‘Next big thing’
fails to electrify
By Jeff Randall
Music Critic
Ever since rock ‘n’ roll first reared
its head, those who have taken on the
task of chronicling its existence have
been on a never-ending quest to de
termine the “next big thing.”
And ever since last August, the
“next big thing” has been proclaimed
far and wide to be the techno/elec
tronic/trip-hop revolution. Artists such
as Tricky, Prodigy, the Chemical
Brothers and Underworld were sup
posed to hit America’s radio stations
with a force that would rival the post
grunge scene’s dominance of the past
few years.
It didn’t happen.
Sure, the war’s not over yet. But
the Chemical Brothers’ “Dig Your
Own Hole” and Tricky’s “Pre-Millen
nium Tension” were the premier elec
tronic music releases of the past few
months, and — although they both
ranked among the best releases of this
past school year—neither album sold
enough copies to be considered a ma
„ jor breakthrough.Sure, Prodigy’s
“much-anticipated” release is still in
the works, and this summer’s edition
of Lollapalooza will feature Tricky’s
wiggling stage antics, so electronic
music may still be able to fight its way
to the top of the record charts. But
don’t bet on it.
Sense of style
As much as we hate to admit it,
Americans just aren’t as refined in
their artistic taste as their European
counterparts. We still love the guitar
bass-drum combo that started some
where around Buddy Holly and has
never stopped rolling. We still like the
verse-chorus-verse-chorus song pat
tern that makes everything nice and
neatly packaged into three-minute ra
dio-friendly snippets. For God’s sake,
we even have the audacity to still like
words in our songs.
Electronic music rarely works
within any of these primitive bound
aries. And even though this form of
music is the only truly original sonic
art being practiced right now — with
the possible exception of a few ground
breaking hip-hop artists — that
doesn’t necessarily mean it will be
appreciated by general audiences.
Free-form explorations of sound
don’t sound too good when you’re on
your way to the beach. Orchestrated
strings piled beneath sirens and
screams are too difficult for FM disc
jockeys to que up.
miu it yuu mum umijusi Decause
U2 is doing it, it’s going to be huge,
think again. “Discotheque,” the band’s
techno-laden first single from “POP,”
was a virtual bomb. But “Staring at
the Sun,” one of the album’s few non
electronic tracks, has hit the charts like
a bat wielded by Ken Griffey Jr. That’s
right, even Bono and the Edge have
realized that they can’t shove this
music down mainstream America’s
throat.
So until we as a nation change our
tastes or this music willingly molds
itself into an Americanized product,
the world of electronica will be rel
egated to dark and smoky dance clubs,
late-night slots on MTV, the rare
teenager’s bedroom and—even worse
— Europe.
Status quo
As for the rest of the music world,
things stuck pretty much to the status
quo.
tt
We still love the
guitar-bass-drum
combo that started
somewhere around
Buddy Holly and
has never stopped
rolling. ”
m
In news that transcended the
record charts, rappers Tupac Shakur
and Biggie Smalls (a.k.a. the Notori
ous B.I.G.) were gunned down in sepa
rate and officially unrelated incidents.
Marilyn Manson (the band) was un
ceremoniously protested in nearly ev
ery city through which it toured, and
Manson (the man) subsequently gar
nered more television air time than
President Clinton. Marion “Suge”
Knight, the co-founder and CEO of
Death Row Records, was sentenced to
a lengthy jail term for violating his
parole. Elvis remained dead. Unfor
tunately for us all, Michael Bolton and
John Tesh stayed alive.
Ana wnat about the music /
It was yet another college-rock
gone-mainstream year, as R.E.M., U2
and Nirvana hit the scene with new
albums.
R.E.M.’s “New Adventures in Hi
Fi,” an album recorded in spurts dur
ing the band’s “Monster” tour, proved
that this more-than-a-decade-old band
still has enough creative juice to keep
itself going, at least until the century
winds out.
Nirvana’s “From the Muddy Banks
of the Wishkah,” a collection of live
tracks, briefly renewed interest in the
band that changed the face of music
and in its departed lead singer, Kurt
Cobain.
But the most stunning return to the
charts was that of U2. “POP” easily
could have been a retreaded journey
through the musical motifs of this big
ger-than-big band’s past. But instead,
U2 reinvented themselves yet again as
the flag-bearers of a new musical out
look, one rife with electronic influence
and replete with good songwriting.
From the unknown
Other albums by less popular but
equally — if not exceedingly — tal
ented bands also made their way into
stores this past year.
Pavement returned from the lack
luster response to their last album,
“Wowee Zowee,” with the outstand
ing “Brighten the Comers,” a collec
tion of guitar-and-fuzz-driven tunes
that by no means followed musical
convention, but still managed to sound
like some of the best pop music ever
written.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion,
one of America’s most divisive love
’em-or-hate-’em bands, upped their
blues and punk rock ante with “Now I
Got Worry.” Spencer’s harsh vocals
combined with Russell Simins’ fierce
beats and a full-on guitar hit would
have made for the usual Spencer re
lease, but extensive post-production
and mixing turned “Worry” into
deconstruction rock. And it didn’t
sound too bad, either.
Please see TUNES on 13
Matt Miller/DN
PAUL STANLEY, lead sieger of KISS, performs in Omaha last fall. KISS was just one of many concerts that came
to the Lincoln-Omaha area this past year.
Movies spring back from bad fall
By Gerry Beltz
Film Critic
A summer of impossible missions,
nutty professors and world-crushing
aliens defeated by a cable repairman’s
laptop computer would be a tough act
to follow.
Hollywood couldn’t even keep up,
let alone follow.
There were a few better-than-av
erage flicks during the semester time,
such as “Ransom,” “Daylight” and
William Shakespeare s Romeo and
Juliet,” but nothing outstanding.
There were, however, quite a few
flicks that just sucked sheep snot. “A
Very Brady Sequel,” “The Crow 2”
and “The Island of Dr. Moreau” all
fared very poorly at the box office.
As usual, with the close of the year
came the creamier crop of movies. The
crew of the Enterprise showed us re
sistance was not futile, Tom Cruise
and Cuba Gooding Jr. showed us the
money and Michael Jordan shot some
mean hoops with some Looney car
toon characters.
Also in 1996 was the resurgence
of a film genre almost forgotten: the
horror film. Wes Craven’s “Scream”
was a surprise-hit nationwide, and
with the early ’97 hit “The Relic,” new
life was breathed into a formerly life
less and overused body of film.
Overall, though, the latter part of
1996 was very blah, cinematically
speaking.
On the other hand, movie theaters
were ordering extra popcorn for 1997.
The long-anticipated re-issue of the
“Star Wars” trilogy to the big screen
cast the chances of success for most
other films to the wayside.
Never-before-seen footage,
cleaned-up special effects and
soundtrack, plus two generations of
ians maue uie irnogy a sueeess uciuic
the first ticket was sold.
Still, even with the Force guiding
this triumviral classic to the top
money-grossing spot, a few films did
manage to come through between
January and March.
The positive shock wave of the out
of-nowhere hit “Jerry Maguire” was
still being felt everywhere, Howard
Stem made a big splash with his “Pri
vate Parts” and the first-of-two vol
cano-based flicks — “Dante’s Peak”
— erupted to great financial success.
At the end of January, Lincoln
moviegoers were shelling out a little
more money to see a movie; evening
ticket prices went up to $6 each, while
the StarShip 9 admission prices rose
a quarter to $1.75 a seat.
Construction also began on the all
new East Park 6 Theaters, which will
include stadium seating, all-digital
sound and bigger auditoriums.
Completion of the complex has been
forecasted for October.
Over spring break, the annual Acad
emy Awards celebration was held, and
was largely run over with independent
and little-seen films such as “The En
glish Patient,” “Sling Blade” and
“Fargo.” The lion’s share of awards
went to “The English Patient,” includ
ing Best Picture and Best Director.
Other classic films followed the
trail blazed by the re-release of “Star
Wars.” “The Godfather” is already in
limited release, with “Close Encoun
ters of the Third Kind,” “Saturday
Night Fever” and “Dirty Dancing”
waiting on the sidelines.
The last couple of months have
seen the release of a few more box of
fice winners. “Anaconda” swallowed
load after load of money, “Grosse
Point Blank” hit the dark-comedy
bull’s eye and “Volcano” burned up
the box office.
All in all, last semester really bit
the li’l smokie for movies, but this
season has really picked up the pace
and brought the movie scene back up
to speed.