Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 25, 2001 Page: 4 of 8
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4 January 25, 2001
Arts & Entertainment
MFA Houston hosts Walker
Evans photography exhibit
Bonnie Casson
Megaphone Staff
Photographs are the visual his-
tory of the twentieth century. From
the historical Life magazine covers
to the solemn faces of the tenet
farmers during the Great Depres-
sion, photography provides a brief,
but emotional glimpse into a bygone
era. Such is the case with the pro-
lific photographer Walker Evans.
With his uncanny eye for the pro-
vocative and a sincere emotional
connection to hA subjects, Evans
ft
Walker Evans, Alabama Tenant
Farmer Wife (Allie Mae Burroughs),
1936
Courtesy of mfah.org
has earned his position as one of
the most revolutionary photogra-
phers of recent history.
Born in St. Louis in 1903 to a
well-to-do family, Evans was des-
tined (so he thought) to become a
writer. He even ventured to Paris
m his early twenties to learn the
trade. It wasn't until he picked up
a camera that he knew that he was
bound for something much greater.
He began his work in New York
C ity, where he iiad iived for a good
part of his childhood and therefore
possessed a strong bond to the
hustle and bustle of the big city. He
began selling his works to maga-
zines and books, mostly focusing
on architecture. Some of his most
awe-inspiring pictures from this era
include his set of photographs of
the Brooklyn Bridge,' which were
included in an architecture book
published in the late 1920s.
From New York City, Evans
continued to photograph for books,
but in 1933 his desire to capture
intense human experiences took
a turn for the dangerous. That
year writer Carleton Beals com-
missioned Evans to photograph the
upheaval and suffering going on
in Cuba for his book, The Crime
of Cuba. Through this series
of photographs, Evans’grasp
and mastery of the docu-
mentary style of photogra-
phy began to emerge. His
subjects possessed a vivac-
ity, emotion and individuality
unknown to detached Amer-
icans. For the first time, the
strife of Cuba was brought to
vivid life, not through photo-
graphs of generals or war, but
through the captivating indi-
viduals who called Havana
home.
Evans’ most famous and
most emotional images were
recorded during his stint
working for President Frank-
lin Roosevelt’s Farm Secu-
rity Administration during
the heyday of the Great
Depression. From 1935 to
1937, Evans documented the
harrowing hardships of farm
workers and their families
in the South (Georgia, Ala-
bama and Louisiana just to
name a few). He accurately
portrayed the desperate and horrific
lives of these people who lived in
conditions unheard of and unimag-
inable to Americans in other parts
of the country.
In 1936 Evans teamed up with
author James Agee to document the
lives of three tenet farm families
in Hale County, Alabama. The two
men lived and survived with these
families, documenting everything
uiong the way. No shot was too
simple or unimportant for Evans to
record. The family’s worn out and
holey shoes, their dank and barely
livable homes, their clothesline—
nothing was ignored. He wanted
New Music Releases: January 30
Frank Black: Dog in the Sand (What Are?)
Tom Jones: There’s a Party Goin’ On (32 Jazz)
Dee Dee Ramone: Greatest & Latest (Conspir-
acy)
Johnny Thunders: Live and Wasted (Receiver)
Vitamin C: Itch (Llektra/Asylum)
Juvenile: Project English (Uptown/Universal)
Genovese: My America (Uptown/Universal)
Tha Nostra: This Thing of Ours (Orchard)
LeAnn Rimes: 1 Need You (Curb)
Keith Little: Distant Land to Roam (Copper
Creek)
Leslie Satcher: Love Letters (Warner Brothers)
Children of the Sun: Children of the Sun (Castle
Music America)
Blank Pages: Funny Pages (Orchard)
Apoptygma Berzerk: Kathy’s Song (Metropolis)
Chelsea on Fire: Middlesex County (Slo-bus
Records)
' ii
Fifth Dimension: Fifth Dimension Live (Classic
World)
Psychedelic Furs: Greatest Hits (Sony)
Sensualists: Adaptations (Audio Dregs)
the viewers of his photographs to
experience the families’ plight, not
just glance at pictures in a book
He succeeded beyond his expecta-
tions. The dirty faces and bruised
hands and feet of these people
were shown by Evans as the scars
of dire poverty, capturing an exis-
tence unbeknownst to most.
One of the most profound, and
perhaps his most famous photo
graph taken by Evans during this
period, was a portrait of a tenet
farmer’s wife, Allie Mae Bur-
roughs Her face bears the emo-
tional baggage of years of hardship
and poverty. Her furrowed brow
and eves evoke her pain and suf-
fering and her fight for survival.
Nowhere in Evans’ wide array of
photographs is his grasp of the
human condition so evident.
It becomes obvious that he has
gained a strong emotional bond
with his subjects, and he wants
to relate this relationship to the
viewers. He doesn’t want people
just to see poverty in his pictures;
he wants them to see real people.
Evans wants his viewer to see him-
self or herself in these Americans.
These are men, women and children
who have feelings just like every-
one else, and Evans makes this
believable These works were inev
itably published in Agee’s book.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,
in 1941.
Through the 1960s and early
1970s Evans began experimenting
with colored film, documenting
abandoned train yards, signs and
small stores throughout small town
America. Through the beginning
of March, the Museum of Fine
Arts-Houston is holding a com-
prehensive retrospective of Evans’
work. This career-spanning exhibi-
tion, put together by the Metropol-
itan Museum of Art in New York
City, focuses on his trip to Cuba,
his work with the Hale County,
Alabama tenet families, and his
later work using color film. This
exhibition is fascinating and a must
see tor any tan ot photography or
fan of the human condition.
For more information on Walker
Evans, go to Museum of Fine
Arts Houston online at http:/,/
www.mfah.org.
i- . t *>3y
Upcoming Shows
Thu 25: Being younger than the drinking age won’t stop ska band
The Gadjits as they open a night of ska, punk, and other joys at
Emo’s. Following them is Flogging Molly, whose brand of Celtic
punk would rather throw bombs than look for leprechauns. Later the
Blue Meanies will gig to promote their latest, The Post Wave.
Fri 26: The delicate whispers of slowcore band Low might seem
out of place in such venues as the Mercury Lounge and Gap com-
mercials, but I’m sure those tired of Emo’s brand of bluster will give
them the benefit of the doubt. Indie band Ghostcar will open. At
Stubb’s, the more boisterous country twang of Neko Case & Her
Boyfriends should make many a fan tip their Shiners in tribute.
Sat 27: Country rock band this side of Oregon Reckless Kelly
(so named after a Yahoo Serious movie) play at Antone’s, while
the very father of the No Depression country rock movement Jay
Farrar (of Son Volt) will be at the Mercury Lounge. Austin native
Guy Forsyth will take the stage at Ego’s too (just like he did Friday
at the Saxon Pub).
Sun 28: Dallas native David Garza spins his singer-songwriter
craft at Stubb’s on one of nine stops on his Texas tour. Garza
has released almost a dozen albums on his own label Wide Open
Records in the last decade.
Mon 29: Touting his debut Australia, Howie Day will appear at
Cactus Cafe. He’s not old enough to drink either. Then there’s 54
Seconds, another Austin pop-trance band you don’t hear much of,
but they have a wicked awesome website (www.54seconds.com).
Ttie 30: Joan Osbourne (remember her?) steps out at UT’s Bass
Concert Hall to preview songs from her new Mitchell Froom-
produced album Righteous Love. Following her is the world-famous
Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, who just happens to be the
cousin of mad violinist with fashion sense Ashley Maclsaac. The
big event is the Irish folk band even the Pogues might pay homage
to, The Chieftans. But if you’re sick of the folk, go for death metal
to the extreme: Morbid Angel at the Backroom.
•
Wed 31: Guy Forsyth regulars might recognize Carolyn Wonder-
land from some of her gigs with the Austin blues singer; she plays
with her band the Imperial Monkeys at the Saxon Pub this night.
BellRays’ mix best in Grand Fury
Sara Gray
A8T^C< vEditor
Once an old, white-haired psy-
chiatrist from Austin told me of
the first rock show he had ever
attended. He was in his early teens,
which must have been sometime in
the 1950s. The giant placard out-
side of the theater of that show read
“The Ike and Tina Turner Variety
Show." What emerged from the
buses behind the theater’s alley
must have seemed, to a white sub-
urban middle class boy, like some-
thing from beyond Pluto. Dancing
girls with spangly gold teeth. Ike
Turner in his pressed suit. Tina
Turner with her enormous cloud
of hair and her freight-train meets
hurricane voice.____________
Much time has passed since
Tina's “Proud Mary” first graced
the airwaves,, and now such oddi-
ties to mainstream America as Ike
Vi/
and Tina once were arc common,
even expected. One has to wonder
how far we have come—or have
to go—when the sight of LA band
the BellRays doesn't even raise an
eyebrow. There’s Tony Fate and
Bob Vennum, guitarist and bassist
respectively, the band’s main song-
writers raised from a stock of the
whitest New York punk. There’s the
Asian drummer Ray Chin, whose
kit is emblazoned with the band’s
motto: Maximum Rock & Soul.
And then there is Lisa Kekaula, a
force to be reckoned with under
an afro befitting any heroine of the
best blaxploitation flick. Like Tina-
Turner, it is Kekaula’s voice that
raised her group from the obscure
swamp of bars and small stages.
This is done on the band’s first
widely released independent
album, Grand Fury. ,
Kekaula’s voice is nothing new.
It’s the same screaming diva style
heard in various other places and
times: Moby’s pew disco, the
gospel bt Mahalia Jackson, the
balls-KHhe-wall wailings of Steven
Tyler and Robert Plant. The throaty
ent to American popular music.
Similar could be said of the Bell-
Rays’ instrumental style, as it draws
from the chunky pounding of the
Stooges and the Ramones. It’s
the same background that droned
through alternative radio and inde-
pendent releases since the 1980s.
But the similarities end there.
When the BellRays combine their
soul and punk roots, something
unique is born. The fusion certainly
draws attention; indeed, Kekaula’s
voice fighting for domination over
the band’s swirling noise com-
mands respect from the opening
track. The opening lyric, “there’s
a fever in this house,” proves true
for the entirety of Grand Fury.
This album seethes. The drums roll;
Kekaula busts her lungs to hoarse-
ness. The lyrics are of fire, vio-
lence, revenge. “My daddy was a
Nazi and my momma was
a Jew,” Kekaula yells on
“Warhead,” and earlier the
band rails against racism
on “Zero P.M..’’
Except for the soul love
ballad of “Have a Little
Faith in Me,” the band’s
instrumentation and intent
is mainly punk. Hell, the
album cover says it all: a
giant flaming flipped bird.
A punky sense of humor
is present 6n Grand Fury
as well, especially in the
snarky “Stqpid Fuckin’
People,” a perfect song
for that disgruntled cruise
down 1-35. Themes of diri*
siveness and anger get old
in punk’s usual hoarse
whine, but coming from
Kekaula’s pipes, anger is
shot through with an inten-
sity that is refreshing to
hear.
Her voice is enough to
keep interest even when
Grand Fury falls into
monotony. By the closer,
“They Glued Your Head On
Upside-Down,” each song
“ ~ m
similar to any other on the album. It
is their novelty-the fusion of soul
and punk-that keeps the BellRays
going.
It’s exciting to hear how the
band might develop after Grand
Fury, but their position right now
could mean potential downfall. The
last decade has seen the lamen-
table rise and fall of bands who
combine'genres and mix (rap-rock,
anyone?) While many such bands
have become wildly popular, the
backlash to them has been just as
wild. The cynical hate reserved for
the likes of Limp Bizkit will prob-
ably be avoided by the BellRays,
if they gain that much exposure.
Nevertheless, their status as one in
an increasing slew of bands that
originality.
But does originality even exist
anymore? These days*, the adage
that nothing new exists under the
sun seems not only true, but bla-
tantly ofivious. How many movies
have been made in the last five
years that are inspired by TV
shows? How many plain old bands
have incorporated techno and turn-
tables scratches in their music?
How many hyphens have been used
when describing Beck’s albums?
Perhaps the one way left for
bands (and anyone creative in this
post-modern world) is to blend
influences and genres. It worked
for Tina Turner; she borrowed John
Fogerty’s revival of folk in “Proud
Mary” and turned it into an R&B
them when critics search for pure suit rather well.
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 25, 2001, newspaper, January 25, 2001; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634399/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.