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By Patrick Miner |
Goldfinger
can’t save
Edgefest
Get up and get get get down.
Edgefest ’96 is a joke in “O” town.
Maybe that’s being a little sar
castic, but Public Enemy is a far cry
above the bands set to perform at
the 1996 Edgefest. The collection
of one-hit wonders will congregate
at Aksarben in Omaha Sunday with
the show starting at noon. Tickets
are $12.50.
111 start off with the good news.
This year’s show features the rela
tively little-known but entertaining
band Goldfinger, and I have to ad
mit last year’s Edgefest was a suc
cess. Bands including 311, The
Urge, Phunk Junkeez and
Shovelhead made the show worth
while. Bands like the Nixons and
God Lives Underwater gave fans
much needed rest during the work
out.
Of all the bands to invite back
from last year’s show, the wizards
at the Edge opted for the Nixons. I
i* hs^d la#,y?ar, these, guys iucited a
riot at an Oklahoma City show. The
people who attended that show
probably hadn’t heard anything as
painful as the Nixons in their entire
lives.
A headlining band for One-Hit
Wonderfest was originally Filter.
But, because the band is so good,
the drummer left them to play with
the Smashing Pumpkins, giving The
Edge an opportunity to get a decent
band. Of course, they didn’t take
advantage and chose Seven Mary
Three. I liked this band the first time
I heard them, when they were called
Live.
Other artists include the Toad
ies, Local H, The Refreshments,
Semisonic, Reach Around, the
Verve Pipe, the Why Store and the
dirt of ’80s music, Flock of
Seagulls.
Also appearing are Poe and
Ttacy Bonham, who should hookup
with Alanis Morrisette to form a
band called Three Women Who
Aren’t Good. —
Ofcourse.Icoulddobetter. Ifl
-selected the Edgefest lineup, it
would be slightly different. First, I’d
invite back 311, Phunk Junkeez and
The Urge. I’d add No Doubt and
Boogie Shoes, some punk with
NOFX, Bad Religion and Rancid,
get A Tribe Called Quest and De
La Soul, with the possible addition
of the Beastie Boys and Rage
Against die Machine, if there was
some cash left over.
Unlike the Edge, I wouldn’t turn
my back mi local acts. I’d get rid of
the worthless shops and build a side
stage, which would feature such
bands as Grasshopper Takeover and
Echo Farm.
This year's show can best be
sunupedup using a line from a song
by Edgefest artist The Refresh
ments: “The world is full of stupid
people.” Reading into it, I’d have
to think they are talking about
people who bought tickets.
Miner is a sophomore pre-den
tistry major and Daily Nebraskan
staff reporter.
R.E.M.’s ‘Hi-Fi’ gets mixed reviews
Bret Schulte
StaffReporter
Despite the kaleidoscope of songs
and sounds R.E.M. has released since
their first album, “Chronic Town,” one
thing never changes: die utter frustra
tion of interpreting Stipe’s vocals. This
remains constant in “New Adventures
in Hi-Fi,” but this albom is tremen
dously varied, beautifully produced
and indulgently long. The evolution of
R.E.M. is quite apparent when com
paring this album to their last, yet “Hi
Fi” still possesses the flavor and feel
of “Monster” while progressing with
anger, resentment and even love.
Much of “Hi-Fi’s” “Monster” feel
comes from many of its live record
ings from R.E.M.’s recent tour, and
even more songs are products of ran
"New Adventures in Hi-Fi"
Warner Brothers
dom jam sessions that took place dur
ing concert sound checks, which were
later produced in the studio.
A few cuts can easily be dismissed
as “Monster” leftovers, i.e. “Binky the
Doormat” and “So Fast, So Numb.”
But although many songs have tints of
that sound, most transcend the com
parison with their intensity and instru
Please see SCHULTE on 10
Laura Capitano
StaffReporter
When a band records an album dur
ing a major tour it seems the new ma
terial suffers because the live shows
receive top priority. Such was the case
with U2’s “Zooropa” release during
their Zoo TV tour, and the same mis
fortune has befallen R.E.M. with their
new album, “New Adventures in Hi
Fi,” which was completely recorded
during the recent Monster tour.
Michael Stipe and his band of
merry men attempted to create new
music in the midst of concerts and hos
pital visits. This leads to 14 songs that
any longtime R.E.M. fan has heard
exact replicas of cn past albums. The
collection is mediocre at best, easy to
ignore and is neither new, nor adven
turesome, as the title suggests.
This album begins on a rather de
pressing note with “How the West was
Won and Where it Got Us,” a sleepy
song featuring an incredibly eerie pi
ano solo.
The tempo picks up a tad with “The
Wake-Up Bomb,” which sounds like
an outtake from “Monster” only with
Please see CAPITANO on 10
Jim Mehsung/DN
Rodin bronzes capture
■ abundance of emotions
By Fred Poyner
Art Critic
Unlike his contemporaries, critics
today can’t argue that Auguste Rodin
was a sculptor incapable of rendering
the agony, triumph, strength or desire
of the human spirit in bronze form.
A selection of 50 such sculptures
currently on display at die Josfyn Art
Museum in Omaha span die lifelong
career of Rodin, from his humble be
ginnings as a twice-rejected art student
to his never-quite-finished “Gates of
Hell” portal for the Museum of Deco
rative Arts in Paris.
Immediately apparent to the visi
tor is Rodin’s ability to render the hu
man figure on a heroic, grand scale,
regardless of die size of the sculpture.
. The majority of pieces are bozzetti or
' raaquettes, which are smaller versions
4. of public monuments that were to be
1 the products of city and other patron
commissions. ^
Another point the exhibition em
phasizes is how Rodin often would
barrow elements from one work, either
for incorporation into another bronze
in progress or far creating an entirely
new vision. Examples of this practice
include “The Call to- Arms,” where
Rodin’s figure of a female fury is later
used to represent victory in his “The
Genius of War.” Another example is
“The Three Shades,” a trio of bronze
females in mourning intended as the
capping portion for the “Gates of Hell”
doorway.
Rodin’s interpretation of how a fin
ished sculpture should represent a per
son or event was often at odds with the
versions promoted by his patrons, a
conflict the Joslyn goes to great lengths
to explain.
The individual bronzes represent
ing the six “Burghers of Calais,” which
seem to guard the entrance to the rest
of the collection, remind the viewer of
Rodin’s original intention to present
figures for the public monument sepa
rately, even though he was directed to
unite the figures of the sculpture.
Again, in the various preliminary
sculptures Rodin created to embody
French author Honore Balzac, one sees
the stages the artist went through to
complete his final monument to
Balzac’s prowess as a writer and a man.
This sculpture, which is not displayed
with the Joslyn collection, ultimately
was rejected by the French public and
artists alike.
The Rodin bronzes provide a
glimpse of how sculpture has evolved
through the failures and successes of
one sculptor, who looked into the hu
man psyche and molded what he saw.
Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and
B. Gerald Collection, will be displayed
through Sunday.