The Wake

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 to see. What sets them apart from a sea of unoriginal bands doing the same is frontman and songwriter Paul Spangers’ wonderful gift for wrapping stadium sized hooks in the vaguest of political trappings, supported by rock solid playing and a virtuosic lead guitar. Credit must be given to James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem/DFA fame for his production, lending the …

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David Lipsky accompanied DFW on his book tour for his breakout success Infinite Jest. On an assignment to profile the man for Rolling Stone, the article fell through. This book is a full transcript of that six-day interview.

This book is the second link in the hopefully-short chain of cash-ins on David Foster Wallace’s suicide. The first, This is Water, was a despicable little book reprinting the transcript of a brief graduation address Wallace made (available for free online), filling a small book by printing the speech one sentence per page. Lipsky’s book isn’t as useless and infuriating as This is Water, but it’s close.

Any devoted Wallace fan knows that his interviews are fantastic—he displays a humanity and a refusal to talk the same self-aggrandizing literary bullshit as everyone else. But these transcripts are taken from …

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There’s a wooden plank in the Karnak Gallery off of First Ave., hanging above ancient, ornate, astrological-looking tapestries. You have to enter the gallery through a tiny walkway first before turning around to see it and the multicolored chaos of smaller boards hanging perpendicular like wind chimes underneath the plank. By itself, it doesn’t look all that impressive. Dingy, faded looking, with browns, oranges, reds, blues, yellows, even light greens, it looks as though it spent time at the bottom of the sea, rotting for ages before being nailed to an art gallery wall. The plank reads “Virtual Warrior Ink” in sharp lines and paint splotches. It’s made to look as though it were an anachronistic paradigm, an ironic statement made with the knowledge that it is, indeed, ironic.

That’s Jacob Alexander’s operating method. Alexander, the …

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For the past 132 years we Minnesotans have not been able to make it through March without a snowfall, but it appears that we’ve finally done it. Not only did winter arrive late this year, but it quit our normally frigid doorsteps early as well. Our winter clothing barely had time at the front of our closets.

Yet, the ice is gone. The birds are back. The squirrels in my backyard, looking more plump than usual, are disturbing my sleep with their racket. The number of bikers and joggers is swelling. Track shorts, sleeveless tees, and athletic camis are taking over campus. No one can resist the weather—there couldn’t be a more beautiful …

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Speaking in broad strokes, to make music is to create. All musicians, in one way or another, bring something new into the world, whether through simple songwriting or technical artifice. We revere musicians for their ability to make something new, and we encourage experimentation. So should creativity always be rewarded?

Well, no. You see, my fellow Generation Y-ers, our precious Internet has created something of a catch-22. On one side, it allows people all over the world to experience things like the UK’s dubstep movement or a great unsigned band from Australia called The Middle East. Few would argue that the ‘net hasn’t expanded the common man’s access to music in seemingly unthinkable ways. Less obviously, though, the last decade has seen something of a race to the bottom …

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Charles Mingus
“The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady”

This 1963 concept album by batshit musical genius Charles Mingus is widely recognized as one of the greatest compositions of all time. Written as a six-part jazz ballet, “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady” is an incredibly emotional, beautiful experiment in orchestrated chaos. Mingus called this his masterpiece, and I wouldn’t argue with him (partly because I completely agree, and partly because arguing with Charles Mingus never ended well).

Deltron 3030
“Deltron 3030”

Deltron 3030 is/was a rap supergroup consisting of Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Dan the Automator and DJ Kid Koala, who released this space-opera concept album in 2000. It’s about the future, android and cyber warlords, has guest appearances up the wazoo from Damon Albarn to Prince Paul to Sean Lennon, and contains the line …

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In my excitement about the upcoming release of Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight saga, I found a web site called mylifeistwilight.com. The site has the same format as fmylife.com, but instead of writing about how awful their lives are, users write short stories about how their life is like Twilight. One person posted about how she saw a silver Volvo when it was rainy and just knew, in her heart, that it was Edward. Another girl asked her boyfriend to hold ice in his mouth before he kissed her so she’d know what it was like to kiss the cold, lifeless lips of a vampire.

Some of us might laugh at the web site, but I think we all belong on it. Twilight is like puberty. You wake up …

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The sophomore BFA class’s performance of Shakespeare reminds the audience that being lewd was often central to performances in English Renaissance Theater. In this production of Measure for Measure the pre-show consists of a flamboyant striptease, often involving audience members in lap dances. This seemingly “bad behavior” was for a purpose: showing the audience the city of Vienna in a state of flux while the Duke passes legal responsibility to his magistrate, Angelo (played by Liam Benzvi). When the party stops, the lights turn on and the businesses that were once prosperous are now morally objectionable. Of course those who go to Measure for Measure intending to see a high class production of one of Shakespeare’s most problematic “problem plays” will get what they want from the brilliant cast members including the Duke, …

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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 records to be enjoyable. Major credit should go to Ward for his sterling production and impeccable playing throughout this record: otherwise unmemorable tunes are redeemed via drooping steel guitar or softly chirping strings and the truly winning songs crackle with analog warmth. “Into the Sun” features an upbeat soulful piano and backing vocals courtesy of Tilly and the Wall, …

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Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg is, in certain ways, a competition between its two leading characters for the director’s attention. The film opens with Florence, an LA maid whose life consists only of the things she’s been pushed into through necessity or indifference. She goes to a bar, drinks herself into a stupor and sleeps with a guy because she could almost have a conversation with him and, well, he wanted to. She likes playing with the Greenberg family children and dog—incidental perks of a job inherently lacking dignity. As her disinterest in her own life becomes more apparent, she becomes more compelling. Or maybe frustrating. But at least imbued with potential.

Roger Greenberg is introduced as he comes to LA to house-sit while his brother’s family goes on vacation. This is how Roger and Florence meet …

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Owen Pallett
Owen Pallett used to be called Final Fantasy, and that name might ring a bell in many more heads than the new moniker he’s adopted. While no one is sure why exactly he switched personas for the release of his new album, Heartland, it really shouldn’t matter. This is the same ol’ Owen Pallett we’re used to: beautiful, heart-breaking and violent compositions filled with advanced violin looping and crooning vocals. The guy has written scores for Arcade Fire, Stars, Do Make Say Think, and Beirut—he is damn prolific, and the good news is this: he’s coming to the Varsity Theater on April 11 in what has become a rare US tour. Consider coming out for that intimate show because he might not come back to the Twin Cities for years. He also did an …

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I represent South African culture… This place… a lot of different things. Blacks, whites… Coloureds, English….

So begins Die Antwoord’s debut album, $0$. That’s right, dollar signs. Representing Zef culture, South Africa’s white, post-Apartheid redneck community, Die Antwoord makes shiny, grimy world party music.

How to describe their sound? Let’s take M.I.A.’s electro-African beats, the trailer-trash soul of a Kid Rock music video, with a little old-school 90‘s Aqua (think “Barbie Girl”) on top. Die Antwoord, Afrikaans for “The Answer” strikes each of those notes. Recently shaking up the blogosphere via Hipster Runoff and Pitchfork, this South African rap group has entered the music scene via the gimmick route, but they be here to stay.

To be honest, I don’t always know if I like all of their music. At times they seem to exude a type of …

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We get there and the cover is eight bucks, which is a pretty quality price for an awesome band like Young Widows. I haven’t seen them in a year, I’m excited. We shell out the cover and go to the bar. A tallboy of PBR is four dollars with a weak tip. The first band hasn’t started playing yet. The bar is starting to fill up. We go back outside to smoke a cigarette. A guy with a moustache looks at me and laughs to his friend. Go back inside. Let’s have another PBR.

We manage to get the big important booth normally occupied by women you can’t have. My friend gives me a back rub. It feels pretty good. Hot girl at the table across from me makes “bleh” face at her friend. Get …

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In early January, OK Go revealed the second stitch in their line of unique, contagious music videos. To the tune “This Too Shall Pass,” the alt rockers marched in the uniform and style of the University of Notre Dame Band, beating their drums and mimicking the step with relative success. And when the video started bleeding interest almost a minute in, a company of actual marchers appeared in camouflage, blasting their horns. At this moment, two things became clear. First, that only the likes of OK Go could summon the Notre Dame band out from their camouflaged dwellings in the brush to record a song from their new album and second, that you needed to circulate this video to all of your friends.

After that, should it really be any surprise that the foursome would …

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“Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?” This encompassing theme spoken by Leonardo DiCaprio’s main character Teddy Daniels is just one of the mysteries audiences are left with in Martin Scorsese’s latest film aptly titled Shutter Island. The plot focuses on two detectives in 1954, Teddy and Chuck (Mark Ruffalo). They travel to an insane asylum on Shutter Island near Boston to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is considered extremely dangerous.

As the detectives dig they find that all may not be what it seems, and Teddy has secret personal motives he is slow to reveal. The film twists and turns as the investigation grows and things become strange. The search is intercut with visions of Teddy’s back-story from World War 2 and his family. …

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