The Wake

There are hundreds of restaurants in the Twin Cities that are ideal for spending a special Valentine’s date. One of them, right in the U’s back yard, is the Loring Pasta Bar.The Loring’s décor sets the mood for romance. The main dining room’s two plus-story ceiling opens the room, allowing guests to view the magnificent decoration; yet the seating setup—oversized moon-shaped booths and generously spaced tables—keeps each party’s dining experience private. Heavily dimmed lighting is set off by disco balls reflecting teal and fuchsia rays. Live trees, some 12 or 15 feet tall, positioned throughout the room cause diners to forget the university-bound traffic outside.The women’s bathroom itself is reason enough to visit the Loring for first-timers. Holes in the walls serve as garbage bins, while French doors and (for the not-so-modest) beaded curtains cover …

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Exaggeration, white lies and stretching the truth – all common ideas associated with Tim Burton’s latest film, Big Fish.A man who could never be accused of being unimaginative, Burton has not only matured with this heartfelt story of family ties but has also proved to audiences that his work is more than simply something to poke fun at.Burton, who directed such films as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman, has been stuck in the ultra-imaginary, where the boundaries of the surreal are stretched through exotic settings and fantasy-like characters, competing with storylines that could only come true in dreams.Big Fish is no exception to Burton’s wackiness, yet it unfolds by telling the tale of an average Joe with the heart of a superhero.The events and history of the life of …

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If shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons have taught us anything, it’s cartoons are not just for kids anymore. Anyone who says differently has obviously never seen South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Cartoons have always played on people’s senses of whimsy and humor, although some have more fun exploring the seedier side of human nature. The French animated film, The Triplets of Belleville, certainly belongs in the latter category. Animated films have long been a staple for adults as well as children and Triplets is no exception. A good old-fashioned tug-of-war between good and evil, Triplets is a treat, but don’t make the mistake of lumping it with feel-goods like Finding Nemo. This is not The Little Mermaid. You won’t find any cliché romance story or important morals here. Triplets tells the story …

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Dancing in a leotard, flaunting his fully-exposed chest to the likes of David Lee Roth and Freddie Mercury, lead singer, Justin Hawkins, of The Darkness has re-established ’80s glam-rock. Hailing from England, the foursome’s debut album Permission to Land has already gone four times platinum in the United Kingdom. Once a band struggling for mainstream acceptance, The Darkness have now become a cult-like hit. And why not? With such rockin’ hits like “Growing on Me” and “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” they have made the theme of love a sexual escapade for all to explore. “I believe in a thing called love / Just listen to the rhythm of my heart / There’s a chance we could make it now / We’ll be rocking ’til the sun goes down.” Their obsession with women, …

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With a new singer in tow (Tim Owens replacing Matt Barlow), Iced Earth has accomplished a masterwork. On The Glorious Burden, band leader Jon Schaffer has put together a conceptual double album based on military history and his love for the U.S.A. The album opens with a classy and respectful guitar version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” followed by a power thrash track about the American Revolution (“Declaration Day”) and a somber ballad dedicated to victims of the 9/11 attacks (“When the Eagle Cries”). My favorite track on the first disc is “Valley Forge,” another power thrash masterwork that really delivers an emotional punch. The second disc for me is the absolute highlight of Iced Earth’s nineteen year career. This is the epic “Gettysburg,” clocking in at over thirty minutes. Schaffer has thought out …

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It has been brought to my attention that it may be necessary for me to explain some things about underground metal. I have decided to go through a quick primer for you on metal’s sub-genres. The first topic I will touch on is the style of DEATH METAL. Death metal began in the early 1980s with bands such as Possessed and Death. It became a more extreme evolution of thrash metal. Death metal consists of ultra-fast guitar playing that is highly distorted and usually very intricate. The playing is quite often non-melodic. The vocals are a growled style as pioneered by the late Chuck Schuldiner (Death). At best, they sound absolutely ferocious and commanding; at worst, they resemble the cookie monster. The drumming and bass playing, like the guitars, are hyper-speed and intricate. The scene’s …

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I learned two valuable lessons from the Stills/Ryan Adams show at First Avenue last December: 1. I’m a weak person, at least musically. 2. Ryan Adams is akin to a coddled baby with one too many eight balls of coke in his carriage. The past couple of years have produced band after band of ‘80s revivalists borrowing from The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division. Interpol, Hot Hot Heat and The Rapture have all enjoyed critical buzz and indie-sized success by infusing great songs with the sounds of Johnny Marr and Ian Curtis. As someone who spent a considerable amount of his early music-listening life trying to empathize with Robert Smith, I’ve found it difficult not to like these ‘80s derivatives. The Stills, I thought, would hopefully be the first of these bands that I …

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Four Fingers: Self Titled (RPO-SUBACA)Listening to this album gave me the impression that I’d somehow stumbled into a late-night, opium-induced Turkish escapade with a back alley belly-dancer. Self-Titled, the group’s debut album, shakes with the kind of raw Moorish sexual passion that you’d expect to hear wafting through a Moroccan street market. Employing acoustic instruments to convey a multitude of sounds, the members of Four Fingers passionately rip through their wordly art-jazz, creating the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a recorded musical orgasm. Best for fans of: Frankencense, Sitars, Tantric Sex
How to get it? Either buy it from them at a show or at one of their late-night gigs on the streets of Dinkytown; otherwise, email them at: MAXILANUS@hotmail.comHanz Solo: Closet Pop (self-released)Hans Erickson knows that there’s more to a band than a …

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Mason Jennings is from Minnesota, and it shows. In his latest album, Use Your Voice, the rustic singer-songwriter serves up ten tracks of northern living, Dylan-style. Like the prophetic folk-rocker before him, Jennings basks in the simplicity of song. Much of the album features only Jennings’ gutsy acoustic guitar and harmonica, backed by a subdued drum and bass rhythm section. Fortunately for Jennings, his songs are able to hold up to such sparse instrumentation. Songs like “Crown” and “Fourteen Pictures” stab at the heart like an adrenaline needle, injecting it with the tortures of love and loss. Others, such as “Empire Builder” and “Keepin’ It Real” highlight Jennings’ Anglo-folk-funk aspirations. Though Jennings’ voice seems to purposefully replicate Dylan’s coarse crooning, who can blame him? After all, Jennings knows he’s a Minnesotan, and, like Dylan, his …

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Igloo is a side-project of Adam Pierce and Doro Tachler of Mice Parade. With eight whimsical tracks delicately simmered with shimmering atmospherics, carefree counterpoints and the occasional vocal stint, the duo’s self-titled debut is one warm, modest mouse of an album. The album is so warm, in fact, that even the songs in the minor key evoke that fuzzy feeling. Picture a baby chimp with a bib, and you’re halfway there. And it doesn’t hurt that Igloo uses its tonal charm like a flirtation device; you can’t help but blush while listening to it. But you also can’t shake the underlying feeling that this album is essentially a tease. It seems Igloo is more content to practice restraint than go out on a limb and, as such, offers only mere glimpses of brilliance. Their timid …

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The Micranots (I Self Divine and Dj Kool Akiem) have launched an album of social upheaval with The Emperor and The Assassin, full of messages of motivation, truth, inner-city life, love, and resilience. After waiting five years since their last release Micranots’ fans will be glad to hear that I Self is back in full-stride with forceful, staccato, innovative, poetic form and Kool Akiem has developed on the production side while still maintaining that original Micranots sound. The dynamic duo wastes no time beating around the bush immediately hitting their listeners hard with the second track “Glorious,” and never letting up after that. As far as pseudo-underground rap artists go, local emcee I Self Divine of the Micranots is living the good life. In the last six months he has released two new full-length albums, …

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The story of Mason Jennings’ decade-long musical start is the picture of indie rock perfection. Through patience and restraint, he has nurtured a following all his own with no help from major labels. While many artists may stay as true to their artistic visions as Jennings, they’re usually too busy waiting tables to be heard of by the casual concert-goer. Jennings grew up in Pittsburgh, but when he was 19, he came to Minneapolis as a high-school drop out to become part of its local music scene. Record companies offered him deals. Even a small label can make an offer that would tempt most young musicians to give up their artistic freedom. But they wanted to control him, make him sing with a band he didn’t know and market him as a young blues man. He …

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Printmaking is beating and moving in new directions. A glimpse of this is currently at The 4th Minnesota National Print Biennial from January 13 to February 19 at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, which is located in the Regis Center of Art, University of Minnesota. The exhibit shows the vitality and evolvement of printmaking in the United States with the help of artists from across the nation. “The Minnesota Nation Print Biennial is a very well respected exhibition nationally, and we’re very proud at the Department of Art about that,” commented Colleen Mullins, the director for the show. “Every two years we take the pulse of printmaking in the United States, and it just keeps getting stronger,” she explained. This is obvious upon looking at the works selected from 1,200 magnificent submissions by 425 …

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OOH YEAH-A! The Macho Man Randy Savage has signed with Big 3 Records, and has just dropped a 13-track rap album which proves to be as hot, or hotter than, um…uh…the last one from Lil’ Jon & the Eastside Boyz. With the help of Da Raskulls – the production team from Big 3 Records (the latest venture between BAT, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, I think) - Macho Man declares: “I get the crowd crazy cause they’re feelin’ the beat/ You see I got mad flows/ That’s why I’m hot on the streets.” And oh how the streets are watching the Macho Man! His album’s called Be a Man, and he’s calling Hulk Hogan out for a fight! Wow, if I were back in first grade, when Randy Savage and the Hulk were actually wrestling …

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President George W. Bush has inspired larger protests than any other person in history. On the University of Minnesota campus, he’s also inspired artistic reactions to his personality and policies. Four artists shared their presidential work with me, and they all had one thing in common: When I asked each of them what our commander in chief would think of their artwork, I invariably got some version of the phrase, “He wouldn’t get it.”Colleen Mullins Although most of her recent artwork has been large-scale, a leather-bound handmade book by Colleen Mullins is just about the size of a tic-tac dispenser. It contains her thoughts on the U.S.A. Patriot Act–an initiative passed shortly after September 11, 2001 that gives broader authority to law enforcement to monitor the public and makes it more difficult for citizens to receive …

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