National acts
will perform
for charity
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
-J
• (
It’s the season for giving, apd
five national acts will be giving Lin
coln some of their time to a charity
concert for underprivileged chil
dren.
As a benefit concert for the U.S.
Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Pro
gram, local radio station KIBZ-FM,
(106.3) The Blaze is presenting the
Second Annual Toy stock ’96 on
Tuesday.
The concert is scheduled to be
gin at 7 p.m. at The Royal Grove,
340 W. Comhusker Highway.
Scheduled performers are: Hel
met, The Hunger, Gary Hoey, The
Hazies and Darlahood. Most of the
bands picked for Toystock have
played in Lincoln before, except for
Darlahood, whose first album, “Big
Fine Tiling,” was released less than
two months ago.
“Wp’rp trvino tn nlav shnws with
radio stations that have helped us
out,” Darlahood singer/guitarist
Luke Janklow said. “We’re doing a
lot of benefit shows right now, to
help raise money for someone who
really needs it.”
All proceeds from the concert go
directly to Toys for Tots, said Tim
Sheridan, program director at The
Blaze.
“All the bands are essentially
playing for free,” he said. “A hotel
donated rooms, the food’s donated,
Dietz (Music Store) is helping —
everyone’s chipping in for a good
cause. We even pay for gas. It costs
the bands nothing but their time.”
Darlahood’s album was pro
duced by Bob Clearmountain, who
has worked with such acts as Roxy
Music and the Rolling Stones.
“He normally works with heavy
duty pop groups, but he wanted to
work with a metal act,” Janklow
said. That’s not to say this is a pop
album — but it does have an eclec
tic blend of nasty, pop-infused
melodies overlaid on loose, crunchy
hooks.
But that’s the beauty of
Darlahood — the band has such a
wide variety of influences (Seal to
Chicago blues to Helmet), no song
sounds the same as the one before
it. And that’s something the band
strives to capture live, Janklow said.
“We’re like a power-rock trio
with a rhythm element,” he said.
“When we recorded the album, we
didn’t want to dress it up, so what
you hear is really what we’re like
live.”
Darlahood can be caught live as
the first band to perform at
Toystock. Another act featured at
Toystock is The Hunger, from
Houston. Although the band’s been
around for six years, their newest
album “Devil Thumbs A Ride,” is
their first release on a major label. *
Founded by brothers Thomas
and Jeff Wilson, The Hunger is an ~
.innovative industrial rock band that
recently played a string of opening
dates for the rock legend Kiss.
“It was cool being on a tour like
that,!’ drummer Max Schuldberg
said. “The arenas have been a cool
place to play, but for us it’s been a
gradual ascent.”
The band’s upward spiral, going
from tiny clubs to packed arenas, is
indicative of its staying power,
Schuldberg said.
Please see TOYSTOCK#on 13
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■
Legendary guitarist brings
Chicago-style blues to
Lincoln concert venue ^
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Finals week giving you the blues?
Try a shot of Magic Slim and the Teardrops — they can cure what ails
you. The legendary blues guitarist and singer and his band will perform
all week at the Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14lh St.
Magic Slim, whose real name is Morris Holt, and his
have been called “one of the last great Chicago blues bands,
good reason.
Bom in 1937 in Grenada, Miss., he picked up the guitar at
young age.
“I’ve been playing all my life, ever since I was able to know
what the blues were,” Holt said. “I’m 59 now; I’ve been playing a
long time.”
During his lifetime Holt has played to audiences all over the
world, starting by playing bluegrass and country and western
rural Mississippi. Holt said throughout his career, he has infl
enced more musicians than other musicians have influenced
“I’ve never had any influences,” he said. “I’m just doing
Ido.”
What he docs is an original classic blues set, circa 1950, with a
sound all his own.
“Magic Sam (blues musician Samuel Maghett) told me, don’t
try to play like nobody else, get yourself a sound of your own,”
nuu muu.
Holt did just that — moving to Chicago and making the blues
his way. That was more than 30 years ago, and he’s still blazing the
trail for contemporary blues artists.
“He’s a real individualistic guitar player,” said Larry Boemer, owner
of the Zoo Bar and long-time friend of Slim’s. “His sound is authentic
Chicago blues. Really, he’s the classic blues artist, moving from Mis
sissippi to Chicago, playing vintage, straight-ahead blues.”
Boemer also plays bass with the Heartmurmurs (formerly Not
All There) and will be sharing the stage with Slim Dec. 25 and 26
place of Holt’s regular band, the Teardrops.
Holt makes his home in Lincoln now, moving to Nebraska three
years ago to keep his son from the Chicago crime scene. Holt’s son
and Boemer’s son now play in a blues band together.
“I love the crowd at the Zoo, but they’re a whole lot different than
Chicago,” Holt said. “The crowd gets into it a lot more here.”
Although Holt lives in Lincoln, he plays to audiences here less
than he did before he moved. He has released more than 15 albums,
including his most recent release, “Scufflin’,” and he spends quite a
bit of time, touring.
His popularity is a promising sign, Holt said, because it’s indica
tive toward the growing popularity of blues music.
“Blues is coming back,” he said. “There’s more young people get
ting into it. I think that’s great.”
Magic Slim and the Teardrops will be at the Zoo Bar all this week, with a $4 cover charge Monday
Wednesday, and a $5 charge Thursday through Saturday.
Movies provide escape from hectic holidays
By Gerry Beltz
Movie Critic
It happens every year around this
time.
The holiday feast has been snarfed.
Aunt Mildred has had one too many
gin-and-tonics (minus the tonic), and
Uncle Wilbur is telling everyone once
again about having his catheter break
off halfway through the operation.
It’s time to go to the movies.
Granted, catching a flick during this
season can be somewhat troublesome
(theaters as cold as the wind outside,
loads of unsupervised children, etc.),
but on the flip-side, this is also the time
of year when lots of quality films are
released.
Naturally, these release dates are
tentative and can change without no
tice or reason (kind of like Nebraska
weather).
Just this past weekend, we had a trio
of hot new openers, which included
“Jerry McGuire” (Tom Cruise, Cuba
Gooding Jr.), “The Preacher’s Wife”
(Denzel Washington, Whitney Hous
ton) and the all-star “Mars Attacks!”
Friday we have possibly the great
est number of opening films for the
month of December.
Michelle Pfeiffer and George
Clooney find romance together in “One
Fine Day” and racism rears its ugly
head once again with “Ghosts of Mis
sissippi,” starring Whoopi Goldberg,
Alec Baldwin and James Woods.
Also, those empty-headed enter
tainers from MTV come to the big
screen in their first movie, “Beavis and
Butthead Do America” (rumor has it
that Demi Moore does one of the fe
male voices), and Jack Lemmon and
James Gamer star in “My Fellow
Americans” as two ex-presidents seek
ing re-election while evading the plots
of the current president (Dan Ackroyd)
to stop them.
Wes Craven uses the movies to
scare us with “Scream,” where kids are
being killed for breaking the rules of
the movies (don’t go the basement,
don’t have sex, etc.).
Years ago, “Terms of Endearment”
was filmed here in Lincoln, and now
its sequel—“Evening Star”—opens
on Christmas. Also on the 25th, John
“Career Reborn” Travolta, Andie
MacDowell and William Hurt head up
the cast of “Michael,” a story about
angels (and not saints).
Although the official release date
for the musical “Evita” is Dec. 25, it
probably won’t be hitting our movie
screens until Jan. 10. Madoftna plays
the title role of this former South
American first lady who, through her
own determination and compassion,
ended up adored by millions.
On that same day, Jackie Chan flies
onto American movie screens once
again with “Jackie Chan’s Police
Story,” which is actually the fourth in
stallment in his Immensely popular
“Police Story” series. The highlight
stunt of the film? Possibly the under
water fight scene, complete with a
shark!