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friday
9.03.99
ten.a
Believe it or not
story by emily hughey * photos by christina neff
Lawrence band of friends gears up for last gig
"It's almost like graduating from school. The band has been kind of like a girlfriend the past years."
Greg Franklin Olathe senior
Sitting on the couch of a cluttered apartment in a house on Arkansas Street, musician Craig Proulx writes.
For women to show up and for the band to fade away.
His band, The Believe It Or Nots, is breaking up.
"We thought getting in a band would get us chicks," he says at one point. "Then we realized it doesn't."
He strums his guitar to the new Super-chunk CD playing softly in the background.
He talks about music and school and the CD his band released a month ago. The CD, There's a Great Future in Plastics, is on the Urinine Records label.
When he begins talking about the new record, his voice slows down a bit and he pauses, looking up from his sticker-laden guitar.
"We've had a month to promote it and now we're breaking up," he says, "it's odd."
While most bands' break-ups involve harsh words and communication breakdowns, after nearly three years of making music, it's just time for the Believe It Or Nots to move on.
But first the group has one last show—the biggest one it has played.
They will perform on the Lazer Rock stage at 6 p.m. Sunday at Penn Valley Park's SpiritFest in Kansas City, Mo.
Two of the band members still are enrolled at the University of Kansas. Lead singer and guitarist Mike Angeletti already has graduated and will study production at the University of Iowa after traveling in Italy. The rest of the band, composed of guitarist and vocalist Franklin, bassist Brad Leckron and drummer John Thang Nguyen, will remain here.
"It's been such a positive experience over the past three years that I can't be sad about it," says Franklin, Olathe senior. "Right now it's all nostalgia. It's almost like graduating from school. The band has kind of been like a girlfriend for the past years."
The others don't get as sentimental as Franklin does. Angieletti is looking forward to traveling, Nguyen is content with staying put, and Leckron, Lawrence senior, is sick with a cold. Laughter hides their sentiment, and it's obvious the four are friends. Good ones. Looking around the room at one another, they laugh and bring up inside
jokes. Like bad luck with women. Like the dancing cow that made its debut two years ago at their Dav on the Hill performance.
The dancing cow, who is really a friend in bovine apparel, characteristically capers around the stage during the set, throwing candy to kids. The dancing cow will be at the last show, and this time will throw toys or balls.
"I would imagine it's going to reappear," Angetetti says. "I would imagine—unless he gets sick—with a really bad case of Anthrax."
"Mikey's the 'ubermen,' the superman." Franklin said of Angelaetti.
The other three laugh.
"I wouldn't say that." Angelaetti retorts.
"That's a Nazi word. A Nietzsche word."
"Mikey's the lyrical genius; he's the poet; he's the soul. That's what I would say," Franklin says.
A chorus of laughter and mocking plaudits erupt. Though the mocking cheers among friends always will be there, the real cheers will come to an end this weekend, despite fans' wishes on the contrary.
"They don't want us to break up," Nguyen said.
a friend a niece or
social, maybe."
Franklin says. "If
there was any way to
stay together, we
probably would."
As such technology does not yet come in do-it-yourself kits, the four musicians and friends will settle for separation.
steal his DNA and put it in a singing dog or monkey, but make it a lit-
"Mavbe we could clone Mike. We could
"It really has n't hit us yet," Franklin says. "I really look at it with a gleaming sense of nostalgia. It's our last show, and it's tremendous."
Future in Plastics marks bittersweet end to band's career
By Chris Eckert
Kansan music critic
The bittersweet longing that pervades the Believe It Or Nots' new album There's a Great Future in Plastics will soon be the sentiment listeners will have for the band. The group will play its final show this weekend at SpiritFest in Kansas City. The five songs on the album are described in the liner notes as "two years worth of drunken weekends, loneliness at home, euphoria and broken hearts, all in the space of about 20 minutes." Most of the lyrical content reflects this mood, whether it's the jaded resignation in Blackberry Sage or the thoughts of a distant lover in 12 O'Clock in Brooklyn and Signals Mixed.
The music—rock without being cliched
swagger, emotional without being sappy cooing—can be traced to the bands that the Believe It Or Nots claim as influences, from Wawbreaker and the Pixies to the Beatles. Hand Me My Broadword is a peppy instrument that evokes 1980s college rock in all the right ways, and Michael Angieletti and Greg Franklin avoid the bloated sound that can come from two guitarists.
Disciple many downbeat melodies and lyrics, There's a Great Future in Plastics is not a sad album. Maybe it's the peppy robots and Bobbin' head dolls on the album art, or the grimming mugs of the band members in the liner notes. Maybe it's the occasional gleeffect eccentric lyric, such as declaring a temptress "anti-bacterial" in Terra Incognito.
Maybe it's the hidden track, a cover of the Monkees 'I'm a Believer' somehow faithful
Album Facts
Grade: Ato the original but with more yelling than Neil Diamond — who wrote the song for the Monkees — ever could have intended. Or maybe it's just the joy each of these men has for his music shining through in the recording. Crediting their friend Chad Saddoris as their "dancing cow" on the album couldn't hurt either. One last chance to experience the joy and the dancing guy in the cow suit comes this weekend at Spirit-Fest.
Label: Urinine Records
Genre: Alternative
SpiritFest
The Lazer Rock stage
Today
6:00 Creature Comforts
6:45 Janis Figure
7:45 Boom Boom Satellites
8:50 DJ Ray Velasquez
9:00 Moby
10:30 Violent Femmes
Tomorrow
4:00 The Feds
4:45 8 Degrees
5:30 Dragqueen
6:15 Ultimate Fakebook
7:15 Outhouse
8:30 Marvelous 3
10:15 Gravity Kills
Sunday
4:00 Rex Hobart
5:00 Reflector
6:00 The Believe It Or Nots
7:00 Exit 159
8:30 Kottonmouth Kings
10:15 2 Skinnee J's
East Main stage
Today
6:30 Wayne Toups and Zydeo
8:30 Chubby Carrier &
Bayou Swamp Band
10:30 Buckwheat Zydeo
Tomorrow
4:30 Fifteen Minutes Fast
6:30 Deep Blue Something
8:30 A Flock of Seagulls
10:30 The Smithereens
Sunday
4:20 Loosenz with the Tighten Up Horns
6:20 Soul Solution
8:20 Ken Newerwa
10:20 Joe Sample & Lalah Hatha-
North Main stage
8:30 Men at Work
6:30 Retro Rockets
10:30 Rick Springfield
Tomorrow
10:30 Rick Springfield
4:30 Disco Dick and The Mirror Balls
6:30 Ohio Players 8:30 Won
30 war
10:30
Sundav
10:30 KC and The Sunshine Band
4:45 Dirty Dozen Brass Band
6:45 Corey Stevens and Texas Flood
8:45 Delbert McClinton
10:45 Buddy Guy
Christian Rock stage
6:00 Blu-17
7:00 Brodie Kagstarr
8:00 Elevator Division
9:00 Soulsoak
10:30 Miss Angie
Tomorrow
4:00 Dale Johnson
5:00 Clint K
6:00 The Pedestrians
7:00 Jeff Scheetz
8:00 Stir
9:00 Pool Boys
10:30 Satellite Soul
Sunday
4:00 NAS
5:00 smalltalk
6:00 Focus
7:00 Unified One
8:00 Pillar
9:00 Beggar's Table
10:00 Bellevable Picnic
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