The Beat Goes On

The Beat Goes On

DEPARTMENTS

FER SHEAR

NEW YORK—One of the things that makes things cool is obscurity: the fewer people that know about something, the cooler it is (and so are the fewer). We think, however, that singer/songwriter/instrumentalist/strange person Jules Shear will still be cool when he’s semi-famous, because there’s something about him that is permanently uncool. To make sure that you’re there when Jules hits the semi-heights, we’ve come up with this preparatory quiz. Be there or be square!

1) Jules Shear is from the tremendously uncool city of:

a) Fargo, North Dakota.

b) Birmingham, Michigan.

c) Newark, New Jersey.

d) Pittsburgh, Pa.

e) A shopping mall that still

sells day-glo sweatshirts.

2) Jules Shear never had a hit record (even tho critics and his cult loved him beyond all reason) until 1985. What was the name of his composition and who recorded it?

a) “I Wanna Know What Love Is,” Foreigner.

b) “Just a Gigolo,” David Lee Roth.

c) “All Through the Night,” Cyndi Lauper.

3) Jules Shear’s new LP, The Eternal Return, is being called wonderful things by big guys like Billboard magazine. What’s Jules’s explanation for why this record is the hot one?

a) He finally got some SLEEP!

b) The guy at Billboard got some sleep.

c) Jules hooked up with the guy who produces Rick Springfield.

d) Cyndi Lauper does a rap song on it called “Wrestling Helps Your Hormones.”

4) Some of the people with whom Jules has written songs are:

a) Lindsey Buckingham.

b) Marshall Crenshaw.

c) Ozzy Osbourne and Nikki Sixx.

d) The Mary Jane Girls.

e) Elliot Easton of the Cars.

f) The Bangles.

5) Jules Shear is cool because:

a)He’s never used mousse in his whole life.

b) His videos and album covers often feature dogs.

c) Lots of cool musicians love him to death.

d) He wouldn’t wear lace if his life depended on it.

ANSWERS!!!

1)Pittsburgh. And being around anything day-glo makes his skin break out.

2) Cyndi heard “All Through the Night” on the first solo Jules LP (Watchdog) and went bananas for the song. Besides recording the song for She’s So Unusual, Cyndi wrote some tunes with Jules the first two times they met—she used “I’ll Kiss You” on her LP, and Jules put “Steady” on The Eternal Return. Two more Shear/ Lauper compositions are unrecorded.

3) Yep, Jules co-produced The Eternal Return with Rick Springfield’s producer Bill Drescher—Jules says his goal is to make modern recordings of traditional songs, and Drescher knew how to help. Besides, Drescher likes dogs.

4) Everybody but C and D—and there’s more. People love writing with him; leave it to Jules, though, to worry—“I don’t want to look like I’m easy.” Don’t worry Jules—if you get easy, we won’t look.

5) All of the above. But mostly he’s cool because he writes really good songs. He’d look damn stupid in lace, anyway.

Laura Fissinger

TETES NOIRES: INSANITY SIX

NEW YORK—Hipper than the Raincoats! Curvier than Katrina & The Waves! More topical than the Andrews Sisters and—finally— more numerous than the Roches! Yes, fearless readers, it’s the Tetes Noires ...T from the Greek “Theta,” etes for the (unaccented) French meaning summer, N from the abbrieviation for “No,” and oires from the Olde English for “ore.”

Literally, then, Tetes Noires means: “No summers in the Grecian Isles or gold records” yet, but it remains the essence of this oftgigging, indie-recorded sextet (no pun meant, TN’s) who so luckily are all-female and hail from exotic Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Like Vanity Six, the Tetes Noires are partly Black in the sense They Got Soul. Unlike the vixenish Vain One, however, the Tetes don't parade themselves as blatant nookie. Instead, they flaunt being smart cookies in thriftstore couture and lace stockings from the 5 & 10.

“An Artist’s Collective in Minnesota hired us for a Halloween Party, so we thought of a theme: Insanity Six. You know, that whole idea of using your body to sell your music. So, we wore old lingerie over our clothes...It was really funny.”

The Tetes sound is minimal, melodic, quasi-garage, always interesting and vocally intricate. Everyone sings! Jennifer Holt and Camille Gage are the main writers, with general assists and some compositions contributed by les autres Tetes.

On record, two vinyl offerings are currently available from the Tetes Noires own Rapunzel Records (P.O.B. 8332, Mpls., MN 55408): a six-song EP, Tetes Noires (first-class mail order, $7.00), and an LP, American Dream ($9.00).

Tetes topics include: the vagaries of fortune, a New York sex club, kids in France, the donut diet, our aging Hawk in the White House and Bingo. Onstage, these gals sparkle with all the contagious wit, spunk and pizazz of Eclectic Female—a timeless melange of alto-contralto-soprano. (I just can’t get over Jennifer’s ferocious violin solo on “American Dream”... Definitely “If I Were A Rich Man” meets Looney Toons.)

The future a la Tetes Noires? Camille reveals, “We’re writing new material, then we’ll be doing a demo and shopping it.” Also in the works is a tentative East Coast tour in June or July in the Tetes’ big ’74 self-owned touring bus.

So, hey, send away for your Rapunzel Records and, next time you’re in Minneapolis, be sure to say hi to Prince and seek out those up-and-coming dark-headed darlings, Tetes Noires.

L.E. Agnelli

BEAUTY & THE BEASTIE BOYS

DETROIT—We all know the story Beauty & The Beast. Well, there’s a similar tale to tell, only the beasts here are boys. And the beauty? She’s a girl named Madonna.

Back in 1979, these Beastie Boys were playing hardcore rock in the underground clubs of NYC. They were quite young then—13 or 14 years old; one member might’ve even been 12. Despite their ages, they somehow managed to get past the I.D. check to make what they like to call “hardmetal-core” music. They played a half-dozen gigs and then broke up.

In 1981, the band re-formed without Beastie Girl Kate Shellenbach and they released a seveninch EP, Polly Wog Stew. Breakdancing was becoming a popular way to break your neck, and along with that, rapping went with the moves and the grooves. The Beasts tried it. Audiences approved. Soon came “Cookie Puss,” a radio hit which sparked mild controversy over its suggestive title, but “the song was written about ice cream cookies,” claims Michael Diamond. By 1984, the Beastie Boys were rapping full-time.

During this same period, DJ Mark Kamins was spinning music in NYC dance clubs. And Madonna—yes, that Madonna— was making rounds in these clubs pushing her demo tapes. Kamins co-produced on Madonna’s first LP, and her success is hot history by now. The Beasties met Kamins too, and he recorded the original tracks on their newest EP, Beastie Boys. Here’s where the Beasties met up with the Beauty.

The Beastie Boys opened for Madonna on her recent U.S. tour. “We actually asked her to tour with us,” deadpans Adam Yauch. The Beasts do a lot of that. You never know when to take them Seriously. “Where’s the closest White Castle?” one of the Boys muttered upon meeting me. “I’m starving!”

The Beastie Boys’ rockin’ rap often includes “borrowing” a riff from AC/DC or Led Zeppelin, and, surprisingly, it fits. When questioned, Adam Horowitz simply replied, “A few years back, this guy with shorts on—I think his name was Angus—came by the studio. He heard a guitar riff of mine and liked it,” he explains. You almost begin to believe his story.

Didn’t they get some flack for doing what is traditionally a black music style? ‘‘We got called a few names, but once people hear us, they automatically realize how great we really are,” says Yauch.

And, as if rapping, rocking and being with Madonna aren’t enough, two of the Beastie Boys have formed a side group, The Young & The Useless, with former Beastie Boy/girl Shellenbach. Mike Diamond, meanwhile, plays drums with Big Fat Love, which includes original Beastie, John Berry.

The Beastie Boys have also cut a soundtrack song , “She’s On It,” for an upcoming movie, Krush Groove, which includes music from Sheila E., Run-DMC and Chaka Kahn. They’re working on a new song titled, “Beastie Boy Toy.” And, a potential title for their first full-length LP is Don’t Be A Faggot.

“You must understand one basic fact about the Beastie Boys,” Yauch states in his Brooklyn-born accent, “and that’s that we do anything we want. Besides that we’ve heard the word: ‘You white boys are the coolest ever.’”

Joanne Carnegie

BONGOS IN THE U.S.A.

LOS ANGELES—The Bongos are desperately trying to prove Leo Durocher’s adage about nice guys was wrong. The Hoboken-based popsters are bouncing around America supporting their official major label debut elpee, Beat Hotel, and, from all indications, are happy just to be able to escape the swamplands of Jersey. Head Bongo Richard Barone is mildly upset over an L. A. Times article which just appeared, describing him as a cross “between Paul McCartney and Donnie Osmond,” while the rest of the group is slightly defensive over the slow chart progress of the album. But, if the Bongos are bloodied, they are also unbowed, insisting audiences have been more than supportive wherever they’ve played.

“We’re too busy working on our art to get too involved in looking at Billboard,” insists the cherubically round-faced Barone. “I didn’t even know we were ‘bubbling under’ until someone called to tell us. We’re just real content to be out there touring and making records. We’ve always tried to make high quality records. Even when we did our first recordings on Fetish, we worked to make them as good as time and money allowed. We wanted songs that would sound good on the radio. I don’t think we’ve lost anything this time. We just had the opportunity to try out all our ideas. We’ve been ready for a backlash since we returned from England and signed with RCA in 1982. We can’t worry about stuff like that. Our job is to do good shows and make good records.”

Barone’s Bongo cohorts, guitarist James Mastro, bassist Rob Norris and drummer Frank Giannini are in accord.

“If we’ve lost any fans, we’ve gained a lot more,” insists Giannini. “You can hear the enthusiasm level of the people who come for the shows.”

“We’re not trying to be commercial,” explains Barone patiently.

“We win people over on a heartto-heart basis, with emotional response,” suggests bassist Norris. “It doesn’t have much to do with image.”

In fact, the Bongos have been saddled with so many tags, the picture has become blurred: garage-rockers, psychedelic popsters, ’60s revivalists, artpunks, Hoboken new wavesters, bubblegum teeny-boppers...

“We’ve never tried to construct an image that was separate from the music,” insists Barone. “Those kinds of things become risky because they’re so transient and we don’t want to be novelty.

“I remember reading that the Beatles didn’t like to be called a ’Merseybeat’ group because they no longer lived in Liverpool. It doesn’t bother us to be labelled. Everything in the world has a label even though I don’t think they’re always accurate.”

“Our favorite one was that we were a cross between Eno and the Monkees,” laughs Norris.

Roy Trakin