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.
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