nightlife
Music mecca?
Already this semester, KU students have been entertained by a wide variety of bands-from national acts like Public Enemy to local bands like Baghdad Jones. With all of the activity on the club scene as well as at the small concert venues, there is never a shortage of live music in Lawrence. This weekend should be no exception...
The Lemonheads drop in at Liberty Hall
By Delin Cormenv
By Delin Cormeny
Kansan staff writer
Evan Dando said he never planned to be a musician and never took music lessons, but Monday he and his rock band, the Lemonheads, will perform at 8:30 p.m. at Liberty Hill.
And at age 10, that's exactly what he did.
"You don't need music lessons to play music," the singer/songwriter/guitarist said. "I never had them. You just figure it out with a Beatles book."
"I always liked music, I always liked
about stories," he said. "I never had
any trouble hearing it."
five albums and numerous singles later, Dardo said he regretted not being able to read music, but said it was a disadvantage only when he worked with other musicians such as Bob Dylan's keyboardist, Barry Goldsmith.
Goldberg played on the Leonehands' latest album, "It's Slam About Ray."
"We wrote out all these complex and rudimentary charts and everything," Dando said. "it's only a problem when I find someone to explain it. It's definitely a communication thing."
But when they finally came to an understanding, Dando said their collaboration on the song "My Drug Buddy" paid
off.
"That one came out, just perfect," he said. "I think it's the best thing we've ever done."
The Lemonheads and their self-described "country metal" music have been around for six years, but Dando is the only surviving member. The original band met at Boston's Commonwealth High School.
"We went into the studio the day after we graduated from high school and recorded four songs for around $100," he said. "We had a little money from summer jobs and graduation presents, so we pressed 1,000-7-inch LPs."
That record, titled "Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners," won the band recognition in Spin magazine and led the way to their first full-length album, "Hate Your Friends."
"We just took it from there," Dando said. "I never had a plan."
But since 1987, Dando said the band had gone through about 10 different band configurations because he was never satisfied with the drummers, and the other founding members out.
But Dando stuck with it and found other musicians. Their second album, "Creator," was released in 1988 and the
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Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records
Evan Dando of Lemonheads.
Clinton's band rallies in Lawrence
Special to the Kansan
By Tracl Carl
"the members of the band BOP (harvey) and President-elect Bill Clinton sat down after a rally Monday in Detroit to talk about music, life, their busy tour schedules and how tired everyone was."
"We were just kinda hob-nobbin," said Dan Mathe ny, BOP (harvey)'s lead guitarist.
Now, after helping to the successful Clinton campaign tour, BCP (harvey) will continue with its own tour Friday at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.
The Clinton and BOP (harvey) tours met Sept. 23 when the band was invited to open for the East Lausung, Mich., rally, which originally was scheduled to be the first debate between President Bush and Clinton. They then played at the post-debate rally Oct. 19 in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Matheeny said that it was the advance team staff for Clinton, not Clinton himself, who initially liked BOP (harvey) his African, reggae and rock'n' roll style and who promoted the band in the rallies.
"BOP (harvey) is great," sad Jay Byre, Michigan's Clinton/Gore Press Secretary. "Our music creates an uplifting energy, which captures the spirit of Governor Clinton's rallies. Their support and enthusiasm
has really been appreciated."
John Reilly, publicist for BOP (harvey), said that the band was popular before the Clinton rallies in its hometown of East Lansing and surrounding areas.
"They were a long-time secret of the Northern Midwest." Reilly said.
Wordsmith, the band's lead singer, said that he would like the secret to leak out to the rest of the United States and that he hoped the band could follow the lead of Clinton's success tour.
"We're trying to get the contrails of Governor Clinton to time," Wordsmith said. "I admit it. We need a break somewhere. We've worked hard enough for it."
He said that the band had been performing about 200 years earlier and doing live performances for the past eight years.
"It gets hairy being with the same guys, working with them, living with them," Matheny said. "I probably see them more than my mom sees my dad."
The band's hard work has been noticed by more than the Clinton campaign. The band released the LP "Gitche Gumee to Me" on Max Weinberg's label, Hard Rock Entertainment.
Weinberg, E-Street band drummer, was impressed with the band's performance. Reilly said.
"He said they were the hardest-working, live band he's ever seen," Reilly said.
The band supported Clinton before they were invited to perform at the rallies, Wordsmith said.
"It's probably the one thing the band has agreed upon, so we had no qualms about endorsing him," Wordsmith said. "He strikes us as a man with a vision to sink he's practical enough to realize that vision."
He said that Clinton reminded him of John F. Kennedy because Clinton also had a concern for the social progress of our nation and he was a catalyst for change.
"The first time I shook Bill Clinton's hand I felt the weight of history," Wordsmith said.
It does not agree with everything that Clinton supports. Wordsmith said that he was against the death penalty and censorship. Clinton supports the death penalty and Tipper Gore, Al Gore's wife, has written a label records for explicit lyrics. It is hard to set standards that do not limit free speech, Wordsmith said.
Free speech is one of BOP (harvey)'s main tools. Its song "Bread and Circuses" is about Iran Contra, and "House on Fire", a song that was played at Clinton rallies, voices the frustration of men and women who feel they are not included fairly in the justice system.
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L.A. Ramblers induces psychedelic aura
James J. Reece Kansan staff writer
Lawrence band L.A. Ramblers hopes to revive the psychedelic aura of '60s and '70s rock concerts with a '90s version of a computerized, liquid light show.
nal and covered music with videovisual effects such as those popular in '60s dance halls to supplement their show, the Psychedelic Dance Hall Revival.
The L.A. Ramblers will blend origi
"Some people say it sounds like a church meeting," said Joe Comprarato, bassist of the band. "But people aren't doing this anymore. It
Photo courtesy of L.A. Ramblers
Members of the L.A. Rambler (from left to right): Ken Lovem, Brad Boerger, Joe Compaoré, Darell Leen, Sven Nussbaum and Stephen Ternier.
The show will be an attempt to revive the look and atmosphere of the dance-hall venues popular in the '60s, according to Comparato.
The concert is scheduled for tomorrow night at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St., and will feature another local band, Pilgrimage.
is sort of a revival of the music that was generated out of the San Francisco Bay area in the '60s. "
Part of the modernized flashback will use live and processed images broadcast on two 12-foot video screens. Images include past corto footage filmed at last year's Omega Festival and at other conferences in the area as well as computer-altered and computer-generated images.
"We play the music of that man and we want to add the visual aspect for him."
The music of the LA Rambleris is as fluid and provocative as the scene.
The six-member L.A. Ramblers, who formed in 1894, retain none of their original members. But the band does keep the binding element of its founders in the form of a fondness for the Grateful Dead.
However, guitarist Darrell Lea said that tomorrow's show would put more emphasis on the band's original songs and its video revival, debuted last year at Omega.
Lea said that the concert partially was to promote the band's debut release featuring the two songs, "Mama Said" and "Return to Me."
Other favorites of the band are evident in the band's list of cover songs by artists like Buddy Holly, the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
He added that free copies of the release would be given to each ticket holder at the concert
Members of the L.A. Ramblers have experience performing in area bands like Badger Jones, The Love Squad, The Bad Zone, the Crushed Velvet Mutations, the Parlor Frogs and Ids Moths and Friends.
The concert begins at 9 p.m.
tomorrow and advanced tickets can
be purchased for $5 at Streetside
Records, 1403 W. 23rd St, Benchwarmers Sports Bar & Grill, 1601 W.
23rd St, and the Liberty Hall box office. Tickets may also be
purchased at the door for $7.
Real KU Life begins on the weekend.
calendar
Nightlife
Benchwarmer's Sports
1601 W. 23rd St.
Tonight - Jeff n-Jeff
Friday - Room Full of Walters
Sunday - Fuzz Box
737 New Hampshire St.
The Bottleneck
Friday - Bop Harvey with Idxplosion
Shire st.
Tonight - Greg Brown with Robert Shannon and the Dorkestra
Saturday - Dash Rip Rock with The Wannabe's
Monday - Salty Iguanas, Baghdad Jones, Joe
Worker, Truckstop Love, and That Statue
Moved
Wednesday - Chris Doate with Chubby Smith and Orchestra
Brass Apple Sports Bar & Restaurant 3300 W.15th St.
Features 10 TV's with satellite dish & Monday Night Football
Congo Bar
520 N. Third St.
Friday - Excalibur
Dos Hombres
815 New Hampshire St. Tonight - Gins Samuels and the 16th Avenue Band
925 Iowa St
Tonight - Open Mike with Simon Bar-Sinister,
Pilgrimage, and Kaw Cajuns
Friday and Saturday - Kaw Cajuns
Henry T's Bar & Grill
3520 W. Sixth
Karaoke every Thursday night
Hockenbury Tavern
Rockefeller Tavern
1016 Massachusetts St.
Tonight - Cambenwell Green
Friday - Kelley Hunt Band
Saturday - Rhythm King with Bedlam Rovers
Jazzhaus
926 1/2 Massachusetts St.
Tonight - Slim Slim and Teardrops
Friday - Chubby Smith and Orchestra
Saturday - Common Ground
Wednesday - Kristen Hall
Johnny's Tavern
401 N. Second St.
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