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Oil’
ByJoshKrauter
Staff writer
Chris Sommerich is a busy guy.
The bass player of Omaha and Lincoln-based pop-rock
band Oil is trying to balance recording his band’s debut album
in Omaha, playing lots of shows and planning a summer tour.
Oh, and he’s also a political science graduate student at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Sommerich and his equally busy bandmates, singer-gui
tarist Craig Korth, drummer Mike Daeges and guitarist J.
Hanson, are playing at the Zoo Bar tonight.
Oil rose from the ashes of the popular Lincoln band No
Left Stone. No Left Stone played all over the Lincoln and
Omaha area and opened for a number of well-known national
bands but dissolved after guitarist Doug Agne got married and
moved to Colorado.
Sommerich, Korth and Daeges carried on as Oil with new
guitarist Hanson. And though the lineup was nearly the same,
Sommerich said Oil has a much different sound than No Left
Stone.
“No Left Stone was heavier, more frantic and driving,”
Sommerich said. “With Oil, we wanted to concentrate on
songwriting. We made a conscious effort to write really good
songs, not just jamming out.”
Sommerich
U With Oil, we said new guitarist
, Hanson was key to
wanted to the development of
concentrate on
songwriting. We made
a conscious &S. rad'°
write really good saidS HanToY !sc a
, • . multi-talented
SOTlgSr notJUSt musician and
. ' ’ ... ,, singer, who is capa
jamming out. ble of creating good
uaiiuuuivo vy im
Chris Sommerich vocalist Korth, and
. • tfo m , ... Oil bassist a great guitarist.
“His guitar style
is less flamboyant (than Agne’s),” he said. “He’s more about
writing really good guitar parts. He works to find the right
sound for each song.”
Sommerich said die band knew Hanson was a keeper the
first time they recorded together, which was also the first time
they played together as a band. Oil recorded three songs for a
Ranch Bowl competition even though Hanson had just joined,
and they hadn’t played the songs together before. Sommerich
said more than 100 bands sent in tapes, and Oil was one of five
bands picked from those tapes to play at the Ranch Bowl com
petition.
Since then, Oil has been building a repertoire of songs, and
the band is recording its first full-length album in Omaha at
Ware House Productions.
The album, “Dreaming with a Deadline,” should hit stores
in April, Sommerich said. The album is being produced by Jim
Homan, who produced the last No Left Stone album.
“He’s one of the top engineers to record bands,”
Sommerich said. “It^ a real radio-quality sound.”
In addition to the quartet’s usual guitar, bass and drums
B5T WHERE: The Zoo Bar
WHEN: Tonight, 7 p.m.
COST: $3
. THE SKINNY: Ex-members
of No Lett Stone bring
pop-rock show to town.
sound, the album contains some unusual flour
ishes and guest musicians, Sommerich said.
Hanson alone plays acoustic and electric
piano, Hammond organ, harmonica,
Mellotron and synthesizers along with his
guitar, and Omaha jazz musician Joey
Gulizia plays percussion on three
tracks.
“A lot of (the extra instrumenta
tion) doesn’t happen live,”
Sommerich said. “It’s a textural
thing. We’re using the studio.
We put a lot of effort into
making these songs.”
The new album will '
also feature cover art by
nationally-recognized
Omaha artist Kent
Bellows.
usannonorio
have him do it,”
Sommerich said. 4
The album is m
almost done, but M
it awaits master- M
ing. The band 9
hasn’t decided j
where to mas
ter the album 9
yet. 9
Oil has ,p||
been build- 9
ing a buzz 9
locally, but 9
Sommerich 9
said the band
hasn’t been 9
interested in 9
courting any 9
record labels
until recently.
instead, the hand
has used a grass
roots approach to get
publicity, including won
of mouth, lots of liv$>>:
shows, anda^feb site,
bers.aol.com/bandojbn.
“Putting the CD out is
going to take everything up at
least one notch,” he said.
3 •
F ^ • r: ;
By samuei MCKewon
Senior editor
“Reindeer Games” is a failed
iction movie that goes wrong in taking
tself too seriously, putting its stock in
i narrative where all important devel
ipments take place elsewhere and are
ietermined by the whims of the script,
vritten by Ehren Kruger, who figures
le can tidy any confusion at the end
vith a triple exposure of talking
fillers.*
As a comedy, this movie could fly
i cheeky nudge and wink to Quentin
rarantino’s movies. As a thriller, it runs
'or a while under the capable direction
>f John Frankenheimer before lending
tself to puppet show revelations.
During die last 20 minutes, there’s
mough twisteroos for five serial
;omics, but it’s the last one that puts a
wist on the entire proceedings, skew
ering any seedy pleasure there might
lave been before it.
“Reindeer Games” deflates when
here’s more pawns on the chessboard
han we first realized - that much of
tie movie is a side prop for a peripher
ai commence scam.
Actually, the plot resides squarely
in the land of simple conspiracy right
from the get-go, with the conspirators
(and who they’re conspiring against)
changing every so often for good mea
sure.
It starts with Rudy (Ben Affleck), a
convict with three days left of prison
time before freedom. Upon freedom,
he yearns for hot chocolate and pecan
pie.
His cellmate, Nick (James Frain),
has the same time left, though his wel
come-home prize comes in the
warmer and sweeter shape of Ashley
(Charlize Theron), one of those lonely
dreamers who writes to inmate maga
zines, falls in love with convicts and
anxiously waits on the outside.
Nick, who never sent Ashley a pic
ture of himself, doesn’t even make it,
taking a knife during, of all things, a
prison food fight. And so Rudy can’t
resist taking his buddy’s place - time
tq shack up with the pretty gal for
some rough and poorly-photographed
sex.
But the glassy-eyed Ashley isn’t as
perrect as advertised - she has an evil
groiher who wants to employ Nick,
#ho’s really Rudy, to help take down
an.upstate-Michigan casino where
Nick used to work, or he’ll kill Nick,
who’s really Rudy, who took Nick’s
place because Nick’s actually dead.
| Much is made of this ludicrous
irony®yAffteck.'‘U d : b
The brother’s, name ist utterly for-^
’gettahle, bothers flayed by 6afy'
pinis^i who’s, tpe:elfi4sy fortbispeor,
feeding, yet enters the fray gamely as
truck-driving trash, firing off cheap
shots like a Christmas Grinch.
' With him is a' trio of uilfriendly
goons, who all want the inside casino
Information jfom Nick that Rudy can’t
provide, ? ' . L
* Because this is all established in
the movie’s opening act, the rest of
“Reindeer Games” is spent, rather
humorously, exploring how many
times evil brother can hit Rudy/Nick
with metal darts, die different ways
Theron can contort her face (required
for evil Ashley and good Ashley,
which come and go) and just when that
water gun filled with rum will save our
hero s hide.
Directed by Frankenheimer, who
once^made great movies like “The
Manchurian Candidate” before he fell
out of Hollywood favor, “Reindeer
Games” is a bit gloomy and ponderous
but reasonably intriguing for a time.
Affleck has fun with Rudy as he
tiptoes througtf He after lie about the ^
casinp,.. When the heist finafty goes,
’ dravri, carnage reigns, Ijtit the camera
imakes;senspj^i% v ;; u • !
The Same cannot be said for
Kruger’s script, which heads a s&tbhs
misstep in the. final act, the kind that
takes everything we know to be true*
crumples it up and opts for an alternate
scheme yet untold- One character calls
the plan a tong shot. Agreed. It’s also a
shot that never should have been taken
by Kruger. < - v ,,
He seems to enjoy this kind of
ending -4ie employed itdn both* .
“Scream 3” and last summer in
“Arlington Road “. It fit well enough
for the “Scream” trilogy, but
“Reindeer Games,” like “Arlington
Road,” betrays its tension for a last
second gotcha gag - the unveiling of
Reindeer
Games j
y STARS: Ben Affleck,
Charlize Theron and Gary f
• Sinise
DIRECTOR: John . |
0^' 1 ■ Frankenheimer
1.rI ;vR (language,
violence)
5 GRADE: C '•'<}
|F J3VE.WORDS: Ho, ho, ho?
Mil Not quite.
the real story that reveals the previous
90 minutes to be a detour.
Here, it was entirely unnecessary,
further muddling a plot that was plen
ty self-confused to begin with. As
capably as Affleck carries out the final
scenes, and, as willfully as Theron tries
to do the same, the feeling is nothing
but negative.
Kruger, talented enough with his
mixing of humor and pathos, needs to
move on. His conspiratorial tactics
have run their course, rubbing out the
worth of his own story.