December 2,1994 serspE£tii£( ?i)t teutlforftan 5 Music Review Guilford Social Life: In Need of a Party House Mark Punders Assistant Professor ofPhysics Liz O'Brien and Chapel Hill. People staying on campus would be benefitted by spending more so- Writer Sugar?File Under: Easy Listening Staff cial time together, getting to know each other better?therefore increasing the feel- Hegel was right! As evidence, consider A large factor in my decision to attend ing ofcommunity Guilford so prides itself the history of music: Guilford College was the college's absence on. Thesis?melody of a Greek system?l'd long believed this Guilford's party house would also provide Antithesis ?noise to be stupid and exclusive. Ibrushed aside financial benefits to students, as it would Synthesis?Sugar worries about a boring social scene at Guil- be completely free for all to enter. There- With this ironically titled album, ford, telling myself that there would be fore, the house would be an inexpensive sub- bandleader Bob Mould continues to map out plenty to do. Where there were college stu- stitute to the over-priced, over-rated dance an idiosyncratic musical course both blis- dents, there were parties, right? clubs Guilford students too often find them- tering and beautiful. The relentlessly pounding vocals of the But upon arrival in Greensboro I soon selves dragged to as their only alternative The opening track, "Gift," gives a good rhythmic "Can't Help You Anymore" are found myself sitting on my bed on a Friday to sitting in their dorm-room all night. introduction towhat's in store. It opens with interlaced with 'ooh-ah's and 'doo-doo- night, stuffing food in my face and watch- The main opposition to a social house two-chord fuzztone riffing, which is joined doo's. ing reruns of Bonanza. And I wasn't the would probably come from the members of by a keening guitar overlay, and then by a "Granny Cool" is a glam-rocking bump- only one: "I figured out quickly that, un- the Gulford Security department, anticipat- rapid-fire vein, and ends in a feedback-fest. and-grind; its not-very-melodic vocal chang less you could afford going to concerts and ing problems arising from under-age drink- Yet it manages to carry a melody and de- delivers stinging mockery (of whom, Iwish clubs all the time, you got really, really ing that the socially active environment liver (with oddly muffled vocals) poignant I knew!): "It's such a groovy thing/Your bored," says first-year student Kersten might produce. But such fears would be lyrics: "Try to look inside of me/To find hating everything/I wouldn't want to be/ Schmidt, voicing a widely-felt dissatisfac- unfounded: The party house would have a the gift that I am giving/Glad you had a Stuck in a room with you." tion in Guilford's social scene. Like strict policy on under-age drinking and chance to see/The giftthat I'm delivering." Remarkably, the lilting "Believe What Kersten, and other students, Ifound myself stamp the hands at the door of those under- This album ranges widely within the ter- You're Saying" has nary a whiffof guitar in need of a place to go where I could just age in the same fashion as at a well-regu- ritory of Sugar's musical synthesis. Neat distortion, like Mould's first solo album, "hang out" with other Guilford students: A lated dance club. In this manner, parties at categorizations thus being impossible, we Workbook. spacious, noisy, nonexclusive, fun, party the house could be kept under control. might as welllook at the songs in the order The album closes with "Explode and house. Someday soon the bored students ofGuil- they appear. Make Up," a rumbling plaintive lament By providing a place to go and relax with ford must unite and demand of the powers "YourFavorite Thing" is the first single, through which noise swells and subsides; it friends on the weekends, such a house would that be (perhaps the Union or the Senate?) and not coincidentally the most 'pop' song features the album's closest approach to a greatly reduce the huge tide ofroad-trippers that they be given satisfaction through the on the album. With lead guitar casting an traditional rock guitar solo. spilling out of campus like programmed creation of a social house. But until that to lemmings Friday afternoons. there irresistible melodic hook, it's not unlike The only song that fails satisfy is the on If day, us would-be partyers willstillbe found Copper Blue's "If I Can't Change Your only one not written by Mould. Bassist were a fun party house here pit Guilford, sitting on our beds most weekends, shoving there would no need to seek out the over- watching Mind." x, in David Barbe's mid-tempo "Company be Oreos down our throats and T.V. crowded, smelly Frat parties at "What You Want It to Be" is fairly som- Book" offers a wallof grittily distorted gui- N.C. State ber, with a Neil Young-like repeated-note tar without much variation; the melody is guitar solo, and steadily pulsing bass fur- carried by Barbe's high-pitched Sixties-ish ther up in the mix than elsewhere. vocals. And unlike Mould's intensely per- It's not too late! "Gee Angel" is the track most readily sonal lyrics, those of "Company Book" dis- Positions are still open, and help is always wanted! identifiable as 'punk'; declaimed lyrics al- tantly sketch a faceless corporate bureau- ternate with a one-chord guitar buzz. crat. Cfje (Umlforbtan "Panama City Motel" is a slow-paced bit- Bob Mould is making some of the most ter complaint, strikingly overlain with important music around. Anyone interested NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY folkish guitar strumming. in where alternative music is going should come along for the ride. We are prepared to train you! details!! &ljc Ctulforbian>b ?bttorial soltcj> itaffw "3 Ctutorial JBoarb Opinions expressed in editorials and Alison Amis letters to the editor do not necessarily re- Paige Mcßae Chris Atack Rob Mirchin flect the views of the staff and editorial Barber Jason Adrienne Moore Co-Editors in Chief. Daphne Lewis board. Dan Boulden The editors reserve the right to edit all Thebe Mphenyeke Caroline A. Meisha Bracey Wolfe submissions for length, style, and taste. Claire Fabio Narensky Adviser. Jeff Jeske Camara Beth Norwood News Editor. Cory Birdwhistell John "Ricky" Carbaugh Liz O'Brien Perspectives Editor. 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