ly » January 26, m
he Battalion
Aggielife
hip pageant
‘d for Saturdi
Miss Black and0
igcant, presented by
fraternity, will Ire '
in Rudder Theatre,
it will feature ten wi
the Miss Black and Cl
as scholarships ranj
1,000.
hie h can be purchase
4 SC Box Office, inciui
n after-party.
W Symposiui
?te today
AW Symposium Com-
impete in a case-corn
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m,
B uilding.
present evidence for cas-
been preparing since
lie competition, in its
,M, has grown from to
!o 24 this year.
mplex
University would
on,” Schaffer said,
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aring will have to
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y geologists thattk
very small, fragile
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officials met with|
i order to modify
ss their concerns.
! Texas State Soil j
Board will estab-
complex’s surface
ns and maintaia
le largest animal,
ment in the coun-
id, it is important
nimal production
j the new kind of
e are seeing more
e complex will al-
Indents with the
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’acuity and man ,-
we have an m |
cility.”
Northgate’s image
(Kristina Buffin
i Battalion
If you build it, they will come.
That was the philosophy of the Oates
mily, owners of The Cue, when they
>cided to build the new dance club,
ertigo, on Northgate.
“We have had The Cue now for four
tars, but A&M is drawing a new type
crowd that doesn’t play pool,” David
lates said. “These are the Doc Marten,
i# wave people who go to Austin and
lallas on the weekends
s dance.
‘We polled the stu
nts and found out what
iiactly they wanted and
re said, ‘if you want it,
rell build it.’ I feel we hit
right on the spot and
ave given them what
iley want.”
What A&M students got was a new
iance club, unique from any other in the
Bryan-College Station area, that plays
lie type of music that people want to lis-
and dance to. It doesn’t require a two
lothree hour drive to get to.
“We would go to Dallas just to go to
3 clubs on the weekends,” junior in-
amational studies and economics ma-
or Karen Lucci said. “The music they
>lay is completely different from the ra-
iio. Now, some of the stuff is being
played on the radio because it is just
starting to go mainstream. It is a really
different experience.”
Vertigo is not only for these “Doc
Marten, new wave” types. In fact. Verti
go has drawn a cross-section of the
A&M population.
“Our philosophy was to create a neu
tral place for all types of students to
come in and to enjoy themselves,” John
ny Oates said. “Whether you’re a biker,
in the Corps, a cowboy or of any persua
sion, no matter who you are as long as
you’re legal and decent (dress code),
"It (A&M) is not just a little conservative
school anymore."
— Brian Blackman
senior English major, deejay at Vertigo
•, doubt
1 adjusted to
and covered with
pace program
sites,
ly good memories
ole trip and the
id how much fui
8-year-old said."
stuff more than
itudying to be an el-
teacher. He said it
not an attempt to
ffe’s footsteps,
e has followed him
lid talk among his
n turns to famous
r hometowns,
eague pitcher Bob
-ovencal usually
liffe, and “all of a
ie stops and they
nber little about
others recall it
;y agree they did
long-term emo-
ie had predicted.
, Night News Editor
-ife Editor
Sports Editor
j Editor
:h, Graphics Editor
’higs Editor
i Benson, Linn Bowden,
Michelle Lyons, Heallief
Walker
■I Barry, Kristina Buffin
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in LeBas, Amy Pro®
nee, Stephanie Chrislo-
?ob Clark, Erin Fitzge'-
ia, Chris Miller, jetwo
an
iwan, Amy Browning/
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aodwin, |ohn Lemons,
aezada
Mandy Cater, Ami)*
vl University in theO 1-
sm.
113; Fax: 845-2647
rsement by The Ball/"
i-2696. For classic
McDonald and offi ce
lent to pick up a sing^
school year and $50 p*
call 845-2611.
t during the fall and
sessions (except o n
econd class postag 6
you’re welcome.”
Vertigo looks small from the outside.
However, it boasts the biggest dance floor
in town. The inside totals about 3,000
square feet. The decor of the club will al
ways be changing because the Oates are
looking for the student’s input.
“We have a demented fireplace from
Beetlejuice, and we named the club
Vertigo because everything is
crooked,” David Oates said.
“We started half-speed because we
wanted people’s input. We still want to
put in 3,000 watts
of power, more neon
paintings, and last
weekend, the crowd
wore out the floor
and the sides, so we
have"'t'o repaint.
The music will
draw the crowd, but
the building will
keep them.”
The Oates, who
have owned many
businesses in the
area, have not had
much experience
with this type of
Amy Browning, TheBattauon music and atmos-
Photo illustration by Tim Vtoog and Amy Browing, The Battauon
Vertigo, the new dance club on Northgate, officially opens tonight.
phere, but said the presence of Vertigo
will give Northgate a new edge.
“We are starting to draw people to
Northgate who have never come before,”
David Oates said. “I was talking to Don
Ganter (owner of the Dixie Chicken) and
we anticipate that Northgate will soon
be like 6th Street when they fix the
parking problem. There is something
here for everyone.”
Disc jockey Brian Blackman used to
throw raves for students who did not
want to drive out of town to go dancing,
but said he that now they have the op
portunity to stay in town and have a
good time listening and dancing to the
music they enjoy.
“It is both the music and the atmos
phere that is drawing people here,”
Blackman, a senior English major said.
“Some of the music we play is not un
heard of. A lot of it is from England, and
you hear it in some of the big cities’
clubs. We’re about 10 years behind in
Bryan-College Station. The atmosphere
is very much party-oriented.”
Although the grand opening of Verti
go is not until tonight, the Oates opened
the club last weekend to see what kind
of response they would get. The result
was long lines at the door. The club was
so crowded, the industrial-strength
paint that forms the. spirals on the
dance floor was rubf)l£f off.
“Every day, a friend comes up to me
and tells me how cool it is,” Blackman
said. “I have overheard people in my
classes talking about it. People have al
ways assumed that this type of club
would not go over in College Station be
cause it is not mainstream.
“But now A&M is a real college
town because A&M is turning the
tide; it is not just a little conservative
school anymore.”
Image Injustice
Yesterday's heroes' lives, ideas
cheapened by cash culture
Alex
Walters
Columnist
America, we have
Id our soul to the
ivil.
It takes a prac-
:ed observer to find
ie evidence of our
blasphemy, but it’s
iere, lurking in the
turners and in the
Pools of infidelity
are to be enjoyed by the hippest of the
These places, these dens of mediocrity,
ire the sucking wounds that are draining life
tom American culture.
Merchandising Nostalgia
The Gap tells us James Dean, Jack Ker-
ttac, Ernest Hemingway and Jimmy Stewart
wore khakis. I tell you that I don’t give a
flaming rat’s behind for what kind of pants
hey wore, but I do care about what was going
on in their minds.
These people are staples of American cul-
hre because of their raw and powerful cre-
J tive individuality.
Kerouac and Hemingway lived their own
fives. Kerouac wrote his masterpiece, “On The
«d,” while he was — on the road. Heming
way wrote “The Old Man and The Sea” after
iiving the story in Cuba.
When people smear posters of Jack Kerouac
over their dormitory walls without at least
fusing his tales, they bastardize Kerouac’s en-
iire existence with their banal following of a
heap trend.
The Tainted Spirits
The fountain of youth, where creative ener-
oozes from its source, has run dry.
The problem may be that, in the 63 years
Jitice alcohol again became legal, the spirits
e lost their wicked and sultry flavor. Be
aming intoxicated once called for a reaction
far beyond lifting a paper cup and bellow-
■ng, “wooooo!”
When Dorothy Parker, saucy bard of the
lazz age, indulged, her purpose was to tap
4e essence of her soul and put it into reali
ty. Parker and her fellow revolutionaries at
he Algonquin Round Table had no inten
tions of using alcohol to make one another
appear sexually appealing.
They drank to soak out the misery of their
Souls. The methods they chose may not have
been admirable or pure, but the end some
times justifies the means.
The poetry and musings that came
from the Algonquins, and groups like
theirs, was the kind of creative output
that could change the world.
Today, we have groups and gatherings
like the ones found at the club Vertigo in
College Station. At Vertigo, you would be
hard-pressed to find poetry or originality,
but you just might get to see a man dance with
his jockstrap on the outside of his stretch pants.
Cure for Pain
For some of us it may already be too late.
The generation before, the post-war baby
boomers, used drugs to dull the ache of the
Vietnam war. Up until the age of Aquarius,
people lived their lives without creating a fan
tasy realm where nothing is real and nothing
is your fault.
Now, we pay for the sins of the father.
Sucked into an endless mire of mindless
games of follow-the-leader, today’s culture is
settling for the easy cure.
Whatever happened to the elixir of the man
who perfected the blues, Robert Johnson?
Where have you gone, Charlie Parker? WTiy
have you stopped singing, Louis Armstrong?
The howling sounds these musicians
coaxed from the well of their souls is the medi
cine we all need. These people and their cre
ation will serve as a better cure than buying a
new T-shirt with Jack Kerouac and a quirky
phrase printed on the front.
Not Enough Foggy Days
I remember hearing a rendition of “A
Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” per
formed by a street musician on his tenor saxo
phone in Dallas.
It was well past midnight in the rain at
Thanksgiving square. The sax was dented
and rusty, but the tones poured out clear
and dry. The song came out, raw and honest,
from the soul.
Thinking of that song keeps me sane when
I am reminded of the demise of the American
culture. That song is the sound of the devil dy
ing as we buy back our soul.
Alex Walters is a junior journalism and the
ater arts major.
Breedlove's sound inspired by
blues, but defies categorization
By Libe Goad
The Battalion
Down-on-the-bayou, Texas
blues-rock comes easy in these
parts.
On any given weekend, blues im-
provisational guitar wafts down
from the windows of the 3rd Floor
Cantina in Bryan or from the doors
of its neighbor, the Dixie Theatre.
This Friday night, Dixie The
atre will make a fresh start with
Breedlove, a bluesy, funky,
Austin-based band that has a
style of its own.
The band’s style is born from
grass-roots music.
Dan Dyer, lead vocalist and
songwriter for Breedlove, said the
band looks to the blues for inspira
tion, but avoids putting it into the
blues category.
“Blues are definitely one of our
roots,” Dyer said, “but we can
maintain that foundation without
strictly being a blues band.”
But roots run deeper than mu
sical influences in this band.
Guitarist Tyrone Vaughan-
Fullerton, son of Jimmie Vaugh
an, comes from the famous
Vaughan family.
Drummer Jason White also
comes from a family of musicians.
His brothers are Billy White of the
Billy White Trio and Chris WTiite,
the bassist for the Ian Moore Band.
Dyer said the Vaughan blood
line has had no influence on the
band’s style of music. Stevie Won
der, Al Green, Marvin Gaye and
Bob Dylan have been the
strongest musical influences on
the band’s style.
“All of our backgrounds are dif
ferent,” he said. “We play whatev
er comes out of us.”
Breedlove’s story began a year
ago when Dyer, Vaughan-Fuller-
ton, bassist Josh Dawkins and
drummer Jason White played to
gether in their spare
time and evolved
from there.
At the time, Dyer
sang in a band called
Rainshine, where he
began to perform with
Vaughan-Fullerton.
White and Dawkins
played together in a
blues band called
Third Power.
After the two sets
met and began writ
ing songs together,
they realized forming
a new band was
meant to be. They
debuted in Dawkins’ living room,
where friends and family served
as musical guinea pigs.
Then they launched into the
Austin music scene, playing at An-
tone’s and Steamboat, and open
ing for the Ian Moore Band, Little
Sister and Storyville. Three
months later, keyboardist Ezra
Reynolds joined them.
Now, a year later, things are
still going well.
The music in Breedlove’s reper
toire consists of some blues songs,
but the style of music varies as
the band members contribute
ideas, Dyer said.
The Austin Chronicle described
the music as “part Doors, U2 and
all things blues.”
Dyer scoffed at the comparison
to the band headed by Jim Morri
son, and launched into a discus
sion of musicians of the ’60s.
“Our songwriting is better than
the Doors,” he said. “The Doors
were based on sex appeal.”
Breedlove’s music comes from
personal experience, and they of
ten stray from the love topic, un
like Lenny Kravitz, Dyer said.
“It’s about being real,” he said.
“All the music is from our heart
and souls.”
Their self-titled four-song demo
Breedlove
tape for sale at their shows fea
tures “Peregrine,” a “what-if”
song; “Garden,” an environmental
song; and “Waste Away Boy,” a
song about heartbreak.
Dyer calls his lyrics “soulful” and
“from the heart,” but the band’s
name, Breedlove, has little to do
with the songwriter’s passions.
The band members, frustrated
with arguing over an appropriate
name, sat down with a phone book
and let fate take its path.
Dyer said the first thing they
turned to was an advertisement for
Breedlove Realty, so they decided
on Breedlove as their band name.
“It’s not the name that mat
ters,” he said. “The music makes
the band despite the name.”
The band’s music has been
making tracks in Texas. A typical
week for Breedlove consists of
sports, sports, sports, and going on
the road Wednesday through Sun
day. The band’s tour route has ex
panded out of the Austin city lim
its to Houston, Dallas and Bryan.
None of the band members
have outside jobs, Dyer said, so
they are free to pursue their other
interests.
“Everyday is potentially a Sat
urday,” he said.