Return of Toadies

Admit it. Everyone thought they disappeared. \nSix years after the platinum-selling debut Rubberneck and with many movie soundtrack songs in between, the Texas-based Toadies did it again. They produced an album that just screams "Toadies."\nSome bands just have their own sound. Eddie Vedder and 311 have it. So do Green Day and Cake. It's that impenetrable unique sound that gives the band its personality. The Toadies have it from their energy-driven guitars to their intense vocals.\nRejecting the tendency of many modern rockers to abandon their roots, the Toadies ripped an album of Rubberneck-esque howls, insights and volume. \nOpening with a scream, Hell Below/Stars Above brings the boys and girl back for more of the same with a little added maturity. Although still angst-ridden, some of the hopelessness seems to be gone. More than half a decade can do that to you.\nThroughout 12 tracks, the Toadies put out a heavy-layered sound without losing the ferocity of a live show. \nTodd Lewis, vocalist and guitarist, agrees.\n"With this one, we were open to have more harmonies and overdubs to make it a little more lush and produced, without sacrificing the immediacy of the live thing," says Lewis on the band's Web site. \nAnd lush it is. Trading levels of force, the guitars and vocals share the Toadies necessary insecurity and vengeance.\nLyrics from this album show a bit more resolve than Rubberneck's pitying cries on songs such as "Backslider" and its hit, "Possum Kingdom." Yet they still possess the same honesty and disbelief.\nI guess I left myself wide open, sings Lewis on the album's first single, "Push the Hand." Other songs deal with the Toadie-familiar topics, like sin and women, with cleverness. \nIn a world of mediocrity, here is something new worth listening to. Welcome back Toadies.

'American Idol' manufactured music

Fox has unleashed the latest and worst consumer-driven concoction of daydreams and embarrassment possible and crammed it into spotlights and tight jeans with "American Idol." Thousands of Britney and Justin wannabes from around the nation are whittled down to one, based purely on sex appeal, cool-factor and, oh yeah, talent. The winner gets a recording contract and millions of pre-acquired fans. \nWith all the hype going into the show -- a fully interactive web site, judge Simon Cowell's obnoxious personality and that funny glowing deity-like thing for the show's mascot, it's easy fame for the winner. The 12 to 25-year-old consumer bracket has been picked apart and thrown on the purchasing table with handfuls of cash just waiting for the idol to be chosen and the album released. \n"American Idol" is everything that is wrong with the music business, but I still watch it with my dad and brother because it has a sort of hypnotic quality. (I could take Cowell in a talent-bashing competition any day.) In this observation, I've noticed one thing: the show is missing a realness factor. It's not music, it's manufactured. \nHere are a few reasons why the show is derivative of Satan:\n1. It is sponsored by Ford Focus and Coca-cola. Have you ever driven a Focus? They are not cool, fun cars. They have tiny little 4-cylinder engines and not enough umph to accelerate faster than a Gremlin. And they're ugly. And Coke? Yuck. \n2. The judges are transparent. Cowell's the mean one. Paula Abdul's the nice one. And Randy Jackson's the medium one. Sound a little bit like Goldilocks to you?\n3. The hosts' last names are Seacrest and Dunkleman. \n4. One girl with a spectacular voice was disqualified because she was too fat. Well, there go the music careers the rest of us were planning on the side. \n5. Have you ever read the contestants' favorite CDs they listed on the Web site? They are crap. \nBut the one thing that really gets me is this: I'm sitting here listening to a CD I picked up last night from a local Lafayette band. It's great. The guitarist is driven. The vocals have just enough grit for the blues they are playing, and the harmonica player is only 8-years-old. They have been touring and practicing relentlessly since I first heard of them a couple years ago, and they get better with every performance. They don't have a free recording contract. They aren't signed to a label. They went to a local recording studio, did their thing and now sell the CDs in local bookstores and through mail-order. They write original music. They have real talent, real soul, live passion and a work ethic supporting their music. \nAnd so do hundreds of other bands trying to make it from local roots. \nAll the "American Idol" has is Cowell and millions of dollars from Ford and Coke. And yeah, half of them do sound like karaoke. \nSo next time you turn on that TV, watch out. Don't let the "American Idol" deity steal your soul. Spend your dollars on local music, and maybe this time next year, you'll hear something real on the radio.

The Replacements: Letting it be

I couldn't help it. I had to write about this album, no matter how obvious of a choice it may be for unearthing a lesser-known but very influential album. \nComing at the end of the first punk movement but before the big alterna-rock scene, The Replacements blasted into the music world with ferocity and insight in the 1980s, offering a refreshing rock substitute for all the new-agey-pop-pansy-music on the airwaves at the time. Here was the solution for the kids who felt their musical muscle shrinking every time they turned on the radio. Here was a band to follow, an album to buy, a movement to idolize. And in 1984, they gave us Let it Be. \nPaul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, Bob Stinson and Chris Mars continued to give some real rock fans hope that it was possible to create something that sounded different than the rest of the sludge out there. Sure I didn't really live (consciously -- I was two when Let it Be was released) through the 1980s, so I can only imagine what it would have been like to hear the album when it was first released. But if it can sound new and musically insightful now, after the shifts in the musical currents over the past 18 years, imagine the effect of its sound on a real rock fan in 1984.\nThe 'Mats (as they're known by their fans), from Minneapolis, gave the newly cell-phone toting corporate world an alternative that went largely unheeded. The band was much to blame for its own unrecognized stature -- the 'Mats (at first) refused to make accessible videos for MTV, rarely showed up for a gig sober and played their one slot on "Saturday Night Live" roaring drunk. Yet, with Westerberg's and the rest of the band's developing songwriting skills, the band brought rawness and sensitivity in the same breath. Though only heralding one charting single, The Replacements are viewed as pioneers, and Let it Be is the classic 'Mats album. \nHere is an album that mixes rocking passion with social awareness, an album that starts pop rock, blasts through half the middle with punk and splays itself with beautiful ballads. It is the 'Mats' third full-length album and boasts songs of dissatisfaction during the decade of Mr. Money Maker. Let it Be is universal and personal. \n"I Will Dare" starts off the album with a happy shuffle. It shows one dimension of the complex 'Mats repertoire. The second track, "Favorite Thing," picks up the tempo before the band launches into the raucous rocker "We're Coming Out," a tune complete with screeching guitar solos and Westerberg's background screams. And in the middle, there's finger snapping. \n"We're Coming Out" paves the irreverent way for "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out," a snare-drum punching, distortion ridden tune with a chorus of "Rip, rip / We're gonna rip 'em out now." What is a better commentary on the health care system than the lines "Get this over with / I tee off in an hour / My Cadillac's running." Its irreverence shares the same spirit of track nine, "Gary's Got a Boner." \nNext up is "Androgynous." The song is beautiful. It's the story of Dick and Jane, who love each other and look the same. It's a song only the 'Mats could give us, about two kids who wear whatever they want and are confident in their gender. Westerberg sings "Today the people dress the way that they please / The way they tried to do in the last centuries," with a scratchy-voiced conviction that makes the song's sparse arrangement of piano, vocals and light percussion work. This is the song that really sets The Replacements apart from other punkers -- not only do they rock out with distortion, but they can break it down on the piano just as well. \nOne of the other four ballads on the disc is "Unsatisfied," a perfect mix of music and frustration with a bare-bones approach. The song again lets you hear why Westerberg is so good at what he does -- his vocals are just weak and furious enough to convey his desperation. He sings, "Look me in the eye and tell me / That I'm satisfied." It doesn't get much more real than that. \nThe Replacements end the album with perhaps the coolest concluding track ever. "Answering Machine" spews as much sadness, bitterness and feeling into a rock ballad as I have ever heard. Westerberg laces the song with the acidic lines "How do you say 'I miss you' to an answering machine / How do you say 'Goodnight' to an answering machine / How do you say 'I'm lonely' to an answering machine?" "Answering Machine" rings with distorted loneliness and leaves you with the guitar riff lingering in your mind's jukebox long after it ends.\nLet it Be's 11 tracks show just how good an album can be. With pop rock, punk rock, acerbic ballads and even one cover (KISS' "Black Diamond"), The Replacements stretch the limits of post-punk just about as far as they can go. \nYou need to buy this album! There is no substitute for The Replacements.

New Age at its best

Carrying the indie rock 'Flag'

Swearing at Motorists\nThis Flag Signals Goodbye\nSecretly Canadian\nSwearing at Motorists brings you 14 tracks of pure indie rock with their latest release, This Flag Signals Goodbye. Passion, contemplation, brooding and rock fury -- it's all here. Grab your beat-up leather jacket and put on your black sunglasses. It's time to play this album on a stereo system in someone's basement — loudly.\nSwearing at Motorists, on the local Secretly Canadian label, grew out of Dayton in the early '90s. The two piece unit of vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Dave Doughman and drummer Joseph Siwinski brings enough volume and skill to the fold to convince us that a three to five man lineup is merely bulky. This half-hour album crams so many different emotions into 30 minutes that it makes longer albums seem like filler. \nBut, as indie-rocking cool as it is, This Flag Signals Goodbye waves both the highs and lows of the genre at the musical sky. About the mellow songs -- don't listen to them when you are tired. Doughman's voice, deep and smooth, will sway your eyes shut -- It's so brooding and peaceful. When Doughman sets out to do a mellow song, he makes it mellow. He echoes with that mysteriously unfulfilled longing that all good, cool-guy rockers seem to have.\nHis lyrics spin the tales of unrequited love in the true young rocker tradition -- I'm trying, but she doesn't seem to care -- with a welcome conciseness. Doughman also throws in just enough distortion to let you not feel guilty about listening to (however good they may be) a few sad-bastard songs. Highlights of the album are "Borrowed Red Bike," "Room Full of You" and "(It came) Out of Nowhere." The first takes the sad-bastard-distortion technique and plays it for all it's worth. "Room" takes the sweet tones of an acoustic guitar intro and a trumpet solo and gives them the darkness of the lines "I'm all jacked up and I'm driving too fast/And I can't seem to think past the past." "Out of Nowhere" closes the album with a hesitance and depression that will echo after the CD stops spinning. \nThe two-piece lineup (with four sparsely used guest artists) tops off the band's "smaller is better" approach. Swearing at Motorists just make all the extra seem unnecessary. \n

Reaching for the peak

Rusted Root still ready to 'party'

Music Landing:

Before he lands at Space 101 next Wednesday, Dan Sullivanthe man behind the music of Nad Navillus will have played in Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and more with guitar in hand and Parker Paul by his side. \nTraveling on a shoestring budget and crashing at friends' and relatives' houses, Sullivan and Paul are promoting their latest albums from Bloomington's Jagjaguwar Records indie-style. \nSullivan has been playing music since he was a child. Partner to many musical projects, Sullivan says he got his break when he met up with Jason Molina, songwriter of Songs: Ohia (produced on Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar's parent label). Sullivan has since toured with Songs: Ohia, played bluegrass with his brothers and completed session work with various artists. Sullivan released a new disc of his own fingerstyle songwriting, Show Your Face, last November. Dan's newest album takes him past the instrumental work on his first solo release and brings him to the galaxy of songwriting. He also appears on Paul's newest release and is heading into the studio for his next.\nPaul has been playing music "for a long, long time" and isn't thinking of quitting yet. He is currently pushing his October release Wingfoot, filled with deep vocals and gritty lyrics (the second verse of "When I Got You at the Pound" starts with "When you ate that poison rat, / The morphine variant made you / Throw up at the vet). Keith Hanlon joins him and Sullivan on drums. Paul's description on Jagjaguwar's Web site hails back to a starkly indie pretext: "You should have no illusions. The future for Parker Paul is still unclear. But he is resolute on one thing: not relying on critical acclaim, on ivory towers alone, to spread the word. The masses will come or Parker Paul will fade permanently into obscurity." \nSullivan and Paul gave up some time to answer questions about the tour and their music last week.\nNad Navillus\nQ: Have you ever played Bloomington before?\nA: Well I played Bloomingtonfest this summer, that was without a doubt the best festival I've ever participated in in terms of the quality of music… You could easily see a bunch of bands… I just got back from South By Southwest which is the exact opposite of that. I've had good shows in Bloomington, the people are respectful. It's always a good time in Bloomington if nothing else to see the folks who are hanging out at the offices (of Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar).\nQ:What differences are there in your new album compared to your last?\nA: The first CD I released on a small label here in Chicago was all instrumental and Show Your Face has singing on every song. It's not that I woke up one morning and decided to sing; I've been singing since I was a kid. It also forced me to work harder on my songwriting. Once you start working on the craft of songwriting, it's just this never-ending process. The masters of it have been working on it their entire lives. It's a timeless art. I think that's what I try to develop in my songwriting, maybe so more than other people, is a more involved musical approach -- really thinking about the way the song sounds, not just the lyrics.\nQ: What do you try to accomplish at live shows?\nA: I think as a performer you're always looking to reach deeper to your audience, maybe in a way that you haven't before. You're trying to do justice to the complexity of emotions and of our lives without sounding trite or heavy-handed. You want to try simultaneously to touch people… with your songs… I like to engage them as an instrumentalist to play the guitar in a way that they find engaging and sing in a way that touches them emotionally.\nQ: What does the future hold for you?\nA: I think just trying to increase my scope nationally and internationally, that would be my focus for the foreseeable future. Continue to make music that I find challenging to myself and others. I think when you start looking at music as a potential career, it doesn't change your outlook on music necessarily; it changes the way you look at the big picture.\nParker Paul\nQ: What are you doing to prepare for the tour?\nA: Danny is building a loft right now in the back of the van. You do your laundry, you find someone to dog-sit, then you practice, practice, practice. \nQ: How would you compare recording in the studio to touring?\nA: Well, you're nervous and you're spending money when you're in the studio. But when you're playing it's fun and you're having a good time. It's not the final deal -- you're just letting it rip.\nQ: Do you have the option of quitting your day job and playing music full time?\nA: I can quit anytime and play music, I just won't have any money. I think if I didn't work my music would be a lot more boring… My big challenge would be finding a good valet to buff the suede on my rock boots.\nQ: What are you looking for in the tour?\nA: That we become a cohesive unit and lay down a trail of incendiary wooha… It's a lot louder when you have a group. Sometimes it's a lot more fun.

'Cake And Pie' not too sweet

Cake And Pie\nLisa Loeb\nA&M Records\nThis is pansy rock. It's flowery -- the music of curly typeface and cat-eyed glasses. The album is called Cake And Pie for crying out loud. But, for as much cutesy lilt as there is in Lisa Loeb's voice, her third full album (minus cassette tape efforts in her early years) carries a bite and precision that makes listening to pop music worthwhile. \nLoeb has graduated from the super-radio success of "Stay," the surprise hit from the "Reality Bites" soundtrack. She's still wistful and sings of strained relationships in her lyrics, but rounds them out with strings, layered vocals and electric guitars. \nCake And Pie's full sound is both a benefit and detractor. Some songs leave you wishing for simplicity, while others blend light acoustic pickings with just the right amount of electricity. Much of the developed sound and electricity comes from the collaboration of boyfriend Dweezil Zappa, Randy Scruggs, Glen Ballard and Peter Collins. Despite these efforts, the album carries a sameness that gets boring at times. \nWith lyrics of abandonment, doubts and loneliness, you shouldn't listen to this album if you just went through a bad break-up. Loeb (and company) looks at her world honestly and records her thoughts. Sometimes too honestly. No matter how true it might be, the lines "I like things that are so good / You are so, so good / I like you," from "Underdog," just don't make for a good intro. \nAs a counterbalance to the occasional way-too-cuteness of some lyrics, Loeb comes back biting on "She's Falling Apart," a sad song about a painfully anorexic girl and her parents' realization of the truth. A blues-tinged guitar solo tops off the best track on the album.\nAll in all, Loeb's newest release is a solid album, with a spice of honesty and musical style that gives her ultra-sweet character more depth. Hopefully, Loeb still has room to branch out further and show us just what she is capable of. Cake And Pie might leave you wishing for a piece of music with a little more mincemeat and less stale apple. \n

Musical fervor with crescendos

the Steve Christy EP\nOIO\nAnechoir Recordings\nWho says electronically based music can't have soul?\nFormerly local, now Chicago-based OlO proves this and other musical profiling wrong with its latest album, the Steve Christy EP. And yes, the band is big in Japan. \nRunning 30-plus minutes, these musicians already have a Weezer album with only four songs. The band's eerie synth/keys sound mixes with driving bass, guitar and drums to continue waxing and wanning melancholy and rockingness. The songs are continuations of the previous tune's thoughts without being repetitive -- sort of like eating the same sandwich four times but switching the condiments. \n"Death Through Habitual Living" opens the EP with a pulsating rhythm bleeding smoothly into dark musical thoughts. With the line, "You could be my primary prescription to salvation," you know it can't be entirely positive. OlO melts wistfulness into thoughtful chords, the kind of song you might write on a cloudy day when you are trying to be wise about something miserable gone wrong.\nForrest Means draws you in with his lonely yet bright cornet slightly echoing in the background while the bass drives the song along. OlO is all about building you up and letting you down softly -- after multiple minutes of instrumental introduction, the slightly hidden vocals finally chime in and the music reaches its purpose. After more musical fervor, OlO lets you down with a decrescendo into just vocals and light representation from the rhythm section. \nTeardrop-smooth guitar licks bring you into "Il Popolo," a song that again displays OlO's understanding of balance, timing and pacing. This band does not rush through its songs, but proceeds slowly enough to let you almost hear what they are thinking while composing, which is a soothing change of pace. Crash cymbals sway this song along, which adds more tear drop guitar and computery sounds in the back. \nAmazingly enough, with only four songs on the album, 350 words is still not enough length to convey the music of OlO. Each song is complex, with many textures and layers, crescendos and decrescendos. It's an album that will make you appreciate time spent on musical thoughts. It is also an EP that you wouldn't be able to listen to every day, but perhaps when you are feeling patient. \nOlO's the Steve Christy EP is definitely worth a listen. \n

Local pianist bops and boogies

Window on the Soul\nCraig Brenner\nCraig Brenner Music\nHurray for local original music. \nLocal pianist Craig Brenner's latest album of bluesy, jazz-muscle-flexing and bopping sound boasts his highest quantity of original recorded music to date. With only one rearrangement of an old boogie woogie, Brenner is trying to force his own soul to the forefront of his music. Window of the Soul makes a concerted effort in personal style through multiple genre stylings. \nBrenner recruits the talent of many locally based or begun musicians for the album, including sons Eli (percussion) and Nate (bass) who is an IU student, as well as trumpeter and IU professor Pat Harbison, Janiece Jaffe on vocals, IU alumnus Pete Wilhoit on drums and many other guests. Much of the group got together last weekend to release the CD with a benefit concert for the Community Kitchen of Monroe County and the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. The album was recorded at Echo Park, a studio visited by other local artists such as Mysteries of Life, Johnny Socko and Dominic Spera.\nBreaking out with a piano solo piece, "Brenner's Boogie" shuffles up and down the ivories as a fitting introduction to Brenner's style, influenced by New Orleans and the blues. \nThough bearing these influences, Brenner aptly switches from shuffling blues to smooth jazz to a Latin feel and back again, including soulful jazz trios on "Nathaniel" (a song written for his youngest son) and the smirkingly cool "You." \nThe inclusion of 20 other musicians is what gives the album its spice -- though the music was written by a pianist, his various flavors of composition turn the album into a witness of these different styles, while still maintaining coherence. \nStandout tunes in this respect are "Aimlessly He Floats," "Hardly Bop" and "Tune for Grandma." With a bit of a groove on "Aimlessly," James Campbell carries the melody on clarinet until the sultry voice of Jaffe takes over. Nate's string bass sets the stage for the horn-powered bopping on "Hardly," including jazz style head-nodding solos. "Tune" ends the album with the four part harmonies of vocalists Jaffe, Susan Swaney, Sonja Rasmussen and Jane McLeod, which almost sound celestial. \nThere are one or two letdowns on the album -- "Elias" comes off as a bit too contrived, and the boogie-woogie tunes, while a nice addition, almost seem out of place.\nOverall, Brenner has combined musical styles with his own influences and experiences, creating a solid expedition of both local talent and soulful swinging music.\n

Blue Moon Revue prepares for release

Local band Blue Moon Revue is gearing up for the release of its first official album this Saturday. Full of original material, Home boasts nine tracks of funkified soul rock. Vocalist and guitarist Matt Marshall, guitarist David Sullivan, bassist Andy Salge, keyboardist and programmer Drew Scalercio, drummer Dan Hirons and Matt Frick on banjo and percussion are all IU students.\n"We just found out a lot about ourselves and as musicians" while in the studio, Marshall says.\nHe also feels the band members are becoming more comfortable playing individually and as a group. This album is more polished than the band's demo release, 1108 Sessions, Marshall says. He found it exciting to record "Time," a cut off the new album, with a horn section -- a new avenue for the band.\nSaturday, Blue Moon Revue will be joined by a horn section consisting of Richard Dole on bass trombone, Karl Liechty on sax and Patrick Cronin on trumpet and Sydney Chatman and Lena Hill on backup vocals. The show at Uncle Fester's will feature three sets, one of new music, one from the album and one of "crazy covers," Marshall says.\nThe new album will be available for purchase at the show. \nBlue Moon Revue's CD release party will be held at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday at Uncle Fester's. Cover will be about $3.

Saying goodbye

A shattered glass door now bars the way to an empty Bloomington venue, a home to all styles of music and political leanings. Where once there was rocking loudness, now there is the echo of empty walls. Where once there was Secret Sailor -- a collective of mostly liberal learned B-towners who hosted Pages for Prisoners meetings, shelves of zines and puppet shows -- now there is a dusty floor.\nThe Sailor is closed -- out with a bang and a dozen bands at the last concert on Dec. 29. Although originally conceived with, well, a not-so-clear conception, the bookstore-turned-meeting-space turned into a venue too, hosting multiple shows each week (as many as 20 this past July for an independence festival, says one collective member). \nSecret Sailor, formerly of 202 N. Walnut St., opened its doors on Feb. 1, 2000, thanks in part to Bloomington resident Sam Dorsett. It later became a collective, with staffers volunteering their hours. When the store started out, it was "empty," says ex-sailor and IU alumnus Matt Trisini. \nThough former collective worker senior Monica Sentmanat believes the Sailor started as primarily a proponent of "radical literature," Trisini says there was no definite purpose. They both agree it wasn't originally slated as a venue. \n"As far as what it ended up doing, Secret Sailor was just some of everything," Trisini says. \nAnd it seems, at least in part, that he is right. The Sailor was a bookstore, yes, but it also hosted shows or meetings many nights of the week, and was open for anyone to use as they so desired, as long as they followed the collective's basic guidelines. \nThese basic guidelines may be summed up at the former store's now outdated Web site, http://www.tofuequalslove.com/secretsailor, on the Secret Sailor Code page. The code in part says, "Secret Sailor Books is a resource for anti-authoritarian activists, free thinkers, revolutionaries, radicals…" Despite or perhaps because of this philosophy, Trisini and Sentmanat say the Sailor had a welcoming attitude, with many types of people visiting. \nThe same was true of the organization of shows: virtually anyone was able to set up a show at any time, and the floor held punk, folk, acoustic, jazz, electronic and other types of music. One time, someone even organized a rave. \nIt was free to book a show at the Sailor, an option more business-oriented venues can't offer. Some artists would have came to town regardless of whether the shows were free or not, Trisini believes, but many might not have. The space offered an intimate atmosphere like basement shows, but with more room. \n"I think it filled a niche for a while," Trisini says. Though there have been other shifts in the B-town scene recently, he doesn't see that as a problem. He says the scene is always changing and venues are always opening and closing, though he will miss the Sailor.\nOne local musician, whose band played at the venue three or four times, will miss the Sailor's uniqueness as well.\n"I got a genuine sense that they love music and wanted to help bands, they provided the structure when necessary without being obnoxious about it," says junior guitarist Ashton Stewart. "I guess it worked that way because it was a small venue."\nStewart's band Hijla plays what he calls "rock with some new wave." The student musicians have played most, if not all, the all-ages venues in town, including Rhinos, Dunn Meadow and WIUS VIBES. An all-ages stage is the type of venue where Stewart says the music really matters. In a bar, he says, people go to drink or be with friends and to hear songs they know. He contrasts this with an all ages venue like the Sailor was, where the band is the reason for going. And the Sailor might have offered a focus within this focus -- not just on the band, but on providing original and intimate music.\n"I think the Sailor offered an opportunity for more do-it-yourself kinds of acts and independent acts that were trying to emerge out of the Bloomington scene to have a place to play and be seen by people who might really enjoy it, whereas they might not fit in the bar scene," Stewart says.\nThis venue space, nestled amongst the bar scene on North Walnut, also offered a little more than just a place to play or see a rocking show. Sentmanat says, "It wasn't a place you just attend and become disconnected." She says musicians and show-goers were able to participate afterwards, either by setting up a show of their own, attending activist meetings or volunteering.\nOccasionally this volunteering led to other things. This skull and crossbones-adorned venue gave space for various benefit shows, in turn helping Pages to Prisoners and tree-sitters, as well as the Sailor itself. \nCome the end of the month, it was usually fundraising time, Trisini says. He claims he doesn't know how the Sailor usually made it by on book sales, with a limited selection, but sometimes donations were needed. Despite this hard work to meet the bills, just over $1000 was allegedly stolen during a period of time this year, he says. This was more money than the collective had raised at a particularly beneficial benefit, and was one of the last turns of the key on the closing of the Sailor. \nWith no money coming in from free or donation-only shows and little from book sales, the Sailor never made much money. The aim was not to become rich but to give an open home for thought and music for whoever partook. \nYet, with pirate paraphernalia in the windows and anarchist and other stigma-attracting business going on inside, many might not have seen the atmosphere as very welcoming. Yes, Trisini admits, the Sailor came off as intimidating, but inside, the collective members were good people, and shows offered an intimate atmosphere.\n"We worked on that for two years," Trisini says. "Part of it was just what we were, as far as an open space and a lot of punk shows and political literature. But in some ways, people had a lot of stigmas before they even got near the space. I don't think the space helped at all, either."\nThe Sailor was a sum of many parts -- part store, part meeting place, part venue, with a unique spin on all of them. Though it did so many things, Trisini feels it may have been overwhelming for the space. And with many memories, Trisini still feels the Sailor didn't live up to its potential. \nBut even so, when it came to shows, Stewart feels the Sailor had its loyalties in the right place.\n"At the Sailor, the focus is on the music"

Message over music

"Doing what you love to do is revolution." Ask the guys from the local "political.vegan.straightedge.pop.punk" (as they call themselves) group Rise Over Run. A student, a recent grad and two B-towners put their heads together three years ago to call for a revolution through music. They are anti-capitalist, pro-choice, anti-homophobia and pro-work for yourself, not for the job. These punkers are choosing their own high road -- putting what they have to say before the energy from their amps.\nAs guitarist and lead vocalist senior Ian Phillips says, he and his friends (they are all friends first, bandmates second, he says) are using the band as a tool, not just having fun and rocking out. Rocking is only part of it. \nPhillips (a self-described metalhead) says the band started as an idea, and it was a long process to find people to play with. He joined up with some friends and now the group includes Greg Chadwick on drums, Shane Becker on bass and Austin Edge on guitar (replacing Ryan Davis). \nThe members share a like charisma and many similar views on the world. Phillips, who has always been leftist and started a pro-choice group at his school in sixth grade, says they form a political band because they all see things much the same way. But the members still have four different personalities and don't participate in "groupthink."\nAs the band's Web site (www.tofuequalslove.com/riseoverrun) and CD liner notes say, Rise Over Run wants to influence people to think and analyze the world they live in. Learning to analyze the world and think about his actions was a life decision for Phillips. Now, when fans mention at a show or drop an e-mail saying how the lyrics made them think twice about a subject, Phillips finds it inspiring. Here he breaks down the message behind some of the music, as a tutorial for the band's show at Rhino's this weekend. \nRise Over Run = Message Over Music\n"We have other songs just about stepping back and thinking and actually evaluating ourselves within the consumer culture, and start asking ourselves do we really have to work a 40-hour work week to be happy. Is buying a cell phone or a pager or a beeper or a new TV, is that really going to bring happiness, and is looking like this person or acting like this person, is that going to make me happy -- is that really what I want to do? Is that really what I desire? \nI guess our main purpose as a band is to just to have people look at these things and look at themselves and not only how they interact with people, but how they interact on the larger scale -- on the larger social scale -- and see if that's what they really want to do, and if that's how they really want to live life. For all of the guys in Rise Over Run, we've looked at ourselves and how we work within this culture and said, 'You know what? This isn't what we want to do…' We don't want to be defined by what we consume." \n"Bert and Ernie are Dead" (A song from the band's first independent album)\n"The way we like to write our songs is sort of through a personal perspective. We're not just going to get up there and be like 'sexism sucks...' For example, one song that comes to my mind when we're talking about this is called "Bert and Ernie are Dead." It takes a look at the way males are socialized to be macho, to be homophobic and to be distant from other men. \nWe sing about how this thing, this outside concept, this outside idea of male generals is manifest within ourselves. And we all get screwed by it, because we don't actually experience what it actually means to be alive because we're so busy being 'a man.' We never get to experience real emotional ties with other men because we're afraid that we're going to be gay or whatever. Even though we're all definitely pro-gay, pro-sexual freedom, it's so weird because we are all so socialized to be very distant from one another -- like 'men don't cry,' stuff like that. It still feels really strange to cry in front of a man -- just little things like that that I feel like have been kind of stolen from me." \n"Desert Storm New York City" (A new tune written in reaction to Sept. 11)\n"We've written a new song about Sept. 11, called 'Desert Storm New York City.' I remember when I was a kid I was watching Desert Storm on TV and you saw buildings blow up, and we celebrated it. I remember seeing bombs, they had it on CNN -- bombs blowing up buildings, and everyone was celebrating it. Ten years later, when it happens in America, it's a tragedy… I'm not going to say that it's not a tragedy and that the people who died on Sept. 11 are stupid… I'm not going to value Iraqi lives more than I value American lives. But at the same time, I'm not going to value American lives more than I value Iraqi lives. \nTo me, it seems that any type of human tragedy, whether it's perpetrated by the United States, whether it's perpetrated by somebody else, it's human tragedy, especially with the United States' involvement in setting up brutal terrorist regimes not only in the Middle East but in Central America and Africa, that it's kind of, as Malcolm X said, 'Chickens coming home to roost.' If you set up all of these destructive policies abroad, if we work at setting up all these dictators and all these crazy Islamic regimes all around the world while at the same time completely supporting racist, zionist ideologies, then of course people are going to start to take offense to that and they're going to act on it. If we give them no other choice, if we don't listen to them, if we continue to kill Islamic people around the world, we're going to get what's coming to us eventually. \nAlthough I'm not trying to justify the Sept. 11 attacks, I'm just saying that that's part of the grander picture… If the United States media said, 'Well actually, yes, these people are somewhat justified in killing us because we've been killing them and we've been making all kinds of money profiting off of their destruction,' then the American public, I don't think, would be as quick to follow suit and join in on the bombing of Afghanistan or whatever terrorist it is now." \nRise Over Run will be performing at 8 p.m. on Saturday at Rhino's with Goner and Nakatomi Plaza. The band is also practicing and planning for its second album.

I wish I may...

For the past 12 months the entertainment world has been tossed up with a sugercoating in music and wit in movies, only to be trampled with the rest of the United States after Sept. 11. We lost Aaliyah and George Harrison. Movies were held back for violence or to remove clips of the World Trade Center from their backgrounds. Who knows what next year holds. Here's my list of wishes I can't wait to see happen. \n"Lord of the Rings" comes out on DVD\nWhen I was in elementary or middle school I tried to read "The Hobbit," but lost patience about half way through. I saw the movie because my little brother and dad wanted to. \nDespite my low expectations, "Lord of the Rings" encapsulated three of the most enjoyable hours I have ever spent sitting still. By the time the movie was over I felt like I had made new friends and had a deep seeded desire to visit New Zealand. "LOTR"'s acting, costumes, scenery and graphics were so believable I went right home and dusted off that old book from the shelf. Now I can't wait to see it stored with special features on a DVD we can watch time and again. The sound and picture are likely to be so downright cool that we won't mind sitting through that extra 30 minutes of film. I've also heard this one's heading to disc in August.\nBloomington Independent comes back to life\nThe economic recession has struck businesses across the nation, but I never thought it could seriously hurt the one B-town publication that seems to carry an anti-capitalist tone. Bloomington is missing a unique voice with the temporary hiatus of the Independent that really seems to show the liberal side of Bloomington -- a side you don't find in many other Indiana towns. Not to mention, every week the writers toss out a complex schedule of stuff to do and detailed stories on the local music scene. Good luck. \nPop music loses its throne\nBanish the Backstreet Boys. Bury Britney Spears. Knock down 'N Sync. With this sort of music carrying the top positions on U.S. entertainment charts, no wonder our kids score lower on standardized tests. Or perhaps, no wonder 70 percent of people ages 14 to 25 dress exactly the same. Our ears are in sore need of some worthwhile variety -- something we won't get with the same voice processors and sampled beats in every widely selling album. Sure, I loved New Kids on the Block in my day, but in retrospect, I'm glad that trend ended. New styles and intelligent lyrics make you think -- reproducing pop is stagnet. It's time for super pop to step aside and make way for something new. And I'm not talking about another Creed album. \nPeople start to think local original music is cool \nAfter the closing of Cellar Lounge and Secret Sailor, and the disbanding or movement of more than one local music group, it almost seems as if the local music scene is on a downward slope. If music supporters don't put their money where there ears are, there might be nothing good left to listen to. Not only do local original artists do cool new stuff with music every weekend, but they do it in Bloomington where we can actually afford to go see shows. The bands and the venues need support, or they will most likely go under or leave. And hey -- what better way is there to get rid of that pop problem than to support the local musicians who are trying something new or passionate? \nSept. 11 doesn't breed censors\nMost importantly, my biggest wish for 2002's entertainment is that this one thing doesn't happen. I hope that Sept. 11 doesn't breed censors. People are understandably queasy about releasing movies and other products with over-the-top violence, but hiding one view doesn't justify the next. We need to be very careful about watching the media and government and their reactions to new entertainment projects. Just quelling a movie's action scenes isn't going to bring world peace, and creators shouldn't have to be afraid of offending people.

British bad boys gone gardeners

It has a soliloqy. It has a happy ending. It has British accents. Most importantly, it has British guys playing football (soccer) on a "pitch." \nBased on a true story, "Greenfingers" tells the plight of prison blokes who learn to garden and compete in national competitions. Colin Briggs (Clive Owens) is a keep-to-himself sort of guy transferred to an experimental "open prison" where the wardens want their men to learn a trade before being thrust back inside the outside. Briggs bunks with the frail and wise lifer Fergus Wilks (David Kelly), who seems to have life figured out and is happy despite his confinement. After planting some double violet seeds and seeing them take life, Briggs discovers he too can create something. With the help of some other inmates, Briggs and Wilks plant many gardens, winning the attention of the floweringest of them all, the famous gardener Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren) and her daughter Primrose (Natasha Little). \nFalling in love and gaining self respectthe prisoners turned gardeners spin their over-romanticized tale with some wit that isn't overly British. The comedy seems more like American humor with an accent than straight across the pond laughs. \nOwens delivers a catching performance -- convincing you he really is a hurt and sorrowful guy who is enamored with making something good out of his life. Kelly plays a father figure to Owens' his younger bunkmate role, bestowing Wilks' wisdom unassumingly. Though they may play the "don't judge a book" cliche to full hilt, it comes across less obnoxiously than you would originally think.\nThough it is predictable and a formulaic "small guy wins big" sort of story, "Greenfingers" makes for some laughs and leaves you with a good feeling. It is one of those flicks you might rent for a night when you aren't into seeing a deep thinker -- a mild comedy with a welcome British flavor.

Watch out for yellow snow

You have probably already seen the best scene from this movie. It's the one in the trailer where three scruffy guys shove their passed out drunk friend in the driver's seat of a car, spin it in the snow and scream -- waking the drunk guy to frantically spin the wheel. Yeah that was funny. I wonder how many of you will try that prank this winter. \nWith the help of the rest of the trailer, you probably have the movie figured out. Bull Mountain is a ski town with 20-something-beer-drinking-snowboarding-lazy-guy roughness around its edges. Rick (Jason London) is still hung up on Anna, a French girl he met in Cancun (Caroline Dhavernas), and still freaks out when "their song" is played (Weezer's "Island in the Sun"). John Majors (Lee Majors) is a cowboy-hat-wearing prospecteer who dreams of latte and matching blue and gold ski outfits for his future employees, and who happens to have a daughter who's a Weezer fan. For the rest of the movie, Rick's friends worry about the mountain while he tries to steal Anna from her fiance. (But we'll always have Cancun!)\nAs you can imagine, the rest of the movie deals with sex jokes, beer, pranks and a blonde headed, large chested bimbo with an accent (Majors's stepdaughter). Tasteless, no doubt, but occasionally amusing. Jenny (A.J. Cook) is one of the most likeable characters, who doesn't stand for Rick's wishywashy moody boy stuff and can hold her beer and board as well as the rest of the guys. \nAt any rate, with slapstick comedy, a token black guy, a predictable plot and a gooey ending, this movie isn't spectacular. It's a teen flick with drinking and snowboards. And while some of the tearing down the mountain is cool, it becomes overkill and the scenes are backed by typical pop/modern rock songs. Here was an opportunity to put some good fast paced rock or punk in a movie blown to bits. \n"Out Cold"'s snow only sparkles with Generation X marketing. Rent it for some easy laughs if you are bored, but don't waste too much money.

'House' can't raise the roof

On opening scene that includes autoerotic asphyxiation doesn't really set the stage for a quality film. Especially when it leads to overstrung metaphors and a somewhat unbelievable plot. Yet, despite it's downfalls, "Life as a House" has its moments.\nGeorge (Kevin Kline) is a recently fired architect with lingering memories of his ex-wife and a son with drug problems who listens to Marilyn Manson and not much else. Then, George finds out he has only a few months to live. \nSick of his shack on the seashore handed down by his abusive father, George decides to follow his dreams and build a house he designed, forcing his son (Hayden Christensen -- cast as Anakin Skywalker in the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones") to live with him for the summer and help him finish it. He then tries to force his son to love him, becoming closer with his ex-wife Robin (Kristen Scott Thomas), who is having problems with her new marriage, in the process. He hasn't been happy for a decade and sets out, with the help of some neighbors with weird problems of their own, to right his portion of the world. \nNeedless to say, the cancer and the lovey-dovey family resolutions had the more sensitive members of the audience crying by the end. But the sharp 180 degree turns in character personalities come across corny and underdeveloped. The over dramatic and obvious climaxes between every character in the movie also lend themselves to disbelief. Metaphors are thrown in your face at most every turn without the delicacy of subtlety, really the only property that makes metaphors work well in movies. I bet you can't guess what the title of the movie is a metaphor for. \n"Life as a House" is saved by its quirky tangents and amusing and random one-liners. All of the actors play their characters well, allowing the occasional humor to come through. Watch the future Anakin Skywalker -- his character may come on strong, but he delivers some wit himself.\nOverall, rent this one if you have a sense of humor -- not necessarily for the drama of it.

Local jazz cats debut first album

bet if you started your album with a sweet and punchy horn break and then took off into 10 tracks of jazz with soul and an attitude it would be good too. Learn from some local masters in the Barber Brothers Jazz Quintet -- Rahsaan Barber on sax, Roland Barber on trombone, Jeff Hiatt on bass, Charleston "Deno" Sanders on drums and Washington D.C. pianist Allyn Johnson.\nRecorded over two days at a studio this summer, the quintet's first album, Twinnovation, pulls out all the stops afforded to cats learning from Bloomington's rich jazz community. And they do it while both swinging and serenading. \nAll of the tunes are original instrumental compositions by the twins, who are in their last year of study in the IU jazz program. They and Sanders are in David Baker's band, while they and Hiatt play with various local artists. \nBased on memories and mentor appreciation, the compositions start out strong and don't let up. "Song for Stanley T." lays ground for the brother led band, the intro featuring a strong rhythm section and horns that steal the show. Rahsaan absolutely wails on his sax while Roland keeps it cool.\nNext up is "Sunrise on Patoka Lake" with a Latin feel dominated in a good way by Sanders' tight taps on the woodblock and the base sounds carried by Johnson. Hiatt adds a plucky solo while the Barbers carry the melody. Incidentally, the Barbers also display their Latin influences in local group Alma Azul. \n"Julianna" paints a loving picture with smooth as satin horn melodies and piano delicacy in the background. The round tones and slow pacing of "Healing" carry the music to you gently and make it the perfect song to appreciate in a quite room. \nOverall, the strong composing of the Barbers and the carry-through of the instrumentalists makes Twinnovation do what music is supposed to -- communicate feelings and thoughts better than words.\n Twinnovation is available at T.I.S Music and at www.echomu-\nsic.com/thebarberbrothers.\nRating: 8

Drugged out disco decadence

The Prima Donnas prove that disco lives and keyboards rule in "Drugs, Sex & Discoteques," a collection of B-sides and outakes from 1995-99. And don't forget the necessary decadent British accent. \nBased in the exploding music scene of Austin, Texas, the Prima Donnas waste no time getting right to the sex and drugs and disco balls with the first track. Claiming to hail from the UK (yes, these accents are real) and to have met in an orphanage, perhaps lead vocalists Otto Matik and vocalists and keys men Nikki Holiday and Julius Seizure draw from their own experience in the stories they spin. \nKeys wailing away with a sound that makes electronic music almost seem pure, the Prima Donnas mix a bopping beat with a bitter British attitude. Holding true to the "Discoteques," the album has the sort of personality that keeps Matik's somewhat nasally voice and glam style from seeming absurd. The guys even harmonize and make the lines "And now my life is total shit/ I don't know how to deal with it," seem eloquent, in that uniquely "Trainspotting" way.\nCarrying the style with a skinny disco-punk strut, "Reagan's Dead," "Nance Music Manifesto" and "Love You, Schizo Sickie" are the highlights of the album. With 14 tracks, the collection gives a good portrayal of the wierdness that must be The Prima Donnas.\nLyrically, the sex and drugs stories can sometimes get repetitive or make the tame at heart uncomfortable, but the cynical angst the lyrics carry is definitely worth a listen. (Check out "F.U.K." for such cynicism towards westerners).\nDespite the interesting disco stylings and tales of junked out affairs, for a indie music adventurer with only a mild taste in keyboard music, the album is bound to only be on personal rotation for a couple of weeks. Overall, "Drugs, Sex & Discoteques" is a worthy temporary trip into disco dance decadence.