Column 158: Better than the Beatles
A legendary band’s long lost recordings resurface.

It dawned on me as I listened to their mechanical, dead-voiced interpretation of “Can’t Buy Me Love” — a reinvention of a free-wheeling love ballad into a robotic, bleating nightmare — that there will never be another Better Beatles.

Thrust into the global consciousness for a few brief moments in the early ’80s, The Better Beatles is one of the more colorful footnotes in Omaha’s music history, remembered by only the tiny handful who were there. Like most of you, I’m just now learning of their existence, 26 years after their brief shining moment.

Consisting of Kurt Magnuson, Dave Nordin, Jean pSmith and Jay Rosen, The Better Beatles were four teenage punks who tried to tear down a cultural icon. Their weapon of choice was their 45-rpm interpretations of Beatles’ classics “Penny Lane” and “I’m Down.”

A review in Lincoln’s Capital Punishment fanzine said it all: “As their name implies, they are better than the Beatles, reducing those time worn ‘classics’ to mechanistic rumbling. Gone are the ‘Lets make love not War, everything’s groovy’ emotionalism of the ’60s replaced by more realistic rhythms of repetition and emotionlessness. The synthesizer beats out a five-note sequence that makes up the whole song, while Kurt and Jay’s instruments are barely audible. The real gem here is Jean’s voice. She sings ‘Penny Lane’ in a stark staccato tone that is half frightening, half bored. This is the way the Beatles would sound if any of them were alive today.”

Little did our heroes know that their record would get airplay all over the U.S. and beyond, including a spin by U.K. uber-tastemaker John Peel on his famous radio show. Even Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau gave the single a wizened nod.

The single was supposed to be only the beginning. The Better Beatles had recorded an entire album’s worth of their New Wave anti-pop Beatles covers. But as quickly as their musical star rose, it faded. The rest of those recordings never saw the light of day. Until now.

Late last year, Oakland label Hook or Crook Records released the long lost Better Beatles recordings on a full-length album titled Mercy Beat. In addition to the single, that album includes the band’s unique take on “Lady Madonna,” “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and five more standards. You can pick up a copy at The Antiquarium record store.

Via e-mail from Berlin while on tour as the guitarist for The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Better Beatles drummer/vocalist Jay Rosen told the story of the unlikely emergence of Mercy Beat. He said the last time all four members of the band were together in the same room was the November 1981 sessions that spawned the album. “Kurt and Jean moved to Seattle right after that in Kurt’s old 1964 Chevy, driving across the frozen Midwest and Northwest,” Rosen said.

Shortly after the session, a few record labels were interested in releasing the material. “There was a guy at Arista Records who was planning to put the record out,” Rosen said. “The only problem is, that would have taken months! That is a long time when you are 19 years old playing in bands that are together for 10 or 12 weeks.”

Instead, the band put out the single on their own Woodgrain Records label. “It seems like it was a minor hit on BBC and on some West Coast stations,” Rosen said. “We were getting a lot of letters from Europe, due to John Peel playing the single.” But the attention was short-lived, and the band members moved on. Years went by. Al Gore invented The Internet, and the next thing you know, new reviews of the single started showing up online. One review, Rosen discovered, included a comment posted by Jean pSmith. “A few days later, I got an e-mail from her,” Rosen said. “I nearly fell off my chair. I had not heard from her since 1981.”

All the web chatter piqued the interest of Hook or Crook’s Chris Owen, who wondered about those lost sessions. “I had the tapes, but I was not sure they would still be intact,” Rosen said. “There can be problems storing magnetic tape. It can come apart the first time you play it after years go by.”

But the old Radioshack reel survived, Rosen said, and he and Jean set to work putting the album together. “I only had a cassette tape that was destroyed in 1984 by Krishna Copy center in Berkley, so I had not heard most of these for 23 years,” Rosen said. “I’m glad to hear them again.”

Despite the time that’s passed, the recordings still hold their own as a critical comment on commercialism and idol worship from a band that considered The Beatles to be “an oppressive influence.”

“I knew people that were riding Big Wheels when the Beatles broke up who still worshiped them like gods,” pSmith said in an interview with the band by Jay Hinman from September 2007 (which is included in the album’s liner notes). “Omaha has always been slow to change, being insulated by the rest of America’s conservative bulk. I felt that the adoration of the Beatles had gone on quite long enough. Better Beatles stripped the songs of their sacred status, like saying ‘We’re not afraid of your gods!'”

She also said that the band didn’t have any other material to play, “and this is just what we pulled out of our asses.”

Regardless, the record is a reminder of a time when musical icons still existed for bands to denigrate. That time is long gone.

Column 157: The Quiet Revolution
A community gets a broadcast voice.

When word starts getting around about a new radio station that will actually focus on the community and its artists, people get excited. Very excited. Maybe too excited.

The rumor started leaking out about KIND FM a week ago — a new radio station that would operate out of Benson and play local music — yes, local music — as well as other locally produced programming. For a community of musicians and artists that has been starving for such a broadcast voice for as long as I can remember, it seemed too good to be true.

And like all rumors, the story only got bigger and bigger. Before long, I was hearing that KIND would have a broadcast range of 50 miles. My god, you’d be able to pick it up in Lincoln! But wait a minute… that could only happen if one of the large commercial stations was to change format, and doesn’t it seem unlikely that a money-generating FM station would switch to a non-profit community-based format?

The truth, while not nearly as big and bold, is still exciting in its own way.

The people behind KIND FM are Amy Ryan — owner/operator of The Pizza Shoppe and PS Collective in Benson — and WOWT senior writer/producer Shawn Halpenny — the driving force behind the broadcast of the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards for the past two years.

For Ryan, KIND is yet another effort to turn Benson into what she calls a “self-sustaining, harmless community.” Give her a chance and she’ll tell you about dreams of mounting power-generating wind turbines on the roofs of Benson buildings, about creating an all-inclusive community that nurtures artists and musicians. Her performance venue, PS Collective, is about “experiencing all perspectives of the human condition,” she said. “That’s the power and magic of creativity!” She plans to eventually turn the Pizza Shoppe and PS Collective into nonprofit businesses that provide work training for “people in transition.” Some might call her a visionary; others, a hippie with a cause.

Ryan shared her vision with her old pal Halpenny. “At an impromptu meeting a few Saturdays ago, Amy asked me about how we could get the word out about Benson, and how Benson resembled Haight Ashbury circa 1968…” Halpenny said. “It just clicked… a radio station.”

Not your typical radio station, an FCC Part 15 station — a low-powered FM broadcast that Halpenny said is allowed to operate by the FCC without a license. “You don’t need a license if your signal’s power doesn’t exceed 100 milliwatts,” he said.

So what kind of range are we talking about here? Fifty miles? Twenty miles? “It will cover 10 to 15 blocks in every direction, if we’re lucky,” Halpenny said. “It’s truly a community radio station designed just for the people of Benson.”

Halpenny said the $150 transmitter and 40-foot tower were donated by his radiohead colleagues at WOWT. The PS Collective building will be the station’s headquarters, housing the studio and transmitter, with the tower mounted on the roof. Halpenny and his TV friends will be the technical brains behind the station, while Ryan will coordinate programming and the volunteer personnel who will run it all.

“The station is designed to promote local art and businesses,” Ryan said. Operated as a nonprofit, KIND won’t accept advertising. It also won’t play music registered with ASCAP and BMI — which is most of the music heard on college and commercial radio stations. That means KIND will only air locally produced original music. What about local bands on labels like Saddle Creek? Their music may be aired if musicians sign a release form. Needless to say, Ryan and Halpenny already have lawyers involved who are familiar with broadcast rules and regulations.

Beyond music, Ryan said KIND also will broadcast talk shows and live performances not only by bands but by local theater troupes who have voiced interest in producing radio plays. It sounds like a mish-mash, but there will be plenty of hours to fill. Halpenny said programming will be surprisingly automated, utilizing Vara broadcast software tools. “People will be able to build their own master show using Audacity (software) and e-mail it to me as an mp3 file,” he said.

The studio will be used for live interviews, performances and talk shows, including Halpenny’s own show for M.A.P.S. Omaha — the Metro Omaha Paranormal Society, which he helped found. Got an idea for a show? Ryan and Halpenny are open to anything, as long as it follows the rules.

So when’s all it going to happen? Ryan and Halpenny couldn’t say for sure. KIND literally is in its infancy, though all the pieces are slowly coming together. They both say the station could be broadcasting in the next few months, depending on the amount of help they get from volunteers. Anyone interested in playing a role in KIND is invited to an organizational meeting to be held at PS Collective, 6056 Maple St., at 7 p.m. Jan. 31.

Before I left the interview, Ryan played an mp3 file on her MacBook — a station promo created by WOWT’s Dave Webber. Amidst a blur of noise, Webber’s sterling voice announced, “KIND FM, the revolution has begun.”

It’s a small revolution, one with a tiny voice, but a revolution none the less. And in a city internationally known for its creativity, where its own artists’ voices have been effectively kept off the airwaves, it’s a revolution that’s a long time coming.

Omaha punk trio The Stay Awake has been around for five years. So why is this the first time you’ve read about them?

Probably because the band has never done an interview before, nor has it ever really wanted to.

“We never did much to promote ourselves,” said bassist Robert Little over beers at O’Leaver’s last Tuesday night. “It’s just how it is.”

“It’s all a fucking game,” said frontman/guitarist/cynic Steve Micek. “I can’t do shameless self-promotion.”

“For me, our music is a take-it-or-leave-it thing,” added drummer Mario Alderfer.

On the surface, they sound like they don’t care — about the band, you, or if people listen to their music. But that’s not entirely true. “I could say that people liking our music isn’t a motivation,” Alderfer added, “but I like it when they do.” (continued)

Daniel Tijerina, San Marcos, Texas

Courtney Anderson, Ohsweken, Ont, Canada

Christopher Van Buskirk, Omaha, NE