T h e D a il y T ex an Page12 Fnday.Aprii 27.1990 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT STILL WITH MITCH Spry bandleader reminisces, mocks the Stones and flirts with Texan' photographer

Sha Tsur sang it. And then they sung hvmns exar b*a~ on Sunday night around the piano, so it's an old tradition.'' WITH THE AUSTIN / j -1 r here are no W ell, the days when Mom, Pop and the rest of the family would CHORAL UNION original ideas Where Palmer Auditorium gather around the Stein wav to belt anyw here, it s When Saturday Ca«476-5461 for how ou execute out She Uore a Yellou? Ribbon are long details L’a r i a them claims since gone, replaced bv the age of Mitch Miller MTV and politically conscious rock v% hen asked stars. It seems as though the transi­ , Irving Berlin, about the origin tion from the of the Cole Porter ... and who do vou have CHOIR of his > ng Along late 40s and earlv 30s w’ould have now. You have Steve Sondheim shows ir the been rough on someone like Miller. and Llovd Webber." mid nOs. He seemsto be a relic ot And. although it is widely said that Miller makes it perfectlv clear that an ear.-.vr age, likeyour great-uncle Miller was one of rock's first critics, the diminutive English composer Shlomo, with his open, friendly he takes exception to that character­ rK'h 8°y Jo*s not rank high on his persona and bushy Van Dvke ization. list. "I guarantee you can't sing me beard in hi- iate ~0s or earlv80 s Everybody thinks I was against four bars of any one of Webber's his bio doesn'tspecify). Miller is rock music. I was against radio sta­ songs. So you have only Steve Son­ still livelyand animated waving his tions all playing only rock music. dheim. And so there's a paucity and trademark cigararound and flirting This was before FM. Now with FM you go to a Broadway show and with theTexan photographer in his you have your choice, which is all you come out singing the scenery. gravelly.Brook!vn-accented voice. people ask for.” In fact, Miller has It's either derivative, third-rate Puc­ Although it is now somethingof a rather outspoken views on the cini as it is with Pkantoh of the Opera genre. television footnote,between No? — well, he steals from everybody ac­ and i% , s :ng Along was popular A ou have artists like Rav Charles tually — but you have wonderful tare on the tube. Mitchand orches­ or , they're fabu­ stagecraft and people are hustled tra took the traditionof the movie lous. i ou must remember that rock into it." house bouncing ball sing-alongs of in America and in England was Miller, however, does seem the '30s to bring such classics as nothing more than a rip-off of black amused by the revivalist trend of to­ A-:en the Red Red Robin Comes Bet. music. The public wasn't ready to day's rock where the '60s wash-ups Bob Bobbin Along andHome m the accept it from black musicians so drag their rusty old bones out on Range to the homesof the American they took watered white-bread ver­ tour again. viewing public. Althoughlvrics the sions from white musicians." It s verv interesting also that vou were captioned Miller stresses that Rock music aside, for his appear­ have guys now in their 40s or 50s, he no. er had a bouncing ball.”You won t catch cultural icon and stogie-smokin Mitch Miller in line to buy tickets to see those furbails in Cafsance with the Austin Choral Union, vou know, KISS is coming here," he The Sing Along shows werejust Miller has arranged an evening of chuckles. Those guys are all 40 music focusing on the great Ameri­ another step in the career of Mitch Half Price Books or in the stacks of Tt wasn't an easv sell because years old. And — with their songerbunds, vou had can musicals and composers. It ap­ Miller. A classically trained oboistwax at your grandparents' house, [the network] said, 'You have no a couple of them are 50 years old. who toured with George Gershwin the Italians singing for every occa­ pears to be a testament to the last­ sold incredibly well (in fact his 1958 stars. What thev didn't realize is The way you judge rock music is in the 3t s, Millerwas working as sion, you had the Swedes with their ing popularity of the composers of Christmas album is still in demand that if you re good on television, what will be around after they've the nead of Columbia's Popular Mu­ Saint Olaf's Choir, even body sang. the early part of this century, as and will soon see re-release by then you're a star overnight." Before radio and television vou had gone. Where with all these guvs sic division when he recorded the Time-Life records, a deal Miller was well as a statement on the problems that I mentioned to you [Cole Porter first of theSing Along albums. And, he explains, "America is a the piano in the house, vou went to with musical theater todav. working on dunng the interview), singing nation. All the ethnic et al.J, their music rises to the top The albums many of which can the five-and-dime and listened to a "Well, I'll give you a good exam­ well enough to spawn the TV pro­ groups that came here huddled to­ and stays there like rich cream and shli be found in the record bins at song and bought the sheet music ple, ' he explains. "In one genera­ gram several years later. gether so you had the Germans and went home and played and no one's promoting it, just the ex­ tion you had [great musicians like] cellence of their songs." •Vacation’ strays Chromatics secure with ties that bind Michele Bowman too far from home Daily Texan Staff The entertainment world Jarmusch s first film lacks life, sly humor has always been fascinated with sibling performers. Jeff Turrentine From the Everlys and Os­ Daily Texan Staff PERMANENT monds to today's Zappas and VACATION Penns, audiences seem to get Starring Cfrstopher Parker an extra thrill from seeing I s there a Director Jim Jarmusch FOLK familial units in the arts. And war on?” asks Playing at Union Theatre, Friday when siblings appear in the the crazed, in­ and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. same band, as with the Aus­ stitutionalized Rating ★ ★ (out of four) tin s Chromatics, family ties create a unique and mother of main refreshing venture in music. character Alov- with the boy's homeless existence, From their humble beginnings around their sious Parker in devoid of emotional connections, mother s piano and in an Austin church choir, FILM Jim Jarmusch's separated by a wall of Cool from Svnde and Saffron Parten found that their voices Permanent Va­ any who might make up an ersatz sounded good together, and w'hether genetics or cation. family or circle of close friends. their musical environment was to credit, these Everything about this film Jar­ Aloysious' life (and presumably two young women grew up singing. They musch s first, suggests that it's formed a simple act about seven vears ago which taking place in some sort or battle Christopher's), as he puts it, resembles a "connect-the-dots:" a consisted of Svnde and Saffron plaving acoustic zone; images of abandoned and guitars and singing. Add brother Stacy (Synde's decrepit lower-Manhattan build­ perpetual process of starting and stopping, a transitory existence twin) on vocals and guitar, and Tito Walsh on ings, scenes of the psychologically bass, and a primarily acoustic-based sister act infirm babbling and singing to contingent on constant motion and the avoidance, at all costs, of evolved into a full-fledged band. themselves, a pervasive Zeitgeist settling down. or desperation and hopelessness. An earthy vet punctuated blend of folk rock The war though it may have only Thus the movie consists of noth­ and country blues is the result of this collabora­ existed in the minds of its scarred ing but the fragmented events of a tion. The two women's voices match perfectlv, The Parten clan will never have to find a band to play their family reunions and weddings. veterans ha- taken its toll. two-day odyssey: Allie visits his and with Stacy's added bass, the vocals on their debut album, Never Enough, are richly layered. mother in the institution, haunts taken to punk and pop bands such as Joy Divi­ Fans of Jarmusch s other films Session player A1 Billings' electric guitar work THE CHROMATICS may wonder at first whether Vaca­ an old burned-out building he sion and U2. used to call home, meets a beauti­ puntuates songs like Say What and the title song Where; Colorado Street Cafe, 705 Colorado St.; tion was actually helmed bv the With the recent addition of an avid fan- ful lunatic and a junkie and a sax and adds a certain flamboyance to the primarily ureen Mesquite. 1400 Barton Springs Road. same director who has brought au­ When Friday, 8:30 p.m.; Saturday. 7 p.m., furned-manager and the excitement of inclusion player (Jarmusch regular John Lu­ folkish acoustic guitars of the sisters. diences such idiosyncratic gems as respectively in South by Southwest, the band has come a Stranger than Paradise, Dozen by Law rie), steals a car, sells it to a fence The album is a collection of songs whose long way in just two short years. They have and hops aboard a ship for Paris. unique style lies in the harmonies generated by and Mystery Tram. Disturbed by the military's insensitivity to the garnered a following at both Chicago House and Vacation looks and feels like a the Partens, and the Chromatics' ability to span the Austin Outhouse, and they expect to tour In those films, Jarmusch cele­ a wide musical range is indicative of their di­ madness it breeds with its war machines, she brated the mundane bv injecting documentary, due partly to Jar­ began writing the lyrics, and Svnde was able to Texas within the year. Synde and Saffron's ap­ musch s employing non-actors in verse talents. Doin Fine Daddy, a country-tinged peal recently landed them a job singing back-up awkwardly actionless, "boring” ballad, is followed by the acoustic folksv What's help her sister finish, expressing her own situations with sly humor; in Vaca­ most of the roles (a convention in­ discontent with the loud jets that roar over her vocals for Townes Van Zant. digenous to the downtown New Changed, and other songs reflect the band's ver­ With road gigs to Central Texas towns like San tion, that humor, or the verv idea satility in rock and blues. Austin home. A stinging criticism of military that there s gold to be found with­ Wave genre of filmmaking, of build-up is the result, and this haunting song Marcos and San Antonio as well as increasing in those awkward moments, is which Vacation was a shining ex­ The Chromatics' strength, though, is in their flows beautifully. airplay on major radio stations around the state, ample upon its 1980 release). dedication to their music. Synde and Saffron col­ the Chromatics have been almost too busy to conspicuously absent. Synde and Saffron cite a varied list of earlv The gritty 16 mm color and the laborate on the songwriting, churning out tunes notice that they are gaining popularity among In it- stead Jarmusch — for influences which includes artists such as Joni central Texas audiences. But pride in their work L age-inspired sound track (Jar­ in which one sister will begin writing the lyrics Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. They whom the film con-titirted a mas­ and the other will often finish. and stability in their band have given The Chro­ ter - thesis at NY L - film school — musch says it's Javanese) add to explain that they loved anything they could har­ the film s subversive atmosphere jets is a perfect example, according to Saffron. matics a chance to succeed, and they are hopeful fill- the gaps w ith a disappointing­ monize along with. More recently, thev have that their unique talents will only grow. ly trite, college-bov angst. The re­ but always it s a subversiveness sult is a veryself-conscious film overly conscious of itself, and thus that begs the viewer to accept its rendered merely pretentious. self-consciousness as art. Still, Vacation is worth seeing, if Jarman’s visual chaos ‘Last’ but not least The character of Alovsious is es­ only to catch Jarmusch precocious­ sentially a barebones fictionaliza- ly arranging the building blocks tion of the actor, Christopher Par­ Jen Howze that will serve as the foundations Daily Texan Staff ker, who plays him. for his later films. Between the THE LAST OF ENGLAND Starring: Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh Jarmusch met Parker when Par­ cloving "artiness” of this film and ker was a 14-vear-old urchin Director Derek Jarman the inspired brilliance of his next, Anyone who has watched Playing at Hogg Auditorium, Friday through haunting the streets of lower Man­ Stranger than Paradise, Jim Jar­ MT \ in the past few years Sunday, 7:30 p.m. hattan, hanging out at CBGB's. musch did an awful lot of growing will be accustomed to the Rating: ★ ★ ★ (out of four) The director became fascinated up. I barrage of images screaming ^ j j^ j out of ¡he Last of England becomes an unrelenting horror show made more In!:- of -earing color ca, o- frightening by its reality. ■HHNUEjUH phonous music and discor­ Just like Jarman s ski-masked terrorists, foot­ CRITIC’S CHOICE FILM dant clips wheel around in age of "freedom fighters" can be seen daily on this latest Derek Jarman fea­ national news along with scenes of wreckage ERIC JOHNSON ture film, much like every that once was a city. All the while, the govern­ third video during 120 minutes. Theres nofhmg wrong with the ment boasts national pride and capitalism, ignor- But Jarman's 8/ minutes carry a mesmerizing way Eric Johnson sounds No, ing problems of the disenfranchised and the rott­ Johnson’s problem lies in the fact message of the disintegration of British culture ing environment. missing from your average British band video, that his Sound sounds the same A burning of Atlanta, postmodern style. Thrust out in such a way, England forces the from album to album, track to with an arresting melange of urban-industrial viewer to think about this'inexorable slide of a ruin, erotica and old home video clips. track. able but unidentifiable. national culture and how its superficial ideals That's not to say his new Capitol For example, the camera circles around a Jarman establishes a few characters, using a have led to the current situation. And, of course, releaseAh Via Musicom Is a disas­ young tough humping a Renaissance painting, what lies ahead. By touching upon aspects of ter; Johnson still finds himself couple of his regulars, Tilda Swinton and Spen­ Jarmon cuts to the figure of a child, then back cer Leigh f he characters provide a framework sex, violence, disenchantment, love and power awash in melodies for their own again. through the short vignettes, Jarman shows sake, creating an album s worth of for the problems that accost England and the Fire, a demolished building. The punk wiUps through his eyes what England has become. guitar wizardry that ultimately be­ English people. Short, recurring scenarios sec­ a cord around his arm, hitting his arm in search comes distant and detached For tion oft different aspects of life, thereby explor­ The medium and the style strike a chord of of a vein. someone hailed as an exciting ing the parts that lead back to the whole mes- familiarity to the TV generation while the deeper and fresh blues practitioner John­ In a similar manner, the film convincingly doc­ sage. message hits a mark more base and more terrify­ son comes off as nothing short of uments a spiral of decline, all hung against a ing. Using the tools of society, Jarman delivers a But although the sounds and images contain a unmistakable message. Destruction is a theme of boring. curtain of music, sporadic narration, news type of cohesion and rhythm, England isn't an broadcasts and intertwined sounds, recogniz- life. It can't be avoided, so don't try to chance easy film to watch. The scene after scene parade the channel.

Austin Daily Texan, Austin, Texas, US Apr 27, 1990, Page 12 https://newspaperarchive.com/austin-daily-texan-apr-27-1990-p-12/