The Wake

“Well are you sure you have files you want to get back?”“No, I was kidding. I’M FINE LETTING GO OF THOUSANDS OF SONGS.”“Umm, well ok, I’m sorry Miss, but there is only a chance you can get a few things off of the old hard drive.”ONLY A CHANCE? I feel sort of bad for the person who had to spend so much time bearing my wrath. After I hung up from a two hour phone call with Dell customer service I wondered what percentage of calls end the way mine did, with harsh sarcasm and misplaced blame.My computer makes that happy little dinging noise and out pops my Postal Service CD. One by one I am feeding the music I have purchased over the years back onto my hard drive. Some …

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Our lives are much like a motion picture; thousands of single shots together that make a greater whole. Imagine being able to pull a single image from someone else’s life and see it only for what it is, a fleeting moment that may be gone in an instant.Minneapolis photographer Alec Soth accomplishes this, and you can see the evidence at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Soth’s images capture a moment, but even more impressive, the moment is one of extraordinary interest. Soth has the patience to wait for his subject to materialize into something sublime. He does not fail to snap the shutter when the moment has matured.The result is an image that invites creativity for the viewer in the form of a narrative. If there is a common theme to Soth’s show, it’s that: …

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On Saturday, March 26th, I was part of “Katwalk,” an interestingly exotic name for what was simply an elegant representation of Korean culture. “Katwalk” was billed as an evening of Korean food and fashion – a chance for a relatively small sized student group to extend their own delight in culture to others. The night began and ended at the Weisman museum. I arrived at 5:15, late as usual. Euna, Vice President of KISO and Katwalk informal model-finder, rushed to greet me at the door. Immediately, she shoved layers and layers of willowy silk into my arms. “Put this on, there’s a changing room in the back.” I made my way through the high-ceilinged banquet room, stepping gingerly around tables and chairs with what seemed to be miles and miles of Korean dress. I …

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For fans of psychedelic rock, John Snell X is it. The Minneapolis musician is one of the few who can make mind-swirling acid-rock sound unlike Spinal Tap’s “Listen to the Flower Children.” And that is no easy task. Over the years he’s released 6 albums, including IntHEkeYOfvacUUm, The Alien Highway, Audibly Oriented, and recently, The Clock Stops Here – all of which you should go out and buy now. Know Name Records has a great selection.Fans of The Kinks, Piper-era Pink Floyd, Love, Sgt. Pepper or pre-glam T-Rex will recognize Snell’s outerworldly atmospherics. But they’ll also see that Snell has a voice of his own – a voice which really holds no parallel, especially among the Twin Cities’ endless parade of stupid hipster bands. And in that respect, he’s one of the most unique artists …

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Hailing from Savannah, Ga., Kylesa play a unique brand of heavy music combining elements of crust, sludge, and many ideas that are entirely their own. The band is Laura Pleasants (vocals/guitars), Phillip Cope (vocals/guitars), Corey Barhost (vocals/bass), and Brandon Baltzey (drums). Their new album, “To Walk a Middle Course” (released March 22, Prosthetic Records), shows their stellar songwriting ability while highlighting some great production courtesy of Alex Newport (The Melvins, Mars Volta). I was able to catch their show on February 21 at the 7th Street Entry. I was highly impressed by the energy and skill displayed in their live set. I also had the chance to sit down and talk with the band. (A note of thanks goes to Annika Kaplan for her assistance in transcribing the interview.) The Wake: So how …

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I was in Know Name Records the other day when Chris, the fabled store’s most statically visible employee, pointed out a new CD. He said it was psychedelic – which was good. He also said it was recorded recently, which was strange. Because in the realm of psychedelic rock, you can only crawl so far past the late 1960s before you reach absolute shit. But this CD was not absolute shit. And though it may have sprung from the proverbial musical asshole of the acid-rock time continuum, it does not smell like it. Rather, it smells like it came out of Syd Barrett’s pre-“I’m an orange and that’s why I’m locked up here” phase. Which is as golden-great as it gets. The album is called Valende. Recently, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Marco Fasolo spoke with The …

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American culture has a tendency to do more exporting than importing – making it hard for a band from another country to work their way in to the limelight. Granted there are exceptions, but we continue to deprive ourselves of rich opportunities just beyond our northern border. That’s right, I’m talking about Canada. You may think I’m joking when I mention the Canadian scene, but it exists, and there are some great bands to be discovered. Among these groups is The Dears, whose latest album, “No Cities Left”, is evidence of smart songwriting and a well-crafted sound. Fronted by Murray Lightburn, The Dears have a style that evades simple definitions and commonplace genres. Keyboardist Natalia Yanchack told me, “We put out an EP a few years ago called “Orchestral Pop Noir romantique”, and that’s kind of …

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In the late 1970s, the Bronx was on fire –- literally. Gangs ruled the projects in this incendiary time, and the world feared these neighborhoods might tear themselves apart. Out of this violent and seemingly chaotic epilogue to the Black Power movement, a new and revolutionary culture was born –- hip-hop. Jeff Chang uses this tumultuous era as the catalyst for his new book, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.” A point of contention among hip-hop historians, the beginning of this movement is tackled masterfully by writer, Jeff Chang. From there, he moves through the 80sand90s, covering all differentiations and sub-genres you can think of in great detail. With a style as flavorful as the rap greats themselves, Chang keeps his reader interested throughout his lengthy chronology. “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” …

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To shimmy, hop, or rove in cohorts with music is to indulge in blissful joy. However, the followers of many genres have turned this idyllic concept of carnal expression into a rationale for squabble. Case in point: classical music vs. anything modern. Stereotypes suggest for example that classical elitists and techno drug addicts should have no grounds to come together – no singular musical weapon of solidarity. Wrong. Despite such a seemingly accurate situation, there is at least a tarnished lining to this dilemma of classical crossover. That lining is Bond. Not that one.This Bond is a group of four string instrument players who have formed a unique niche in classical music that threatens to bring together the musical masses. The group recently released “Classified,” an album which takes the age-old joy from classics like …

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I’m a model. Well, sort of. I’m a “pseudo-model,” as I was once so lovingly named by a “dear friend.” I don’t have an agent – too much commitment. I don’t actively seek work, because I don’t want to model for a living. But embarrassingly enough, there’s this certain thrill – a fantastically bizarre jolt of energy/exhilaration that comes with stepping on to a stage and possessing all eyes. Nothing to do with pride, heavens no, but rather a sense that quietly screams, “Bring it on, bitches. I will handle anything you slam in my way, from feeding a starving nation (this comes after grad school) to cat-walking in six inch heels and not much more than I wear in the shower.” Thus, in pursuit of …

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The movies we see and the books we read tend to romanticize acts of suicide. Effectively, they desensitize us to the trauma and grief that is involved when a person takes his or her own life. On March 2nd, the University’s Residence Hall Association staged a talent show called “Show for Life” with the goal of raising suicide awareness. It was a chance for U students to show off their various skills, and raise money for an organization called Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (www.save.org).The acts themselves ranged from funny to sentimental, sometimes hitting on the theme of the show, “No Day but Today,” and sometimes just making people laugh. From the outset, the point of this show was clear. In the lobby of the Coffman Theater hung posters with facts about depression, trauma, and …

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Garrison Keillor’s radio series “Literary Friendships” affirmed my suspicion that writers are actual people who do dishes and pick their noses. The series, which ran in early March at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theatre, explores the bonds that exist between writers, despite their sometimes solitary, obsessive, and madness-driven profession. Listening to Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman discuss their marriage and life in terms of their writing cemented the fact that writers are not gods, but human beings with senses of humor and bills to pay. This may not be what most college students want to hear as we are up to our eyelashes in books to read. We are made to think that Shakespeare and Dickens are gods and their literary geniuses are supreme. We need to believe in them; we want to believe …

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I am a college student awake at 6 a.m. on a Wednesday. Has the shock and confusion settled in yet? Good. Few things can arouse my limbs out of their down-heated home, coax them into clothes that aren’t pajamas, and get them to move past my apartment’s backdoor barrier and outside walking on earth that has yet to be warmed by the sun. However, I have found one motivator so powerful that my body, in its excitement, awoke at 5:58 a.m. that Wednesday morning before the alarm could bark me out. What is this supernatural force? Pancakes and eggs from Al’s Breakfast. Some of you are scoffing at this statement, wondering which drugs I’m on or how long gas has been leaking from the stove in my apartment. I feel only sorrow …

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It isn’t a true L.A. premiere party without a dozen or so Hollywood (stick)figure-heads attempting poisonous, biting remarks to their cohorts over their Prada clutches while their agents scurry desperately in search of table scraps. Or so we’ve been told via the endless flicks of Hollywood fodder we watch. You know the type – those that recount the lives of numerous Tinseltownies who live their American Idolized fantasies up in the hills. The ones that at the same time reveal that if you ain’t Jennifer Aniston, it’s assured that you’ll bare fangs with the likes of Carrot Top on who comes first on “The Late, Late Show.” So it’s not surprising that Wes Craven’s “Cursed,” is no different in it’s selfishly blatant promotion of the shallowness that appears to consume the Hollywood ideal. Christina …

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Are you ready kids? March 1st marked the DVD release of “The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie” and let me tell you, it’s a zany little gem. I’d only caught a couple episodes of “SpongeBob Squarepants” before seeing the feature film. Maybe this makes me un-American or just plain sad, but nevertheless I can definitely say this is one of the most entertainingly dumb movies I’ve ever seen. And just so we’re clear, this isn’t just a kid’s movie. There’s plenty of humor that’s intended for adults.The film version plays much like a typical episode of the show. The scheming Plankton tries to steal the recipe for Krabby Patties and it’s up to SpongeBob to bail out his boss, Mr. Crabs. SpongeBob is joined by his starfish pal Patrick, and together they have to travel somewhere and …

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