The Wake

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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It seems that Halle Berry, topic of speculation for her dragged on and overdramatic acceptance speech for winning best actress at the 2001 Academy Awards for Monster’s Ball, was all but a twist of luck.In her latest film Gothika, Berry once again takes on a common role that has epitomized her career with such stellar choices as Swordfish and Die Another Day – can you feel the sarcasm? Berry actually takes a step backwards in her chances of winning another Academy Award, being nothing more than a distressed heroine, which could have been suited for anyone from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre cast.This psychological horror film, which co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz, attempts to capture the clever cinematography and natural scare effect that made The Ring popular. Rather than being convinced of dramatic scare …

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In 1983, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (no, not the Wendy’s guy!) unleashed upon the world one of history’s funniest movies, Strange Brew. This is a Hamlet-based tale of intrigue, love, murder, vengeance from beyond the grave and most importantly Canada, beer, donuts and hockey! As the film begins, the MGM lion is too plastered to growl and only manages a belch, setting the tone for the film. From here, the brothers Bob (Moranis) and Doug McKenzie (Thomas) screen for the audience their film The Mutants of 2051 AD, a ridiculous post-apocalyptic piece in which Bob must defend the earth from the “fleshy headed mutants.” Shortly into Mutants, however, the film breaks, and Bob and Doug try to save the event with their method of getting free beer (it involves a mouse!) and are heckled by …

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Tupac is dead, but pardon his posthumous poetry. Ever since the death of rapper Tupac Shakur, countless rumors have surfaced that he is still alive. The biggest argument for this is the fact that Tupac has been more prolific than ever as a recording artist since he was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996. The myth has just been perpetuated with the release of Tupac: Resurrection. The combination documentary film, soundtrack and book acts as the eulogy that many people were never able to speak. Among these people is his mother Afeni Shakur who gave her blessing for the whole project. The film is the life story of Tupac told by the dead man himself. “I got shot” are the first ominous words of the film, setting the tone for the rest of the bio-documentary. Although …

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On Monday, November 11th, I had the privilege of witnessing one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll shows imaginable. Present at the Target Center were two of the greatest bands in rock ‘n’ roll history: KISS and Aerosmith. The evening began at 7pm with Automatic Black. This band was only successful in making me even more anxious to see KISS take the stage. They probably did well with the 93X crowd (which is saying very little). By 7:30, they were off the stage. The fifteen minutes before KISS took the stage were some of the most anxious in my life. I am a KISS fanatic. Two years ago I bought their Destroyer album, and after my first listen, I immediately realized that KISS was the supreme rock ‘n’ roll band of all time …

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If I were to be booked on a trip to my own musical hell, the itinerary may look something like this: “Come hear backporch bumpkin-bluegrass and the overtly-emotional musings of a young singer-songwriter in one evening of pure torture!” As one can imagine, given my unbridled enthusiasm for bluegrass and neo-folk, I jumped at the chance to cover such an abysmal musical manifestation . . . right. Nonetheless, I decided to make the trek to Coffman Union on November 22nd to check out the latest and greatest in the way of bluegrass (The Schwillbillies) and rising easy-listening stars (Howie Day) anyway. I ventured into the Coffman Memorial Theater to check out “Harmonize for Hunger,” a benefit show featuring the bluegrass music of Madison-based act, The Schwillbillies. Joined on stage by Chris Castino of The Big …

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