'80s Post-Punk Band Get Smart! 40th Anniversary Show Nov. 6 in Lawrence, Kansas

 

• Get Smart! 40+1 Anniversary Show, November 6, 2021 @ The Bottleneck

• Get Smart!, The Pedaljets, Other Geese, Boy Soprano, Ray Velasquez

• November 6, 2021, The Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS at 8:00 pm, Doors Open: 7:00 PM

• Tickets: ADVANCED: $20.00, DAY OF: $25.00

LAWRENCE -- Get Smart! -- a 1980s post-punk band that formed in Lawrence by KU students -- celebrates their coronavirus-delayed 40th anniversary show on November 6 at The Bottleneck.

Joining the bill are Kansas City jangle-pop powerhouse The Pedaljets (with special appearance by Other Geese), upcoming Lawrence, KS 3-piece Boy Soprano, and KJHK alumnus DJ Ray Velasquez spinning tunes.

Distance, obligations and other decisions made it improbable for a reunion before 2020, then the arrival of Covid-19 scratched their previously scheduled show. Now, Get Smart! are ready to showcase the music that made them a local favorite and college radio staple.

Guitarist/vocalist Marcus Koch is excited, “Playing our music again, after all of these years, has been exceptionally rewarding and I cannot wait to perform live!” Adds Lisa Wertman Crowe, bass player and vocalist, In some ways, it’s like no time has passed, and in other ways, it’s really satisfying to see how each of us has progressed both musically and personally. For me, it’s like a family reunion, only better."

In the early 1980s, Get Smart! became prime movers in the regional music scene, it was among the bands that put Lawrence on the map as a hot music city. They played live often, released their first single as a flexi-disc in Talk Talk Magazine, then put out the self-released four track EP Words Move, while almost simultaneously contributing very well-received songs to the historic Fresh Sounds from Middle America four-band compilation, which garnered significant press in the burgeoning indie band underground.

Their first LP Action Reaction was recorded prior to their relocation to Chicago in ’83, and eventually released in 1984 from Fever Records and distributed by Enigma. 1986 found them putting out Swimming With Sharks through Restless Records, a subsidiary of Enigma. These releases made the charts at college rock stations while the band spent the seven years blazing the road to play venues from coast to coast.

Despite living hundreds of miles apart, the trio has been practicing together frequently. Says drummer and some-time singer Frank Loose, “We’re all having a lot of fun, but it’s also been quite a process to put together a set list. The songs we're going to play span our seven years together, and include later originals never recorded.” This includes those recorded in 1987 for their third album, but not released until 2020, as Oh Yeah No, named after its volatile title track. Recorded at the time by the English sound engineer Iain Burgess (Naked Raygun, The Effigies) at the Chicago Recording Company, recordings have been given final mixes by another studio legend, Steve Albini. 

Still fit and fighting to play out live again, their 40+1 Anniversary show is a reset, and they plan to keep the mission alive by collaborating and playing more live shows as Get Smart! Plans are open for 2022, but include recording more unreleased songs, releasing out-of-print vinyl, and writing more new music.

The band formed on Jan. 1, 1980 in Lawrence.

"We were founded approximately January 1, 1980 when Marcus asked Lisa and me to play together," wrote Frank in an email. "We were already friends and, picking up on the DIY punk ethos of the time decided to form a band. Small problem was that I didn’t know how to play the drums! So I bought a set and spent the summer of 1980 learning to play (mostly to The Ramones). Lisa played guitar, but had never picked up the bass. In August, Marcus returned after a summer in Chicago and we started practicing and writing songs in earnest. Our first show was October 31, 1980 at a place called The Greek Sports Desk. By early 1987 we had played more than 300 shows coast-to-coast and release numerous records, tapes, appeared on compilations..."

Our first meeting of the minds:

"Marcus and I met when I heard him playing The Sex Pistols through the walls in my dorm room at KU," Frank wrote. "Kinda blew me away that there was a like-minded music listener. That was fall, 1978 and there were not many punk rock enthusiasts around at that time. A short while later we met Lisa and became friends. It took us awhile to decide we would form a band, mostly as a response to the dreadful state of music on the radio at the time."

Get Smart! is a three-piece indie alternative rock ‘n roll band that formed while Marcus Koch (guitar/vocals), Lisa Wertman Crowe (bass/vocals) and Frank Loose (drums/vocals), were attending the University of Kansas.

The group was prominent in the local music scene, and along with a cohort of other bands, helped to solidify Lawrence as an alternative music hotbed and a touring destination for many other regional and national acts. Along with frequent local shows, the band toured coast-to-coast, performing more than 300 gigs in a six-year span.

They released their first recording in 1981, a flexi-disc released through Talk Talk magazine. This was followed by Words Move, a self-released 4-track EP, and next was a four-band split cassette, Fresh Sounds from Middle America. They recorded their first LP, Action Reaction, prior to relocating to Chicago in late 1982. The debut was released in 1984 by Fever Records and distributed by Enigma and received positive reviews and climbed the ranks for college radio playlists. In 1986, they released their second LP, Swimming With Sharks through Enigma’s subsidiary, Restless Records. Once again, the release high praise from critics and scored even higher on college radio playlists.

In 1987 plans for a third album were formally set into motion.  Half a dozen songs were cut with the late, great engineer Iain Burgess, but the band was unable to secure a label to release the recordings before gradually grinding to a halt in the late '80s, save for a couple of stray 1990 gigs.

The original lineup reformed in January, 2020, and in December, 2020, they released the collection of previously recorded (but never released) songs, titled Oh Yeah No, with the final mixes completed by Chicago scene contemporary Steve Albini.

The group plans to play a 40th anniversary show in Lawrence on November 6, 2021 and to continue to collaborate, play live when they can, and release more new music in the near future.

"The band has a truly impressive knack for three-piece writing and arranging. Their new LP, Swimming With Sharks, is full of tense, carefully crafted miniatures that meld unvarnished noise with unexpected pretty vocal harmonies" (Renaldo Migaldi; Chicago Reader; 1986).

Seneca Bank Buys VisionBank in Topeka

Community National Bank of Seneca has agreed to purchase VisionBank in Topeka.

Community National Bank has about $571 million in assets and locations in Seneca, Tonganoxie, Basehor and Sabetha.

VisionBank, with about $213 million in assets, has two locations in Topeka: at 29th and Wanamaker and Downtown at 7th and Kansas, and one location in Overland Park at 135th and Neiman. 

After the transaction is completed at the end of the fourth quarter, the combined bank will have nearly $800 million in assets.

The transaction was originally announced on Sept. 1 by press release. Community Bancshares Inc., the parent company of Community National Bank, and BOTS Inc., the parent of VisionBank, recently executed an agreement whereby BOTS will become part of Community Bancshares.

In the press release, Community National Bank President and CEO Dorsey Hall said, “We are so very happy to acquire this high caliber institution with such a professional management team. Gary Yager and his board have operated a very successful bank. VisionBank will be a great addition allowing CNB to expand our Kansas family of customers. The culture, the customers and the staff of VisionBank will fit into CNB’s culture perfectly.” 

Gary Yager, president/CEO of VisionBank said, “We are very excited about this new direction. As a smaller institution, it has been challenging and costly to meet the regulatory burden of product delivery to our customers on the technical side. The great thing about this move is our lenders and customer service staff will be here so our customers will see the same faces, but the bank will now have the strength and size of Community National. Our bankers look forward to being able to provide additional services and expanded product offerings. This economy of scale will help us all maintain a lower cost to our customers with service levels remaining at the high standard for which we are known. I personally take pride in this transaction as I believe it the best for our customers we work so hard for, and our staff.” 

Hall further commented, “We are excited that a professional like Gary Yager will be joining our Management Team as well as his professional management team members. Certainly their experience is very important, but their sincere concern for VisionBank customers make the leadership and team members of VisionBank a valuable asset to Community National Bank. Gary has assembled a very professional staff that we are looking forward to working with to grow our markets and serve our customers. Gary and his team, like us at Community National, believe a customer banks with the people they trust and have confidence in, not a bank name. The Directors, Officers, Shareholders and staff of Community Bancshares sincerely care about all our staff, and all our customers. We are proud and honored that VisionBank has agreed to become a part of our organization and look forward to its staff and customers becoming a part of Community National Bank.” 

The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including the receipt of shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Details of the transaction have not been disclosed. Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP served as legal counsel to Community National Bank . BOTS,Inc/VisionBank was advised by Stinson, LLC as legal counsel and The Capital Corporation, Leawood, as financial advisor.

VisionBank was founded in 2005 when several small banks started up in Kansas after large-scale national banks cut back services to customers.

Community National Bank was founded in 1984 by a group of individuals in Nemaha County, Kan., on a philosophy of diverse local ownership with decisions made on a local level. The bank’s strategy is to offer a wide array of financial services, while being an integral part of the local communities they serve.

Let It Come Down by Paul Bowles

The Beats in 1961 in Tangier with Paul Bowles. From left, Gregory Corso, Paul Bowles, Ian Sommerville, Michael Portman and William Burroughs. Photo by Allen Ginsberg.

By Michael Hooper

I've always been interested in Morocco since reading about the Beats meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangier.  Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg met with Paul Bowles in 1961. I later met Allen Ginsberg in 1993.

I recently reviewed Paul Bowles' first book The Sheltering Sky on my youtube channel. I just finished reading his second book, Let It Come Down, set in Tangier, this review is also on youtube .

Published in 1952, Let It Come Down is a deep dive into the seedier sides of Tangier, Morocco, after WW II when its international zone attracted all kinds of characters who were trying to do business away from their home countries. Needless to say some of these businesses operating in the international zone were a bit shady. At this time, France, Spain and England controlled and administered the international zone agreement of 1923. Back then Tangier had about 40,000 Muslims 31,000 Christians and about 15,000 Jews, plus all kinds of foreigners.

The book's darkness, rainy days and nights, cosmopolitan characters, and web of entanglements remind me of Film Noir movies like Casablanca. I could just see Humphry Bogart among the cast of characters.

Let it Come Down is about an American named Nelson Dyar who gets a job at Tangier but the job isn't exactly what he had thought it might be. Dyar seems like a typical American with overconfidence, impatience, out for good time, and hoping for a steady job and a new life.

Shortly after he shows up he goes to a party where he meets a woman who tells him that his employer Jack Wilcox is not what he seems, that indeed Jack's office has very little business. We learn that Jack Wilcox is behind on his rent at a high-end hotel. One day he shows up at Jack's office, but Jack sends him away, I don't need you, here's some reading material, I will call you when I need you.

Dyar explores the hashish cafes and the brothels and restaurants in Tangier. At one bar he meets a girl he likes and wants to be with her everyday. Her name is Hadija, she is lovely and fun and enjoys having men spend money on her. She seems to be involved with another woman who runs the bar.

Hadija takes Dyar on a lovely trip to the beach, where they explore some caves on the shore. Dyar sees some boys frolicking in the sun without any clothes on naked and he seems a bit repulsed by this. His reaction is like a metaphor for his outlook here. He wants to have a good time but he really doesn't like the people. 

At the beach, inside the entrance to a cave, he tries to take off Hadija's dress but she wouldn't let him however he did have his way with her, was satisfied. He hopes to repeat this affair but this girl's partner doesn't want her spending more time with him. 

Eventually Jack Wilcox explains what Dyar must do for his job. Essentially carry money from one person to another person and exchange it along the way from 5 lb British notes to Spanish pasetas.

I remember when I traveled to Europe in 1990 and there was no Euro. Countries in Europe had their own currency. There were a lot of money changers at airports and bus stations and train stations. And back then there was a wide variety of exchange rates. You could get ripped off if you didn't know what you were doing. There seem to be some money changers who preyed on ignorant people who could not count or do mathematics. 

Dyar is a bit of a slouch really, not very dedicated but he goes to pick up the money. He carries the money to another place where it is exchanged for pesetas. He tries to deliver the money but the bank is closed. He then decides to steal the money.

Dyar visits Daisy, a wealthy woman who was living a cosmopolitan life in Tangier. She befriends him and invites him to join her for a little party and he consumes for the very first time majoun (Ma-Joon), a kind of cannabis jam. 

Eventually he leaves her to go meet up with Thami.

Carrying the stolen money, Dyar hires Thani to obtain a boat to go to the Spain. The driver of the boat takes 1,000 paseta note and leaves the two men on shore. They consume quite a bit of kif, another form of cannabis in a pipe they share. They are quite high on this cannabis but what's strange is how Dyar goes a bit mad and starts getting paranoid about his Muslim friend.

The Muslim friend Thami takes him to an empty home and then brings food in from his in-laws who live nearby. They eat and smoke more cannabis.  

Dyar dreams up ideas that Thami is going to bring a gang of thugs over to beat him up and steal his money. The next day while walking around Dyar gets the idea for some reason that he should steal this hammer and nail from a carpenter. So he drops it in his pocket and then that evening he sees his friend sleeping and so he takes the nail and puts it in the guy's ear and drives it into his ear and kills him. This form of violence seems unreal. I've been around people who've smoked cannabis and they never get violent. It seems to me I have seen more violence associated with alcohol than cannabis.

I admit, Dyar is overly aggressive with women. With Daisy, he crashes her bed while she is eating, creating a messy rendezvous. 

This notion that Dyar's going to just kill this guy with a nail and a hammer seems ludicrous.

Daisy finds him and then tells him to come with her back to Tangier and give the money back to Ronny and everything will be okay. Instead he says he can't return. 

"Rot rubbish now come don't disgust me with your fear. There's nothing more revolting than a man who's afraid," she said.

He laughed unpleasantly.

Dyar is a nerd in lust for a barmaid. He's lazy and un-inventive. He just kind of falls into this mess and can't seem to find his way out of it. At one point he asks himself "why am I here, what am I doing here?"

She says, "I'm the biggest fool of all because through some ghastly defect in my character ... I've somehow let myself become fond of you. God knows why, God knows why, do you think I've come all the way here only to help Ronny get his money back?"

After she sees the dead body in the kitchen she leaves. I shall tell Ronnie I couldn't find you," she says to him

I've listened to a couple of interviews with Paul Bowles. One of them he said he wrote about violence in his books but really didn't experience violence in his own personal life. I can say myself cannabis users are not typically violent people. But Paul Bowles used cannabis all his life. But he said you need conflict and a story. Without conflict there's no story. 

I think in this case he didn't need a murder to tell a story about a shallow American man with a loose moral fiber just out for a good time.

The story ends so we don't know exactly what happens to Dyar but I think jail or death is a real possibility.

I'm interested in going to Tangier someday because of this cosmopolitan nature of the city. 

I'm fascinated by all the Bohemians and artists who settled in Tangier over the years. I've read stories and watched videos about expats living in Tangier and really loving it. Paul and his wife Jane lived in Tangier for a long time many years

William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg were all in Tangier and met with Paul Bowles. I feel I am one handshake away from Paul Bowles because I met Allen Ginsberg at a bookshop in Lincoln, Neb., in 1993. Allen and I talked for a bit and he signed some books for me. This encounter is in my book, The Wonderment Years: Odyssey of a Bohemian published by Amazon in July this year.

Paul Bowles was not a beatnik but he certainly influenced these people.

I do appreciate Let It Come Down. It's a very wet and rainy story in Tangier it seems like it's always raining when there's trouble. The film Noir ambiance is captivating, but the climax seems unreal.

I liked the writing, but not the ending. If anything, I have more of desire to see Tangier. I hope to visit the city some day. Tangier was founded by the Phoenicians around the 10th century BC.

Writing for GQ Magazine October 1963, Paul Bowles wrote an essay about Tangier, saying, "living in Tangier however has still meant being witness to an array of strange episodes in the lives of the whole series of bizarre characters. Nowhere have I seen such a concentration of eccentrics."

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

By Michael Hooper

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles wrestles with some very difficult issues, including existential despair, ignorance of Arabic culture, the complexity and challenges of a triangular love affair, sickness and death. 

Bowles wrote the Sheltering Sky in 1947 and 1948 in Morocco under the influence of hashish and majoun, a cannabis jam. His prose is vivid, intense and evocative.

Bowles was quite a talented man who wrote musicals before he became a novelist. He had an open marriage with his wife Jane Bowles, also a successful author. They each had affairs with people of the same sex. 

The main characters in The Sheltering Sky are Americans Port and Kit Moresby, husband and wife who have been struggling with their relationship and are hoping to reignite it on their trip to Northern Africa.

At the last minute they decide to invite their friend Tunner from New York.

This triangular relationship does not lend itself to intimacy for Kit and Port. Indeed Tunner wants to have a relationship with Kit. In a strange set of events, Port joins an English mother and son on a drive to their next destination and encourages Kit to take the train with Tunner. Tunner is thrilled at this opportunity. They get drunk on the train and sleep together. This complicates everything. Port wants to be alone with his wife so he works to try to get rid of Tunner.

A triangular affair never ends well. There's always jealousy. One time I was traveling with two women in Greece and one worked hard to get rid of the other so she could be alone with me. This was all before I met my wife of course. There's countless other examples where the third wheel doesn't fit in with the couple. In this case, Kit doesn't really want to have an affair with Tunner but she's scared and superstitious, and likes to drink and seems easily persuaded. 

Meanwhile Port is traveling with a couple of snooty English people who look down in disdain on the local people in Algeria.

Port's philosophy about travel is this: He believes "a tourist hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or a month but the traveler, belonging to no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over the years from one part of the earth to the other."

Snooty Americans want everybody to bow down to their customs and preferences for food and housing, but the locals really don't like it. If you want to be a good traveler, find a way to blend in, learn some of the language, study the local customs, don't go into a new country making demands on people. Instead find a way to be a benefit or at least neutral but not an asshole.

Even though Port has lofty intentions he's also a bit of an arrogant, demanding tourist at times and is quite reckless with his lust and passions. He sees a blind girl and wants to have his way with her and tries to arrange a meeting with her but this turns out to be an act of futility.

The title of the book comes from a moment between Kit and Port. He says, "the sky here is very strange. I often have the sensation when I look at it that it's a solid thing up there protecting us from what's behind."

Kit shuddered slightly as she said, "from what's behind?"

"Yes."

"But what is behind?" Her voice was very small.

"Nothing, I suppose. Just darkness. Absolute night."

"Please don't talk about it now," she said. There was agony in her entreaty. "Everything you say frightens me, up here. It's getting dark and the wind is blowing and I can't stand it."

It's obvious that the couple have no solid footing in the world, they seem to be running, running, running without any grounding in their lives. They are trying to find pleasure, but upon running into difficulties, they fall apart.

Eventually Port gets sick. It seems it's either meningitis or typhoid. There's been an outbreak of meningitis in El Ga'a.

Such an outbreak reminds me of today's challenges with Covid-19. I was at Walgreens recently with my mask on and the person behind me was buying a covid-19 test kit because she thought she might have the virus and she wasn't even wearing a mask. Unreal.

When Port is dying it seems like he cannot connect with his wife. She seems so distant to him. She said she'll prepare some milk for him but he says, "please stay here."

He says, "I feel very sick, I feel awful. There's no reason to be afraid but I am. Sometimes I'm not here and I don't like that. Because then I'm far away and all alone. No one could ever get there. It's too far and there I'm alone."

The great tragedy in this story is Kit's departure while he's dying.

She actually leaves him and goes away to the desert. The locals find him dead and bury him. Tunner shows up and finds out the news that Kit has gone and Port is dead. Tunner is disappointed that Port is buried in a Christian cemetery because Port was not a religious man at all.

Meanwhile Kit ends up staying outside in the desert and then hooking up with an Arab man who has multiple wives and wants to take her in. She gets beaten by his wives, as they can't stand her. They steal her jewelry.

Eventually Kit escapes and is rescued. The story implies that Tunner is going to show up at her hotel but the story ends and we don't know if they get together but they probably do.

These Americans were really unaware and disrespectful of the lifestyle in Northern Africa. They don't like the food. They complain of flies with claws that are constantly swarming around them. At one point Port says he can't get warm, he is cold all the time, even cold in September in the desert. Well of course deserts can be very cold at night.

I can imagine how this trip started. It probably sounds exotic to go to Morocco or Algeria. I could just see people in New York saying this would be so much fun. 

Be careful. Do your research and respect the local people. Otherwise you may be in for some trouble.