UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 11, 1993
7
The Flirtations
An a cappella group show their sexuality by putting a '90s twist on 1950s doowop tunes
Members of the Flirtations, left to right, Jon Arterton, Cliff Townsend, Aurelio Font, Michael Callen and Jimmy Rutland
By James J. Reece
Kansan staff writer
T
hey bill themselves as the world's most famous openly gay, politically active, multi-cultural singing group.
The Flirtations let their sexuality show as they sing 1950s doowop songs such as "Mr. Sandraman," "Why do fools fall in love?" and others in which they
change the pronouns in the lyrics to sing about gay and lesbian love.
Co-founder Jon Arterton said the group has met with much audience support, which often comes out when other audience members give negative responses.
"We had an experience in New York where we were singing and two men walked by and muttered 'faggot' under their breath," Arterton said. "The whole crowd got crazy and yelled at them."
Those were the days in 1988 when the
Arterton said the group's gayness had become part of their material, but the group did not have a conscious goal of breaking stereotypes.
band would sing on Greenwich Village, N.Y., street corners. They formed that year after Artterton had returned from a gay and lesbian rights rally in Washington, D.C., attended by about 200,000 people. The rally left him energized with the idea of forming an openly-gay singing group.
"The main reason we sing 'Johnny Angel' and songs from the 1950s is because we want to entertain the audience," he said.
The group sings at gay and lesbian rights fund raisers around the United States, and are scheduled to play at a show on Feb. 14 at the Granada Theatre, 1015 Minnesota Ave. Kansas City, Kan. The concert will raise money for the Human Rights Project, a lobbying group which works for gay and lesbian rights in Kansas City, Mo.
David Weeda, director of the group, said the HRB lobby for gov. civil rights legislation
The Flirtations, who will make their third appearance in Kansas City, chose to be an a cappella group because they wanted to have good mobility to perform at political rallies, Arterton said. They seldom appear at rallies now, but they still focus on the politics of equality. But that is sometimes difficult because of their own diversity.
tition within Kansas City, Mo. Its past accomplishments include the passage of a law recognizing the HIV virus as a handicap.
The five members come from Indiana, Boston, Georgia and Puerto Rico and are white, African American, Native American and Puerto Rican.
"It has been a learning experience to get along with each other." Arterton said. He said the group constantly confronted themselves about remarks any of them made that they may see as slightly racist.
Group member Aurelio Font said he saw the group as being focused on the goal of making the world safer for gays and les-
some kind of connection with. Fond said. He said group members told of past experiences. One member tells of taking a boyfriend to the prom and another tells of serving as a military policeman in the U.S. Army.
bians. The group has a segment in their show where they tell about themselves. The speeches were meant to let the audience see that homosexuals often have the same fearand experiences as heterosexuals.
He said the goal of the segment was to make people feel as if they had met a gay person; a feeling he said would be good for relations between gay and straight people. "It is difficult to hate people you have
Font said the current debate over the ban on gays in the military reflected an openness toward homosexuality in the United States.
"Some people call it 'The Gay 90s,'" he said. "It should prove to be a very interesting decade."
music review
Dinosaur Jr's new album satisfies any mood
Dinosaur Jr
"Where You Been" (Wear/Warner Brothers)
Dinosaur Jr is and always has been a pop band. It's just that in the mid '80s, when they were known simply as Dinosaur, the melodies were sometimes builduped beneath a bank of fuzzy bass and distorted guitar. After the departure of bassist Lou Barlow, singer, guitarist, sometime drummer, and all-around musical virtuoso J Mascis recorded the relatively sparse, relatively solo "Green Mind." Now along comes "Where You Been," a scorching synthesis of the earlier guitar-driven orgasm and the more melodious recent material.
The opening track, "Out There," crackles with a jagged feedback intro that would make even Neil Young's gastrointestinal
turgile gract. "Start Choppin," with its hook-laden cross-breeding of 606 pop and 798 heavy metal, exemplifies the album's theme and formula: lyrical desperation over broken relationships spewed out with exploding guitar, bass, and drums. Nowhere is this desolation better expressed than on "Goin' Home," where Mascis' dead danap draw warbles, "I wanna tell you that I miss you but I'm pissed you blew me off."
The song leaves the listener with the indelible image of a lonely soul, head in hand, wondering just what the hell went wrong. But just when you begin to wallow in the depths of despair, along comes the album's closer, "I Ain't Sayin." While no more uplifting lyrically, the bouncy rhythm and soaring pop instill a feeling of hope that beautifully represents the dichotomy between depression and elation.
The sensation of listening to "Where You Been" is akin to being on the brink of tears before hearing a favorite song that makes everything all right. So whatever your mood, joyous or morose, pop in a copy of Dinosaur Jr's latest and prepare to be shaken.
Shonen Knife "Let's Knife" (Virgin)
have been playing their brand of hilariously-warped, Ramonesque punk for 10 years now with little mainstream attention.
With today's "alternative" grunge-clock, gaga-stra, country-pop-dominated music industry mucking things up for music-lovers everywhere, it's refreshing to come across a major label with the gonads to finally release something from the now-legendary Japanese tri Shonen Knife. These growly 'gins' from Osaka
"Let's Knife," the band's first all-English release, contains reworkings of many Shonen Knife classics along with a few new tunes for the already initiated. Stylistically, the album hops from the straightforward, four-chord power-pop of "Riding on the Rocket" and "Twist Barbie" to the reggae-tinged "Ah, Singapore" before stopping briefly to pay homage to Motown's Martha and the Vandellas ("Cycling is Fun") and '60s surf Kings The Ventures ("Milky Way"). What has consistently kept Shonen Knife from shipping into the abyss of "novelty band hell" is their utter honesty and ability to make even the most hardened cynic burst into uncontrollable giggles.
With lyrics like, "I'm gonna eat jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly beans/You're gonna eat cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry drops," and songs about space ships, bison, Barbie dolls, and pot cleaners, Shonen Knife are not going to change the world. But dammit, they sure can make it a little more fun to handle!
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Your guide to Entertainment in the Lawrence Area.
calendar
Nightlife
Benchwarmers Sports Bar and Grill
The Gooney Birds, Thursday
They Came in Droves, Friday, Saturday
Blues, Brew & Bar-B-Que
1910 Haskell Ave.
Chatz Rats, Saturday, $3
The Bottleneck
737 New Hampshire St.
Millions; opening band – Oryan's Island
Thursday, $4
Common Ground
Friday, $3
Salty Iguanas; opening band – Waters
Saturday, $4
Salty Iguanas again; opening band – Dash
board Saviors
Salty lguanas again; opening band - Dash board Saviors
Open Mike. Mondav
Voodoog Gearshift; opening band - Season To Risk
Risk
Tuesday, $4
Id Explosion; opening band - Keely Zoo
Wednesday. $3
Continued on Page 6.
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