The Wake

As a lifetime city rat, I’ve never had much interest in the way my food was produced. As a “foodie” (although I do hate that word), however, I’m supposed to know my locally sourced free-range organic grass-fed cow’s milking cycle like clockwork, lest my hard-earned street cred be revoked. So I, as broke college student, must balance my lofty ideals with the cold reality of my checking account when going for weekly groceries. So when …

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During the last thirty seconds of the “Dream City,” the second track on the Philadelphia-by-way-of-Minneapolis band’s debut album, a beautiful soft tenor sax emerges to play a quiet, lonesome little figure as the song fades away with such a heartfelt lack of irony that we know immediately how much disdain the hipster set will have for this band. Free Energy is unapologetically dinosaur-ific, wearing their love for seventies hard rock like a banner for all …

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Whenever a natural, or not so natural, disaster happens within the city limits, there is usually an outpouring of support for whomever has been affected. But this large amount of support does not always guarantee that the affected people will remain in the same place. As the recent fire in South Minneapolis shows, no area of Minneapolis is safe from …

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By this point in the year most U of M students are probably so full of information from their various classes and the deluge of prior “Awareness Weeks” that the thought of attending any of the events in the Al-Madinah Cultural Center’s Islam Awareness Week probably seems like a chore, which is an utter shame considering that if there’s one culture the average American is woefully ignorant about, it would probably be Islam.

“The idea …

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For such an unlikely team-up, the duo of indie-folk heavyweight M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel has had remarkable staying power. Far from a novelty group, She and Him specializes in lush folk- and country-tinged pop songs that recall Phil Spector’s girl groups and Nashville chanteuses. On Volume Two the duo sprinkles in elements of Motown for a slightly different flavor, but She and Him hardly needs to reinvent the wheel for their …

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If Indie Rock’s folk wing has any sort cardinal sin it would be the often saccharine level of twee-ness that seems to saturate the works of artists that are not wary of its toxicity after prolonged exposure. Anders Mattson, whose alias was originally designed to aid with a common mis-pronouncement of his name, abandoned his strict classical training on the viola during his teenage years in favor of the guitar and …

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The first hints of nicer weather in the current season make us Minnesotans do very strange things. There’s a special brand of optimism that we’re imbued with, a mild delusion that persuades us that temperatures that are barely above freezing qualify as “sweatshirt weather” provided the sun is up. Some brave souls were even spotted jogging in shorts during last …

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Indie Rock’s hype-to-backlash machine has such an impressively quick turnaround that it’s a wonder Palm Beach, Florida’s native sons Surfer Blood even had a chance to release their debut record. The band quickly gained critical acclaim following an impressive showing at this year’s CMJ festival with a raw, muscular and distinctly noir-ish take on ‘90s indie power pop. Comparisons to Weezer trail the band, but Astro Coast contains so much more than a retread …

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As a Minneapolis cyclist, I do my share of whining about the conditions of our city’s bike infrastructure. The roads are a veritable minefield of potholes, the city’s priority level on bike lane upkeep seems to hover somewhere below stop-sign graffiti removal, and I have no clue what the city planner was on when they decided to put a …

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As spring semester gets underway, plans are being put together for this year’s installment of the University of Minnesota’s annual Spring Jam event, albeit with more tension and preparation this time around. The now-infamous Spring Jam 2009 proceeded as usual until riots broke out late Saturday, April 25, and continued into the next day. About 500 students took to the streets in Dinkytown on the 1300 and 1400 blocks of 7th Ave. Revelers set several …

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Try something new. Do something different. Change someone’s life. The Twin Cities are home to thousands of nonprofit organizations seeking volunteers to help them make a positive effect on the community. No matter the cause, there is an organization that exists for each person, all he or she needs is the desire to get involved.

The following nonprofits are some of the more unique organizations in the Metro area, but there are plenty …

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Video games are stereotypically cast as the bane of a productive, sociable existence. Yet, this image hardly matches the one seen every Saturday in Stephen Pfister’s Apple Valley home. The room is packed with some 20 odd people, mostly male, of varying age, ethnicity and profession, all chatting pleasantly about game nuances, jobs, girlfriends and the occasional wager on a …

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Shane Vader and Clara Salyer engage in the proudest of high school band traditions for their weekly meetings: the Taco Bell run. Over what may well be the most questionable of foodstuffs, the two discuss life, music and, most importantly, their record label: the recently established Afternoon Records subsidiary Personal Best Records (and yes, they are aware of the irony of …

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