European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 19, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Genuinely weird pop fringe groups by Michael Anft special to the Baltimore evening Buff or the residents pore Ubu and Young upstarts slump commercial Success is Root Only unexpected by Mosby shunned. The Hrco groups have put out new albums in recent months proving hat As hard As some artists shool Tor the lop of the pops others Are Content 1o make singular statements Hal stretch pop s possibilities in More Blunt terms he i Roe groups Are strange. Even by pop Avail Garde standards. The residents san Francisco s comic performance Art terrorists Are the eldest sons of a lineage that stretches Back to the King of delightful weirdness Captain Boe theart. Formed in the Early 70s, Trie residents have managed to successfully Dodge predictability with the exception of its uniforms Large eyeballs Over heir Heads along with top hats canes and suits seemingly Stofen from a wedding party. Tha residents music has taken on Many pc Ems from the one minute Send ups on its Commerce album to to off beat anti evangelist pose they assume on their latest god in three persons always they have used campy horns grating electronic noises now favored by a slew of Diwali cycled Western european groups and a Cavalier approach to subject Mailer. The Bottom line strange humor. God in three persons like everything the group has Ever done is a mixed bag. One thai May iry your patience Al limes and Ihen Reward it with a double Lentendre or a frighteningly rendered scenario. The theme Lor this year is Southern religion on which it seems id be open season these Days in pop the disc stars Oft with a belly laugh As song sly isl Laurie amal sings through she album s credits groups like the residents shun commercial Success their Bottom line strange humor. With the detached self Imp Orlando of a preacher and the melancholy of a supplicant. From there Iho residents veer off in comic opera directions intoning in drawl above a sea of bleating horns electronic blips and very Littie else that stays in locus for very Long. The Best moments Are , like the Phillip Glass meets the chipmunks flavor of loss of loved one on which Amat advises the listener during a Dirge this is the sad no kidding. Bui the residents can gel a bit scary too As on the Labyrinthine kiss of flesh a psycho sexual Nightmare narrated by the preacher victim. There is no Way in could have been this Way for Jim and Jessica you think to yourself. Despite the frequent twists and turns which Are the poll Here More than any plot line. Gad in three persons strangely manages to draw Iha listener in if As always he does not mind working at it a Littfe. Pera Ubu escaped trom the cultural abyss of Cleveland in is late 70s, making Post Modem pop that made neuroses seem hip and attractive to a group of soon to be popular cousins most notably talking Meads. But Ubu never gave in to pop excess despite its rather Sirai Ghl ahead approach to rhythms and song structures. Pere Ubu s oddness Lay in its ability to give simple ideas Art Edge Hal cuts through a cluttered mix Allen Ravenstine s Spike Jones like approach to synthesizers and David Thomas on the Brink of Sani by vocals Are two of the few incomparable in pop today. Tha group s latest. The tenement year offers skewed lean blues Rock say goodbye surrealistic tribute to the legacy of Bee heart Yoorga had Al Hal and weird White boy reggae Fol Iylym King. The group plays with those genres until it has achieved an aural mishmash that All but obliterates them. But it is thai Fine Lino Between tribute and creation Hal makes the tenement Vear another leather in the Ubu Cap. Slump meanwhile Are the new kids on the Block. Tha Anglo Irish quartet is All the rage in Britain now earning a Mountain of press clippings hat seems a fait much Tor a band that has been around Lor Only three years. Unfortunately As Public enemy once advised we should not believe the hypo. Stump s a fierce Pancake is largely Wanton nonsense which is of bul it is nonsense thai seems a bit precious and convoluted which is to. The Banos Besl moments occur when in is Content to be a Quirky pop combo As on the melodic Anthem like cynical Dis Ogise on greed in the Green and the Chimney alcohol. Elsewhere slump loses its Way confusing popping basses guitar Glissando Choppy counter rhythms and surrealistic Stream of consciousness Wilh a real musical philosophy. They Are not really that funny either. Stump seems a Bil Lull o itself yet which Means Hal its Little in jokes and hackneyed instrumental approaches do nol display the maturity in lakes to pan out on the strange circuit. It will have to learn that it takes a lot of time and Effort a be genuinely weird. Bon Jov bumming a ride on the new Jersey Turnpike the Baltimore Sunset s get one thing straight from he Slart naw Jersey s most famous Rocker is nol Jon Bon Jovi. Even though Slippery when wet. Bon Jovi s last album was the runaway Best seller last year and despite having been declared a hard Rock hunk by Icen magazines and rolling Stone alike the Singer nonetheless ranks As second banana to the Garden stale s most celebrated favorite son Bruce Springsteen. And nobody knows it belter than Bon Jovi himself. Why else would he have named his new album new Jersey and then packed in with a collection of Bruc isms Bon Jovi May nol sound exactly Ilka the Boss he and his band were sprung from cages out on Highway 9, Chrome wheeled fuel injected and Sleppin out Over the Lina but they certainly do nol seem above bumming a ride. That is not to say thai new Jersey comes across like a cheap cloning a sort of Bridge and Tunnel of Bon Jovi s musical identity is far Loo distinct Lor that. And the strongest songs Here Botn to be my baby Slick la your guns and the incredibly Catchy bad Medicine sound like this band and no other. Bad Medicine in particular is As winning a piece of hard Rock As is Likely to be heard this year. With a witly Tyric and an infectious chorus it is almost impossible to resist humming along after a verse or two better still the band plays with a rhythmic Felicity that winks at the bouncy Energy of Funk As it pushes the song along and if the notion of Bon Jovi As Closel Funk sters seems hard to Swallow Ihen Why does our boy Jon ape Michael Jackson with a gulped who s bad who s bad in the closing chorus but ii is hard to listen to the Gruff rasp of Bon Jovi s voice working against the acoustic guitars of love Lor Sale without thinking of Springsteen s Ain t got you or hear the mumbled narration and howled whoa oohs that Climax living to sin without recalling Jung Elandor a half dozen other Springsteen epics thai is not to say that Bon Jovi is stealing from Springsteen exactly after All a Large part of the Boss own vocabulary was assembled from pieces of Bob Dylan Van Morrison and others. To an extent a Bon Jovi has Dono is extend the line of influence one step further. Still it i hard to look at the likes of blood on blood without suspecting that Bon Jovi is Oul to prove that there is More than one Jersey boy capable of pulling poetry from the streets. Whal rankles is nol that the song reads like Mythi fied autobiography three kids make a blood pact to stand As Brothers for All time so much As that it seems to run on pure cliche take the opening Couplet Lor instance. I can still remember sings our hero Whan i was just a yeah Well who can til was t thai Long ago was in maybe in was though Lor this we learn was a Lime when friends were friends forever and what you said was what you in other words a More innocent Lime Belore the corruption and compromises of adulthood. And How did Young Jon and his pals Spond their idyllic unspoiled youth like typical american boys of course stealing cigarettes and sharing a White trash girl in a cheap hotel room. Just Good clean fun. Meanwhile the rest of the Bon Jovi band is sitting in the background grinding out strikingly familiar dramatic nourishes from the opening piano figure David Bryan swiped from Jung to and a durable source that song to the Way the arrangement apes the orchestral majesty of Middle period Springsteen All of which might have been More excusable fifths wednesday. October 19. 1988 Lyric had not gone out in a Blaze of predictability. One of the things Hal makes Springsteen s musical reminiscences so believable is Hal he seems to realize How Lucky he was to wind up a Rich Rock Star and not a working stiff in a dead end Job like Many of tha Guys Wilh whom he grew up. But Jon Bon Jovi cannot resist spreading the glory around his boyhood buddies it seems Are All big timers now with Bobby the fake id artist an Uptown while Danny Ine Youl bul procurer has become a Medicine add in a deep dark secret threatening a three of them and blood on blood could be been As pal As a Sydney Sheldon pot boiler. Making it seem All the More ludicrous is that Bon Jovi does not really need to stack the deck like that. Look at born to be my baby. It would be hard to imagine a simpler Sunli non. Nor one that has been More completely worked Over by other songwriters. And yet in is one of the mos t effective affecting songs on the album. Why for one thing Bon Jovi is one of the few songwriters working today who understands How to put heavy Melody Inlo hard Rock without compromising either. Like Livin on to prayer rom the last album. Born to be is built around High Impact Hooks and an Industrial strength chorus making it a potent piece of pop product. Bui what really puts the song across is the obvious commitment of the performance. When Bon Jovi sings you were born to be my baby and baby i was made to be your Man Here is no doubt in the listener s mind that he Means every word. It May be a simple act of Faith but it s the sort of gut level reaction Rock has always been based upon. That is what Bon Jovi docs Best and new Jersey would have bean absolutely perfect had the band stuck with in. As it is. The album is Likely to sell at least As Well As its predecessor and please As Many fans. That said though it seems a shame to Settle for Success when greatness was within reach. The stars and stripes Page 17
