Honeydogs survive through record label mishap
■With a new contract, the
band looks to gain respect.
BY SEAN MCCARTHY
Although Honeydogs’ Adam
Levy will be on stage in Lincoln
Friday night, his pager might
call him back up to Minnesota at
any time. Speaking from his
home in St. Paul, Minn., Noah
Levy Adam’s brother, said the
lead signer is expecting his wife
to go into labor at any time.
"He’s got the pager on for
this show," Levy laughed.
Tonight, Honeydogs bring
their sweet sounds to the Royal
Grove, 340 W. Cornhusker
Highway. Tickets are $5 for the
19-and-older show. Two bands,
Mylow and Labeled, are set to
open for the Honeydogs. Doors
open at 8 p.m.
Noah and Adam formed
Honeydogs back in 1995. Their
blend of rock, alt-country and
pop has attracted a growing
number of fans without die help
of air play on major stations. In
1997, they released "Seen a
Ghost" on Mercury Records’
Debris label.
The band was in the middle
of die huge record label buyouts
in 1998 when Mercury Records
7 hated Mercury. It was not a good place to be.”
Noah Levy
Honeydogs drummer
closed the door on Debris. As
Mercury was one of the record
companies bought out by
Seagrams, Honeydogs went
ahead and recorded their latest
album “Here’s Luck.” During the
recording, die band was ignored
by their label, Levy said.
"I hated Mercury,1' he said,
“It was not a good place to be.”
The band spent three
months making “Here's Luck,”
which Levy considered an
extravagant length of time. After
the album was recorded, they
had little support promoting it
The band asked to be let out of
their contract. Mercifully,
Mercury obliged.
Record label politics weren’t
the only obstacle affecting the
Honeydogs in 1998 - within
three weeks, guitarist Tommy
Borscheid left the band and
bassist Itent Norton lapsed into
a coma after an asthma attack.
Levy said he remembered
getting a call from Norton’s girl
friend while he was home.
Norton was watching his broth
er play at a bar when he col
lapsed. Norton was not breath
ing for 20 minutes before
medics had to defibrillate him
while he was in the parking lot,
Levy said. He spent three days in
a coma.
Miraculously, Norton did
not suffer any brain damage and
was alert when he came to.
"He was joking with us right
away,” Levy said.
With Norton healthy, a new
contract with Palm Records and
two additional musicians, Brian
Halverson and Jeff Victor,
Honeydogs are set to embark on
a lengthy tour for 2001. Levy
hoped the Honeydogs gain
more respect this year from crit
ics, fans and peers. He had no
illusions of seeing "Here’s
Lucky” as atop-10 hit
"I just want (the record) to
age well and make people
happy,” Levy said.
v Courtesy Art
Qnderelh trades her slipper for an ice state this weekend at the lied Center for Performing Arts.
Cinderella skates into the Lied Center
BY BILLY SMUCK
Cinderella will be losing her
ice skate instead of a glass slipper
in the St. Petersburg State Ice
Ballet's version ofthe beloved fairy
tale this weekend at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts.
Scheduled shows are at 7:30
tonight and Saturday along with
an afternoon performance at 2
p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $36,
$32 and $28. University of
Nebraska students' tickets are half
price.
“Cinderella,’' a familiar fairy
tale, will be transformed into a
performance of a different sort.
Not only is the performance taken
out of the theater format, but it
isn't a traditional ballet perform
ance either.
A winter-wonderland atmos
phere is created by the ice-covered
Lied Center along with 35 world
class Russian skaters under the
artistic direction of Konstantin
Rassadin, a former principle
dancer and choreographer of the
Kirov Ballet
AM opera-house set and 100
costumes are featured in the pro
duction. The story portrays a
young giriwho is treated like a ser
vant by her stepmother and two
stepsisters and is later united in
love with the prince, thanks to the
magical touch of her fairy god
mother
Performing their sixth North
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American tour, the St Petersburg
State Ballet on Ice will feature
music by Sergei Prokofiev, in addi
tion to the fine choreography and
skating.
Founded in 1967 and based in
St Petersburg, Russia, the compa
ny has performed in productions
such as “Swan Lake," “Sleeping
Beauty," “Romeo and Juliet” and
“The Nutcracker."
The company has presented
over 5,000 performances interna
tionally during the last 10 years.
Many of those are inspired by the
Russian Kirov Ballet which is well
known for artistic freedom and
classical elegance.
Thirty minutes prior to the
show a preperformance talk will
be held in the Lied’s Steinhart
Room as part of the Lied Center's
education program.
Courtesy Art
The Honeydoqs battled with record labels while recording their newest ©'Here's
luck.*
Urge wrong band for UPC
UK from pages
not try to appeal to a different
demographic?
There are numerous other
high-profile artists out there that
cost much less than the stars of
MTV, appeal to probably just as
many and could change the per
ception of UNL as a music center
If UPC were to bring a band
like Guided By Voices, Sonic
Youth, Jurassic 5, Built to Spill, the
Flaming Lips or Puhlic Enemy, not
only would there be a comparable
amount of students pleased by
die show, but people would come
from hundreds of miles around to
see it - and UPC could charge
those people.
I looked through the little cat
alog that UPC uses to scout out
the bands it recruits, and all of
those bands I mentioned are
available and all of them cost
$25,000 or less to bring in.
Pile up four of five of the best
local bands before them, and
you've got an incredible rock
show.
Ironically, there was a project
like this in the works. April 20 was
supposed to be the date for a big
outdoor festival with hopes of
recruiting local bands like
Drumfounded, the Black Dahlias
and Her Flyaway Manner to the
lineup. Cursive, a local-based
band with national and interna
tional success, had even been
contacted to headline.
But UPC has decided to swipe
that date for the Urge show. And to
make that Urge show even less
enticing for the typical UNL stu
dent than it already is, the plan is
to hold the show on East Campus.
The outdoor local festival would
then be moved eariierin the year.
I would like to say that this is
the type of mistake that only mon
keys would make, but that would
be harsh and unfair.
Monkeys would not make a
mistake like this.
It would even be more forgiv
able if UPC's music committee
were an actual committee
because at least then we could
credit this to the flaws of a democ
racy. But where once 10 commit
tee members served, there are
now only four serving die will of a
few and deciding how to spend
thousands of dollars.
So I ask you, UPC Music
Committee, look at the resources
you have and rethink your atti
tude. Instead of aiming for die top
and settling for the middle, just
turn a few degrees to your left. You
can aim and hit the top there and
make your university a lithe less
mediocre in the process.
Nena to present'Jump'
NENA from pages
“Jump" is Nena’s autobio
graphical account of mental ill
ness. The purpose of “Jump” is to
present mental illness in a way
that people can understand.
“I feel an obligation to tell my
story because there are a lot of
people who can't talk about their
mental illnesses," Nena said. “I
can put people inside the situa
tion and present the informa
tion in a way that is effective."
After her performance, Nena
will answer the audience’s ques
tions.
Nena is coming to the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
as part of the Artist Diversity
Residency Program, which
brings artists to campus who
represent ethnic minorities.
Nena has spent the week visiting
classes at both UNL and
Southeast Community College
in Lincoln, who is also sponsor
ing her visit
Melissa Burkland, a senior
English and pre-law major, had
Nena visit her agricultural lead
ership class. Nena kept the stu
dents in the dark about her men
tal illness.
“I would have had no idea
that she was mentally ill,”
Burkland said. “She primarily
talked about her interracial mar
riage and about being a woman
and an artist. She did say that
she was bipolar, but she touched
upon it lightly.”
Many of Nena’s talks focus
on her mental illness, though, a
fact which caused the
Community Mental Health
Center of Lancaster County to
sponsor her visit
Dean Settle, executive direc
tor of the Community Mental
Health Center, said that he met
with representatives from UNL
and SCC and decided that this
was a worthwhile project
“So much stigma surrounds
mental illness, but today more
and more people are saying,
"This is a part of my life, a part of
the human experience,'” Settle
said. “It is important for people
to hear that perspective.”
Nena says that the acts of
writing and performing are not
done as therapy for herself. She
prefers drawing and sculpting in
that regard, but her performanc
es, particularly “Jump,” serve a
different purpose.
“When I perform I feel like I
am attacking the monster of the
mythology that surrounds men
tal illness,” she said.
Tonight and Tomorrow Nigh
The Darlings
Opera is
actually a
sitcom
OPERA from page 5
Bybee said “Die
Fledermaus” is “very accessible”
because it is performed in
English and is an operetta, or
light opera.
“Since there’s a lot of dia
logue, it's just a play with music,”
she said.
“Die Fledermaus” is only
billed as an opera, Bybee said,
because the musical is an
American creation.
Friday's gala performance
will include six special guests
performing aj a party in the
opera’s second act. Tickets are
available at the Lied box office,
472-4747. They are $8 for stu
dents for the gala performance
and $7 for the matinee.
Bybee said the UNL march
ing band is one of the special
guests, but the other five are sur
prises.
Bybee will also be a visible
part of the Friday performance,
playing die part of an “eccentric
Russian prince.”
A champagne reception will
follow the show.
Bybee said the day between
performances is typical of
operas because of the “muscu
larly taxing” nature of opera
smging.
“Since you're dealing with
litde tiny muscles in the throat,
it’s important that singers have
time to rest,” Bybee said.
Hughes set
to perform
HUSHES from page 5
ing workshop she conducted at
the Union on Wednesday after
noon.
The words of outspoken con
servative Sen. Jesse Helms of
North Carolina, who labeled
Hughes “a garbage artist,” have
stayed with Hughes since her
hearing at the U.S. Senate a
decade ago.
“Sometimes I think, ‘Ifl were a
really good artist, I could make
Jesse Helms sprout a circulatory
system,’” she says.
Hughes says she thinks Helms
is “indecent” because he supports
policies that bar teaching stu
dents about safe sex practices
“while he watches people die of
STDs. I think it’s indecent that in
some states you can’t buy a vibra
tor, but you can buy guns.”
It is this kind of free-associa
tive thought that makes Hughes’
performance an unpredictable
emotional see-saw, causing rip
ples of uncontrollable laughter to
bounce around the room at one
moment, then facing the gut
wrenching realities of life the next
Hughes finds pride in her
shows that have little recogniza
ble plot. She says that writing a
logical story line is a concept that
escapes her talents, and personal
connections are more important
in her work than logic.
“Who wants to be main
stream?” she quips. “It’s shallow
and slow moving.”
Hughes was bom and raised
in Michigan, or “the mitten state”
as she calls it, and says that the
few times she performs in the
Midwest each year are like a vaca
tion to her childhood home.
“I really respond to the land
scape,” Hughes says. She likes the
time of relief from the “stereotypi
cally rude New Yorkers,” and die
audiences in the Midwest are
open and friendly, “though some
times I wonder what’s going on
underneath.”
Hughes describes
Midwesterners as generally
“polite" and “shy,” and she’s right
With a Midwestern, non-con
frontational frame of mind, it is
difficult to understand why she
continues to push the envelope
and risk her self through her ait,
especially after the hard blow the
Supreme Court delivered three
years ago.
Hughes has used perform
ance art specifically the perform
ance of “Preaching to the
Perverted,” as a way of coping
with her past encounter with
institutional conservatism.
“Instead of the NEA having
meinabox, Inowhaveitinabox,”
Hughes says.
Yet she is not a blind idealist;
she understands that deep
wounds are hard to mend.
Hughes says that turning your
defeats into art “doesn't mean you
will be miraculously healed... but
it means it doesn’t own you in
quite the same way.”
