RluHmtHeviews
Friday, November 13,1998
Grounds and grooves
Four acoustic bands perked up listen
ers Thursday at the Buzz Coffeehouse
/PAGE 8A
©rcgomWiEmeraUi
Hooked on Phish
Ihe acousticfoursome reels in cheers
with their new release, "I he Story’ of
the Ghost' /PAGE 3A
Volume 100, Issue S4
By Rob Moseley
I Oregon Daily Emerald
Bay Area hip-hop outfit Latyrx will bring their act
to Eugene, this time for an all-ages show at the
Wild Duck on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Latyrx features Lyrics Born and Lateef the
Truthspeaker, two emcees of distinctly differ
ent styles who often rap concurrently, mixing
Lyrics Born’s more appropriately lyrical style
with the more customary technique of Lateef.
Latyrx prides itself, in part, in maintaining
its status as an underground group but admitted
in a recent interview with Elixir magazine that
balancing the desire to stay true to one’s roots
with that of new-found success is a chal- ;
lenge.
“That's a tough one because you want as
many people as possible to hear what you are
doing,” Lateef said, “And your second priority
would be that you want your material to be pre
sented in the way you want it presented.”
His partner agreed.
‘Td have to know the label is committed,”
Lyrics Bom said. “We have a vision, a big picture.
Iu u njoin ure uie lautu win properly marKet uie music,
I might do it, I got into the music business because I’m a
musician. We wanted people to hear our music because
we are musicians.”
“They were hype.
The crowd knew
all their lyrics,
that’s for sure.”
Karim Panni,
promoter, on the crowd at
Latyrx's last show
According to show promoter
Karim Parrni, the group was met
by an enthusiastic audience
when they were last seen in Eu
gene on May 26, in what is not
typically thought of as a bastion
of hip-hop.
"They were hype,” Panni said
of the crowd “The crowd knew
all their lyrics, that’s for sure, ”
Panni said part of that reac
tion is owed to the rising popu
larity of DJ Shadow.
bhadows large, people Know him,” Panni said. “And
people know that Lateef and Lyrics. Born have been on
some of Shadow’s projects."
One of those projects is the band’s new label, Quan
num, which is made up of Latyrx, DJ Shadow and Blacka
licious.
Turn to DANCING, Page 10A
The underground hip-hop
group from the Bay
A rea will
perform at
the Wild
^ Duck on
R Saturday
Wymprov will take a hu
morous look at orga
nized religion in its
theme show ‘The Church
of Wymprov.” Top to
bottom: Vicki Silvers,
Debby Martin, Sally
Sheklowand Enid Left
on.
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
Acting troupe pokes tun at piety
By Brooke Haycox
lorlhe Emerald
The four-woman improvisational group known as
Wymprov is back and expects to offend just about
everyone with its new show.
The comedy troupe, which the Eugene Weekly re
cently voted “Best Comedy Troupe in Eugene,”
plans to use its talent for improvisation to demon
strate the need for a little levity when it comes to or
ganized religion in their first theme show, “The
Chinch of Wymprov”
“We decided to add a little spice and go with the
church theme,” group member Vicki Silvers said.
“After all, Eugene is well known to be tolerant of a
little fun when it comes to organized religion.”
Silvers and the other members of Wymprov — Sal
ly Sheklow, Debbie Martin and Enid Lefton —
formed their comedy troupe seven years ago after
meeting at a healing with humor workshop. The
group began meeting along with other attendees of
the workshop to play theater games together, which
led to their decision to take their show on the road.
Sheklow remembers the day one of the group
members first made the suggestion. “The room
cleared,” said Sheklow, except for the four women
who formed the troupe.
Since then, the group has received critical praise
in the Northwest. And the group has performed to
standing-room only crowds in more than 40 venues
from Eugene to Bellingham, Wash.
Wymprov has used flamboyant costumes, boister
ous personalities and a lot of ingenuity to parody lo
cal personalities and events, such as the June 1 tree
cutting protest. They also rewrite old songs to fit
Eugene, act out their own renditions of movies such
as “West Side Story,” and spoof major events with
skits such as “Dessert Storm.”
Group members and fans attribute Wymprov’s
success to the way the members involve the audi
ence in the show; in fact, the show is built around au
Turn to WYMPROV, Page 6A