Arts ©Entertainment
Wednesday, January 11,1995
Page 9
Local label
opportunity
for groups
Editor’s note: This is the third story in
a weeklong Daily Nebraskan series
exploring the eastern Nebraska rock
music scene.
By Jeff Randall
Staff Reporter
Bemie McGinn realized seven years
ago that no one was going to put out a
record by his band Sideshow. So he de
cided to doit himself, founding Lincoln’s
Caulfield Records.
THE
l
“It was 1988, and
that seemed like the
only way to get what
I wanted,” said
McGinn, Sideshow’s
Dassist/vocanst. l
didn’t know anyone
who had a record la
bel going; it wasn’t
really a prospect to
get signed to a major
abel for anybody.
“It really just seemed like it would be
a lot easier to do it ourselves so we could
just get the record done and get it out
there.”
Caulfield is owned and operated by
McGinn, and is now home to several
local acts, including Sideshow and Mercy
Rule. Dave Sink, founder of Omaha’s
. . .One Hour Records, called Caulfield “the
• ' best reCbrd label m Nebraska.”
McGinn said Caulfield had grown
r; beyond his initial expectations.
“I knew it had the potential for ex
panding,” he said, “but my goal was
mainly to get a Sideshow Tecord out.
Everything has just kind of happened
since then.”
Finding out where to begin in his
'quest for a record label meant talking to
other do-it-yourself recording artists.
“I just called a phone number on the
back of what was probably the worst
punk rock record you could possibly buy,”
McGinn said. “It was a 7-inch (a 45 rpm
single), and I could tell by the cover that
it had been Xeroxed, probably put out
from some guy’s bedroom.”
McGinn called the number, and the
person at the other end gave him some
more telephone numbers.
But phone numbers weren’t enough
to put Caulfield on its feet, he said. As in
all business ventures, it takes money to
start a record company.
“I conned my mom into co-signing on
a loan for something like $500,” McGinn
said. “We got some good reviews from
See CAULFIELD on 10
GerikParmele/DN
Trixie Truex looks over finished screen prints for the cover of “Power Tool” Monday night in Nell Eckersley’s
kitchen. Truex, Eckersley and six other women gathered to finish the production of tne first issue of their ‘zine.
zines
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
‘Zines, self-published underground pub
lications, are surfacing all over the nation.
Three Lincoln ‘zine publishers pride them
selves on their radical nature, but more
importantly, they emphasize quality — a
trait many ‘zines forego for anarchy.
Power Tool
Wearing red tights, nose rings, corduroy
pants and blazers, eight women with back
grounds as diverse as their apparel have
come together to produce Power Tool.
“There wasn’t a podium for a lot of
women to stand up and talk,” creator Trixie
Truex said. “Males have their podium. That’s
just what we wanted to do.”
Their first issue, which will come out
later this month, contains fiction and non
fiction stories, poems, artwork, reviews and
news articles.
Power Tool is not a femi-Nazi, bra-burn
ing raid on the male species, she said, but is
a ‘zine by women and for women, which
only accepts submissions from women.
“Well, I guess we could accept letters
from men if they used a female name,”
creator fyith Leinfellner said, laughing. “We
could start requiring chromosome sketches
and gender photos.”
Power Tool has received a lot of support
from men, but the creators— Truex,
Leinfellner, Andrea Wenke, Tara Bremer,
Aimee Struble, Lil-E Ristagno, Lynda Clause
and Nell Eckersley — are the real force
behind Power Tool.
After working with men on different
projects, Truex decided to work with a group
of women, and Power Tool was bom.
“I was jumping through hoops and didn ’t
know where I wanted to be,” she said. “I
really wanted to do work with women ... I
wanted to prove things were becoming more
equal every day, and that we can use women
as resources from end to end.”
“I’m damn glad to be a woman,” she
said. “But our group is not man-hating. It’s -
pro-woman, pro-chick.”
Subterranean Quarterly
After trying to find her place outside the
jock-prep-nerd cliques in high school, Cris
Trautner found her niche underground.
With the help of a few friends, Trautner
published the first issue of Subterranean
Quarterly in 1988.
Subterranean offers publication for writ
ers who can not get into mainstream publi
cations, Trautner said.
But she said she would rather have Sub
terranean be a bona-fide magazine instead
of a “do-it-yourself-and-go-to- Kinko’s” il
legibly handwritten and thrown-together
wad of photocopies.
Quality writing is not always easy to find,
she said.
She has to weed through the many submis
sions she receives to find good work.
“There’s something about Lincoln,” she
said, “Where you can throw a rock anywhere
and hit a poet or a guitarist.”
Trautner, who is also in the band Or
ange, said she has seen a lot of “ridiculously
bad” material. Once in a while, she’ll find a
gem.
See ZINE on 10
little people yearn to share football team’s perks
I know it’s been said before, but I’ll say
it again: Congratulations Comhuskers!
I’ve expressed my confusion and apathy
toward football before. I don’t pretend to
understand the game or keep up with the
season, but the Orange Bowl win made me
feel a little warm and gooshy inside.
The Orange Bowl success turned the
state into a big oF love-in. It’s been a week,
and people are still rehashing every little
detail. All but three people in the state have
bought a National Championship t-shirt
and a souvenir Sports Illustrated (and those
three are in a coma).
Die-hard Husker fans will buy anything
with a Big Red logo. This might be a good
time to get rid of those textbooks the book
store wouldn’t buy back. Just paste Tom
Osborne’s face on the cover and hawk it as
authentic Comhusker gear.
“This was Lawrence Phillips’ entomol
ogy book. No, I swear.”
by Rainbow Rowell
m
L
I wonder what it would feel like to be a
football player right now, to have the whole
state aquiver with your success ...
Probably it would feel pretty dam good.
I'd like it if the entire state celebrated my
accomplishments, few and insignificant as
they are. I’d like it if people wore t-shirts
with my name, face and punchy slogans like
“Rainbow passed her driver’s test, wooo
hooo!” or “Rainbow can still fit in her jeans,
rock on!”
I’d like to give autographs and appear on
national television. I’d like a banner in
Nebraska Union congratulatingme for pass
ing Statistics 180.
I’d like to see my name on mugs, hats and
pencils; a commemorative spoonrest or two.
Clearly, this isn’t likely, and I’m not
bitter. OK, I’m a little disappointed, but
nowhere near bitter. Just because I can’t feel
the unadulterated adoration of my fellow
Nebraskans doesn’t mean no one should. I
say take your unadulterated adoration where
you can.
I just wish I could be as thrilled as my
comrades are with the Orange Bowl suc
cess. I was pleased, even a little proud of the
boys in red, but I wasn’t orgasmic. I didn’t
whoop or jump. I didn’t high-five a perfect
stranger.
But I’d like to. No one likes to feel left
out.
I think I could “get into” football if it
were more entertaining. I know I’m sup
posed to be entertained by the sport itself,
but that just doesn’t cut it for me. I need a
little more drama.
True, this season was pretty dramatic,
but I’d like to see Coach Osborne and the
team go the extra mile. A little more theater
would help. Maybe some spangled costumes
or dance routines. Remember “The Super
Bowl Shuffle”? That’s entertainment.
I’d really like it if the players morphed
into huge animals and fought each other.
Wildcats would be good; dinosaurs would
be better. A few well-placed kung-fu se
quences would be heavenly.
At the very least, I suggest more silly
touchdown dances. That would be enough
for me to buy a t-shirt.
Rowell b a senior news-editorial, advertising
and English major and the Dally Nebraskan Arts &
Entertainment Editor.
