Page 6 University Dally Kansan, August 29, 1980
Entertainment
Thumbs Karl Hoffmann (bass) and Steve Wilson (lead vocals) hitch a ride on the musical road to success.
Thumbs: (back row, left to right) Kevin Smith, Karl Hoffmann, Dede Mosier; (front row) Marty Olson, Steve Wilson.
Thumbs down on corporate end of music
By MARK PITTMAN Contributing Writer
Steve Wilson, lead singer for the local band Thumbs, spears another hunk of cheese off the board in the lounge at the Eldridge House. Still chewing, he swims in the canal andandel Wharf, whatis it fresh?
Chuckling slyly, he moves toward the recorder.
"Hi Mom," he says. "The speed really takes all the vitamins out of your body."
"You know you're a big rock star when you air around convalescing the rest of the week!"
Wilson and his band are in no way big rock stars, although their debut album "Thumbs" elicited the kind of critical praise rarely bestowed on mere mortals.
Debra Rae Cohen, in the May 29 issue of Rolling Stone wrote that the Thumbs music was "cocky and smart, a thumb in the eye of pretension."
"Thumbs don't deserve to be signed by a major label," she wrote. "They deserve better than that: to stay hardy, to flourish, to be heard."
Critics' praise often goes straight to the heads of some bands, turning regular guys into swaggering rock 'n' roll boors.
"All the critics' praise really means is that they understand that you are good besides voil," said Wilson.
But that does not mean that Wilson and company-Karl Hoffmann on bass, Marty Olson on keyboards, Kevin Smith on guitar and Dede Mote on drums—aren't cockey.
They consider people like Graham Parker, Elvis Costello and the Clash to be their peers—and their competitors—although the players played more than 45 miles from Lawrence.
Like the bands mentioned, Thumbs display
lysis sensitivity combined with solid rock
Most critics make comparisons to Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde." period.
Greil Marcus in New West magazine: "Thumbs seems not to have noticed the new wave clipes that are strangling so many young American bands; their sound is a kind of gothic noise." A reconstruction of the sound of 'Highway 61' revisited 'and 'Blonde on Blonde.'
The critical rave/media hype that followed this winter's release of "Thumbs" hasn't changed the members' lives very much, according to Karl Hoffmann.
"We've made some money, but we're not so happy," he said our day jobs yet," he said. said a B and B
Hoffmann is "a troubleshooter" for Kief's Gramophone shop. Wilson works on Kief's record side as a buyer. Cullins cuts hair for a dressmaker. Mark Baldwin is Monger is a marketing analyst for Hallmark.
The business end of rock 'n' roll tastes sour on the tongues of the band. Corporate control
"There was a period of time when some of the best people in rock sold the most," said Wilson. "I don't ever see that happening again."
of the record business, with its emphasis on
packaging an artist, leaves the band cold.
"You look at KY102, a station that is under the programming conceptual sway of a chain organization. To give you an analogy, if you pulled into Atchison, Kan., 30 years ago and you pulled into a gas station and asked where was a good place to eat, the attendant there could probably point to three or four greasy spoons that all had pretty good food. Now if you pull into a gas station the guy there is going to say, Well, there's a Big Boy's up the street. No, it's not. I amongst something and can make money at it, it gets franchised and everything starts sounding the same. It's the wonderful world of capitalism."
Thumbs came in the back door of rock 'n' roll. Armed only with $3,250 worth of recording studio time at Charman's studio in Kansas City, Mo. Thumbs cut 2,000 copies of the debut album and had it distributed by Jem. They've got their own label, Ramona, and have been contacted by two major labels for a follow-up album.
But they don't intend to sell out, going commercial for a wider audience.
"There is no politician, Wilson said.
"Look, it is a utilitarian proposition. You do the greatest amount of good work for the greatest amount of people."
"There's no point in it," Wilson said.
"I write songs about universal themes like work and love," Wilson said.
The waitress returns, and Wilson orders another drink.
"Our explosiveness is much more con-
temporary. Hoffmann said, fidding with the last wedge of the machine."
onstage with power chords, flash pots and blinding lights.
Their songs don't have the venal smarling rage of most of the new wave genre, although their rhythms are still powerful.
Thumbs is not the sort of band that trashes hotel rooms, terrorizes small towns or blasts
As much as Wilson downplays his first album tackle some fairly heavy hearts, first album tackle some fairly heavy hearts.
On "4th of July" Wilson pauses and breathe heavily, "Don't tell me about Bunker Hill, all I hear is your overkill. I wasn't born on the Fourth of July."
"No, we all like to eat and drink." Wilson said. "Those are our two birstastes."
"It's just indicative of the cynicism and greed that capitalism breeds." Wilson said.
The next album, which is expected to be released in 2015, was described by the band as "the Talking Trees."
In "Rags to Rags" Wilson announces:
"Horatio Alger, you're such a drag."
"I never could understand patriotism."
Wilson said while glancing at the $2 bar tab.
"The next album is going to have some stuff on it that is totally off the wall," Hoffmann said. "We don't expect a lot of airplay from the album stations on this one. We either go on song that asks the musical question of whether anyone wants to die in a nuclear war."
Spare Time
Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, 7:40 and 9:20
at Varsity
Smokey and the Bandit II, 7:30 and 9:30 at Granada
MOVIES
Blue Lagoon; 7:30 and 9:20 at Hillcrest
Caddyshack; 7:20 and 9:20 at Hillcrest II
Raise the Titanic; 7:15 and 19:5 at Hillcrest III
Xanadu; 7:40 and 10:3 at Cinema Twin I
W
7:30 and 9:30 at Cinema Twin II
amassed by critics nationwide for its exquisite crudity and minimal plot, this
Warfield brings theatre music experience to KU
outstanding performances by Bill Murray,
Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield. Plenty
of action.
By SHAWN McKAY
Staff Writer
PAN: Blue Lagoon
The deep resonance of William Warfield's voice filled the hearts of black plantation workers who lined the shores to hear him sing, "Old Man River" in the 1950 movie *Nimbab* (1953).
Warfield's career has taken him to several continents, and he has performed in "everything
He defined oratorio as 'the religious counterpart of opera. It encompasses all of the bulk of musical works from Bach to the "War Requiem." He is not a monologueist, but the works and uses both choral and solo voices."17
Staff Writer
For the next four months, Warfield's voice will echo through KU classrooms while he contributes his theatrical and musical experience to the university as the Langan Hughes scholar-in-residence.
Remove the filmsay plot and the actors and you're left with a beautiful National Geographic special. As it stands, however, the movie will full you to sleep.
Warfield, who is on leave from the University of Illinois, said he would be teaching classes in Arizona.
The Langston Hughes chair, which was named in honor of the writer and poet who spent much of his life in Lawrence, allows KU to invite a professor to speak on his expertise at a department at the University.
"THIS IS THE first time the chair has been in the fine arts department." Warfield said.
Warteld said it wasn't necessary for him to become a black activist to succeed in music because the concert circuit had been opened to his career several years before he began his career.
"The highlights of my career came when I played Joe in the color re-make of the movie 'Showbawt,' he said, "and a short time later he made it into 'The Broadway production of 'Porgy and Bess.'"
"However, it was a few more years before blacks were accepted in opera," he said. "It was about 15 years after I started my career that blacks were seen in major opera roles."
WARFIELD CREDITED his concert app-
plying the name from being typecast as a black spiritual singer.
"People always come to my concerts and ask me to sing 'Old Man River'," he said, "but I've been doing so much symphony and classical music in a wide range of music and styles in my performances."
NOW "OPERA IS much more open than symphones," Warfield said. "Most symphonies
"If you stood and listened to a classical piece by a black writer, you would not identify him as black anymore than you would identify a piece by Aaron Coneal and black." he said.
Wartfield said he could not find any difference between the music of black and white composers in his collection.
WARFIELD WAS born in Rochester, N.Y., the eldest of five sons of a Baptist minister. He said he planned to continue what he was doing for as long as possible.
Wartfield said he was excited by the renewed interest in classical music.
"The trend in soul and disco does not belong to blacks, but is a general trend," he said. "The black gospel music came out of the music of the church. Many people feel that the music has become commercial and is now no longer black music. The only real trends still lie in the gospel music of the church. There are no black trends in music. It is a country trend."
"There are new showcases for that type of music," he said. "Tiere is a tremendous amount of opera on PBS and other public television stations."
"The only place my career hasn't taken me is Acapulco," he said. "It's a place I've always wanted to go and just spend a few days relaxing on the beach, but I would probably hate it after one or two days because I've always been busy. If I'm not performing, thenI'm teaching."
only have token blacks, unlike movies and other musical forms that owed us a long time ago.
BLACKS ARE BEING identified with robes that previously were performed only by white, black and brown.
"Blacks are no longer identified with black roles," he said. "It's not uncommon for a person to know the name of a performer and not even know that he is black."
"When I was a kid, blacks were always
spaced as mands or servants. Now they're cast
at home as white people."
WARFIELD SAID HE could not identify any real black trend in music.
Warfield said he was pleased with the way his career had gone.
"The only goal I set for myself as a youngster was to be a teacher," he said. "I got into a stage career much by circumstance. People started calling my voice and gradually pushed me into a career.
"I never had any goals as far as my career was concerned. I was never one of those performers who wanted to sing such and a role. I simply would meet every challenge and do as well as I could."
By KEVIN MILLS
Working America is depicted in works of Thomas H. Benton
By KEVIN MILLS Entertainment Editor
Few artists have glorified the common folk as well and as often as Thomas Hart Benton (1898-1975). From extravagantly colored panoramas of city streets, where cast unprecedented light on the working class.
The artist's personal collection comprises the 'Benton's Bentons' exhibition in the Kress Gallery of the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art. Severity-five assorted paintings, murals and drawings, many of which have never been shown publicly, are on display until Sept. 13.
Born in Neosho, Mo., Benton lived in Kansas City until his death at 85. While Benton's work encompassed universal themes and worldly topics, he is best known as a regionalist for his depiction of Midwestern rural and agrarian subjects.
Benton solved the problem of three-dimensionality in his murals by spacing separate scenes on different planes. This, and others, create color, color, gives the murals a surrealistic quality.
Benton's affinity with the working class developed through his contact with the People's Art Guild, a socialist-oriented organization concerned with art and politics. The guild members believed that artists should serve the workers.
Early in his career, Benton turned to social realism in his art. He thought that art should express the spirit of man and his history. In An American in Art, published in 1989, Benton said, "We are not artists, but we have people controlled operations, to the labor lines of the machine age, where they decidedly did not."
His murals were the popular highlight of his career and are the highlight of the exhibition as well. "The Ballad of the Jeousale Lover of Lone Green Valley," 1843, is displayed along with the work of John Watson, the finest works. The opportunity to trace a work to its genesis is rare in a museum exhibition.
During the Depression, Benton's works depicted the plight of the jobless and the underemployed. "The Army of Labor," for instance, portrays faceless, stooping workers trudging through the gates of a smoke-spewing factory.
In 1919, Benton began work on his "History of
United States" with his first mural and his
first brick.
In 1927, he painted "Bootleggers," a vivid political message against Prohibition that relates the transportation, distribution and purchase of illegal alcohol.
Other works of this period—"Strike," "Trouble on the Picket Line," and "Factory Interior"-reinforce his image as a social-reforming artist.
While Benton is known primarily for his narrative, story writing and he did produce a musical adaptation of *The Inheritance*.
"Rhythmic Construction," 1919, was an abstraction of geometric figures that paralleled the spatial considerations of his murals. "Twelve hands, eight hand, hand, is strictly abstract for abstract' a sake.
Benton also went through a period in which he reduced Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque masterpieces to cubic shapes. His "Study after Fragonard" was the most human pictorial into flowing, dynamic arches.
Still, there is no escaping the humane regard for his fellow man that dominates the body of his wife.
Benton's study sketch for the mural "The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley."
Benton's longtime friend, Lyman Field, delivered the eulogy at the artist's funeral.
"He disdained, without malice, high society which he regarded as 'frost on a glass of beer,'" Fields said. "But he deeply loved what he called 'man under基质' of commonfolk and fellowman."
"Benton's Benton" was conceived and organized by Charles C. Eldredge, museum director, and Douglas Hyland, curator of painting and sculpture. All stages of Benton's careers are well represented, but it is unfortunate that the works are not arranged chronologically to allow a feeling of Benton's progression as an artist.
Hyland will lecture at 2 p.m. Sunday in the key Gallery on "Benton Painting Works Working
Karal Ann Marling, professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, will talk about "Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood" at 8 p.m. Sept. 3 in the Museum Auditorium.
Lawrence Levine, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will speak on "Popular Culture and the Great Depression" at 8 p.m. in the Museum Auditorium.