn Hardyck)]

The friend who works at EMI lent me a promo video featuring about 10
EMI artists.  Let's see, there was:

	Brian Setzer - "The Knife Feels Like Justice" - basically like
		what the guys in SPIN said it was like.
	I forget who, but the guys who do "Let's Go All The Way" - eh, 
		ok I guess.
	Talk Talk - "Life's What You Make It" - real cool.  Boy, these
		guys sure have got away from their original "cool white
		suits, slicked back hair, thin tie high tech" image.
		They had another video too from the album, forget what.
	Greg Kihn - feh.
	Red Hot Chili Peppers - forget what, but manic as usual. 
		From the new album; apparently the unedited version,
		socks and all.
	Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls" - what's not to like I guess...
	John Lennon - 1972, doing "Come Together" live.
	and ... "Cloudbusting".  Yes, very nice, touching, heartwarming etc.

He also lent me a shorter videotape, of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's
"Love Missile F1-11".  Ugh.  I feel sorry for EMI, having shelled out
something like $2 mil for these guys, I've heard.  They're fixing to
be the new Frankie.  Machine guns, _Clockwork Orange_, "designer violence,"
and _Scarface_.  My poor friend had to show a 28-minute SSS documentary
at this show at the Omni in Oakland recently: no music, understand, just
interviews and The Making of SSS (from the ground up, pick the most
photogenic people THEN teach them to play). Well I guess the bar did
better business.

Descendents / Catheads / Buck Naked / Rain Parade / Square Roots / Steve Wynn /
	Mr. T Experience @ Omni, Oakland, May 17

Got in free thanx to Bill the EMI guy, first place I had to go to where there
was a line of even semi-luminaries trying to get in:

	"Hi, I'm with KFJC, I'm on there I thiinnnk....  Yah, right there."
	"KALX..."
	"Maximum R & R..."

Mr T. Experience were unadulterated teen garage punk and as such not very
interesting, time for a beer...  The Omni touts itself as the newest music
"complex" in the Bay Area, which means 2 large bars, stage, balcony, a weird 
little carpeted area to wander around in drunk, and what must be a vintage 1976
disco floor, well scuffed plexiglas covering multicolored Xmas bulbs (more on
the walls) and a video screen.  Well, Steve Wynn was on stage (and screen)
at that time with an acoustic guitar doing Dream Syndicate and some Dylan
while occasionally berating the audience, and needless to say the 10 or so
of us in there just sat on the edge of the floor drinking.

          S
Then the S S video.  This British guy Carl I know was there, quite rightly
termed them "wankers".  (I hate it when Americans use the term.)

Square Roots are a duo, acoustic guitar and standup bass, well known around
the UC as they play on Sproul Plaza a lot.  Comparisons to the Femmes of
course, but they are a little more upbeat and squeaky clean, smile a lot
more.

Rain Parade played a set w/out drum kit (just tambourine), do better at the
Summer of Love sound than most, can't really be more explicit...  I had to
drive someone back to Barr. in a truck and come back.

Buck Naked - new Cramps?  They're apparently from Nebraska, lead guy shed
his coat early on, had black bikini bottom (well and 10-gallon hat and
lots of things hanging round neck), mouth-droppingly risque lyrics, high-speed.
In other words, good fun.  Great for your next party or get-together.

Catheads - basically the same as when I previously reviewed, but I think
I liked them a bit more than before.  Did high-speed "Hurdy-Gurdy Man"
again...

Descendents - wow it actually took a couple of songs for the pit to open
and it didn't last for long - Bay Area audiences are confused.  Did all the
hits - "I'm Not A Loser" etc.  Milo in tennis shorts, looks like one of those
"ordinary fuckin' people."

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry @ I-Beam, SF, April 21

Missed opening act...  Danny who came with sed "This must have been what
a Joy Division show was like."  Big pudge guy on lead guitar which from
where I was standing was inaudible, drummer helped by machine, bassist
kinda looks like the guy in F/X, lead singer spits the lyrics out so
caustically looked like his lip was bleeding.   "Talk About the Weather",
"Elevation".   I wouldn't say just like JD, and there's a case to be
made for the elements of bone-picking in their music, but the intensity
in their pissed-off attitude was undeniable.

Little worrisome - the stuff they were playing before they came on included,
between some psychedelicy tunes, BOCs "Fear The Reaper."  And it worked, is
the troubling thing.  This and DMCs covering "Walk This Way."  And of course
Redd Kross.  Good thing there was a thing in the paper Sunday on the milestones
of the 70s - good reference if you start to wonder if you've stumbled into
that forbidden zone...

	"Play that funky music white boy" - allyn