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Friday, December 19, 1997 — North S

Danny and the Divots Page 27

Horoscope ._
r, Fiz
Calendar .

S— 25

4 ros

Arts Briefs... Page 39
Dining Guide. Page Al

Photo Marina Dodis

Ids speciatize in snazzy phrases and low-maintenance music. The debut disc, Paycho Baby‘on, is out on the Nettwerk label.

DEVIANT-FRI

SEAN MacDonald says he’s anti-
rock.

Ego seems in check. Id roves freely, bump-
ing words into cach other, testing juxtaposi-
tions.

The results can often be arresting, ironic,
visually evocative. “Locked in a room with
death, we wrestled for hours and
then, we disrobed.”

As much as they might be
abour jarring images, the phrases
also serve as sounds to lock into
the churning flow of rhythm put
out by the trio,

“Mine eves did saw, Altruism
die. Her whimper was, beautiful
and dry.”

Says MacDonald, “1 feel that
the best writers and poets con-
centrate more on the rhythm of the words.
Words are loaded with meaning already. To
leave the exo out of creation works really
well.”

Leaving ego out of the process means that
MacDonald does not sce himself as an agent
of change.

He feels he can’t do anything about the

- Michael Bec

things that he finds wrong with the world.

“Jr all ends up being about lashing out and
giving up at the same time.

“TP think the artist's role is to reflect what's
going on, Tdon’t think artists should be
responsible for anything other than their art,
reflecting what's going oa inside their heads
and in society.”

In some ways the ids might be
seen as the distant downstream
spawn of Velvet Underground.
Although when you mention the
seminal 1960s group to the 21-
year-old, MacDonald tells you he
hasn't heard much of the music.
Pop is like that.

Bands come and go, absorbing
influences, playing with the sig-
nature sounds to make some-
thing fresh tor the next wave.

The reterences become more elastic with
time,

Like all good pop, the ids travel owo
tracks.

{ds tease the brain with loaded thought
bites tailor-made ear candy to appeal to mis-
fits, deviants and the dispossessed.

Body is dog happy just to feed on the

ENDLY ANTI-ROCK BLISS

ErUOVE.

Live on stage the ids are not there to give
flashing good show.

No in-yer-face testosterone-fucled — pas-
sions being tossed across the stage here. No
strut. No pyretechnical wanking about.

The groove is launched, words are half
mumbled.

Every now and chen a thought-bubble,
propelled by rhythm, escapes to be received
by the audience intact: “Kill the Banks!”
“There's a factory in my head.” “Grab a face,
offthe face shelf.”

Whar did he sav? “Oh Tom, we love vou
so, put down thar vaseline, pick up that GE
Joe.”

Says MacDonald, “I've never been into
slapping, people in the face with our music. I
like it to be subliminal.”

In Qualicum, MacDonald — fronted
Blackwood, a five-picce experimental norse
project.

xt up, Crail, punkers in Nanaimo.

They plaved some good shows, started
vetting a hardcore fan base. Things got too
heavy metal, MacDonald lost the fun of the

See Facade page 36

ift ideas
uncovered

NORTH Shore bookstore shelves
hold something for everyone on
your holiday gift list.

News stat writ-
ers compiled the
following reviews
of their favorites to
assist your search
that perfect’ book
for thar perfect
friend:

The Halligan Affai7:

Top Cop on the fake

VANCOUVER

circa 1955. The

city is gripped in a

breaking scandal

implicating the police force, the police
chie?, city hall, and the mayor.

Sounds like an interesting premise for a
pulp fiction pot boiler.

Only this tale, written by newspaper vet:
erans lan Macdonald and Berry O'Keete, is
al! roo true. Unless vou lived through the
intense summer of [955 in the Lower
Mainland, this story is as incredible as it is
revealing.

Many at the time called it Vancouver's
coming of age incident.

Black and white photos round out the
dght writing of this 160-page softcover.
The perteet gift for the local history buffen
your lis

(Heritaze House Publishing. $16.95).

— Andrew McCredie

Canada at War
CULLED trom the
archives of
MacLean’s maga-
zine, Canada Ar
War is as much
about wartime
journalism as it is
20th century war-
fare.

Opening with
Private — George
Eustace Pearson's
The Canadians in
Hospital, a firse-
person account of being wounded and
treated from May 1916, che 368-page
hardcover concludes with Luke Fisher's A
Satdicr’s Story, a 1995 tale of a Canadian
soldier's seven-month tour cf duty in the
former Yugoslavia. In berween the two are
a number of greaz stories — and great mag-
azine writing.

The best story of the bunch is writer
Scort Young's X for Escape in which
Canadian Flt. Lieut. Tony Pengelly telts,
through Young, of his involvement in the
March 1944 escape from Stalag Luft 1.
The story would later be used as the basis
for the movie The Great Escape.

(Viking. $35).

— AM.

See By pane %

NORTH SHORE NEWS ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE