Monday, November 4, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Page 9
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Violent Femmes 'add it up '
David CreamerDaily Nebraskan
Victor DeLorenzo of the Violent Femmes drums at the UPC concert, Sunday night at the Nebraska Union. Because of
a ticket mix-up the Femmes played to a not quite sold out but enthusiastic crowd.
Record industry, parents groups agree
on warning customers of explicit lyrics
By Deb Pederson
Senior Reporter
Members of a group of Washington wives
called the Parents' Music Resource Group and
the Parent-Teacher Association compromised
with the Recording Industry Association of
America Friday and agreed to an arrangement
including use of the following warning label (on
albums): "Explicit Lyrics Parental Advisory,"
according to the Associated Press.
Under the agreement, recording companies
can print lyrics on the album jacket instead of
using the warning. With this option, cassettes
would be marked "See LP for Lyrics."
Musicians who have contract authority to
design album covers can ignore the agreement.
The drive for guidelines and a rating system
began in September when Susan Baker,' wife of
U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, complained
to Congress that "pervasive messages aimed at
children, which promote and glorify suicide,
rape and sado-masochism, have to be numbered
among the contributing factors" to teen-age
pregnancy and suicide.
According to the AP story, the record company
and the artist will determine what is explicit.
So far, 22 of 44 RIAA member companies have
accepted the label warning. RIAA President
Stanley Gortikov said he didn't know what pro-
David Mills, assistant manager at the Record
Shop at Centrum Plaza, said he didn't think the
portion of rock music sales were accounted for
by the 22 companies.
Local record store operators said they didn't
think the warning labels would affect sales.
Their customers haven't complained to the
record stores about the labels, operators said.
John McCallum, owner of Dirt Cheap, 217 N.
Uth St., said he didn't think warning labels
would affect sales.
Records with sexually explicit or violent lyr
ics "make up an excruciatingly small percen
tage of the records sold," McCallum said.
"The majority of the customers think it's
ridiculous," he said. "It's really a minority push
ing for censorship. I think it's comical myself.
"I don't think the government should be mak
ing moral decisions," he said.
A clerk at Pickles, 220 N. 10th ST., said he
didn't know if sales would be affected.
"I think it would depend on the individual,"
Alex Wassem said. The intrigue of finding out
why an album has a warning might prompt some
to buy the album, he said.
But if parents come in with children when
they buy albums, fewer will probably be sold, he
said.
"I think the idea is good, but they're taking it
too far. They're going overboard," he said.
warning labels would have an effect on sales, but
they could.
"It depends if they go beyond just a warning
and restrict sales," Mills said. Yet warning labels
, also would attract attention and could increase
sales, he said.
Customers haven't said anything about the
labels, he said.
"I think it's a good idea, but I don't know if it
would do any good. If someone really wanted to
listen to that stuff, they would find a way to do
it," he said.
"There's definitely some albums that should
have a warning on it," Mills said.
Jazz group
brings New York
sound to Plains
By Deb Pederson
Senior Reporter
The contemporary repetoire of the Jazz
Underground, a Lincoln-based band, is "sur-.
prising to hear in Lincoln but not in New
York," said the band's leader, UNL student
Bill Wimmer.
The group plays modern jazz compositions
that usually aren't heard because the pieces
are difficult and the sound is different than
traditional jazz, said Wimmer, who is a senior
history major.
"We're taking some chances and some
times it doesn't work but we do it with a high
energy level," Wimmer said.
He said the band plays works by Charles
Mingus, Wayne Shorter and George Adams.
"The emphasis is on the music; the em
phasis is to keep it fresh and exciting. Mod
ern jazz is experimenting," Wimmer said.
"Everybody in the group is a serious musi
cian and serious about jazz," Wimmer said.
Wimmer plays saxophone in the band.
Kevin Lyon plays electric guitar, Andy Hall
plays acoustic bass and Bill Bohlmeier plays
drums.
The group started about a year ago but
hadn't performed regularly until McGuffey's,
1042 P St., hired them, Wimmer said.
For now the band will stay more localized
and play in Lincoln and Omaha, he said.
He said he has lived in New York City,
California and Europe and has seen musi
cians spending their time pushing brooms to
earn money just to survive instead of concen
trating on their music.
Local jazz musicians take up more non-jazz
music work because that is where the jobs
are, he said.
Wimmer said he won't play anything but
jazz.
"People will probably always have to take
other jobs to put food on the table," Wimmer1
said. "1 do other jobs like roofing in the
summer and bartending in order to play jazz.
"When you play jazz you accept the fact
that you probably won't get rich and famous.
Improving and growing as a musician keeps
you going."
The band hopes to expose the local area to
progressive, lesser-known jazz works and
expand the interest in jazz, he said.
The Jazz Underground performs Thursdays
from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at McGuffey's. There is
no cover charge. .
Composers present works
By Deb Pederson
Senior Reporter
The works of three UNL composers will be
presented Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Kimball Recital
Hall. The works, by Robert Beadell, Randall
Snyder and Harold Levin, include a variety of
20th century styles, ranging from neo-classic to
avant-garde and New Romanticism.
Beadell's compositions will include the pre-
Plenty5 is
'plenty swell
ByTomMockler
Staff Reporter
. "Plenty," currently showing at the East Park 3
is plenty swell, I must say.
I say this with some qualifications, though.
Number one, I like Meryl Streep. Number two, I
am a sucker for films that look "nice," especially
ones in Panavision I saw it at the Indian Hills
in Omaha, so it was in Dolby Stereo to boot.
Third, I identified with the doomed romanticism
5 the main character.
Movie Review
"Plenty" is the story of a woman's quest for
Happiness in postwar Britain. Susan (Streep) is a
courier for the British Secret Service in occupied
ance. British agent Lazan (Sam Neill) drops
irom the sky and she gives him instructions.
Later, after a close call with the Germans, she
weaks down, and he "consoles" her.
As lovers, Neill and Streep ignite on screen.
nlT u is a moment f intensity that will not
"Rely be repeated in their lives. Streep is beauti
l and Neill is powerful
" anyone deserves to ta nominated for a sup
porting role award from this film, it is Neill. Still
somewhat of an unknown commodity in the Uni
ted States, Neill is best known for his roles in
"My Brilliant Career," and Australian flick,
"Reilly, Ace of Spies," recently seen on PBS and
in the television movie, "Ivanhoe." Neill has a
screen presence rivaling that of Mel Gibson and
Marlon Brando. .
After her affair with Neill, Susan's life just
isn't the same. Being an English romantic in
postwar Britain is a difficult thing because it is
somewhat oxymoronic at least if you're mid
dle class and develop a relationship around a
career foreign service officer like Raymond
Brook (Charles Dance). Brook is primarily
attracted to Susan by her looks and then by her
originality. Susan sees Charles and eventually
marries him, because he is kind and offers a
source of stability for Jier.
Susan acquires Bohemian friends like Alice
Park (Tracey Ullman) and a lover (Sting). Sting
simply won't do for an above-board relationship,
though, because he is working-class. Stings
mission is to provide Susan with a child, at
WhTnefilmt a tug-of-war between the romantic
and practical tensions between and within
humans. We are given a spectrum of personalit-
ites: Alice is the pure romantic, Susan is a
romantic at the core, but is hemmed in by mid
dle class sensibilities.
Raymond is very practical, but his belief in
right and wrong and his love for Susan are his
undoing. Ambassador Darwin (John Gielgud),
Raymond's superior, resigns from his post not
because he felt the British were wrong to in the
Suez Crisis, but because he felt deceived.
As the man from the British Foreign Service
explained, in the Foreign Service being right and
wrong is not nearly as important as "getting
along" that is what diplomacy is all about, and
that is why the British lead the world in it.
Unfortunately, "getting along" is not without a
price, and the characters in this film pay it.
Fred Schepisi, the director, is Australian and
the entire film, for obvious reasons, has a British
flavor. To the LucasSpielberg crowd, this might
mean "slow." Some viewers also might not
appreciate that much of the film deals with
British rather than U.S. problems.
Yet the entire film abounds with fine perfor
mances and does a good job of exploring the
nature of human happiness.
It is also nice to look at. For these reasons I
am giving the film a $4.25 rating. But then again,
I just like watching Meryl Streep's faca
miere performance of two settings of poems by
Nebraska poet Ted Kooser, "Just Now" and 'The
Fan in the Window." These introspective songs
from Beadell's cycle "evocations" will be per
formed by Lori Blythe, mezzo-soprano, and Marge
McKinty, piano. The second of Beadell's works
will be a dramatic monologue from his opera
"Napoleon," first performed in 1973. Patrick
Mason; baritone, and Vena Alesio, piano, will
perform this excerpt.
Beadell, who has won annual ASCAP awards
for creativity and advancement of American
music since 1967, also has been awarded the
Ford Foundation grant for visiting composer at
New York City Center and NEA fellowships for
jazz composition in 1972 and 1976.
Three stylistically diverse pieces by Snyder,
"Sinfonietta," "Nova Cygni" and "Of Here Being,"
will be performed.
"Sinfonietta" is a short neo-classic composi
tion for younger players. It will be performed by a
wind and percussion ensemble of undergraduate
students, conducted by Robert Fought.
. The avant-garde "Nova Cygni" was written for
the unusual combination of string bass and bass
guitar. Richard Kline and the composer will per
form it.
The second premiere of the evening, excerpts
from "Of Here Being," is a setting of Wallace
Stevens' works. It will be performed by Judy
Shannon, mezzo-soprano, and Catherine Her
bener, piano.
Snyder, the recipient of many prestigious
awards, will premiere his transcription of Franz
Schubert's "Deutsche Tanze" with the Lincoln
Symphony Orchestra later this month.
Closing the concert will be "Seven Pieces" by
Harold Levin. This composition, a chamber con
certo for solo viola and 14 instruments, will
feature Levin as a soloist with an ensemble of
UNL students and past members of the Lincoln
Youth Symphony and will be conducted by Ran
dall Snyder.
The concert is free.