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New channel returns to MlYs roots
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
So you say you want your MTV...
the way it used to be.
Nothing but music videos, 24
hours a day. No silly game shows, no
movie specials, no fashion, no celeb
rity ball games. Just music, the way it
used to be when the giant cultural con
glomerate first peeked its trailblazing
head out of the depths of cable televi
sion that fateful day some 15 years ago.
The day is at hand, music lovers
— if you can afford-a satellite dish.
On Aug. 1, 1996, at 12:01 a.m.
EST, MTV (Music Television)
launched a sister cable channel, M2:
Music Television. The channel that set
trends, started fads and made and
broke careers seems to have taken on
the task of dictating all aspects of pop
culture in the past few years. M2 is
now offered to replace what MTV
lacks most of the time: music.
“M2 is different from MTV in the
fact that it is 24 hours of music pro
gramming,” MTV publicist Ariana
Urbomt said.
Targeted at 12 to 34-year-olds, M2
uses an unstructured musical format
with a playlist composed of the broad
est mix of genres available, she said.
A few of the groups that grace the
channel’s playlist include Bjork, Soul
Coughing, Cake, Tricky, Howie B„
R.E.M., Republica, Luscious Jackson,
Offspring, Tori Amos and Silverchair.
The channel has three VJs: Jancee
Dunn, an associate editor at “Rolling
Stone” magazine; Kris Kosach, host
of a morning radio show at rock sta
tion KPNT-FM in St. Louis; and Matt
Pinfield, host of MTV’s “120 Min
utes.”
But M2 is riding the Third Wave
into the 21st Century. A new technol
ogy called Intercast, developed by
INTEL, combines computers and
music to create interactive viewing,
Urbomt said. This allows viewers to
receive information about the artist
they’re watching on M2, from fun
facts and tour dates to polls and con
tests, she said.
Urbomt said that the original MTV /
wouldn’t change its format because of
the added channel. V
“Our music to non-music ratio will \
remain 80 to 20 percent,” she said.
So when will Lincoln get its MTV
— er,M2?
“We’re in negotiations with cable
operators,” she said. “Hopefully within
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Murphy inspired by blues, jazz
I I ._
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Matt “Guitar” Murphy is a busy
man. He plays in four separate
projects, tours constantly and cranks
out albums on the side.
But that's not what immediately
comes to mind when speaking of the
guitar virtuoso — most audiences
know him as the guitarist from the
“Blues Brothers” movie. What they
don’t realize is that Murphy also
nearly embodies blues history.
Bom in 1929 in rural Mississippi,
Murphy grasped the neck of his first
guitar at an early age.
“I must’ve been 4 or 5 when I
picked up my first guitar,” he said. “I
just always loved the guitar. It was
three or four years later when I could
really hold it and mess around on it.” (
So while Murphy cut his teeth on
Delta country blues, he was later in
fluenced by artists like T-Bone Walker
and jazz guitarist Tfcl Farlow.
The jazz bug bit hard, infusing his
bloodstream with a love of chord pro
gressions and jazz arrangements that
left an imprint on his blues playing.
“I love chords; chords have a nice
structure that give the music charac
ter,” Murphy said. “If it’s put together
Please see MURPHY on 14 _
Jim Mehsung/DN
Former NU wrestler adds
bass to Chronic Bliss
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Eric Josephson is trading in his
wrestling suit and letter jacket for
a guitar and an amp.
The NU wrestler-tumed-rock
star is the bass player for Lincoln's
Chronic Bliss. They play tonight
and Friday at the Royal Grove, 340
W. Comhusker Highway.
“We started about a year ago,”
he said. “We started with original
material—I was surprised at what
good players they were.”
Josephson had been in several
local bands, when a former team
mate toldhim about Chronic Bliss,
which was searching for a bass
player at the time.
The UNL senior interdiscipli
nary engineering major from
Dodge City, Iowa, wrestled for the
Huskers for three years—until his
eligibility ran out.
It was tough juggling wrestling,
a full class schedule and Chronic
Bliss, he said, hit the band mem
bers stuck with him and kept plug
ging away.
“It came together really well,”
he said. “I was surprised at how we
were able to slap it together.”
Chronic Bliss recently finished
recording a CD, which will be re
leased in March. They’re planning
a summer tour after Josephson
graduates, where they’ll do the
Midwest circuit and then hit the
West Coast.
“We’re coming together from
all different angles,” he said.
“We like to keep improving.
The last thing we want is to stand
still, get stagnant.”
Chronic Bliss is a band with
some lofty goals, and the drive to
take them to the top, Josephson
said.
“Our goals are to have a plati
num record and do a world tour,”
he said. “From where we started to
where we are now, we’re on the
right track.”
Chronic Bliss will play at 9 p.m.
at the Royal Grove. They’ll be with
Secret Skin and Witness Tree to
night, and with Wide and Far From
Nowhere on Friday.