The Chronicle, Vol. LXX, Issue 5

              November 15, 2001 The Chronicle Page 9
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J a c k s o n ’s ‘ I N V I N C I B L E ’ a t h r i l l e r a l b u m
Matt Larkins
Staff Writer
“You can’t believe it, you can’t conceive it/ And
you can’t touch me, ‘cause I’m untouchable/ And I
know you hate it, and you can’t take it/ You’ll
never break me, ‘cause I’m imbreakable!”
Those are the words of Michael Jackson in the
song. Unbreakable featuring the late Notorious
B.I.G., track one on his highly anticipated first stu­dio
album in six years. In this song the man, that at
one point in his career was arguably larger than
life, defiantly declares his return and that nothing is
going to stop him. What is more impressive about
this song, and the next two that follow it
(Heartbreaker and Invincible), are the rhythm
tracks that were laid down giving Jackson a fresh
new sound. He “bursts out of the box” with
unprecedented passion and rejuvenation, almost as
if he were bom again.
“Break of Dawn” and “Heaven Can Wait” are
mid-tempo ballads that will most likely surprise
many people. Michael shows his romantic side in
these two tracks which compare a lot with “Lady In
My Life” off the Thriller album.
“You Rock My World” is a smooth dance groove
comparable to the classic, “Billie Jean”. It was the
first single off the album in late August, and
already dubbed vintage Jackson by many, shot
strait into the top ten on the Billboard charts within
three weeks of its release.
“Speechless”, which begins and ends in a cappel-la,
is a sultry ballad reminiscent of “You Are Not
Alone” and “Human Nature”.
“Butterflies” is a pretty R«feB flavored number
where Jackson confesses his weakness for a lucky
lady. His brilliant vocals are resurrected in this
soulfiil ballad, fiall of emotion.
One of the most remarkable tracks on the album,
however, is “Whatever Happens”, where Jackson
teams up with guitar legend, Carlos Santana. In
this Latin flavored mid tempo track, Michael tells
the story of a man and woman in a desperate rela­tionship,
saying “Whatever happens, don’t let go of
my hand.” But, what really makes the song a suc­cess
is when Jackson allows brief pauses after each
choms for Santana’s driving guitar solos and back­ground
percussion to be heard.
Invincible contains 16 tracks in all, which boast
the likes of super producers Rodney Jerkins, Teddy
Reilly, Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, and R. Kelly.
The album took nearly three years to make,
because Jackson, always the perfectionist, wanted
to make sure everything was just right While
Jackson is known as a trendsetter whose amazing
career has given birth to great music time and
again, it is quite possible that he has never before
used vocals and rhythms so perfectly. It also holds
tme that every time the critics think he is washed
up and done with, Jackson always seems to come
back and remind us why he still is and always will
be The King of Pop.
Invincible is indeed a thriller of an album, and so
well done, it will most likely leave its mark in
music history. In its first week of release, the
album was up against some hefty competition, but
proved unbreakable. It made its debut at number
one, beating out Lenny Kravitz, Ja Rule, and The
Backstreet Boys. It is clear Invincible will not be
the album that brought Michael Jackson back, but
the album that let everyone know he never went
anywhere to begin with. Rating: nine sequined
gloves out of 1 0 C
K -P A X5 ) O u t o f T h is
W o r l d
Ryan Gumett
Staff Writer
The alien comedy/drama genre, is very thin, and has never
been very good. Movies like the inept “What Planet are You
From?”, “Contact” (with has one of the worse endings ever),
and “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” (which had cool
graphics), have made non-action-alien movies nearly unbear­able.
That being said, K-PAX refi-eshingly breaks this genre.
Kevin Spacey plays Prot (pronounced Prote), a man who
claims that he is an alien fi-om the planet K-PAX. He gets
thrown into a mental institution, where he is under the watch­ful
eye of Dr. Mark Powell (played very well by Jeff Bridges),
a brilliant psychiatrist with problems at home.
Profs brilliance of the solar system and light travel leave
those that he speaks with wondering, is Prot really is an alien,
or just a insane savant? He bonds with all those in mental
institution, he talks with Dr. Powell’s dog, and eats bananas
without peeling. Prot has a date to go back to K-PAX (he has
to be precise, so to not mn into other ‘light travelers’), and Dr.
Powell is left with a short time to find out what will happen to
his brilliant patient at the time he says he’s leaving.
This movie has a very well thought-out plot, but it is not
enough to fill its 118 minutes. The middle of this movie
stretches and stretches, which provides great drama, but also
leaves one wondering when the movie well finally end. This
serves as a small negative on an otherwise great movie.
The cast in this movie is great. The mental institute pro­vides
much drama, some great acting, and a lot of fun (think
‘Girl, Intermpted” meets “Awakenings”). The soundtrack is
great, setting the perfect mood for the unexpected, and the
ending will leave you debating with all of your friends what it
really means, and what really happened (I debated with a
fiiend for forty-five minutes).
Kevin Spacey is sensational (as always), and 1 highly rec­ommend
that everyone check this movie out. .
T h e O f f i c e o f M u l t i c u l t u r a l A f f a i r s ,
T h e C o l l e g e o f S a i n t R o s e
P r e s e n t s :
DIVALI
The F e s t i v a l o f L i ^ t s
Divall is a day o f love and joy,
A t im e wh e r e p eop le g r e e t each o th e r
With tidings o f p e a c e and h ap p in e s s ,
With words o f th ou gh t fu ln e s s .
Divall s ign if ie s good o v e r evil,
Light o v e r da rk ne s s ,
Love o v e r Hatred,
Truth o v e r untruth,
And th e festival of lights ...
Date: Friday, November 1 6 , 2 0 0 1
Location: Saint Joseph's Auditorium
Time: 6 : 3 0 - 8 : 0 0 pm
Contact: Diana Budhai or Jennifer Eilomeno,
4 5 4 - 2 0 5 0
L o c a l B a n d
^ ^ A m a z in g P l a i d ”
H a s A lm o s t
O r i g i n a l S o u n d
Marty McAuliff
Staff Writer
Call it low-fi indie crap if you
want. Amazing Plaid is a sound
woven from the highest-fi guitar
and bass fuzz. Hey, what’s wrong
with indie, anyway?
I t ’s a rainy Halloween night in
Albany and I’m sitting down to
talk local music with Ryan
Gurpett and Bryan Hamill, drum­mer
and guitar player respectively,
and 8/16ths of Amazing Plaid.
We’re at Bryan’s house where he’s
just waking up at, let’s see, 7:30
PM, and the rest the house is
preparing for a party. I’m here on
invite from Gurnett, who answers
the door in a suit of white garbage
bags.
“I ’m white trash,” he explains.
I’m thinking he means the cos­tume.
“We don’t want to sound like
any other band out there,”
explains Hamill about his band’s
original, if not-unfortunately com­parable
sound.
I get the feeling the comparison
between Amazing Plaid’s delivery
of noise and that of SonicYouth is
a bit used up, but I mention it any­way.
“I don’t think we sound that
much like them. Maybe Tom’s
voice is a little like Thurston
Moore’s, but our songs aren’t real­ly
structured in pure verse, cho­rus,
verse form,” states Hamill.
Tom Wilk and Liz Michealenko
round out the band on vocals and
bass guitar.
“As a band we write most of the
songs,” says Hamill.
“Absurd” is the way that Hamill
describes Amazing Plaid’s lyrical
content. “I t’s open to your inter­pretation,”
says Gurnett.
Musical tastes reveal themselves
when I ask with whom the band
would like to share a stage.
“I’d like to play with The Wait,"
says Gurnett. “Locally, The Wait
and The Orange. Nationally, I’d
take Frank Black,” replies Hamill.
“Soul Asylum, just because
they’re my heroes,” adds Gurnett.
“ ...and Sonic Youth, of course.”
Amazing Plaid has wasted no
time getting shows and working
on the ever-important core follow’-
ing. Their shows at Valentine’s,
Mother Earth’s, . Club 797,
Saratoga Winners, and even the
SUNY Albany ballroom have
drawn the band a good deal of
attention.
“At first it was just our friends
and then...we manage to get the
weird people,” says Gurnett.
“There were these two girls when
we played at Mother Earth’s.
They’d stand like this far (shows
about a foot of space) from our
singer, and after the show they
would bite us.”
“I think they like us,” adds
Hamill.
Whether or not the girls did,
fans of high-quality low-fi indie
crap should come out and see
Amazing Plaid. Writing this piece.
I ’m on my eighth spin of their
self-produced CD We Are All
Radioactive, recorded at Saints
and Sinners recording studio.
Pay no attention to me but this
CD recalls some talented artists
that couldn’t care less what cate­gory
they were being tossed into.
Take the second and third tracks.
Ever heard of The Unsane? Maybe
I hear some Bleach-era Nirvana
and certainly evidence of Seattle’s
favorite ugly sons. The Melvins.
Though the guys insist Amazing
Plaid’s music leaves little room
for commercial appeal. I’m will­ing
to draw comparisons to early
Soul Asylum, the Lemonheads,
and yup, even Sonic Youth.
“I t’s all low-fi crap,” admits
Gurnett.
Check out Amazing Plaid on
November 17th at Valentine’s
music hall when they share the
bill with local punkers F-Timmi.
Meanwhile, visit the band at
amazingplaid.tripod.com.