Film, music run CMJ marathon
NEW YORK (AP)—If an athletic
marathon is 26 miles long, what
exactly is a music marathon?
Spread over four days, the College
Music Journal’s annual Music
Marathon presented more than 1,000
bands performing live, 17 film pre
mieres and 93 panel discussions. All
of it was attended by more than 8,000
registrants representing all sectors of
the music industry and college radio.
From rookie program directors at
small schools to veteran record label
executives, almost everyone found
something useful - and that’s not just
free CDs and magazines.
The panels covered everything
from on-the-road touring horror sto
ries to new promotional strategies for
major and independent labels, to
genre-specific discussions on the
state of heavy metal, hip-hop and
electronic dance music.
At night, attendees packed clubs
around the city to check out estab
lished acts, overseas curiosities from
Japan, Holland and Sweden, and
dozens of unsigned bands eager to
land a record deal.
The scope of the conference rep
resented the eclectic world of college
music, which has expanded since the
days of guitar-centric bands like U2,
- R.E.M. and The Police.
Since the multiplatinum success
of Nirvana, major labels have looked
to the college charts as a barometer of
new tastes and trends and as a testing
ground for younger bands.
At the same time, hundreds of
independent labels rely on the college
airwaves as a crucial outlet for their
acts, with commercial radio stations
increasingly limiting their playlists to
guaranteed hits.
Today’s college radio stations are
a patchwork of specialty music shows
and styles. In this crowded market
place, getting bands heard is a chal
lenge, but translating radio spins to
sales can be even tougher.
Several panels advocated using
the Internet as a way to get around tra
ditional marketplace structures.
“Retail is dead,” said Paul Stark
from Minneapolis’ Twin/Tone
records. “There’s no reason to spend
thousands on pumping the retail mar
ket”
Stark sees digital distribution of
music over the Internet as a necessary
means of survival for smaller labels
that can no longer afford the costs
inherent in manufacturing CDs and
cassettes. Plus, larger retail chains
will no longer stock low-selling
artists, Stark said.
Digital distribution has the poten
tial to put music directly into the con
sumer’s hand without having to go to
a store.
Stark is pairing with California
based Liquid Audio, a company
focused on distributing CD-quality
music over the Internet, which was
one of many high-tech outfits at CMJ.
Two Web sites, http://CDnow.com
and http://Amazon.com, offered their
services to smaller bands hoping to
sell their CDs on the Internet
Billboard magazine advertised its
Billboard Talent Net Web site, an
online showcase for new artists that
promotes their music to industry pro
fessionals and music enthusiasts.
Technology’s influence on music
was apparent in many of the nighttime
shows during the Nov. 4-7 confer
ence. The opening night party
focused more on DJ performances
than live bands, with some acts blur
ring the lines between both.
British producers Coldcut per
formed from two laptop computers
with their music synchronized to
video clips. One nightclub offered
four floors of DJs representing tech
no, drum and bass, house, big beat
and other genres of the international
electronic dance scene.
However, the Music Marathon’s
meat and potatoes was based on live
bands, and rock fans had hundreds of
gigs they could attend. The
Cardigans, Afghan Whigs, Morphine
and Sunny Day Real Estate were
some of the better-known bands. Also
performing: The Donnas, a quartet of
female rockers from California, and'
the Hellacopters, a hard-rock metal
group from Sweden.
‘Pterodactyls’ to descend
on Community Playhouse
Don’t be afraid, Barney hasn’t
grown wings.
“Night of the Pterodactyls,” which
opened Thursday at the Lincoln
Community Playhouse, is the most
I
I
—a
recent production of the Playhouse
series, Children’s Theatre.
The whimsical title refers to the
active imagination of Cariy, the new girl
in town whose creativity and
intelligence attract the attention
of 12-year-old Walt
As their friendship grows, Walt
group of male Mends, a k a GAs
(Gross Associates), his fondness
tor the strange girl.
The play addresses childhood
and adolescent issues
of peer pressure,
individuality and
honesty.
The Children’s
Theatre describes its goal
' as “to entertain and edu
r cate our youth always ques
tioning die choices each ‘char
acter’ makes.”
The play is appropriate
0 « for children ages 5 and up.
Tickets are $15 for
adults and $9 for students
and children. Show times for
thi<! weekend and Nov. 18-22 are
Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m.,
^rrrZT^ay at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and
Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Japan’s ‘demon drummers’
to possess Omaha’s Orpheum
Tonight, Nebraskans will be given a
pounding lesson in Japanese culture.
The Omaha Symphony is bringing
Japan’s famed “demon drummers,”
Ondekoza, for a night of Japanese folk
music at 8 p.m. in Omaha’s Orpheum
Theater, 409 S. 16th St
Ondekoza is a group of 11 members
who use bamboo flutes, string msfru. ^
ments and drums ranging in size from a '
finger tom-tom to a 700 pound O-daiko
carved from a tree trunk.
For 29 years the group has been per
forming its unique brand of intense
Japanese folk music around the world.
The shows demand such rigorous phys
ic al work that the members of
Ondekoza live in a commune-like set
ting, focusing on physical discipline and
mental training, when not on tour.
While on tour, the group continues
to exercise, sometimes by running from
city to city. On its three-year tour, start
ing in 1990, the group ran 13,000 miles
around the United States, performing ,
300 concerts throughout its trek, which
began and ended with performances at
New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Tickets for the performance range
from $ 11 to $25 and can be purchased
from the Omaha Symphony box office,
(402) 342-3560.
Marijuana benefit hungry for donations
By Bret Schulte
Senior editor
The local chapter of a national
advocacy group is looking for a way to
ease the pain of those who suffer from
glaucoma, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Their idea: marijuana.
The National Organization for the
Reformation of Marijuana Laws has
worked to decriminalize the drug for
both recreational and medical uses since
its foundation in 1970.
Saturday, the Lincoln chapter plays
host to a benefit concert at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Culture Center to promote the legaliza
tion of the long-disputed plant.
“Nebraska could really benefit from
(growing marijuana),” said NORML
chapter president Jessica Sievers. “The
plant can grow in almost any type of soil,
and the fibers have numerable uses.”
Local blues and rock act
Meandering Blue is lending its time for
the cause.
“People need to understand that
i i i ;
marijuana is not as bad as the govern
ment says, and it has a lot of good uses
for sick and healthy people,” drummer
Tom McKee said.
The concert will take place the day
before National Medical Marijuana
Day on Sunday. Among NORML’s
goals for marijuana advocacy is the
recognition of the plant’s medicinal
properties, which seem to be enjoying
ever-increasing support by the estab
lished medical community.
On NORMDs official Web site is an
excerpt from last August’s New
England Journal of Medicine:
“Doctors are not the enemy in the
‘war’ on drugs; ignorance and
hypocrisy are. Research should go on,
and while it does, marijuana should be
available to all patients who need it to
help them undergo treatment for life
threatening illnesses.”
Sievers planned this concert to raise
funds specifically for the promotion of
marijuana as treatment
“We are trying to get the word out
on the whole issue,” Sievers said. “It
benefits sufferers of glaucoma and
1 I j t I 1 ' ' S ' I I < » r, , , , , ,
helps ease the pain of HTV and AIDS as
well as multiple sclerosis.”
California has traditionally been the
most tolerant of medicinal uses for mar
ijuana, but recent crackdowns by the
state attorney’s office and federal judges
has led to the closing of most California
marijuana shops.
But Sievers does have reason to
throw a party Saturday. After the elec
tion Nov. 3, five states passed voter
mandates calling for the medical legal
ization of the drug: Alaska, Arizona,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
The Lincoln chapter of NORML
plans to send some proceeds back to its
headquarters in Washington, D.C. The
rest will be spent on local advocacy.
Sievers said the show will be kept
clean of any illegal activity and open for
everyone interested in the issue.
“With the success of the Democrats
and the issue in the last election we want
to celebrate,” she said.
The all-ages show is $2 with addi
tional donations accepted. The concert
will run from 9 to 12 p.m. at the Culture
Center, 333 N. 14th St
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