The Wake

Photo by Priscilla Briggs

Tucked quietly away in the back left corner at the Minnesota Center for Photography is an exhibit that explores consumption around the world, while remembering that there is always a profit to be made in a capitalist society. Priscilla Briggs utilizes imagery in foreign and domestic shopping centers to reflect a Global Market. While the specifics differ in each location, Briggs manages to find a marketing emblem regardless of country. Brand names and advertisements prominently displayed glow eerily bright and outshine their surroundings. By far the largest piece in the exhibit, a 50.5” by 72” vinyl print, is draped across its own wall and serves as the only solo performance in the collection. …

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Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

You have heard it a thousand times: jaded rock stars whining about drugs, alcohol, sex and the woes of life on the road. It is hard for the average person to connect to such an aesthetic; however, a refreshing change in subject matter can be found in For Emma, Forever Ago. The debut by Bon Iver is an album inspired by real life, hard work, and a harsh Wisconsin winter.

Bon Iver, misspelled French meaning “good winter,” is the pseudonym of Justin Vernon, former member of the disbanded rock-folk group DeYarmond Edison. After the break-up of the band, Vernon returned to his home in Wisconsin where he secluded …

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Coloring by Dane Thomforde

With the black tendrils of stress still lingering after weeks of dodging failing grades on papers and midterms, students look to the freedom of Spring Break to release some tension. Destinations are meticulously planned out months in advance as exhausted and overworked studiers search for the perfect place to blow off some steam. While you may have spent the last week tanning in Florida or scuba diving in Mexico, I was hanging out with the cool kids on Sesame Street.

While late nights and margaritas were destroying your brain cells, mine were being strengthened with the assistance of Elmo and crew at the Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street? exhibit in the …

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The First Amendment Gallery is the kind of place you hear about from a friend who heard it from their art teacher who had read an article online mentioning a hip new art gallery. Unless you’re an avid warehouse enthusiast, of course.

The gallery can be found in the basement of an inconspicuous Minneapolis warehouse. It consists of one main room with clean white walls and unassuming shelves that act as the merchandise showcases. First opened in September of 2006, First Amendment is the love child of artists Lonny Unitus and Amy Jo Hendrickson, whose printmaking had outgrown its upstart in Dinkytown.

The gallery is now promoting the artwork of five print artists: Christa Dalien, Mark Hosford, Bill Fick, Michael Krueger and curator Jenny Schmid. Running under the name “Cold Blooded, Warm Hearted,” …

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T-Rex - The Slider

Many bands manage to generate a single rock and roll gem before ricocheting into the depths of music history hell. Like the Kinks, The Velvet Underground and The Hollywood Argyles, T. Rex defied this explode-and-deflate pathway. In September 1971, T. Rex released an album often heralded as a pinnacle of rock achievement and sexiness titled Electric Warrior. Less than a year later in 1972, bandleader Marc Bolan and company recorded and released an equally stunning but far less appreciated nugget: The Slider.

T. Rex were at the vanguard of the formation and growing popularity of glam rock. With the release of Electric Warrior, the genre became Bolan’s signature muddy guitar tracks and echoing breathy vocals. Where …

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All children have their own farfetched illusion of the glamorous, successful and fame-induced journey that they will embark on later in life, signaled by the common expression “When I Grow Up…” Some dream of becoming astronauts, actors or actresses, dancers, or firemen, while others dream of riding orca whales at Sea World. One of the most common childhood dream careers is the rock star. Fantasies come and go, but for some particularly musically inclined individuals, the dream becomes an actuality. The progression of musicians to the level of “rock-stardom” is a challenging and sufferable path. Few will reap the glorification and wealth of fame. The few who make it to the top must combine impeccable musical talent with a great deal of luck and scores of highly regarded connections. All aspiring artists need some sort …

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Photo courtesy First Run/Icarus Films

Children growing up in the United States trust their parents to make the right decisions. As citizens, we are supposed to trust that the decisions made by the government will be right for the country.  For Cuban children in the mid-1970’s and the 1980’s, confidence was placed in both entities. Dependence upon government quickly disintegrated in the decline of the Cuban Revolution as the quality of life of the Caribbean island faced an intense downward spiral. In her film The Sugar Curtain, director Camila Guzmán Urzúa returns to Cuba to relive the her carefree youth and compare it to the harsh realities the country faces today.

Born in Argentina, Urzúa’s family fled from the …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

When discussing Minneapolis’s music scene, its eclectic makeup is never in doubt. Within the scene, however, demarcated by genre or style, there exist real strengths and real weaknesses. It is perhaps Minneapolis’s lonely location between coastal music capitals that accounts for the lack of a unified style, opening the field for artists with a wide array of influences. However, it is the city’s courtship with folk music in the broadest and best sense of the term, combined with an ability to generate young and talented bands that deserves special attention. Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles deserve this attention.

The six-piece is a relatively recent creation. Led by Lucy Michelle, the band’s origins can be traced through Oklahoma, where Michelle’s grandfather constructs …

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Do you ever find yourself longing for the old days, a time when music was dipped in a vat of sweat-soaked plaid button-ups, distorted anguish, and raw power? Perhaps your nostalgia runs deeper – back to a time when psychedelic guitar solos reigned supreme. If this be the case, you may find comfort in the reminiscent stylings of Retribution Gospel Choir’s self-titled debut.

Retribution Gospel Choir, a three man band out of Duluth, Minnesota, features front man Alan Sparhawk, drummer Eric Pollard and bassist Matthew Livingstone. Sparhawk and Livingstone are originally members of Low, a band dubbed one of the pioneers of slowcore. Low, founded in the mid 90’s, was making minimalist music during an era fascinated with grunge. In the new millennium, the boys are upping the noise level with Retribution Gospel Choir, and seem …

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Quacking microphones, awkward pauses, and an overall enticing performance marked the release of Now, Now Every Children’s first EP, Not One But Two, this last Saturday, February 16th. The show was hosted by The Beat Coffeehouse in Uptown Minneapolis.

Band members Cacie Dalager (vocals, guitar), Brad Hale (drums, vocals), Britty Hale (keyboards) and Justin Schweim (bass) combined to form Now, Now Every Children in the summer of 2007. Since being signed in October by Afternoon Records – joining the likes of Mouthful of Bees, One for the Team, Haley Bonar and I, Colossus – the band has been diligently balancing live performances with the recording of two EPs and full-length album due in May.

The audience at the coffeehouse quickly surrounded the playing area as Now, Now opened their five song set. Heads bounced to the rhythm …

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Yesterday, after a friend talked me into it, I decided to see St. Vincent’s show at Cedar Cultural Center. St. Vincent is the stage name, or as she called it “superhero name,” of Annie Clark. Before her solo debut this past year she was member of The Polyphonic Spree and toured extensively with Sufjan Stevens. Whenever I hear a female indie artist who can shred I’m instantly reminded of Cat Power. The fact that they share awesome names is not the only thing they share, but also their quirky stage presences. In Chan “Cat Power” Marshall’s case it often turned into an awkward live show (until recently), but Annie’s head jerks and squalling guitar freak outs were part of a centered and dynamic performance. She opened the performance with the loopy “Now Now.” Again and …

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If you’ve seen Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the recent film adaptation of Sweeney Todd, then you’re probably just as excited as we are to talk with Katrina Yaukey, who plays Sweeney Todd’s foe, Pirelli, in John Doyle’s stage production of the story.

WAKE: As broke college students, it’s exciting to hear about someone else’s journey to actualizing their dreams. How did you get from your beginnings to Sweeney Todd?

Well, I originally went to Penn State as oboe/musical theatre major… I randomly went to some auditions in New York and got cast as a dancer in Victor/Victoria, which starred Toni Tennille. I continued to be a student while I was on that show and took correspondence courses from Penn State. …

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As you may have read already the one and only Crispin Glover came to the Oak Street Cinema a few weeks back. Here is his famed interview from 1987 on the David Letterman show.

Crispin Glover on Letterman

A genius. To here about his latest happenings head over here.

Photo By Marian Haniarec

The year is 1999, and American news is preoccupied with the Columbine High School shooting, Y2K, and the aftermath of the Lewinsky scandal. Over the Atlantic and through the woods to Capalnita, Romania, a similar scene is taking place. Despite thousands of miles of separation, the Romanian media is focused on American headlines. This obsession with the west is the main theme of Cristian Nemescu’s film California Dreamin’ (Endless), part of the Expanding the Frame film series now showing at the Walker Art Center.

Capalnita is a small Romanian village, literally located in the middle of nowhere. When the town’s overzealous station conductor stops a NATO transport on its way to Kosovo, everyone gets …

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Nick Lowe - Pure Pop for Now People

Do you love Elvis Costello like we do? Hidden in the shadow of Costello’s success is a musician that tastes, smells and even sounds like him. Nick Lowe is that musician, and his album Pure Pop For Now People is a benchmark in modern pop.

After honing his talents in a slew of different English pub bands, Lowe released Pure Pop For Now People in 1978 as his first solo album. Combining the eclectic sounds he helped produce on earlier Costello albums, Lowe creates a crunchy machine of poppy singles that have become landmarks of jangling guitars, dissonant vocals and loose drums.

While albums usually sound …

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