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Daily Ncbraskan
Wednesday, February 25, 1937
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By Charles McCubbin
: Diversions Editor
fTHoday I noticed the schedule
. I was up for this semester's laser
shows at the Ralph Mueller
Planetarium in Morrill Hall. They
. seem to be trying a wider range of
music than ever before this year.
I've been to several of these
things, both as a reviewer and as a
private person. I like them. A lot of
Laser
Preview
people I know put down the laser
shows becuase they acquaint them
with hypertechnological, ultra-glitzy,
super expensive extravaganzas like
last semester's Journey abomination.
But the laser shows aren't like that.
In a lot of ways they're just the
opposite. They're just labors of love,
really. The people who do these
shows aren't interested in critical
distinctions what's cool, what's
trendy, what's fashionable they
j ; t know what they like. They're
not trying to blow anyone's mind,
t iit they love technology and they
love the music they listen to and
they put them together to make art,
r .something darn close to it.
Sometimes this sincere exuber
ance carries the day beautifully;
other times things get a little weird.
It sometimes seems that the laser
folks tend to think every band or
at least every band they like
sounds better with lasers. This isn't
always so.
Here's a rundown of this semes
ter's schedule along with my call on
.whetiier the showcased band goes
well with lasers. I'm not reveiwing
these shows - I haven't seen them.
I'm just talking about how well the
music goes with the laser concept.
Feb. 27 and 28 Van Halen
, . Yeah, great idea. Van Halen is
more or less the definitive flashy
band of the '80s, and w hat's flashier
than a laser?
I " :.rch 6 and 7 Dire Straits
X .v, this is a little weird. Not
.:.' guitar hero is glamorous and
. . The key work to all of Dire
s' music is sublety. Mark
r's guitar work has a lovely,
: folk feel that doesn't mesh "
, ith lasers. 1 think Dire Straits'
' i best in candlelight myself.
' r rcli 13 Beatles
' t a little weird. I associate the
, 1 ;s' stuff with either the grainy
I! . !. and-white teddy-boy arr.hictr.ee
Kimball organ concert
Lincoln Organ Showcase, in compar
ison with the UNL School of Music, will
present Bruce A. Bengtson in an organ
recital March 3 at 8 p.m. at Kimball
Recital Hall. This is the final concert of
the 1986-87 Lincoln Organ Showcase
concert series.
Bengtson is director of music at
Luther Memorial Church in Madison,
Wis., a position he has held since 1978.
Besides playing organ, he directs the
choral program and string, brass and
recorder ensembles. He studied under
Dr. Robert Anderson at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas, Texas,
and did graduate work in organ and
church music at Valparaiso University
under Dr. Philip Gehring.
Bengtson, who has performed exten
Jazz concert will feature Culture-Vision
. The University of Nebraska Program
Council will feature the multifaceted
jazz group Culture-Vision at the Cul
ture Center, 333 No. 14th St., this Fri
day at 7 p.m.
. Several local music celebrities are
scheduled to perform including the
Sunday JournalStar Music Poll best
instrumentalist winner, saxophonist Roy
Wagener. Also appearing are trumpeter
9
of their Cavern days or with the soft
psychedelic explosion of "Sergeant
Pepper." Still, the Beatles did so
much in so many different styles
there's probably the making of a fun
laser show in their repertoire.
March 14 Rush
For a couple of years this sort of
pompous art rock was the mainstay
of the laser shows. This semester
they seem to have broadened their
perspective. This kind of stuff goes
well with lasers, parades, pageants,
processionals, natural disasters,
great moments in history, explo
sions, nuclear explosions. I think
Rush would sound great at ground
zero of an H-bomb explosion. Pic
ture a 3000-megawatt laser drilling
right through Geddy Lee's skull
Braazzp!
April 3 and 4 - Bruce
Springsteen
Whoa! Get Back! Too weird.
Springsteen and lasers go together
like hamburger steak and caviar.
The perfect light show for a Spring
steen show is the bright beams of a
'57 Chevy reflected off a Cadillac
hood ornament and the bubble light
from a state-patrol car.
April 10 and 11 Boston
and Journey
Both these bands go well with
lasers. I just wish they'd given them
their own shows because Boston is
good, clean all-American-type fun
while Journey is a minor but painful
annoyance.
April 17 and 18 Pink Floyd
The archetypical laser show.
Ever since Pink Floyd put a beam of
light dispersing through a prism on
the cover of the "Dark Side of the
Moon" album, this band has been
synonymous with coherent light in
the popular imagination. Also, bril
liant beams of light flashing t hrough
total darkness is a pretty good vis
ual metaphor for the band's philo
sophy and music.
One final note: I notice that the
planetarium isn't doing any anthol
ogy shows anymore. I wish they
would. Most of the bands being
showcased this semester have done
stuff 1 like, but I'd get really bored
with a whole hour of their music.
Shows will be a 8, 9:30 and 1 1
p.p.. z:. 1 v.iil cost 3 for students, ,
$3X0.' for ncn-students and $1 for
Li.i; J;ea. Th3 Pir.k FbryJ show will
Ir;t tv. ice as lcr.3 rr.d co:;t mere.
Ar.J if you're lec!ur.; for seme
thin; to really spice up your birth
day party, the F -r.etarium is doing
private b:;er shows forjur.t $150.
sively throughout the United States,
Mexico, Canada and Europe, is key
boardist for the Wisconsin Chamber
Orchestra and accompanist for the
Schultz Ensemble of Madison. Bengt
son has been director of music for the
Conference of Lutheran Professional
Church Musicians in Columbia, S.C.
and was also director of music for the
June 1985 Synod Convention of Wis
consinUpper Michigan Lutheran
Church in America at Carthage College.
This concert is part of Lincoln Organ
Showcase, a standing committee of the
Lincoln Chapter, American Guild of
Organists. Admission is $6 for the gen
eral public and $4 for senior citizens
and students, or with a season ticket.
Children under 12 are admitted free.
"Mac" McCune, guitarist Dennis James,
plus Omahajazz musicians Mason Prince
and Norman Love.
This program will feature the evolu
tion of jazz in the United States and a
television talk show format to give par
ticipants and listeners the opportunity
to share information and voice a variety
of musical opinions.
Admission is free.
Review Board
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Shriekback, "Big Night Music"
(Island)
The third effort from this British
dance trio is rather deceptive. On the
surface, it sounds like VIM fodder, a
nice, easy collection of soothing, jazz
type Caribbean ballads that would be
perfect for sunbathing on a beach in
Bermuda But lyrically, the album is
suffused with medieval mysticism and
shades of Eastern philosophy.
Only the opening cut, "Black Light
Trap," has the staccato rhythm-box
insistence that highlighted their ear
lier efforts.
Lead vocalist Barry Andrews man
ages to spread a sense of dark tonality
over the songs that are as eerie and
mellifluous as their titles (like "The
Reptiles and I").
"Exquisite" describes an enchant
ing landscape:
' 'La mju id su n corn ing up across
the bayLeopard yawns with
breath like flowers Amour the
love that kisses and recoilsNo
thing could steal this dream of
bliss. "
On the contrary, "The Shining Path"
is incredibly sepulchral and unsettling:
"AbominationsAs soft and
discrete as uranium. "
Add some Gregorian chants, creepy
sound effects, abstraction and vocal
chaos, and you have an album that
comes off like Patti Smith doing a par
ody of "The Girl from Ipanema."
"Big Night Music" is easy-listening
music with imagery that hardly com
plements the banality that surrounds
it. It is also a surprisingly trenchant
change for Shriekback, a band that
continues to churn out innovative dance
music instead of the vacuous tech
nopop its peers continue to create.
Scott Harrah
Nonfiction, "Nonfiction" (De
mon Records)
San Francisco's Nonfiction is one of
a handful of bands that are really doing
innovative things with roots rock and
independent country music, even
though every guitar player with flag
decals gives lip service to that ideal.
Dwight Yoakam may have zapped some
life back into honky tonk music and
the Knitters may have poured some
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Nonfiction
7
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adrenaline into the jug-band side of
C&W, but Nonfiction actually manages
to come up with poop-kicking Ameri
can music that isn't just a portfolio of
influences.
In fact, if Stephen Yerkey, the vocal
ist and chief songwriter for Nonfiction,
wanted to play hardball he wouldn't
really have to owe nobody nothin'
nohow. Yerkey's voice is neatly bal
anced between the slick, slightly
breathy tenor of Yaokam and the
authentic learned-in-the-woodshed
drawl of say, George Jones or Merle
Haggard. Despite his gangly appear
ance, Yerkey isn't creating eowpoke
music for nerds and intellectuals. The
songwriting is tough and road-weary,
devoid of the art ifice that mars most of
the "new country music."
What makes Yerkey and Nonfiction
so original and tantalizing, however,
isn't traditionalism, but Yerkey's uni
que ear for song structure. The first cut
on the album, "Dead into West Virgi
nia," doesn't give much away where
Yerkey's box of melody tricks is con
cerned. It's a song about trains and
hometowns and loneliness, etc., etc.,
etc., with fairly typical lyrics and a rock
n' roll beat. After this dose of conven
tionality, Yerkey breaks free into
"Speak the Same to Everyone," a mono
logue about straight talkin' that fea
tures surprise after surprise in the
street poetry of the spoken verses and
the perplexing glam-rock rhythm gui
tar that highlights the choruses.
Throughout the LP, Yerkey continu
ally experiments with novel ways to
arrange roots musia He turns slow,
tender ballads into zydeco romps
("Simple Things") and then reassem
bles the parts into a rockabilly rave-up.
Consistently, melodies start off on one
predictable foot and wind up turned
completely on their heads. Throughout,
Yerkey manages to wrap irresistible
melodies around verbally awkward
phrases like "that incredible tender
ness which everything is judged against"
or "is this the culmination of collective
memory?"
This is an album that actually man
ages to be experimental without losing
that element that's most important to
roots music: gut appeal. Cowboy Bob
drowning himself in a case of Lone Star
Courtesy of Demon Records
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Brjan MaryDaily Nebraskan
beer is going to love this, drink to it, cry
to it and pretend every word applies to
him. The new country audience, an
upscale, highly educated lot, will find
Nonfiction's sense of formal adventure
as rewarding as a bottle fo fine Zinfan
del and a plate of pasta cooked to
perfection.
To those riding the coattails of the
recent "American music" fad, here are
a few words of wisdom from John Prine:
"Your flag decal won't get you into
heaven anymore."
Charles Lieurance
Album courtesty of Pickles Records
The Golden Palominos, "Blast
of Silence" (Celluloid Records)
So what does Anton Fier have to be
so smug about?
Much has been made of Fier's
temperament, of his obsession with
getting his own way. Fier assembles
alternative music supergroups, mostly
from the Mitch EasterDon Dixon sta
bles of southeastern artists, and whips
them into a band once in awhile for a
vinyl exercise in name dropping. The
Palominos second LP, "Visions of
Excess" had a title that said it all.
The songs were too busy, overly
structured and mixed with no ear for
dynamics. Fier has one drumming style
and that's loud and heavy. If it weren't
for his obsessiveness and occasional
Eno-esque interest in odd percussion
instruments, Fier would fit right in
with the world of mainstream metal.
Loverboy or Journey couldn't ask for a
better drummer.
"Visions of Excess" sported too many
very talented people with much too
little to do.
"Blast of Silence" is even more
repellently overblown. Fier has assem
bled here a group of artist whose spe
cialties are fragile, delicate pop songs
and forced them to partake in numbing
bombast. At least on "Excess" Fier was
dealing with artists like John Lydon
and Michael Stipe who are used to
throbbing mayhem. On "Silence,"
artists like Nebraska's own Matthew
Sweet, T-Bone Burnett and Fier-Staple
Syd Straw just can't come on like the
bulldozers Fier would like them to be.
Their talents are subtle, and all sub
tlety is lost in the production mess Fier
creates.
Once again, the only really success
ful tunes on Fier's album are cover
tunes. On "Excess" it was Moby Grape's
"Omaha" that transcended the wreck
less "heaviosity" of the whole LP. On
"Silence," two Little Feat songs rise
above the maelstrom, "I've Been the
One" and "Brides of Jesus," both feat
uring the substantial vocal talents of
Syd Straw, whom Fier must be holding
hostage.
Now, I know it's difficult to stay
away from an album with T-Bone Bur
nett, Syd Straw, Matt Sweet, Chris
Stamey, Jack Bruce, Don Dixon and
Carla Bley listed in the credits on the
back cover, but try. No matter how you
cut it, it comes up Anton Fier.
Fier, please, we beg of you, release
Syd Straw.
Charles Lieurance
Album courtesty of Pickles Records
Mill,),:'!.
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