Arts & Entertainment
Omaha first site of Soul Asylum siege
By Michael Deeds
Senior Editor__
Even with all the media hype, the
industry competition, the internal
pressure, guitarist Dan Murphy isn’t
too worried about Soul Asylum’s new
album, “Soul Asylum and the Horse
They Rode in on.”
“For us, the kick was always get
ting in the van, going to a town where
we don’t know anybody and making
a racket,” he said in a telephone inter
view from Minneapolis. “Making
records was always secondary.”
But that’s not to say Murphy doesn’t
care about the album. Murphy and
vocalist/guitarist Dave Pimer have
just spent all day on the phone spew
ing out quotes for writers, promoting
the LP and the tour they will kick off
tonight at Omaha’s Ranch Bowl.
“This new record’s got some seri
ous stuff on it,” he said. “It’scertainly
a lot different than anything we’ve
done. But it still sounds like Soul
Asylum. It’s kind of weird. It’s hard
to put it in its place because it’s just
come out.”
After eight years of critical ac
claim and a large alternative follow
ing, Soul Asylum really is getting
serious. “The Horse They Rode in
on” has been released on A&M Rec
ords, a major label, and the support
ing tour will take Murphy, Pimer,
bassist Karl Mueller and drummer
Gram Young around the United States
and Europe.
And after that, Murphy said, the
band is going to start shopping around
for a “big” band that needs an open
ing act for an arena tour.
“People seem to think it’s time we
got our feet wet playing hockey rinks,”
Murphy said. “You know, join the
mega-stars.”
Soul Asylum the mega-stars. Seems
a little weird, even to Murphy, who
isn’t setting any excessively high
expectations.
“When you’re in a band, you al
ways know it could go to shit tomor
row,” he said. “So you’ve got to pace
it.”
Soul Asylum was always so nor
mal. They look like you and me. But
times arc changing. Stardom beck
ons. Picture Soul Asylum borrowing
hair spray from Warrant, or studying
ballet like Kip Winger.
“The only ballet we study is at
See SOUL on 11
Dan Murphy, Dave Pirner, Karl Mueller and Grant Young of Soul Asylum.
Hocus rocus analyzes
society, raises questions
By Jeffrey Frey
Staff Reporter
“Hocus Pocus”
By Kurt Vonnegut
Putnam
Kurt Vonnegut is among the most
well-respected and original stylists in
American literature today. His plain
h0<felEVV
spoken style and left-of-centrr poli
tics pervade his work, typifying his
moral outrage with government and
humanity. Vonnegut raises questions
about not only the future of America,
but the future of humankind as well.
Vonnegut’s 13th novel, “Hocus
Pocus,” raises those same questions
while becoming a social, political
and philosophical lampooncry that
has as its targets nearly all aspects of
society; nothing is safe from Von
negut’s satirical analyzing.
“Hocus Pocus” analyzes aspects
of society and raises other questions
through protagonist Eugene Debs
Hartke, named for Eugene V. Debs,
an early American socialist leader.
“Hocus Pocus” is set in the year
2001, yet covers the last half of the
20th century with Hartke taking an
absurdist’s perspective of human his
tory, while narrating his story.
Hartke, at the insistence of his
father — “a chemical engineer in
volved in making plastics with a half
life of 50,000 years”—enters a local
science fair with an exhibit of crystals
dreamed-up and constructed by his
father. Dad longs to have a son wor
thy of something to brag about as the
young Hartke nears his high school
See HOCUS on 11
Local radio station honors Bernstein
with second full day of programming
By Bryan Peterson
Staff Reporter
Lincoln radio station KUCV
FM will devote a second day of
programming to works conducted
or composed by Leonard Bernstein,
whose death Sunday left the world
of classical music without one of
its most prolific figures.
KUCV Chief Announcer Steve
York described Bernstein as “one
of the most important and influen
tial American musicians of this
century.”
Bernstein directed the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra from 1958
to 1969, after which he served as a
guest conductor for the next 15
years, giving well over 1,000 live
performances.
According to York, today’s
morning programming at KUCV
will include the following works
composed by Bernstein:
•Dances from West Side Story
•Portions of a newer Bernstein
work, “Arias and Barcarolles”
•Bernstein’s Divertimentos for
Orchestra.
The rest of today’s program
ming will feature works conducted
by Bernstein, such as :
•The Flute Concerto and the
Clarinet Concerto of Carl Nielsen
•The Brahms Symphony No. 4
•The Symphony No. 2 of Sibe
lius.
The “Performance Today” pro
gram at noon will be dedicated to
Bernstein.
In the afternoon, a Schumann
piano quintet, with Bernstein per
forming with the Juilliard School
of Music will be played.
At 7 p.m., a performance of
Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, with l
Bernstein conducting will be aired. 1
York said a number ofprvumms I
such as Karl Haas’ “Adventures in
Good Music” and some of the or
chestra programs will be preempted
to accommodate the special pro
gramming efforts. York said Haas’
9 p.m. program may also dedicate
its formal to Bernstein in the com
ing week.
The tributes to Bernstein will
reflect the long and influential career
of one of the first American con
ductors.
Robert Emile, UNL Professor
of Music and conductor of the
University Symphony Orchestra,
said Bernstein used a conducting
style which was much more physi
cal than prior American conduc
See BERNSTEIN on 11
‘Family Sty le’ offers Vaughan fans an encore
By John Payne
Senior Reporter
Vaughan Brothers
“Family Style”
Kpic Records
Maybe it’s the recency of Stevie
Kay Vaughan’s death, but “Family
Style,” his collaboration with big
brother Jimmie, sure seems like a
second chance — one more encore
performed especially for broken
hearted fans.
But true to the uplifting style of
both Vaughans, there isn’t so much as
a hint of sadness on this wonderful
new release.
I Recorded at Ardent Studios in
Memphis, “Family Style” is about a
lot of things; but mostly it’s about a
true love for the guitar. Four of its 10
tracks arc instrumentals, with Stevie
Ray and Jimmie taking turns on vo
cals and trading riffs back and forth
on everything from steel guitar coun
try to urban funk.
What’s fascinating about this LP
is that, for the most part, it stays clear
of the purely blues-oriented sound in
which the Vaughan mystique is
steeped. The artists seem at case
throughout, the recording loose. Jim
riie even eases into the jam session
by telling his sound man to “roll the
tape, I’ll just feel something.”
Moreover, “Family Style” leaves
the impression that the collaboration
was just that — a project of equal
input from both men, lovingly pro
duced by the free hand of studio ace
Nile Rodgers.
Ihcrc arc R&B rockers like While
Bools," that smacks of Fabulous
Thunderbirds. There are Stevie’s brief
excursions into Austin blues^ with
“Long Way From Home,” and “Tele
phone Song,” which jump to the same
level of his final album with Double
Trouble, “In Step.”
There’s even some swank to be
found on “Good Texan,” a sexy number
about cowboys and cowgirls: Make
big money, put it in the bank/ Long
horn Caddy got a great big tank/do it
to me baby like I know you could/ So
I can do it to you baby like a Texan
should.”
The use of effects is limited, with
the Vaughan Brothers occasionally
stripping things down to dual guitars,
percussion and a stand up bass. 1 his is
bare, no frills rockin’. Every tunc on
“Family Style” basks in a sense of
exuberance, an unscripted playful
ness that must surely come from a
lifelong familiarity.
The only real trace of production
to be found on “Family Style” is in
the record’s first single, ‘‘Tick Tock,”
a retelling of one of Jimmie’s dreams.
If anything though, its highly pol
ished arrangement of keyboards and
soulful backing vocals only further
the effect of Jimmie’s message: “The
sick, the hungry, had smiles on their
faces/. .. had family all around/.. .
And the children of the world look
forward to a future/.. . The worst of
enemies became the best of friends.”
Every tunc on “Family Style” basks
in a sense of exuberance, an unscripted
playfulness that must surely come
from sibling familiarity.
One can’t help but feel that in an
age of big-haired guitarists who rely
more on fret masturbation than on
any distinctive style, the subtlety of
the Vaughan brothers is something
special.
J l_m
- _ urtesy of Epic