Ground Zero crowd gets its groove on during show

Concert: USC students are impressed by goofy, fun student band performances

By LAUREN CHOPLIN
Staff Writer

Rousing the students of USC is no easy task, but on Wednesday night two bands, in a flippant display of musical bravado, did just that.
Ground Zero's dimly lit stage first played host to I Am Joe, a fervently goofy three-piece band with a refreshingly bizarre set-up. Surrounded by a varied assembly of musical instruments and children's toys, the band, led by the amusingly earnest Joe Napolitano, opened with a gurgly rendition of the Toys ŚR Us theme song. This set the tone for the evening, and as the crowd gazed on in amusement, I Am Joe carefully manipulated every instrument, plastic and otherwise, at their disposal.
Music composition major Laura Steeneberge belted out lyrics with sardonic flair as her bandmates played mad scientist behind her, but the three switched instruments regularly, even mid-song. And although the expertise of a 5-year-old child would be required to identify half of the band's instruments, I Am Joe squished the coolest noises out of the strangest things: plunky keyboards, kazoos, guitar, recordings from "Toy Story" and even the fuzzy mic of a Playskool tape player.
With lyrics such as I can't hear you because of the sirens, as in the catchy, Teen Heroes-esque "I Miss You More In The Ghetto," the band didn't have any trouble relating to the audience. To the delight of many, I Am Joe ran through a flailing version of Weezer's "El Scorcho." The band's rendition of "The Muppet Love Song" featured a cameo by two hand puppets as a stuffed version of Rowlf, the piano-playing Muppet dog, meditated silently at the edge of the stage throughout the performance. It was highly appropriate decoration for a band with a penchant for delectably absurd music-making.
Fine Arts Major Scott Barber introduced one song by saying, "This next one means a lot to me. It's very personal. It might mean a lot to you, too." The set was meant to be funny, and it was, but the music was produced in such an interesting way that one couldn't help but be impressed at the sounds emanating from such clunky plastic.
Between sets, the restless crowd milled about outside, with Radiohead and Guster grinding out of the sound system. After an extended delay, loud chantings of "OT" finally called Organum Tripulum to the stage. The band, made up of three jazz studies majors, is named after a term for vocal polyphonic music. This basically (and appropriately) implies, to the less informed, that Organum Tripulum is the result of three independent musicians melting together, a band marked by quick, fluid changes in structure and style. The fusion is simultaneously playful and serious, impressive for a band that's been together only a month. OT layered spacey effects over warm, futuristic grooves, adding a moody, heavy air to the band's vigorous, genre-bending insanity.
Pianists Aaron Arntz and Morgan Wiley donned tin foil vests, emphasizing the band's mildly dorky futuristic glow. Twinkly numbers like "Sodium" spilled into tightly chaotic songs such as "The Welder," as drummer Matt Slocum pounded out darkly brooding beats in quick succession. With its warbling, melted lyrics, "Chancellor Higgins" (a "song about grooves," as Arntz declared) sounded like a jazzier version of Radiohead's "Kid A." Arntz made ridiculous lyrics sound perfectly natural, occasionally asking the audience if it was "feeling it."
OT is good at working a crowdwhen the band members weren't plugging each other's greatness, they were riling up the attentive audience. "This is a dancing show; no sitting!" Wiley announced, urging everyone to stand up, clap and move around. In a response that is uncharacteristic for most Ground Zero shows, the crowd actually listened, and the response as a whole was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Called once again to the stage for an encore, Organum Tripulum ended with "Anthem For The New World," a creepy, atmospheric song that finished off the evening with a triumphant bang.
OT might not become "bigger than the Beatles," as Wiley light-heartedly asserted, but this band definitely has the potential to develop an insane following.
Organum Tripulum can be found on the web at http://clubs. yahoo.com/clubs/organumtripulumofficialfans.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 142, No. 36 (Monday, March 5, 2001), beginning on page 7 and ending on page 10.