Mylow delivers high-energy performance
BY ANDREW SHAW
Wanna hear a good donkey
punch story?
Whether they're punch drunk
or simply high on life, Mylow’s live
show will tell you what hybrid rock
is all about
With a regular Thursday night
gig at the Royal Grove, there are
plenty of chances to experience
what the three University of
Nebraska-Lincoln students mix
together to create crowd-pleasing
rock.
One of Lincoln’s best kept
secrets, Mylow draws musical
influence from a wide range of
artists. Originally billed as Planet
of the Apes, a strictly cover band,
Mylow’s members have crawled
from the depths of classic rock
and hair bands to melt down their
own variety of rock *n’ roll. Their
original songs seethe with funk,
Latin, hip-hop, country and rock.
When mixed with their unique
versions of popular hits by
Jackson 5, House of Pain and
Celine Dion, to name a few, it is
impossible not to like what you
hear.
Mylow’s lineup is as diverse as
their sound. The current group
has been assembled since August
2000 after the drummer left for
work in Texas and the bass player,
described as “shitacular,” was
fired.
Korey Lloyd, the band’s front
man, is a UNL graduate whose
self-depreciating humor (“Ever
seen an Asian kid rap?”) and refer
ences to “sweating like a fat kid”
Review
keeps the mood light between
tunes.
Rees Lahman, the percussion
ist, is a 20-year-old music per
formance major from Wilber, who
includes in his musical highlights
playing a four-hour gig with a clas
sic rock band in Surprise on the
Fourth of July.
Keenan Stump, a speech
pathology graduate student at
UNL, plays bass and sings back
up vocals. Juxtaposing the differ
ent aspects of his life, wearing a
shirt and tie to class and rocking
out in a devil-horns haircut at
Please see BAND on 9
The band Mylow
plays every
Thursday night
at the Royal
Grove.
i:
Courtesy of Mylow
And the Oscar goes to...
Audiences, judges left with bad movie selections as award nomination time nears
As poor as the 2000 movie season was, well, it's a shame
anybody has to win some of the Academy Awards.
Especially Best Picture.
Because there was no best picture this year. The
whole year was a pile of stink. Save "Requiem for a
Dream,” which has no prayer of winning, there may
have been 15 movies in 1999 that were better. The
Academy is actually considering a sword-and-sandal
epic in “Gladiator” and a martial arts movie
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Yeah, we’ve
become thaj low.
Still, given a level playing field, the award nomina
tions, to be announced in the wee morning - 5 a.m. -
next week in Los Angeles, seem to be fairly locked.
There aren't too many that'll be hard to predict. The
winners might be a different story, might not. But here’s
the two cents on the six major categories:
Best Acton
nominated:
“Gladiator"
“Cast Away” >
Ed Harris “Pollock”
Michael Douglas “Wonder Boys”
Christian Bale "American
Psycho”
wno snouid be nominated,
but won’t: Bale might be a
stretch, but we’ll throw
him up there. Mel
Gibson cut a dashing
figure in "What
Women Want.”
Cuba Gooding
Jr. was a
Story by Samuel McKewon
Art by Melanie Falk
powerhouse in "Men of Honor.”
The Skinny: Focus on the top two, then go with Hanks
for his third Oscar because it was a master class in doing
and acting - his 90 minutes on the island alone.
Who will win: Hanks, delivering another teary-eyed
speech.
Who should win: Bale, sharp and funny in "American
Psycho,” created a memorable character in a movie not
many people have seen.
Best Actress:
Who will be nominated:
Julia Roberts “Erin Brockovich”
Ellen Burstyn “Requiem for a Dream”
Bjork “Dancer in the Dark”
Laura Linney “You Can Count on Me”
Gillian Anderson "The House of Mirth”
Who should be nominated, but won’t: Sanaa Latham
“Love and Basketball.”
The Skinny: It’s Roberts, win place and show. A feel
good film, “Erin Brockovich” is a blue collar role for
Roberts and she is good in it. Was she the best? No, Burstyn
was. And she is the only soul who might sneak in. Haven’t
seen “Mirth” or "Count on Me” but count on their nomina
tions.
Who will win: Roberts.
Who should win: Burstyn, in a sad, powerful perform
ance. It’s a winner. Just not the winner.
Best supporting actor:
Who will be nominate
Benicio Del Toro
“Traffic”
Joaquin Phoenix
“Gladiator”
Phillip
Seymour
Hoffman
“Almost
Famous”
Willem
Dafoe “Shadow
of a Vampire”
Jeff Bridges
“The Contender”
Who should
be nominated,
but won’t: If
Hoffman isn’t,
Hoffman.
The Skinny:
A good field
with Del Toro
out front and
Dafoe,
Bridges and
Phoenix giv
ing good
chase. Since
“Traffic” isn’t
likely to win any
other awards, this one will probably be the favor it gets.
Who will win; Del Toro.
Who should win: Del Toro. Smooth, cool, troubled.
The man’s got a great face.
Best Supporting Actress:
Who will be nominated:
Kate Hudson “AlmostFamous”
Frances McDprmand “Almost Famous”
Connie Nielsen “Gladiator”
Erika Christensen “Traffic”
Catherine Zeta-Jones “Traffic”
Who should be nominated, but won’t: Dunno.
The Skinny: It's Hudson, most likely, with a serious
challenge from Zeta-Jones on a looks basis. Nielsen may
not find her way into a nomination, but she was the best
part of "Gladiator.”
Who will win: Hudson.
Who should win: Christensen, whose amazing trans
formation into a “Traffic” drug addict is the finest per
formance of the year, period.
Best Director
Who will be nominated:
Steven Soderbergh "Taffic”
Same guy “Erin Brockovich”
Ridley Scott "Gladiator”
Ang Lee “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
Cameron Crowe “Almost Famous”
Who should be nominated, but won't: Michael
Almereyda “Hamlet," Sofia Coppola “The Virgin Suicides,”
Robert Zemeckis “Cast Away” and Darren Aronofsky
"Requiem for a Dream.”
The Skinny: Lee’s got the momentum, but can anyone
overlook Soderbergh’s magnificent juggling act in
“Traffic?” Not possible. Is it? Scott’s got a chance.
Who will win: Lee or Soderbergh.
Who should win: Coppola, for a magnificent debut
film that successfully mixed beauty, suburban drama and
pathos at the same time. She was completely in control of
her craft.
Best Picture
What will get nominated:
“Gladiator”
“Traffic"
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
"Erin Brockovich”
“Almost Famous” or “Cast Away”
What should get nominated, but won’t: “Hamlet” and
“Requiem for a Dream.”
The Skinny: If not for a weird ending, it would have
been "Cast Away.” That said, “Gladiator,” muddled special
effects and all, is the front runner. It was an average movie;
it’ll be remembered that way, too. “Traffic” is fine, but it
came too late. “Erin Brockovich” is too limited in its scope.
What will win: "Gladiator.”
What should win: Oh... who knows. I liked “Hamlet”
the most, but that doesn’t mean it ought to win. Of the
nominees, “Cast Away” and “Traffic” are the most worthy.
“Gladiator” and "Almost Famous” are the least.
Make-out music brings back old memories
BY ANDREW SHAW
Music and making out seem to go hand in hand. It's like Michael
Jordan and Hanes underwear. Scott Baio and “Charles in Charge.”
Christina Aguilera and Andrew Shaw. It is destiny, fate, kismet
What other reason could there be for the variety of make-out, music
correlations?
In movies, when the tall, dark-haired, dangerous male lead gets real
close to die skinny, blonde, yet somehow exotic female lead, you hear the
music fade in a split second before they kiss. Then, as they continue to get
it on, the music rises and the intensity increases as they show extreme
close-ups of the woman’s back or the man’s hands.
What else could explain MTV’s obsession with sex? The plot for the
MTV movie “Election” was based strongly around a student having rela
tions with her teacher. How else could MTV possibly defend running the
late-night love fest known as “Undressed?” Every scene starts out with
some hot, new modem pop hit playing in the background, but once the
shirts start coming off or they start discussing important topics like pre
mature ejaculation, it turns to some cheap pom music.
There’s a genre of music known as “pom music.” When you say “pom
music,” people know what you’re talking about. They can hear the bass
line slide around a redundant pattern with some lazy drummer and
maybe a lethargic keyboardist providing some important inflection dur
ing the really good parts.
But the music and make-out connection doesn’t only exist in
Hollywood. Allow me to provide a few examples. Names have been
changed to protect the guilty.
Thandrew Thaw was making out with Jennifer Love Hewitt one day
after high school. They were senior year sweethearts and obviously the
Music Commentary
most attractive couple at Lincoln Wayside High School. Third Eye Blind’s
"Good For You” played on the stereo the first time Thandrew saw Jennifer
with her bra off.
Three years later, Thandrew blows the dust off of his Third Eye Blind
CD, remembering that this band used to play “Semi-Charmed Life,” and
turns it on. When the album spins its way to “Good For You,” Thandrew’s
heart begins to race, and he can remember the smell of chocolate and the
taste of Jennifer’s hair spray. Now that’s powerful stuff.
It works in reverse, though. Every time Thandrew hears Mercury Rev’s
"Goddess on a Hiway,” especially the repeated line “An’ I know it ain’t
gonna last,” it brings back memories of the day he realized he and Shirley
Manson were going to break up. And when Thandrew was dumped by
Melissa Auf Der Maur, he can tell you that Sarah McLachlan’s "Ice Cream”
was running through his head for the next three days.
But can Thandrew tell you any lines from “PCU,” the movie playing
the first time he kissed Vitamin C? No, because movies demand visual
concentration, whereas music can be the softest thing playing the back
ground and still be the catalyst for a flood of memories you never knew
were there.
Tty it with your honeypie, candyiips or sugarbutt this Valentine's Day.
Or tonight. Or both, if you’re lucky. When you start to feel things heat up,
take a short break, throw on Jackson 5’s "ABC” or Devo’s “Whip It” or They
Might Be Giants’ “Istanbul,” then go back to your business. Six months or
five years down the road, pencil into your planner to listen to the song
again. I guarantee you memories will flood into your body like hate mail
to John Ashcroft
Whether the memories are good or bad is up to you.
Megan Coay/UN