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Entertainment
University Daily Kansan, October 12, 1982
Mortal Micronotz album 'not bad' for junior rockers
By BONAR MENNINGER Staff Reporter
The Mortal Micronetz, Lawrence High School's own rabid rockers, have released their first album, and it is not too bad for a bunch of schoolers. Actually, it is not too bad for anyone.
Recently, the Micros talked about the record, music in general and what they want to do when performing.
The boys in the band said if school or work worth pursuing came along, they might go for it.
"The band is very important to us right now. I think we're going to try and stick it out as long as we can," said Dawn Lubensky, who looks more familiar with the crazed squard than the crazed, magic lead singer he is.
THE MICROS said that if it were not for all the week that it took to get to where they are today, we had been planning.
The album, called "The Mortal Micronotz," is
pretty good. The Micros' trademark sound of hyper-rythrum churned out by bass player David Dale and drummer Steve Eddy, with ripping licks from guitarist John Harper, and the ever-present vocal assault of Liberain, has been immortalized by Fresh Sounds records of
The record is best appreciated when cranked to maximum volume. There is nothing startlingly innovative in the Micros' sound, but it is obviously from the gut, and all niceties have been swept aside by the electric wave they set in motion every time they pick up instruments.
It is a solid record musically, reminiscent, in its finer moments, of the infamous thrashings of the Sex Pistols, who threw the rock establishment first, and nobly best, sounds of punk rock.
THESE GUYS might even be better musicians than the Sex Pistols, who were never known for their technical skills. A few times on the record, the Micros approach excellence.
With a song called "Don't Want to Stay",
Harper open with some mood, haunting riffs
that comprue up pictures of the desolate plains of the West. You can almost see covered wagons from afar.
Another good one is "Not Too Sure," where Harper again cuts loose with some wicked licks that drive Lubensky to ever-more passionate delivery of vocals.
Lubensky's singing and shouting is never predictable and his avoidance of formula in playing is more difficult.
Probably the weakest aspect of the album is the lyrics, which sometime sound a bit ho-hum to me.
too much heartbreak, too much pain. Too much stress and too much strain," they sing in "Don't Pull Me Under." Doodah. Life sure is rough, igh it to box?
MOST OF the lyrica center around such
nihilistic themes as alienation and teen-age
That's fine, but these guys are good enough that they need not settle for clichés. With a little thought they might even find something to say.
Still, they don't pretend to be something they are not, and I'd rather listen all day to them than to have to put up with such profound poetry as the Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra, I want to reach out and grab ya," which is about as good as it gets on the Top 40 "hit" parade.
Before a recent practice session, Lubenky said the Micros had gotten by with a little help on stage.
The members said that they thought the music emerging from Lawrence bands such as themselves, Get Smart! and the reggae sounds of the late 1970s were vital to Lawrence on the map as a center of new music.
*A lot of balls around here have been really helpful, and have kept us from screwing up, like this.*
SOME OF the music that influenced the Micros, they said, was old English punk, the East Coast sound of such groups as the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop, as well as surf music by the Ventures and some acid rock from the '80s.
Band members laughed at the idea that
loday's mainstream, popular rock 'n' roll, might have influenced them.
Lubensky said "I hate everything those hands stand for, and I hope they 'OD on their own eggs.'"
"It's hard to tell these bands apart because it’s all just like McDonald's food. It's the same flavor."
The band toured in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas this summer and will play in Chicago at
How do the Micro' parents feel about their rocking sons?
"I look at my son as a ticket to early retirement," said Gerald Lubensky, associate professor of art at KU and father of the Micros' lead singer.
The elder Lubensky said that the band had shown a lot of potential and that he was learning to see the value of so-called "pink rock."
The younger Lubensky said, "We're just stumbling around in the dark, having fun, giggling, trying to find our way to the light."
Dance students convene for annual symposium
Luke Kahlich, director of dance at Kansas State University, sat on a dance studio floor in Robinson Gymnasium Saturday teaching a room full of jazz dance students how to project
"Dancers don't hide behind their movements," he said. "Pretend is your first step."
Kahlish was one of five dance instructors that taught classes to 60 students at the 19th Annual Student Dancing Festival.
"Its purpose is to provide area dancers with the chance to learn from excellent area professionals," Janet Hamburg, associate professor of dance, said Saturday at Symposium Park.
TEACHERS LED CLASSES in ballet, jazz,
modern and African dance.
Kathy Bartosh Landsman taught ballet classes. She is she-co-director of the American Dance Center and the American Dance Center Youth Company in Overland Park.
One of the observers, Elizabeth Sherbon, was the originator of the dance symposium.
Molly Magee, new resident of Lawrence, taught classes in modern dance. She is a student of the Martha Graham method of modern dance, which consists of strong stomach movements.
"When we first started in 1961 we had people coming from as far as Fort Hays and Wichita," Sherbon said. "The symposium has grown. This year's symposium is excellent."
"They are examples of the best choreography around," she said. "People in the Midwest don't get a chance to see that many examples of varied, high quality dance."
Dance films were part of the symposium.
"Space" and "The Body as an Instrument" were shown to the dancers.
SEEING THE FILMS can make up for what they cannot see in person, she said.
A class in African dance was added to the symposium schedule this year, Hamburg said.
Two KU dance majors attended the American Dance Festival at Durham, N.C., this summer. They learned a triennial dance of the Baga tribe from New Guinea, Hamburg said.
The two, Apryllia Snyder. Lawrence graduate student, and Mary Cunick, McPherson senior, and Mary Brenner.
"Move to the music," Snyder told the class. "It feels different from ballet. It’s kind of fun."
Some of those that took the African dance class were a group of 5th and 6th graders from Polly School.
Harwood said, "I wanted them to be exposed to master class teachers and procedures. A dancer should learn from as many teachers as possible. It is important that, as a teacher, it is an eye opener and a good way to learn."
Lisa Laron, a 6th grader from Everst Middle School, Horton, summed up the attitude of some of the big kids and little kids at the dance symposium.
"Yeah," she said. "We want to be famous."
Choral groups combine concerts
By SUSAN O'CONNELL Staff Reporter
The KU Chamber Choir did something different this year.
In the middle of "Sourwood Mountain," an American folk song by John Rutter, a few members of the Choir whistled part of the music to chuckle during a concert Friday night.
"In our formal concerts, we don't usually swing to the lighter kinds of things." James Ralston, conductor of the choir, said about the whistling.
"The audience gave the kind of response you hope to elicit in a piece like that."
"The audience gave the kind or response you hope to elicit in a piece like that." Four principal KU choral groups are also doing something different this year.
THEY ARE combining four separate concerts into two joint concerts. Two chair groups gave a joint concert Friday, and two groups will give a joint concert at 8 p.m., Friday. The performances are at Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.
Ralston said the reason for the two concert dates was to give the groups more time to prepare for the Nov. 21 performance of the Beethoven "Missa Solemnis," to be conducted by Robert Shaw from the Atlanta Symphony.
Stephanie Humes, Lawrence graduate student, said, "This is the first time two of the choirs were put together. I think it went well — it drew a larger audience."
Humes said she thought the audience also enjoyed the jazzy version of an Old English
midrigal performed by the Chamber Choir.
It Was a Lover and his Lass," also by
Brian Schoenberg.
Ralston got involved in it too, she said.
on his face that give us inspiration," she said. "That gets what he wants out of the audience."
Watching Ralston's arms swing through the air in perfect beat with the tune, the audience could tell that he, too, was enjoying the performance.
THE CHAMBER CHOIR, a 35-member ensemble comprising upper-class and graduate students, performed pieces by three different composers: "Three Motets," by Charles Villiers Stanford; "Set Me As a Seal Upon Tithen Heart," "Where Does the Uterted Music Go?" and "Missa Brevis," by William Walton; and "Black Sheep," "It Was A Lower and his Lass" and "Sourwood Mountain," by John Rutter.
The Concert Chorale, a 36-member choir conducted by Robert Fisher, began Friday night's performance with "Exultate Justi," by Lodovico da Viadana.
For the joint concert on the Friday, the Concert Choir, a 32-member group, will present "Three Hymns to the Virgin: Salve Regina" by Orlandus Lassus, "Alma Redemptoris Mater" by Palestrina and "Ave Maria" by Rachmaninoff.
The University Singers, comprising 35 freshmen students, will perform nine songs including "Cantele Domino" by Hassler, "I am the Soul of the World" and "II est bel et bony" by Passerau.
On campus
TODAY
THE CAMPUS UNIT of the League of Women Voters will meet to discuss "Hazardous Waste Disposal" at noon in 395 Satellite Union.
FITNESS AWARENESS Techniques Seminar on Swimming will begin at 12:10 p.m. in the lobby of Robinson Gymnasium.
BIBLICAL SEMINAR, "The Gospel of Mark and the Nuclear Arms Race," will be at 4:30 p.m. in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
PUBLIC RELATIONS Student Society of America will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Room of the Kansas Union.
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will meet at 7 p.m. in the Big Eight Room in the Union.
PRE-MED CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Union.
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP'S Bible study and fellowship will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Union.
EAST ASIAN LECTURE SERIES. "East-West Connections During the Mongol Period," will be at 7:30 p.m. in 4033 Wescoe Hall.
LINGUISTICS COLLOQUY, "Dialect Mapping by microcomputer," will be at 7:30 p.m. in 4065 Wescoe.
POETRY READINGS by Diane Huefer Warner and Jane Hoskinson will be at 8 p.m. in the Council Room of the Union.
FALL CONCERT. KU JAZ Ensemble I, will
be 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murray
Hall.
How to make peace with Tolstoy.
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