ENTERTAINMENTpage 17 Technique • Friday, September 15, 2000 • 17 Pepsi Girl or Antichrist? ‘Almost Famous’ Love her or hate her, that curly- Cameron Crowe directs a movie that ENTERTAINMENT headed kid is everywhere you turn. closely parallels his own life story. Two Bits Man explains... Page 18 Opening today in theaters. Page 21 Technique • Friday, September 15, 2000 Start boiling the macaroni; Barenaked Ladies are back By Jamie Schulz your foot or bobbing your head the mayhem that followed. But Switching back to PSB quotes to many of the tracks on the not to worry, that’s probably the album. only melancholy track out of Artist: Barenaked Ladies The only problem that exists the lot. Album: Maroon is the social commentary that The other tracks flirt with Label: Reprise Records the band performs. It waffles from humor as they run the gauntlet Genre: Rock/Pop tongue-in-cheek to throwing the of topics from cheating on a lov- Tracks: 12 (plus a bonus track) er to the dreams of a Hollywood Rating: yyyy starlet. “The Humor of the Sit- There’s enough uation” deals with the former, It’s a rather jumbled cacoph- as the adulterer rushes home to ony of selections, Maroon. Not lightheartedness in find that his wife has chucked that that’s a bad thing, mind the lyrics to make everything on the lawn. “Sell you. It’s just that the style flip- Sell Sell” covers the latter, with flops from a somewhat skew- even the dourest of the Oscar-caliber actor getting ered performance of “The Old subjects enjoyable. drawn from Broadway to Cali- Apartment” found in “Too Lit- fornia only to wind up doing tle Too Late” to an XTC/OMD- commercials. “Conventioneers” inspired “Conventioneers” to the handles a one-night fling and country-rock “Go Home.” But whole lot on the table, as they the morning after, with Page mus- the question remains: “Will I do in “Helicopters,” (a kind of ing “It’d be great if you trans- like it?!” This reviewer did. The “Don Juan” for the latter part of ferred out of state.” songs are all catchy, but not in the twentieth century). In this, “Back Seat” has its adulter- the horrible manner of so many Steven Page (lead vocals) remi- ous overtones, with the older By Ralf Strathman / REPRISE RECORDS Backstreet Boys songs. You’ll nisces on the day that the Allies It’s been a mere two years since the Barenaked Ladies released Stunt and the probably find yourself tapping came to bomb the village, and See BNL, page 23 album’s hit, “One Week.” Their new album, Maroon, should be another success. Love goes the way of Babylon By Steve Hsu processor. reminiscent of Gainsbourg. The Wonders what to have for lunch This particular collection of entire collection never really hits pre-Love Songs collaborations fever pitch. It comes close dur- Artist: The Sixths climbs even closer to the pinna- ing the souped up Gary Numan Album: Hyacinths and Thistles cle of what pop music can be by track, but even that is a bit se- Label: Merge Records combining exotic influences, dated. Instead, the songs are con- Genre: Rock/Pop ironic wordplay, and a sense of structed for the diverse, Tracks: 14 authenticity on the topic of love accentuated voices of his collab- Rating: yyyyy that has been long absent in many orators and the musical land- of his contemporaries. It out- scapes are clean and lush with all After three or four years of shines the new albums of The kind of synthesizers, bongos, fla- dormancy, Stephin Merritt has Gothic Archies and Future Bi- mencos, zithers and toy pianos. burst back into the limelight— ble Heroes (other Merritt Included on the long list of releasing six full length albums, Projects). It’s not that 69 Love contributors are Sally Timms taming the anticipation of an Songs didn’t have all the above from the timeless, thrashing eager audience, and threatening woven in neat threads, but Hya- Mekons, Bob Mould of punk to occupy a few inches of space cinths and Thistles has it in spades, rock lore, Miho Hatori of Cibo on every record shelf and in ev- and displays the diversity from Matto, early synth-pop shining ery bin. Most notable of these which 69 was derived. star Gary Numan, Katherine contributions to the pop world The songs here are even more Whalen of the Squirrel Nut Zip- is 69 Love Songs. Released under “off Broadway,” as another crit- pers, and the ever alluring voice the umbrella of The Magnetic ic described it—more sensitive of Saint Etienne’s frontwoman, By Sarah Graybeal / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Fields and composed and per- and wry. His willingness to in- Sarah Cracknell. A common sight on the SAC fields in the afternoon is the Georgia Tech formed almost entirely by Mer- dulge in the sweetest pop jan- Merritt now makes his home marching band, diligently practicing for the coming week’s halftime show. ritt, it made the top ten list of gles and then wrap them up in every critic worthy of his/her word sharp, ironic twists is even a bit See Sixths, page 23 How do you heat up a crowd with every spice in the rack? By Alan Back mix of Latin and Caribbean The blend of styles is no acci- Does his lab work with dynamite musical elements. Salsa, mariachi, dent. In 1996, lead singer/per- flamenco, ska, reggae, rock- cussionist Jesse Lauricella spent Musical fads have a very short steady—if it comes from south of six months in Guadalajara study- shelf life these days. Think about the border or anywhere in the ing Spanish literature following disco, second-wave ska, grunge, Gulf of Mexico, it probably shows his graduation from Georgia State swing (or what passed for it), or University. When he returned any of a dozen other trends that to Atlanta, he decided to draw have come and gone over the on his time down south and his past 20 years. It can be hard for a “[Latin music is] like experience with the Go-Steadys, new band to settle on a style that one of the main ska bands in will still be popular next week. country music…it’s this area at the time. For Atlanta’s Mandorico, the part of a culture, With the help of guitarist answer is simple: draw on styles Mark Solano, he set about that have endured for years in part of a lifestyle.” assembling a group that could other parts of the world. This Jesse Lauricella handle whatever ended up in self-described “eight-man mo- Mandorico the melting pot. The original bile dance party” has put in a lot lineup also featured bassist Chris of nights fine-tuning a combi- Culver, drummers Erich nation of sound and fury that Netherton and Luis Gonzalez, keeps shaking people out of their up on these discs. Add a healthy and the horn section of Kevin seats and onto the floor. dash of rock and punk and the McKinney and Travis Tingle. Both of their albums to date, result sounds like something the The full band has been active the 1998 EP Familiar Places and Mighty Mighty Bosstones could since early 1997. By Alan Back / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS this year’s Afrocubanhip- have done if they had cut their teeth Mandorico will bring their fiery Latin/Caribbean dance grooves to Smith’s tonight for hopcaribbeanrock, feature a lively in Mexico rather than Beantown. See Mandorico, page 23 Band to Band Combat. Pictured are Jesse Lauricella, Jim Harmon, and Alan Marcha. 18 • Friday, September 15, 2000 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT ...01010101010101010101010101010101010101010... ...Two Bits Throughout the ages, there have adorable icon for a fizzy beverage. people fear and loathe the Pepsi Girl. you over the head with this fact She still ends up being as annoying been many things that have split For the other three quarters, she’s The routine where she walks into while shamelessly plugging their own as a 24-hour Barney marathon. humanity. People will forever ar- the Antichrist. The Two Bits man the saloon and unleashes her wrath cinema. While she may be annoy- Nonetheless, the Pepsi Girl is far gue about such riveting issues as is a little confused about the latter. I with a water pistol is much better ing at times, the Pepsi Girl was a less bothersome than any other pre- politics and religion, they will con- have friends who want to see her as than the old pre-movie ads to make refreshing change. It was good to show cut. She is far better than the tinue to debate the grave issue of the target for lawn-darts and killer you shut up and buy soda. As an see such a well-acted clip inviting stupid roller-coaster thing, and cer- whether you should squeeze the bees, and I have others who believe moviegoers to buy Twizzlers. tainly beats the falling music notes. toothpaste tube from the end or that she is the spawn of Satan, cause The other reason the Pepsi Girl For that, I give her the honorable from the middle, and they will toil for another crusade. is such a great advance in modern Two Bits Salute. over the paper or plastic bag issue. The reason that the Pepsi Girl For about a quarter of cinema is that I consider her to be In the grand scheme of things, I While these issues do carry monu- comes up today is that the Two Bits the population, the one of the finest post-Shakespeari- don’t really guess it matters that mental social importance, I speak man saw a movie over the weekend Pepsi Girl is an an actresses of all time.