I just got a hold of the new Nine Inch Nails instrumental album, “Ghosts I-IV”, and I love it. It’s complex and rolling and really well done, but that’s not the coolest part.
As some of you know, following Radiohead’s lead, Trent Reznor dropped his label like a dirty needle as soon as Radiohead released “In Rainbow.” Reznor has always been a label hater and used Radiohead’s spark as an excuse to finally ditch his.
That was just the beginning.
For the release of “Ghosts I-IV,” Reznor used a now distinctly familiar form of distribution:
“Here it is. It’s free if you want it, or you can pay for it. I don’t care.”
Available on bittorrent sites across the Web, “Ghosts I-IV” was an instant server loader. On NIN’s website, you could pay five bucks for the download, or get it for free from a torrent. You could also pay ten bucks for a physical copy, or 75 bucks for a deluxe copy, or 300 bucks for a super-limited ultra-deluxe copy, which sold out within hours of release. All of this still sounds very familiar to Radiohead’s “discbox” that could be purchased of “In Rainbows.”
Reznor took Radiohead’s style one step further with “Ghosts I-IV,” however. He removed any and all licensing on the album and registered it under Creative Commons, allowing anyone to legally do whatever they want with the album. People have the power now, from getting to distributing, it’s all in the hands of the fans.
It’s official. With another artist now following in the tradition that Radiohead started, the music world is well on its way towards a revolution. I am glad that I will be hear to witness it.
I, like most people, had no idea what Somasphere was before I moved to Lincoln. I heard a few potheads drop the name at a party I was at, but I didn’t think much of it. It was when Box Awesome put on their Nexus festival that I was first introduced to Somasphere, and I loved it.
Hard to define, but easy to dance to, Somasphere is like an experimental, live, trippy, acid house drum and bass band that consists of four, or sometimes five guys who smile when they see people dance. I have been to four or five of the band’s shows, and they usually result in me jumping around shaking my ass until I can’t stand out of dizziness and dehydration.
Somasphere’s show at Box Awesome on Friday night, however, wasn’t quite up to par with what I have become used to.
It wasn’t Somasphere’s fault that I didn’t feel quite as rhythmic as usual. They were just as trippy and beat-driven as ever, but the opening band threw me a little off. I forget the name of whoever opened for them, but they were Somashpere copycats who had more keyboard and terrible, Midwestern white-boy raps. You could dance to them, but when they covered Men at Work’s “Down Under” as their last song, it threw me so out of moment that I never fully got back in.
In between sets, there was a frat-house, Abercrombie couple basically doing each other on the dance floor, even though there wasn’t any music playing. I figured they were drunk, but the Box’s evil “Ms” were on their hands, so I didn’t know what to think.
When Somasphere finally did start into their fairly solid set, it was already sauna hot in the club, and no one was opening the doors. What this meant for me, sweaty as I am, is after the show, my butt sweat was so saturated into my pants that it soaked into my wallet and even dampened my money. Disgusting I know, but true.
I was dancing in the middle of the floor, packed as usual with other sweaty dance patrons, but I was thrown off by all the sex that was going on right in front of me. There was Abercrombie couple, groping each other heavily. I saw dozens of hairy hands go for dozens of female derrieres. There was a couple of obviously drugged out tie-dyes towards the front that literally had their hands in each other’s pants, working vigorously.
Between the heat, the sex, and the Men at Work, I felt like that Scissor Sisters song “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.” It really took me out of the mood. Where were all of the hippies, stoners and dance enthusiasts like myself who usually frequent Somasphere shows? When did they start letting Abercrombie couple in to grope each other on Ex? I like Somasphere and they did a fantastic job, even playing some new material, but when the crowd starts to bring me down like that, I call it a downer show.
I’ll probably never have the chance, but I’m certain that if the State Theatre ever opened its doors (and its bar) with nothing going on on the screen or the stage, I’d still go and hang out. With its latest round of comedians, the theater has again showed that it’s one of the best venues in Lincoln for anything that involves sitting and relaxing.
I’m most impressed, of course, with the show itself. Like other comedy shows I’ve seen in Lincoln, there was a large and lively crowd which was unafraid to interact with the performers. In the case of headliner Kevin Bozeman, audience members also weren’t afraid to buy him booze, a fact that made the last 20 minutes of his performance sweaty and scatterbrained. A lesson to aspiring comics: Make fun of Jaeger and you WILL get a shot of it.
Opener Johnny Beehner was also lively and did everything an opener should and then some. Not only was I already in a good mood by the end of Beehner’s performance, I was also really impressed by how much time he actually spent on stage.
Overall, this weekend’s performers at the State did a fabulous job, and though neither tackled material that isn’t conventional comedy fare, both did a fabulous job connecting with the audience, something best illustrated when Bozeman declared himself mayor of Lincoln to raucous applause.
Best of all, the State seems dedicated to bringing performers to the theater. There seems to be a stage event there at least every weekend, which illustrates how versatile the venue is. I also commend management for its choice of comics: The State isn’t breaking the bank to bring in superstars of stand-up like Dmitri Martin or Dane Cook, but they’re consistently attracting talented, very funny up-and-comers to provide great comedy for little more than the cost of cover at places like Duffy’s and Knickerbockers.
Say Anything delivered everything I expected from them at Friday night’s sold out show at Slowdown. The six-piece band played an hour-and-a-half long set of songs from 2004’s “…Is a Real Boy” and last fall’s “In Defense of the Genre.” Frontman Max Bemis has a gift for performing, and he asserted that Friday’s show was the first in a while that the band had been close to the audience. Whether true or not, Bemis made the most of the short distance between band and fan, wandering to the edge of the stage to let fans sing along or shake his hand.
What impressed me more was the quality of the two opening acts. When I spoke to Landing on the Moon drummer Oliver Morgan last week, he told me the band was preparing extra hard because every mistake would come through on Slowdown’s sound system. Honestly, I have no way of knowing if that was true or not because all three bands on the bill — Omaha natives Malpais rounded out the night’s trio — played phenomenally. Malpais had a few equipment problems, such as cords coming unplugged and mic stands being uncooperative, but they definitely made the most of their half an hour and delivered a solid set, especially considering that a cold was ravaging the members. Having listened to the band’s EP after the show, I realized that in its unhealthy state it was far from its best, but Malpais’ performance still set the table for the rest of the evening.
Likewise, Landing on the Moon raced through its set. They sounded good, and by the time the headliners hit the stage, the crowd had already been on its feet, energetically fist-pumping for a good hour-plus. All told, this was easily the best show I’ve seen in 2008, and probably the best I’ve seen for some time before this year, too.
I’m sure there are some songwriters out there who’d beg to differ, but writing lyrics is the easiest thing on the planet, assuming you know where to look on the internet. Saturday night, my roommates, a friend of ours and I recorded two tracks in the span of about 15 minutes. This was the elapsed time from idea to pressing the stop button on GarageBand. How’d we pull it off? Three words: Random poetry generator.
If you search those words on Google, you get about 88,000 results. we chose one coded by a couple of Stanford students, Poetry CreatOR2, which allowed us to enter a subject before composing a nine-line poem about it. Or at least, kind of about it. Actually, it was hardly ever about it, which led to a song about nachos that referenced the delicious snack food once before veering off into a reference to Tipper Gore’s bosom. Still, using this method of writing and recording music, I think we plan to put out an EP next weekend.
It’s not a secret that the Super Bowl is only partially about the game. These days, the winner of the game doesn’t come from the NFC or the AFC, but from the bottom line of the companies willing to air commercials at advertising’s Mecca.
Thirty-second commercial spots during this year’s game went for $2.7 million each, according to CNNMoney.com, but with so many Fox promotions during the game — the time when ads are supposed to be best — this year’s Super Bowl commercials left me wondering if it’s really worth all the hype and expense.
I was planning to write about my 10 favorite ads, but I don’t think I can manage it without straining, because, let’s face it, there just weren’t that many good ones. So here’s my favorite six instead:
6. Microsoft Sync - doctor’s office: In a more politically incorrect version of similar ads, people find that not every appliance responds to their voices the way the Microsoft and Ford Sync voice response system does. In this edition, a doctor finds out through his patient’s squirming that the anesthesia machine doesn’t listen to commands. What’s not funny about medical malpractice?
5. Coke - Parade floats: Inflatable balloons of Stewie and Underdog pursue an inflatable Coke bottle. I like “Family Guy.” I like Underdog. I like pop. It was pretty effective and played on some childhood sentimentalism.
4. Vitamin Water - Shaq the jockey: Shaq, fueled by the nutrients in Vitamin Water spurs a racehorse to a very unlikely victory. As if that premise isn’t amusing enough, the producers throw in a shot of a little kid picking his nose.
3. The Audi R8 “Godfather” parody”: An old man wakes up with the front of a car in his bed. Outside is the menacing profile of the new Audi R8. I instantly want that car.
2. Budweiser - Clydesdale montage: A horse can’t make it for pulling the Bud wagon, so he trains with a dalmatian to make the team the next year. At the end, the horse and dog share a knowing wink and a computer animated high five.
1. Bud Light - fire power/wheel (tie): OK, it’s cheap to have a tie, but I can’t decide between these two. In fire, a man with fire breathing abilities gained from drinking Bud Light sets his date’s apartment on fire when his allergies kick in. In the wheel commercial, cavemen discover that early use of the wheel was heavy and didn’t actually speed things up. It’s made funnier at the end when you find out how ineffective early can openers were, too.
This week’s entry but that’s OK. There’s only so much you can say about macaroni and cheese, right? But I came across a great addition to the foods we have access to here in the Nebraska Union. I’ve often lamented the lack of a tasty taco here on campus, and I’d love to find a slice of pizza pie without the added gallon of grease (sorry Sbarro’s), but I’ve never given much thought to the presence or absence of mac and cheese on campus.
I’m guessing students living in the dorms have access from time to time on Selleck’s dinner menu, but for the most part the sometimes snack/sometimes main entrée has remained absent as a viable lunchtime choice on campus.
But sometimes being in the right place at the right time has its rewards. I was wasting time between classes the other day down at the Daily Nebraskan offices playing Snood, Text Twist or some other random time wasting game and some other staffers showed up with their lunch choices.
They raved about how tasty the macaroni and cheese was that they just purchased from the Bakery (just northwest of Burger King in the Union. An eight-ounce cup costs $1.29 or a 12-ounce bowl is $1.99.
My interest piqued I went upstairs and bought a cup.
Wow.
It was good in the way that Velveeta shells and cheese is good. And it comes in single serving portions, my biggest props for this new found delicacy. See, mac and cheese at the homestead is usually a two person endeavor. Leftovers are out of the question, and anytime I attempt to eat a whole box of Kraft I hate my life for the rest of the day.
But I know what will fill my tummy more often than not for the rest of the semester, for less than two bucks to boot. Yay.
Natalie MacMaster, the renowned Nova Scotian fiddler and step dancer, performed with her band of five on Friday night at the Lied Center. Her band consisted of a pianist, a pubescent cellist, a Nashville drummer, a bassist and a bagpipe/whistle player.
MacMaster came on stage and began playing immediately, stopping only after a few songs to ask the audience to kick off their shoes and dance in the aisles - literally. Before the end of the first half of the show, she showcased her step dancing, sans fiddle, as she mimicked and complemented drum beats.
After intermission, she shared her philosophy of surrounding herself with musicians better than herself because, as she said, they make her look good. She introduced each of the members of her band and they each got opportunities to show off; the bassist sang a solo, the pianist step danced a jig and everyone got a solo in one of the final pieces, “Madness.”
MacMaster’s music literally made toes tap and heads bob, and while no one took up her offer to dance in the aisles, she had everyone standing - and a few dancing and wiggling in place - during the encore performance.
Lincoln’s stand up scene is pretty barren, and a lot of the comedy acts that come through here kind of slip through the cracks (nationally known comedian Brian Regan performed at the Rococo last fall with barely a ripple from the media). I think this is really unfortunate because I think stand up is one of the most difficult types of performance to do, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who can pull it off. Hell, I have a measure of respect for anyone who even attempts it, even if they’re not funny.
The State Theatre, 1415 O St., will have five performances by a finalist from season four of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” April Macie will appear on stage at 8:30 Thursday night and at 8:30 and 10:30 Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are $8.
We’ll run a review right here on the arts blog on Friday in case you’re undecided. Rather than try to describe her comedy, here’s a YouTube clip from her appearances on “Last Comic Standing.”
If you like what you see, check out her MySpace page, too, for more samples of her work. I’d encourage anyone with some time on one of these nights to check it out. Comedians don’t come around Lincoln a lot, but the State Theatre is working with a national agency to start bringing more comics in, and it’d be cool for the theater to be able to cite strong support
when it’s making its case to more prominent comedians.
I’m not sure how arts and entertainment related this post is, but I must confess a love for Coke in a bottle. Unless my sources are incorrect, the main difference between the Mexican version of the soda compared to the American plastic bottled version is using real sugar as an instrument instead of corn syrup.
Because it’s made in Mexico, only a few places in Lincoln carry the product, mostly in restaurants and stores that cater to a Mexican clientele. Being a big fan of tacos I find myself trying to convince friends near campus to grab a bite at La Mexicana, 1637 P St. as much to grab three or four of their $1.35 tacos as to add “and a coke in a bottle” to the end of my order.
There is a definite difference in taste between the Mexican version of Coca-Cola and its American counterpart, which I’ve read uses corn syrup in an effort to reduce costs.
I recently moved and now live close to El Chaparro, 900 S. 13th St., and I much prefer grabbing a few bottles of Coke for a buck a piece instead of spending maybe a dime less across the street at Casey’s for what I consider an inferior product. I don’t eat at the restaurant much - I prefer La Mexicana mostly because they give me chips and salsa for free even when I place an order to go - but I make weekly trips to re-up my supply of Mexican Coke.
Lastly, saying Mexican Coke out loud brings to mind visions of drug lords and shady border crossings, but doing a Google search offers a first page of entries all dedicated to the soda variety. Yum.
The University of Nebraska’s News since 1901
RSS 2.0
