Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1988)
Arts & Entertainment Peer Puppet’s music filled with adrenaline, messages Courtesy of Ed Higgins Tisdale By Brian Wood Staff Reporter When the three-piece Lin coln-based band Peer Puppet takes the stage, their music is the main show, but the band pushes the point of the music with enthusiastic adrenaline energy. Peer Puppet has been in exis tence for more than two years, playing at many alternative music shows around town. Besides play ing shows on their own and doing benefits with other local bands, they also have opened shows for some of the more popular national hardcore bands, like Corrosion of Conformity and Capitol Punish ment. The band’s style of music re flects the personalities of the members of the band. Drummer Paul Tisdale, a junior arts and sci ences major at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, has a satirical wit that often plays a part when he writes lyrics. “A heavy-metal altitude would * throw the whole thing into the water,” said Tisdale. “Let go of pressure and stress and do what you like to do.” Bassist Bcmic McGinn has a similar attitude. McGinn’s feel ings about the band point more than toward the music. “The most important part is what the music says,” McGinn said. Peer Puppet’s stage presence depends much on McGinn’s ener getic vocals, “but everything is really a group effort.” Self-taught guitarist Rich Hig gins is inspired by the hope of louring this summer. He has high hopes for the band’s new recording and the possibility of making a single soon. Higgins, a junior art major at UNL, is one of the band’s original members. Recently the band recorded a demo tape to send to record compa mes. The entire band was enthusi astic about it and hopes to get some sort of recording opportunity. In the meantime, the band will continue to play locally. “The more we have fun, the more the audience seems to have fun,” Higgins said. Courtesy of Ed Higgins Higgins - - - More holidays needed; suggestions: Bimbo Day, Dead Kennedys Day I tried to phone my bank last Monday and was having no success when it suddenly occurred to me, “Of course, they’re not open. It’s a holi day, Martin Luther King’s. Uh, Jun ior.” Now, I’m certainly not going to put his holiday down. Where do you think we arc, Arizona? It’s a good idea, and we should commemorate the man and his dream. But I just don’t know how I’m supposed to act or feel. I could start by treating other people with more respect and love, as the man would have wanted us to be doing. Or I could take a cue from the celebration of another holiday named for another man of peace. I could just pretend to care about other people more, the way people do at Christmas. My auandar\ comes basically because the holiday is too new to have any songs to traditionally sing or foods to traditionally eat. Our descendants will probably find it much easier to slip into the spirit of the holiday. Oh, there were celebrations. Again, I wouldn’t pul down those good and sincere people who took part. But what can those of us who really don’t care do? What sort of rituals arc we supposed to blindly go through? I invite your input. But, actually, I think I like it. True, mail is stopped, and I love mail, even junk mail. But there has got to be an advantage to keeping big institutions like banks closed an extra day. Like an extra day to kite checks. Government is closed an extra day too. Thai’s got to be worth any minor inconveniences holidays otherwise thrust upon us. It saves money by closing all those offices and services and allows the government an extra day to kite checks. With the deficits our federal government has run up, we need more holidays. So here’s a list of prospective new holidays to fill up the spaces we now have between present holidays. First we need to fill the spaces we still have between November and March, where we already have holidays about every two weeks, and then fill that vast wasteland of time between April and October, where whole months will have only one. Ev Mecham Day — We already have a day commemorating a man of great intelligence and a giant of love rind peace, now we need to represent the opposite extreme. This would be for right-wingers who are really too dumb to be considered serious bigots. Guy Fawkes Day — This is a big deal in England, I guess. Fawkes was the leader of a conspiracy to blow up Parliament in the early 17th century. Anyone who thinks thus of politicians is an OK guy (or Guy) with me. The traditional food shall be frankfurters tied to sticks and set ablaze with cook ing sherry. You put them out by whacking them against buildings or each other. Teacher Salary Increase Day — Once a year, everything closes so everybody can get the “teaching is an important profession, teachers should be paid better” bug out of their sys tems for the whole year. Maybe the state legislatures will meet for a spe cial session to raise salaries, but not enough to really matter — we wouldn’t want to actually solve a problem. Old Rock-Stars Day — We could ignore il until now, but some of these guys arc eoing to survive into their 80s or 90s. Tnis won’t be so traumatic for fans of pop-head groups like Mr. Mister or the Outfield, but there is a chance (granted, a small one) Mick Jaggcr, Johnny Lydon or Wendy O. Williams could go the distance. The rock star who is the biggest farce of his or her popular image gets to be grand marshal of the big parade, which MTV is barred from covering. Bimbo Day — We need a day to recognize the important achieve ments women have made to society by participating in the political process and in the business world, but first let’srecognize the effeelother women have had by just being there. Our recent examples were great. Jessica Hahn and Donna Rice made news just by being picked up by dumb public figurcsand Fawn Hall simply by look ing better than anyone in the While House last summer. Name three other women who, combined, got more press than any one of these this year. Broken Treaties Day — We should celebrate the way this nation was really built — by signing treaties we had no intention of keeping. And by the way, if the Indians don’t like how they’ve been treated, they should go back where they came from. Dead Kennedys Day — Your holi day in Cambodia. I thought of this day not just to commemorate two great politicians who helped transform this nation, but because holidays with tra ditional songs like “Too Drunk to F— ” and “MTV Gel Off the Air” seems irresistible. (P.S. Jello, I bought your “Frank enchrist” album used. Could you send me a copy of the obscene poster?) Rollins rivals Murphy with ‘Big Ugly Mouth' By Michael Deeds Staff Reporter Henry Rollins, “Big Ugly Mouth,” Texas Hotel Records Henry Rollins once sang that he was a “man among men walking tall with a plan.” But so far nobody can seem to tell what sort of plan this man has in mind, especially from his latest album. Rollins, who led the introverted punk band Black Flag until they broke up in late 1986, recently released his second full-length solo album, “Big Ugly Mouth.” How ever, not all Black Flag fans arc going to like this album when they set it on the turntable and give it a spin. There isn’t any music on this album. Apparently, Henry is now either a stand-up comic or a re spected louring speaker. It’s im possible to decipher which by lis tening to him talk. “Big Ugly Mouth” is a collec tion of cheaply recorded speeches given by Rollins at various college campuses across the country. The audience is mostly young punkers, though, not college students. Rollins gives pep talks, tells jokes, relates touring experiences and, of course, complains about police men a lot. However, most Rollins fans will not identify with this album well. His anecdotes arc not the nor mal maniacal, angel-dusted vi sions that most people would ex pect from Rollins. Most of the album is humorous, at least to an extent, even when he is trying to be serious. Who can take a grave speech about poverty when Rollins also gives a 20-minule monologue on masiurbation? Rollins rivals Eddie Murphy in the use of obscenities, but he is definitely not in the same league of humor. He has some unusua (opin ions, as could be expected, but even those arc intended to be funny. Only Rollins would think that Darryl Hannah “poos talcum powder” or that society is desper ately in need of “John Holmes bubblegum cards.” However, after the letdown of thinking about Rollins doing any thing but screaming lyrics about depression, it must be said that the album is entertaining. Sure, it isn’t profound when he wants it to be profound, but it is fairly funny. Rollins pokes fun at Harley bikers, transvestites, punks, his mother and father, and various other dregs of American society. His imitations of Olympic skiers on PCP and condom commercials on MTV are hilarious. However, the basic flaw of this album is the attempt at seriousness. The last track, which deals with his observation of an anonymous handicapped man in New York, is insulting to disabled people. He is being sincere, but when held next to the obscenely humorous content of most of the album, this is at best a feeble attempt at being a martyr. But if Rollins fans can overlook this problem, they probably will get to like the album for its humor. The appeal will be greater to people who don’t like punk rock, but like comedians. It is an ade quately funny album. Still, it would be nice to know what this guy’s plan is. —