Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of Cruz Records
Skin Yard
Seattle9s Skin Yard will crawl
from depths of grunge to Lincoln
By Michael Deeds
Senior Editor
Barren Martin, drummer for Skin
Yard, lives in a music oasis called
Seattle. Big names like
Soundgarden, Tad, Nirvana and
Mudhoncy lurk in every club.
But big doesn’t mean better.
“I think our rhythm section,
Daniel (House) and I, are the tight
est in Seattle,” he said in a phone
interview Wednesday. “Not to tout
ourselves or anything.”
What about vocalist Ben McMil
lan?
“Great phrasing. He always has
kind of a twisted approach.”
And guitarist Jack Endino?
“He’s got that trademark wall
of sound.
“We always get great crowd
reactions,” Martin said finally.
“Everybody just moves to the
sound.”
Skin Yard will take that sound
and inflict it on Duffy’s Tavern,
1412 O St., Sunday night. And
Martin, whose blatant honesty never
--
really seems like bragging, said he
expects Lincolnites to like it.
Martin has been a part of Skin
Yard for nine months. He replaced
Norman Scott, who replaced Matt
Cameron, now of Soundgarden.
But the rest of Skin Yard has
cynrt'rt
been pretty stable. The band has
been plowing through clubs for
five years, he said, releasing al
bums like “Fist Sized Chunks,”
which incidentally, has nothing to
do with getting sick.
“They got that from a review,"
he said. “The drummer broke his
cymbals. He was literally breaking
off ‘fist-sized chunks of bronze.’ I
already started breaking cymbals.
I’m sure I’ll be throwing some metal
around (Sunday). I’m a real ag
gressive, hard-hitting drummer.”
This percussion onslaught com
bines lethally with the barrage
created by Jack Endino, who is
best known as the all-star producer
of Sub Pop recordings by Tad,
Nirvana and Mudhoney. Skin Yard,
which records on Cruz Records,
was a part of that festering on
slaught of Seattle grunge that oozed
out over the United States and
Europe last year — and an original
part.
“(Skin Yard) was doing the
Soundgarden thing before
Soundgarden did,” Martin said. “We
have gotten a lot of Soundgarden
comparisons, admittedly. But the
whole scene is so incestuous . . .
that it’s invariable that will hap
pen.”
Now that Soundgarden is on A
& M Records, and Sub Pop bands
arc huge, all the groups get lumped
together in a famous Seattle music
scene, he said. And that famous
“grunge” tag. But the fame goes
around.
“In the end, everybody does get
a little bit of it,” he said. “So that’s
good.”
Opening for Skin Yard is Saw
horse. Cover is $5 and the show
starts at 10 p.m.
‘Desperate Hours’ violent,
unreal and overextended
By Julie Naughton
Senior Reporter
A young sociopath attacks his
lawyer, who turns out to be his girl
friend; breaks into a house and takes
the family hostage; plays mind games
with everyone involved and terror
izes lots of nice people. Everyone in
moytip
“‘vr»EVIEff i—
the whole movie comes close to being
killed. The FBI steps in and tries to
help the family being held hostage.
Most of the people survive.
Confused yet? In a nutshell, this is
the weak premise of “Desperate
Hours,” the new Mickey Rourke
thriller/horror/action drama.
Rourke plays sociopath Michael
Bosworth, who was jailed for taking a
family hostage and killing another
person in the course of a crime. He
also is suspected of killing a liquor
store clerk, but the FBI and courts
hadn’t been able to make that charge
SUCK.
Kelly Lynch plays Nancy Breyers,
the supposedly upstanding young
lawyer that defends Bosworih.
Bosworth breaks out of jail and
into the house of Tim and Nora Cor
nell (Anthony Hopkins and Mimi
Rogers, respectively). Bosworth ex
plains, as he and his fine., incorrupt
ible brothers case the spacious house,
that he just needs someplace to stay
for a few hours, while waiting for his
girlfriend, Nancy Breyers, to get to
him. He explains that trust is the name
of his game, and that if no one tries to
| hurt him, he won’t try to hurt anyone.
Nora buys this, doing everything
she can to keep Bosworth calm. Tim,
on the other hand, is another story. He
tries at every turn to outwit Bosworth,
a sociopath with an IQ nearly in the
genius range.
Not a smart move.
Bosworth says, as he beats Tim
up: “I really like this family, but you’re
trying my patience.” In the fray, the
family’s real estate agent is killed and
one of Bosworth’s brothers is sent to
dispose of the body. The Cornells, not
knowing if they will be rescued, re
sort to desperate measures. They send
their children out of windows, try to
grab knives and look for hidden guns.
As the terror of the family builds to
a fever pitch, the FBI is outside work
ing on the case. They had suspected
Nancy Breyers from the get-go; their
suspicions were correct, and they
followed her straight to the Cornell
house. This leads to what is supposed
to be the chilling climax. It falls short
of its expectations.
Rourke, as the criminal in the
Armani wardrobe, is charming and
bone-chilling. His Bosworth acts like
a normal person, calm, rational. He
reasons with people — until he gets
angry. When he gets angry, people
get killed.
I uming in acrcdible pcrlormance
as Nora Cornel I is Rogers. Before this
movie, Rogers was perhaps best known
as the spouse of Tom Cruise. With
“Desperate Hours,” Rogers is well on
the way to making people forget about
her toothy ex-husband. Rogers is
excellent in the mother-children scenes,
as she begs the intruders not to hurt
her two children. She’s convincing in
the scenes between Nora and Tim,
and she portrays the terror of being
held hostage very well. Rogers’ per
formance is a little rough at times, but
overall is quite good.
Hopkins is mediocre as Tim Cor
nell. His Tim is a blustery, raving
man. At times Hopkins is appealing
in this role — especially in the later
scenes between him and Nora — but
these moments, unfortunately, are few
and far between.
The mediocre to decent acting.
See DESPERATE on 10
Western artworks depict
fiction, plains curator says
By Julie Naughton
Senior Reporter
The cowboys, Indians and yellow
skies of contemporary Western art
could have been painted a hundred
years ago, according to the curator of
the Center for Great Plains Studies
Art Collection.
Jon Nelson, who spoke Wednes
day at SL Mark’s-on-the-Campus, 13th
and R streets, said contemporary
Western an is not original in its choice
of subject matter or colors.
“The art is contemporary only in
that it was created during our lime,”
he said.
Nelson, who spoke on “How Con
temporary is Contemporary Western
Art?,” said modern artists often imi
tate older artists and strive to portray
the west of popular folklore.
The west of popular culture, Nel
son said, has some basis in fact, but it
mainly is rooted in fiction. It is narra
tive and continues the tradition of
European art, he said.
Nelson examined use of light and
shadows and choice of subjects in his
hour-long speech. He discussed what
he fcltto be a major part of contempo
rary Western art a group called “magic
See ART on 11
Boston trio could hit big-time
Band may escape neighborhood with new album
By Cinda Timperley
Staff Reporter
The Neighborhoods
“Hoodwinked”
F.mergo Records
It’s a beautiful day for the Neigh
borhoods. After a three-year hiatus,
the Boston trio has released its third
album, “Hoodwinked.”
Influenced by the punk movement
of the ’70s and metal in general, the
‘Hoods still fall back on the raucous
sound that got their fool in the musi
cal revolving door. They throw in
1 Ramoncs rhythms to tinge their hard
irockin’ edge with a solid, tangibh
{sound.
“Hangin’” opens the album and
right away grabs for the eardrums.
Mike Quaglia’s throbbing drums slam
again and again to bounce off David
Minehan’s screeching wall of guitar
noise and vocalizing. Lee Harrington
pulls the set together by pumping out
the bass line and contributing vocals
as well.
The Neighborhoods breeze at high
speeds through “Roxxannc” and es
pecially “King of Rats:”
> “Jesus Christ you bore mc/even
when you ignore me/How’d you get
so dull?/You suck the brain right out
of my skull.”
“King of Rats” raunchcs on a love/
hale relationship and mirrors the
Neighborhoods’ punk roots.
It that’s not dizzying enough, they
crank it higher through “Hate Zone”
and “Evil Knicvcl,” a lame but ener
getic tunc about the motorcycle man
himself. The4 Hoods also do an about
face for the power ballad “Love Holi
day.”
The title cut opens side two and
sneaks a peek into life on the road, but
is not the strongest song on the album.
In fact, side two goes from powerful
on “Anything” to Top-40ish on a cover
of Cheap Trick’s “Southern Girls” to
thoroughly underwhelming on
“Nancy.”
Having not quite matched the
success of fellow Bostonians, the Cars,
the Neighborhoods may yet break out
of the Boston club scene with “Hood
winked,” and rattle the airwaves.
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