1997_12 The Daily Collegian December 1997

              Timeout
THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Friday, December 5,1997
Bits &
Pieces
with David Childers
J
Thought for the day: Exactly
what is it that happened to our par¬
ents' generation that took them
from "Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n
Roll" to Kenny G, and what can I
do to prevent it from happening
to mc?
'
Long, cold winter: Wouldn't
you know it. We finally get some
substantial time away from this
God-forsaken place and there isn't
a concert or event on the horizon
to get excited about. When we
don't have the time, wc have the
concerts. When we have the time.
I 'wc have a choice between
Rocding Park (stay out of the
bathrooms) and Blackbcards."
Good riddance: One of the
least-liked individuals in local ra¬
dio. New Rock 104 program di¬
rector Don O'Neil, is apparently
no longer in power. Midday disc
jockey Aundee has taken over on
an interim fcasis, and there is no
. indication of whether or not he
will take over permanently.
O'Neil had a less than endearing
personality, and it goes without
saying thatjots of other local ra¬
dio administrators^-udll not miss-,
him in the least.
New direction: I am very
happy to see. even though he has
not been in. place very long, that
Aundee is already taking a new
direction, with the programming
of the music. Just yesterday he
played a track from Ben Folds
Five that was a very cool song that
 Ls just gaining some attention.
Unfortunately, in the old days.
New Rock 104 tended to be the
last place to hear near music.
Hopefully this will continue in the
future.
Christmas shopping: While
concerts sort of disappear around
this time, the nice thing is that the
recocding industry is still enthu¬
siastically seeking your hard-
earned dollars. Believe me, it is
not a coincidence that approxi¬
mately 300 high-priced boxed sets
are released between the months
of September and December.
Come on, you know you were
anxiously awaiting that 11-disc
set of "Abba's Greatest Hits.".
Happy Holidays: Please ac¬
cept my best wishes for the holi¬
days. Aside from being a joyous
time of year for most, the holidays
can also be deadly. Keep your
spirits up (even after semester
grades come out), drive safe, and
remember - if vou don't live you
won't be able'to read "Bits and
Pieces" if it returns next semes¬
ter. Have a good one.
David Childers is a liberal
studies major and The Collegian's
entertainment guru. You can e-
mail him at dchild@psnw.com
New CD avoids
Zeppelin overkill
By David Childers
The Daily Collegian
Nobody wants to face the real¬
ity, but there are some things that
your parents know a little more
about than you do.
You might be able to deny most
of them, but you at .least have to
concede that they have cornered the
market on solid
rock and rdll mu¬
sic. It's a given.
But. just to re¬
mind you of the
fact. Atlantic-
Records is re¬
leasing a two-
disc compilation
of rare BBC re¬
cordings from
Led Zeppelin -
arguably Lhc
greatest rock
band from the
greatest era of rock music.
Maybe it is a cliche' to say so,
but Led Zeppelin embodies every¬
thing that was great about music.
Unfortunately, with a few rare ex¬
ceptions, much of that greatness has
been lost in our generation.
Of course, there are more Led
Zeppelin multi-disc sets out there
than you can wade through. Every
one tries to sell the consumer on
some new angle, something that
distinguishes their collection from
the others. Everybody has a differ¬
ent idea of what the greatest hits are
- and personally -1 think just about
everything they did was genius.
The best thing about the "BBC
Sessions" is that it avoids thefover-
kill factor. As much as I love to lis¬
ten to Led Zeppelin, I don't really
feel like sifting
through a 16-disc
set just to find
"D'yermaker."
The "BBC Ses¬
sions" is the per¬
fect mixture. De¬
spite the fact that
"D'yermaker" is
unceremoniously
absent, there arc
plenty of other
standards to take
up the slack.
There is a dyna¬
mite IX-minute version of "Dazed
and Confused" as well as familiar
renderings of "Stairway to
Heaven," "Whole Lotta Love" and
"Going to California."
There is also the originality of
the recordings. They are taken from
some recording sessions that pre¬
viously were unreleascd and the
sound is a perfect mixture of the live
Flense see LED, page 4.
Portishead one of new
techno mainstreamers
By Tim Bragg
The Daily Collegian
As American record companies
race neck and neck to sign every
techno and electronic act on the face
of the planet, the music itself is
struggling to find its own voice
among the hoopla over the music
being crowned the next big thing.
Just like alter¬
native rock be¬
fore it, electronic
is now going
through the mo¬
tions of what
happens when a
formerly under¬
ground culture is
thrust info the
mainstream.
A genre of
music is only as
strong as the art¬
ists who actually
make the music, not all the hype
surrounding it. The future of
elcctronica is in the hands of these
artists and how they will navigate
the stormy waters of the music in¬
dustry.
In this state of unrest come
Portishead and Roni Size, two vet¬
erans of the Bristol England trip-
hop scene that spawned the likes of
Tricky and Massive Attack.
Portishead have the advantage of
already having a hit under their
belts. "Sour Times (Nobody Loves
Me)" dominated the radio the sum¬
mer before last, giving the group a
leg up on the competition. Vocalist
Beth Gibbon's haunted. Billie Holi¬
day inspired vocals were set to a
cool musical background that could
have worked well in a James Bond
movie.
This time, a more gothic sound
permeates the music, giving a
strange, detached feel, like the band
is channeling it in
from     another
planet.
Geoff Barrow,
the group's musi¬
cal mastermind,
cooks up great
u s i c a I
soundscapes.
Lead track "Cow¬
boys" features a
hypnotic sample
of a chanting male
chrus, creating
an incredibly
lonely feel.
Barrow gets great results by
mixing tasteful drum tracks with
unobtrusive live instruments, giv¬
ing a jazz feel to the tracks. "Hum¬
ming" and "Elysium" go toward a
more synthesized sound, but they
still feel rooted in instrumental
music.
The only problem with
Portishead is that they are a little
too tasteful. They don't take any
risks, and all the tempos are the
same. They branch out and make a
Please see RECORDS, page 4.
ACROSS
Hair decora»ons
Mormon letters
Mediocre grade
Ot me Far East
Altar ol stars
Possess
Author of'Anna
Karen ma"
No longer drunk
Letters on els
Eucharist
offerings
Axlonor
29 Dueling swords
31 Motorists'org.
32 Followed a
trajectory
33 Extreme panic
35 Mixtures
37 Fern sopp
39 European river
40 Suicidal pilot
44 Consumers
48 Portents
49 Math sub)
51 Actor Williamson
52 Actress
Thompson
53 Kafka novel,
with "The"
55 Small nlet
56 Like
nonbeiievers
59 El .
60 Study anew
5? Overacting
64 Chemical suffix
65 Pension acct
66 Shorten
67 Dr. Tim's drug
68 German Mm, *__
Boot'
69 Vain
DOWN
1 Toothed wheel
2 Form of an
element
3 Two-ply
4/1 -relief
5/Director
Preminger
6 Tearful woman
/ Partner ot
Charybdis
8 Patronymic
9 Artoo Detoo.
eg
10 Chris, the third
baseman
11 Napdeons
birthplace
12 Female sheep
13 Conduson
19 Full of vim
22 Perfect report.
card
24 End
7177Z tetters
28 McBain and
McMahon
30 Drenches
32 Composer Berg
34 Pretoria's nat
36 Pub preference
38 Former Russian
rulers
40 Ring wins
4' Docs group
42 Got the gold
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43 Wallach and
Whitney
45 Environmental
disaster
46 Wanderings
47 Winlor veNcles
50 French cake
53 . cotta
54 Appendages
57 Actor Charles
58 Center
60 Fam mombor
61 Annapolis grad.
63 Upto.brefty
Today is The Daily
Collegian's last issue for the
fall semester. Happy
Holidays and we'll see vou
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