Arts & Entertainment
Lincoln band Metacrats think, say a lot
By Mark Lage
Staff Reporter
Lincoln’s political-metaphysical
duo, The Metacrats, played an inter
esting and somewhat seasonally eerie
set at the Burkholder Project, Friday
night.
COnr-fJci,,
Since March 1986, The Metacrats
have consisted of Paul Nolan, who
nla> s synthesizer and writes nearly all
the music and lyrics, and Mark Lay
ton, who plays guitar, tenor banjo and
sings.
Unlike many other Lincoln bands,
the Metacrats don’t focus on UNL
students, band members said.
“The college student of today may
as well be a high school student,”
Layton said.
and completing an education degree.
‘We think a lot, and we have a lot
to say, Layton said of the Metacrats.
Their musical style is unique, to
say the least. It features eerie, almost
carnival-like synthesiser swirls from
Nolan, with muted, weirdly effected
guitar or banjo strumming from Lay
ton.
Layton delivers Nolan’s often
bizarre lyrical sensibilities in a
clipped, chant like style. He said that
he plans to employ a voice coach in
the near future to work on improving
his vocal range.
Any band must worry about song
variety, and this is especially true for
a two-piece unit. The Metacrats could
use some w'ork in this area, as towards
the end of the set, Ute songs tended to
be a little redundant musically.
The same cannot be said about the
lopics dealt with by Nolan’s often
bizarre lyrics. They range from politi
7 believe that all beings pass through the
human stage, although not always
physically. Out of the zillions of beings
that there are, billions will reach the su
perhuman stage. Every atom will be a
human being at some point. ’
—Nolan
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So while students spend their time
at “evil places," like Mingles and
Bash Riprocks, Layton said, he hopes
to bring the band’s music and ideas to
a part of the university community
which he said would by more suited to
their style — professors.
When The Mctacrals play at Burk
holder again in two or three months,
Layton said thatevery UNLprofcssor
will receive an invitation.
Layton said he has spent a good
deal of time on the UNL campus.
From 1975 to 1984 he accumulated
IS I credit hours before deciding on
cal satire, metaphysical ideas, as well
as the personal satire of their “famous
person medley.”
This medley is made up of three
songs: “Andy,” dealing with the art of
Andy Warhol; “Marilyn,” about
Marilyn Monroe; and the rather puz
zling "Tokyo Rose,” which features
verses like, ‘Tokyo Rose/Tokyo
Rose/Japanesc Mitsubishi better than
Pcugcot/Tokyo Rose/Tokyo Rose/
Japanese Toyota better than Ford.”
Another lyrical puzzler was
“American Idols,” in which Nolan
espouses the theory that Washington,
Lincoln, Wilson, and Franklin
Roosevelt are the most popular U.S.
presidents because they won, respec
tively, the Revolutionary War, The
U.S. Civil War and World Wars I and
II.
Carrying this further, Layton sings
that Nixon “lost” the Vietnam War,
and “ran away.” No mention is made
of that other incident more commonly
believed to have led to Nixon’s de
mise, Watergate.
The first song of their two song
encore was “The Gods arc Watch
ing,” which moved Layton to tears as
he sang it. After the show, Nolan
talked about the song and his meta
physical reasoning behind it.
“I believe that all beings pass
through the human stage, although
not always physically. Out of the zil
lions of beings that there are, billions
will reach the superhuman stage.
“Every atom will be a human
being at some point,” Nolan said. He
added that a sort of chain is formed,
where animals are gods to plants,
humans are gods to animals, and
something is god or are gods to hu
mans.
“And the gods are watching, be
cause earth is a very important place,”
Nolan said.
“I’m into metaphysics,” he added.
The Metacrats have previously
played at various Lincoln sites like
NebSskSn
the Drumstick, Chesterfields and
Duffy’s, and hope to continue to do
so. Their big goal, they said, is to
acquire a recording contract.
But, for the meantime, their goal is
to attract more people, professors or
not, to their shows, especially the next
Burkholder show. Layton promised
that it will feature an entirely new
song list, as well as a more visual,
performance art type of presentation.
Layton said he hopes to rectify
what he sees as one of Lincoln's big
problems.
“I don’t think there’s any good
entertainment in Lincoln,” he said.
“And people get tired of going to
movies.”
Hanna serves satirical university recipes to students
By Jim Hauna
Staff Reporter
A cute sign above my
grandmother's stove explains it
all. I’ve always wondered how she
managed to have such a happy,
successful home and now I know
her secret.
It seems there is a recipe for a
happy home and this recipe is
spelled out on a sign in her kitchen.
It goes something like this: Two
cups of love, Ml a cup of faith, two
heaping teaspoonfuls of good
humor, one cup of sifted honesty,
etc.
If you take all of these ingredi
ents and blend them thoroughly,
you will end up with a happy home.
That is so cool — 1 had no idea
it was so easy.
Well, I’ve been doing a little
rcscarc h and I’ve found a few more
recipes that explain how to make
things we find in our everyday
lives as students at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
They’re real handy. If you like,
you can cut these out and paste
them to a 3 X 5 index card and put
them in your regular recipe file.
Then you can make this stuff on
your own.
FINANCIAL AID OFFICE
DELUXE
5000 tons of mindless paper
work
10-15 evil human beings with
their hearts cut out
1 computer system that does not
work
2 cups bitter impatience
1 shoebox-sued office
25,000 disgruntled, penniless
students
This recipe is easy. Mix the
paperwork, evil human beings,
computer system, and impatience
in the shoebox-sized office (it will
be a tight fit, some of it might spill
over). Then, close the doors to the
office and do not allow the 25,000
disgruntled students inside. Serve
with fruit garnish. Serves about 1
per hour.
FOOTBALL SATURDAY
All JUS
2 football teams
76,000 brain-dead drunks
Money
1 football stadium
1 Corporate Athletic Depart
ment
Stew the brain-dead drunks on
low heat for 3 hours. Slowly add in
the football teams until the drunks
rise to a rolling boil. Skin each
drunk, removing all of their
money. Liberally baste the univer
sity athletic department in the
drunks’ money. Serves the entire
state.
LIED CENTER FOR THE
PERFORMING ARTS ME
RINGUE
10 trillion bland beige bricks
Money
25 men who know how to
whistle
1 cup of total disregard for the
artistic and financial ideals of the
students at UNL
4 cups of sifted self-indulgence
More money
Whip the bricks and the men
together until stiff enough to hold a
peak. Add a lot of money. Appear
to show concern for the student
body and smugly tell them that the
facility is for them. Bake until done
(sometime around 1995). Powder
the top with self-indulgence and
sprinkle with even more money.
Mmmm! Happy cooking!