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Home , Break Up the Concrete, Chrissie Hynde, Learning to Crawl, Martin Chambers, Pete Farndon, The Pretenders

taipei times

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6 , 2 0 0 8 PAGE   1 3

[ THE WEEKENDER ] Her city’s not gone, Cloud Gate scales new peak and neither is she with live music

The Pretender’s new ‘Concrete’ By Diane Baker makes clear that ’s recent Staff reporter thoughts have largely been shaped by a traditional factor: spending more time in her hometown, Akron,

By ALAN LIGHT NY Times News Service, MANSFIELD, Massachusetts

garage rockers ) has been hit hard for “Chrissie is as subtle as napalm,” Chambers said in a decades; unemployment hovers well above the national phone interview. “She’s absolutely uncompromising. She average, and only one rubber manufacturer remains in the knows when there’s something wrong that needs to be Horse Dance Theater: interesting but former Rubber Capital of the World. fixed, and she does it.” uneven. photo courtesy of C Chen C Chang-chih Hynde might seem an unlikely cheerleader. She moved The album’s title track is a high-speed meditation to , her primary residence, in the early 1970s and on urban sprawl and cultural homogenization, but at only recently took an apartment in Akron. But she has Farm Aid, Hynde expressed optimism. She cited wider loud Gate Dance Theatre’s (雲門舞集) performance of Moon written about her hometown in songs like My City Was acceptance of and increased attention to C Water at the National Theater last Monday night with Gone, and it offers an opportunity to champion causes downtown areas as evidence of changing attitudes. Russian cellist Mischa Maisky can be summed up in just one like mass transit and urban renewal. “I have a very good sense of these things,” she said. word: sublime. “My parents are really old now, and I want to be “Like when I was moving around in the 1970s, trying to It was a fascinating show, even for those who had seen Moon around more,” she said. “I’m trying to discover my own get a band together. I went to , I went to Paris, Water many times before, because Maisky’s playing took the relationship to Akron — there’s a resonance you get when but around 1976, I could just sense something was going whole production to a higher level. I know that the dancers were you go back to the place you were born.” to happen in London. Sure enough, in 1977 the whole apprehensive because they had never performed the piece to live Most notably, last year she opened a vegan restaurant punk thing broke loose. And I have that same feeling right music before and had only had a brief run-through on Sunday in Akron called the VegiTerranean. Hynde is an animal now about America. evening with him. But it wasn’t a case of Maisky accompanying rights activist and has been arrested several times in “Believe me, I don’t feature any false optimism. I’m the dancers; he and the dancers became one. He obviously protests (once for slashing leather products in a Gap very realistic about things. But I can sense that there is enjoyed playing for and watching the dancers, just as they clearly store in Manhattan). At Farm Aid, she wore a T-shirt this change coming, and a lot of it is because people will delighted in having him on stage. reading “Tax Meat” and called for a day when “all have no choice.” Moon Water calls for incredible fluidity on the part of the McDonald’s and slaughterhouses are burned to the Though have never matched the peaks dancers and the dancers appeared to be water themselves, Above: The Pretenders’ new album, . ground” — presumably not a sentiment shared by the of their 1979 debut (which included the hit Brass in bending, curving and twisting their bodies so easily it was hard to Top right: The Pretenders, class of 2008: from left, , cattle farmers present. Pocket) and 1984’s glorious (Back on believe they were human. One can only hope that the company’s Chrissie Hynde, Nick Wilkinson, Eric Heywood and James Walbourne. “There wasn’t one vegetarian restaurant in Akron, so I the Chain Gang), the band managed to become a kind of two performances last week with Maisky will not be the last.  Photo: ny times news service said, ‘I’ll do it,’ and it’s just been a phenomenon,” she said. institution. Hynde’s bravado and ragged style influenced On Saturday afternoon, the five-man Horse Dance She described its “international flavor, right down to the subsequent female rockers from and Liz Theater (驫舞劇場) delivered a never-less-than-interesting but ackstage at the 23rd annual Farm Aid concert, tea bag in the pot”; at its opening, she personally served Phair to Lucinda Williams; today, her spirit is visible in uneven performance of Bones before a packed house in sound of Kenny Chesney’s voice filled the air. veggie burgers to police officers. the likes of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Experimental Theater. B Chrissie Hynde cursed at her cellphone, pulled off “Everybody told me, ‘Don’t do it, it will not work,’” she “Why hasn’t a movie been made about her?” said the The five men who make up Horse have very different person- her boots and curled up on a couch, following a sundown said of the restaurant. “But I had to do it anyway, because pop-rocker Katy Perry. “She is the pioneer for female alities as well as dancing and choreographic styles. This means set by the latest configuration of her band, the Pretenders. I had to have somewhere I could eat. And more than the rockers with her personal style, a female Mick Jagger, but there is no single style, no single voice, which can be a plus in In typically ornery fashion, the majority of songs they music, it’s what I’m about. To me, the music is a vehicle more punk.” terms of creativity; the downside is that democracy is a difficult performed came from an album that was weeks away so I can have a voice. Every few years, the spotlight swings back to her: ideal to achieve in a company. from reaching stores: Break Up the Concrete, the first “I don’t think the world really needs another Pretenders her appearance on , for example, or Carrie As in previous Horse productions, the solos and duets were Pretenders album in six years (which will be released record. But frankly, I was getting embarrassed because we Underwood’s cover of I’ll Stand by You. Despite its punk wonderful, especially Chou Shu-yi’s (周書毅) solo to the what tomorrow on Shangri-La Music; that night, the band will hadn’t made a record in so long. And we were doing a lot origins (Hynde played in early versions of and sounded like crackling sounds of ice breaking up on a river. perform at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan). of touring, and I just can’t stomach doing those old songs the Damned), the band is now a staple on classic rock Chou is a beautiful dancer who always leaves you wanting “Ambition is not my middle name,” Hynde said. anymore. It’s just torture.” radio and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of to see more of him. The harpsichord music for Cheng Tsung- “But I don’t care — I’m up to my eyeballs most of the As she began to work on new songs, she found her Fame in 2005. lung’s (鄭宗龍) solo provided the perfect counterpoint to his time goofing off. I’m kind of a , so the idea was direction changing. “Spending more time in Akron, I was Hynde, though, adamantly refuses to think in terms very cerebral, architectural-style of dance. You can almost not to have goals or anything. Just moving around and getting more of an American feel in my sensibility,” she of the band’s legacy. “I hate all that,” she said, calling the measure the exact degree of each hand movement, each angle observing and living life; that’s necessary before you said. In addition, the Pretenders toured last year with ZZ Hall of Fame “another American cheesy moment.” She of a leg or arm. Cheng’s earlier duet with Yang Yu-min (楊育鳴) can make a record anyway.” Top, and Hynde participated in a tribute concert to Jerry added: “A Hall of Fame is for sports. It was a big deal to was another highlight. Sipping a nonalcoholic beer and smoking a hand-rolled Lee Lewis. When she went to Joshua Tree National Park my parents, but I don’t see it as any kind of honor.” As an all-male troupe, Horse has a unique dynamic, but there cigarette, Hynde, 57, remains as rail thin as she was in California and found where the ashes of the alternative- The common perception is that, at some point, the has always been an element of slapstick, which in Bones ranges almost three decades ago, when the Pretenders’ self-titled country pioneer had been scattered, “I sort Pretenders turned into a solo project, backed by whatever from trading slaps and a “bone-naming game” to a well executed debut album perfectly melded punk energy with British of had my epiphany there and I thought, Wow, I think I musicians Hynde pulls together. She said, however, that “puppet master” showdown between Yang, on Cheng’s shoulders, Invasion style and hooks. She now allows some gray know how this thing is going to go now.” the Pretenders will always remain a genuine band. “I’ve and Chen Wu-kang (陳武康) perched atop Su Wei-chia (蘇威嘉). streaks to show through her trademark black bangs, but Cut live in the studio in less than two weeks, changed the band over the years, but I’ve never been With a blazingly all-white set, great lighting and a subtle with her makeup smeared from the heat of the late-after- Concrete is loose and scrappy, shot through with sued, I’ve always remained friends with the guys,” she though incredibly varied sound score from Frenchman Yannick noon stage, she still looked every bit the rock legend. rockabilly and country. It offers yet another version of said. “They can see that I can’t play very good, but I’ve got Dauby, the focus in Bones was solely on the dancers. This was a Discussing Concrete, though, it becomes clear that the Pretenders, whose lineup Hynde has continually a certain vision — and that my loyalty always has to be to plus in that neither the dancers nor the audience was distracted Hynde’s recent thoughts have largely been shaped by juggled since the deaths of the founding guitarist, James the music first.” by props. But it also make it clear that Bones is a production a traditional factor: spending more time in her home- Honeyman-Scott, and the bassist in the “I never would have been interesting if it would have that is still evolving. Small companies like Horse, however, can’t town, Akron, Ohio. Like the rest of the Rust Belt, Akron early 1980s. The drummer Martin Chambers, the other been me alone,” Hynde concluded. “If it was Chrissie afford long runs of any one show. It’s a pity because Bones has (also the birthplace of eccentrics like the filmmaker Jim most consistent member, is touring with the band, but Hynde and her guitar, we wouldn’t even be having this great potential and a few more performances would give Horse Jarmusch, the country outlaw David Allen Coe and the the session ace plays drums on the album. conversation. You wouldn’t even know who I was.” the time to refine the production. PLANET

arlos sees himself one day heading up a years ago when he said he had given up listen to the whole compilation, but they C Santana is church in Hawaii. Santana also told the on acting, can think again. Eastwood has could not buy it. on tour and has an magazine about the pain of recently changed his mind. The Academy Award- Janet Jackson has postponed three album coming out, going through a divorce from his wife of winning director, who was promoting his more shows because of an undisclosed but in an interview 34 years, Deborah. latest film Changeling at the New York illness. with Brazilian race car driver Helio Film Festival on Thursday, began acting Her publicist said in an e-mail late posted online Castroneves and his sister and lawyer more than 50 years ago and gained fame Saturday that Jackson was postponing on Friday the were indicted on Thursday on charges of playing tough-minded cowboys and cops. a Saturday show in Greensboro, North rocker said conspiring to defraud the US of taxes on More than 60 artists, including Thus far, 61 artists have signed up Carolina, one yesterday in Atlanta and a he US$5.55 million of income, prosecutors Radiohead, Robbie Williams and the to the coalition, which was officially third tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale. said. The two-time Indianapolis Kaiser Chiefs announced Saturday launched yesterday in the northwest A statement from Jackson said she 500 winner and his sister, Katiucia they had banded together to seek more English city of Manchester. arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, Castroneves, were also charged with six rights over their music and break free of It is fighting for changes to laws that hoping to perform there Saturday, but a counts of income tax evasion for the record labels. govern business in the music industry local doctor advised that she not perform years 1999 through 2004. The Featured Artists’ Coalition (FAC) so that artists always ultimately own the after it became “evident’’ she was not Singer Natalie Cole is resting in bed aims to “give artists the voice they need rights to their music, rather than record fully recovered. at her Los Angeles home after being to argue for greater control over their labels. Representatives for the 42-year-old hospitalized in New York last month music,” amid new opportunities provided The FAC is also calling for, among singer say she became “suddenly ill’’ because of a setback in her battle with by Internet, the group said in a statement. other things, artists to receive “fair and was hospitalized Monday night in Hepatitis C, her spokeswoman said on “It is time for artists to have a strong compensation whenever their business Montreal shortly after she arrived for Thursday. The Grammy-award winning collective voice to stand up for their inter- partners receive an economic return from a show. She also canceled concerts in POP singer, 58, canceled her tour dates next ests,” said Brian Message, co-manager of the exploitation of the artists’ work.” Boston and Philadelphia on Wednesday month and all other appearances after Radiohead and Kate Nash. Several groups have recently used the and Thursday. spending about a week in the hospital “The digital landscape is changing Internet to promote their music directly Jackson’s publicist did not elaborate last month.� fast and new deals are being struck to fans, often bypassing record labels Saturday, only saying she was “recuper- Clint Eastwood spends more time all the time, but all too often without entirely, including Radiohead, which ating.’’ The note said Jackson will return behind the camera these days directing reference to the people who actually launched their latest album In Rainbows home, at her doctor’s direction, for films. But anyone who believed him a few make the music.” in October 2007 on the Web. further treatment. Message said the FAC would “help all Last week, Oasis posted its new album In the note Jackson said the promoter Right: Can Clint Eastwood be taken at his word? artists, young and old, well-known or not, Dig Out Your Soul on Internet social is working to reschedule dates. Left: Janet Jackson is feeling under the weather. drive overdue change through the indus- networking site MySpace in advance of Jackson is on her first North American  photo: ap try in their interests and those of fans.” its commercial release, allowing fans to tour in seven years. — agencies