The Wake

Ian Anderson is a passionate man. He loves music and his palpable obsession has led him to early and remarkable success; starting his record label, Afternoon Records, just out of high school. Now, as a senior majoring in English at St. Olaf College, his label is garnering more interest and continuing to expand. In addition to his label, Anderson also founded “Sliver” magazine, a music website. He hopes to begin a career in journalism upon graduation in addition to promoting his label. He’s a shining example of how adolescent exuberance fused with a love of the universal language can prove an explosive combination. Anderson has been prone to signing bands of an age similar to his, appreciating the honest and fearless approach they take towards their sound. Achief acquisition was Haley Bonar, opted to …

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Every August Minnesota is swept up in the whirlwind of off-color jokes, unexpected tender moments, and an eclectic variety that is the Fringe Festival. In the summer of 2006, The 13th annual Fringe Festival sold nearly 45,000 tickets, maintaining its official status as the largest non-juried performance festival in the nation, and its unofficial status as completely insane. From hip-hop to calculus, to the University’s own annual “Deviled Eggs,” what makes the Fringe unique is its method of selection. Shows are selected not by jury but by lottery to insure its three basic principles of “Fringeness: Unjuried, Uncensored, and Transparent.”In addition to consistent growth for the Fringe, 2006 was a year of newness. For the first year ever, the Fringe boasted “nightcaps” at a different designated bar each night, new sneak-preview events, and 100% handicap …

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Tucked away in a discrete corner of northeast Minneapolis is the Minnesota Center for Photography. On the outside, the center looks plain and drab, similar to the other shops around it. One step inside, however, transports you to art galleries, a bookstore and 8,000 square feet of an artistic atmosphere comparable to the Weisman. The entire place is a photographic paradise which is now focusing on its newest exhibition, ICY: Clear Views 01.ICY 01 is a new exhibit which will feature a handful of contemporary artists. This year the exhibit contains works of art by Caroline Burghardt, Kelli Connelland Jean Laughton. According to Cole Saras, the Center Administrator, each of these artists was chosen by George Slade, the Artistic Director of the center, based on previous works he’d seen. Jean Laughton’s work was featured previously …

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Duplicating the success of a heralded first album is a task unrivaled in difficulty. Bloc Party, a foursome out of England, set the bar high with their 2005 release, Silent Alarm, an album that led to frequent comparisons to dance rock predecessors like Gang of Four and Joy Division. They are now stepping up to the plate with their second album, A Weekend in the City.The opener, “Song for Clay (Disappear Here),” starts quietly. Singer Kele Okereke relays the thoughts of his troubled mind over strummed guitar and mounting strings. Unfortunately, the guitar riff is second rate, and fails to recreate the urgency of their last opener, “Like Eating Glass.” It is thankfully aided by some chirpy background vocals, overtaken by the resurgent deep baritone of Okereke’s voice, but lacks the catchy choruses and soul-stirring …

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Sometimes life can be a little pastiche. That is to say, there are so many different things going on that they seem random, or unrelated. According to the late American playwright Arthur Miller, “…theater is so endlessly fascinating because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life.” And so it is. Jason Robert Brown clearly reflects the seemingly disjoint aspects of everyday life in “Songs for a New World,” a musical made up of 16 different songs, each of which stands alone as its own story. To Nicky Fritz, this sounded like a challenge she was willing to take.Fritz is the artistic director of Crisis Point, an entirely student run theater group based right here on campus. Currently in her third year at the U, Fritz began working with Crisis Point last year as an …

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In case you missed it, the temperature was well below zero in downtown Minneapolis last Friday night. But as they say, the show must go on. On this freezing night about 75 people showed up to see First Avenue’s 11th Annual Cover Song Contest at the 7th Street Entry. Eleven area bands were given a half-hour to prove that they could play other people’s songs and a case of cheap wine awaited the winner.The night started with a thud. The Fillmores, moonlighting as Who’s the Boss and the E Street Band, opened the competition with a set of Bruce Springsteen covers. From the opening bars of “Thunder Road” it was obvious: the lead singer was no Boss. The group worked its way through five songs, looking and sounding rather unrehearsed—a fact that fully manifested itself …

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Arriving for the show at 10:00 p.m., courtesy of Campus Circulator Luanne’s dance party commuter, I was informed I had missed out on show opener Tarlton. Several sources further informed that I hadn’t missed much more than an embarrassing display of bass guitar and lack luster drumming. “It was like background music, for talking over,” says one unenthused man. Others expressed similar sentiments but having not seen them myself, I can’t confirm or deny those claims. Luckily, none were appalled to the point of departure, as what transpired next will go down in Dinkytown history.The Varsity Theatre is truly a wonderful place to dance. The onstage lights were purple, then blue, and disco balls spun overhead. A thin layer of smoke began to spread while an excited chatter filled the room. The sold out Varsity …

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As chilly hipsters stepped in past the graffitied walls of the Intermedia Arts gallery in Uptown Minneapolis this past Friday night, they were immediately greeted by a complete sensory experience. The sound of the Pixies’ “Wave Of Mutilation” and the warm light of the room were a welcome change from the howling wind and shades of gray outside. Minneapolis 55408, the latest exhibit at Intermedia Arts, held its opening reception on Friday, January 26th. The event drew friends, neighbors and art enthusiasts alike in from the cold to admire work made by artists in the community.In its eleventh consecutive year, 55408 includes artwork from approximately 40 different artists. Of these artists, about half are returning contributors and half are newly recruited. The one thing they have in common is that they all reside within the …

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Taking a history class? Has your professor just unloaded a monster reading assignment? Well, my friends To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie have the cure for your homework ills: Retire Early EP by this Richmond, VA, duo is stuffed to the gills with image conjuring sounds sure to make your assignment a far more imaginative read. Like experimental, ambience rockers Massive Attack and Portishead before them, they’ve captured a mood conducive to thinking nostalgically upon times far more romantic and violent than those we may be currently stumbling through. The group’s name was drawn from an era of French history. “The name grew gradually from our desire to leave behind that stigma of societal expectation, and become who we are today,” explain band members, comprised of Mark McGee and Jehna Wilhelm. They feel that the Retire …

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This Liverpool quartet began playing nine years ago. Visitations is their fourth album, but it’s a fresh start in the direction of absolute gold. They released their debut album in 2000, titled Internal Wrangler which landed them a tour with Radiohead. In 2002 they came out with Walking With Thee, and then in ’04 with Winchester Cathedral, a gloom and doom record teetering on the edge of scary. On the other hand, Visitations has plenty of mood setters, and some of their most optimistic lyrics to date. Album opener, “Family,” features fuzz to the guitars and bounce to the vocals and drums. “Animal/Human,” to which no comparisons can be drawn is far from familiar. One wearied voice begins the song, it is joined by another, the beats drop out, snaps come in, twitchy funk riffs …

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March 3rd – Zep fans will rejoice and the spirits of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones will rock in full glory as the Minnesota Orchestra performs the music of Led Zeppelin at the Target Center. Whether or not the entire orchestra has been sentenced to an eternity in hell for playing devil’s music is yet to be determined. But we do know that this is not the first time that orchestra members are letting their hair loose, so to speak. The one-night-only, March 3rd show is actually an encore in response to enthusiastic feedback from the public during last year’s performances of a similar nature. According to publicist Gwen Pappas, the Zeppelin shows are a part of “a very successful series of pops concerts that feature orchestra arrangements from pop …

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The English language had no way to articulate the kind of immeasurable human suffering of WWII that can dismantle an entire people. We said “never again.” But in fact, it is happening again -Africa, and again the United States is unable and unwilling to act; unable to prevent genocide. Maybe it’s because the American public cannot face a crisis in which men are being slaughtered while their families look on, while their wives are being raped by man after man after man. Maybe it’s too unimaginable for us to do anything more than shake our heads while reading the World section of the newspaper just before flipping to the funnies. On Friday, January 27, the Guthrie presented an innovative play that merged Arts and Political Sciences. Playwright Winter Miller’s In Darfur attracted a diverse crowd …

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From ice-skating at the Depot in downtown Minneapolis to building anatomically correct snowpeople in the back yard, Minnesotans have always found ways to endure and even celebrate the deep chill that has traditionally descended upon the state for a good portion of each year. Indeed, the earliest Scandinavian immigrants to this state were a stubborn lot who seemed eager to prove that they enjoyed the climate of this winter wasteland and that their settling here wasn’t some sort of tragic mistake.For the past 121 years, there have been none with grander delusions than the organizers of St. Paul’s Winter Carnival, occurring this year from January 26 through February 4. Their sheer will and bold belief in the beauty of the season has allowed them to forge one of the most successful and historic festivals in …

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Two pianos begin an enchanting waltz as the company joins in a whimsical, yet poetic romp around an illuminated white circle. Couples dressed in authentic 1940’s garb pair up as they blissfully circulate around this imaginary carousel. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic Broadway musical, “Carousel” is now underway at West Bank’s Southern Theater. Presented by Nautilus Music-Theater, this new production is centered around themes of love, social class, domestic abuse, and redemption. Combining idealistic American dreams with a tragic and heartbreaking chain of events, the characters paint a vivid picture of a hopefulness found somewhere between daydreams and reality. The remake remains faithful to Rodgers’ original score, giving the melodies and accompanying choreography a vintage feel. “Carousel” tells the story of love between Billy, a hardened fairground worker, and Julie, a restrained girl from town. The …

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I’d never encountered a presence of such unwavering intimidation. It may have been due to the fact that the first I heard of Tony Glover was in Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One. Not only that, but the words with which Dylan spoke of him. “-And then there was Tony Glover,” he recalled, “A harp player who played with me and Koerner sometimes… I played the harp too … I couldn’t play like Glover or anything, and didn’t try to.” It did nothing but add to my growing feelings of great inferiority when I looked into his work further and found that he, along with Koerner, were respected and revered by all of my musical heroes. The likes of John Lennon and The Doors were among their legions of fans. They’d played just about everywhere imaginable …

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