Don't Worry, Be Happy At millennium's end, the '80s are making one last grasp at respectability. by Mark Jordan n recent weeks area music venues have hosted the likes of Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, the Outfield, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. This week in Tunica, you can check out back-to-back shows by Duran Duran and Men At Work. And in the coming months we'll be visited by the likes of Huey Lewis & the News and Morris Day & the Time. And now Congress has passed a massive, Republican-backed, ill-advised tax cut. If I could only squeeze into my parachute pants, I'd swear it was 1982. The truth, however, is that while baby busters' salad days are gone for good, the trappings of the decade of our youth, the '80s, are making a comeback. The Have A Nice Day Cafe is passe -- again. While blacksploitation flicks, bell bottoms, and disco may be all the rage right now, the canny trendspotters are already looking ahead to the '80s for the next cultural revival. Just look on the tube: One of the fall's more eagerly anticipated new shows, NBC's Freaks & Geeks, looks at high school through a circa-1980 prism. Or turn on your radio: The most-talked about new radio station in town, the Phantom 96.1, mixes in '80s bands from ABC to Yaz with the contemporary alternative rock they inspired. But leading the new '80s wave are the bands that set the decade's beat. In recent months, Blondie, XTC, Rick Springfield, and the Pretenders have all released new albums and joined the likes of Missing Persons, Culture Club, and the Go-Gos on the road. "Some of these acts never really went away," says Gary Bongiovani, editor of the concert trade magazine Pollstar. "Some took time off but others have been out there all along trying to make a living. It's just that now there are suddenly a lot more of them." That may be, but if you're looking for original members in these reprised bands, you'll actually find a lot fewer of them. Duran Duran and Men At Work both come into town with only two original members each. Men At Work can boast principal singer and songwriter Colin Hay and Greg Ham, who contributed the distinctive woodwinds to tracks such as "Down Under." Duran Duran has its equally distinctive singer Simon Le Bon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes, though guitarist Warren Caccurullo has been with the group since 1986. In the most outrageous example of trading on a name, however, the reformed Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which recently played Newby's, has no original members, just lead singer Holly Johnson's brother. Currently the band is being threatened with litigation from the original members for unfair use of the group's name. What has led to such egregious carpetbagging is a thirst among young twenty- and thirtysomethings for a sip of their past. "It's just a natural tendency for people to have these feelings of nostalgia every few years," says University of Memphis sociology professor James Preston. "It happens with books, movies, fashion, but music is one of the best ways of expressing these emotions. It gets the juices flowing and the synapses firing, retrieving all these past memories and feelings." But Bongiovani sees the trend as the symptom of a music industry that values making a fast buck with a trendy flash in the pan over developing art that lasts, sadly the most lasting legacy of the "Me" decade that also produced junk bonds and corporate takeovers. "The problem we seem to be having is we're not building careers of any longstanding any more," he says. "It'd be nice if we were turning out acts today that could still be creatively vital 10 years from now. I'm just afraid five years from now we'll be talking about all the '90s bands who are getting back on the road. I'm not looking forward to that." Sounds Of The City As the successes of Three 6 Mafia, Lois Lane, and Eightball and MJG show, the most relevant, commercially viable music to come out of Memphis these days is rap and R&B. But unless you're plugged into the scene of homemade tapes and deejays that drives such acts, you probably don't know much about the city's hottest young artists. Started two years ago by the local chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science, Urban Showcase Night seeks to remedy that problem by giving area up-and-coming rap and R&B acts a forum where they can put their talents on display for a wide cross section of the community. This year's Urban Night will be Tuesday at the New Daisy Theatre on Beale. Otis Redding III, son of the Stax soul man and a solo artist himself, will emcee the event. Performers will include Memphis hardcore rappers 901 Thugz; smooth R&B singer Geno; Fletcher, a singer whose music combines funk, R&B, and gospel; singing groups Prevail and Soul Fruit; hip-hop artist Legend Lady J; Katrice, a singer whose sound has been compared to Oleta Adams; and RIDON. Preceding the showcase will be a symposium on the state of urban music. Catherine Brewton, a senior director with music publisher BMI's Atlanta office, will panel the group which will also include Thomas Cain, a senior director at BMI-Nashville; Michael Caplan of Sony 550 Music; Tony Mercedes, president of Tony Mercedes Records; Select-o-Hits head Johnny Phillips; Eileen Nathaniel, program director for K97, WDIA, and Smooth 101; R&B artist J.T. Money; and former Stax songwriter David Porter, who recently started his own label, International Pocket Records. The symposium starts at 6 p.m. A $5 admission covers both events; admission is free for NARAS members. For more information, call NARAS at 525-1340. Music Notes by Mark Jordan New Stuff In The Bins Memphis' the Tumblin' Sneakers Band describe their sound as pop/rock, but more accurately this sextet trades in the peculiar local form of Southern rock that has been the bread-and-butter of popular artists such as Keith Sykes, Reba Russell, and Jimmy Davis and Tommy Burroughs of the Riverbluff Clan. No surprise, then, that three of those artists -- Russell, Davis, and Burroughs -- lend support on the Sneakers' self-titled debut disc. Russell's plaintive background vocals can be heard on the album opener "Walking On The Edge" and the mid-tempo rocker "Doesn't Really Matter." Burroughs' mandolin and Davis' voice pop up on the nicely realized "Better Deal." Producer Jack Holder, a celebrated sideman guitarist around town, also plays on several tracks, taking unexpected turns on saxophone ("That's All Right") and organ on several tracks. Guitarists Paul Leathers, Wise Jones, and Rice Drewry (you gotta love those names) share songwriting credits, but all three write in style that layers vaguely country melodies over the band's rock rhythm section. And with Jones and Drewry's particularly ragged vocal delivery, the overall effect is very reminiscent of John Hiatt, not as keenly observed but enjoyable, nevertheless. Tumblin' Sneakers will be throwing a CD release party this Saturday at the Flying Saucer. New national releases in stores this week include: Victor Bailey Lowblow (Zebra) -- Funk bassist's latest fusion project. Big Bill Broonzy The Bill Broonzy Story (Verve) -- Three-disc retrospective of the bluesman's career. Camper Van Chadbourne The Used Record Pile (Knitting Factory Works) -- Compilation of mid-'80s collaborations between the experimental guitarist Chadbourne and alt-rock darlings Beethoven. Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich The Drum Battle (Verve) -- Forget Superman versus the Hulk. This reissue features swing's biggest bangers head to head. A drummer's must. Hot Club USA Django Lives (Koch Jazz) --All-Star tribute to the king of gypsy jazz, Django Reinhardt. Sugarhill Gang Jump on It (Rhino) -- Rap pioneers' new children's album.