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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1989)
2 Hot Specials Famous Hot Philadelphia 475-3015_ Southwest Comer RPH I 15th & O'’ 23te i C ; Eat in, Carry Out or Delivery Apr. 14, 15*1 /-a a op"i, nviw Special Added Attraction* COURAC Coining In early March By John Ptetrr _Call tof information \ THEATRE ARTS A DANCE AT \ Box Office: 1 st Flow Temple Bldg, 12th & R, U \ (402) 472-2073 Jfl/m mfmt ft ^ ha Connie Sheehan ' Dally Ndwaskan EAT OUT Page 5 New Musk Page 6 Video Vault Page 7 Life In Hell Page 10 The Mill Page 11 Calendar Page 12 J 12 Noon to 2 p.m. UNL City Campus Ballroom “Wednesday; FEBRUARY 1 For all students and UNL faculty and staff (No admission charge) w The ‘alternative’ now | is quantity, not quality! By Mark Lage Staff Reviewer_ They’re letting way too many people make records these days. If, as a record buyer, you re lo >king for an intimidating sight, go to die downtown Pickle’s store and stand in front of the Imports' Independents section It’s gigantic. It has more than quadrupled in size since I’ve been in college, without any notable increase in output of good records. At least 1 have never met or read about anybody (who I trusted) who has thought so, but with that much material, who can really tell? Even if there were a hundred really good records in ail the re leases by all the unheard-of bands, it would take you years to find them And if it can be assumed that the records that fight their way out of that pile into college radio lop ten lists and onto MTV s ‘120 Minutes” are somewhere near the lop in quality, then I guarantee that there are not a hundred good rec ords to be found in there. There may not even be one. This is not intended to slight Pickle’s in any way -- they don’t make them, and their attempt to maintain a separate Independents 1 section while most other record stores have given up on it is proba - bly admirable. '.. “alternative" has become a four letter word. 9 It just seems that every last sub division of alternative music hardcore, industrial music, synth dance/power thud, and so on — has its own bevy of little record companies, enabling just about anyone who lives in a large city and can sustain audible sound for longer than a half an hour can put out an album. This seems to be the only lasting impact of what was once a promis ing movement. All of the best underground bands from earlier in this decade have either broken-up, fizzled out, or moved into the big time while leaving their best al bums behind them. They have also left behind an ever-multiplying number of bands who say “interesting” things in interviews, take neat pictures, hut are musically impotent to put out anything that sounds good, inter esting, innovative, or can even keep you awake. Any good new band must face the unenviable task of somehow forcing their record through the literally thousands of others being released. If they happen to be from somewhere like, say, Lincoln, J Neb , it’s difficult to even get a contract Local bias probably can 11 be avoided, bul saying that a band Like 3 3 Nightmares is better than just about anything you’ll hear on 320 Minutes seems to me like a statement of the obvious For many knowledgeable people, the term alternative" has become a four letter word Tune into 320 Minutes one Sunday night, and two tilings w ill happen 3.) You’ll see example after example of the kind of prob lems I'm talking about 2.) You’ll get a nice start on a good night s sleep to begin your week You ’ll see the Stranglers doing a Kinks cover. The Swans doing Joy Division s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and some band whose name I can’t re member doing a really slow , mumbled version of The Velvet Undergrounds Sweet Jane ” You 11 see aging cult stars Julian Cope and Iggy Fop jumping around looking and sounding really ugly And you'll see a num ber of five-year old videos by I bands like H F M and Black Flag I Let’s hear it for new music 1 When you do gel around to I hearing a new song by a relatively I new band like the BoDeans or ■ Lilac Time, for example, you'll I want to suggest that they’d be I more successful writing and per- I forming their songs while awake 1 That is, providing you can slay that I way until the end of their perform- § ance. ■ _ .i i/a* *rl_n_. I J ■ Ill me UUa, I 1U%*4IUW9 rock n’ roll by pulling out a series of albums that simply demon strated its potential. The problem became that although the Beatles and some of their contemporaries were great, Beatlemania was not. i and by the mid-’70s, ambitious studio albums like “Sgl. Pepper’s, “Ihe Beatles,” and “Abbey Hoad had inspired racks and racks full of art rock-schlock records. But soon bands like Ihe Sex Pistols and The Clash came to the rescue, demonstrating that the knowledge of a couple chords and a healthy dose of energy were all you needed to make better albums than anything Jethro Tull or Uriah Heep could ever muster. Serious listeners abandoned much of the mainstream and be gan following the less popular but worthier movement which would become known as “alternative,” and from which great bands like R.E.M., The Replacements, The Minutemen, The Violent Femmes, Husker Du, and joy Division would emerge. But now, a decade or so after the advent of The Sex Pistols, this too has degenerated, into hordes of lisdess minimalists of varying styles -- from exhausted hardcore to boring three-chord guitar pop, all the way down to low-level computer programming. So now we have two different sets of racks full of bad albums.