Arts & Entertainment
Student’s paintings to debut in Union
Artist calls work
‘emotional agenda’
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska Union will double
as an art gallery today when an exhi
bition featuring works by a Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln student opens.
The joint program of the Univer
sity Programs Council Visual Arts
Committee and the Union Board
Operations Com mittcewill showcase
the paintings of senior art major Phil
lip Glynn.
For Glynn, painting is an intensely
personal form of expression.
“It’s not a manifestation of some
sort of political agenda,” he said, “it’s
like an emotional agenda. It’s highly
personal.
“Showing (my work) is like taking
all my clothes off and standing in
Broyhill Fountain.”
That Glynn’s paintings deal with
the abstract emphasizes his analogy.
“People are going to look at this
stuff and say, ‘My daughter could do
that,’” he said. “People don’t have a
lot of respect for abstract art.”
Glynn said “Landsats,” aerial
photographs often used in geography
classes, resemble his work most
closely.
He also used the word “organic” to
??
describe his paintings. But the artist
was quick to point out that painting
encompasses more than just drawing
pictures of “things.”
“It’s not really a direct linear cause
effect thing,” he said. “I don’t just
think or sec one thing and then paint.”
Glynn said he takes a long time to
get started. Feelings and frustrations
“work themselves out” in his paint
ings, he said.
“1 make 100 ugly paintings for all
of these,” said Glynn, gesturing to the
20-plus paintings he will hang for the
show. “Emotions work a lot faster
than intellect, and painting is a situ
ation where I can express it”
Glynn began painting as an archi
tecture student. He was taking a number
See ART on 10
—u
Emotions work a lot faster than intellect, and paint
ing is a situation where I can express it.
Glynn
senior art major
Group winds down tour tonight in Omaha
Ranch Bowl serving up Danish
By John Payne
Senior Editor
It took three years and two albums before
Mary’s Danish got around to releasing its de
but. Although “Circa” is the third release from
the Los Angeles sextet, in many ways it’s the
band’s first.
confprtn
“It’s really more like a debut than anything
else,” vocal istGrctchcn Seager explained from
her Cleveland hotel room. “We feel like we’re
stepping out and this album is really the first for
the band as a whole.”
Mary’s Danish will continue to step out
tonight at the Ranch Bowl in Omaha, as the
group winds down its three-month U.S. tour.
Mary’s Danish is the creation of Seager and
her University of California at Berkeley pals,
vocalist Julie Ritter guitarists David King and
Louis Gutierrez, bassist Chris Wagner and
drummer James Bradley.
The band scored a college radio hit with
“Don ’ t Crash the Car Tonight,” from the band’s
first LP, “There Goes the Wonderstruck.” Last
year, they opened shows for The Red Hot Chili
Peppers and the no w -dcfunc l Janc ’ s Addic lion,
which helped to solidify them as a band.
“It was a great experience, we had a lot of
fun doing it,” Seager said of the Jane’s tour.
“Being able to play in front of 7,000 people was
good for us too.”
In that year, the group also released a blis
tering live EP, which contained a cover of Jimi
Hendrix’s “Foxcy Lady.” The idea of doing a
Hendrix tunc was partly inspired by their L.A.
compatriots the Chili Peppers.
“We loved their version of ‘Crosstown
Traffic,”’ Seager said. “So we decided to work
up our own version of a Hendrix song and that
was one that we’ve always liked.”
Wonderstruck both wooed and turned off
critics with its constant genre-hopping. The LP
strays from funk to pop to twang, all of which
drew the criticism that the Danish lack focus.
Scager, however, disputes that tag.
“It’s that we have so many so many influ
ences, and everybody in the band writes,”
Scagcr contended. “I guess some people see
that as a little noncommittal.”
“Axl Rose is Love,” a tunc Seager wrote
which appears on “Circa,” is anything but
noncommittal. In it, she lambastes the Guns N’
Roses frontman for his misogyny and racial
intolerance:
“There’s racism and bigotry/There’s a prob
lem we need to addrcss/A nice strong arm will
pull you down/into the arms of the fed up and
jacked out.”
Scagcr defends the song’s politics, but says
she’s still a big GN’R fan. As far as she is
concerned, you can like aband’s music without
liking its message.
Still, the song represents an intelligence that
is propelling the Danish toward mainstream
acceptance.
For Seager, who grew up on the Circle Jerks
and Public Image Limited, the influx of “alter
native" music into mass popularity is quickly
making the term meaningless.
“Alter a while, it seems silly to categorize
it,” she said. “It’s either good music or it isn’t.”
As for the 17-track “Circa,” Seager said it
was the band’s most complete work to date.
“This album best represents what we’re
about,” Seager said. “1 mean, I love ‘Wonder
struck’ but this is the first album to really
reflect all of us as artists.”
But Scager admits she may be going through
the process all over again when Mary’s Danish
returns to the studio.
“Thai’s sort of the nature of songwriting,”
she laughed. “After a while, the material doesn’t
represent you. You grow.”
Opening for Mary’s Danish is Eleven, a
pop/punk trio that includes former Chili Pep
per drummer Jack Irons. Like Mary’s Danish,
Eleven is an L.A. band carving out its own
sound.
Tickets for the Mary’s Danish/Elcvcn show
arc $7.75, available at the Ranch Bowl and
TickctMastcr outlets.
Courtesy of Morgan Creek Records
Los Angeles rock treat Mary’s Danish will perform at the Ranch Bowl in
Omaha tonight.
Punk band resurges with life after 8 years
By Carter Van Pelt
Staff Reports _
Not only is “Alive Tonight” the
latest single from punk rock kings the
Buzzcocks, but it also seems like an
appropriate theme for the band’s fall
tour of the United States.
Now in their early 30s, the
Buzzcocks aren’t content just to rest
on their already solid status in pop
music history.
Before the Buzzcocks’ perform
ance Friday at the Ranch Bowl, co
founder Pete Shelley commented about
the band’s historical importance.
“Its hard to have a perspective
since it’s still the present, isn’t it?”
Shelley said, and added with a laugh,
“I still have to worry about clean
underwear.”
Bassist Steve Garvey said the most
important accomplishment of the
band’s early years was their first EP,
“Spiral Scratch,” released in 1976 on
an independent label.
“It was certainly the first of that
era," Garvey said. “(An independent
release) was the furthest thing from
anyone’s mind al that lime.”
As far as the the band’s breakup in
1981, Shelley simply attributed it to
“all of the novel financial problems
(that bands have).” Shelley indicated
that the latest incarnation of the band
will last indefinitely. The current lineup
has been together since 1989.
And if smiles arc any indication,
the Buzzcocks arc enjoying life on
the American road. The foursome
smiled throughout their hour-long
performance, pulling smiles on audi
ence members as they blasted through
a nostalgic set of classic material from
the golden age of punk.
The Buzzcocks ground out the
grungy pop of early classics like
“Boredom’ and “Fast Cars,” as well
as newer standards like “I Don’t Know
What To Do With My Life” with all
the energy of the originals.
The Ranch Bowl crowd was also
introduced to five new songs, but
only two, “Alive Tonight” and “Last
To Know,” are on the band’s latest
EP. According to Shelley, the group
has 12 new tracks which will be re
corded and released on a new album
by April.
Unfortunately, thcaudienccdidn’t
get to hear all of the Buzzcocks’ new
songs. A later show forced the band to
cut the show down to one hour.
However, the new tunes they played,
particularly “Who’ll Help Me” and
“Love Turns Around,” fit in perfectly
with the old classics.
The songs seem like a logical sound
for the band to have after their origi
nal breakup 10 years ago. And the
Buzzcocks showed with the groovy
song “Tranquilizer” that the latest
Manchester, England, funk sound is
one that can be part of the Buzzcocks’
sound as well.
Garvey said the recordings released
last spring on the “Alive Tonight”
EP, “don’t have the balls that we’re
known for... They sound like over
produced demos.”
Despite this perfectionist attitude,
he said the live shows sound better
now than when the lour started four
weeks ago.
Throughout the show, various
audience members were calling for
the band to play the hysterical stan
dard, “Orgasm Addict,” and they
finally obliged during their encore as
the crowd went into a slamming, stage
diving fren/.y.
The highlight of the show was the
finale, “I Believe,” Shelley’s classic
power pop anthem of youthful disil
lusionment. Garvey, Shelley and
guitarist Steve Digglc belled out the
power chords and droning chorus,
“There is... no... love... in... this
. . . world . . . anymore,” as the
audience sang along.
As the audience enjoyed the show,
many of them must have remembered
how the Buzzcocks had given an entire
generation an identity.
The Buzzcocks proved themselves
Friday as a part of rock’s past and a
part of its present. Without a doubt,
they’re not just “Alive Tonight,”
they’re going to be “alive” for a long
time to come.
Lisa Pytlik/DN
