The Wake

Part I

Part II

I was going to about 5 shows a week on average here in London between my internship at Helter Skelter Agency LTD and my job writing for Music-news.com.

Here are some of the best gigs I hit:
The first show I saw in London was The Lionheart Brothers at The Social in Soho, I saw then later on in the spring at the Hoxton Square Bar in the Shoreditch area. Everyone needs to give this tune a listen. Norwegian Psych pop at its finest, “50 Souls and a Disco Bowl”

The second show I saw in London was Texan quartet, …

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In the hectic pace of my sleep deprived, London life style, I had very little time to relay all the great new bands I’ve discovered. So I write to you know from a café in Madrid with some suggestions and news.

Initially, I was quite disappointed with the proclaimed hot new bands of the moment in London. Bands like: New Young Pony Club, Does This Offend You Yeah?, Scouting For Girls, The Hoosiers, Guillemots, Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy, Ipso Facto. They’re all either boring electro groups trying to ride that long past new wave revival, sad Libertines rip offs, weak piano …

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Sure, I could write about tonight’s big Pennsylvania primary win for Hillary, but goddamn it, we all knew it was going to happen. Nothing has changed; Obama is still ahead in the delegate count and has most of the Democratic super delegates at his fingertips. Besides, there are tons of primaries still ahead and more pressing news to be told.

After a week of speculation, the rumors are true: according to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Vikings have acquired defensive end and human wrecking ball Jared Allen. As this YouTube clip of the now-former Kansas …

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Talking Points Memo just posted a new Hillary Clinton campaign ad, featuring flashes of Osama Bin Laden that are so brief it seems as if they are meant to be picked up by the viewer subconsciously. Is she attempting to dramatize the remaining bitter shreds of U.S. democracy? You be the judge.

But what really puts the aches in my back is how Hillary recently denounced the “activist base” of the Democratic Party at a closed-door (meaning uber-wealthy guests only) fundraiser right after Super Tuesday. …

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Students shuffle into a classroom as the bell rings, slumping into desks and tossing backpacks to the floor. They regard their teacher with mild interest as he begins the lesson. Two boys and a girl trade whispered banter that’s half-teasing and half-flirting. A few seats away, a girl holds a cell phone under her desk and text-messages.

Only the papers hanging on the wall to the students’ left betray this as anything but a typical high school classroom. The words are scratched simply on notebook paper, framed by magazine photos of men …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

April 19 is not a day to celebrate a historical figure or a particular religion. April 19, ladies and gentlemen, is a day devoted to the appreciation of independent record stores. It is the day known as Record Store Day. We all know the great saga of the rise and fall of 45’s, 78’s, records, cassette tapes, and CDs. Like many music fans, I find that these tangible musical resources have much more to offer than impersonal and detached …

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Illustration by Lucy Michell

I have always wanted to be a superhero. I am sure I am not alone in this dream. What with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Harry Potter out there, there is no chance that I am the only individual that wants to live the dream. But to be honest, my superhero knowledge begins and ends with the few episodes of Power Rangers I have seen and a handful of recent action films. In hopes of achieving my superhero goal, I decided it …

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Photo by Erik Helin

I know what you’re thinking: “Erik, what’s adventurous about eggs?” And you’re right to question me. Egg & I isn’t adventurous. But I’m a red-blooded American who happens to love a good breakfast, and Egg & I makes a damn good breakfast.

Located in a massive brick office building on University Ave. near Highway 280, the restaurant doesn’t score too many points when it comes to décor. In fact, if the various booths and tables were taken out and replaced with cubicles …

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Illustration by Oakley Tapola

Chocolate is everywhere! Holidays such as Halloween and Valentine’s Day make it a staple in everyone’s diet for at least two weeks surrounding the actual day. Songs, such as the infamous YouTube classic “Chocolate Rain,” have wormed their way into our brains. Chocolate is so popular that unsavory creatures, like ants and grasshoppers, covered in the creamy goodness are considered a fine delicacy. It seems like chocolate surrounds us and is something we are all familiar with, but do we …

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The opening mallet-matted drum roll of Scott Walker’s solo debut is an extremely telling introduction. It instantly becomes clear that this pop album is to be both a heroic and tragic epic. Similarly, glancing upon the portrait of Walker that covers his 1967 Scott is an equally epiphanic experience. Upon a glance or a listen, Scott Walker is clarified to be a deceptively upbeat dark horse of sixties pop. “Man behind the music” clichés however, do not apply to walker. Whereas fellow morbid rockers like David Bowie and Lou Reed create characters that parallel their music, the orchestrations on Scott …

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Vampire Hands - Me and You Cherry Red

Lock up your children because Vampire Hands are coming to get you! While visions of gaunt, bony creatures shrouded in cloaks and pining for blood are probably filling your head, there is no need to panic. Seriously, stop the mad dash for the garlic and listen. Really listen, because Vampire Hands is one of the most promising bands on the Minneapolis music scene right now and are sweeping the …

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A tangled mess of men masked with green military-issue bags crowd the hall. An American soldier stands proudly with his arms crossed, resting on his puffed chest behind the pyramid of contorted bodies. Another soldier, leaning toward the camera, bares an unsettlingly cheeky grin as if she were completely removed from the demented scene.

The photos taken during the fall of 2003 at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have given an entirely new and disturbing meaning to the clichéd idiom, “a picture tells a thousand words.”

Starting with these disconcerting photos, …

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Illustration by Ben Alpert

U.S. Congress defines homelessness in a fairly straightforward way: “Any adult whose primary nighttime residence is a supervised, publicly or privately-operated temporary living accommodation, including emergency shelters, transitional housing, and battered women’s shelters; or whose nighttime residence is not meant for human habitation, such as under bridges or in cars.” This definition also extends to youths.

Since 1991, Wilder Research has conducted a study of homelessness in Minnesota every three years. Their most recent study was published in October 2006 and found …

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