Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1989)
F The Battalion In the Heart of the Brazos Valley ★ 36,000 atudanta * 9,700 faculty/staff The Battalion 216 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX. (409) 645-2611 Why Drive? Down To Earth Records Specializing In European Imports ENTERTAINMENT Thursday, July 20,1989 Rags 4 403-B University Northgate 3 In Jm nports 846-9086 | ‘Tesla's way could have been... unimaginable’ $100 per. mo. Westgate Plasma Center, Inc. $100 $5 Bonus For all referred donors donating twice 4223 Welborn Rd. 846-8855 $5 Bonus For established All Equipment Sterile donors who have • Used One Time Only • You Do Not Get AIDS By Donating FREE Physical A Blood not donated for the past 6 months. Pressure Check Help Others $100 per. mo. Helping Yourself' M W F 9:00-4:15 p.m. T TH 9:00-6 KW p.m. New Donors by Appt. $100 per. mo. SUPtRCUTS We Cut Hair For Vour €go Not Ours... The Notion’s #1 Hoir Styling Salon Is Coming To College Station Watch For Our Grand Opening Soon • . Culpepper Plozo 1519 Texas Avenue We proudly announce a new arrival! BABY FANIPAN! 2 Individual-sized pan pizzas fori low price. Little Caesars pjPizza! Pizza! TVvd great pizzas! One low price: INiorth^ate Mow Delivers to Campua Deliver^' Charge $l w BUY ONE Buy any size ptexa at the rajttdar price, get the identical pfacse FREE! <B)gfflaK9BEad TWO PIZZAS With Cheese and 2 Items ma SS.**- 'MW »» o— m WB UM. <Wo«i. <W ®Bffitotgsaagrf MORTHGATE 208-0220 I niversftn dk Masne> Two with cheese p and one item BUY ONE Sandwich $5.“ j GET ONE FREE! 60 $9^ /mm 9 hot «»!W witti any other fl ^o*o^ouper ■ cuctomer. Cyny out only. (giflfflteOaaesGl j ®iatSs(Sgs5E3 COLLEGE STATION 696-0191 SW Parkn av A Texas BRVAM 7T6-T1T1 E. 29th A BriarcrefU little Caesars Pizza Call Battalion Classified 845-2611 Photo (-ourtrt* of Geffnt Rocordt Tesla: (I to r) Brian Wheat. Tommy Skeoch, Jeff Keith, Frank Hannon and Troy Luccketta. Tesla takes Texas in big way Eccentric inventor inspires hard rock group By Keith Spare*' ENTERTAINMENT WRITER If nothing else, you can be assured of getting two things from Tesla. One is no-nonsense rock ’n’ roll with a hard edge and a bit of blues thrown m. The other is a sermon on how wonderful lioth Nikola Tesla (the eccentric inventor who is the band’s namesake) and his ideas were. In a phone interview earlier this week. Frank Han non. one of Tesla's (tire hand's) two guitarists and one of Tesla's (the man's) biggest fans, spent a whole lot of time pondering how the world would lie a better place if onlv folks had listened to what of Nikola had to say. "Tliere were two wavs of going: one wav was the money, greedy way, and another wav — Tesla's wav — which could have been . . . unimaginable.'' said Han non, his voice full o( awe. And what was it that the inventor did that could have been so wonderful? As Frank tells it: "He developed a way of transmitting electricity, with out any oollution or anything, through the air — Iree. everyboav had access to the electricity through the at mosphere “It’s ama/uig. va' know? When I esla First found out that they had split the atom, he was really upset because that was against nature's harmony, and he said, ‘We're gonna have problems in the future.' Sure enough. tins radioactive hulls-- voinv out into tne They also hired Michael Barbiero and Sieve Thomp son. the same producers who worked on their First al bum, to do The Great Ratlin f omroyero. "Fleaven's Trail (No Way Chit)** was the album's First video and single. It churns along as Keith belts out ly rics that are something less than hopeful. “It's basically about life in genetal.” said Hannon “You think everything’s cool and then you wake up and smell the coffee. Then you're bac k where vou started again — stuck in the living hell.~ Tesla knows about how a seenungh pleasant exis tence can suddenly take a nasty turn, t he band mem bers woke up one morning near the end of work on the second album to discover that a trut k containing tens of thousands of dollars worth oi then equipment had been stolen. The equipment was insured, but the distinctive instruments, some of which were gilts from other mus eums and had sentimental value, were irreplacable _ The video lor “Heaven’s Trail” has tne hand per- iorming amidst the rubble of partially demolished buildings in a scene ol industrial decay, with hursts of fire popping up here aud there ^Hannon said the video was shot at a (Mace called Fontana, about an hour out side of L.A., at the site ol an old^aisei steel plant that was being torn down). The evil of the set. along with the hopelessness of the lyrics, could tempt the of»server to think Tesla is com- we ve got all this radioactive hulls--- going out into ocean. v ' But alas, not everyone was so impressed with Tesla's ideas to bring free power to the masses. "All the money- hungry people in the world said. ‘Wait a minute, we can't have this, we gotta hide this I esla guv.’ " Han non said. “And that's exactly what they did He died poor. Now. nobody's ever heard of him." And this despite a whole hatch of revolutionary ideas, some of which liecame realities. Tesla worked on coming up with an alternating-cur rent system. “It was direct current back then (the first third of this century) and thev tried to power cites with direct cur rent. and they just couldn't do it." Hannon said. “T esla invented an alternating current system He devised it bv rotating magnetic Fields; he got the idea from the earth’s north and south magnetic poles “He also devised an electrical system of transmitting the same alternating current through the air. without wires." This devotion to I esla's ideas goes bevond words. “We're trying to get it (Tesla's technology) exposed." said Hannon "Because Troy (Luccketta. Tesla's drum mer) and I are reallv into Tesla, we’re doing all we can. W’e just donated v>me monev to a I esla Foundation, to have a statue of him put up in the Smithsonian Institu te." Besides the money, the.names the band chose for both of its albums relate to Tesla. Their First. Mec hani cal Remmance. is named after one of Nikola's theories. The second album's title. The Great Radio Contro versy, refers to a Supreme Court case in the 1940s that resulted in Nikola I esla being deemed the “father of radio." instead of Cuglielmo Marconi. The biggest tribute, of course is the hand's name It was during a skull session to name the band that the musicians were First exposed to Tesla; thev got a name for the hand and a cause to promote all in one package. “When we were recording the First album, we didn’t have a name." said Hannon. “We were trying to think of a good name, but we kept on thinking of stuff that was reallv medicx re. “The name Tesla was actually Cliff Bernstein's idea (Bernstein is one of Tesla's managers, who. along with his partrfer Peter Mensch, manages Def Leppard. Me- tallica, Queensrvche and several other bands). He had a book on Nikola I esla: he turned us on to the book, and we decided 'Wow, that would be a cool name for a band.* “ Of course, the theories of a man who has been dead for several decades are not all that needed to be talked about during this phone session. There is always the regular rock n' roll chatter about records and tours and such. Hannon and his handmates — vocalist and lyricist Jeff Keith, guitarist Tonyny Skeoch. bassist Brian Wheat and drummer Troy Luccketta — are touring in support of The Great Radio Controversy, a record that has already gone gold (over 500.000 units sold) since its February release. The album has even garnered praise from the likes of the Rolling Stone editors, who are not known for their love of hard rock. Hannon said the three-and-a-half stars (out of five) that the album got from Rolling Stone was a pleasant surprise. “Yeah, thev slammed our First record, so it's kind of funny,” said Hannon. K>n the new record, Tesla stayed in the same vein as the first album, using Keith's raspy, powerful vocals to compliment the twin guitar of Hannon and Skeoch. menting on the old storv of the rock band that makes the deal with the devil and now has “no wav out." What does Hannon think ol this interpretation - ^ "I don't know," he said. “I don't think there was any L intention of that bring implied, but I'd never thought of it that way I guess it.could be. couldn't it?" (laQghs) All references to the darker side of life aside. Han- non said the band members are enjoying themselves on tour. Tesla decided to make the gutsy move ol headlin ing after onlv their second album (and after opening- act stints for David Lee Roth. Alxe Cooper and Def Leppard), while many other bands that have sold com parable numbers of records have opted to remain in the safer, opening-band slot (you've only got to hold the crowd's attention for 45 minutes, and if tickets don't sell, it’s the headliner's fault). Hannon explained the rationale behind this move. “We knew we couldn't sell out the big arenas or any thing. but we've alwavs had great response opening for people.” he said. “There are no tours, really, to go out on opening right now. so we just der ided to give it a' shot (as a headliner)." Tesla also brought along some insurance for this tour (which comes to Austin this Saturday, Houston on Sun day and San Antonio on Monday); Great While, whose catchy, piano-driven rocker “Once Bitten, Twice Shy" is a favorite on MTV. and Kix. another hard-rock hand with a couple of popular videos under its belt, are on the bill with Tesla. Tesla is the mam attraction, though. Radio ads for the show call them 'The last American blue jean and T- shirt band." which is a fairly accurate description of Tesla's image, or lack thereof. Thev don't come from flashy L.A. — their home is a bit farther north, up in Sacramento. And according to Hannon, Geffen Records put no pressure on the band to put on the make-up ana span- dex in order to conform more closely with the “hard- rock look.” Instead, thev were able to concentrate on wrung songs. And this. Hannon agrees, is the key to real suc cess, in the form of music that will endure. Has Tesla reached that point in their songwriting where they have made music mat will still be plaved years from now? “1 really can’t tell you. man." said Hannon. "1 hope it hangs in there. I know it's got all our hearts and souls in it — it’s not formulated to try to tell records-tvpe-crap music that's sold to people. It's music from our hearts and souls — that's where longevity comes from." And so 20 years from now, you may Find yourself lis tening to The Great Radio Controversy on a musk ma chine powered by free electricity from the skies. If you do. you'll know that both Tesla the man and Tesla the band have succeeded.