The Boston Globe

Length: 238 words

Author: JIM SULLIVAN

Date: Thursday, June 30, 1983

Section: ARTS/ FILMS

Headline: 'TIL TUESDAY, SEX EXECS IN TONIGHT'S FINAL

WBCN's fifth annual Rock 'n' Roll Rumble comes to its conclusion tonight at the Metro as 'Til Tuesday and Sex Execs, the two style conscious semi-final winners, battle for a first prize that includes $2000, 16 hours of recording time, a video production, and an appearance on the cable music tv channel MTV. Both bands won narrow victories, Til Tuesday edging the M.I.A.'s Monday night and Sex Execs squeaking by Del Fuegos Tuesday.

Til Tuesday, led by singer-bassist Aimee Mann, have been on the scene only a short while, but have made an impressive mark with theircool, airy brand of white funk. Their music is equally oriented toward rhythmic grooves and melodic hooks; the lyrics are often about tense, difficult relationships. Sex Execs are a witty, wry new-wave pop band. One judge, freelance writer M. Howell, said he was impressed by the band's "tight ensemble playing of complicated arrangements," and by the engaging persona of frontman Walter Clay.

In addition to the Rumble competition, there's an attractive bonus tonight. The Alarm, a young Welsh quartet who played a terrific show at the Centrum Tuesday (opening for U2), will close the evening, with a set around 1 a.m. The Alarm's sound is a heady mix of acoustic and electric guitars, powered by riveting, martial percussion and ragged, urgent vocals. They evince a positive sort of passion, not unlike U2, with a force and feeling that recalls the early Clash.

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