page 8
daily nebraskan
thursday, december 4, 1980
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'Dick Tracy' debut is impressive , entertaining
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By Pat Higgins
Jaded rockers with a lust for kicks
would be well advised to investigate "Dick
Tracy," a hot new band that made its de
but last weekend, opening for the Eyes in
an impressively tight and entertaining per
formance. "Dick Tracy" included former members
of the Specs and Omaha's Rebates who
were highly successful among the underage
crowd. A key advantage for "Dick Tracy"
profile
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Photo by Mark Billingstey
'Dick Tracy's" lead singer, Sara Krovanda.
is the group members' average age of 20,
which seems to add a bit more youthful
spirit to their show.
"All the other bands around Lincoln
have existed for centuries." said lead singer
Sara Kovanda. "We're trying to do some
thing fresh."
"Dick Tracy performs tunes by the Pre
tenders. X and Gang of Four, among
others, who are the musicalpolitical avant
garde of rock circa 1980.
"1 lived in Los Angeles for a while and
seeing bands like X and the Reillos really
knocked me out," Kovanda explained. She
is 20 and has been performing professional
ly for the last three years.
She initially was singing with an FM
Top 40 outfit that toured the Midwest ball
room circuit at venues similar to the Royal
Grove.
"Then I started listening to Llvis
Costello and David Bowie and it totally
changed my attitude towards music,"
Kovanda said.
Star quality
Kovanda has star quality onstage as she
prances around like a young Mick Jagger
while belting out effective vocals. The band
members share the spotlight fairly well due
to their instrumental competence and their
unusual hairstyles. Nonetheless, Kovanda
is the center of attention.
"I'm definitely into visuals and I really
enjoy acting crazy onstage. I used to play
keyboards but I enjoy the freedom of mov
ing around while I sing." Kovanda said. She
is visual, too, sporting a spiky red hairstyle
and Carnaby Street miniskirt onstage.
"I'm really interested in clothes and
fashion as part of music. They're a very
important part of it," Kovanda said. "I
think that miniskirts are going to be the
next trend."
In the last couple of years women have
been more prominent in rock, particularly
among Fnglish New Wave bands.
"Women in rock is a big thing now.
Both men and women seem to enjoy the
change. I'd like to play guitar sometimes
but it seems like every girl in the world is
playing guitar now." Kovanda said.
Assertive woman
Kovanda makes the creative decisions
and the band agreed that she runs the
show.
"These guys all play their instruments
so well that it's amazing." Kovanda said.
"We all get along very well personally and
musically. My previous band got rather
weird for a while. I think they were threat
ened by an assertive woman. Besides that,
they like to play a lot of gross music that I
hated.
"I get along a lot better with the men in
bands when I wear pants instead of a dress.
But I am trying to do something new and
unique. Women are usually either sex sym
bols like Debbie Harry or Fat Benatar or
else they are one of the boys like Chrissie
Hynde. I'm trying to do something differ
ent," Kovanda said.
"Dick Tracy" plans to take a break
from performing for the next month while
working up more original material.
"We wanted to see what kind of a re
ception we would get and we're quite
pleased. We think we can attract a lot of
people," Kovanda said, adding, "I'll try
anything once as long as it's tasteful."
Steely Ban 's 'Gaucho 5 continues their svelte style
By Casey McCabe
Steely DanGaucjoMCA
(iaucho is musically precise, lyrically up
to Steely Dan's high standards, and flaw
lessly produced by Gary Katz.
While all this adds up to be another sub
stantial notch in the belt of these faceless
superstars, listening to the album some
times produces a feeling similar to what
would happen if you went to a Woody
Allen movie and found out he was well-
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adjusted. You're happy that the artist is
growing old more gracefully, but you kind
of miss indulging in their foibles.
Gaucho continues to hone the svelte
jazz-influenced standards Walter Becker
and Donald Fagen pursued on their sixth
(and ironically their "breakthrough")
album, Aa.
Steely Dan was one of the few truly
innovative bands of the 70s, incorporating
a bit of jazz into their curious blend of
dissonant musical lines and odd rhythms.
Cynical both musically and lyrically,
Becker and Fagen often proved they could
rock, as well as confuse the critics.
When Aja hit the stands in 1977, the
more mature version of Steely Dan was
wildly successful, causing a new apprecia
tion that took their previous five albums
off the discount racks and turned them
gold. With the release of Gaucho more than
three years later. Steely Dan was a guaran
teed profit-maker for the first time in their
career.
The Dan has done nothing to jeopardize
such status, though they have never been a
band to mold themselves around the quali
ties of popular accessibility. The public has
come to them, and that is one of Steely
Dan's most admirable feats.
Still, through the course of Aja. and
now Gaucho, it's apparent they've out
grown the type of rock'n'roll that surfaced
on such past works as "Black Friday."
"Bodhisatva" and "Night by Night." Nor
is there anything with the grandiose
strength of "Rose Darling," or "The Royal
Scam." They also don't play anything
quite as weird as "Charlie Freak" or
"Throw Back the Little Ones" from Pretzel
Logic and Katv Lied respectively.
This is too bad, for despite the fact that
Gaucho is a particularly fine album, it sets
up a paradox for Steely Dan. If one was to
let the smooth flowing arrangements and
silky female backing vocalists cloud over
the words that Donald Fagen is singing
(which isn't hard to do), one would be
under the mistaken impression that Becker
and Fagen had made their peace with the
world .
In past work, their penchant for cynically-bizarre
lyrical circumstances was glaring
ly punctuated by the music, to make one
neat state-of-the-art package of alienation.
The same package could change in form
and function several times over the course
of an album.
Gaucho is composed by the same two
guys who gave us such cheery, optimistic
tunes as "Any World (That I'm Welcome
To)" and "Don't Take Me Alive" and
though the package is more comfortable
to swallow, they still retain an air of
tongue-in-cheek cynicism. Now the listen
er doesn't have to feel as unhealthy for en
joying it.
The lyrics are enjoyable too, much like
abstract art. You may not know what
something means, but you still know what
you like. Two of the best on Gaucho are
"Babylon Sisters" and "My Rival," finely
crafted tunes about tentative love affairs
and misplaced machismo. At times they
take on the tone of a cheap detective
novel:
'7 struck a match against the door
Of A nthony 's Bar and Grill
I was the whining stranger
A fool in love
With time to kill"
From "My Rival"
Continued on Page 9
- i71 sleety dan
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