Halloween’s not just about puking, police and Isla Vista according to C'V . LSVi A LIFE LESS ORDINARY Take a thrift-store jump suit and dive into the reflectin, pool/lagoon for that fresh “slimed’ feeling. Grab some Saran Wrap and go as Saran Wrap Man and ’lastic Boy. Failed to keep up on your blonde highlights? How 'bout masquerading as a pre-dyejob Gwen Stefani and No D oubt? Completely broke? No worries, just go out in your nor­ mal gear and if anyone asks, just say you are a washed-up Santa Barbara band. Really short on dough? Don a baseball cap, draw in Of course, you could always go as the Spice Girls. I some fake facial fuzz and throw up the West side. Sinbad. t’s two years ago tonight. As a build­ style, their flared trousers, fisherman caps up to their hire radio broadcast sche- and Vegas-frilly lounge shuts. They were I ■ doled to start in about an. hour, Man*' jealous of their chest hair. But most of all sun, from Chester, dm Northern English Hard Rock Life they were hated for being different— for city famous for its* Roman nuns, has being a rock band. woxk»i diligently over the last finyjttaati» Artsweek's Jolie I. Lash warms up with the Stove “Rock is quite a dirty word in England to release ¿heir first two singles on their indie musicscene was leftwith a misunder-' frontman and* main songwriter' Fatal really * begins the boyishly dfranning own Sci-hi-fi records: die Twisted faster- stood blur record and a bunch of boys in Stove, bassist for the (now) four piece. “Ifs on-add-like "Take I t Easy Chadba^* and -skinny ties and pigeon-toed boots who Chad, bassist the disco Stove King and re­ uncool to bein a rock band ...you've got to die sardonic look at the pop-star, groupie* crooned and fbpped around abittoo much. cent addition drummer Andie Kafhbone, h e ld * (drifiaxantf category. filled life, "Skin-Up Pin-Up * ; - And then, like a spitin the eye, there was Mansun has held strong over the last two “Th e press just slagged tut off They Tonight the unsigned band is headlin­ years playing music in the direction Oasis hated tire singles. They gave us bad re­ ing the national radio station’s "Camden by The Verve (a song about a man and a should lave gone after that band's brilliant views. Live reviews were awful and all the liv e; *9S" a weeldong series o f five con­ sun}, their attitude and thriving beats set to first effort^ Definitely Maybe. But those two hands that were given good reviews, some certs from London featuring die current guitars with the energy (bat not the horn* years were pretty rough- hype-able groups Cast, Whale, {’wiotever ble distortions) of (dare 1 say it) a metal The press hared them. The other bands ing... {and] six, seven months later (those] happened to) Mcnswear, Drugstore and the band came at you from left field. Led by hated them- They hated ¿hour retro dresfrj other hands just died.” , (terrifically lovely) Longpigs, Mansun has come out ahead Site the j AfWu an cvemng of sitting in what has to long-distance runners in a marathon ¿Bed be the coldest L-snaped box of a room, the with sprinters. Thrive weathered the tide land of accommodation (if you could call it that) that would make a tripled-up Santa bizarre ’80s Duran Duran gender-bending Barbara dorm room look like die penth­ “romo” phase that garnered the attention ouse suite at the Hilton, in die middle of of die British press for all of two months-1 hicksville England (yes, it really docs exist), Although still surviving, despite waves a loud bunch of Northerners burst onto the o f make-up, spandex and Spandau Ballet, radio and proceed to break die sound bar­ they have made some changes. Thejfte j rier. Brimming with attitude and sneering changed their dress sense a bit Theyvu in ways only working-class Northern Britt changed the way the craft songs somewhat, can, Mansun, in a mere five songs, takes but their more recent stateside five shows, over the coigns of UK Rock'n* which were previewed over die airwaves After Oasis lost th a t working-class and in tiny English hole-in-the-wall clubs roots and opted fbt a washed-out upper- filled with only 12 people in early Novera- crust rock (AKA a pop record) sound on 1 * ' ; See MANSUN, p^A Whafs the Story? Morning Glory the British 2A Thursday, October 30,1997 Daily Nexus years later, but nothing re­ ally interesting happened in She's (Not So) Unusual Devil in a Black Dress that whole chunk of time in between. Elvira was a heavy- If another filmmaker forces us to listen to mildly masquerading as a love story. As Do the names Maila the dark, Vampira hosted metal hessian’s wet dream, Cameron Diaz sing karaoke one more time O’Reilly, Hunter and her heaven-sent part­ Nurmi and Cassandra her own late-night show, and yet she possessed the I’m going to shoot someone. ner Jackson (Delroy Lindo) make ill-fated Peterson produce any ex­ tantalizing viewers with same mass appeal and for­ Robert, attempts to attract the young slackers to each citement, any sudden spark cheesy horror flicks and her mula for success that Vam­ other through a series of staged catastrophes. in your heart? If so, then you slinky yet scary outfit. Even­ pira had years earlier. Kidnapping. Blackmail. After all, there is a new incentive program are one of the lucky (and tually, the same lucid erotic­ Beginning in 1981, she Extortion. for angels in the place above the clouds: Do morbid) individuals who ism that provoked Id-driven was hosting “Movie Maca­ Karaoke. your job or be stuck “down there, forever,” as know these aliases are more viewing led Vampira into fi­ bre,” a late-night show not Did I leave anything out? the angel Gabriel (Dan Hedaya) so elo­ commonly referred to as nancial peril, and into ap­ much unlike Vampira’s. — Celine quently puts it. Vampira and Elvira, pearing in Ed Wood Only now, boobs, rather Yeah. Hunter drives the film’s strong moments respectively. masterpieces such as “Plan 9 than the actual horror films, Done. as a holy Bob DeNiro-ish, “Cape Fear'’ cru­ History lesson #1: Who From Outer Space.” were the focal point of the Done before. sader, climbing onto moving vehicles, get­ would have thought that the program. A 1992 episode, Done better. ting mauled by shovels, slugged by Ewan combination of sex and showing “The Mad Magi­ Done a hell of a lot better. McGregor (Robert) and Cameron Diaz death would have become so cian” was Elvira’s big break. (Celine), all the while struggling to force the popular in 1950s TV Land? The entire episode was If you’ve seen “Trainspotting,” “Shallow two generationally embarrassing losers into During the day, nuclear shown in 3-D, and if you are Grave” or “My Best Friend's Wedding,” recognizing their need for one another. families immersed their familiar with the size of El­ well, then there is almost no reason to see Director Boyle is damn lucky that moving brains in the candy-coated vira’s assets, you’ll have no Danny Boyle’s “A Life Less Ordinary,” un­ less of course you go simply to see the to big Hollywood-studio financing allowed sludge of “Leave It to problem understanding why angelic, sexually charged (viz. “The Piano”) him to court an actress like Holly Hunter, for Beaver,” but when mom and a reported 2.7 million 3-D Holly Hunter get all charged up. without her the pitch “A love story from the Billy went night-night, dad Just when late-night au­ glasses were sold that week. In fact, it is Ms. Hunter who saves the filmmakers of Trainspotting,” would be a stayed awake, cracked open diences thought they had “Elvira, Mistress of the drama from being a completely unho- total disgrace instead of a just a big reputa­ a beer, and made obeisance seen the last of Dracula sans Dark” was her only feature mogenic sequence of music videos, only tion stain. — The ordinary Jolie I. Lash to Vampira. a penis, Elvira popped onto film, and once again, if As the original mistress of the scene. OK, it was 30 you’ve seen it, youll know why. There was even a per­ fume aptly named Evil by Keenin' It Neil Elvira introduced 1990, but the company went bankrupt “A Year in the Horse,” lacldes set up his gear, see and for all exactly how "Marriage is not a basic « the next year. Hmmm. In a Neil Young and Crazy Neil get really drunk, see trashed you can be and still fact o f nature, it's an * rather sad ending, Elvira Horse on the road —- swe­ Neil and his band of fellow play to a crowd of thousands. ® plastered her booby ... uh, aty, bumed-out old farts burn-outs keep rocking your At least one positive thing invention. It's like the body on beer advertisements playing guitars; what more lame ass! that must be added here is infield fly rule. It exists 8 and remains a Halloween really needs to be said? If you “A Year in the Horse” the gesture of genuine good­ only because women say so, fixture at Knott’s. didn’t like Neil Young be­ drags through a series of will from Mr.