nightlife
The Next Nirvana? Five local bands try for fame and fortune.
By Jenny Brannan
Vancouver staff writer
Kansan staffwriter
Jenny Brannan/KANSAN
Wes Scantlin, Puddle of Mudd vocalist, gives an energetic performance during the fourth set of the Showcase competition.
A national record label was at her fingertips.
Within minutes the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., would be buzzing with the crowd that had gathered outside the doors for the Ticket Master Music Showcase. Shields, like the members of the other four bands who were invited to play for music industry representatives, realized the event, which cost $1.05 to attend, was a chance at national recognition.
Shallow was the first to perform in a line-up of five local bands including Go Kart, Sacri-
"Even if we don't win this showcase, it's still a great thing to do." Shields said, smiling.
event was one of 36 music showcases featuring 180 bands around the country. Those 180 bands were chosen from applications and demos tapes.
fice Isaac, Puddle of Mudd and Vitreous Humor. Saturday's
Five bands will compete in the regional showcase in Dallas. The final national showcase in Los Angeles wins the grand prize — a week-long recording session at Bad Animals recording studio in Seattle.
The winners are chosen by record scouts. A winner has not yet been announced for the Lawrence Showcase because the ballots have to be compared to all the ballots from the Midwest region.
"One of these bands could be the next Pearl Jam or the next Smashing Pumpkins," Brian "the DJ" from KLZR said. "Whether they win or not, they could get a record contract with some national label."
But that's not why Shields plays in a band.
"It's like you're competing against people here, and that's a big thing," Shields said. "You usually don't have to compete."
Though each of the bands realized how important winning was for their careers, they all came to play simply because they love their music.
"It's a euphoric high when the magic's there," Carlos Bosso, bass player of Sacrifice Isaac said.
The members of Sacrifice Isaac, from Kansas City, Mo. have known each other for nearly 10 years but have only been playing together for two.
They take the inspiration for their songs from each other, instead of following any music trends, Spoons said.
"We're the underdogs because we're not part of the music clique," said Paul Mitchell, guitarist for Sacrifice Isaac.
The Beatles' music, on the other hand, inspired Vitreous Humor, the youngest group in the competition.
the members of Vitreus Humor are between the ages of 19 and 20 and have known each other since middle school.
They made their debut at a Topeka West High School talent show. By the time they were 16 and 17 they were playing in bars, even though they weren't old enough to be in them.
"We've all been friends for so long, you can't break up the band," said Brad Benson, drummer and Topea junior. "You either have to stay in and enjoy it or hate each other for leaving."
"We're used to being the young ones. Now we feel old." Benson said.
The members of Vitreous Humor are KU students. That's where they met their newest member and guitarist, Brooks Rice, Kansas City, Kan, sophomore.
"We're trying to balance this and school at the same time." Benson said. "It's a pain."
Balance seems to be the most difficult part of being in a band.
"You have to have a job outside the band," Shield said. "Because we have to travel so much and our schedules are so uncertain, we have to ask for time off and that's tough."
Shields said this caused friction with employers and made it difficult to keep a steady paycheck coming in.
"The worst part about being in a band is running out of funds," Shields said. "And falling asleep at the wheel when you're driving on road tour."
Shallow began playing at the Rumblebox in Kansas City. The band has been together for nearly a year.
Many strong relationships form during the time band members spend together. Shields and her husband, Jason, were married three weeks after the band Shallow was formed, but they had played together for years.
They came up with their name after brainstorming for a title.
"We just wanted something that sounded smooth and easy and that everyone could spell," drummer Stephan Krestin said, jokingly.
Shallow said their greatest accomplishment has been
Jenny Brannan/KANSAN
Julie Shields, Shallow vocalist, finishes a sound check before the opening number at the Ticket Master Music Showcase.
putting out two tapes in the past year.
"My favorite thing is walking in a used record store and getting mobbed because people want a new tape that we made," Julie Shields said.
Julie Shields has been singing in church choirs since she was 3 years old.
"They never paid me to sing in church though," she said.
Scott Magoon, drummer for Go Kart, said he remembers beating on a pillow with Tinker Toy sticks
"I bought my first drum set with paper route money." Maeon said.
Like Shields, many of the musicians that performed had a feel for music at an early age.
Go Kart is made up of former members of the Grooveheads and the Kentes. The current band has been together for a year and a half.
Go Kart hopes that this competition will move them to label exposure.
"We hope to make a living off songs we like to play," Magoon said. "I'd like to be able to quit my day job and see the country."
The members of Puddle of Mudd have already seen the country. Unlike many of the other bands in this contest who grew up together, each member of Puddle of Mudd comes from different places.
Vocalist Wes Scantlin grew up in Kansas City, Mo., guitarist Jimmy Allen in Chanute, bassist Sean Sammon in Seattle, Wash., and drummer Kenny Burkitt in Fort Collins, Colo.
They all met at the River Key Building on Woods Weather Road, a place in Kansas City where many bands practice.
"People don't have to like our music," Scantlin said. "But at least they say we're a tight band."
Their name, Puddle of Mudd, is a reflection of their view of life.
"It's the world we live in. It's the environment. It's politics. It's war. We're stuck." Scaulin said.
Puddle of Mudd's first album was dedicated to Burkitt's father, who was killed by a drunk driver several years ago.
Puddl of Mudd uses the money they make from playing to help the YWCA in Kansas City.
"We play our music to relate to people's problems," Burkitt said. "Our problems were solved through music." Puddle of Mudd's first album was dedicated to Burkitt's
father, who was killed by a drunk driver several years ago.
"People think we're really scummy when they look at
Burkitt said he used to get beat up because he had long hair.
"I learned to take my frustrations out on a guitar," Burkitt said. "It's better that taking them out with a gun like some people do."
Sacrifice Isaac chose their name after one of the members brought an art book to practice that had a picture of the sculpture titled "The Sacrifice of Isaac."
"I remembered it from bible school as an act of faith to God," Spoon said. "We're all making the ultimate sacrifice for this band. That's what's important to us."
Even though the members of these bands don't have a spare second in the day, and many times they have to struggle to pay bills and keep jobs outside the band, they all said they wouldn't change a thing.
"It's worth it," Spoon said. "We're all 26 years old, and we're living our dream."
lifestyles
Two firsthand accounts of peace, love and personal hygiene at
By Casey Barnes Kansan staff writer
While the concert in Sauerties, N.Y. was more commercialized than the first in Woodstock, with two stages, four video screens, pay-per-view television and MTV, Erin Glaser, St. Louis senior and Woodstock '94 concert-goer said the people were recreating the feelings of the original concert in 1969.
Two KU students were amidst the naked bodies, the crowds, the rain, and the mud of Woodstock '94, and they say the 25th anniversary rock concert really was another two days of peace and music.
"You can't explain it and you can't put it into words," Glaser said. "The people were so laidback and carefree. Everyone was eager to help, honest and uninhibited."
One thing that has changed is the public.
They learned the tickets were $135 each and had to be bought in blocks of four. Determined to go, they bought them and hoped to sell the other two along the way. They gave one ticket to a friend going into the Peace Corps and the other to a friend who flew from California to Kansas City to begin the long drive to New York.
In two days, they drove from Lawrence to Albany, N.Y., which is one hour away from Saugeries. Then they parked their car and encountered what would be the first of many long lines and huge crowds.
"Everyone was really patient and just happy to be going to the concert," said Julie Barnes, Oklahoma City senior. "There was no yelling or pushing to get on the bus."
Woodstock attire: mud and few clothes.
ity. Glaser and a friend found out about the concert from MTV.
The line for the bus that took them to the concert was four hours long, but that didn't bother anybody.
By 8 p.m. Aug. 12, they were part of the estimated 300,000 to 350,000 people that were setting up tents to become a part of history.
"It was so fun to just sit and peoplewatch, listen to the bands or walk around to the vendors," she said. "You could talk to anybody or just hang out."
In addition to the crowds, Barnes said, the most lasting impression she has of the concert is that there was never a boring moment.
"It was really wet and muddy and the tents were so close together that we were wet the entire time." Barnes said. "People were basically sitting on top of each other."
The rain came Saturday night, but it didn't dampen spirits. Some left, and a few hundred gate-crashers got into the 850-acre concert site free.
Barnes. But,
have been there if she hadn't bought a ticket.
The cold didn't stop people from taking their clothes off. But Barnes and Glaser decided to keep their on, even for three days. They only changed shirts while they were there.
"We were standing in three inches of mud," Barnes said. "It was cold and we were wet, but we didn't care."
The concert has received as much criticism as
About 50 scheduled bands and numerous special guests performed at Woodstock '94, but everyone had their favorites.
"Melissa Etheridge and The Cranberry's gave wonderful performances," Glaser said. "Peter Gabriel dedicated his performance to the people of Rwanda and that made the crowd more emotional."
it has praise from both the public and the media. Some people believe the concert was an attempt to relieve something that cannot be relived, and the commercialism of the concert made the entire event less effective.
Andrew Kupersmith, Wichita junior, said the whole event seemed like a joke.
"It's a scam," Kupersmith said. "People who did it 25 years ago are bitter because they didn't make a lot of money and get as much publicity and now they want to capitalize on it."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
But Glaser said you had to be there, because the television cameras couldn't capture what it was like to stand in mud, freezing and waiting for the concert to begin.
People and places at the University of Kansas.
LEAD STORY
news of the wierd
A new TV game show ready to air early next year in England and Italy pits against each other couples who have decided to divorce with the objective of determining how the marital property will be divided. Instead of relying on costly lawyers or counselors, the spouses answer questions on the air about each other and their relationship. The spouse gives the "better" answers will get more of the property.
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
In July, the Tokyo-based drug firm Dairim announced it would soon market a pre-meal pill to make bowel movements completely odorless. Although the pill was developed principally for the health care market to improve working conditions for nurses' aides, some commentators in Japan fear that the availability of the pill for consumers will increase Japan's obsession with cleanliness. Psychiatry professor Susumu Oda said that overreaction to unpleasant smells was already a cause of unsociable behavior.
The Economist magazine reported in January that one of Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's success stories about government research scientists hired out for civilian business uses was the Argonne National Laboratory's helping McDonald's to find a way to speed up french-frying. A team headed by physicist Tuncer Kuzay, who interrupted his work on advanced photons, placed sensors inside the frozen fries and was able to design special frying baskets to deal with the effect of steam created by melting ice crystals and to cut 30 to 40 seconds off each batch's frying time.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce recently lauded the waste-management practice of the Crib Diaper Service of Plymouth, Minn., in capturing and donating the lint gathered from laundering 250,000 diapers per week to a casket manufacturer to use in stuffing casket pillows, which also saves the diaper service $3,000 a year.
Reuters News Service reported in June that a men's underwear advertisement on a billboard in Tel Aviv, Israel, features the product with a photo of the late prime minister Golda Meir, and the slogan, in Hebrew, "Eventually we remember those who had balls."
The Massachusetts board that regulates funeral homes took away the license of Robert Miller for two years in July after finding that he had dug up the ashes of two cremated bodies after relatives failed to pay funeral bills. The families said the bills had been inflated from the original estimates.
EH-UUUH. GROSS!
Milton Ross, 41, who was feeding with co-workers in St.Joseph, Mo., was fired in July after a video camera caught him urinating directly into the office coffee pot before co-workers arrived at work. The videotape trap was set after people noticed that the coffee's taste in recent days had become sour. The next day, in Lanagan, Mo., 200 miles south of St.Joseph, four arrests were made after witnesses reported seeing men urinating into the town's water supply. Residents were advised for more than a week to boil their water.