The Wake

These reviews had to get cut down to fit into the spread. Here’s the uncut versions!

Kevin Tully

Ocrilim’s Purging Trilogy is something I can appreciate for what it is.

There’s not really much going on in the whole damn thing except guitar track over guitar track over guitar track times infinite. It’s basically 2 hours and 12 minutes of one dude playing guitar. Now, I have to say I’m totally in awe of anyone that can see a project of that magnitude to completion. Especially considering the fact that all 24 tracks sound different from one another. That’s fucking impressive, I don’t care what you’re into.

But is appreciating this behemoth of a trilogy the same as enjoying it? No. It’s not. Though I certainly found some enjoyment out of a couple tracks on this three-part epic …

Read more →

Tom Waits fans rejoice; Heath Ledger fans pay your respects. Both, for sure, should head to the theater to see director Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Yes, it is rated PG-13, but here Gilliam has successfully created a reflective, mature, and narratively sophisticated movie that didn’t need to tone itself down to garner the box office boosting rating from the MPAA. It is only showing at the Lagoon Theatre in Uptown, and you had better get there quickly because it probably will not run much longer—and it’s surely a film best seen on the big screen: the standout aspect of the film is its visual appeal. This is an imaginarium we are buying into, after all. The actual imaginarium is quite beautifully imagined and depicted, and The Imaginarium is worth seeing …

Read more →

“It’s time for the warmest wishes…and eating your illegitimate children.”

Were there just not enough photos to choose from or was this really the best?

Finals week is coming and with the catchy acronyms comes the realization that many of us have fourteen plus weeks of learning to do before December 17th. Long hours in the library are tedious at best, but the deafening silence can make any extended stay at Walter downright unbearable. If you need a theme song to your finals study experience, look no further than the Kruder & Dorfmeister remix of “Useless” by Depeche Mode.

Finding its place in the first half of the stunning K & D Sessions, “Useless” is a slice of downtempo bliss that even those unfamiliar with the genre will appreciate. With a beat that deftly tiptoes the fine line between overwhelming and shallow and a bassline that is fluid beyond all words, “Useless” is a song that radiates calm …

Read more →

let’s be honest…we have been spoiled with good weather. now, as winter is biting hard and finals are drawing near, any cause to smile is a good one. here is one i found…enjoy!

the muppets sing queen’s “bohemian rhapsody”

On Saturday night I went to the Wolfmother gig at the State Theater … and was pleasantly surprised by one of the opening acts - Heartless Bastards.

The quartet has an older, garage band sound with a hint of psychedelic (they are definitely channeling some sonic youth). Their heavy guitars fill the soundwaves with further vibrations from the drums to make a Southern/rock/blues combo that brought the audience to their feet.

Their new album entitled The Mountain is raw, powerful and passionate and entirely worth checking out.

“Nothing Seems the Same” video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j48UVaBoR60

ocd is clean hands - but even this is overrated.

the worst thing is missing engagements.

philosophy is you can speak like a madman and no one will lock you up.

Objectivity brings on the conditional.

I cannot fully describe how excited I was to read about Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) stepping out to make a solo album.

Under the alias of Rain Machine, Malone’s album “Rain Machine” dropped on September 22, 2009, and was met with high praise. While Rain Machine shows ties to TV on the Radio’s albums, “Rain Machine” is more than capable to stand on its own. The overall sound of the album is natural and strikingly experimental. While the two ideas seem ironic, the sound Malone creates is earthy and harmonic.

The album is introduced with isolated pieces of percussion and develops into the first single off the album, “Give Blood”. Malone’s falsetto carries through each song…you can finally hear his full range. It is well impressive. …

Read more →

To the Barista Android:

Why is your default setting to put my coffee in a paper cup with a plastic lid instead of a ceramic mug? Who programmed you incorrectly? It’s Sunday today - do I look like I need my coffee to go? I notice everyone else has paper cups. I see you have plenty of clean coffee mugs. What is your malfunction?

To the girls sitting within earshot:

Stop talking about the sodium-potassium pump like it’s something complex, profound and/or meaningful. I don’t like that tone. You think you’re so insightful. There is so such thing as an ‘overshoot phase’ so stop calling it that. It’s called hyperpolarization. And don’t even think about trying to make that word sound special - it’s simply a description of what is happening. Or what we think is happening. Why …

Read more →

1a.m.

A Man Outside My Window: “I WANT A FUCK! I WANT A FUCK, NOT A DICK-SUCKING!”
A Woman Outside My Window: “YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE!”

From a media standpoint, the post-inauguration political climate is a refreshing change of pace from what were the grueling final hours of the Bush era, but that’s not to say the country’s condition has drastically improved. The fervor and momentum generated during the meteoric rise of Barack Obama set high expectations for the President and his party. And now they are at odds with each other, pushing the health care debate to take an errant left turn, which leaves us starry-eyed Americans with two inept political parties.

When George Bush left office he didn’t just leave behind a litany of foreign policy disasters and millions of crestfallen citizens who’d just been robbed at warp speed. He left behind an entire political party full of panic stricken nimrods who are now just crawling out of their …

Read more →