ARTS0ENTERTAINMENT
Daily t
Nebraskan
Wednesday, March 2,1994
Lincoln band j oins
New York label
By Malcom Miles
Staff Reporter
Something was different when Lin
coln’s Mercy Rule took the stage at
Duffy’s Tavern last week.
The trio’s tight, hard-rocking mu
sic sounded the same.
Heidi Ore’s aggressively beautiful
vocals were the same. Ron Albertson's
driving rhythms were the same. Even
the band’s trademark minimal light
ing was the same.
It was, however, Mercy Rule’s first
show as Relativity recording artists.
The band recently signed a four
album contract with the New York
based label.
Relativity became interested in the
Lincoln band when a label representa
tive saw it playing a late-night spot at
New York’s legendary punk club,
CBGB’s.
This discovery is only the latest
chapter in the band’s history.
In the mid-1980s a band called 13
Nightmares roamed the local club
scene with unusual fierceness. In 1991,
the band’s vocal ist moved and left the
members in a tough spot.
Ore stepped up to take over the
vocal chores, and the band changed its
name to Mercy Rule. Last year. Mercy
Rule released a 10-song compact disc
entitled “Ciod Protects Fools” on Lin
coln’s Caulfield Records.
The band toured the Midwest club
circuit, which eventually led them to
New York. CBGB’s and Relativity.
Relativity is oneof the largest inde
pendent labels in the country. The
label is in a position — having clout
from the high sales of guitar tcch
wizard Stevie Vai and others — to
help Mercy Rule reach a larger audi
ence.
“They know where our listeners
are,” Mercy Rule guitarist Jon Taylor
said. “They know who to sell it to. We
hope our music will be on more sta
tions, and we will be able to play more
shows.”
Mercy Rule is not interested in a
media blitz. The band members feel
their music should be the selling point
for the album.
“There won’t be any full-color ads
orexpensivc videos,” Taylor said.“It’s
hard for us tojustify spending more on
a video than we did on the album.”
Taylor said the main reason the
band chose Relativity had little to do
with the industry considerations.
“It came down to us liking the
people, and they seemed to genuinely
like the band.”
Relativity plans to re-release “God
Protects Fools” in late March or early
April. The band has already started
work on its first album for Relativity.
The new songs arc being produced
by Brian Paulson, who has worked
recently with Uncle Tupelo and the
Spinancs. The new release should be
available next fall.
Theattention Mercy Rule is receiv
ing is having little impact on what the
band members do. All three members
said they were keeping their day jobs
for now. They said they were some
what surprised that people thought
they might turn into superstar mon
sters overnight.
“We’re not gonna move,” Ore said
between songs at the DutTy’s show. “I
don’t know why anyone thought we
would; rent’s cheap, my cats like it
here.”
Hopefully, the members of Mercy
Rule will continue to be as persistent
with their music as they arc with their
place of residence.
Mercy Rule will play at the Culture
Center at 14th and R streets on Friday.
Jeff Halter/DN
Mercy Rule guitarist Jon Taylor, right, jams last Wednesday night at Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O
St. Playing bass is Heidi Ore.
Sink teeth into ‘Dracula’
“Anno-Dracula”
Kim Newman
Carol & Graf
“He is experimenting and doing it well;
and if it had not been that we have crossed his
path he would be — he may yet be if we fail
— the father or furtherer of a new order of
beings, whose road must lead through Death,
not Life.”
This excerpt, taken from Brain Stoker’s
classic, “Dracula,” details part of the vam
pire’s motive for journeying to England.
Most people arc familiar with the story,
cither through the book or one of the many
movie adaptations. In the late 1800s, Dracula
traveled to London, intent on spreading
vampirism to the heart of Victorian Britain.
His defeat at the hands of Dr. Van Helsing
and company is also fairly common knowl
edge.
But what if Van Helsing had failed? What
i f Dracula’s plan of conquest was successful?
Author Kim Newman (“Jago,”“The Night
Mayor”) explores this possibility in his in
triguing new novel, “Anno-Dracula.” ,
It is 1888, and Queen Victoria has remar
ried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes,
infamously known as Count Dracula.
Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stoker have
been imprisoned, and the head of Abraham
Van Helsing is impaled on a pike in front of
Buckingham Palace. A vampire, Lord
Ruthven, is prime minister, and another. Sir
Francis Varney, is viceroy of India.
The vampire population of London is
increasing exponentially, and while some
still resist Dracula’s breed, the bulk of the
queen’s subjects are adjusting. Many even
seek conversion, hoping to advance them
selves by joining the swelling ranks of the
newborn undead.
Building upon literary speculation, alter
nate history, political satire, mystery and
romance, Newman has reinvented Victorian
England in the best Gothic horror tradition.
Clever and richly detailed, the book leaves
vivid memories of vampire prostitutes lurk
ing in deserted alleyways and everyday peo
ple fighting for their lives in a new medieval
era.
The real strength of Kim Newman’s writ
ing, however, lies in his characters.
Although much of the book revolves
around Stoker’s originals, namely Dr. Jack
Seward and Count Dracula, Newman has
created some memorable personae of his
own.
Chief among these are Genevieve
Dieudonnc, a vampire charity worker striv
ing to alleviate poverty in London’s East
End, and the mysterious adventurer Charles
Beauregard. The book also features appear
ances by many famous historical figures, and
it even includes a character Bram Stoker
conceived for the original “Dracula” but
omitted from his book.
This is a brilliantly real ized novel, packed
full of surprises. The Dracula legend has
been open to many interpretations over the
years, but rarely, if ever, does an author
manage to infuse this much imagination
while still retaining the quality of the origi
nal work.
“Anno-Dracula” seems destined to be
come a modern-day classic, and it stands a
good chance of placing Newman firmly on
the literary throne of the vampires, right
between Bram Stoker and Anne Rice. Highly
recommended.
— Todd Ellington
Band appeals to broad audience
By BJ Gifford
Staff Reporter
Allgood joins the B-52’s, R.E.M. and Love
Tractor in calling Athens, Ga., home.
The band’s tour began Feb. 2 and will con
tinue through April until they have made 27
stops, many of them in the western half of the
United States. Saturday the band will play at
Jones Street Brewery, 1316 Jones St., in Oma
ha.
“Some of us have a weakness for skiing,’’
lead vocalist Corky Jones said laughing, in
explanation of the seven stops the band will be
making in Colorado.
Southern rock comparable to the Allman
Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd is how critics so far
have defined the band.
“Pop is the thing that gets lost a bit," Jones
said. “We’re not shooting for anything in par
ticular. Whatever comes out is it — soul, blues
and funk."
Being compared with the Allman Brothers
and other southern rock bands all of the time
gets old, Jones said, but it can be flattering.
“People have to compare you to something or
someone they recognize and know others will
recognize until you’re around long enough to
stand as a comparison base yourself,” Jones
said.
Anyway, music of the past is great. Jones
said.
“Like a weird smell,” Jones said, “it takes
you back and delivers a clear picture to your
mind of what was going on in your life then —
when you were listening to the music that last
time.”
Jones speaks for the band’s four other mem
bers only until they hit the stage. Clay Fuller,
M ike Sain and John Carter add guitar, bass and
vocals to Jones’ vocals, while Charlie Pruet
plays drums for the band.
Jones said it didn’t matter whether they
played against a big-name band in New York or
in a bar in a small town.
“We hold our own against the bigger bands,
but we can also pack the bars in the tiny towns.
People who see us generally really like us. It’s
just dumb luck when the music you love to play
as a musician is the same stuff that the audience
really likes.”
Although the band pleases everyone from
young professionals in the big cities to hippies
and high school students, a good chunk of
Allgood’s fans is made up of college students,
Jones said.
Sci-fl book has time warps, termites
“Out of Time”
James P. Hogan
Bantam Spectra Books
James P. Hogan’s “Out of Time,” his 16th
volume, is a good, old-fashioned puzzle piece in
the grand tradition of Arthur C. Clarke. Hogan’s
specialty is hard science fiction. He sometimes
takes outrageous and improbable theories and
makes them work.
“Out of Time” is set in a near-future New
York City, where a mysterious warp in time is
making clocks run at different speeds.
Air travel at major airports becomes a risky
prospect at best, and the concept of time zones
becomes useless. Criminal investigator Joe
Kopcksky is called on to find out why. The only
clue Kopcksky and his associates have is an
eerie red glow coming from the areas of greatest
time retardation — high-density computers.
The solution is as intriguing as it is initially
improbable. The time lapses are caused by
interdimensional termites, bugs from another
parallel universe that feed on time. The time at
the heart of computers is tastiest to the bugs, and
devouring it produces a relativistic red shift.
The solution Hogan devises to rid New York of
the bugs is delightful, taken from childhood
fablcs.“Out of Time” makes for a thoroughly
enjoyable read.
— Sam Kepfield