Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of The Precautions
Reunited, The Precautionz return
to Lincoln scene more confident
By Sean Green
Staff Reporter _
After a break-up and some lime on
their own, The Precautions are back
together and ready with a tight, hard
driving sound.
According to band member Jim
Skrivan, the band has been rehearsing
all summer in preparation for its re
turn to the Lincoln performance scene
and is more confident about what it’s
doing.
“We’re more experienced and
mature, and we know how to avoid a
lot of the problems new bands face,”
Skrivan said. “In a way, it’s like a
corporate ladder because you have to
pay your dues before you get the
payoff.”
Skrivan said the group is at the
point where it can have fun perform
ing and working together, having
passed the stage of all work and no
reward.
The Precautions rehearsed and had
a sound check Wednesday night at
Oscars, where the band will play this
weekend.
The band is made up of Skrivan,
guitarist Lance Lehman, bassist Scott
Patterson, drummer Dave Pendlcy and
vocalist Evan Rail.
Although technically a cover band,
members of The Precaution/ bristle
at labels like “cover band” and “origi
nal band.” They say such labels over
simplify the music scene.
“From a practical point of view,
you have to establish a base,” Skrivan
said. “Once people start to accept us
as a band and get to know us a little,
we think they’ll start to listen to and
accept our original music with more
open minds.”
However, Skrivan pointed out that
a live band playing cover tunes can be
an entirely different experience than
a machine pumping out the same songs.
“I’m not slamming cover bands,
but if a band gets up and plays a cover
tune verbatim, why not just listen to
the radio?”
He said The Precautionz enjoy
playing songs that have been popular
or have had an influence on the
members, but they took a chance and
experimented with the songs, chang
ing them in ways crowds didn’t ex
pect.
But he said listeners have responded
positively to the idea of altering and
improvising inside the structure of
standard, popular songs.
“People have come up to us after
performances and told us they like
the way we changed a certain song or
added a certain idea,” he said. “We
try to get people into the music, and
play off of their energy, and that
works equally well with cover tunes
and originals.”
Lehman, who has traveled with
bands such as Beau Brummcl, False
Witness and Vicious Trait, said lis
teners have expectations about guitar
solos, but added he tried to experi
ment whenever possible.
“In False Wilncss, I learned that in
the standards, like the Cars tunc ‘ Bye
Bye Love,’ I had to slick to the mate
rial, because people arc used to hcar
See PRECAUTIONZ on 13
Past problems haven’t damaged
Williams’ modern, bluesy sound
Courtesy of Polygram Records
“The Comfort Zone”
Vanessa Williams
Polygram Records
Anyone who has followed the
escapades of Vanessa Williams knows
her career has nine lives.
After her reign as Miss America
ended in scandal, she began a new
career as a vocalist. Her 1988 album,
“The Right Stuff,” proved Williams
was more than a beauty queen, earn
ing her several Grammy nominations
and the New York Rising Star Award.
However, Williams seemingly
terminated her career when she chose
to be a full-time wife and mother.
Now she has resurrected her ca
reer once again. On her new album,
“Comfort Zone,” she performs lead
vocals and has arranged several of the
pieces herself. The album combines
jazz, blues and pop to produce a funky,
modem sound.
Williams’ rich voice has good pitch,
lone and control. However, she is
short on range and volume. Seem
ingly realizing this limitation, she often
lets the orchestration provide some of
the musical interest and intensity of
her arrangements.
The title cut is a sensual piece in
which Williams makes good use of
her sultry voice. Color rhythms and a
bluesy flute solo contribute to the
song s cool mood. 1 he next track,
“Running Back to You,” speeds up
the pace of the album. It sounds like
pop music, so it will be the first single
from the album. Although the lyrics
arc repetitive (“. . . I won’t come
running back, no/1 won’t come run
ning back, no... “) innovative use of
modulation, reverb and rap hold the
listener’s attention.
A remake entitled “Work to Do”
returns to the funky sound of the first
track. Excellent jazz flute, piano and
backup vocals recapture the quintes
sential 1970s sound of the Isley’s
original.
“You Gotta Go” is the longest and
most emotional cut on the album,
clocking in at 6 minutes 22 seconds.
The song is a duct featuring Williams
and Brian McKnighL He sings, “(I
need) some time on my own. She
echoes, “Right now when I need you
so?” Both performers sing in the same
octave, making the song seem almost
conversational.
“Save the Best for Last" is another
song arranged by Williams. It con
tains some almost poetic lyrics like,
“Sometimes the snow comes down in
June/Sometimes the sun goes ‘round
the moon/Jusl when I thought our
time had passed/You go and save the
best for last.”
, The next track, “What Will I Tell
My Heart?” is by far the best song on
the album. It’s a slow blues piece set
in a seedy jazz club and Williams
sings with only a bass, a piano and a
saxophone. Sounding more like Ella
Fitzgerald than a 1990s pop star,
Williams croons “I’ll try to explain to
my friends, dear/Thc reasons we two
are apart/I know what to tell our friends,
dcar/But what will I tell my heart?”
With “Freedom Dance (Get Free),"
the album changes pace once again.
While the lyrics and melody are re
petitive, the beat is complex. This
track is typical dance music.
Williams closes the album with
“Goodbye,” a soulful ballad that al
lows her lo show off her pilch and
control without forcing her out of her
vocal range.
Williams is probably incapable of
the vocal gymnastics performed by
pop stars like Whitney Houston. Still,
her melodic voice and the excellent
orchestrations on “The Comfort Zone”
make it a surprisingly good album.
— Andrea Christensen
“Metallica”
Metallica
Elektra
Groups that are clumped into this
media creation called heavy metal
tend lo fall into their own branches of
the genre. For example: Glam metal
— Motley Cruc. Speed metal — Slayer.
Intelligent metal — Qucensryche.
Poppy metal — Nelson, Winger,
Warrant, Slaughter, Trixter, etc., ad
nauscum. Metal has become a force
ful Tile of popular music on its own,
although a look back at bands like
Blue Cheer lend to make you ques
tion why.
How the four guys in the band
called Metallica ever sold millions of
albums is both astounding and de
lightful. Here is a band who wails in
ferocious musicalily against the sys
tem, the government, destruction of
love and life and anything else that
could seriously enrage most adoles
cents. They also never released a single
ora video until 1989. Somehow, they
amassed a tremendously large and
pretty frightening following and sold
out arenas wherever they went. If
you’re a fan, be aware that their fifth
full-length self-tilled release is ar
guably their most impressive yet.
Really.
The reason is primarily because of
the addition of producer Bob Rock,
better known for his work with mak
ing acts like the Cruc radio-friendly.
He is the only producer that has been
Courtesy of Polygram Records
allowed to mess with Mclallica in
their entire history, and he’s done
wonders.
The first thing you notice about
the new album is the sound. Rock has
jacked up the Titan rhythm section of
drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Ja
son Newsted to levels never before
heard in their albums. If you thought
the fundamental, but still impressive,
drumwoFk on their 1989 single “One”
was nifty, you’ll experience chest pains
once laser hits disc on the first track.
The macabre lullaby “Enter Sand
man” is an entire track built around
one riff, but it’s the power of the
rhythm mix that makes the song such
a forceful exploration into the new
sound.
The rest of the album’s originality
comes from the fact that the boys are
assured of themselves enough musi
cally to sustain one mood for one
song.
In the past their ballads have started
out calm and ended up in a train
wreck. Here they remain conspicu
ously restrained.
On guitarist Kirk Hammett’s two
acoustic-based outings, “The Unfor
given” and “Nothing Else Matters,”
the band uses enough dark strings and
impassioned singing to classify the
two as bona fide ballads. Singer James
Hetficld tries his darnedest at singing
in his own rich tenor, and whaddya
know, it works like a charm.
And if you feel the band has lost its
thrash edge and has wimped or sold
out, “Through The Never” and the
barn-burner album closer “The
Struggle Within” arc capable of send
ing the most conservative haircuts
into utter abandon thrashin’ around
the living room.
What makes the album stand on its
own and not seem like another dry
concept piece is the sustained inten
sity of every song and the debt each of
them owe to metal’s forbearers. Mcl
allica has proven its own individual
mettle many times before. Now they
can afford to build a classic collection
in the great tradition of all hard rock
albums.
Go out and buy the thing. If noth
ing else, it* II give you instant altitude
as you cruise along the highway.
— Paul Winner
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