The Napa Valley Register from Napa, California • 20

6C The NAPA VALLEY REGISTER Friday, September 29, 1995 Rock roll experiencing huge generational change Blue is savvy, smart film noir Daltrey, and is starting his own label for young musicians. Theres also evidence artists. The number of radio stations with the adult alternative format, which promotes artists It was really long overdue for a new rock generation to take over. It really hadnt for so long. The acts of the late 60s and early 70s held that stairway to this unnatural sway and dominance Hke John Hiatt Heaven has and Lyle By PATRICIA BIBBY Associated Press Writer Easy Rawlins is a straightahead, hard-working kind of guy who wears his mechanics jacket even when hes not working.

He lives alone in a tidy, two-bed-room house on a clean, manicured street. Hes proud that he owns his place and likes nothing more than just coming home. Its 1948, a time when most of the nation is flourishing after the war, but Easy has a problem: Hes two months behind on his mortgage and By DAVID BAUDER Associated Press Writer About the only nostalgia in rock 'ii' roll these days is that admonition about never trusting anyone over age 30. Albums by White Zombie, Rancid, Foo Fighters and Silverchair are flying out of stores, while big-name CDs by Rod Stewart, Elton John and Pink Floyd gather dust. At the time of its own busy fall season, the music world is in the midst of a big turnover in its star structure.

It was really long overdue for a new rock generation to take over," said Ken Barnes, former editor of the trade publication It really hadnt for so long. The acts of the late 60s and early 70s held this unnatural sway and dominance for years and years." The popularity of so-called alternative music now rock 'n rolls mainstream makes breathtaking changes at the top almost routine. By its very nature, it celebrates anything new. The message for older siars: adapt somehow or your days selling a lot of records are over. Alex Miller was struct: by the change the last time he visited a music store.

He had to look hard to find a copy of Stewarts new CD, A Spanner in the Works." It was tucked away in a far comer, almost as if it was an embarrassment," said Miller, president of Next Step Music. Millers career path illustrates the different focus. He recently left as general manager following the collapse of the Continuum record label, home of such veteran artists as Ron Wood and Roger sity of the Clash and debuted on Billboards charts at No. 45. First albums by Foo Fighters, the new band led by ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, and young Australian rockers Silverchair have been big successes.

Contrast that with Stewart's album, which recently sagged to No. 132 on Billboards charts. Pink Floyds live album, Pulse," opened at No. 1 but has dropped quickly. Elton John was at No.

100 earlier this month. Bob Dylans Unplugged" album, touted as a strong comeback, wasnt even on the charts. The death of Jerry Garcia, and speculation about whether Blues Traveler or Phish are the heirs apparent to the Grateful Dead, adds to the sense that an era has passed. Change is happening so quickly that even relatively young bands quickly become passe. The Spin Doctors spun out.

Bellys latest album flopped. And Blindmelons second album has them on the road to obscurity. How older artists deal with the new makes for some fascinating watching. Neil Youngs recent collaboration with Pearl Jam got great reviews and sold fast initially, but had dropped to No. 81 on Billboards chart after only nine weeks.

Bon Jovis cheeky new video features a skateboard-carrying punk and looka-likes for Eddie Vedder, Courtney Love, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Stone Temple Pilots Scott Wetland. Perhaps most interesting is David Bowies attempt to resuscitate his career by going back to his progressive roots and recording a new album with producer Brian Eno. Hes also touring. Lovett, has doubled to about 90 in the past year or so and has the potential to explode in popularity, Unmacht said. Perhaps no ones taken advantage of the current atmosphere quite like Hootie the Blowfish.

David Letterman's favorite band has sold almost 5 million copies of its debut album, according to Soundscan. Hootie was marketed first as an alternative band. Other new musicians in Billboards Top 50 arent as reassuring, such as the furious sounds of White Zombie and scorned woman Alanis Morissette. But the popular new bands have an impressive breadth. Theres Blues Traveler and the Dave Matthews Band, who saw years of steady touring pay off this year.

Lives album, Throwing Copper," has made the band from rural Pennsylvania major stars. Rancid earned alternative credibility when it ended a bidding war with major labels and stayed with Epitaph, its independent home. The bands new album, And Out Come the Wolves, has drawn comparisons to the stylistic punk diver lost its death for years and years. grip on radio airwaves. Two prominent stations that specialized in classic rock," WNEW in New York City and KLOS in Los Angeles, abandoned the format this summer in favor of a new alternative rock" playlist.

We found the interest in classic rock is waning," said Ted Edwards, program director at WNEW. Radio stations have spent several years making money by incessantly playing songs that were two decades old. Rock roll is taking on less importance in the lives of listeners who grew up on this music, Edwards said. Many are turning to talk radio, he said. While classic rock isnt dead, its becoming marginalized as a radio format and is no longer the music of choice for mainstream rock stations, said Ken Unmacht, editor of the Street Journal, a publication that monitors radio formats.

Frankly, there's ample evidence that many radio listeners even ones considered older and stuck in their ways were sick of hearing the same songs and 90210 hunk changes type in new film as dimwitted hit man littie too small like when I lost another tooth." He studied acting in Vancouver, did a number of shows and moved to Los Angeles in 1987. After roles on such series as 21 Jump Street," MacGyver and Quantum Leap" and a few features, he moved into the countrys most famous ZIP code. ver, British Columbia, appeared in television commercials at an early age and in a TV movie at age 8. Like every Canadian kid, I was a hockey player, and my ambition was to make it to the NHL," he recalled. "There were a few incidents on the ice that indicated to me that I was just a Kioiurjjn- sftisr 'or i almost from the beginning of the Walsh family saga on the Fox network.

I was kind of fortunate in that I had a taste of it before we started 90210, he remarked. I did a show (Sister Kate) for a season, and then we got canceled. I got a litde sense of it then. So it wasnt quite as jarring for me as it was for some of the other cast members. I try to take it in stride.

I try not to do things offensive to people or hurt people who might look up to me. Sometimes Im good at it. sometimes I fail miserably. Were all human, and you can only do the best that you can. The tabloids used to create all kinds of crazy things that I was doing.

Fortunately, that seems to have cooled off for me; they dont attack me the way that they used to. Thankfully," he said. I read once that I was horri bly burned in a race car accident, almost died. What are you going to do? You laugh and you move on. You do lose some freedom when youre on a hot show.

I cant go to Disneyland or Knotts Berry Farm; sporting events can be a hassle. Wherever theres a large crowd of people, it can get bad. I dont take well to people grabbing my clothes or grabbing my arm. So I try to stay out of situations where that would happen." Now 25, Priesdey has devoted five years to Beverly Hills 90210" and has signed on for two more. He also takes on new duties as co-producer, in addition to having directed episodes of the show.

I figured if I was going to learn about television production, I might as well learn from Aaron Spelling," he reasoned. Priesdey was bom in Vancou I Idaho Blue Ribbon Beef 12 oz. New York Steak Reg 1095 B.B.Q. Spareribs Reg 7.95 aparenos Keg Iu.B.y. gE Grilled Chicken Breasts Reg 895 Served with Baked Potato Rice or Pasta Tossed Salad Toasted Cheese Bread I Brochettes Kaulana 895 Tender pieces of Beef A Chicken Skewered witfi Green Peppen Mushrooms.

It Pineapple Chunks Served an a Bed of Rue ..14.95 Prime Rib Lobster Tail I New York Steak Lobster Tail 12.95 Served with Bated Potato Rxx or Pasta Tossed Salad ft Toasted Cheese Bread si resrr 2K I Eds: Coldblooded opened in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Sept. 15 and spreads eastward over the next few weeks STAR WATCH Logo By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) Jason Priestley, the heartthrob Brandon Walsh of Beverly Hills 90210," takes a career turn in a new movie: He plays a hit man with an IQ that would make Forrest Gump seem like a Rhodes scholar. Coldblooded" casts Priesdey as the protege of a burned-out hired killer, Peter Riegert. They carry out their dudes with the precision of master plumbers until the students skills begin to exceed the teachers. The I.R.S.

company is releasing the black comedy," which was written and directed by TV veteran M. Wallace Wolodarsky and co-produced by Michael J. Fox, who makes a brief appearance as one of Priesdeys victims. The somewhat dense Cosmo (Priesdey) works as a bookie collector until he is promoted to hit man by mob boss Robert Loggia. After his first job, Cosmo becomes a professional.

Even though hes doing questionable things," Priesdey theorized, I think he realizes that theyre wrong. But he also knows it's just his job. Its what he has to do. Thats kind of what saves him. He has an innocence about it all." Did Priestley have any concern about tarnishing his 90210 image? No, none at all.

not a bit," he said. Image is not something that Ive tried to create or continue on. Im an actor. What I do is portray different roles. This is a role I wanted to portray, and so I did." Priesdey attracted a wide following among the young crowd Reg.

$59 Introducing lost to chfmnoy fin to 19941 Master Sweep CHIMNEY SWEEP EXPERT CLEANINGVACUUMING Mm Guaiwtoe ESAFE! i i i No 224691j hes been fired from his job at Champion Aircraft. Its this quiet desperation that sets the stage for the deliciously sexy Devil in a Blue Dress," a noir mystery starring Denzel Washington that seamlessly chronicles one mans descent into the world of blackmail, bribery, graft, corruption and murder. Carl Franklin, who gave us the gripping thriller One False Move," directs Devil, based on Walter Mosleys acclaimed book, the first installment in his Easy Rawlins mystery series. Set in Los Angeles before graffiti and drugs defaced the streets and ruined neighborhoods and lives, the town that Easy inhabits is vibrantly alive. And with the superb camera work of Tak Fujimoto, its a town that fairly Devil" opens with Easy sitting peacefully on his porch, pondering his unemployment and the newspaper headlines about the city's mayoral elections.

Like they was going to change my life," he says cynically, not realizing how prophetic his words would become. Easys troubles begin when a smarmy character, DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore), asks him to find a woman named Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), who had been romantically linked to one of the mayoral candidates. For a crisp $100, all Easy has to do is procure an address. It seems too good to be true. And it is.

Within days, two people are dead and Easy is a suspect. What makes the film so irresistible is the slippery, fluid fashion in which Easy finds himself in such a mess. It's such a subtle escalation that its appalling when Albright, gangsters in tow, breaks into Easys pristine home. Picking his teeth after eating food from the refrigerator. Albright casually tells Easy, Come on in" and leaves by warning, Youre connectable to two murders.

Youll do anything I say." When Easy shows up at one of the candidates headquarters, he wears an elegant suit and has shed his blue-collar jacket. Effortlessly, he has transformed himself into a no-nonsense, hardball player. Washington plays the part with breathless confidence. He completely lives in the skin of Easy Rawlins, who starts off as little more than the chump "fella" that his boss calls him when hes firing him but quickly becomes a slick and cunning force to be reckoned with. Amid all this is the lethally alluring Daphne, the titles devil with the blue dress.

Adding a comical contrast to the guns, smoky bars and dead bodies is Easy's shady sidekick from Texas, Mouse (Don Cheadlej. a man who kills for kicks. When Easy leaves Mouse to watch over another man, he begs Mouse not to shoot him. When Easy returns to find the man dead, Mouse shrugs and indignantly says that although he killed him, he did not shoot him. At the end of "Devil in a Blue Dress," all the puzzling plot twists and turns come together to form a clever ending that is as satisfying as watching them unfold.

It is a smart, sly film imbued with the rich subtle tones of a mournful blues saxophone piece, worthy of comparisons to some of the best noir films of decades past. The TriStar Pictures release is rated R. It was produced by Gary Goetzman, with Jonathan Demme and Edward Saxon as executive producers. GL Are you furiously climbing the ladder of success? Make sure its leaning against the right wall. Many people find out that they didnt really know where they were going after all.

They experience success but no satisfaction. As in any project, its best to read the directions first. Theres no better place to begin than with the Bible. Were learning some fantastic things concerning success in life. Join us this Sunday and find out for yourself.

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