Two decades ago, rock professor Andy Hollinden was rummaging around his old office in the basement of the Music Addition when he came across an old, defunct typewriter under the sink in his bathroom. It was caked with decades of dirt and dust, and most people would have just tossed it in the nearest dumpster. But the man who keeps a sign reading "Will Profess for Food" in the trunk of his car had grander plans for the sad, ancient device. He cleaned it, spray painted it gold and etched the words "Trust Yourself" across the middle keys. \n"I want to spray paint everything gold," Hollinden said.\nSomeone's forgotten hunk of metal became Hollinden's "magic gold typewriter" and is displayed predominately on the cover of his fourth and latest album Trust Yourself.\n"It's the underlying theme of everything I say when I teach," Hollinden said of the only two words that can be typed on his golden typewriter.\nOn Thursday at the Bluebird, Hollinden will perform eight songs from Trust Yourself (the show will be the first time the album is made available to nonstudents) along with an hour-and-a-half set of classic rock covers. IU's other favorite rock professor Glenn Gass will join Hollinden and his band on stage for a few songs as well. While other music professors routinely perform concerts and recitals, this is the first time Hollinden has performed in 11 years -- and the first time in 16 years for Gass.\n"Two months ago, if you would have told me I was going to perform at all, I would have thought you were crazy," Hollinden said.
Dreaming up the show\nIndependent concert promoter and IU senior Andrew Landau was sitting in Ballantine Hall Room 013 last spring before Hollinden's History of Rock Music II class. He was frantically engaged in some last-minute studying before the first exam when Hollinden put on music he hadn't heard and that wasn't on any of the required listening lists for the class. The music was Hollinden's CD.\nLandau talked to Hollinden after the test to see how he felt about \nputting on a live performance. The music professor, who has been quoted as comparing performing live to "having sex in front a live audience" was not feeling up to holding a concert. \nBut Landau was persistent. \nAfter countless e-mails and a couple of meetings with Hollinden in his office, Landau questioned whether he would ever pull off what he imagined would be "one of the best experiences of his college career."\nIn a last-ditch effort, Landau sent Hollinden a goading e-mail: \n"You can't make babies without balls," splashed the opening line. \nLandau had scribbled this quote in the margin of his notebook after Hollinden said it in class one day. \nMaybe it was the bold e-mail; maybe it was conversations Hollinden had with jazz professor David Baker about performing again or perhaps just what his magic gold typewriter told him to do, but Hollinden was soon officially on board. Gass committed shortly after, Landau said, and what began as a simple idea scraping around in Landau's head became Rock History Night.
Preshow nerves\nHollinden, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of his band, admits that he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the show. For Hollinden, playing music in front of hundreds of people at the Bird is not exactly like riding a bike. But he has been rehearsing with his band and Gass. who describes himself as "panic-stricken," to get as polished as possible. At 46, Hollinden has decided he wants to focus more on live performance - an entirely different attitude than he had mere months ago.\n"I've always been a late bloomer," Hollinden said. "Becoming serious about performing as a musician in my late 40s sounds about right to me."\nGass expressed interest in making Rock History Night an annual event, an end-of-the-semester party with his students, he said. Hollinden wants to continue performing live and wishes to someday play "electric music" in the Musical Arts Center, a venue that usually houses jazz and orchestra recitals.\n"I teach at one of the best music schools in the world," Hollinden said. "(Performing at the MAC) would allow my colleagues in the music school to see what I do."\nBut before they make it to the MAC, the professors of rock must first see if they can make history Thursday at the Bird.
