The Bird and the Bee

One can’t help but feel like the self-titled debut from L.A. duo The Bird and the Bee answers the question that’s burned in the minds of music aficionados for years: What would it sound like if Jewel and Stereolab grew up on Martin Denny and Herb Alpert records? The opening track (and first single), “Again and Again,” immediately calls all three touch points to mind, as it’s the perfect declaration of what the duo’s all about: providing the soundtrack to cocktail parties on Mars. The entire album speaks to a fascination for merging past with future. The exotic flavor of “Again and Again” is augmented by a thick, fuzzy synth, adding some space-age low end. “I’m a Broken Heart” ups the stakes with some ‘50s R&B/Doo-Wap stylings – if the girls were wearing vinyl and tinfoil and performing on one of those moon bases artistically rendered in atomic-age In the Year 2000 picture books. And the absence of nearly any real drums in favor of machines and sequencers brings the “yesterday’s music tomorrow” vibe home. The duo doesn’t skimp on the hooks, either – “Broken Heart” is instantly hummable, as is the fantastic chorus to “I Hate Camera” and, really, most any of the tracks on the CD. All the singing is done by the female member of the duo, Inara George (a name that is too awesome to be real), and her ability to harmonize with herself is to be envied; her background vocals move the melodies in some very interesting, attention-demanding directions. The Bird and The Bee make party music for people who like to party without raising their voices while sipping their martinis. Throw it into the disc changer at your next formal. VS

Topdog/Underdog

Golden Apollo

By Russ Bickerstaff Local playwright John Manno’s Golden Apollo is a clever fusion between contemporary aesthetics and ancient legend. Having opened a couple of weeks ago, the reasonably offbeat theatrical presentation’s debut run with Insurgent Theatre ends this coming weekend. While the Insurgent’s cast manages an ensemble performance that respectably fits the script, Manno’s Golden Apollo has more than enough potential to deserve a much bigger venue than the tiny confines the Insurgent Theatre provides at the Astor Theatre. Somewhere near the center of the story lies a brilliant immortal woman named Leto. Leto’s been around for several millennia, having taken the form of an attractive, young woman played by Stephanie Adela Barenett. She is immensely wealthy and powerful, living in a huge, palatial mansion looked after by an exotic servant who used to be a king (Shawn Smith). At the opening of the first act, we see Leto begin an experiment that results in fusing the more brilliant qualities of three different men into one known as Sinbad, (Jason Hames). He was perhaps meant to be the perfect man, but can that guarantee happiness? There in the first moments of that first act lie all the elements that are going to occupy the rest of the play. Lofty intellectual ideas are discussed with some pretty interesting dialogue by earth bound voices adorned in simple, modest costuming on a very minimal set meant to represent a vast mansion. The discrepancy between the tiny space of the Astor Theatre’s stage and the place it’s meant to represent is functionally diminished by use of sparse lighting and negative space. Still, it would be interesting to see this story play out with a substantially bigger budget. As Leto, Barnett has enough poise to carry her end of the production quite well. Playing a compelling, modern, three-dimensional goddess would be a challenge for any actress, but Barnett carries it off well. She plays Leto’s intellectual brilliance with precisely the kind of elevated modesty Manno wrote into the character. Her relationship with Sinbad is a complex one. Leto plays many different roles in relationship to Sinbad, but it’s toward the end of the play when we see the maternal aspect of her relationship with him, which really shows the kind of thought Barnett has put into the character. As Sinbad, Hames plays a number of angles quite well, but the greater character seems a bit out of reach. We see his interest in Leto gradually give way to frustration. We see these elements play out in someone who is extremely human, but Hames doesn’t quite reach the complexity of a person who has been forged out of three people. There are strong parallels between Sinbad and Dr. Frankenstein’s creation in the original Mary Shelley novel. Though, the greater challenges of playing a creation grown resentful of its creator never quite materialize in Hames’ performance. Many actual moments work for Hames, particularly those with Barnett, but there’s a larger sense of the character missing from the […]

The Apples in Stereo

As any negative nabob can tell you (and in fact is telling you right now), it’s extremely difficult to favor the pop – or pop!, onomatopoeically speaking – in pop-rock without coming across as a chirpy Pollyanna. Even the Apples in Stereo, for all their honest effervescence, have periodically seemed like the token frown-upside-down representatives inside the Elephant 6 collective. Apples leader Robert Schneider has often overcome such perceptions with pure conviction. And New Magnetic Wonder, the band’s first full-length since 2002’s The Velocity of Sound, layers a considerable amount of ambition atop Schneider’s foundation of belief. Actually, New Magnetic Wonder layers a lot of layers: the opening two tracks, “Can You Feel It?” and “Skyway,” quite un-ironically recall the massive, colorful edifices once erected by ELO and Queen. (There are even a few guitar figures reminiscent of Brian May’s overheated parts on the Flash Gordon soundtrack.) Various effects and exotic and/or vintage instruments reinforce the hugeness. Yet Schneider’s ever-youthful voice and childlike romanticism temper the grandeur, and a song like “Sun Is Out” is as charmingly ramshackle as one of The Beatles’ looser offerings. A generous handful of light interludes, including Mellotron samples and the accurately titled “Vocoder Ba Ba” also help to erase the threat of grandiloquence. The only sad thing about this album is that it marks longtime member Hilarie Sidney’s departure to devote full attention to her band, The High Water Marks, although her positive glow shines with “Sunndal Song” and “Sunday Sounds.” Otherwise, New Magnetic Wonder brims with joy. While it’s playing, the world actually looks brighter. VS

Translations

By Russ Bickerstaff Language rarely gets the center stage in any major theatrical production. Even in the best scripts, language is far too busy conveying meaning to call much attention to itself. With Translations, Irish playwright Brian Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa) has deftly coaxed language into the spotlight with charm and passion in a story of love and loss in the slow fade out of a culture in decline. The Milwaukee Rep continues its 2006-2007 season with a powerful production of the drama on its main stage. The play is set in a meticulously detailed Hedge School in County Donegal of rural Ireland in 1833. As the lights rise to illuminate the beginning of the first act, Manus (Jonathan Gillard Daly) is working with a woman named Sarah (Colleen Madden). She has great difficulty speaking. With great struggle, she manages to whisper her name and where she’s from. Madden doesn’t speak much in the role, but she’s always saying something. Subtle glances and movements convey a great deal in an excellent performance by Madden. From humble beginnings between student and teacher, the play broadens rather quickly into a large ensemble play. A particularly sharp Torrey Hanson plays educated Irish native Owen who has moved away to England. He has returned to County Donegal with British soldiers to help them rename the geography so that it can be spoken in clear British English. As a native Irishman, he is assisting British Lieutenant Yolland (talented Chicago actor John Hoogenakker) in the job. Yolland is quite taken with Ireland’s charm, which contrasts against the more progressively minded Owen. Irishman-turned-Brit plays against the Brit-becoming-Irish in an interesting thematic dynamic. When it becomes clear that Yolland is falling in love with local woman Maire (Leah Curney), things get considerably more complicated for everyone involved. The Irish in County Donegal all speak Gaelic, so Owen is acting as translator. Friel wouldn’t have much of an audience for the play if most of it was spoken in a dying language, so everyone speaks English. This has the strange effect of making it seem like the British and the native Irish could understand each other in the play if they’d just stop and listen. It’s a casual absurdity that keeps conversations between British and Irish accents interesting for the entire length of the play. A talented cast plays out the intricate interplay between many different shades of character as one culture takes over another. James Pickering is strong as a highly educated Irishman named Hugh who teaches at the school and spends much of his spare time drunk. There’s quite a bit in this play spoken in Latin and he’s usually he one instigating it. His students include a weaselly farmer named Doalty (a clever Jonathan Wainwright), a clever girl named Bridget (Sarah Sokolovic, back from New York for the role) and, of course, the highly progressive Maire. As all struggle to be able to recite Latin etymological derivations on a moment’s notice for their shrewd teacher, Maire […]

Rockin’ Bones – 1950s Punk and Rockabilly

By Blaine Schultz Everyone knows Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, but when you think of rockabilly’s iconic image the person who comes to mind is Ersel Hickey. You might not know the name but trust me, odds are you’ve seen the photograph of this proto-rockabilly cat – all greasy pompadour, suggestive stance and hollow body guitar. It has been said that rock & roll died when Elvis was inducted into the Army. Truth be told, around the same time Little Richard saw the Light, Chuck Berry was doing time and Buddy Holly died in a plane wreck. So, yeah rock & roll had pretty much shot its wad by the end of the ‘50s. But prior to that there were untold countless backwoods wannabees, regular guys who had a little talent and inspired maniacs who were aimed like Halley’s Comet for their one shot at the big time. Rockabilly’s premise couldn’t be simpler: here’s three chords stolen from country music or the blues and some primed teenage angst. Toss in the sharpies at small record companies looking to make a buck, a handful off green pills and more attitude than Hollywood could ever manufacture and what you have is mid-20th century American History in four acts. Produced by former Milwaukeean Cheryl Pawelski and James Austin, this four disc set plays out like a soundtrack to a time when things were changing fast. For the first time in history teenagers had expendable income and were beginning to challenge the older generation in terms of popular culture. Every parent’s nightmare was that their son would end up a juvenile delinquent or their daughter would be attracted to one. (And while the title of this collection uses the term “punk,” no self-respecting JD would have been called that without a fight breaking out.) Now in a perfect world we would all have access to The Cramps’ record collection, but this will save you the time you’d spend digging up all these 45s on your knees in dusty backrooms of thrift stores (presuming you own a record player), not to mention the collector scum prices you’d fork over if you went the auction route. Consider each of these gems a musical resume whereby the artist gets to grab your attention. And usually in little over two minutes it’s the musical equivalent of 0 to 60 and a chugged Red Bull. Lightning in a bottle, even. In the world of rockabilly obscure is often better. While the Big Four are all represented – plus a pre-operatic Roy Orbison – it is not with their most recognized tunes. In Fact, Elvis’ “One Night of Sin” oozes blues. Representing what can be considered the next echelon of artists – never quite becoming household names – these folks managed to have careers in the music biz, and were often held as icons in Europe and Japan. You get a dose of Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Link Wray, Johnny Burnette/Rock & Roll Trio and […]

Chicken pox party

By Lucky Tomaszek I called my friend Jesi one evening in early December to see if she wanted do a little Christmas shopping, but she told me she already had plans. “We’re headed out to Watertown for a chicken pox party; I won’t be home for a couple of hours.” That’s right, she said “chicken pox party,” and parents all over the country are searching them out as a way to expose their children to what’s been dubbed by the medical community as “wild chicken pox.” In spite of the existence of the chicken pox vaccine (available in the U.S. since 1995), many families still believe in the superior protection provided by contracting the actual disease over the immunization. As luck would have it, Jesi’s kids contracted the pox at the party. She brought it back to her West Allis home, where she has graciously shared it with several other families who had been looking for a local case, including mine. During the last couple of months, we’ve all done a fair bit of research to learn how to make our quest for chicken pox as successful as possible. We’re currently waiting with our fingers crossed to see if any of my kids break out. The earlier, the better Chicken pox is most contagious in the 24 hours before the pox appear and for the first 24 hours after you start seeing spots. If you have friends and family members who want to be exposed, it’s best to do so as soon as possible. As the pox start to heal up and crust over (after four or five days), the possibility of spreading the virus diminishes. Once all the pox are crusted over, there is no more risk of contagion and children are usually able to return to school or daycare. The virus that causes chicken pox is varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and it’s the same virus that causes shingles in about 10 percent of adults over 40 years old. It’s possible for a child to contract chicken pox after being exposed to an adult with shingles, but it’s not possible for the child to contract shingles from exposure to shingles. Hosting your own party According to www.askdrsears.com, “[Chicken pox] is passed through the saliva, coughing secretions and direct touch. In general, you must either be living in the same house or play indoors in close face-to-face contact for more than 5 minutes, or have close face-to-face or physical contact outdoors in order to catch the illness.” If your goal is to expose your child, there are several tried and true methods that have been around for generations. Gathering a group of children and visiting a friend with chicken pox is the first step. Once everyone is together, have the children share treats like lollypops, ice cream cones and popsicles. If any of the children are too little to eat those kinds of food, passing around a communal sippy-cup is also effective. Allow the children to play together for at least […]