Store allows import bands to make their mark
By Jeffrey Frey
Staff Reporter
In 1987 Steve Schulz and a friend
wanted to take their intense interest in
music and turn it into a business.
The result was Project Import, 122
N. 14th St.
Project was founded with the idea
of doing something different: making
accessible to the public a varied and
diverse type of music not found in
most record stores.
The premise behind Project was to
sell exclusively import and alterna
tive music, centering the business on
mail orders.
Today Schulz is sole proprietor of
Project, and he says he intended to
start the business small and slow and
to build up from there.
“We started small - with just eight
or nine CDs and about $3,500 worth
of inventory,” Schulz said. “We didn’t
have a lot of money when we first
started, but it’s grown pretty good.”
Project has since taken on an in
ventory of hundreds of tapes, albums
and digitals, with imports from nearly
all of the major European countries as
well as selections from Yugoslavia
and the Soviet Union.
Originally located in the Burkholder
Project in the Haymarket District,
Project has since moved twice and
now finds its home on 14th street
between O and P streets.
Schulz says that it was important
for the store to be moved downtown,
so that people would have better access
to this type of music.
“It was difficult for people to find
miili! iffiTi i *MI1ifHitfcF>i1
us in the Haymarket,” Schulz says.
“People just didn’t know that we
were out there. We moved onto O
Street and that place was just too big.
Now, I think we’ve found a place that
suits us well.”
As well as dealing in imports and
independent label bands, Project deals
in rare and limited edition music and
has a selection of alternative maga
zines and posters.
Project also has a wide variety of
7- and 12-inch singles which are less
popular in the United States than in
Europe.
For Schulz, an interest in a less
common and more alternative style
of music came during his youth, which
he spent in Amsterdam, Holland.
“When I was about 15 or 16, a guy
that I worked for look me to see the
band Roxy Music. This was the turn
ing point, when I realized that there is
different stuff out there.”
The idea for Project Import came
about when Schulz owned a tanning
salon and spent his time listening to
varied types of music.
‘41 used to spend about S50 to $ 100
a week on music. This turned me on
to really good bands, and once I had a
chance to sell my business and move
into another direction, I wanted to do
something with music,” he says.
Although he listens to many dif
ferent types of music, Schulz says
alternative is his forte.
For many, “alternative” is a vague
term referring to music that doesn’t
receive a great deal of airplay (m usic
played often on Top-40 radio sta
tions).
Entertainment That’s
Heads & Tails Above The Rest.
SEPT. 14-NOV. 18
L i
Steve Schulz, owner and manager of Project Import, 122 N. 14th St.
“It’s best to break it up into sub
groups,” says Schulz. “There is the
English type of pop music which
includes bands like The Jesus And
Mary Chain and Happy Mondays.
There are industrial bands like Nurse
With Wound and Current 93.”
In addition to these, Schulz says
hardcore, punk and speed metal all
have their place in the alternative
scene.
“Basically, all music is diverse --
even Top 40. But I feel that the major
label stuff is jammed down your throat.
The idea behind Project was to do
something different, we wanted to
special-order music for people.”
Some of today’s most innovative
and well-known bands first found their
place on independent labels, before
graduating to major labels and exten
sive air-play.
“People don’t realize that bands
like New Order and Dcpechc Mode
started in stores like this,” Schulz
says. “They’ve been busting their
butts to get where they arc. People
have a misconception that these bands
were just thrust into the music scene.”
Schulz also says that Project can
tell which bands will expand onto
major labels - a portion of the indus
try that Project does not bring into its
inventory — and also that this trans
gression is important for Project’s
business.
“I always know that there is going
to be another band to take the place of
those which make the move to a major
label. In a way, it helps me. I can still
get their imports, and people looking
for their older music on independent
labels can find it here.”
According to Schulz, Lincoln has
become somewhat of midwestem
center for this type of music - some
thing, he said, Lincoln can be proud
of.
“It gets better all the time,” he
says. “The scene at Duffy’s and the
Zoo Bar, and also the campus station
KRNU helps to support all of this.
Bands love to come to Lincoln and
play because of the intense interest
here, and also because the people are
really great.”
It’s essential not to underestimate
the importance of Project’s influence
and purpose in Lincoln. In addition to
supplying KRNU with the music to
many of the new and innovative bands
on the alternative market, Project is
the primary' motivator in bnnging bands
to Duffy’s Tavern.
“We try and get involved with the
scene,” Schulz says. “It’sgood lobe
a part of this group of people - those
involved with Ecology Now and other
progressive movements.”
Project’s influence can be experi
enced Tuesday nights at The Under
ground, where Schulz plays a selected
blend of acid house and industrial
dance music.
Schulz stresses that an important
aspect to the alternative music scene
lies in the fact that the people dealing
with this music do so more out of their
interest and less from a business stand
point.
“The major music industry is about
business - people in their 40s or 50s
that don’t care except for selling units,’ ’
Schulz says. “It’s about buying stock
into a band and making a lot of money.
“I just don’t know if I’d want to
expand -- I think the independent
scene is so diverse and progressive. I
do get discouraged. I wish more people
knew where we arc and what we’re
about.”
Schulz says that he has had cus
tomers from places such as New York
who arc impressed with the store, and
have commented that in New York or
L.A., Project would make a killing.
“But that’s not what we’re about
and so we'll do what we can and just
try and continue,” he says.
‘ ‘We don’t ever anticipate making
a great deal of money, but as long as
we can remain in the scene and con
tinue to feed ourselves, I think we’re
doing all right.”
Cliburn
Continued from Page 9
Baumcrl said that students would
be interested in the program because
Clibum is an internationally known
musician.
“Part of the draw is that he is
legendary,” Baumcrt said. “And his
reputation for performing Tchaikovsky
draws people to him.”
Clibum’s performance with the
Lincoln Symphony Orchestra is sold
out, but there is a wailing list. To be
placed on the list, call the Lincoln
Symphony Orchestra offices. Baumert
also will start a waiting list after 7
p.m. at the Lied Center. She added a
special note for students.
Student prices arc $5 after 7:30
no matter where the seats are
ocated, Baumert said.
“If students arc interested in see
ing the performance, we can almost
always find something,” Baumert said.
Black Elk
Continued from Page 9
Sheppard said the colors of the
panels are suggested by Black Elk in
the book.
Though not long in the actual
process of making the piece, Shep
pard said he had been working on the
idea for almost two years.
“The work did not lake a long
time to make, but it was a long proc
ess coming up with the right idea and
making sure exactly how I wanted it
i .——• .—
to look,” Sheppard said.
Sheppard has done corporate pieces
around the country and has had work
displayed at galleries around the
Midwest.
“I do a lot of objective work, the
kind of art appropriate for a gallery or
something like the Culture center,”
he said.
According to Reshell Ray, Coor
dinator of Ethnic Minority Programs
and Services, the display of Shep
pard’s work at the culture Center is
part of the center’s building towardsa
cultural art fair to be held in October.
Ray said she hoped the works they
obtain, such as Sheppard’s “Black
Elk,” will be both educational and
artistically pleasing.
As pan of the educational side,
Sheppard will be giving a speech
explaining his work and answering
questions about it at 3:30 p.m. today
in the Culture Center.
One thing Sheppard said he did not
want to happen to the piece was for it
to become too popular or liked by ev
eryone.
“I want people to cither like it or
be bothered by it," Sheppard said.
"The one thing I don“. want is for
people to be indifferent."
■——■—1 11 I
Ian
Continued from Page 9
other Texas bluesmen. His play is
often subtle, as good bar blues should
be, but more often it strays into his
own recklessness.
It also should be mentioned that
Moore has an astounding voice,
remarkably full of purpose for
someone his a$c. He is clearly not
your typical guitar hero, but maybe
that’s because Moore sees himself
as more of a bandmember than a
centerstage virtuoso.
Moments Notice is a trio, with
bassist Ron Johnson and drummer
Mike Villegas rounding out the
troupe. The band is in the middle
of a Midwest and Southwest tour
that look them to Lawrence, Kan.,
on Monday night.
Moore saw Stevie and older
brother Jimmy Vaughan play on a
regular basis in Austin. The first
time was in 1973. At the age of
five, his father took him to a show.
At 16, he started playing guitar
himself.
“People look back now, and
think that Stevie was a legend
from day one, but the fact is, he
wasn’t accepted initially," he said.
“And that was because he didn’t
play the old, traditional blues - he
added a personal flair to it. Thai’s
what I want to do. I’m not inter
ested in copying anybody."
Austin is more accepting of
guitar interpreters nowadays,
Moore said.
“You still run into those died
in-the-wool blues fans, though, who
don’t want to listen to anything
but the straight blues,” he said.
“But all in all, I couldn’t have had
a better hometown to learn about
music in.”
In a city that has spawned gui
tarists like Charlie Sexton and the
Vaughan Brothers, people are quick
to compare a rising young player
to his predecessors, Moore said.
“The last thing I want to do is
rehash what’s already been done,
or just stick the simple, traditional
blues,” he said. “1 think that’s
what made Stevie so great, the fact
dial his playing was rooted in blues,
but he wasn’t afraid to experiment.”