Lane Hickenbottom/DN
THE WONSERS, alsa kaawa as (from left to right) Matt, Pete and John Van Dyke, will bring their brotherly lave and Minneapolis rock
sound to Knickerbockers, 901 0 St., Saturday night.
Wonsers perform without clutter
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Don’t let their long hair, ripped jeans and
worn flannels fool you — these guys really
are the proverbial boys next door.
Minneapolis-based The Wonsers, made
up of brothers Peter, Matt and John Van
Dyke, will perform at Knickerbockers, 901
O St., Saturday night. The band recently
made a stop at UNL with the popular Omaha
group Blue Moon Ghetto.
The Wonsers — who derive their moni
ker from their mom’s maiden name (aaaww)
— are a wonderfully refreshing pop/mod
em rock band that’s tough to categorize and
even tougher to draw comparisons to.
Hailing originally from Appleton, Wis.,
the brothers straggled one by one to Minne
apolis and conceived The Wonsers five years
ago. Peter, 29, is the drummer, Matt, 28,
plays bass and John, 23, sings and plays
guitar.
“It’s one of the most natural things,”
Peter Van Dyke said of the family business.
“We have ftin together. We see each other
every day.”
And the stereotypical image of dueling
brothers is nowhere to be found in this band,
according to Matt Van Dyke.
“Pete and I have been best friends our
whole lives; we’re less than a year apart,”
he said. “We didn’t really know what was
going to happen when we started this band
—we had some crazy ideas.”
Some of those crazy ideas have paid off,
however, like their approach to songwriting
and arranging music. As testament to that,
The Wonsers have an unvarnished, amaz
ingly clutterless sound that allows for plenty
of personal space.
Throughout the band’s two CDs, 1994’s
self-titled full-length recording and 1996’s
EP titled “You Never Knew Me When I Was
Young,” there’s not a tune that’s overpro
duced or overdone. Peter Van Dyke admits
that’s by design.
“We have problems in the studio — we
hate adding stuff just for the sake of adding.
It’s not necessary,” he said. “We barely have
any guitar leads at all, which is not very
common. Matt’s bass lines are more melo
dious. To me, bass lines are as important as
far as melody and singing.”
Please see WONSERS on 10
Chalk Farm
plays fresh,
diverse rock
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Chalk Farm may have an odd name, but it’s
a band that’s on the right track when it comes
to making music.
Chalk Farm, whose moniker refers to a road
in the Camden Town section of London, origi
nally started in 1994 as an acoustic three-piece
band with singer Michael Duff, drummer Toby
Scarborough and bassist Orlando Sims. Gui
tarist Trace Ritter provided the hard edge the
band was searching for.
“I don’t actually listen to rock music,” he
said. “I listen to R&B, some country—it makes
it better for me, to bring some of that into our
music.”
Shortly after Ritter joined, a Chalk Farm
demo landed in the lap of producer Matt Hyde.
A Columbia record deal followed — all this
for a band that’s rally been together as a four- u
piece for two years.
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so quick,” Ritter said. “We didn’t get distracted
trying to get a record deal.”
Each member of the band contributes his
share to the songwriting process, Ritter said.
No one instrument is more important than an
other — the chords of Duff’s acoustic guitar
are the perfect complement to Ritter’s lead, with
the rhythm section of Sims and Scarborough
providing a solid backdrop.
“A lot of bands feel they need to play all the •
time,” Ritter said. “This is a band that breathes
a lot. It’s important to me not to overplay.”
' Duff wrote the lyrics for Chalk Farm’s first
album, “Notwithstanding.” The album is col
ored with contemporary themes of broken trust,
lost love and disillusionment.
They’ll be performing an all-ages show at
the Ranch Bowl Entertainment Gen ter, 1600
S. 72nd St., in Omaha Sunday. The show starts
at 9 p.m., and tickets are $6 in advance.
Mariachi musician
plays at Westbrook
From Staff Reports
Juan Tejeda, a San Antonio native with a
button accordion and a penchant for mariachi,
will perform in Room 119 of Westbrook Music
Hall tonight at 8.
Tejeda will be joined on stage by Armando
Tejeda.
Tickets are $3 and are available at the door.
Fan: d iazz musicians
V
to enliven lied Center
From Staff Reports
The Lied Center will get jazzed Saturday
night when two jazz quartets are led by two of
the genre’s top musicians.
Bass star Christian McBride and two-time
Grammy-nominated saxophonist Joe Lovano
wilt lead two jazz quartets, bringing a taste of
culture to Lincoln and UNL.
Often compared to the great Dizzy Gillespie
by The New York Times, McBride has been a
crowd pleaser since he was discovered at the
age of 13.
Following the Christian McBride Quartet,
Joe Lovano will lead his quartet, consisting of
pianist Kenny Werner, bassist Dennis Irwin,
drummer Yoron Israel and himself.
McBride’s dynamic personality is a result
of a lifetime emerged in the jazz culture. His
father, tenor saxophonist Tony “Big T”
McBride exposed him to other jazz legends
such as Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young and
Rasaahn Roland Kirk as a child.
The performance starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are
$24, $20 and $16, half price for students.
‘Bound’ resurrects film noir as modern fantasy
By Bret Schulte
Film Critic
Although film noir peaked decades ago, this
dark and disturbing genre has been forcing a
comeback in recent years. The latest contribu
tion, “Bound,” stretches the genre to its deep
est and darkest limits.
The Wachowski toothers, who penned the
international disappointment “Assassins,” have
returned, but this time share directorial duties
For their screenplay.
The brothers explore a genre that typically
places a troubled, shadowy man in a position
where he must fight for his life against all hope.
But “Bound” takes the wrenching emotion and
grating suspense of those classic films and
twists it into a modem tale of sexual experi
mentation and greed.
Corky, convincingly played by Gina
Gershon (“Showgirls”), is an ex-con who moves
next door to Caeser, a mobster (Joe Pantoliano)
and his mysterious girlfriend, Violet (Jennifer
Tilly). Perhaps the only stumbling block to the
Please see BOUND on 10
COUKRSY PHOTO